1977 Sep-Dec: A true Monster Song, and possibly the only one to ever have lyrics (I do not know the significance of this, but I thought I would point it out). For this tour, the first half of the song is essentially the same as on "Sheik Yerbouti", with the only difference being that the the tune now begins with the vocals (i.e. no opening instrumental segment). Once we run through the "official" version of the song, things begin to get a little strange, and it is here where this Monster tune truly raises its powerful little head. After the conclusion of the song as we know it from the album, Belew's chorded guitar riff is played again, and this lead us into The Solos. The keyboard players typically go first, accompanied by a very active percussion section and some intense bass playing. Ocasionally throughout the tour, Ed Mann gets his chance to solo, and his percussion workout follows the keyboardists. Belew goes next, and for his solo, a disco vamp is introduced (which sounds remarkably similar to a song I heard on VH1), along with a short theme that Belew toys with for the duration of his solo. Belew employs liberal use of his volume pedal for his rather manic solo, with O'Hearn once again providing some exceptional bass support. Frank then picks up his guitar and concludes the festivities. Early in the tour, Frank's solo would evolve out of the disco vamp, with O'Hearn diversifying the sonic landscape by slowly mutating the established groove. At some point in the tour, however, Frank's solo is set apart from the disco jam, and essentially begins with the drum beat that would later be used to open "Yo' Mama".
1978 Jan-Feb: To make things easier, I will divide this song into two parts. Part one is what we have on "Sheik Yerbouti", and this constitutes the first half of this song as it appeared on this tour. Part two is The Solos, a spotlight for several band members that was unfortunately cut from the official release. After the conclusion of the song as we know it from the album, Belew's chorded guitar riff would be played again, and this would lead us into The Solos. The standard "Wild Love" solo section included a very intense, somewhat manic Belew guitar solo. For this section, a new vamp was introduced, with a short theme that Belew toyed with for the duration of his solo. While Belew got his chance to shine in every "Wild Love", Mann, O'Hearn, and the keyboardists only occasionally got their turns in the spotlight, and this usually hinged on what tunes the rest of the set contained. In comparison with the Fall '77 tour, the "Wild Love" solos for this tour were not quite as monstrous, but were nonetheless quite worthy of being heard (hear that Gail.) [ I was watching VH-1's "Eight Track Flashback" recently (a music show here in the states), when I heard a snippet of a disco song that sounds exactly like the solo vamp to the "Wild Love" coda. Unfortunately, they did not say the name of the song. Anybody out there possibly know?]
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