I've been looking forward to this week for quite a while...

THE BOOT

This is the complete 2/3/89 concert from the Royal Albert Hall.

For many years, "The Twelfth Night" was one of the absolute pinnacles of any E.C. bootleg collection. The Dire Straits song in the encore was cut to fit it on 2 discs. Then in 1997 we got the bizarrely-named "Beetle Clasher" from Tarantura, a complete version of the show on 3CD with somehow even better sound quality.

BACKGROUND

The band's tradition of starting the year with an extended residency at the Royal Albert Hall started with 6 shows in 1987. It expanded to 9 nights in 1988, and now 12 nights in 1989.

This is the first year E.C. used different lineups. The 12 nights were 6 nights with a 4-piece band, (E.C., East, Philinganes, Collins), and then the next 6 nights with a 9-piece band (E.C., East, Philinganes, Ferrone, Knopfler, Alan Clark, Ray Cooper, Tessa Niles, Katie Kissoon). This show is the final night of the 12.

Greg Philinganes is back with the group, having finished his commitments to Michael Jackson, so the band is running with two keyboard players. He will be a consistent part of the band for the next few years.

On the other side, this very show is Knopfler's last as a regular part of E.C.'s band. He would reform Dire Straits in 1990 to record On Every Street, and then spend over a year on a global tour supporting the album. (Despite spending over a year on a global tour promoting Brothers In Arms, and hating it.)

Buckwheat Zydeco was the opening act.

Shortly after the Royal Albert Hall run, the band headed to the studio to record the material that would become Journeyman.

SOUND

This release has truly stellar sound quality. The clarity and the mix are both remarkable. It is almost indistinguishable from the official releases from the 80s and 90s, and is honestly better than many of the official releases from the 60s and 70s.

Flaws are minimal. There's a little bit of feedback at 3:21 of Wanna Make Love To You.

This is one of the truly indispensable recordings.

PERFORMANCE

After Crossroads, E.C. says "Thank you very much. And welcome to the last night of our Albert Hall reunion. The band is very excited, I don't know what to tell you, but we're all very, we're up on this one. We're really looking forward to it. There's some special people for us in the audience tonight, but you're all very special, which is... thank you for being here."

He's not wrong. The band is really up on this one. It's about half an hour longer than most of his shows.

The setlist has been relatively static since 1986, but in 1989 a few more recent songs started creeping back into the mix. This concert includes Wanna Make Love To You (a b-side from the August singles), Forever Man (Behind The Sun), and Behind The Mask (August), in addition to the newer songs which have been standards in the setlist for several years, Same Old Blues and Tearing Us Apart. Knopfler's showcase number has switched from Money For Nothing to Solid Rock. But the real surprise is Bell Bottom Blues, which was only performed very rarely before now, even during the Derek And The Dominos years. It will stick in the setlist through the 24 Nights runs, and then disappear again until 1996.

The arrangements are also similar to what they have been for a few years. E.C. calls Knopfler for a solo on Crossroads, and again on Lay Down Sally, and again on After Midnight. He takes the lead acoustic part and a solo on Can't Find My Way Home, and plays amazing fills all night. Nathan does the vocals on the chorus on White Room, and the lead vocal on Can't Find My Way Home. After Midnight is the Michelob version. Nathan gets a solo on Same Old Blues, including some talkbox work, and he includes a little more talkbox during Can't Find My Way Home, like he did in Tokyo when the band didn't play Same Old Blues. Katie sings the Tina Turner part on Tearing Us Apart. Alan Clark does the Why Worry organ part at the end of Lay Down Sally, and takes a solo during Cocaine. The band lets the crowd sing the last "Cocaine" by themselves. They do band introductions in the Cocaine intro, which ends with Nathan saying "And on guitar, going for the record, 12 nights at the Royal Albert Hall, Mr. Eric Clapton".

There are just few arrangement changes. It seems like Greg lost his Same Old Blues third solo slot when he went off with M.J., but there is an organ solo at the end of White Room, which hasn't been typical. And bringing back Behind The Mask is almost certain his doing, since Greg introduced E.C. to the song after performing it with Michael Jackson (it was an outtake from the Thriller sessions).

Ray Cooper played with the band for a short stretch at the start of 1988, but this is the first review of a show with him. The one place I really noticed him was the chimes on Can't Find My Way Home.

It sounds like Mark asks "How'd I do?" after Solid Rock?

E.C. dedicates Wonderful Tonight to Rose, Heather, and Pat. His grandmother who raised him is named Rose, his mother who didn't is Pat, and Heather is probably his half-sister, Pat's daughter with her husband Frank MacDonald (who isn't E.C.'s father). Those are probably the special people in the audience that night.

The house music at the start is Funky Broadway by Wilson Picket. The house music at the end is Slip Away by Clarence Carter.

OK, kinda can't believe I've been at this for 20 weeks! Finishing up 1988 today. Starting to get excited for the 24 Nights era...

THE BOOT

This is the concert from 11/2/88 at the "Big Egg", the Tokyo Dome, home of the Yomiuri Giants baseball team.

Edited highlights of the show were broadcast on Japanese TV and radio, so whatever version you get, make sure to check the tracklist. Roberty reports that Can’t Find My Way Home, After Midnight, and I’m Still Standing are the missing songs on the broadcast version.

I have Big Egg from Tarantura, which has the complete set list, but I suspect it has spliced in I'm Still Standing from a different show. There is a copy of Les Trois Mousquetaires from Mid Valley on YouTube (here is disc 1 and disc 2) which sounds like it is doing similar chicanery?

There are also a number of very poor audience recordings of this show out there, so probably stick to either Mid Valley or Tarantura if you want a CD copy of this.

The show was also shot on video. There's a 1 hour 23 minute video on YouTube, which claims to be sourced from a VHS / DVD release (probably this?), and is missing the 3 songs Roberty listed, plus Money For Nothing. There's also a longer video on YouTube, which claims to be the complete show, but isn't quite. It's missing the first song from the encore (the Dire Straits song Solid Rock) and then the rest of the encore is from a dramatically worse source. And the smoothing on the AI upscaling is very "uncanny valley".

BACKGROUND

E.C. ended 1988 with a short tour of Japan, just 4 gigs in late October and early November. What makes them special is that the band is joined by both Mark Knopfler and Elton John.

Knopfler plays the entire show and gets two showcase numbers, Money For Nothing during the main set, and Solid Rock as the first song in the encore. Elton John joins for the last half of the show and does a 5 song set when he arrives, plus Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting as the second song in the encore.

It's mostly the same band as the rest of 1988, though Ray Cooper is back on percussion, and (despite several sources, including Discogs and Marc Roberty himself, saying it's Katie Kissoon) it is Tracy Ackerman joining Tessa Niles on backing vocals.

SOUND

There is debate about whether or not this is actually a soundboard recording; it's certainly a notch below the standards I usually set for putting a show on the list. But it's absolutely the best-sounding of the Elton John appearances, far better than Guildford 2/7/88, and the shows with E.C. and Elton John together are hard to pass over.

There is a substantial amount of hiss, and the vocals have a lot of echo. It all has a bit of a cavernous sound from the room. If this is an audience recording, though, the audience is remarkably well-behaved. There are very few places where the audience sounds like it is anywhere near the mic, but listen to the clapping at the end of Lay Down Sally, and at the end of Cocaine?

The mix is very nice. Knopfler and Cooper sometimes get buried, but are clearly audible here.

The Tarantura CD has a good many issues. There is a clear edit after I Shot The Sheriff, then another hard cut in the introduction to Money For Nothing. I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues ends with a fadeout, with Elton's "thank you very much" popping up oddly at the start of disc 2. There is a hard cut to a different audio source before I'm Still Standing, then he thanks his band (which is why I suspect this track is from a different show entirely) then back to the original source for "this is a very old song, from way way back" and Daniel. There's another cut before Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting. And I think this release runs slightly slow, compared to the other sources?

The sound quality of Trois Mousquetaires is an improvement over the Tarantura release. It has at least most of the same cuts, so either those are issues on the master tape or the two releases are from the same subsequent source, but it does a more professional job smoothing over the gaps. But then the copy on YouTube has an obnoxious hiccup between each of the tracks. That's probably just a poor job of ripping the CDs, but it makes the Mid Valley release on YouTube my least favorite listning option.

There is a bit of feedback on all sources in I Shot The Sheriff. (2:29 of that track on the Tarantura CD, 15:18 of the shorter video, etc.)

The best sound quality of all the options is probably the shorter video, which is the least complete release of the bunch. You kinda have to pick your poison with this show.

PERFORMANCE

Arrangements are largely the same as they were in the 1988 fall U.S. tour. E.C. calls on Mark for a solo in Crossroads, and calls on him again for another one in Lay Down Sally. Nathan takes the "I'll wait in this place" vocal part on White Room, and the lead vocal on Can't Find My Way Home (with E.C. audible here on harmony vocals). Knopfler takes the main riff on Tearing Us Apart and Can't Find My Way Home. They do the Michelob version of After Midnight. Band introductions are before Cocaine, taking the place of an instrumental intro. Alan takes a solo during Cocaine. Layla has an extended intro courtesy of Alan and Nathan. E.C. drops a quote of Blue Moon into the solo of Sunshine Of Your Love, which he did in San Francisco (3:15 on the Tarantura CD).

The big difference is the appearance of Elton John, which adds 6 different songs to the mix. Elton starts Candle In The Wind as a solo number, then the band comes in quietly near the end. The rest of his set are with the full band. E.C. takes solo on I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues (though the camera is on Knopfler) and another on I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That. (I think the "Take it, Red" in that song is Elton calling himself for a solo??) Knopfler takes a solo on Daniel.

