From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V12 #142 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Sender: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Friday, October 3 2008 Volume 12 : Number 142 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [pt] Welcome to 1991 ["Amy Wasnidge" ] [pt] Binder update [Beth Winegarner ] Re: [pt] Welcome to 1991 [handal@r2d2.reverse.net (Richard Handal)] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 07:47:12 -0500 From: "Amy Wasnidge" Subject: Re: [pt] Welcome to 1991 I'd have to say that I was blown away with China. I was tempted to skip over it at first, but thought nah, I'll watch the whole dvd through and through. I'm so curious to know now if "you say we'll take a vacation" were the original words instead of "holiday" and also the "you love to hit me boy" part was also on the original song or the record company came in and changed it. Any thoughts? amy On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 3:37 AM, Richard Handal wrote: > > Hello out there, assuming anyone still *is* out there, > > Over recent months I've been watching "classic" episodes of Soul Train > every week at 2am on Sundays. Most of the time the music wasn't real > special, although the 1971 Al Green episode was definitely one of those > "This is OUR church George" experiences. Well, watching those shows has > nothing on the video of this 1991 Tori set that just came out. The very > notion of her performing most of LE before such a large crowd before > they'd ever had a chance to hear it is mindblowing just as a concept, > but I can't say I was prepared for how full the experience of watching > this thing was. > > I have a love-hate relationship with that Yamaha CP80, so I need to get > myself to a place of accepting it on its own terms before being able to > focus on the performance. But she comes out, sits down, and plays > Silent, then she goes right into Precious, and the whole time I couldn't > stop wondering what in the *hell* those Moody Blues fans could have > possibly been *thinking* the whole time! I can't believe more than a few > of them were able to parse even a tiny sliver of her set without having > heard any of the music before. Not that it isn't accessible, but few who > were there to relive the days of Knights in White Satin were likely in a > mental place to wrap their minds around the likes of this performance. > > And it's not much like the experience a friend of mine had, of agreeing > as a freelance music writer in 1994 to review one of her concerts and > was totally *blindsided* and freaked out, to the degree that she wasn't > able to do the review, then immediately began saving up to attend as > many concerts as she could on the next tour. (She got to 32 DDI shows.) > My friend knew that this was a major artist with a following, and the > audience and Tori knew at that 1994 concert that they all knew her > music--and more of less what to expect--so this 1991 Montreux concert > set five weeks before writing Me and a Gun is absolutely its own animal. > > Even if somebody somehow comes up with a tiny club appearance in London > from around this time, that can't be like this, because there's a big > audience of nearly 2,000. These people heard the way she stretched and > sculpted the "Please, save me" section of Crucify in the most > astonishing manner, and thought--*what*? I would love to be able to talk > to some of those people. > > This 1991 set seems to be entirely in realtime, other than some removed > applause before she returns for an encore after we see her leave the > stage. > > I didn't even watch the 1992 set yet. Tomorrow, I expect. > > I picked this up at Barnes & Noble. They'd only gotten in the one copy, > and the CD version of this release was already gone, because somebody > had bought the only copy they'd gotten of that, too. So you may want to > call the store before wasting a bunch of gas if you plan to find this > thing. > > Time travel: I'm *telling* you. > > http://undented.com/news/1538/live-at-montreux-hits-the-streets > > > http://undented.com/news/1534/spinner-premieres-precious-things-from-montreux > > Be seeing you, > > Richard Handal, H.G. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 10:53:58 -0700 From: Beth Winegarner Subject: [pt] Binder update Hi all, Thanks for the interest -- I have found a taker for my old Tori articles. :) Beth - -- www.bethwinegarner.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 19:19:09 -0500 (CDT) From: handal@r2d2.reverse.net (Richard Handal) Subject: Re: [pt] Welcome to 1991 Responding to Amy, here, > I'd have to say that I was blown away with China. I was tempted to > skip over it at first, but thought nah, I'll watch the whole dvd > through and through. A well-considered decision, I have to say. One never knows what to expect in the live performances, and those who think they don't like a song for one reason or another surely cheat themselves of treats they wouldn't be able to imagine in advance. The next unexpected revelation was always one of the main reasons to attend a lot of concerts as possible. It certainly was for me. This concert is as close to a 1991 London club performance that any of us is ever gonna experience--and the quality is astonishingly excellent; probably the first Tori video anything in HD. Musta been a transfer from 35mm film, right? Anyone know? How ironic that this earliest possible concert video would end up being the one in the newest and best format! Amazing! Some years back, I came to understand that all the Montreux Jazz Festival concerts starting from before our relevant era had been recorded on film or video. I considered trying to get a personal-use copy of them, but after thinking about it for more than 45 seconds, one will realize that the cost of such a thing, even if working out the rights and other issues were possible, would have cost, at the very least, *many* hundreds of dollars, and I would have had a hard time not sharing such a thing if I had it and no one else did, and then I would be nailed for breach of copyright. To be able to buy these concerts--both of them, but mainly the first one, and FOR 15 DOLLARS!--to me, is truly a miracle. So yes, please watch the whole DVD, folks! Thank you! :-D > I'm so curious to know now if "you say we'll take a vacation" were the > original words instead of "holiday" and also the "you love to hit me > boy" part was also on the original song or the record company came in > and changed it. The ending of the word holiday is a better vowel sound to sing at the end of a vocal phrase, as she can hold the vocal note on the open long A sound. The word vacation ends on a consonant, and that sound can't be held. Imagine "Vacationnnnnnnnn." It doesn't work. This song that we know as China had been written by the first half of 1987, and was in the main batch of songs for YKTR before Kim Bullard was brought in and began to write songs with her. I believe it's come to be publicly known that the original title of China was Distance, and this is accurate. It wasn't until around this time that the title change to China seems to have been made. That's what the available evidence says, anyway, and it makes sense for them to make the title change as they're about to release it on LE. The way it was performed in Montreux in 1991 reflected overall the lyrics as first penned, except the "love to hit me boy" section after the second chorus was not in that original version. I strongly suspect it was added as a variation when she was playing those 1991 club dates in London, which--see my first paragraph above--is the kind of thing she continues to do in her live performances, and is much of what she's talking about when she tells us the songs are living entities that live their own lives, and which can only reveal themselves over the course of time and tours. If anyone here has some recordings of anything from those 1991 club dates, please share, and I'll promise to cast my vote for you with the Nobel Committee when the time comes to pick a prize-winner for secrecy! Thank you! Be seeing you, Richard Handal, H.G. ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V12 #142 **************************************