Dickey Betts Official Bootleg Volume 1

Greg Lake is best known as a founding member of prog rock legends King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, but his musical career spans nearly 35 years – and this disc is a delightful testament to every stop along his musical journey. Consisting entirely of extremely rare or previously unreleased material, From the Underground contains both studio and live selections from '60s groups the Shame, Shy Limbs, and King Crimson as well as Lake's later work with Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Asia, Emerson, Lake & Powell, and his own Greg Lake Band…

Disc 1 contains live performance of «Dark Side of the Moon» in its entirety; Disc 2 called «A Saucerful of Floyd» contains 7 other Pink Floyd songs covered live in concerts from 1995-2004.

Straight from the mixing board on their mini-tour, Adam and Rick Wakeman (the former keyboardist in Yes) have released this lengthy 2-cd live set. The material ranges from classic Rick (Six Wives, Journey, King Arthur) and recent W W studio material to covers of Beatles and Stones tunes, all of which has been very well recorded and produced to yield a sound quality far beyond what we normally associate with the term "bootleg." Adam and Rick work well together, in fact so well that you can never be sure who is playing what parts, but it would be nice if the younger Wakeman could find his own identity rather than follow in his dad's footsteps.

Out of all the releases issued thus far in the Todd Rundgren/Utopia Official Bootleg series, it turns out that Vol. 5 – Oops! Wrong Planet Tour – is one of the most "bootleg sounding" of the bunch, as it's less than stellar audio quality suggests it is an audience recording. Despite not possessing as clear a sound as the other volumes (which appear to be mostly soundboard recordings), Oops! Wrong Planet Tour does a good job of capturing the group during one of the most transitional periods of its career. Beginning the year (1977) as a prog rock band (RA) and ending it as a new wave-ish arena rock outfit (Oops! Wrong Planet), both sides of the group are showcased on this double-disc set, while a generous helping of solo Rundgren material is included as well, given a Utopia makeover.

Easily, 1980 could have gone down as the year that Utopia broke through to the mainstream. With the commercial success achieved with the album Adventures in Utopia and its single, "Set Me Free," it appeared as though Rundgren and company were well on their way with their next release. But instead of issuing another album of new wave-esque pop, the group completely switched gears and released a twisted Beatles parody, Deface the Music. While longtime fans loved it, the release obviously confused and alienated their newfound mainstream following, as it failed to follow its predecessor's strong chart showing (and with John Lennon's death just two months after its release, a Beatles parody wasn't exactly what many rock fans wanted to hear at that point in time). As a result, the group only performed selections from the Deface album during its short supporting tour. Now fans can finally hear what the songs sounded like on the concert stage, with Vol. 6 of Rundgren's bootleg series, Deface the Music Tour.

When Dream and Day Reunite is an Official Bootleg released by Dream Theater by Mike Portnoy on his YtseJam Records label. The album contains the second set of a show in Los Angeles in 2004 where the band performed the entire album When Dream and Day Unite to celebrate it's 15th anniversary. Also included is the encore, in which the band was joined onstage by former members Charlie Dominici and Derek Sherinian.
With a grand set list including the entire When Dream and Day Unite tracklist, plus two very special encore tracks, the live bootleg is essential for any Dream Theater fan's collection. LaBrie's vocals actually work very nicely over the unpolished compositions that made up the band's overlooked debut, giving new life to the sometimes dilapidated-seeming songs.