The Wayback Machine: Rare Rolling Stones vinyl reviewed (Earl's Court 5/22/76)

Liver' II #127 of 300

[Review by Bill Glahn]

Rolling Stones: Liver’ II (Southern Records TRS-01)

Venue: Earl’s Court, London, UK 5/22/76

Sound: Although Southern Records used quality sources for all 3 of their releases, this is the cream, an excellent stereo soundboard with enough audience picked up by the stage mics to give it a room ambience not found on so many soundboard recordings. Great instrument separation and zero tape hiss or warble. An online Stones database (dbboots) lists this record as “excellent audience recording.” They are wrong. A soundboard/audience mix of this show is available in far lesser quality on YouTube (listed as soundboard). I’ll post it at the end. You be the judge. I’m betting dbboots was making assumptions and only had a picture of the cover and a tape to go by. It’s that rare.

Cover: Plain white jacket with numbered sticker on front and insert in back. 300 #d copies. The insert lists “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” The record labels don’t. The labels are correct. The song was played, but it doesn’t appear. 

Tracklist: (side a) If You Can’t Rock Me/ Get Off My Cloud/ Hand Of Fate/ Hey Negrita/ Ain’t Too Proud To Beg (side b) Fool To Cry/ Hot Stuff/ Star Star/ You Gotta Move (side c) Happy/ Tumbling Dice/ Nothin’ From Nothin’/ Outta Space (side d) Midnight Rambler/ It’s Only Rock & Roll/ Brown Sugar

Comments: In 1989, as the CD era was advancing at lightning speed, Southern Records released a series of 3 vinyl double LPs in celebration of 20 years of rock bootlegs on vinyl started by those “white cover folks” in 1969. Prior to establishing label names, such as Trademark of Quality, The Amazing Kornyphone Record Label, Rubber Dubber, Contraband Music and Wizardo, those early bootlegs appeared with such labels as Lurch (Rolling Stones), Blimp (Led Zeppelin), or just plain white labels (Dylan, Great White Wonder, the first appeared this way before utilizing Rocolian Records and finally Trademark of Quality). Like those earliest labels, Southern Records wasn’t heard of before, and hasn’t been heard of since. They used previously unbooted concerts and titled them as 2nd and 3rd editions of the earliest bootleg vinyl. With a limited production run, they have become some of the most sought after bootlegs from the late vinyl period.

While Liver’ II is missing the first song of the set (Honky Tonk Woman) one song from the middle of the set (Can’t Always Get…) and the three encores (Jumping Jack Flash, Street Fighting Man, and Sympathy For The Devil), as a two LP set it’s packed with the bulk of the show and a hot performance. It’s definitely worth having. Billy Preston shines with some of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll piano riffs since Johnnie Johnson was pounding the ivories for Chuck Berry. Preston also gets his own spotlight for two numbers with the Stones performing as his backup group. 

Ron Wood also puts in some stellar performances, recalling his days with The Faces and putting to rest suggestions that the Stones were finished the moment Mick Taylor left the group. I may prefer the Taylor-era line-up, but Wood shows a bit more versatility here. I’ll admit that “You Gotta Move” is marginal at best, but he burns the frets on rockers like “Starfucker (Star Star)” and “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll.” 

Mick Jagger also gives an exemplary performance, void of his usual “out-of-breath” vocalisms – the result of too much prancing and showboating on stage. The lone exception is on “Midnight Rambler,” most likely the result of his “Peter Pan” bit while the band was pounding out “Outta Space” on the previous tune. The band sounds unusually out of sync at the beginning of “Rambler” as well after performing Preston’s funky instrumental. They recover, but this version will not make you forget the explosive version from Get Your Leeds Lungs Out (Leeds, UK 1971).

Charlie Watts is Charlie Watts and his drums are highly defined in the mix, as are his rhythm partners, Keith Richards and Bill Wyman.

Despite it’s incompleteness (there’s only so much you can stick on two slabs of vinyl), I’ve got to give this album a solid thumbs up. If you can find it.