With Same Old Blues cut for time, Nathan takes a little longer bass solo on Can't Find My Way Home and adds some talkbox to it, and then adds a little more talkbox to the Layla introduction.

The change in backing singers is subtle, but gives the band a slightly different color.  The biggest difference is they add what is almost a vocal solo to the coda of Wonderful Tonight, which will continue in future years. With Katie out, Tessa takes the Tina Turner part on Tearing Us Apart.

The encores are a Knopfler song, an Elton John song, then an E.C. song to close it out.

The percussion solo in Sunshine Of Your Love continues to expand, and is now up to 5 minutes. One minute in, there's a little vocal quote of Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by the Police.

There's a rare vocal flub from E.C. on After Midnight (1:40 on the Tarantura CD). He starts the "Gonna cause talk and suspicion" line, then realizes he's supposed to be on "Gonna stimulate some action" and switches mid-line.

None of the band speak much Japanese, so E.C. is relatively quiet, but E.C., Nathan, and Elton can all muster at least "domo arigato". Though E.C. just says "thank you" about half the time. He does throw in some French, oddly enough, during the band introductions: he credits Steve with playing "la batterie".

Many thanks to u/Deckard--B-263-54 for photographing the production notes from the 1982 press kit!

I figured the world would be a slightly better place, having that available as text rather than images, so that it was searchable, formattable, etc. So I put in the effort to run it through OCR and then clean it up. I would have added it as a comment to the original post, but it's too long, so a separate post it is.

Hope this is useful to someone out there...

"BLADE RUNNER"

Production Notes

About The Motion Picture…

A detective thriller set in the near future, "Blade Runner" has been directed by Ridley Scott, the distinguished British filmmaker responsible for "Alien," one of the fifty top-grossing movies of all time.

Harrison Ford, the popular young star of "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Raiders Of The Lost Ark," portrays Rick Deckard, a skillful investigator who is forced out of retirement to take on a bizarre mission. Like the classic private eyes, Deckard stalks the treacherous streets and faces a gallery of colorful characters, ranging from the sleazy underworld to the corridors of power.

Rutger Hauer, Holland's top film star, known internationally for "Soldier Of Orange" and "Nighthawks," appears as Ford's chief antagonist, a ferocious warrior who possesses terrifying strength and a dynamic lust for life.

Sean Young, the Kentucky-born beauty who was seen in "Stripes," plays the coveted role of Rachael, the beautiful, mysterious young woman who is executive assistant to the powerful head of the world's largest genetic-engineering company. She becomes Ford's romantic partner.

The innovative special visual effects for "Blade Runner" have been created by Douglas Trumbull's Entertainment Effects Group. received Academy-Award nominations for his work on "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" and "Star Trek, The Motion Picture."

"Blade Runner" is produced by Michael Deeley, the Academy-Award-winning producer of "The Deer Hunter."

Ivor Powell, continuing his long successful association with Ridley Scott, is the associate producer. Brian Kelly and Hampton Fancher are the executive producers.

The screenplay of "Blade Runner" is by two new film writers, Hampton Fancher and David W. Peoples. It is based on a novel by top science-fiction author Philip K. Dick.

The story centers on Rick Deckard, a highly specialized ex-police detective who is forced out of retirement to take on an urgent assignment: He must track down four desperate killers who, for some mysterious reason, are infiltrating a major industrial organization.

The case is further complicated when a beautiful young woman, an enigmatic suspect, becomes his ally — and they fall in love.

Deckard uses sophisticated futuristic tools of the sleuthing trade and possesses professional skills unheard-of by Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe. He scans clues in a super-computer, gets around in a flying "Spinner" car, wields unusual weapons, and administers complex technological tests to suspects.

On the colorful and treacherous streets of a fantastic future megalopolis, the suspenseful story takes the classic form of a man-hunt. But the renegades being pursued are not mere men and They are manufactured humans, created by scientific processes which are extensions of current breakthroughs in the revolutionary new field of genetic engineering.

These "replicants" are extremely fast and powerful combat models, the supreme products of the industry. Somehow, these four have returned to Earth from an off-world colony. They have already killed and must be stopped before they kill again. Unfortunately, they are distinguishable from ordinary human beings only through a sophisticated technological test of which Deckard is one of the few master practitioners.

"'Blade Runner,'" says director Ridley Scott, "is first and foremost a detective story, a thriller. It's not so much science fiction as futuristic, or, better yet, of the future."

He further describes the film as "an adult comic strip… full of action, colorful characters, fast pace, bright colors, and bold strokes."

A blade runner is a police detective who specializes in identifying and terminating defective replicants. Scott calls this highly skilled investigator "an official exterminator, a sort of bureaucratic bounty hunter." At this bizarre type of police work, Deckard is the best.

Replicants are synthetically made humans, manufactured and sold to do difficult, unsavory jobs, such as mining, soldiering, and space exploration, or to serve as domestic help and experimental subjects.

They are not "robots" as they contain no machinery. They are entirely creations of flesh-culture, more technologically and biologically advanced than "androids."

"Reps" are so highly perfected that they are virtually indistinguishable from ordinary humans, except through the Voight-Kampff empathy test, a sophisticated form of lie detector.

The story is set just far enough ahead to make credible the cornerstone of the plot — the existence of a rampant genetic-engineering industry.

Scott points out that "this film is not about genetic engineering.  It’s not a speculation on the rights and wrongs of this new science. The movie just touches on the subject, uses it to create the story situation."

To construct the proper setting, the filmmakers had to develop a clear, realistic vision of life in an American megalopolis forty years from now.

Says Scott: "Most films depict the future as pristine, austere, and colorless. We were determined to avoid shiny buildings, under-populated streets, and silver suits with diagonal zippers.

"Our city is rich, colorful, noisy, gritty, full of textures, and teeming with life — much like a major city of today. This is a tangible future, not too exotic to be believed. It's like today only more so."

"Our film takes place within the lifetime of most of its audience," says producer Michael Deeley. "Everything had to be credible and justified."

To help authenticate their picture of the future, the filmmakers enlisted Syd Mead, an internationally eminent industrial designer who is a specialist in picturing the shape of things to come, from skyscrapers and vehicles to parking meters and phone booths with television.

"'Blade Runner,'" Mead notes, "is not a 'hardware movie.' It's not one of those gadget-filled pictures where the actors seem to be there only to give scale to the sets, props, and effects. We've created an environment to make the story believable. The tools and machinery appear only when needed and fit tightly into the plot."

The entire look of the film was based on research and carefully thought-out principles regarding the future of architecture, transportation, fashion, and social behavior.

However, the filmmakers hasten to point out, all the futuristic trappings are a backdrop for the detective story. They exist in what Scott calls "a familiar atmosphere… a Philip Marlowe-Sam Spade environment. This is a film set forty years hence, made in the style of forty years ago."

Ridley Scott, one of the finest visual stylists now making films, relished the task of creating a new metropolis. The staff called it "Ridleyville."

The architectural look of the city is based on the principle that eventually it will become too cumbersome and expensive to simply tear down old buildings and replace them with the kind of new shiny structures one sees in most futuristic films. The old buildings remain, "retro-fitted" with pipes, transformers, and whatever other gear are needed to keep them going.

Above the street level tower the massive new structures, added into the picture by the special visual effects magic of Douglas Trumbull and his staff.

The centerpiece of the film's bold design is the street complex known at The Burbank Studios as "New York Street." The New York Street set was built in 1929 and provided the dark alleys and back streets that Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney once stalked in so many of their classic Warner Bros. films.

For "Blade Runner," production designer Lawrence G. Paull and art director David L. Snyder revamped the historic set into a unique futuristic thoroughfare — one of the largest studio sets built in Hollywood in recent years. It comprises elements of New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo's Ginza section, Milan's business district, and London's Piccadilly Circus.

In "Blade Runner," the complex street set represents the tough part of downtown — the nightclub district; Little Tokyo; the sushi bar where Deckard is recalled into police work; the exterior of Leon's hotel; Animoid Row, where replicant animals are sold and Deckard goes to trace clues, and the shopping arcade where his pursuit of Zhora the snake woman climaxes.

The production-design team built their arcades right out to the sidewalk and filled the streets with a variety of mechanical stuff — "trafficators," large video screens, bizarre and lethal parking meters, Vidphons, and technological flotsam which the crew called "retro-trash."

The "trafficators," which contain directional signals and traffic information on video monitors, were built out of surplus airplane parts, radar machinery, and missile parts salvaged from Monthan Air Force base in Tuscon. These structures were covered with sculpted high-density polyurethane.

The video-screen frames were made from bombers' radar-scope machinery, and the dome-lit parking meters were molded fiberglass, operated by key cards.

At the other end of town, atop a 700-story pyramid, is the office of Tyrell, the high priest of the genetic engineering industry. Paull describes the style of this lavish room as "Establishment Gothic."

The elegant office where Deckard meets Rachael, features 75-square-feet of black marble floors, 20-foot columns, a black marble desk, and a huge picture window through which is visible a cityscape of futuristic buildings and flying cars.

Tyrell's bedroom is a combination of high-tech and antique Oriental. His huge bed, pedestaled and canopied, is modeled after the bed of Pope John Paul II.

Deckard's apartment is done in a Mayan cast-stone motif. It echoes the exterior of Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis Brown house, which doubles in the film as the front of Deckard's condominium complex. Deckard's rooms are cavernous but with low ceilings, for a beehive effect. The decor is high-tech mixed with antiques.

The "Ice Room," the site of micro-surgical genetic design work, was a set built into a meat-storage locker. The machines are made-over medical and dental equipment, and the eyeball tanks are aquariums. It took five days to form a real icicle build-up on this set, where the filmmakers worked for two days in sub-zero temperatures.

