Bootleg Retrospective

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Bootleg Retrospective" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Bootleg Retrospective
Compilation album by the Slits
Released	17 March 1980
Recorded	various homes and stages, 1977–1979
Genre	Post-punk
Label	Y Records
The Slits chronology
Cut (1979) Bootleg Retrospective (1980) Return of the Giant Slits (1981)

Bootleg Retrospective is a compilation album by the Slits. The album is officially untitled. It is also referred to as Y (its record label), Y3LP (its serial number), Y3Lp—The Official Bootleg, (On a Japanese RCA Victor reissue), and, in Greil Marcus' book "Lipstick Traces," A Boring Life, or Once Upon A Time In A Living Room.

The album consists of lo-fi demos and live performances, mostly, in all likelihood from 1977-9, preceding the sessions for 1979's Cut album. Two recordings, "Face Place" and "Or What Is It?", are skeletal, incomplete sketches of songs which appeared in finished form on 1981's Return of the Giant Slits album. A 30-second section of "Bongos on the Lawn" appears at the opening of the promotional video for "Instant Hit" from the Cut album.

In spite of its rough and informal appearance, the album was an authorized release compiled by the Slits, who were signed to Y Records at the time. It was released by Y Records, on or around 17 March 1980, and was distributed by Rough Trade Records.