Cavalier (Lost Version)
Group: Members
Posts: 598
Joined: Nov. 2010 |
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Posted: June 08 2012, 13:32 |
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I hope I haven't given the impression of ignoring your questions, Gus, but this week has seen me needing to make an impression on my pillow every time I logged on. I started replies a couple of times, but kept losing concentration as I tried to navigate away from my opening sentences.
Mind you, I fell asleep the first time I listened to side one of Exposed on cassette. Repetition or minimalism, but it was going on a bit and not really gripping by the throat. The TB side wasn't much better; I've certainly come to like and love several parts of that but it blows the first thing I began to write in reply to you out of the water - that I like Exposed more because I came to it first. It's a factor though, as in the three-year gap between acquiring that cassette and an Incantations LP, I did come to revere the live version. I was waiting for original passages of live favourites to wreak havoc with my mind - and several just didn't.
On the other hand, as you say, all these wonderful missing links appear; and there are times when the time and care taken in the studio does make for a better listen. Prior to the tour, Mike or Virgin, or both together, must have decided that a souvenir album was on the cards or that the musicians needed a breather; and thus the scissors came out. Whatever the timing issues of individual sections may have been, Mike's attitude would probably have been "play them in their entirety or don't bother". And if you are counting the seconds, the rather brilliant guitar solo in part 3 does noodle a bit...
I come back to music like that with relish. I suppose I view Incantations as being a bonus version of Exposed - a '70's Special Edition! A rewarding listen in its own right and sensational when the "new" material kicks in.
But there's always the artifice that is the live album. No one concert sounded like that (the DVD, from late in the tour, is evidence of that), but it was assembled thus. I used to assume that microphones and levels were set on particular nights to highlight the strengths of each group of instruments, but have to concede that it was a probably a great deal more random! It's just that in some of these anonymous performances, the captured music stomps all over the studio recordings. The opening to part four has pounding, exciting thumps on tympani, then a gloriously energetic vibraphone duet. In part two, the trumpet that picks out the Diana melody is just so mournful compared to the original. Add to that the way Maddy's voice cracks when she comes back in, the audience applause and Mike's scaling improv over and under her... I can still well up 
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"Who was that?"
"That was Venger - the force of Evil! I am Dungeon Master - your guide in the realm of Dungeons & Dragons!"
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) Disc one has been lodged in my player for a couple of weeks now, but got through a full and rewarding listen today and now approaching the end of the DVD - go Pierre and Benoit!!!