Control Alternate Lyrics

[thebiggestdad]

Hi everyone. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about these videos from First Unitarian in Philadelphia. They're not dated, but they're songs from Control with entirely different lyrics (I'm guessing they have to be from 2001 or earlier).

Rapture - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvzGWeIRkyk
Second Best - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MMr010B0BI

Did anyone ever see these versions performed, either then or since? The audio is hard for me to distinguish what he's actually saying, so I'm wondering if maybe these lyrics made it into another song somehow.

(If this has been brought up before, I apologize! I just started listening to PTL in 2015, Bazan in 2016, and only started hanging around this site since Care was being teased early this year.)

[steelopus]

I'm familiar with the "millionaire" version of Rapture, but I'd never heard that version of Second Best until just now.


A youtube search reveals there is a different video of PTL supposedly at the same venue, but it's NOT the same show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQMW4qSsJ0I

[steelopus]

Upon further review, I'm almost certain Jade Tree has the venue wrong on their videos (maybe even the wrong city, but let's assume they have Philly correct).

Control was released on April 16, 2002, so we have to assume the album was recorded in 2001. These JT videos show that the songs have pretty much the right arrangements and melodies but different lyrics. We know Dave didn't originally intend Control to be a cohesive "concept" album, but he changed the song sequence and some lyrics in the studio when he realized that there was a thread that could connect them all together.

According to the Past Shows page, these were the Philly shows from that time period:
03/09/1999 Philadelphia, PA TBA
04/08/2000 Philadelphia, PA 4040 (Pedro the Lion with Shipping News, Turing Machine, T.W. Walsh)
09/17/2001 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian (Pedro the Lion with Seldom, Miighty Flashlight, JV)

We know this video has the correct venue and date (because it's got the boys from Seldom playing with Dave), so that eliminates the 2001 show from contention.

That leaves us with 1999 and 2000.

So, I'd lean towards calling this a 2000 performance because the songs seem so well-formed, which would put it at 4/8/2000 at 4040 in Philly.

I realize that's not what you originally came here looking for... sorry. Maybe I'll dig into the lyrics a bit later.

[Mattmon]

There are bootlegs of these aleternate lyrics if memory serves me right.

[thebiggestdad]

So, I'd lean towards calling this a 2000 performance because the songs seem so well-formed, which would put it at 4/8/2000 at 4040 in Philly.

I realize that's not what you originally came here looking for... sorry. Maybe I'll dig into the lyrics a bit later.

No problem! I appreciate you taking the time to look all that up for me, and I'd never seen the 9.17.01 show before, so thanks for sharing that!

[FatalWound]

That doesn't look like the basement of First Unitarian to me, although I guess it could be -- it's been a long time since I spent much time in/around Philly. Lighting doesn't look right. I was never at 4040 (in fact, don't even know what that was, although I started going to shows in Philly not long after this period) so I can't identify that one.

[sherpa141]

This is one of the best threads in a while. I love when people dig into stuff like this.