I wish this great concert had been released in HD as a bonus to Alchemy.
Fantastic versions of Lions (love the change of rythm) and most importantly News (changed from little nice tune to epic masterpiece with the Hammond Organ - love the reference to John Lenon).
Great version of DTTW too, I love the teasing of the audience between the intro and the main song. Although I tend to prefer the stripped down '79 versions (BBC Arena uptempo one is fab), keyboard is a poor subtitute for David's guitar groove IMHO, this is where you can hear that David was useful...
I love OL arrangements, but the Dortmund is not my fav gig of the tour, because :
- it lacks many other good songs from that tour : single handed sailor, in the gallery, Wher do you think you're going, Telegraph road....
- I don't like Mark's behaviour during this concert. too much "show off" while he makes some mistakes
- I think News is even more elaborate at the end of the tour (e.g. Werchter), I mean more "epic" than Dortmund. thats 's why I prefer versions from the end of the tour. BTW, the song was also dedicated to Marley after may 81
- tunnel of love is not very good. it's the version featuring on live at BBC, and you can hear at the end that he is out of tune. Versions from Milano, Wiesbaden or Werchter are better imho
if I want to listen to a 80-81 gig, I listen to :
- Wiesbaden (fantastic where do you think you're going)
- Emerald city for songs that were dropped after the 1st leg of the tour (gallery, sailor...), and for the story before Les Boys
- Werchter for my favorite Angel of mercy, and DTTW where you can hear clearly the piano solo, I like it a lot
- San Remo for good sounding Telegraph Road
but surely not Dortmund at first choice