Red Mosquito

Wishlist (Columbia 2000-09-04) vs. Cropduster (Sydney 2003-02-14)

My appreciation for Wishlist has grown a lot over the years. It used to be one of my absolute least liked songs, but it has risen to a middle of the pack track over the last decade or so. Some of that is probably to due with getting older and another part of it is how much new PJ music has sucked in the last decade plus. Cropduster is a great song. It’s one of my top three or four from Riot Act. And although the live choice here doesn’t bring anything special to the performance, it’s really solid and Ed is spot on. Pretty easy vote for Cropduster.

Cropduster. All day, every day.

Monkeywrench Wishlist is the best.

still can't stand Cropduster. Wishlist by default.

Easily Cropduster.

Wishlist is a great song. I'm kind of surprised this is the one RM chose for the comp. Musically it's fine, but this is not a good Eddie performance. The vocals sound a bit affected. Granted this is a song that is always a tricky live translation given how it is almost spoken word (not where Eddie is a viking), but there's nothing remarkable about any of this. Even Mike's glorious bridge solo sounds muted. There isn't even a good tag at the end.

Actually I'm going to go a step further and say this is just not a good Wishlist performance. I suspect sabotage


I like Cropduster a fair bit (top half of Riot Act for me for sure). Like many Riot Act song the subdued feel of the record means it's hard to give the song the energy it needs live, and there is a very unusual feel and cadence to Cropduster that this version doesn't fully capture. But it comes close and there are some nice moments (I like the Daddy's gone up in flames verse). The outro, weirdly enough, actually has a bit less energy than the studio version

Neither of these are stellar, but this comes much closer to capturing what is best about Cropduster. I've got almost nothing to say in defense of that version of Wishlist.