THE COVERS

1. Tin Trooper
2. Beatles Medley: Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, The End
3. Perfect Strangers (Deep Purple cover w/Bruce Dickinson on vocals)
4. Led Zeppelin Medley: The Rover, Achilles’ Last Stand, The Song Remains The Same
5. Yes Medley (w/Steve Howe): Machine Messiah, Heart Of The Sunrise, Close To The Edge, Siberian Khatru, Starship Trooper
6. Medley: In The Flesh (Pink Floyd), Carry On Wayward Son (Kansas), Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen), Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’ (Journey), Cruise Control (Dixie Dregs), Turn It On Again (Genesis)
7. Mission Impossible Theme
8. Hey You (Pink Floyd)
9. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John)
10. Anna Lee

SOURCES: Track 1 unknown FM broadcast, listed as “rehearsal studio”; 2 studio recording, listed as rehearsal studio; 3 FM, live 1995 unknown source; 4-6 soundboard recording, Ronnie Scott's, London 1/31/1995; 7 studio demo 1994; 8-10 FM, Paris 6/25/1998

In the Prog-rock world, Dream Theater has a reputation for acing its versions of other artists’ material much like Phish does in the jam-band universe. Here, you get a great-sounding compendium of such material, and it’s given additional spice by the presence of a Yes guitarist Steve Howe for the Yes segment and one-again/off-again Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson for the Purple track. While certainly a novelty release – as any record featuring a Journey or a Kansas cover has to be adjudged --  it’s hard not to enjoy portions of this. Note that the final song, “Anna Lee,” is a Dream Theater original from their 1997 album Falling Into Infinity. I’m not sure where the song “Tin Trooper” comes from.

The source info is rather sketchy and I haven’t been able to really pin down some of the details, although I was able to determine that most, if not all, of this has appeared on earlier boots. The Ronnie Scott’s segment comes from a longer concert – a mostly-covers show at that – previously booted on the Kobra label’s Uncovered. Any HW readers who have more details on this or the actual sound source (FM broadcast, etc.) please post to the site. A nice 4-page booklet with striking artwork and a short essay about the band is included. – OSWALD