The interior of Sebastian's apartment was eight inter-connected and totally run-down rooms, representing a one-time presidential suite abandoned in the rush to "off-world" space colonies. The apartment, matching the Bradbury Building location, has high ceilings with decorative plasterwork, in the 18th-Century style as interpreted by 19th-Century architects.

Taffy's bar, through which Deckard passes on his hunt for Zhora, is a decadent nightclub of the future, highlighted by phosphorescent paint and ultra-violet light.

"Blade Runner" was filmed at The Burbank Studios and on locations in Los Angeles.

As the city sweltered in unseasonable 98° heat, the film company bundled up to work at seven below zero. A meat-storage room doubled as a frost-covered scientific chamber where low temperatures are necessary for technically minute design experiments in genetic engineering.

Actors Rutger Hauer, Brion James and James Hong worked for two days amid icicles at U.S. Growers Cold Storage, Inc.

The "Blade Runner" company also filmed at two of L.A.'s most beautiful architectural landmarks. The front of the Ennis Brown house in the Los Feliz area was designed in 1924 by Frank Lloyd Wright in a Mayan block motif. The building, the most monumental of Wright's western experimental work, is seen in the film as the entrance to Harrison Ford's apartment building, a huge condominium complex, hundreds of stories high.

The Bradbury Building, built in 1893 and recently threatened with architectural corruption by municipal safety modifications, was preserved on film by "Blade Runner." In one scene, Ford traces Hauer to the ornate edifice for the final showdown. In another, industrial designer J. F. Sebastian (William J. Sanderson) discovers street waif Pris (Daryl Hannah) and takes her into his apartment.

The building, commissioned by mining millionaire Lewis Bradbury, was designed by George Wyman. The young architect was inspired by the description of commercial buildings in "Looking Backward," Edward Bellamy's utopian novel set in the year 2000.

The filmmakers worked in front of the Renaissance exterior, adding huge barley columns and a canopy to the entrance and traffic lights and monitors to the street. Inside they filmed on the geometric-patterned stairways with wrought-iron railings and in the dazzling center court, with its glass-bloc floor, glass-dome ceiling, and open-cage elevators.

Other locations included the downtown Pan Am Building, where Deckard and Gaff search Leon's hotel room for clues.

About The Actors…

As the star of "Blade Runner,' HARRISON FORD (Rick Deckard) takes on a role that is different from anything he has done before.

The popular actor recently created the character of Indiana Jones in the box-office smash and Academy-Award nominee, "Raiders Of The Lost Ark." The adventure movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, was Ford's fourth screen role for the film's executive producer and co-writer, George Lucas. Ford zoomed to fame as Han Solo in "Star Wars," written and directed by Lucas, and "The Empire Strikes Back," Co-written and executive produced by Lucas.

Ford's first major break was Lucas' "American Grafitti," which, like "Star Wars" and "Empire," ranks among the top grossers in film history.

Ford will next be seen in the third "Star Wars" saga, "Revenge of The Jedi," produced by Lucas and directed by Richard Marquand.

During the last few years Ford has also starred in "Heroes," "Force Ten From Navarone," "Hanover Street," and "The Frisco Kid," and made a cameo appearance in "Apocalypse Now."

Born and raised in Chicago, Ford began his acting career in summer stock in Wisconsin, then moved to California in 1963 to pursue film work. After appearing in a Laguna Beach Playhouse production, he was offered a contract with Columbia Pictures as part of their new talent program.

His screen debut came with "Dead Heat On A Merry-Go-Round," followed by small roles in "Luv" and "Getting Straight."

Ford was later under contract to Universal Pictures, where he was cast in guest-starring spots on such television series as "Ironside," "Gunsmoke," "The F.B.I.," and "The Virginian" and in the film "The Long Ride Home."

In 1970, Ford was offered the role of Bob Falfa in Lucas' "American Graffiti." His subsequent roles include "The Conversation" and the television movies "Dynasty" and "The Trial Of Lieutenant Calley."

RUTGER HAUER (Roy Batty), the top film actor in his native Holland, now has become an international star. He recently starred opposite Sylvester Stallone in "Nighthawks," garnering great attention as the ruthless terrorist.

Hauer's other films include Paul Verhoeven's award-winnng "Soldier Of Orange," in which he played a World War II hero; his first film, Verhoeven's "Turkish Delight," which was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Film, and "Keetje Tipple," also directed by Verhoeven.

Hauer also played Coco Chanel's lover in "Chanel Solitaire" and made a small appearance in Verhoeven's recent "Spetters."

Hauer was born in the Dutch town of Breukelen, which he left at age fifteen to join the merchant marine. He entered films after a string of highly acclaimed performances in Dutch stage productions..

SEAN YOUNG (Rachael) played an MP in the hit comedy film, "Stripes." Her screen debut was in James Ivory's "Jane Austen In Manhattan," and she will next be seen in "Young Doctors In Love."

Ms. Young was born in Louisville, Kentucky. She spent most of her younger life in Cleveland and attended the Interlaken Arts Academy in Michigan.

EDWARD JAMES OLMOS plays Gaff, the ambitious police lieutenant who is Harrison Ford's jealous and competitive sidekick. Gaff is a man of the future, a multi-lingual bureaucrat with Oriental skin, Japanese eyes, and blue irises. He is an intellectual and a sartorial dandy.

Olmos portrayed the legendary "El Pachuco" in the film version of "Zoot Suit," reprising his Los Angeles and Broadway role. With this performance, Olmos became the first Mexican-American to receive a Tony-Award nomination.

He starred in "Wolfen" as the American Indian steelworker, and his other film work includes the prize-winning "El Alambrista" and the incomplete Orson Welles project, "The Other Side Of The Wind."

Veteran character actor M. EMMET WALSH plays Bryant, the crusty captain of Rep Detect, who summons Deckard back into action. Walsh's most recent roles include the leader of the hoboes in "Cannery Row," the jailer in "The Escape Artist," a politician in "Reds," and the swimming coach in "Ordinary People." Among his many other films are "The Jerk," "What's Up, Doc?", "Little Big Man," "Escape From The Planet Of The Apes," and "Alice's Restaurant."

On Broadway, Walsh acted in "That Championship Season" and "Does The Tiger Wear A Necktie?". His many television appearances include. the award-winning mini-series, "East Of Eden."

JOE TURKEL plays Tyrell, head of the monolithic Tyrell Corporation. He is a scientific genius and powerful magnate of the genetic-engineering industry.

Turkel's many film roles include three for Stanley Kubrick — a race-track robber in "The Killing," a World War II soldier in "Paths of Glory," and the sinister bartender in "The Shining." Among his other films are "The Vikings," "Friendly Persuasion," "The Sand Pebbles," and his first, "City Across The River," for which he was brought to Hollywood from off-Broadway.

DARYL HANNAH plays Pris, the replicant with an angelic face and deadly prowess. She previously appeared in a featured role in "The Fury" and co-starred in "Hard Country."

Ms. Hannah, an athletic native of Chicago, will next be seen in Randall Kleiser's "Summer Lovers."

BRION JAMES plays Batty's sidekick, Leon. As an anguished and angry replicant, James shares a ferocious fight scene with Harrison Ford. James has recently played a one-armed Cajun trapper in "Southern Comfort," a bootlegger in "Soggy Bottom USA," and a sailor in "The Postman Always Rings Twice." His other movies include "Nickelodeon," "Wholly Moses," "Harry And Walter Go To New York," and "Corvette Summer." On television he starred in the movie "Hell And High Water."

WILLIAM J. SANDERSON portrays Sebastian, the skilled and painfully shy genetic designer who suffers from premature aging. His life is invaded by the replicants in their search for the power center of the genetic-engineering industry.

Sanderson played Loretta Lynn's uncle in "Coal Miner's Daughter," one of the two men who terrorize Sissy Spacek in "Raggedy Man," and a member of Lee Marvin's posse in "Death Hunt." Sanderson's television credits include "Scared Straight Another Story" and the soap, "For Richer, For Poorer."

Sanderson, born in Memphis, holds a Doctor of Law degree from Memphis State University.

JOANNA CASSIDY plays the replicant Zhora, an exotic entertainer who flirts with Deckard and then is pursued by him through the crowded streets in one of the film's action highlights.

Ms. Cassidy's film work includes "Bank Shot," "The Laughing Policeman," "Stay Hungry," "The Late Show," "Prime Time," and "Night Games." On television she has been seen in a two-part "Dallas" and the telemovie "Reunion," and the feature film "Dressed To Kill."

MORGAN PAULL plays Holden, an unlucky blade runner who encounters one of the replicants.

Paull's movie work includes "Norma Rae," "Patton," "Ensign Pulver," "The Swarm," "The Return Of The Apple Dumpling Gang," and "Twilight's Last Gleaming."

Paull's other credits include the mini-series, "Centennial," and Broadway roles in "New Faces Of 1966" and "Diplomatic Relations." At the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, he starred in "Muzeeka."

Paull, born in Wheeling, West Virginia, began his career in the Barter Theatre of Virginia, where he won the Ernest Borgnine Best Actor Award.

JAMES HONG, the Oriental genetic designer in the ice chamber, numbers among his credits "Chinatown," "The In-Laws," "The World's Greatest Lover," and "Yes, Giorgio."

HY PYKE plays Taffy, the proprietor of a posh but decadent bar where Deckard goes clue-hunting. Pyke starred as Sancho Panza in "The Adventures Of Don Quixote And Sancho," in two roles in "Stronger Together," and as a killer Hollywood agent in "Nightmare In Blood." His other film appearances include "Soylent Green," "Bullitt," "Dillinger," "The First Nudie Musical," "The Way He Was" (in which Pyke played Bebe Rebozo), and "Smokey And The Judge" (in which he was a straight plumber at a gay party).

