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I’ve been meaning to post about this ol’ boot, August Outtakes & Different Mixes, for a while now. The amount of enjoyment one would get from this 2-disc set largely depends on how one feels about Eric Clapton’s August album from 1986. I personally have a soft spot for the Phil Collins produced album. But I can definitely see how someone would get bored to tears from these “alternate mixes” when not having a strong connection with the source material. Frankly there aren’t major revelations here in this bootleg. Mainly you’ll find early takes of songs from the album that aren’t all that much different from the final product. “Lady From Verona” is the only song that I wasn’t familiar with but it’s essentially a throwaway with cringeworthy lyrics. “Wanna Make Love to You” is another outtake but most fans are familiar with this one since it ended up on the Crossroads box set. The rest of the boot is made up of alternate takes. I don’t know about other fans but I get a kick out of hearing demos and work-in-progress versions of familiar songs. It sort of gives you a glimpse of the creative process that went into the final versions.

Two highlights for me are the guide vocals done by Nathan East and Greg Phillinganes on “Grand Illusion” and “Miss You”. I’m not exactly sure why their vocals were recorded other than for an early run-through of the songs. Nevertheless, it’s a hoot listening to them singing along (presumably without the lyric sheet) filling in nonsense words to fit the melody. fun stuff. The second disc ends with subpar audio from Clapton’s live appearance on the TV show NightLife. Those two tracks aren’t really necessary since there are superior sounding live boots from Clapton’s 1986/87 tour.

So, is this an essential Clapton boot? not really. But if you’ve got a fondness for mid-80′s Clapton (plus the heavy-handed production style of Phil Collins), this boot is worth seeking out.

retroGrade: B

Eric Clapton
August Outtakes & Different Mixes
Duffy Records
recorded at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles April/May 1986
sound quality : B+ (cassette tape quality)
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My favorite Paul McCartney era in terms of live performances has to be during the years 1989 through 1993. McCartney worked with a stellar group of musicians including Robbie McIntosh, Hamish Stuart and Wix Wickens. I saw Macca live on both tours during that time (1990 and 1993) and have collected a bunch of boots from that era. One recording that stands out among all the live boots from those tours is the 1992 show at the Ed Sullivan Theater that was done for the MTV special “Up Close”. Macca’s album Off the Ground was about to be released at the time and so the show was part of the whole promotional campaign for the album. The world tour was still a few months off so the set list for this show was pretty unique with songs that never made it on tour, including:

Big Boys Bickering – a non-album B-side that features Sir Paul singing the F word. It’s pretty weird. it’s like hearing your grandfather cussing or something. It’s probably the reason why it was dropped from their live set especially since fans bring their kids to the shows and all. Well that plus maybe the fact the song wasn’t all that good to begin with.

I Owe It All to You – a deep cut off the new album. I’ve always liked the melody and the instrumental portion of the song (especially McIntosh’s fantastic guitar work) but the lyrics are sadly cringe-tastic!

Can’t Buy Me Love – yes, the song has always been part of Macca’s live set but this version was performed in an interesting pseudo-bluegrass style. Pretty fun to listen to. I’m not sure if the way they did the song was simply a spur of the moment thing but it was never done that way again.

There are several versions of this show circulating among fans. I don’t know if there’s a sound quality difference among the versions but I highly recommend getting your hands on one of the recordings of this show. It’s fantastic and definitely *a must* for any McCartney fan. McCartney sounds relaxed and on the top of his game during the show and the band is absolutely flawless. I love the way Robbie McIntosh plays and Hamish Stuart voice blends well with Sir Macca’s. Oh and I have to add that Blair Cunningham drums with restraint which is what these songs need as opposed to sir Paul’s current basher of a drummer, Abe Laboriel Jr. Man, Abe hits his kit so hard that it would seem that he’d require a new set of drums and cymbals every night!!

retroGrade : A++

Paul McCartney
Live at the Ed Sullivan Theater
(Up Close MTV Special)
December 10, 1992
New York, NY
Soundboard Recording

TrackList:
Twenty Flight Rock
Get Out Of My Way
Fixing A Hole
Looking For Changes
Penny Lane
Biker Like An Icon
I Owe It All To You
Big Boys Bickering
Michelle
Hope Of Delieverance
Can’t Buy Me Love
Peace In The Neighborhood
Off The Ground
I Wanna Be Your Man
My Love
C Moon
Lady Madonna
C’Mon People
Live And Let Die

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The neat thing about Yes‘ 1994 Talk Tour was the implementation of “ConcertSonics” at all their U.S. shows. ConcertSonics was an experimental way to transmit the audio mix for the live audience to listen to simply by using their own personal FM receiver and headphones. Ultimately the technology didn’t catch on primarily due to the fact that the actual live sound in the venue overpowered any audio coming from the lil’ headphones. BUT it was an absolute boon for tapers!! Just attach a recorder of some kind to the FM receiver and voila, easy access/recording of a FM quality feed of the soundboard mix of the show. So as you can imagine, the whole U.S. tour was well documented with boots and fan-made tapes of practically every show.

