I'm going to give my definitive opinion on Alchemy
This album is terribly important for all fans, I don't know the reasons why it was not released in its entirety in 1984, I suppose because at that time it was not time to publish the 3 songs that were left out (commercial decision, or MK's?), since CD existed as a medium and it was easy to fit all the tracks together.
The correct option, in my opinion, would have been to remix the entire original album in 2023 and include the 3 songs in their entirety, the entire concert without cuts, include TOL's speech, include fragments of R&J that are not even in the VHS-BD edition nor has it ever been in audio, except in the Goin' Home bootleg that takes its sources from a recording with a more trimmed version of the alchemy but also remixed in another way (it can be found in Wolfgang's Vault), evidently, there has been someone who had access to the original master at the time. Then I would give the option to include the missing songs from either of the two nights, although preferably they would be those from the night of the 23rd. Except for erroneous fragments (end of the SR of the 23rd), I would stop making edits or cuts.
If what we are going to find is the alchemy released in 1984 with songs mixed in a more modern way (as Chuck did in 2010, Guy in 2022, or even as PB and TR mixed in 1988) and without well-made transitions ( ID & EL, PB & TOL...) because it's going to look like a sticky record. And the transitions can be done well both using the themes of the 23rd and those of the 22nd, that is easy for a sound engineer and even more so today.
Every hour that passes I lose hope that what is announced on Apple Music is wrong, both the durations and the description of the songs (remaster vs remix, extended intro...). And if they have really remixed the entire album, as I think is not going to happen, I would like to know who is responsible for so many errors in labelling the songs, it does not seem like a serious music group, now all that remains is to leave a good legacy of what I will say straits was, and in the way he deserves it.
I don't know what will happen with OTN, I prefer not to think about it.
About Rainbow '79 I think it's outstanding, things as they are.
EDIT: The only hope I have left is that in 1984 they had mixed the entire concert, with the small cuts that we know, a complete alchemy prepared for a live album, with two of the three songs that were left out that were from the previous night, to the just like what happened with the end of SR. But that would imply that they were not labelled as "mixed in 2023", but rather "previously unreleased".