About The Filmmakers…

"Blade Runner" is Director RIDLEY SCOTT’s first feature in Hollywood and his first since the smash hit "Alien."

Scott's debut picture, "The Duellists," won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and established him as one of the finest visual stylists in films.

"Alien," a suspense thriller set aboard a spaceship, became one of the 50 top-grossing productions in movie history. It won science-fiction awards and the 1980 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Prior to entering feature filmmaking, Ridley Scott was a television set designer and director and a highly successful producer-director of commercials. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London.

Producer MICHAEL DEELEY received an Academy Award for producing "The Deer Hunter," which won a total of five Oscars, including Best Picture of the Year. Deeley has produced dozens of films and has served as Managing Director of British Lion Films and EMI as well as General Manager of Woodfall Films.

"Blade Runner" continues Associate Producer IVOR POWELL's long and productive association with director Ridley Scott. Powell was associate producer on Scott's "Alien" and "The Duellists" and was in-house producer for Scott's film company in London.

Powell was associate producer on Marcel Ophuls' "Memory Of Justice" and production supervisor on "The Optimists Of Nine Elms," starring Peter Sellers. The British filmmaker has worked on the production of various other features and BBC-TV programs. On "2001: A Space Odyssey" he assisted Stanley Kubrick as coordinator of the special effects department.

Co-writer HAMPTON FANCHER is a new American writer who is making his major screen breakthrough with "Blade Runner." Fancher is also an experienced actor.

Co-writer DAVID W. PEOPLES co-wrote and co-edited the Academy-Award-winning documentary feature, "The Day After Trinity." He wrote the Oscar-nominated short, "Arthur And Lilly," and edited the Oscar-winning documentary feature, "Who Are The DeBolts And Where Did They Get 19 Kids?"

Production Designer LAWRENCE G. PAULL holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from the University of Arizona and a Master's in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

Paull's feature-film credits include "Blue Collar," "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars And Motor Kings," "Which Way Is Up?", "Nickel Ride," "The Hired Hand," "Little Fauss And Big Halsey," and "The Star-Spangled Girl."

On television he did the movies "Friendly Fire" and "Tailgunner Joe."

Art Director DAVID L. SNYDER was an architecture major at Technical High School in Buffalo, where he studied building construction. He studied architecture at the University of Michigan and advertising design and graphics at Pierce College. Snyder then worked. in architecture and urban planning for various California firms.

He was the art director on "The Idolmaker" and "In God We Trust," plus various television projects.

Design Concept Consultant SYD MEAD is an internationally eminent designer who created visual representations of various products of the future, based on technical breakthroughs or new concepts.

His client list has included U.S. Steel, the Ford Motor Company, Celanese Corporation, Alcoa, Chrysler, Allis-Chalmers, Raymond Lowy International, Phillips Einjhoven, and the Singer Company.

Mead's rich, detailed paintings have been published in Automobile Quarterly, Car Styling, Playboy, and the National Geographic Society book, "Our Universe," among others. His book, "Sentinel," presents an overview of this creative futurist's remarkable career.

Mead worked with John Dykstra and Douglas Trumbull to create the designs for the V-ger entity in "Star Trek, The Motion Picture." has also contributed conceptual designs to the Disney film "Tron."

The Special Visual Effects on "Blade Runner" are by DOUGLAS TRUMBULL, one of the major artists in this booming facet of movie-making.

"'Blade Runner,'" says Trumbull, "is representative of the coming of age of special effects. They are integrated into the film, to support the basic premise. They are not meant to stand self-consciously at the center of the stage. The effects are designed to support a good story, with subtlety and intelligence.

"The effects on 'Blade Runner' were especially challenging. because we had to add visual illusion to highly realistic sets and locations. They had to play against the nitty-gritty reality of a big city."

Among the visual effects created by Trumbull and his staff are: an aerial view of the city for the flying Spinner car as it takes Deckard to police headquarters; hundreds of stories of futuristic architecture which were inlaid above the real street-level buildings; pictures projected on massive outdoor video screens and read-out screens in cars, as well as on the Esper computers in the police station and at Deckard's apartment; the firings of particle-beam weapons that project "black energy" trajectories; cityscapes seen through windows, on the streets, and as a backdrop to the climactic rooftop fight, and an aerial view of the hyper-industrialized suburbs which climaxes with the Spinner's landing at the heliport, over 700 stories high, atop the Tyrell Corporation Pyramid. The latter panorama was known among the staff as the "Hades" landscape, or "Ridley's Inferno."

Trumbull received Academy-Award nominations for his work on "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" and "Star Trek, The Motion Picture." In his early twenties he was one of the major contributors to the special visual effects on "2001: A Space Odyssey" and went on to do "The Andromeda Strain."

Trumbull directed "Silent Running" and, more recently, "Brainstorm," which deals with "inner space."

Trumbull's company, Entertainment Effects Group, has also developed Show-Scan, a new high-speed, 70mm, motion-picture process.

Sharing the special visual effects credit with Trumbull are RICHARD YURICICH and DAVID DRYER.

Yuricich is a professional cinematographer with extensive experience in the filming of commercials, documentaries, television productions and feature films. His credits include "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Silent Running" and "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind," for which he was director of photography of special visual effects and received an Academy-Award nomination. In the same role for "Star Trek, The Motion Picture," he received another Academy nomination. For a number of years Yuricich has been an associate of Doug Trumbull's and director of photography for Future General Corporation. He is president of FX Space 70, Inc., and partner in the Entertainment Effects Group. Currently he is associate producer and director of photography for "Brainstorm."

Dryer is a veteran film editor of many documentaries and director of television commercials which featured highly sophisticated special effects.  He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the USC film department.

Co-Costume Designer CHARLES KNODE has designed costumes for the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London; the Metropolitan Opera House, New York; the New York stage production of "Monty Python," and the Old Vic Theatre in Bristol. He was nominated for an Emmy for the costumes in the mammoth BBC-TV production, "War and Peace." Among Knode's additional TV credits are twenty other period productions, six science-fiction projects, and "Hedda Gabbler," starring Diana Rigg.

His film work includes "Monty Python And The Holy Grail," "Monty Python's Life Of Brian," "Jabberwocky," "The Black Angel," and "The Hound Of The Baskervilles," starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

Co-Costume Designer MICHAEL KAPLAN moved to Los Angeles six years ago and has quickly risen through the ranks from sketch artist to assistant and then up to full costume designing credits of his own.

Kaplan broke in as an assistant on "The Sonny And Cher Show," "American Hot Wax" and many TV Movies-of-the-Week and HBO variety specials. He then designed costumes for Bette Midler on three of her recent performance tours and was commissioned to create the costumes for "Thank God It's Friday" and "Can't Stop The Music." He is currently working on "The Right Stuff" for The Ladd Company.

JORDAN CRONENWETH, one of Hollywood's most talented young cameramen, most recently displayed his visual flair with "Altered States." His other features include "Cutter's Way," "The Front Page," "Play It As It Lays," "Nickel Ride," "Gable And Lombard," and "Zandy's Bride."

He describes Ridley Scott as a perfectionist and "Blade Runner" as the most technically challenging project Cronenweth has worked on, utilizing a tremendous variety of techniques.

Jerry Perenchio and Bud Yorkin present a Michael Deeley-Ridley Scott production, "Blade Runner," starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young and Edward James Olmos. Directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples and produced by Michael Deeley with Brian Kelly and Hampton Fancher as executive producers, the film is a Ladd Company release in association with Sir Run Run Shaw thru Warner Bros. Visual effects are by Douglas Trumbull.

Finishing off 1987 and the aborted live album...

THE BOOT

MSG (Imperial)

Madison Square Garden 4/27/87 is one of the most heavily bootlegged E.C. shows, so there are a ton of versions available.  I compared MSG on Imperial, and Same Old Blues Definitive Master on Playmen.  I couldn’t tell any difference; both had the exact same flaws.  MSG on Stardust is supposedly a remaster of the Imperial version, so maybe there is a better sounding release out there, but I haven’t been able to find that one.

BACKGROUND

This is the following night from Providence, so the band and setlist is identical, down to Robert Cray joining for Further On Up The Road.

It is also the final night of the U.S. tour, and the eighth and final show recorded for the aborted live album.  This version of Badge > Let It Rain was planned to be used.

On the personal front, Pattie left Eric sometime in April 1987. His playing is extraordinary, given that his home life is crumbling.

SOUND

This is a very nice recording. The balance is really nice; this is one of the best mixes yet.

There is a little bit of static at 8:14 of Same Old Blues, a tiny bit of feedback at 2:37 of Holy Mother, another tiny bit of feedback at 2:40 of Cocaine, and a few more seconds of static at around 6:25-6:30 of Layla.  (All of those were on both versions I checked, so they are probably all on the master tape.)

The crowd is present but not distracting. You can hear them occasionally during songs, like when E.C. rips into his solo at 4:15 of Crossroads, but they generally add to the experience rather than detract.

PERFORMANCE

There isn’t much to differentiate this from the previous night, so not much new to say. The arrangements are the same, even down to the synth intro. Nathan is still on crowd duty — he yells “Madison Square Gardennnnnnn” after White Room. Even the band introductions are almost identical — at the end of Same Old Blues, E.C. says “Nathan East!  Greg Philinganes!  Phil Collins.  Yours truly!  Thank you very much!”

The one unique moment is before Further On Up The Road. E.C. says "I want you to know that... this is a very unique experience we’re sharing here tonight.  It’s a very tight little family we got here, and that includes the people who play with us, Robert Cray.  So, uh, on behalf of all of us, thank you very much for sharing it with us."

Both this night and the previous one are really strong, high-energy concerts. If I had to pick one, it would be this show, just because of the recording quality and the short speech during the encore.