Grade: A

Bonus: YouTube “soundboard” of the show. Honky Tonk Women is cut (the reason for its omission?) and the encores are from an audience source. 

Back Pages: 3 live Prince CD reviews from the March 1998 print edition

[For our Prince CD reviews, we always turned to Jeff Anderson, a Minneapolis resident who had been following Prince since the earliest days. These are 3 of those reviews available on the Internet for the first time.]

Prince: God Bless America (Moonraker237/238)

Venue: Roxy, Boston 1/8/97; Live Club, Atlanta, 1/19/97; State Theatre, Detroit 1/13/97

Sound: OK audience recordings

Cover: Nice 20-page booklet with excellent timely photos, accurate track listings, a newspaper reprint of a review of the Detroit show, and an article on Emancipation going double platinum.

Tracklist : (Boston) Jam Of The Year/ Talkin’ Loud and Saying Nothin’/ Purple Rain/ 17 Days/ Get Yo Groove On/ The Most Beautiful Girl In The Word/ Face Down/ The Cross (Atlanta) One Of Us/ Do Me Baby Medley/ Sexy MF/ If I Was Your Girlfriend/ The Ride/ How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore/ Take Me With U/ Raspberry Beret/ Mr. Happy/ 18 And Over/ Johnny/ Sleep Around/ Take The A-Train/ The Little Groovemaker Me/ Partyman (Detroit) Face Down/ Somebody’s Somebody/ The Ride/ Johnny

Comments: The booklet states that this release is actually segments from three different shows “seamlessly edited together to make one excellent sounding show,” because the quality of the individual shows varied. They also state that you might find the complete shows elsewhere, probably in lesser quality. I beg to differ!

First of all, there are no seamless edits. There are definite fades from one segment to the next. And if full versions are available in lesser quality, I wouldn’t want to hear them. All of your typical aspects of average to poor audience recordings are here; variations in both the levels and the sound, audience noise, that boxy and/or distant sound. Distortion is especially prominent on the first two segments, especially the kick drum. So, who knows, maybe those statements are just a smokescreen for the fact that the tapers screwed up every one of these. Maybe they ran out of tape at the Boston show, blew the levels on the Atlanta show, and came late for the Detroit show. So what can you do with three incomplete shows? Here ya go. 

This is definitely one of Moonraker’s less impressive efforts. I hope they don’t get into the habit of releasing “just anything” by The Artist just to put out product like some labels do. The great packaging doesn’t hide the poor sound or make up for the fact that this one will get one listen before going to storage forever.

Prince: The Freedom Train (Moonraker 220/221)

Venue: Roseland Ballroom, NYC, NY 1/11/97; Constitution Hall, Wash, DC 1/10/97

Sound: Very good audience recording

Cover: Very busy cover contains bits and pieces of the photos contained inside the 20 page booklet, which also contains a reprint of a press release announcing the “Love 4 One Another Charities Tour 1997” and an accurate track listing.

Tracklist: (New York) Jam Of The Year/ Talkin’ Loud And Saying Nothin’- R‘n’R Is Alive/ Purple Rain/ 17 Days/ Get Yo Groove On – Six/ Face Down/ The Cross/ `One Of Us/ Do Me Baby Medley/ Sexy MF/ If I Was Your Girlfriend/ How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?/ Take Me With You/ Raspberry Beret/ Mr. Happy (including Big Fun)/ 18 & Over/ Speech/ Sleep Around/ The A-Train/ The Little Groove Maker Me/ Johnny (Washington, DC) Face Down (including VooDoo Chile)/ The Tide/ Sleep Around/ Take The A-Train/ The Little Groove Maker Me/ 777-9311/ Partyman/ Johnny

Comments: Only four shows into the tour and the man has his latest, most stripped down version of the New Power Generation already in top form. Whether it be a three minute pop song like “Take Me With You,” an eight minute funk workout like “Face Down” or a more somber number like “The Cross,” this five piece band can handle it all. Well, maybe a little tape loop action helps, but there’s not enough cheating going on here to lodge any complaints. And The Artist is also in top form, showing off his vast array of musical talents, whether it be the heavenly falsetto in “Do Me Baby,” the mind blowing guitar soloing in Joan Osborne’s “One Of Us,” or the greasiest bass thumping you ever did hear on “Face Down.” The sound quality here is a huge improvement over God Bless America, much more close-up and none of that nasty distortion on the kick drum. The audience noise is a little annoying in the softer songs like “Do Me Baby” and the crowd pleasers like “Purple Rain,” but overall, it’s very listenable.

