I prefer the Boston '80 concert from this era, however it's not my favourite era. I think a lot of the experimental exercises didn't really work out too well, especially in Lions which just sounded awful. On and on with no direction whatsoever becoming louder and more boring with it. TOL nearly always went out of tune at the end! OUATItW was just average with no real soloing. I prefer the simplicity of the '79 versions or the extended 1982-83 versions. Most of these tunes were better in earlier or later tours IMHO. The only highlight from this tour was Skateaway. More an interesting tour than a great tour for me.
Totally agree and well put. They were totally overpowering and Mark seems drunk on almost all I saw from this era..
Lots of energy can be good at times and nowadays I wish he would put some more into "showing off", but at those days most of it was musically very ambitious but just ... too much.
LE
I think it all goes down to: do you appreciate keyboard addition to songs that weren't not meant for keyboards in the first place ?
I have mixed feelings about this.
On the one hand, keyboards in the OL tour sounded really crude. They sounded much better latter in the LOG tour; in the BIA tour they sounded too much, overused at any rate. In the OES tour they were almost absent, burried in Paul Franklin's pedal steel guitar which was taken way too much space.
Also, we can argue that simple, raw 4-piece songs were much better and cleaner in the orignal form. Mark ended getting rid of keyboards and sax on Sultans after all.
On the other hand, some songs were really enhanced in the OL tour in a way that my ears like, but some were just butchered. If I take them one by one:
- News: best example of sucessful transformation. The song sound so much better with Hammond organ and progression chords. So epic, so emotional ! On the album it sounds dull and try in comparaison. Rockpalast'79 is a bit better because a bit more dynamic, I like it, but still, so much emotion in '81 were the song was dedicated to John Lennon (and later to Bob Marley).
- Lions: ok I agree with dmg that the end solo is going nowhere and was better raw in 78/79; but the change of rythm, making it more dynamic, is awesome.
- WDYTYG: I hate the keyboards additions (so crude) and the end solo is slower than in 79, which I don't like, *BUT* they are a pretext to introduce a "crying" mid solo, which is awesome. So I love it
- DTTW: I don't like 80 versions, I think the keyboards are a poor subsitute to David's guitar groove. Hal's guitar is no match to David's, the song sounds duller witout him. Still, the very last versions (last 2 weeks of tour) added a piano solo towards the end which revitalize it - great !
- Angel of Mercy: totally reworked song with Piano, I love it ! so different.
- Single Handed Sailor and In the Gallery: the ones I don't like, totally out of place, the songs are ruined, I understand why they were dropped after this.
- Portobelle Belle: just a more rocking version than the album, but less touching than the reworked version of 82/83. Hal's guitar is just out of place.
- Wild West End: some piano but not extraordinary. I prefer the original...