You're both right, and I wasn't remembering it properly. I do remember being disappointed by the key being lowered, and for that reason, I don't even listen to it. I thought it was the shortened version. Maybe my disappointment was more that it was finally the original version but in the wrong key, thus we never did get a definitive live recording.
I know Geddy can't sing like that anymore, but curse my pitch sensitivity; I can hear the difference and it just sounds wrong. It's as noticeable and annoying as playing it on instruments that haven't been tuned.
Do you listen to Transatlantic? And if so, did hearing "The Whirlwind" a whole-step lower affect you when hearing it on the
Whirld Tour live album? I know Neal Morse has done a LOT of stuff in a lower key lately (just listen to his SB songs on the live album
So Many Roads, then compare them to the same songs played by SBv2 on their
Spock's Beard Live album, where they take it UP a key or two!).
It's a shame so many vocalists cannot reach their range they had in the past, or in the studio, that they have to down-tune these days, but if it means having those songs performed live, then by all means do it! I could care less, and it shows a lot of extra effort on the part of the musicians, to have to basically re-learn a song just so they can play it live. They could just play songs that their vocalist is only comfortable with singing on stage, and we'd get some limited or only-all-recent material shows.
So, in this instance, I say
to any band/performer who chooses to play a song in a lower key just so they can play that song! For if that didn't happen, Rush may not have played "2112" live in it's entirety back on the TFE tour, and we'd have been stuck with "Dog Years" and "Virtuality" on
Different Stages!
-Marc.