The 39 minutes of filler from Wasington, DC aren't quite as good as the New York material but, again, is quite listenable. It’s nice to have “The Ride” from this show, but don’t get excited when you see “VooDoo Chile” and “777-9311” listed. These song snippets are so short that you have to listen very closely to catch them. And, as always, us completists want to know, where’s the rest of the show?

Overall, the combination of great performance, good sound and excellent mix of old, new, and even a couple rare songs result in a definite thumbs up for this release. Looking at the catalog numbers, I see that this came out before God Bless America. Makes me wonder why Moonraker even bothered with that dog after releasing this gem.

Prince: Going North (Moonraker 254/255)

Venue: The Warehouse, Toronto 6/5/97; bonus tracks from Electric Ballroom, Phoenix 4/28/97

Sound: very good audience recording

Cover: As usual, Moonraker’s packaging puts any commercial release to shame. This time, in addition to the usual timely photographs and accurate track listing, the 24-page booklet has no less than 25 reprinted newspaper articles and reviews. The tiny print is a little hard to read for these old eyes, but there’s a wealth of information. Looking at all this, you’d swear it was released by The Artist himself or at least his fan club.

Tracklist: (Toronto) Jam Of The Year/ Talkin’ Loud And Saying Nothin-R’n’R Is Alive/ Purple Rain/ 17 Days/ Get Yo Groove On-Six/ The Most Beautiful Girl In The World/ Face Down/ The Cross/ One Of Us/ Do Me Baby Medley/ Sexy MF/ If I Was Your Girlfriend/ How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?/ Take Me With U/ Raspberry Beret/ . 

The Ride/ Girls And Boys/ Sleep Around/ Encore Medley w/ Take The A-Train-The Little Groove Maker Me-Give It Up Or Turn It Loose-Lickin’ Stick/ Mr. Happy-Dance Contest/ 18 & Over (Phoenix) Talk/ Santana Jam/ The Ride

Comments: Along with the latest incarnation of his band, The New Power Generation, in late 1996 came an end to the trend that started after the name change, when any performance by The Artist could vary dramatically from one night to the next. His Paisley Park Love 4 One Another performances in 1995 were an especially wild array. One night you might see most of Exodus performed while another would concentrate on The Gold Experience. Then on the following week you’d see an evening comprised almost entirely of covers. Maybe because he’s trying to please the masses again or maybe the new band just doesn’t know all the songs yet, but it’s too bad to see the set lists of 1997 concerts so rigid and confined. They’re not as identical as, say, recent U2 tours, but there certainly isn’t much spontaneity. On this night The Artist turns 39 at midnight and that is mentioned a couple times, but other than the dance contest that takes place during “Mr. Happy,” it’s pretty much a run through of the same set that has been performed for the first 5 months of 1997. The performance is very good, but not quite as good as The Freedom Train, and the same goes for the sound quality. 

The 20 minutes of aftershow material from Phoenix sound good, and it’s nice to see an old favorite, the Santana medley, there. Of course, everyone will be wondering where the rest of the show is. This is a worthy release, great if you don’t have any other shows from the Love 4 One Another Charities Tour. 

[All reviews by Jeff Anderson.]

Bonus view: 

 

Camper Van Beethoven live bootleg: Mississippi Nights 1989

 

[review by Bill Glahn]

Camper Van Beethoven: Mississippi Nights Live… October 1989 (Klondike KL2CD5056)

Venue: Mississippi Nights, St. Louis, MO 10/12/89

Sound Quality: Very good to excellent mono FM recording, the same source as available on archive.org and probably downloaded as a lossless file from there. 