Gave this one another listen, and it was better than I remembered, so decided to review this one after all...

THE BOOT

Just 4 Of Us

This is the complete soundboard from 4/26/87 in Providence.  There aren’t a lot of versions of this out there.  The copy I’ve found is from Eternal Records, a label so small that this set isn’t listed on Discogs. There is a review on Geetarz with the set list.

BACKGROUND

Phil Collins wasn’t part of the core band for the Spring shows in Europe, but he joined for the US tour.  Knopfler didn’t make the trip.  (Not sure why — I can’t find any record of him doing anything after the Secret Policeman’s Ball 3 in March.)  So the band is a 4-piece with East, Philinganes, and Collins for this entire tour.

The setlist is almost the same as the previous 1987 shows.  Without Knopfler, they don’t do Money For Nothing, so the first song in the encore is Further On Up The Road instead.

This is the seventh and penultimate show recorded for the aborted live album.  Wonderful Tonight is the one track from this show slated for that album.

SOUND

This is a pretty nice mix.  The lead vocal is a little quiet, but you can hear all four guys on stage clearly.  There’s a bit more tape hiss than the truly top-notch bootlegs; this doesn’t have the sharp clarity of most of the Mid Valley stuff.  But it’s a warm, pleasant recording.

The crowd is audible but distant and indistinct.

There are a number of minor flaws.  There's a hiccup at 9:06 of Same Old Blues. Someone says perhaps “Sorry, Duck?” close into a mic after Holy Mother.  And then at 2:17 of White Room, and again at 7:52 of Same Old Blues, someone accidentally hits the drum machine, so you get a half-second of Tearing Us Apart. (This seems to be happening a lot.) There's a teeny pop at 0:27 of Cocaine. There a bad edit before Sunshine Of Your Love, that duplicates a couple of notes.  If you're using Apple Music, you can set the end of Further On Up The Road to 6:02.95 for a smoother transition. And there's a harsh cutoff at the end.

This recording leaves in over 3 minutes of crowd noise before the encore.

PERFORMANCE

After 3 shows with nearly the same setlist and band, I don’t have a lot of additional comments. This band is really solid.  E.C. is mostly clean.  They are a very consistent outfit at this point.

The changes without Knopler are fairly minor. The solos in Same Old Blues are Nathan, then Greg, then E.C., then Phil.  (At the end, E.C. introduces the band with “Nathan East!  Greg Philinganes!  Phil Collins.  Yours truly!  Thank you.") Greg is back to taking the last solo on Badge. And they do a bass intro to Cocaine.  Otherwise, it’s the usual solos.  Greg takes the second solo in Cocaine. E.C. is doing Layla without a second guitarist, and neither Greg nor Nathan fill in the other lines, so there are parts that just aren’t there. And then they've added a longer intro to Sunshine Of Your Love.

Same Old Blues is coming into its own. The last R.A.H. show had a really cool fade-down near the end. This one, Nathan’s scat solo is memorable. The cymbals at the start of Holy Mother are a little annoying.

Overall, this is a really high-energy performance. After the main set, E.C says “Man.  We thank you!  Incredible”. Other than that, E.C. is pretty quiet.  I think it’s Nathan East getting the crowd going after I Shot The Sheriff, and after Miss You, and more after Cocaine.  E.C. has apparently off-loaded remembering what city they’re playing in to his bass player.

Robert Cray was the opening act.  He joins them for Further On Up The Road, singing the second half.  E.C. introduces him after the fact.

On to 1987...

THE BOOT

Romantic Isolation (MVR 243-248)

This boxed set from Mid Valley is three almost complete concerts, January 10th, 11th, and 12th, 1987 at the Royal Albert Hall.

Marc Roberty reports they played Crossroads all three nights, so the fact that it is missing from the first show probably means there was a technical problem with the recording.  The second and third shows in the set are complete.

BACKGROUND

1987 was the first year of the "annual dustup" at the Royal Albert Hall.  The band played the 6th, 7th, and 8th, took a night off, and then did the three shows presented here.

These were the fourth, fifth, and sixth nights recorded for the aborted live album.  Miss You from the 10th, and 5 tracks from the 12th (Crossroads, I Shot The Sheriff, Hung Up On Your Love, Tearing Us Apart, and Layla) were intended for release.

After operating as a four-piece for 1986, the band has been joined temporarily by another guitar titan, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.  Both Knopfler and Phil Collins will come and go for a few years in here, depending on their other commitments.  Knopfler will play all of the UK shows in January plus three in continental Europe before leaving the tour after the show in France on January 18th.  Steve Ferrone has taken over the drum kit for this tour, but Phil Collins joined as a guest for the last two nights of the Royal Albert Hall run.

SOUND

This is a good release, but not the usual quality from Mid Valley. It was supposedly taken from cassette masters. That said, the sound quality gets better as it goes along. If the whole set sounded like the first show, I would have skipped this set entirely. But the final show is not to be missed.

The 10th is a bit mushy, with E.C. weirdly low in the mix, both his vocals and his lead guitar. Solos are often hard to hear, drowned out by the keyboard, of all things. It sounds like there is a patch between 6:05-6:35 of Layla, as the audio quality changes noticeably? And then, adding to the issues, at 2:23 of White Room someone accidentally triggers the drum track from Hung Up On Your Love. It happens again at 2:03 of Wonderful Tonight, then at 2:43 and 2:49 (I think the last two are the drum track from Tearing Us Apart?).

The 11th has better balance overall. The keyboard is still too high in the mix, but E.C.'s vocals and Knopler's guitar are clear, though E.C.'s guitar is still hard to hear in places. The balance seems to get better as the show goes on, but his solos on Crossroads and White Room are still buried under the keyboard, and are generally too quiet through Miss You.

The 12th is not flawless, but is clearly the best sound of the bunch. Lead guitar is still a little low, but E.C.'s solos are totally clear from the start. My biggest complaint is that Knopfler is very low in the mix. He's much less noticeable on this recording than the previous night, and his solo in Let It Rain is hard to hear. The keyboard during Badge is hard to hear as well.

There are occasional sounds of electrical buzzing, most noticeably during Wonderful Tonight.

The audience is close and audible, but they are relatively quiet during songs. You can hear them applaud after the solos in Same Old Blues, and clapping along occasionally. On the 12th, after Holy Mother, you hear "You're still god, Eric!" from the crowd. (Either the same guy has followed him from Birmingham, or there's an audio patch in there?)

All three sets preserve the full gap between Layla and the encore, several minutes of crowd noise, and then include a couple more minutes of dead air at the end.

PERFORMANCE

The setlist is fairly similar to 1986. The show still opens with Crossroads / White Room / I Shot The Sheriff, and then dives into new material. They are still doing the false endings in the middle of Badge, and the segue directly from Badge into Let It Rain. And still ending with Cocaine and Layla (both still with long introductions), with Sunshine Of Your Love as part of the encore.

There's a little less from August, 4 songs instead of 6 — Miss You, Tearing Us Apart, and Holy Mother, plus Hung Up On Your Love which wasn't in the 1986 setlists. Wonderful Tonight is back after a year off, inserted in the middle of the new material. And Phil Collins' number late in the set is swapped out for a Mark Knopfler showcase, Money For Nothing, as the first song in the encore.

Knopfler is a presence during these shows. He provides great fills on Crossroads, I Shot The Sheriff, and Miss You. He takes a solo on Same Old Blues, after Nathan and before Greg. Then more great fills on Holy Mother, and Badge. He takes the only solo on Let It Rain. I think he does the intro on Cocaine, and then definitely does more fills during the song. He and E.C. switch off during Layla, then Knopfler takes the first solo in the coda. Money For Nothing is his showcase number. And then more great fills on Sunshine Of Your Love.

With the addition of Knopfler, East and Philinganes has a little less room to shine. Greg takes the first solo in Same Old Blues, and the second solo in Cocaine, but is no longer taking one in Badge. Nathan just gets a solo in Same Old Blues.

At 2:33 of Money For Nothing on the 11th, there's a rare musical foul-up.

There is not a ton of interesting stage chatter. Mostly E.C. provides quick introductions of song titles, and a "thank you" afterwards, with introductions for Greg, Mark, and Nathan during Same Old Blues.

On the 10th, E.C. mistakenly describes Hung Up On Your Love as "another from the new album", but it's the first track from August. The same night, he introduces Miss You with "Now the other end of the scale, this one was written by me and Greg and it's called Miss You." On the 11th, he introduces Same Old Blues with "I wouldn't leave the theater at this time if I were you. This goes on for quite a long time." After, he introduces the whole band, including both Steve Ferrone and Phil Collins, so they really are playing with 2 drummers. Also on the 11th, someone yells "Happy New Year" after Layla. On the 12th, he introduces Steve Ferrone and Phil Collins after Holy Mother.

Another pseudo-boot from 1986...

THE BOOT

Ringtrick (MVR 023/024)

The Mid Valley release is the complete 7/15/1986 show from the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre.

Less than half the show was official released as Eric Clapton And Friends. IMDB says that was a TV movie, so it was probably cut to fit a one-hour time slot? The video only includes 9 out of the 17 songs performed:

• "Crossroads" (Robert Johnson)
• "White Room" (Jack Bruce · Pete Brown)
• "Run" (Eric Clapton)
• "Miss You" (Eric Clapton · Greg Phillinganes · Bobby Colomby)
• "Tearing Us Apart" (Eric Clapton · Greg Phillinganes)
• "Holy Mother" (Eric Clapton · Stephen Bishop)
• "In the Air Tonight" (Phil Collins)
• "Layla" (Eric Clapton · Jim Gordon)
• "Sunshine of Your Love" (Eric Clapton · Jack Bruce · Pete Brown)

The video is available on YouTube. But definitely look for a bootleg for the complete show.