One of my favorite recordings from this tour is the 9/10/94 show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. I’m not sure if it was due to it being in New York or because it was the last U.S. date of the Talk Tour or a bit of both but the band was tight and firing on all cylinders. You can definitely hear the difference in the performance when you compare it to one of the shows at the start of the tour (… but I guess you can say that about pretty much any tour. heh.) Anyway, Trevor Rabin particularly seems to be at his “A” game here. Amazing guitar solos throughout especially on the epic song “Endless Dream”. Yes, Rabin gets a bit self-indulgent with his needless piano solo before “And You and I” but he’s truly mindblowing on guitar.

As for the recording, it’s “FM radio quality” with a bit of static reception at a couple points around the beginning of the recording but still very good overall. Also the audio is heavily limited/compressed just like a radio broadcast so a lot of the big dynamics are missing. In other words, the drum sounds are “squashed” and Chris Squire’s bass isn’t deep and low like it should. But that’s just the audiophile in me talking. In any case, this boot is still a favorite in my collection.

retroGrade: A (performance), B (sound quality: FM quality)

Yes – Madison Square Garden NYC 1994
date: September 10, 1994
recording: from the FM transmitted ConcertSonics broadcast (soundboard mix)

band lineup:
Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Tony Kaye, Chris Squire, Alan White, Billy Sherwood

TrackList:
CD 1 -
Perpetual Change
the Calling
I Am Waiting
Rhythm of Love
Hearts
Real Love
Tony Kaye Solo
Changes
Heart Of The Sunrise

CD 2 -
Make It Easy/Owner of a Lonely Heart
Trevor Rabin piano solo
And You And I
All Good People
Walls
Endless Dream
Roundabout (with Purple Haze)

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I recently came across an old boot of Genesis performing live at Madison Square Garden during their 1986 Invisible Touch Tour. Listening to the recording takes me back to senior year in high school when I saw them in early 1987 at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill. It was one of the first “big arena” -type shows that I had been to at the time and so I was really taken aback with the what I saw that night. It was a fabulous show and this boot of the New York City show is a nice representation of that particular tour. The recording seems to be taken from a cassette of the soundboard. At various instances there are some “wow and flutter” effects which indicates stretching of the audio tape due to use. But even with the sonic imperfections, it’s still a fantastic document of the full show. The NYC gig was fairly early in the tour so “Follow You Follow Me” was still on the setlist and “In the Cage” was played toward the end of the show which they changed once they got into larger stadiums in 1987.

I had to laugh a bit when I heard those old Simmons drum sounds during “Home By the Sea”. Those Simmons drum kits definitely sound *dated* now and I can’t believe they actually played with those old trigger pads on stage. Those Simmons pads were like hard plastic so they were pretty brutal on the hands and arms when played for long periods of time. That’s the mid-80′s for ya. And if you’ve seen the Genesis 1987 Wembley video footage of them, you get the additional chuckle of seeing Mike Rutherford and Daryl Steurmer in “Miami Vice” garb. heh.

retroGrade : B+

The recording is worth seeking out especially if you’re fond of 80′s-era Genesis material like I am.

Live NYC 09-30-1986
artist: Genesis
Date: September 30, 1986
Venue: MSG, NYC
Sound quality: soundboard recording (cassette quality)

the live band:
Tony Banks: Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Mike Rutherford: Guitars, Basses, Backing Vocals
Phil Collins: Acoustic & Electronic Drums, Vocals
Chester Thompson: Acoustic & Electronic Drums
Daryl Steurmer: Guitars, Basses, Backing Vocals

Tracklist:
CD 1
Mama (8:39)
Abacab (10:52)
Land Of Confusion (5:13)
That’s All (6:31)
Domino (12:41)
In Too Deep (5:42)
The Brazilian (5:38)
Follow You Follow Me (5:14)
Chester Thompson Intro (1:04)
Tonight Tonight Tonight (9:11)

CD 2
Audience Participation Time (4:28)
Home By The Sea (12:06)
Throwing It All Away (7:34)
Daryl Steurmer Intro (1:11)
In The Cage (8:00)
…In That Quiet Earth (3:58)
Supper’s Ready (8:28)
Invisible Touch (5:08)
Drum Duet (4:59)
Los Endos (6:48)
Turn It On Again (11:02)
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Minnesota Night is a nice little snapshot of Eric Clapton’s tour in support of his 1986 album August which happened to be produced by his ol’ buddy Phil Collins. I’m not sure if Collins felt like he owed Clapton after the album got panned by critics at the time but in any case, Collins played with him for a number of shows during 1986 and 1987.

So what we have here is a fantastic sounding recording of the April 18th Minnesota show which featured a stripped down four piece unit that included Nathan East on bass and Greg Phillinganes on keyboards. It’s a stellar band and it’s also nice to hear Clapton as the sole guitarist in the group since he normally includes one or two extra guitarists in his touring band.

