Live at the The Chance Club, Poughkeepsie, December 19, 1987.
After Mountain's comeback album and tour in 1985, Leslie West and Corky Laing parted ways again. In 1986, West teamed up with the just-reformed Bachman, Turner Overdrive on their tour supporting Van Halen who went out to promote their 5150 album. Since BTO had just recorded Mississippi Queen, he offered his services to play for free on this as an encore, just to be close to his friend Eddie Van Halen with whom he obviously indeed had a fantastic time on this tour.
Alas, it seems West didn't have plans to reassemble Mountain nor did he seem to have an album contract at that time or maybe he didn't even care. However, it may have interested a few record companies that he and Jack Bruce decided to record an album together. According to the liner notes on the 1988 album, Theme, it was obviously West's friend, Howard Stern, who came up with the idea of re-recording Theme For An Imaginary Western - and what better way than doing this with the very guy who wrote it?
Alas, for some reason, Laing was not available (or willing) to join which deprived fans of a veritable West, Bruce & Laing reunion - and finally a chance to hear their take of Theme - all the more as it was always a bit strange that WBL had never played it on stage when they were together for the first time from 1972 to 1973.
Anyway, they secured the services of ex-Good Rats (hailing from New York like West) and Twisted Sister drummer Joe Franco for another go at the power trio format. Thankfully, this band not only did the said studio album which was released in 1988, but even decided to play what seemed to be their only known show at Poughkeepsie's (in upstate NY) Chance Club in December 1987. Jack Bruce once stated that he even flew to the US from Europe just for this one show!
Two tracks from this show, Red House and Spoonful were (thankfully) included on the Theme album. Unfortunately, the latter was edited down heavily from about 14:30 mins to about 7:30 mins.
Luckily, about an hour of this show survived and got into circulation as an excellent quality tape - it seemed to be taken from the soundboard. This is not only an - for West, then - unusually bluesy set, but it also features many songs WBL had played. Alas, the tape cuts out after about an hour, so it doesn't contain Red House or Sunshine Of Your Love, which is probably what they closed their set with. Still, it comes with the "uncut" Spoonful which alone is worth the price of admission. The bottom line is that this show may be considered a highlight in West's career in the '80s. - Thomas Schmid
Track 01 Crossroads (8.2MB)
Track 02 First Time I Met The Blues (7.4MB)
Track 03 Mississippi Queen > Cat's Squirrel (drum solo) (5.9MB)
Track 04 Born Under A Bad Sign (15.5MB)
Track 05 Third Degree (10.3MB)
Track 06 Powerhouse Sod (13.9MB)
Track 07 Politician (10.6MB)
Track 08 Spoonful (20.4MB)
192kbs MP3
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