[chiliD]

Damn!

I just revisited the Other Side Of The Mask (the Behind The Mask outtakes) CD.

It still pisses me off that Rick Vito got the short end of the stick when it came to his songwriting contributions to the album. "Stand On The Rock" was by far his weakest tune, yet it MADE the album. Both "Intuition" (which eventually appeared in a much different form on his own King Of Hearts album) and "Got No Home" were far & away much better recordings and even had "hit potential" (something quite lacking with "Stand On The Rock").

Even Billy Burnette's tune "Victim Of Love" was quite catchy.

And, although the BTM version of "In The Back Of My Mind" is consistently in my top 5 ALL-TIME Mac tunes, the quite different outtake on this one (minus the long spacey intro of the final version) makes it almost a toss up as to which version I like better...this version has slightly different lyrics in the bridge. Billy's & Christine's voices really fit well together. Besides the missing intro, Rick Vito's killer guitar solo at the end is missing.

Even Stevie's "Affairs Of The Heart" outtakes become almost catchy on this.

The nearly "dance" type remix of "Save Me" is awesome. And, although the intro is nearly identical to the final version, it sounds crisper & cleaner, with each instrument clearly defineable. Then from there into a quick section that is bass-driven ("John, you're a MONSTER"). I think this version is 10x's better than the BTM version. Christine sings different lyrics and has a slightly different melody line in this one. Rick Vito's guitar tone on the solos & fills is just "buttah".