Live vinyl: AC/DC & Ry Cooder, a couple of winners from different ends of the musical spectrum

[Review by Bill Glahn] 

AC/DC: Live At Agora Ballroom Cleveland 22 August 1977 (Radio Looploop RLL026)

Venue: As stated in title

Tracklist: (side A) Live Wire/ She’s Got Balls/ Problem Child/ High Voltage (side B) The Jack/ Baby Please Don’t Go/ Rocker –complete radio broadcast, slightly out of order

Sound Quality: not bad, but I was expecting so much more

Cover: Nice color front, but only fair resolution. Black & white photos of Angus Young  and Bon Scott on back with track listing and band credits.

Review: The 1977 Let There Be Rock tour, their first in the States, found AC/DC in a state of transition. Mark Evans, their bass player since the second Australian release, T.N.T., had been unceremoniously sacked following the previous Spring’s Dirty Deeds world tour – a tour that did not include the U.S. Atlantic Records had rejected that album and wouldn’t release it stateside until 1981 to fill a demand for Bon Scott material. 

Evans had not felt a sense of security in the band for a long time. But when it came time to deliver the bad news, Angus Young remained mute, while manager Michael Browning was left to give Evans his walking orders. Malcolm Young pitched in, “We want to get a bass player who can sing, that’s all.” 

In his book, Dirty Deeds, Evans refers to Angus Young as “the most dedicated musician I’ve ever encountered in my career.” Young called the shots in the band, although often with a degree of skullduggery. Notoriously a hard drinking outfit, that didn’t extend to the stage where all members were expected to be punctual and sober. Young took notes, but rarely confronted problems directly. Browning, who had guided the band to massive popularity, would suffer the same fate as Evans two years later. Without ever having played a note on any AC/DC record, Cliff Williams would fill the spot on the first tour on this side of the Atlantic, and remain the only constant besides Angus Young in the band until his retirement in 2016.

Williams makes his first appearance immediately with the familiar intro bass line of “Live Wire,” the opening song in the band’s setlist through much of the 1977 tour. But, unless you reach for the equalizer or bass boost, it’s the last you’re going to hear from him. Like a number of Radio Looploop’s other releases, the sound is massively compressed, indicating a possible previous life as a lossy MP3 download. From here on out, it’s a wall of Malcolm, Angus, Bon, and Phil Rudd, tightly packed together and overwhelming everything Williams has to offer. Oh, sure, you can hear his bass in the breakdown of “She’s Got “Balls” and “The Jack, “ but then back to the same ‘ol same ‘ol – high end digital distortion. Guitar freaks may love it, rhythm section and stereo enthusiasts not so much. The band delivers a well-paced, although short, set. “High Voltage” and “The Jack” are switched to make sequencing more conducive to vinyl. “Whole Lotta Rosie” and “Dog Eat Dog,” mainstays of this tour, were not played due to the restricted time allocated for radio.

Every track on Live at Agora Ballroom, however, is played with a great deal of gusto, the band barreling through the set in quick order. The oft covered Big Joe Williams  tune, “Baby Please Don’t Go,” rocks with the kind of force only AC/DC could deliver. Theirs is the definitive hard rock treatment, unsurpassed by such other contemporaries as Aerosmith. No contest in fact. The record closes with an equally frantic “Rocker.”

Conclusion? For vinyl enthusiasts, it works pretty well. When turned up loud enough it will rattle the walls. And isn’t that a big part of the AC/DC attraction? But it might just be worth waiting for a better source with better mastering. Grade: B-

[review by Bill Glahn]

Ry Cooder: Radio Ranch Recordings (Mind Control Mind 720)

Venue: December 12, 1972 WMMS studio, Radio Ranch show

Tracklist: (side A) Police Dog Blues/ Comin’ In On A Wing And A Prayer/ Holy Spirit (Great Dream From Heaven)/ Cleanin’ Up At Home (side B) Floating Bridge/ Billy The Kid/ Ditty Wah Ditty/ Jesus On The Main Line/ Going To Brownsville

Sound Quality: Good low generation tape source, some reverb added

Cover: Bare basics, A young Ry Cooder and title on front cover, track listing and date on back

Revue: Recorded as a solo performance, sans audience, for a radio broadcast, Radio Ranch Recordings focuses on the first and final parts of the one-hour performance and leaves out the middle. There’s a couple of slight errors on the song titles as well, but otherwise it’s a pretty good document of one of Cooder’s early shows.

Cooder pulls equally from his first three albums and adds to them, including “Jesus On The Main Line,” “Diddy Wah Diddy,” “Floating Bridge,” and “Cleanin’ Up At Home,” none of which he had recorded at the time.

The problem with this era Ry Cooder, as I see it, is he was merely copying arrangements that he took from the 78s that he had obviously been listening to. It was “studied” music, academic in nature. Already a skilled session man, Cooder could be found playing on far more adventurous music elsewhere. He would break out somewhat on 1974’s Paradise & Lunch (which included “Jesus On The Mainline” and “Ditty Wah Ditty”) and further still on 1976’s Chicken Skin Music. 

While the studio albums featured sparse accompaniment (percussion, bass, piano), these recordings feature only Cooder and his notable acoustic guitar skills. His boozy Americana drawl ain’t bad either, as white interpretations go. With so little available from this period in taper circles, this is a noteworthy release. 

Despite having the same academic overtones as the studio releases, fans of Cooder should find Radio Ranch Recordings a fine addition to their collections. Casual fans, however, might not find enough here of interest, the studio albums being far better recorded. Kudos to Mind Control for putting out something off the beaten path that some bootleggers follow. Grade: B