The Divine Miss M in Performance

Taken from her 1983 HBO special titled, Art or Bust, Bette Midler has proven, yet again, that she is THE consummate performer. Beginning with Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac", she goes from singing rock to ballads to doing performance art (the track "Is It Love" is an AWESOME take of 1980's new wave and synthesizers). The stand out on this live album is Bette's take on Peter Gabriel's "Here Comes the Flood". It is worth the price of the CD alone. She commands the song and you'll be tempted to listen to that track on repeat. I've never heard a performer sing and commit to a song like Bette Midler does with that track. She then goes right into her power-rock-ballad "Stay With Me" from her 1979 film, "The Rose". If you're not blown away, you probably need to turn UP the volume. Bravo Bette!!

"Art or Bust" is my favorite of all the televised Bette Midler shows and long out of print. It is ridiculous that there isn't more classic live Bette Midler available, and since there has never been an authorized audio release of "Art or Bust" or De Tour, beggars can't be choosers. Plus I'm not techie enough to have ripped my own audio from my old copy, and so I shelled out $40 for this knowing what I was going to get. It's better than nothing, but this recording is just as muffly and hissy as I anticipated. Here's hoping Miss B wrests control of her brand and catalog one day so we can hear her as she deserves to be heard...so she sounds as bright as our memories of these moments.

First the Good no GREAT news, this is Bette's live 1983/84 "De Tour" on cd for the very first time. While it's hard to say which tour of Bette's is the "best" this has to rank right up there with them. Her Reading of Peter Gabriel's "here Comes The Flood" and Tom Waits "Broken Bicycles" make their debut on any Bette Recording and well worth the price of the cd right there. Also live versions of several songs from "Art or Bust" are great as well Midler Staples like "the Rose" and "Stay With me".the bad news...well..this is NOT a mastered cd it is taken right from (most likley) The VHS release of the show, but hey...the quality is still good enough to be enjoyed.

So glad someone made a CD of this concert! Bette is spectacular and even more so live. Thrilled to have this concert which had such beautiful songs as Tom Waits' Broken Bicycles and Jonathan King's Everyone's Gone To The Moon. Also wonderful version of "Pretty Legs And Great Big Knockers. Every song on this CD is great.I don't know why in America, we can't get recordings of all of Bette's live performances. She really puts it out there in concert. Just wonderful.

Great concert, bad sound engineering. Worth owning for Midler in top form in an otherwise unavailable program of songs and patter. Too bad about the cheap transfer.

Great music selection from her Art or Bust tour. It's just so sad that the sound quality is incredibly inferior — like it was recorded in mono. I have the laserDisc of this concert from Japan, and the sound quality is far superior to this dud of a recording.

This is the Bette I fell in love with! I understand that alot has changed in her career, and good for her, but the early, crazy, and spontaneous days are missed. I still think she is the best and long for her to return to The Palace and just sing her butt off!

I have been waiting for this CD to be released for years. It is the soundtrack to Bette Midler's 1983/1984 DeTour. It is probably one of her best concerts from that era. It can be found on VHS as Bette Midler Art or Bust. A definite for any Bette Head!

Excellent deal and prompt service thanks

Der Tonmitschnitt von Midlers TV-Special "Art or Bust", welches jetzt unter dem der CD entsprechenden Titel "In Performance" jetzt auch auf DVD gibt, ist hier zum ersten Mal auf CD veröffentlicht. Zunächst freute ich mich auf die CD, weil Midler in diesem Live-Konzert viele Songs darbietet, die es auf ihren Studioalben nicht gibt (bspw. "Broken Bicycles", "Caddilac Walk", "Everyone's gone to the moon", "Here comes the Flood"...). Die Qualität der CD hat mich dann aber doch enttäuscht. Der Sound des 1984er Specials wurde nicht restauriert, d.h. dass die Tonqualität für heutige Standards wirklich schlecht ist. Sicher hätte man bei einer vernünftigen Produktion da noch einiges verbessern können. Des Weiteren werden Songs gekürzt: Bei "Pretty Legs (and Great Big Knockers)" fehlt Bette Midlers gesprochener Prolog zum Song, der eigentlich wichtig für die Pointe des Liedinhalts ist. "I Will Survive" wird einfach nach dem zweiten Refrain abgebrochen, was mir einfach unverständlich bleibt! Hätte man die Videokassette des Konzerts und würde die Tonspur selbst digital kopieren, hätte man das gleiche Ergebnis gehabt, weshalb der Preis der CD nicht zu rechtfertigen ist. Übrigens: Auch die Hüllengestaltung ist relativ lieblos, was die Bebilderung angeht - es handelt sich nämlich um dillentatisch vergrößerte Screenshots. Die Produktionsfirma hat hier wohl das schnelle Geld gewittert, welches aus den Taschen der Fans zu ziehen ist, sich aber definitiv zu wenig Mühe gegeben. Schade, denn das hat Bette Midler und ihr eigentlich tolles Musikmaterial nicht verdient!