My Psychedelic Furs CDs #18

Beautiful Chaos: Greatest Hits Live (2001) (Columbia/Egg/Legacy 506035 2)

The first live album The Psychedelic Furs ever released, recorded at the House of Blues in Los Angeles in 2001. Has exclusive track "Alive (For Once In My Lifetime)" in both studio and live form.

Five years ago I got this album plus B-Sides & Lost Grooves from Amazon and they were CD-R copies. Unfortunately, to my disappointment, the sound quality on both of those albums was not that great and so I never listened to them again. But recently I signed up to Discogs because I wanted to see if there were people selling the real official copies of Beautiful Chaos and B-Sides & Lost Grooves, and thankfully they did so I bought them. It's so nice to finally have the real copies of those albums.

Track Listing:

1. India

2. Mr. Jones

3. Heaven

4. The Ghost In You

5. Alive (For Once In My Lifetime)

6. Love My Way

7. Heartbreak Beat

8. Sister Europe

9. President Gas

10. Into You Like A Train

11. Pretty In Pink

12. Dumb Waiters

13. Alive (For Once In My Lifetime) (Studio Version)

Behind the Albums: Beautiful Chaos: Greatest Hits Live

Interviewer: "What was the biggest challenge in preparing Beautiful Chaos, or the live DVD? Was it selecting the songs?"

Richard Butler: "Not really. The live disc was in a way a by-product of the last tour; there wasn't a challenge in selecting songs for the tour, because we had been away for so long... coming back to the 'arena,' if you like, of music as The Furs, people were going to come out to hear the songs The Furs are well-known for – or we needed to remind them of those songs. We played what the audience wanted to hear – and the live record came out of that." (Ink 19 2002)

Interviewer: "Let's talk about The Psychedelic Furs' live album Beautiful Chaos: Greatest Hits Live. From a creative standpoint, how would you describe it?"

Tim Butler: "'Beautiful chaos' was coined when we started up as five musicians not really knowing how to play or how to write a song you know. It went way back, with that stuff. We all wanted to be heard, and make an impression. It was like five people 'soloing' or something, which was chaos. And we imported 'beautiful chaos.'" (Murfreesboro Pulse 2013)

Behind the Songs: Alive (For Once In My Lifetime)

Richard Butler: "'Alive' is a lot about looking back. Like it says in the song, when you're young you think that you're going to go on forever and you think you're indestructible and blessed. And when you get older you realize how mortal you are." (Interview with Robert Cherry, 2001)

Interviewer: "Tell me about this new song, 'Alive,' that's on Beautiful Chaos."

Richard Butler: "It's about being the age I am – 45 years old. When you're young, you think that you're going to live forever; the older you get, you start realizing your own mortality. It always seemed like you have your parents between you and death's door; when something starts to go wrong with them, you start thinking, 'Once they go, I'm next in line.' It's about celebrating the 'now,' if you like. That sounds a bit 'self-help,' doesn't it?" (Ink 19 2002)

Interviewer: "If we go back to the year 2000, you rejoined the Psychedelic Furs in a reformed lineup. As a big fan of the band, I attended many of the subsequent tours. They recorded a new song 'Alive' for a greatest hits package and two others ['Cigarette' and 'Wrong Train'] for the companion DVD. Yet I sensed a reluctance to record new material. Was that a trigger that forced your hand to do the Satellite Paradiso record and depart from the Psychedelic Furs?"

John Ashton: "Yes Dave. That was the biggest trigger of all." (Dave's on Tour 2016)