View Single Post
 
Old 03-18-2020, 08:22 PM
Supersonic's Avatar
Supersonic Supersonic is offline
The One And Only Real Backstage Killer
I'll Post When I'm Dead
 
Join Date: 03 Aug 2002
Location: Bangkok
Gender: male
Posts: 16,068
Send a message via MSN to Supersonic
Default

Aloha !

I get it. I don't agree with it, but I get it.

It's because Jon doesn't care about previous achievements other than saying "I've done that, now give me credibility for it". Jon's all about telling everyone he's sold 100.000.000 records but then skips at least 40% of that catalog every time he goes on stage. I also think that whoever is behind selections for live stuff has no clue what songs were in the vault and when they were recorded. The official list for when songs on the box set were recorded was wrong which kind of shows how much interest and knowledge they've got about their own career. No self-respecting artist would put Livin' On A Prayer from Central Park on a remaster from Slippery and then pretend it's from the same era. And if Obie had a bit of sense he'd have picked something else than This Ain't A Love Song from Bremen for These Days. There was just no point in buying all these special editions again while I'd have bought them in a heartbeat if a second disc with unreleased live stuff from the same era the album was ncluded.

And then there's the costs. Almost everything the band has released as live recordings was recorded by some other party (TV and/or radio broadcasts). From my recollection only some stuff from Toronto 2000 was recorded for a possible live release. I honestly just don't think their archive is all that. Hiring someone to sort that out costs money. Hiring someone to mix it properly costs money so we're stuck with the family friend Obie who has this weird fascination to cut intro's, outro's and improvisations out of a song. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead from Wembley's length is originally about 10 minutes long yet when they released it as a b-side on one of the singles 3 minutes were cut off. One of the cover songs vanished, the intro was shortened, the improvs in the middle were cut and the outro had a fade out as the original song merged into Bad Medicine. Besides, even if he'd keep it all in place it's all mixed to death anyway. There's audience recordings which capture a live feel better than anything the band has released.

If the band really has all the seperate tracks in the vault (seperate guitars/keyboards/drums/vocals) surely someone ought to be able to do a better job than whatever was released as official live stuff from the last tour. The BBC broadcast of 2011 showed a perfect live mix is possible. It just needs someone other than whoever they hire for this. But professionals cost money and why spend money on something from the past that'll eventually only show your shortcomings in the present?

So yeah, like most decisions it comes down to money and ego. Back in 2001 many die hards voiced their disappointment after the release of One Wild Night 2001 was released and Obie got frustrated and told Jovitalk to shut up about it. This band doesn't welcome criticism because it'd mean they're wrong. And we all know Jon is never wrong and neither are his yes-man.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan
__________________

Last edited by Supersonic; 03-19-2020 at 09:17 AM..
Reply With Quote