I have listened to this version of SOS about 5 times now and I do honestly enjoy it very much. True, it's not fantastic (as I said previously) or perfect, but what is perfection? Sometimes improvisation might sound imperfect to one person, but it could be perfection to another's ears. A lot of people rate the Milan 2013 version very highly - some have said it's the best ever, but what I heard was MK making very heavy weather of getting to the end and there seemed to be some rather iffy notes in there too - or could that have been improvisation and it passed me by?
I listened to that Milan version earlier today after hearing this funnily enough and the difference is night and day. Milan is full of inspired improvisation and the solo flows along nicely leading to something instead of jumping from one crisis to the next (so to speak). Milan has a great solo. This is just small bits and bobs that aren't really coming off all cobbled together that don't really amount to a whole.
Aren't we over-analizing this though. It's only one performance of a song after all!
Ok let's troll
Anyway I find the highly praised 4-piece versions a bit dull...
I really miss the super-bad-ass versions of the OL, LOG, BIA and OES tour, with keyboards (yes, keyboards ! they bring power and volume nuances to the song !), sax break, even pedal steel... The Alchemy version, even without sax, is enraged, full of energy, keyboards give depth to it... the sax break of subsequent tours was a bit cheesy but sooooo cool.... even Jim's piano in 96 was great to me...
If it is to hear a 4-piece version I'd rather listen to the studio version - super clean, crystal clear, great...