Passing Through Air - CD Bootleg

I should point out that there's also a bootleg LP with the exact same title and cover artwork, but with completely different material on it - so don't get the CD and LP confused with each other or think they're the same - they aren't. If you want to check out the LP bootleg and see what’s on it, check my blog post for it right here if you haven't already.

This is another CD that contains some of the demos, but not all of them. As I've said before, if you really need to get one of these things then look for Cathy’s Home Demos as that one probably contains the most demos on one CD. You can also view that one right here.

Also keep in mind, despite it saying “Digital Recordings" on the back of the CD case and on the CD itself, none of this stuff has been remastered or cleaned up in any way. This is just another straight transfer from vinyl records, with lots of crackles and pops. Also, you’ll notice that the last track on the CD is ‘Another Day’. Just to be clear, this is not a demo version. It’s taken directly from the Christmas Special with the clapping cut out. I guess this was their sad attempt at making it “demo-like”.

Despite the fact that this is just a bootleg, the artwork and inserts on this one are really nice.

If You Could See Me Fly - CD Bootleg

There's also a bootleg LP with this exact same title, but with different artwork and completely different material on it. I saw it once in a shop a long, long time ago, but I passed on buying it. So don't get the two confused with each other because they're totally different.

 

Anyway, this is another compilation of demo tracks. I picked this one up about a year before I decided to give up the collecting thing for good… so around 1999. I didn’t really need this one at that point, since I had all the demos several times over, but I bought it anyway because that’s how bad the collecting thing had become for me. Everything and anything I saw I had to buy.

For a bootleg the packaging on this one is nice though. On the back of the CD and on the CD itself it says “Digital Recordings”. Don’t be fooled by this. This hasn’t been digitalized or remastered in any way, shape or form. It’s just a straight transfer from vinyl bootlegs, with pops and crackles included. If you have to buy one of these CD bootlegs with the demos on it, look for Cathy’s Home Demos, which you can see right here. That CD seems to have the most amount of demos on it

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The insert on this one is really nice.

As I've mentioned quite a few times already in other posts, people really don’t need to look for this stuff anymore because you can easily find all the demos on the internet. These things were more relevant back in the day because there was no internet, so it was the only way to get this stuff. Bootlegs are expensive - they were expensive then, and they're just as expensive now. Save your money.

Cathy's Home Demos - CD Bootleg

I still remember how badly I wanted to find any CD or vinyl record years ago that had the demos on it. They were so hard to come by, and it used to make me mental trying to find them. So when I found this CD back in the '90s it really did feel like I had struck gold in a way because it was like having a lot of new Kate songs... even if they were only demos.

With the internet being the way that it is now, you can find these things so easily. We didn't have that luxury then. Everything was like a treasure hunt that sometimes lasted years. There's a site on the net, which I'm sure most people are familiar with. But if not, it features all of these demos, plus quite a few others. The interesting thing is that someone "cleaned up" a lot of them, so you don't hear the crackles, pops and hisses like you do on this CD. Check the site out here. They're MP3 format, so everything can be downloaded.

But anyway, getting back to this CD for a moment. If I remember correctly, this wasn't exactly cheap at the time, but that tended to be a given with bootlegs. The front and back of the insert is actually quite cheap, and surprisingly, the inside is a full colour photo, which is better quality than the front and back of the insert sleeve.

I would suggest passing on this and all other CDs that have the demos only because people don't really need to seek this out anymore, not when the demos are available online. These things are just as expensive now as they were back in the day, and in some cases even more expensive.

Collaborations - CD Bootleg

Collaborations is probably one bootleg that I have very mixed feelings about. While some of the track choices are really cool, others aren't. Sing Children Sing is a horrible song. Well I'm sorry, but it is. Kate is only featured in the background chorus, and you barely hear her. If you ever come across this single don't waste your time buying it. The song is very disappointing. Another Day is from the '79 Christmas special and it sort of fades in, so the beginning of the song is slightly cut off. The Kick Inside cover doesn't feature Kate at all, and it sounds extremely dated. Actually, it's a good way to kill a song. The absolute worst track on here is This Woman's Work. It was directly copied from the film 'She's Having a Baby', so you get a mix of dialogue and song all blended together. The sound is also really bad. I also like how they point out on the inside of the booklet that "No soundtrack exists for this movie." Actually, a soundtrack does exist for the movie - I own the original vinyl LP of it, and you can check that out right here. As I've pointed out before, bootlegs are notorious for grammatical errors and misinformation.

There's also some really cool stuff on here too, such as Flowers, a duet with Zaine Griff; there's also the live version of Don't Give Up with Peter Gabriel, which is actually live. The biggest shame about a lot of these tracks is that most of them are from old vinyl records that weren't kept in very good condition, so you get a lot of crackles, hissing and pops on certain songs, like Flowers, for example. In fact, you could probably find a better sounding version of that song on YouTube. Another disappointment is that certain songs have been cut off too soon near the beginning or at the end, which sucks as many of these songs aren't easy to come by. Also, it would have been cool if they added Sister and Brother, a great duet with Midge Ure. Maybe the people who made this CD were too stupid to know about the existence of this song. Oh well!

Complaints aside, the packaging on this one is nice. Full colour photos (except for the inside insert) of decent quality. There's even a full colour photo inside the inlay tray, which isn't something you usually see with these bootlegs.

Overall, this isn't a great CD even for a bootleg. It's alright, but not great. It isn't a personal favourite of mine, and I think it would be a complete waste of time looking for this one... or even spending good money on it.

Butterfly Kisses - CD Bootleg

Butterfly Kisses is one of the last bootleg CDs I ever picked up, but it's also one of my absolute favourite ones. For a bootleg it's pretty nice quality overall - not only the packaging, but also the sound quality. All the tracks are live and come from various TV and concert performances.

What's even more nice are the CD inserts, which are full colour (except for the inner booklet ones) and done on pretty decent quality paper. It's pretty amazing, considering how some of the older CD bootlegs have really cheap quality inserts. I have one bootleg poked somewhere called 'Backsides', and the insert quality on that is so bad it almost looks like cheap photocopies.

This one has become quite rare and extremely difficult to find. It still turns up, but not often... and you can probably expect to pay a nice little chunk of money for it. It's also not surprising as this is really one of the nicer bootlegs that was manufactured. It's worth getting if you can find it for a decent price.

If you haven't noticed by now, the title is slightly altered on the CD. The booklet and insert list the title as "Butterfly Kisses", but on the CD it reads "Butterfly Kiss". Bootlegs are notorious for their blunders, but it's the right CD in case anyone is wondering about that.

Even though the tracks are listed on the back insert, I should point out there are a few more tracks on this CD that aren't listed here. I can't remember which ones they are offhand, but most likely they weren't listed for the simple fact that they ran out of room.