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By far the most frequently bootlegged Hüsker Dü performance is
the 28 Aug 1985 show at 1st Avenue in Minneapolis. It was recorded for
the Spin Radio Concert series and distributed to radio stations for
airplay on a double-12" vinyl LP that remains very collectible to this day.
Bootleg recordings of the gig have been appearing more or less continuously
since the program was first broadcast. These boots range from cheesy
off-the-air cassette recordings to vinyl pressings and CDs made from either
a soundboard recording or the master tapes (which may be the same thing).
Oddly enough, only the Psyche Power Pop A Punk CD appears to have been
made from tracks taken from the actual Spin Radio album. The other bootlegs
can all be traced back to the soundboard/master.
Because there are so few high-quality
live Hüsker Dü recordings, and because this particular one has
had such broad circulation, bootleggers sometimes try to disguise its
origin by changing the date or the venue.
The chart below represents an attempt to sort all this out and present it in a reasonably compact and coherent format. The information can all be dug out of the Annotated Discography, but it's scattered all over the place there and although there are plenty of links and cross-references, the discography has grown to be a monster and admittedly can be difficult to navigate. Those cheesy cassette recordings are not included in the survey below. There are too many of them (or were, when people still bought cassettes). Homemade recordings in general, moreover, are not typically documented on this site unless they seem to be widely and publicly distributed or are in some way worthy (in my opinion) of attention. |
| Image | Title | Label/# | Format | Release date | Notes |
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[Hüsker Dü, 1st Ave, Minneapolis, 28 Aug 1985) | None | Master tape | N/A | Root source for the principal family of bootlegs. |
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Spin Radio Concert | Entertainment Radio NC-005 | 2x12" vinyl | 1985 | Legitimate radio show recording. 3-sided vinyl. Non-commercial version. Interviews between songs. |
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Spin Radio Concert | Entertainment Radio C-005 | 2x12" vinyl | 1985 | Legitimate radio show recording. 3-sided vinyl. Commercial version. Interviews between songs. |
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ERI Radio Concerts | Entertainment Radio SPIN-PRO1 | Cassette tape | 1985 | Legitimate promo VA compilation with excerpts from various Spin Radio concerts. Two 28 Aug 1985 Hüsker tracks. |
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[Spin Radio Concerts] | Entertainment Radio | 2x12" vinyl | 1985? | Existence unconfirmed. Legitimate promo VA compilation with excerpts from various Spin Radio concerts. Hüsker tracks unknown. |
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Lynndale's Burning | Mark Corner | 12" vinyl LP | 1986? | Bootleg made from soundboard recording or master tape. Slightly different track selection and track order from Spin albums. No interview segments. |
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Lyndales Burning | Holy Records 005 | CD | Spring 1992 | Dutch bootleg made from clean vinyl copy of Lynndale's Burning 12". |
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Minneapolis Is Burning | Nu Noize NUN 001 | CD | Spring 1992 | German bootleg clone of Lyndales Burning CD. |
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Live At The 1st Avenue Club, Minneapolis, 1985 | Spin! Disque 1992 SPIN01 | 12" vinyl LP | Early 1993? | French bootleg pressing made from either the Lynndale's Burning LP or one of the CDs that followed. Same tracks as all of those. |
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Live In Boston 1986 | HUDUCD93 | CD | Early 1993 | Yet another clone of the Lynndale's CDs. |
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Psyche Power Pop A Punk | Holy Records 008 | CD | Fall 1993 | This one has a vinyl source, possibly the actual Spin Concert album. Tracks are shuffled relative to all the other versions. |
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Boston 1986 | Live Storm LSCD 51566 | CD | 1997 or earlier | "Reissue" of earlier Live In Boston 1986 with same tracks. |
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Spin Radio Show | None (USA 28.8.25 on spine) | 12" vinyl LP | 2000 or earlier | Austrian pressing. Not a clone of the Spin radio album at all (poor attempt at a counterfeit), but another Lynndale's version of the show. |
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Every Everything | Odyssey Records | CDR | 2004 | Lynndale's clone on CDR with nice artwork. |
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The Bootlegs Vol. 1: Celebrating 35 Years At First Avenue | SRO Productions | CD | Nov 2005 | VA compilation. The live Hüsker track was presumably taken from the master tape. |
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The next chart lists the track number of every song that shows up on each of the various recordings, starting with the master (on which the songs of course appear in the original order). Note that because "If I Told You" and "Folklore" are combined into a single track on all the Lynndale's-based CDs, track numbers from that point forward between those CDs and their vinyl counterparts differ by one. Note also that there are no track lead-in grooves on any of the vinyl boots, so their track numbers are not particularly meaningful anyway. Equally meaningless is the track position of "Books About UFOs" on the 1st Ave The Bootlegs Vol. 1 CD, as it's the only Hüsker selection embedded in a VA compilation. |
