Radio KAOS: Proper Tracklist?

[Tenniru]

I recently got a nice vinyl copy of Radio KAOS, and was reading the overview on the sleeve. It looks like the rumors of the record company slicing tracks are true, because there's no way he would've uselessly chopped away some very important plot parts willingly. However, a coherent KAOS isn't just locked in Roger's vaults; he axed demos we have now would've made the album FAR more coherent.
(Also, Folded Flags appears to have so many references to the KAOS plot that it seems it was supposed to be part of it; it surfaced in '86 and the KAOS plot was written in '85, so it's likely.)
What do you think the proper tracklist would have been on Radio KAOS?

Looking at the overview on the sleeve and putting it in order as it happened...

1. Who Needs Information (Benny takes Billy on pub crawl, brick dropped)
2. Going To Live In L.A. (Benny arrested, Billy sent to LA)
3. Sunset Strip (It segues out of GTLILA in live shows; Billy talks of LA)
4. Radio Waves (Billy operates his wireless phone)
5. Me Or Him (Billy decides to talk to the world; namely Jim Ladd)
6. Molly's Song (Billy reveals ability to hack everything, keeps eye on Molly)
7. The Powers That Be (Billy decides to do something big concerning the PtB)
8. Home (Billy starts his plan)
9. Four Minutes (Video edit speech before main song; people realize nukes are bad)
10. Folded Flags (People decide to give up war)
11. Get Back To Radio (they, and Benny, decide it's time to clean up their act)
12. The Tide Is Turning (Continue from previous song)

Re-arrange the Ladd/Billy conversations so they start on track 5, cut some things and add bits from the concerts, and you have a perfectly coherent album.
(Also, I've decided that since Roger was unable to make up his mind on what Billy's ailment was and had Billy do things impossible for some of them, I have officially declared Billy's condition to be muscular dystrophy; perfectly intelligent but progressively less able to move, speech impediments, but the ability to do everything in the plot with all of the plot's restrictions intact.)

What do you think?

[Sonic Destruction]

Great work!! That would make a cool deluxe edition rerelease (or a fan-created boot).

[nosaj]

I was just going through this again myself recently and figured there are a couple of songs from Amused to Death that could work (because it was going to be Radio KAOS II at some point) - can't remember what songs I settled on though.

[mosespa]

Or you could just see about getting a copy of Project KAOS.

There's no need to reshuffle the original order of the album...the songs who's events take place prior to Radio Waves are flashbacks, anyway.

[Tenniru]

But they don't seem to make any sense in that order (to me, anyhow) without reading the sleeve. At least The Wall and (if you have the volume high enough) Pros And Cons made sense in the order they were in.

[mosespa]

1. Radio Waves--this is basically a narrator setting the stage for us.

2. Who Needs Information--Billy has contacted Jim and is giving him his backstory.

3. Me or Him--I think of this song's verses as the thoughts going through Benny's head as he sits in his cell. The choruses are either Billy fondly remembering his brother, or the narrator telling us about Benny's short-wave radio hobby. This is part of where Billy's understanding of the power of radio comes from.

4. The Powers That Be--Billy becomes cognizant of the Soap Opera State...or is stating his cognizance of it.

5. Sunset Strip--this song is split, narratively speaking, between Billy's thoughts of his new life in LA and the narrator.

6. Home--This seems to be Billy trying to find the "home" in LA.

7. Four Minutes--Billy is staging his mock nuclear attack.

8. The Tide Is Turning--From what I understand, this represents Uncle Dave's hope that the mock attack has taught humanity something...and his belief that it has.

One COULD view the album as taking place in "real-time," more or less.

Prior to beginning the first song, Billy has already decided to stage his grand drama and calls Jim at KAOS. Billy tells Jim a little about himself and then puts his plan into motion.

I don't think it's so hard to understand...but then again, I've been listening to this album for about twenty years now. *shrug*

[Tenniru]

That's likely it. To me, the songs even with that interpretation seem like a mishmash of the ideas and plot points composing Radio KAOS; very vague. It also still leaves a lot of important things on the sleeve overview out.

[mosespa]

Sure, it does.

The story is far too complex for just eight songs to really put across.

Hell...even Project KAOS practically doubling the song count still leaves a lot for the sleeve to fill in.

I think Roger had to compromise quite a bit on KAOS.

[Tenniru]

Well, from what I see/think the only bits on that sleeve that Project KAOS doesn't cover is Billy's uncle's pessimism and the economic decay of Wales mentioned in the first few sentences (which mine misses as well).

I agree the story is too complex for those eight songs, but the twelve I mentioned seem to do a very good job getting most of it while being a good listen (although Going To Live In LA isn't that strong an opener). These songs were all capable of appearing on KAOS, recorded during the KAOS sessions, and apparently intended for use on KAOS (Roger did say in interviews that the record company chopped away some songs; these were likely them).
Also, the diffirence between this and Project KAOS is the order of the tracks, not the presence.

I kind of see where the record company was coming from; there's no way those twelve were going to fit on one LP, but they weren't close to enough to make a double-album. Unless they wanted to double-groove side two, leave side 3 blank/full of doodles (DEVO did this once), or have a CD version significantly diffirent than the vinyl one, this had to be done. Sadly.

(I'm not saying that the tracklist I suggested is what it would've looked like, but it makes the most sense.)

[Yucateco]

the live versions of Kaos make perfect sense (ouch). The addition of songs like Welcome to the Machine, Money, Not now John etc with the announcements makes the complete KAOS expierence imo.

[Dowie100]

Very interesting, I always felt the album was missing something.

[moom]

hope this gets onto record

[AtomHeartMomma]

This is not about a track list, but it is about KAOS. I was at the concert in Madison Square Garden, and was wondering if there will ever be a video or DVD of the concert. There was a short video, about 20 minutes long, that was available for purchase. This was several years ago, and I was wondering if anyone has bought it or knows anything about it....

[Sonic Destruction]

There was a short 20 minute video of tracks from the album, but this wasn't live, just film clips with Roger & his band, Jim Ladd, etc.

[AtomHeartMomma]

There was a short 20 minute video of tracks from the album, but this wasn't live, just film clips with Roger & his band, Jim Ladd, etc.

Thanks for the information. I had been under the impression that it was just a brief, "fleeting glimpse" of the concert.

Wish he would put out a live DVD, just as he has done with The Wall In Berlin, and In The Flesh.