Even though I’m a huge fan of Phil Collins’ drumming, I have to say that his style is a bit too heavy-handed for some of the material featured here. Frankly, at various points in the show, his pounding backbeat overpowers the rest of the band and even ruins “Layla” by setting the tempo way too fast. But I’m a musician and I’m probably being overly critically about the playing captured here. In any case, this is a unique band lineup and I’m glad to have a nice sounding document from this tour.

retroGrade: B+

It’s definitely worth seeking out. In the meantime, here are a couple tracks from the boot.

Holy Mother

Cocaine

Layla

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I’ve been listening to some old Paul McCartney boots these last few days just to wash the bad aftertaste left from this whole autotune debacle. I’d rather listen to a pure, un-altered performance of a Macca show than some artificially pitch-corrected mess that’s on Good Evening New York City.

So for today’s Friday Free for All I thought I’d share a few tracks off of the Hey Tokyo! bootleg. It’s a great sounding live recording from 1993 with absolutely no auto-tuning to speak of.

enjoy.

PaperBack Writer

the Long and Winding Road

Good Rockin’ Tonight

Let Me Roll It

Lady Madonna

The live band: Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Hamish Stuart, Robbie McIntosh, Wix and Blair Cunningham.
from the November 14th and 15th 1993 gigs at the Tokyo Dome

Have a great weekend!

It’s time once again for Retroblog.net’s Friday Free for All. For today’s edition, I thought we should explore the vast underworld of bootlegs a bit. thanks to the almighty internets, the sharing of rare and interesting boots exploded these last few years. here’s just a random sampling of some that I have on hand at the moment.

Enjoy the tracks. and feel free to post a list of some of your favorite boots.

please note the sound quality will vary here due to these being “bootlegs” obviously.

GTR – Away (No One is to Blame) from the unreleased NeroTrend album (1987). This features Max Bacon on lead vocals and Steve Howe on guitar. Steve Hackett left the group at this point and Robert Berry was his replacement.

Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello – So Like Candy demo from the Flowers In the Dirt Sessions boot (1988). This is a great version that features both McCartney and Costello singing lead.

Todd Rundgren – Slut from the Vancouver August 25, 2006 boot. a great audience recording. It’s a rough and loose rendition with Tony Levin on bass and Jerry Marotta on drums.

Lindsey Buckingham – Go Insane from the Coach House December 10, 1992 boot. an awesome solo performance of his early eighties hit. definitely an improvement over the original recording which sounds a bit dated now due to the heavy use of the Fairlight sampler.

Susanna Hoffs – Darling One from her unreleased columbia album (1994). This is from the album that Columbia Records rejected. Hoffs ended up re-recording this song (along with some others) for her 1996 album “Susanna Hoffs”. This particular version is more upbeat than the officially released one.

Yes – Cinema/City of Love from the June 19, 1994 Canandaigua, NY boot. There are a ton of boots from this tour since the band did a simulcast of each show via “ConcertSonics”. Even though the “Talk” album isn’t one of my favorites, I thought some of the performances on this tour were pretty strong. I definitely miss Trevor Rabin, though. It’s definitely way overdue for Rabin to get back on stage!!

Journey – Send Her My Love from the Detroit Raised On Radio simulcast in 1986. It’s not the greatest sounding live recording but the “Raised on Radio” tour is fascinating to me for a multitude of reasons – one of which is the presence of Randy Jackson (of American Idol) on bass for this tour. listening to these old live recordings of Journey make me miss Steve “the voice” Perry even more!

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Happy Friday, everyone!

For today’s edition of the RetroBlog Mix Tape: rare demo recordings!
for those that may not know – demos are initial recordings made by songwriters to help convey their ideas to other members of the band and/or producers.

note: all files are hosted on savefile.com

Paul McCartney – My Brave Face (demo) : This recording captures Elvis Costello and McCartney singing enthusiastically with their acoustic guitars. I love this demo!

Trevor Rabin – Owner of a Lonely Heart (Demo) circa 1981: There are two version here. the first is Rabin putting down a take with just an acoustic guitar. the second half of the mp3 is a more fleshed out demo with god-awful lyrics. yikes. good thing Jon Anderson added his own set of lyrics before the song got officially released!!

Lindsey Buckingham – Peacekeeper (demo) : very similar to the final version done by Fleetwood Mac. but still great to hear Buckingham performing this song “solo” without Stevie Nicks’ froggy vocals all over the chorus.

Paul McCartney – This One (demo) : Here’s an early working version of “This One”. It’s Paul at his piano with a drum machine and overdubbed backing vocals. At this point, Paul wasn’t finished with the lyrics so he mumbles stuff at certain parts of the chorus. a nice glimpse of the songwriting process.

XTC – Smartest Monkeys (demo) : Here is Colin Moulding’s demo of a song that appears on XTC’s “Nonsuch” album. the final product is pretty faithful to the original demo I must say. but… isn’t the smartest Monkey Mike Nesmith? oh, he’s just the smartest MonkEE.

Todd Rundgren – Parallel Lines : There are two demo versions circulating around. One was done for his musical “Up Against It”. The other version is more like the one that appears on his “Nearly Human” album. I have both.
Parallel Lines – the Up Against It demo.
Parallel Lines – the Nearly Human demo.

enjoy!