| Track numbers | |||||||||||||||
| Song title | MASTR | SRCCM | SRCNC | ERICS | ERI12 | LYN12 | LYNCD | MIBCD | L1A12 | LIB86 | PPPAP | BOS86 | SRCFT | EECDR | BLV1 |
| Flip Your Wig | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ? | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Every Everything | 2 | 3 | 3 | ? | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Makes No Sense At All | 3 | 4 | 4 | ? | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||
| The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill | 4 | 2 | 2 | ? | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | ||
| I Apologize | 5 | 17 | 17 | ? | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 17 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ||
| If I Told You | 6 | ? | 6 | 6a | 6a | 6 | 6a | 18a | 6a | 6 | 6a | ||||
| Folklore | 7 | ? | 7 | 6b | 6b | 7 | 6b | 18b | 6b | 7 | 6b | ||||
| Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely | 8 | 5 | 5 | ? | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 7 | ||
| I Don't Know For Sure | 9 | 6 | 6 | ? | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 8 | ||
| Terms Of Psychic Warfare | 10 | 7 | 7 | ? | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 9 | ||
| Powerline | 11 | 8 | 8 | ? | 11 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 14 | 10 | 11 | 10 | ||
| Books About UFOs | 12 | 9 | 9 | ? | 12 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 9 | |
| Hardly Getting Over It | 13 | 10 | 10 | ? | 13 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 12 | 7 | 12 | 13 | 12 | ||
| Sorry Somehow | 14 | 11 | 11 | ? | 14 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 8 | 13 | 14 | 13 | ||
| (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care | 15 | 12 | 12 | ? | 15 | 14a | 14a | 15 | 14a | 9a | 14a | 15 | 14a | ||
| The Wit And The Wisdom | 16 | 13 | 13 | ? | 16 | 14a | 14a | 16 | 14a | 9b | 14a | 16 | 14a | ||
| Celebrated Summer | 17 | 14 | 14 | ? | 10 | ||||||||||
| All Work And No Play | 18 | 18 | 18 | 2 | ? | 13 | |||||||||
| Green Eyes | 19 | 15 | 15 | ? | 17 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 15 | 11 | 15 | 17 | 15 | ||
| Divide And Conquer | 20 | 16 | 16 | ? | 18 | 16 | 16 | 18 | 16 | 12 | 16 | 18 | 16 | ||
| MASTR | = Master/soundboard tape | L1A12 | = Live At 1st Ave boot 12" |
| SRCCM | = Spin Radio noncommercial 2x12" | LIB86 | = Live In Boston 1986 boot CD |
| SRCNC | = Spin Radio commercial 2x12" | PPPAP | = PsychePower Pop A Punk boot CD |
| ERICS | = ERI Spin Radio VA cassette | BOS86 | = Boston 1986 boot CD |
| ERI12 | = Spin Radio concerts VA 12" | SRCFT | = Spin Radio Show counterfeit 12" |
| LYN12 | = Lynndale's Burning boot 12" | EECDR | = Every Everything boot CDR |
| LYNCD | = Lyndales Burning boot CD | BLV1 | = The Bootlegs Vol. 1 CD |
| MIBCD | = Minneapolis Is Burning boot CD |
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If you've scrolled down this far, congratulations: you too are a wonk. In the spirit of excessive analysis, then, let's take a closer look those eight boots with identical content. In particular, it might prove illuminating, or at least amusing, to compare the track titles as listed in their respective liner notes. |
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Songs as recorded |
Songs as listed | |||||||
| LYN12 | LYNCD | MIBCD | L1A12 | LIB86 | BOS86 | SRCFT* | EECDR | |
| Flip Your Wig | = | = | = | = | = | = | = | = |
| Every Everything | = | = | Everything | = | = | = | = | = |
| Makes No Sense At All | Makes No Sence At All | = | Makes No Sence At All | Makes No Sence At All | Make No Scene At All | = | Make No Sence At All | Make No Scene At All |
| The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill | Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill | Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill | Girl Who Lives On Heaven's Door | Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill | Girl How Lives On Heaven | Girl How Lives On Heaven | Girl How Lives On Heaven | Girl How Lives On Heaven |
| I Apologize | = | = | = | I Apologise | = | = | = | = |
| If I Told You | = | = | = | = | = | = | = | = |
| Folklore | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely | = | = | Don't Want To Know | = | Don't Want To Know | Don't Want To Know | Don't Want To Know | Don't Want To Know |
| I Don't Know For Sure | = | = | = | = | = | = | = | = |
| Terms Of Psychic Warfare | = | = | = | = | = | = | = | = |
| Powerline | = | = | = | = | = | = | = | = |
| Books About UFOs | Books About U.F.O.s | Books About U.F.O.s | Books About U.F.O.s | Books About U.F.O.s | Books About UFO's | Books About UFO's | Books About UFO's | Books About UFO's |
| Hardly Getting Over It | = | = | = | = | = | = | = | = |
| Sorry Somehow | = | = | = | = | = | = | = | = |
| (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care | You're So Square | You're So Square | You're So Square | You're So Square | You Are So Square | You Are So Square | You Are So Square | — |
| The Wit And The Wisdom | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| — | Celebrated Summer | Celebrated Summer | — | Celebrated Summer | — | — | Celebrated Summer | — |
| Green Eyes | = | = | = | = | = | = | = | = |
| Divide And Conquer | = | = | = | = | = | = | = | = |
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* Overlooking the fact that track listings for side 1 and side 2 are reversed on this one. "=" means the listed title matches the one in the leftmost column. "—" means that the title is not listed (and in the case of "Celebrated Summer," not present on the recording). |