BACKGROUND

This show features the same band as the Montreux show 5 days earlier, and is almost the identical setlist, just without the second encore.

This is the third show recorded for the aborted 86-87 live album. White Room, Same Old Blues, Holy Mother, and Further On Up The Road from this show were intended for release.

(The second show recorded was the previous night in Birmingham, but the soundboard has never leaked out. We only have audience recordings of that show. None of that show was slated for the live album.)

SOUND

The sound quality is flawless. As usual for Mid Valley releases, the high end is crisp and prominent. The video release is a bit warmer and foggier.

The crowd is close and audible. After Run, someone in the audience yells “You're still God, Eric! You can hear them cheering and clapping along during Nathan and Greg's solos on Same Old Blues.

It sounds like there may be a crossfade after Miss You? The setlist is complete, so that would be just cutting out dead air. Maybe another before Cocaine? If there are edits, they are very well executed.

PERFORMANCE

Most of the notes from Montreux about arrangements are true here as well. One minor addition there is that the maraca sound in Run doesn't match anything Phil Collins is doing, so that's probably a backing track (and probably the case at Montreux as well).

There are only a few small arrangement changes.]:

Phil Collins now gets a drum solo near the end of Same Old Blues, so it has ballooned from 14 minutes to over 20. It has become EC’s jam number to end all jam numbers. It will stay in that role for 3 years.

This show, Greg switches to the keytar for Tearing Us Apart. He is also the one doing the high "woo" background vocals.

The video shows that when the crowd cheers during Crossroads, it's for the rest of the band's entrance. There are a few other great moments on the video. There are some crazy slo-mo shots of Greg's dance moves with the keytar in there. There's a lovely, goofy moment of the whole band doing hand-goggles during their bows after Layla. And check out the great moves by Nathan during Sunshine Of Your Love.

E.C. is chatty. Just like in Montreux, after Crossroads, he outlines the plan: "We’re going to a song of, I mean a show of songs, from all different parts of the calendar.  These are the old ones we’re going to do first of all.  I hope you remember.” After I Shot The Sheriff, he says “Well, you certainly seem like a nice bunch of people to me,” then continues, "We’re going to do some new songs, I hope you’ll be patient and listen to them and, uh, give them your approval.” When they do Same Old Blues, E.C. describes it as “a little bit older”, heh. He  announces Nathan East (twice) after his solo in Same Old Bues, then Greg and Phil after Phil’s solo (and Nathan again for good measure). Behind The Mask is introduced with "Now we feature the most wonderful man, here he is, Mr Greg Philinganes".

(All of that is edited out of the video. The only chatter in the video is E.C. saying something indistinct at 4:03 of Crossroads, and his introduction to In The Air Tonight, "Now it's your chance to hear THAT SONG again. The one you've been waiting for. The beautiful, the wonderful, Phil Collins." and then another shoutout to Phil afterwards.)

No sign of cigarettes until the first encore, Sunshine Of Your Love.

Robert Cray joins on Further On Up The Road. E.C. says "We'd like to bring Robert back on, if he's available, but we'll start and he'll join in." — Cray was the opening act.

On to 1986, with the second semi-bootleg with video in a row...

THE BOOT

E.C. performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1986.  He joined Otis Rush for a few songs on July 9th, then did his own set on the 10th.

This is another pseudo-bootleg.  E.C's set was recorded and filmed, and got a mostly complete video release as Live At Montreux 1986. This is currently available on YouTube! (Video of the Otis Rush set is also available on Dailymotion; here is part 1 and part 2.)

The song "Run" was edited out of the official release, and then the film crew didn’t know there would be a second encore, so there is no video of Have You Ever Loved A Woman > Ramblin' On My Mind. You only need to dip into the bootlegs for those last 3 songs.

The complete shows were broadcast on radio (I believe in France), so this is another one that has been heavily bootlegged. There are many good options; I compared the Mid Valley and Swinging Pig releases.  Swinging Pig set has a little warmer sound, but Mid Valley includes the complete Otis set.

Get Plugged In! (MVR 44/45/46)

Montreux '86 (Swinging Pig TSP-CD-156)

BACKGROUND

E.C. had just finished recording the August album 2 months previously, and it had not even been released, so the audience for this show was in for a wild ride, with a large amount of material they had never heard before.

The band has seen another shakeup. Nathan East and Greg Philinganes were part of the studio crew for the preview album, Behind The Sun, and Phil Collins was the producer. For the new album, August, Collins was the producer again, and East and Philinganes were on every track except It’s In The Way That You Use It (recorded separately for The Color Of Money soundtrack, but included on August). And now those three are the touring band as well. It's a lean ensemble, with no second guitarist (for the first time since 1978!) and no backing singers.

Both Philinganes and East were established performers. Philinganes had been backing Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson; East played with everyone, Dolly Parton, Barbara Streisand, Aretha, the Eurythmics. The European tour started in Scandinavia on July 3rd, so this was the 3rd show with this new band. Philinganes and East will stay a long time, and East will become Clapton’s longest collaboration.

This is also the first of 8 shows recorded for an aborted live album.  Marc Roberty reports the intended running order as:

• Crossroads - RAH 12 Jan 1987
• White Room - Birmingham 15 Jul 1986
• I Shot The Sheriff - RAH 12 Jan 1987
• Hung Up On Your Love - RAH 12 Jan 1987
• Wonderful Tonight - Providence 26 Apr 1987
• Miss You  - RAH 10 Jan 1987
• Same Old Blues - Birmingham 15 Jul 1986
• Tearing Us Apart - RAH 12 Jan 1987
• Holy Mother - Birmingham 15 Jul 1986
• Badge - MSG 27 Apr 1987
• Let It Rain - MSG 27 Apr 1987
• Cocaine - Montreux 10 Jul 1986
• Layla - RAH 12 Jan 1987
• Further On Up The Road - Birmingham 15 Jul 1986
• Sunshine Of Your Love - Montreux 10 Jul 1986

So the versions of Cocaine and Sunshine Of Your Love from this show were slated for release. (All of those concerts except the Providence show will be reviewed here in the next few weeks!)

SOUND

The Otis Rush set is noticeably worse quality. It is very treble-heavy, with significant hiss, and a splashy cymbal sound.  Since the E.C. set was being recorded for a live album, it seems that more care was put into it.

Th E.C set is close to perfect. There's a nasty bit of feedback during In The Air Tonight, on "Well I remember" (3:01 on Swinging Pig, 3:38 on Mid Valley). And there is an electronic glitch at 0:13 of Layla on Mid Valley, which Swinging Pig seems to have edited out.

Swinging Pig edits out all the crowd noise between the encores, Mid Valley leaves it in.

On the Mid Valley set, there is enough overlap between the contents of each disc that you could do nicer splices. If you are listening on the Apple Music app, you can set the "stop" time of Tearing Us Apart to "6:51.8", and the "start" time of Holy Mother to "0:06.7" for seamless play across the two discs. (This is true of the Otis Rush set as well. Robert Cray gets introduced at the end of disc 1, and again at the start of the 2 additional Otis Rush tracks on disc 2.)

The crowd is pretty quiet. They cheer when Phil Collins comes out, and clap briefly when Nathan cajoles them at the start of Badge. Otherwise they are mostly audible only between songs.

PERFORMANCE

E.C. hadn’t been playing much Cream since that band broke up. Audiences saw a lot of Badge in the 70s, but not much else.  So opening with Crossroads > White Room is dropping quite a bomb. He hadn’t played White Room until an appearance on the Dave Letterman show in May 85, where he joined the house band for all the bumper music in and out of commercials, so we probably have Paul Schaffer to thank for E.C. starting to play it again!

After Crossroads, E.C. says "So, we're going to do some old ones, some new ones, and go through the card, as it were." He is clearly excited about the new material.  After I Shot The Sheriff come 6 songs that hadn’t even been released, broken up only by Same Old Blues from the previous album, Behind The Sun. Run, Miss You, Tearing Us Apart, Holy Mother, and Behind The Mask is almost half the new album. Wanna Make Love To You interestingly gets introduced as being from the new album, but in reality it didn’t make the cut, and would end up as the B-Side of Behind The Mask, before getting a wider release on Crossroads. E.C. comments “Got another new one, can you take it?” before Miss You. The crowd seems relatively appreciative, though someone hollers out "Blues Power" before Holy Mother.

This is really the single biggest change in the sound of the band so far. Philinganes brings a contemporary 80s synth sound; it's all organ, no piano, leaning hard on the pitch-bend wheel. East brings a powerful funk foundation. The whole thing has a huge drive, except the opener Crossroads, when the band comes in one by one.

Same Old Blues is the big jam number, with E.C. taking several solos, then East doing a bass solo and then a scat solo, then back to E.C., then finishing with Philinganes doing a keyboard solo. Philinganes takes the Jack Bruce vocal part on White Room, while East takes the Jack Bruce part on Sunshine Of Your Love. Philinganes gets a spotlight number on lead vocal (and keytar?!) on Behind The Mask, plus a keyboard solo on Badge, another on Cocaine (which E.C. introduces with "take it away, Greg"), and one on Further On Up The Road. Both Philinganes and East add backing vocals for most of the songs.

E.C. introduces both of them during Same Old Blues, and then "Now I'd like you to meet one of the most magnetic men on the Earth today, here he is, the Svengali of Piccadilly, Mr. Greg Philinganes." before Behind The Mask. Phil Collins is introduced before In The Air Tonight with with "I’d like to now... give you the pleasure... of letting you listen to my next door neighbor sing. Ladies and gentlemen, the wonderful, the beautiful, Phil Collins."

