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RustoleusMaximus wrote:

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It would be really nice if someone would compile all of these stories ... solicit more stories from other band members and write a book = "Life On The Road With The Boss."

Apparently the 'Maynard!' book only sold a few hundred copies on this site, and that's for a paperback book costing $20.   A decent 'coffee table' style book with color pics would cost a lot more than that, which means it would probably sell a lot less.   Everybody talks about how nice it would be if there was another MF book, but who would want to write something that nobody's going to buy?  How many people here bought bought copies of The Lost Tapes?

In his many stories in the Thread Preservation section, Denis talked about a version of 'When You Wish Upon a Star' that didn't work out.    I won't give it away, but you should definitely read them again to find it  (they are somewhat out of order since Yuku took over in the middle of the series).

A couple of things I remember from Denis's era"

Central Park was completely re-written before it was recorded.   It was first played, as far as I can tell, in early 1984.  The background figures behind MF's melody line were completely different, and the horn section soli in the middle of the tune was also completely re-written.   At the beginning of '84, MF had 3 trumpets, 2 bones.   By the fall, he'd cut a trumpet and bone, and added guitar and percussion.

Here's the original version taped at Disneyland on 5/27/84, the last night of a tour and MF was really killing it:

This is the video version, which is missing a section due to a tape flip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coiWMf1-HRY

There was at least one other person taping the show, and here is their audio of the full tune, though it's a half step sharp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfyw-4QFgP8

This is the last recorded version I know of before the re-write.  Compare these to the album version, and you'll hear how different it is. 

In the original version of Expresso, Denis was scat-singing the melody, and when the horns would play this lick (Ab-F-C-Bb-Ab-G-F-Eb-G), MF would play it an octave higher and end the phrase on a double C.  Later, he played it down an octave and ended the phrase on a high G (which is what you hear on the album).   Also, Denis had left the band by the time it was recorded, so the melody was played on sax instead of scat-sung.  In the '85 interview in Windplayer, MF mentioned that he eliminated some of the high notes on both tunes because it was a bit much.   In those days, he was playing South 21st Shuffle, Central Park, Expresso, all of which added up to 20 or so double-C's in the first half of the show.  It was overkill, to say the least.

Though this is not Denis's tune, South 21st Shuffle had some major changes made before it was recorded.  There is a version from January '83 which is quite a bit longer.  MF plays the flowing bridge melody twice instead of the one time we're familiar with, so there was some major chopping going on.

This is nothing new, though.   If you listen to the very first performance of Give It One on the Lost Tapes CD, you'll hear that MF completely changed the roadmap to the tune, and for the better.   So he really had great ears for how to spiff up a tune and bring out the best in it.