SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE LONDON ROUNDHOUSE

The original LP of this album dates back to 1974. My first encounter with it was the first CD release in 1990 or shortly thereafter. At the time we were being (mis)treated regularly with CDs that were dirt cheap re releases of LPs where the original master for the vinyl disc was just copied without any a proper remastering for the CD format, much less any improvements on the master taking advantage of the latest of what technology has to offer. In this case the CD actually came with a booklet having no information on the album other than track names and times. I'd hope they did a better job with the LP, but I don't know, haven't seen it.

When the 2005 edition arrived I was initially a little disappointed that two of the tracks I really liked, partially due to them not being available otherwise (Oop's (Unidentified Flying Abstract), and Mundetango.) Summer Breeze was still there though. Then I started reading the CD booklet and found an interesting detail: Oop's, Mundetango, and Summer Breeze were actually live in the studio recordings several months later than the Roundhouse recordings.

What you get for what was taken, more than makes up for the tracks removed. An excellent assortment of tracks from their A Tab In The Ocean to the Return To The Future period. Nothing from Journey To The Center Of An Eye, though. Though there is good material there, they had moved on a bit to their next phase. As befitting a great live album, the tracks aren't clones of their studio counterparts. Nice integration of jamb band with progressive elements. Not sure if I'd still rank the studio albums as more essential than this, but most likely by a small margin. The band really worked magic together.

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