At 2:04 of In The Air Tonight, Phil misses a cue before "Well if you told me you were drowning".

Behind The Mask segues smoothly into Badge, which segues smoothly into Let It Rain. It's a really great sequence. There's a great intro to Layla, which has a full coda.

I think the band is using a backing tape in a few places? It sounds like there's a chorus vocal at one point during Holy Mother? During Behind The Mask, you see E.C. at Greg's microphone and Nathan at his mic, but neither of their lips seem to match the "There is nothing in your eyes" vocal part. And then there's nobody playing drums for the first half of In The Air Tonight.

E.C. is in good shape. He is clearly having a great time. He's beaming during Greg and Nathan's synchronized dance moves during Behind The Mask. He's mostly clean by this point. He looks a little bleary in the first encore, and you can see him pick up a glass right at the end of the video and take a sip. (You can also see his cigarette habit — he has an unlit one on his headstock during Behind The Mask / Badge / Let It Rain, which is lit by Cocaine, and is gone by Layla. And another one going when he comes back for the encore, Sunshine Of Your Life.)

The band does two encores this show, which is a rarity. The first is Sunshine Of Your Love and Further On Up The Road. E.C. introduces band during Further On Up The Road, then  Greg introduces “the one and only Eric Clapton”. (E.C. says thank you to Robert at the end of first encore. Not sure why.)

The second is Ramblin’ On My Mind > Have You Ever Loved A Woman (with the chord-change-calling trick), with Robert Cray as a special guest.

Continuing with 1985, we have the first of 3 semi-bootlegs (all with video!) in a row...

THE BOOT

The 5/1/85 show from the Civic Center in Hartford, CT is another show that is not technically a bootleg. An edited version of the concert was released as Live '85, but that title is out of print, and was only available on VHS, LaserDisc, and Betamax (!). Fortunately, the video has been uploaded to YouTube.

There is a CD release as well; one source says enterprising hackers dumped the audio from the Japanese LaserDisc. (The US LaserDisc only has 11 tracks compared to 14 for both the VHS releases and the Japanese LaserDisc.)

The source for the YouTube video is actually unclear; all the releases on Discogs reverse the order of Wonderful Tonight and She’s Waiting, and of Layla and Forever Man, but the version on YouTube has those in the correct show order. The YouTube release is also about 3 minutes shorter. The CD has about two minutes of She’s Waiting (Reprise) at the end, which I assume is over the credits on the LaserDisc, but there's another minute unaccounted for. The only cut I noticed during the show was the YouTube version doesn't include E.C.'s "Like to give you a little bit of reggae now” spoken intro to I Shot The Sheriff.

The complete soundboard hasn’t surfaced, but as with the Old Grey Whistle Test, the fact that we have film means this isn't to be missed. This is the first video we have since the Rolling Hotel documentary in 1978.

BACKGROUND

This show is just a week after the King Biscuit Flower Hour broadcast from Richmond, so the band is identical.

The setlist was also identical, though all releases of this show are missing Behind The Sun, Someone Else Is Steppin’ In (Shaun’s spotlight), Never Make You Cry, Something Is Wrong With My Baby (Marcy’s spotlight), Double Trouble, and Further On Up The Road.

SOUND

The sound is close to flawless, befitting an official release.  (Though when you chop out 5 songs, you can omit anything with feedback or static or performance errors.)  If you listen closely, you will hear occasional shifts in crowd noise between tracks, marking the edits.

The mix is quite nice. Bass is nicely present. The background singers are maybe a little faint.

The CD audio quality is definitely better than YouTube, which is substantially more compressed.

PERFORMANCE

The arrangements are all pretty similar to the Richmond show, so most of the notes on that show apply here. Two things I noticed here that I didn't mention in that writeup are Stainton has a great solo on Blues Power, and Marcy and Shaun shine at the end of She’s Waiting. But having film reveals things you can't tell from just the audio.

There were times during the Richmond show where I could hear Marcy but not Shaun. I figured it was just because Marcy has a higher pitch, so Shaun was getting covered up. Here you can see they don't always align. Motherless Children, it's just Marcy doing harmonies in synch with E.C. and Shaun is doing the counterpoint ("When your mother is dead").

Both singers start the show with a tambourine, but around the start of Badge, Shaun decides the show needs more cowbell. She sticks with it through Layla, and then is back to tambourine for the encore, Forever Man. Once you know it's there, you can't not hear it. You also get to see their occasional dance moves and their Big 80s Hair.

It's much easier here to tell what guitar parts are Renwick. He's doing the fills during the verses on I Shot The Sheriff. (E.C. takes the solo, which is great.) The camera is on Renwick's face during a short solo on Blues Power, so that is probably him? And then he takes the last solo on Badge (just before "Love is my badge"), the last solo in Cocaine, the fills during the verse and the high part of the chorus riff on Layla, and the closing solo on Forever Man.

Renwick's solo on Lay Down Sally is better than Richmond, but still just kind of peters out at the end? E.C. is doing him a little dirty by only annoucing him for what seems to be consistently his worst moment in the show.

The video makes it clear how many calories Oldaker was burning every night. Dunn on the other hand, for all his prodigious talent, is about as animated as a lawn gnome.

Watching Stainton switch seamlessly from piano to organ in the middle of Let It Rain is a cool moment.

E.C. is still drinking occasionally up until 1987, but he's visibly in such better shape than he was in the late 70s. This night he is completely unimpaired. There's no sneaking off with a glass in hand like he does on the Old Grey Whistle Test show in 1977.

Moving on to 1985. The next several years are going to include a ton of great recordings...

THE BOOT

The show at the Coliseum in Richmond, Virginia on 4/22/85 was recorded for King Biscuit Flower Hour, so it's another show where there are a lot of good options out there. Here are the Swinging Pig and Mid Valley releases:

Wonderful Tonight (Swinging Pig TSP-CD-196, discs 5-6)

After Hours (Mid Valley – 301/302)

Both releases list track 9 as Steppin' Out, the song E.C. did with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, but the song is actually Someone Else Is Steppin' In by Z. Z. Hill.

BACKGROUND

E.C. didn't put out an album in 1984, and spent most of the year backing Roger Waters’ tour for The Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking, so there were only a handful of shows that year. The album sessions in Montserrat in the Spring of 1984 were finally released almost a year later, March 11, 1985, as Behind The Sun. This concert is just over a month later, so those songs would have been brand new material.

The core of the band is still Stainton, Dunn, and Oldaker, but Albert Lee has been replaced with Tim Renwick, and the band is back to having backup singers. E.C. recorded Tangled In Love by his old singer Marcy Levy for Behind The Sun, and invited her to rejoin the band for both the album and the tour. The other singer is Shaun Murphy, best known for her work with Bob Seger and Little Feat.

Behind The Sun marked the start of E.C.'s collaboration with songwriter Jerry Lynn Williams. It includes three Williams songs, the first two singles, Forever Man and See What Love Can Do, plus Something's Happening. Those songs along with Levy's number give the album an upbeat feel, but the material composed by E.C. is fairly dark. Pattie Boyd wouldn't leave E.C. until April 1987, but looking at the lyrics to songs like Behind The Sun, the writing is on the wall.

SOUND

As usual, the Mid Valley release is a bit more clear, the Swinging Pig release is a bit warmer. Both sound pitched slightly fast?

The mix is decent. The piano and bass could be a little louder. Marcy and Shaun are appropriately in the background.

The crowd is mostly audible only between songs.  You can hear them cheering during the second solo in Same Old Blues, a little of them singing along to Cocaine, and a few more cheers at the start of the quieter coda to Layla.

PERFORMANCE

After a number of tours where the new album was barely represented in the setlist, this show includes Same Old Blues, Tangled In Love, Behind The Sun, Never Make You Cry, She's Waiting, and Forever Man. That's more than half the Behind The Sun album. Interestingly, he only played 1 of the 3 Jerry Williams songs, leaning more toward the darker, personal songs.

Just as with Bremen 1983, Dunn and Oldaker maintain a driving pulse throughout. Motherless Children, Tangled In Love, and Forever Man stood out. Oldaker also does some really nice work on the slower numbers, like the first part of Behind The Sun.

Marcy and Shaun sing on most songs. All of it is lovely, though there is a particularly nice bit at the end of Never Make You Cry. Shaun gets her showcase on Someone Else Is Steppin' In.  She's a blues singer, with a very different sound from Marcy.  The song itself is a great funk number, though at the end she goes into a rap, which feels a bit dated. The Sam & Dave song When Something Is Wrong With My Baby is Marcy's showcase, though it doesn't really quite work here? And then Murphy takes the last verse of Further On Up The Road.

Stainton switches between his various keyboards all night long, sometimes even within the same song — he adds fantastic little piano twinkles on Let It Rain, then goes directly into an organ solo. On Layla he does the reverse, doing the introduction and first part on organ before switching to piano for the coda. And then for most of the songs from the current album, he switches to a synthesizer. Tulsa Time and Blues Power also get creative little introductions, both on piano. In addition to Let It Rain, he takes an organ solo on Double Trouble, and a piano solo on Further On Up The Road.

Lay Down Sally has a sloppy, disjointed guitar solo, after which E.C. says “Tim Renwick”.  I think he gets a solo on Further On Up The Road as well? None of the other solos sound similar, so E.C. is probably handing most of the solos at this point? Renwick is the clear weakest link in this band; he won't be back in 1986.

E.C. himself is in great shape. The solos are hot throughout. I Shot The Sheriff, Same Old Blues, Double Trouble, and Further On Up The Road are the big jam numbers, and he shines on all of them. And his singing shows a level of vulnerability on Behind The Sun and Never Make You Cry that is a level beyond what he's done earlier.

