Category: Bootleg

Kansas – Live Drastic Measures Tour – 1984

This concert was recorded for a radio special program distributed by Westwood One. It was promptly burnt onto CD’s and has made the rounds as a bootleg ever since. Kansas were on their A game this night and I only heard 2 errors on the whole recording. (Both Kerry keyboard errors). I’m sure someone with a better ear will find a lot more but I as a casual listener was pretty impressed. The bootleg actual says the concert was in 1983 but that is not correct. There were 2 concerts at the Universal Amphitheatre, one in 83 and one in 84. This is the setlist from the 84 concert.

Set List
1 – Fight Fire With Fire
2 – Point of No Return
3 – Everybody’s My Friend
4 – What’s on My Mind
5 – Play the Game Tonight
6 – Hold On
7 – Andi
8 – Dust in the Wind
9 – Crossfire
10 – Get Rich
11 – Belexes
12 – Magnum Opus
13 – Carry On Wayward Son
14 – Mainstream
15 – Portrait (He Knew)

Credits
Guitar, Keyboards, Synclavier II Programming – Kerry Livgren
Keyboards, Lead Vocals – John Elefante
Guitar – Rich Williams
Bass Guitar – Dave Hope
Drums – Phil Ehart

Steve Taylor – The Lost Demos Bootleg – 1988

Today’s offering is The Lost Demos, a bootleg of twelve classic Steve Taylor tunes. No-one’s sure where it came from, but I’m glad it surfaced.

I suggest listening to the demos back to-back with the officially-released versions. Listen for slight (or drastic) lyric variations, changes in instrumentation and tempo, and even differences in vocal delivery. Beyond the expected demo-to-pressing upticks in performance and production quality, some songs have a noticeably different feel.

Of particular note:

Hero – Compared to the Meltdown version, this is almost lullaby-like. The bell-like 80’s synth would become a harsher 80’s synth; the driving bass riffs aren’t here; and in the bridge, the ascending chord progression maintains the lighter, ‘major’ mood.

Bouquet – Starting out almost folks-y, it slides into 80’s elevator music territory – far more mellow than the officially released track (which ST has said he doesn’t much like, preferring Sixpence None The Richer’s acoustic version on the I Predict A Clone tribute album). Numerous lyric changes for this emotional story.

Whatever Happened To Sin – A faster tempo, and more lyric changes. The official version was controversial, but here we see that Steve had actually toned it down a bit.

Jenny – As with Hero, this has a different mood from the Meltdown version; slightly faster, more acoustic guitar – a lighter backing for a heavy lyric.

Lead Me – Written for the musical “Dreamer: What Really Happened To Joseph”. As far as I can tell, this version seems to have been released only on the album Jeremiah People: The Reunion.
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Track Listing:
1 – I Want To Be A Clone – 2:40
2 – Written Guarantee – 2:44
3 – Steeplechase – 1:44
4 – Hero – 3:30
5 – Sin For A Season – 3:41
6 – Bad Rap (Who You Tryin’ To Kid, Kid?) – 2:57
7 – Whatcha Gonna Do When Your Number’s Up? – 4:07
8 – Guilty By Association – 3:27
9 – Bouquet – 3:04
10 – Whatever Happened To Sin? – 3:00
11 – Jenny – 3:48
12 – Lead Me – 2:45