The first handful of tracks are the On Broadway show, the rest are partial sets (they left off duplicate songs) . I doubt the Misfits tracks are from a better source than what we’ve heard, but I’m happy that they’re finally getting released.
They left off “The Urge To Runaway” (which is a huge disappointment) but otherwise this is a complete set of all the original songs they performed in 1982.
Here’s what’s new:
-Work For Love
-Cold Life
-Funkamental
-Dancing Alone
-Le Stupide
-Knowledge
The last 4 songs have never been released before in any format. The first 6 tracks were on the Chicago 1982 vinyl, which originally was only part of the Trax Box set. Some of the Detroit songs come from the box set as well.
Hope they pitch/tempo corrected the Detroit stuff. Every thing I’ve heard released from that recording is a half-semitone sharp and about 4% too fast. That includes Disc 7 from the Trax Box Set. The source tape was a cassette…and not all cassette decks were the same. Some ran a little slow so when the cassette was played back on a proper deck it sounded sharp and fast.
They should have pitch/tempo corrected versions of both the Detroit and Misfits shows.
BUT- I’m 99% certain the Detroit stuff will be the same as what they’ve released already. I’ll give them some props on the remastering though, it does sounds nice. That version of Cold Life is pretty stellar, glad to see it included. Work For Love may as well be a demo version, it’s much more simplistic than the Arista versions.
I’m mostly curious about the unreleased songs from the Misfits show, and what source they used. Hopefully they cleaned up just as well as the Detroit stuff, but if they come from the Stereo Pro-Audience recording, there will be some chatter here and there from the crowd. Nothing too distracting though.
Still bummed about The Urge to Runaway not being included, but I have no doubt that they will release these shows in full later down the road.
Amazing to now have a CD with so many of these great 1982 live performances. When I think about first tracking down a third or fourth generation cassette copy of the 1982 Detroit show at Mystery Train Records in Boston in the late 1990s. Little did I know that Mystery Train Records on Newbury Street was also within a block or two of the former Syncro Sound studios…just crazy. Thank you to Al and Cleo for not sitting on these recordings and giving them a proper release. Do we know the source of the Misfits show? I had presumed it was from Wempathy’s personal collection and recorded by a friend of the band…but Al must have had a copy too??
The Misfits tracks are sourced from a cassette made by a former roadie of the band. It was recorded using a stereo mic set up in the audience. The tape was found in a box decades later. A VERY lucky find, considering those 5 songs would have otherwise been lost.
Al’s team and Cleo were forwarded copies, but I’m 99% certain that all copies are sourced from the same cassette.
While enjoying the new CD, I noticed that Al is the third keyboardist on some of the tracks. I can’t recall if there’s any footage out there of Al performing and singing behind a keyboard. Maybe a little in that fuzzy “Isle of Man” 1986 live video clip.
Did Brad essentially take over for Al’s keyboard parts in the 1983 and 1984 tour band?
If Al played any keyboards onstage during '82 it was to program the sequencer before the song and then change the root note of the sequencer during the song (“Effigy” or “SOM” are good examples) although not all songs required the use of a sequencer (“WFL” or “Cold Life”). If sequencer wasn’t required Al typically played guitar. I don’t think he ever had to hold a chord or play a lead line on a keyboard onstage. In the studio he was able to construct chords by mult-ing single notes and cutting and pasting. He did all the parts for ‘Should Have Know Better’ in the studio.
On second thought…Al played the bass keyboard on “Primental” and the keyboard fills between vocals on “Le Stupide”.
Brad didn’t play any of Al’s old live parts I don’t think. All the sequenced stuff from '82 was recorded to a backing track for the '83 live stuff.
John Soroka didn’t join until '84 after I left. I’ve never met him.
I’m curious to see what the credits are on the new live disc.
Ah, well…no guitar or backing vocal credits. And apparently no corrections to the speed/pitch problems either. And they got my name wrong. Why even bother?