He's also clearly enjoying himself in a way that was rare to see during the 1970s. He tells the crowd "We're having a wonderful time, I don't know about you" after Let It Rain, and "Thanks a million. We had a great time, it's great to be with you. Thanks very much, good night." after Layla, and then "Thank you very much. You make me feel great, thank you." after returning for the encore.

There are a lot of interesting little touches in the arrangements. Behind The Sun transitions smoothly into Wonderful Tonight; Badge segues directly into Let It Rain. On top of Stainton's piano introductions, Cocaine has a great funk guitar intro, and there's a guitar and organ intro to Layla.

E.C. introduces the band at the start of Further On Up The Road. Each member joins in as they are announced. Oldaker is "the key man", Dunn is "his partner in crime". Stainton is "the vitamin kid"?? Then comes Tim Renwick, then Marcy Levy and Shaun Murphy. I think it's Duck Dunn who finishes the intructions with a long one for E.C. himself that references I Shot The Sheriff.

I'm a day late this week. :)

Our last show was Just One Night at the end of 1979.  It’s been a four year gap, and it’s been a rough four years.  We get an album rejected by the record label, a change of record label, a hospitalization, rehab, and another mass firing of his band.

THE BOOT

Bremen 4/20/83 is a show where there are a lot of good options. I'm listening to the Swinging Pig release, but I'll list the Mid Valley release also. But the 3BR and Stardust releases called No One Else are also excellent.

Wonderful Tonight (Swinging Pig TSP-CD-196, discs 3-4)

Dress Code (Mid Valley – 298/299)

BACKGROUND

The obvious question: why have there been no quality concert recordings since 1979?

In March of 1980, Clapton recorded a new album entitled Turn Up Down with the all-English band from Just One Night, plus ex-Procol Harum keyboard player Gary Brooker.  RSO Records rejected the album, on account of Clapton giving his bandmates a little too much of the spotlight for the label's tastes.  The label put out Just One Night instead. Without a new album to promote, E.C. only did a couple dozen tour dates all year.

E.C. went back into the studio and reworked the Turn Up Down material into Another Ticket, which was released on February 20, 1981. (When RSO Records sold out to Polydor after that, E.C. took the opportunity to tell them to pound sand.) But E.C.’s drinking caused him to be hospitalized with stomach ulcers on March 13, 1981, cancelling almost the entire Another Ticket tour.  He wouldn’t appear in public again until September.

In January 1982, his manager prodded him to check into the Hazelden Foundation for his first attempt at rehab.  He returned to touring when he got out, but on very light duty — just 17 dates in the Eastern US over the summer. Then in late 1982, he was off to Nassau to record Money And Cigarettes.

So 1983 was E.C.’s first year with a full tour schedule since 1979.

The Money And Cigarettes sessions prompted another lineup overhaul in the band. After 2 weeks with no good tracks, producer Tom Dowd pushed E.C. to reshuffle the deck, and he fired everyone but Lee.  (No telegrams, he did it personally this time.  This could be interpreted as a sign of growth.) Dowd called in Ry Cooder, Roger Hawkins, the drummer from Muscle Shoals house band (“The Swampers”) and Duck Dunn, the bassist from the Stax house band (a.k.a. Booker T & the MGs). Money And Cigarettes was released on Jan 31, 1983.

Of the studio pros on Money And Cigarettes, only Duck Dunn wanted to tour.  E.C. rehired Jamie Oldaker, who he had let go in 1979, and Stainton, who he had just let go before the album session.  (Oldaker would leave again in 1986, but returned to the band for the blues shows on 24 Nights.) So the band is now Albert Lee on guitar, Duck Dunn on bass, Jamie Oldaker on drums, and Chris Stainton on keyboards.

I’m not sure why this show was recorded.  My suspicion is that it’s a King Biscuit Flower Hour recording, because it appeared on a set with Santa Monica ’78 and Richmond ’85, which were both KBFH shows.  But I can’t find any record of a radio broadcast.

SOUND

Decent balance on Swinging Pig.  Bass, piano are loud. Second guitar and lead vocals are a little faint. (As usual, Mid Valley sounds a little sharper, Swinging Pig sounds a little warmer.)

The audience responds loudly after songs, but during the performances they are generally either very quiet or faded down. You can hear some clapping after the first solo in Double Trouble, when the band gets quiet. There's more applause after the first line of Wonderful Tonight, when the crowd figures out what the song is.

Technical issues are very minor. There's a bit of feedback at 1:50 of Ramblin' On My Mind. There are occasional faint electronic buzzing noises, usually just audible when the music is very faint, such as 0:04 of Worried Life Blues, 0:52 of Double Trouble, 3:34 of Double Trouble, 0:18 of Wonderful Tonight, 0:46 of Blues Power. These are clearly on the master tape, since they appear on all sources.

PERFORMANCE

Despite this being released just three months after Money And Cigarettes, the only song from that album here is The Shape You’re In.  There are no songs from Another Ticket.  And then only Tulsa Time from Backless. So this setlist includes all of 1 song from the last 4 years, and only 2 from the last 5!

I Shot The Sheriff is a jam number, but most of the long jams are the slow blues numbers, Worried Life Blues, Double Trouble, and Ramblin' On My Mind > Have You Ever Loved A Woman. (The last of those has E.C. doing the trick of calling out key changes again.) Cocaine is super high-octane, but not particularly drawn-out.

Dunn and Oldaker are strong backing crew. They didn't have specific parts that stood out, but the show has drive and energy throughout.

Chris Stainton does the same great piano intro on Tulsa Time as he did on Just One Night. He switches to organ for Worried Life, and gets called by name for a solo. He's noticeable throughout, with some great little piano fills on Let It Rain (which hasn't appeared here since 1974), Sweet Little Lisa, and After Midnight. He switches to organ for The Shape You're In, and Wonderful Tonight, then back to piano for Blues Power, then back to organ for Ramblin' On My Mind > Have You Ever Loved A Woman, and Cocaine. Layla gets the piano coda back, after missing it both late 1978 shows, and also has a wonderful new introduction with guitar and piano.

Albert Lee gets called out by name for a guitar solo in Lay Down Sally, and again for a piano solo in Worried Life Blues (he took an organ solo on that song on Just One Night). He gets a vocal showcase on the Dave Edmonds song Sweet Little Lisa, which E.C. introduces with "Now it's time for the wonderful, incredible Albert Lee". (Lee played guitar on the original recording.) There's some great call and response licks between Albert and E.C. on The Shape You're In. And he also handles all the backing vocals, on I Shot The Sheriff, Lay Down Sally, After Midnight, The Shape You're In, and Blues Power.

E.C. seems in better shape than he has been in years. Double Trouble in particular shows his singing really progressing, getting a level of wailing and growling that wasn't there in the 1970s.

E.C. introduces the band one at a time before Further On Up The Road, and they begin playing when he calls them, which means the band introductions after Oldaker are mostly drowned out by the drums.

So I realize that I'm late to the party, by about 8 years. But I finally came across a used copy of the deluxe 6-disc More Blood More Tracks at a price I couldn't pass up, and have now spent a week and a half submerged in it. My half-dozen random thoughts...

1. I don't think the acetate was even the best possible album of NY versions. The pedal steel on You're A Big Girl Now (take 2 remake) is pretty cheesy. That version of Tangled Up In Blue (take 3 remake 2) is one of the worst for button clacking noises. The version of Meet Me In The Morning with the full band (take 1) is a lot more generic than the acoustic takes. I made a playlist of the acetate, and a playlist of the single-disc release of Bootleg Series 14, and I think the archive team picked their way to a better album than Dylan and the original producer?

2. I'm fascinated by the question of Dylan's intent for the album. The fact that he hired a full band suggests he wanted fuller arrangements than what made it to the acetate? But then the fact that he slipped in a day earlier and laid down solid solo takes of most of the album suggests he wanted some acoustic stuff in there too? It's possible he had no idea what he wanted, and was taking a shotgun approach. But if he wanted a blend from the outset, then no wonder he wasn't happy with the acetate?

3. Man, that NY band session was a train wreck. The 3 band takes of Simple Twist Of Fate (1a, 2a, 3a) sound like lounge music. Meet Me In The Morning made it onto BOTT, but I think it's the weakest NY performance on the album. Call Letter Blues was fine, but I can't see the album including both simple blues songs. The band gets sidelined for some stabs at Idiot Wind, and then we get 9 aggressively mediocre takes of You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome, only one of which gets across the finish line. And then the band colletively gets the hook. What the hell happened? These were professionals. It seems like they couldn't hear each other, so maybe this was a studio setup problem??

4. I suspect that the reason the acetate included the pedal steel take of You're A Big Girl Now, the organ overdub on Idiot Wind, and the band version of Meet Me In The Morning, was that those were the only usable tracks that would give a blend of sounds?

5. The remixes on More Blood are better than the 1975 album. Everything just sparkles? It feels like they are in the room with you right now, instead of listening to a record from 5 decades in the past.

6. I do think the album we got is generally better than the acetate? There are multiple great acoustic versions of Tangled Up In Blue (the country-fied take 1, the amphetamine take 2 remake, take 3 remake from Bootleg Series 1-3, and possibly my favorite, take 3 remake 3) but the MN version soars in a way that none of the NY versions do. The acetate version of Lily, Rosemary & JH is a bit of a dirge; the MN version feels like a western tall tale should? The organ on the MN take If You See Her Say Hello makes it feel like a hymn, which I love. The MN band version of You're A Big Girl Now is just OK, but it's better than the NY take 2 remake with steel guitar. I think Idiot Wind is the only one where I feel they made a misttep with the MN version? Being angry and shouting about it for 8 minutes is just less interesting to me than being angry and it coming out as weary disdain?

Looking forward to you folks telling me exactly how wrong I am. :)