Back when my dad was alive, he worked for MCA. Whenever demos or early pressings of albums by bands I liked came across his desk, he would have his secretary make a copy for me. She would handwrite the track listings on the sleeve and everything.

I was a big Live fan before I went to college and one of the last things my dad brought home for me was a demo called "Ecstatic Fanatic" by Live. I listened to it a few times, forgot it at the house when I left for college in Boston, and basically forgot it until now.

Last week, a friend and I were talking about bands we loved in the '90s and Live came up. He was telling me all about how the band broke up, etc, etc. I asked what he thought of "Ecstatic Fanatic" since it was the last album I heard, and he had no idea what I was talking about.

We Googled it and found on Wikipedia that "Ecstatic Fanatic" was the original name for "V," which isn't uncommon at all. A LOT of the stuff my dad brought home had different names when they were finally distributed.

But the track listing for "V" didn't look right to me, and when I downloaded it from iTunes, the album didn't "sound" right to me, either.

I made the drive home last week and dug my "Ecstatic Fanatic" out of storage. I popped it into my computer and I was right, it sounds a lot different than "V" and there are tracks on "Ecstatic Fanatic" that aren't on "V" (and there are also a few tracks on "V" that aren't on "Ecstatic Fanatic" from what I can tell).

This is the track listing for "Ecstatic Fanatic" that I have:

"Tibetan Thunderstorm"
"Like a Soldier"
"People Like You"
"Deep Enough"
"Creed"
"Transmit Your Love"
"Fool"
"Flow"
"Cheetah"
"Overcome"
"I Am Not OK"
"River Town"

The sound is really different, very guitar heavy and rocking and "raw" if you know what I mean, like demos often are. No keyboards except for the piano on "Tibetan Thunderstorm" and that sounds like a real piano to me.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share since I wasn't sure if this version of the album was generally known to Live fans!