At the most recent Record Show in Charlotte back in May, I found a few really cool items. One of them was a Limited Edition Cut-To-Shape Picture Disc for the song “Jet City Woman” by Queensryche. The song was off their 1990 album ‘Empire’ and was one of the best songs on the album. It was the 4th and final single from the album and was released in May 1991. The song was played a lot on MTV and reached #6 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock songs. However, this is not the official single. This was released in the UK in August 1991.

The song was written by Geoff Tate and Chris DeGarmo and the title was taken from their hometown of Seattle which is known as the Jet City. The woman part was Geoff’s first wife who was a flight attendant. The song tells the story about after being out on the road and the longing for the ones you love. The loneliness that is felt without them and you can’t stop thinking about them. You want to get home and be with them, but can’t.

A-SIDE:

The A-Side is “Jet City Woman” of course. The sound is very industrial at times and very metallic, but overall, still a pop-rock song. Very melodic and Geoff’s vocals are quite stellar. They are slickly produced and the production on the whole song is done very well. There are still progressive metal elements as well and I like the added airplane sound effects to go with the song title. It is very mature sound unlike most bands of the time. Queensryche always sounded like a smarter band then their peers and this goes a long way to proving it.

B-SIDE:

The B-Side of the single is the title track from ‘Empire’ and it is a live version. I believe it is from the 1991 Wisconsin Show where Operation: Livecrime was recorded. That show was done in May 1991 and released in September of the same year. Now, “Empire” was not on that release as the release was Operation: Mindcrime full album live only. This was one of the other songs played that night and was previously unreleased. Geoff and Chris together live is lethal and these guys slayed it. I miss those two together. I don’t have a video to show you that has the song live. I am really surprised by that I will admit.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this cool Shaped Picture Disc.