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And you know what this means dontcha? No? Huh. Me neither. I saw on a this-day-in-history sort of sidebar that today is Bastille Day and thought it would be a grand excuse to post a bootleg version of the Rush song ‘Bastille Day’. But, the only Rush bootlegs I’ve got have it as part of a medley, and just about 2 minutes of instrumental. So in honor of Bastille Day, here’s a version of Natural Science from the album Permanent Waves. I’ve always liked that song. It was recorded right here in St. Louis at the Kiel Auditorium on Valentine’s Day 1980. The lyrics are here if you were wondering what the were.

As I made the post about Live Aid I remembered that my radio show, Sleeping On The Sidewalk, ended on this date last year.  The radio station has been on my mind the past month or so since I’ve only been down there a few times in the past year.  Funnily enough it turns out the only time I have is at 2am.  I’ll get back to it eventually in some form or another. 

Here’s the playlist for that last show, which was co-hosted by Alex Miller and a pre-recorded shout out from my brother Jake.  It’s still interesting to me how it was just as much a hodgepodge at the end as it was the beginning.

In a note of sentiment, the show ended exactly as it began:  Alex on the board with me, playing a song that our friends wrote and recorded just for us.  ______________________________________________________________

1. Queen – Sleeping On The Sidewalk (News Of The World)
2. Vallejo – The Crawl (Black Sky)
3. Primus – La Villa Strangiato (Live @ Red Rocks, 6-5-04)
4. Fishbone – Shakey Ground (Psychotic Friends Nuttwerx)
5. Maceo Parker – Maceo’s Groove (Funkoverload)
6. Ani Difranco  – Swing (To The Teeth)
7. Downtime – Lovin’ You (In A Prison Way:  The Blue House Sessions)
8. George Clinton – Get Yo Ass In The Water & Swim Like Me (single for ‘Get Yo Ass…’)
9. Marvin Gaye – Let’s Get It On (demo) (Let’s Get It On, Deluxe Edition)
10. Beck – Debra (Midnite Vultures)
11. Run DMC – Christmas In Hollis (Very Special Christmas 1)
12. Downtime  – Santa Is Your Daddy (Take 10, with trumpet solo) (Downtime’s Christmas Catheter)
13. Goldfinger – Rio (The Duran Duran Tribute Album)
14. Sting & Branford Marsalis – Roxanne (From Live Aid, 7-13-85)
15. The Cars – Just What I Needed (From Live Aid, 7-13-85)
16. David Bowie – Heroes (From Live Aid, 7-13-85)
17. Nellie McKay – I Wanna Get Married (Live at KDHX, 5-10-04)
18. Downtime – Interview (Original ‘Nick & Alex Show’ Audition Tapes)
19. Downtime – Blue House Over Yonder (Original ‘Nick & Alex Show’ Audition Tapes)
20. The Incoherents – Happy Trails  (50 Seconds Of Cacophonous Teenage Rock & Roll Bliss)    (This last song was recorded in Scott’s parent’s basement, it was appropriate to end the show with the friends that I’d enjoyed music with for so many years.)

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P.S. A google turned up that the playlist archive is still on the KDHX server, even though the last entry I put in was July 6.

Live Aid was a big deal to me when it was on 26 years ago today.  It was 1985, summer, the 80′s musical vibe was in full swing and the shows performed at Wembley Stadium in London and at JFK Stadium were a representation of the good and the bad of the era.  MTV had found it’s footing and my memory is that their covereage ruled the day.  Of course Martha Quinn and Co. held more sway over my opinions than whoever the network suit was. 

My own knowledge of music was getting pretty good and I think knowing most of the bands, their songs, and some history made it more fun.  Even more, I watched as much of it as was broadcast and remember how much fun it was to be watching it with Jake (he was 9, I don’t think he watched all of it, but I do remember we were both stoked to see Duran Duran and Phil Collins). 

Nutshell is that I dug the heck out of it.

The song I’m posting from the concert is the only version of Roxanne that I like.  Sting did it solo, as he typically did in this era of his career, and he was accompanied by Branford Marsalis.  It’s very tasteful.  There were a lot of great performances but this is one of only a couple that I’ve ripped from the 2004 DVD.  To my knowledge this arrangement wasn’t performed again until a VH-1 special sometime in the past few years.

It’s interesting to note that organizer Bob Geldof never planned to sell Live Aid material.  He wanted it to be a purely humanitarian effort.  As a result, MTV, NBC, and the BBC for the most part pitched their tapes of the show (if they even recorded it).  With the approaching 25th anniversary and widely available bootlegs of the original broadcast the DVD was compiled with archival b-roll footage and fragments of the main cameras.  The result for me is very interesting because many of the camera angles are from the side or rear of the stage where you can see more of the action.  Not all of the songs or bands are on the 4 disc set, but if you click here you can see the whole dang set list.

Check it out, it’s very interesting.