Cover: 8-page booklet and tray card in slimline double jewel case. Not all photos in the book picture the line-up presented on this disc.

Track Listing: (disc 1) Steve Pick intro/ Flowers/ O Death/ Sweethearts/ Tania/ Chris with Station Plug/ Eye Of Fatima/ When I Win The Lottery/ Joe Stalin’s Cadillac/ (I Was So) Wasted/ Take The Skinheads Bowling/ One Of These Days/ Morgan-Station Plug/ Turquoise Jewelry/ S. P. 37957 Medley (disc 2) Before I Met You/ David-Station Plug/ Opening Theme/ All Her Favorite Fruit/ Good Guys & Bad Guys/ Seven Languages/ Waka/ Pictures Of Matchstick Men/ She Divines Water/ David-Station Plug/ ZZ Top Goes To Egypt/ Sweet Virginis/ Loser/ Act Naturally

Comments: In 2004 David Lowrey granted permission for archive.org (a non-profit affiliate of the Library of Congress) to publish live recordings by fans of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker to their website for free streaming and downloads. The official taping policy for CBV is “We have a simple taping policy. It's okay with us to tape live Camper Van Beethoven performances and trade them freely, so long as no money changes hands. You send 'em a blank, they make you a tape, and vise-versa. As soon as money enters in on any level, it's a commercial transaction; and with our music, decisions on commerce are ours and ours alone.”  I’m going to leave any moral judgements about this commercial bootleg (legal under European laws regarding broadcast recordings) to any potential buyers. The purpose of this review is to cover the recording quality and artistic merits of the recording.

This show was originally recorded by community radio station KDHX and rebroadcast on New Year’s Eve 1989. It was uploaded to archive.org on 11/14/2005 by fan Greg Ryan with the following info: "Recorded to cassette on a boom box, (make unknown - maybe some cheap GPX?) on New Year's Eve, 1989 from a KDHX broadcast.” In the comments section Ryan added “I have to admit it's not perfect 5-star quality, since it was taped off the air on a less-than-stellar boombox. It was my first of what is now many CVB shows that I attended, and was truly a great experience. I am so glad that I am able to share it via Archive.org, and that people seem to be listening to one of my favorite bands ever! THE GREAT CVB!!!”

On their tray card Klondike boasts, “Professionally re-mastered original broadcast with background liners and rare archival photos.” Um…. No. What this CD contains is a slightly modified version of the same recording that appears on the archive website, which allows for lossless (FLAC) downloads. Some of the indexing points are altered and a slight boost has been given to the bass – which serves only to muddy up what was already a fine, but not perfect, recording with ample bass. I prefer the original recording as it appears on archive. Tastes may differ, though, and those that prefer a bottom heavy sound might prefer this silver disc set.

  

Klondike has also “borrowed” the setlist, verbatim, as it appears on the archive site, including the show intro on track 1 by KDHX DJ, Riverfront Times columnist, and manager of Euclid Records, Steve Pick. But you might only know this if you actually lived in St. Louis (or happened to be a customer at the record store) since KDHX is a small community station (music and public affairs) broadcasting at only 42kW ERB. Pick never mentions his name during the intro. This is confirmation that, for Klondike, a European company, has no better sources for vintage broadcast recordings than any other person with Internet access. 

For those that prefer their music on manufactured silver discs with professionally printed graphics, this does fit the bill. But, as a music fan, you might be better served by downloading from archive and making your own CD-R(s).

Camper Van Beethoven was a hit with college radio and community stations with diverse programming right out of the chute, with their debut single, “Take The Skinheads Bowling.” Their quirky lyrics, non traditional instrumentation, and wild song structures continued similarly on their independent label album releases, with continued success. Big gun, Virgin Records, took note and signed the band to a major label deal, hoping to expand their audience. Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart and Key Lime Pie followed, neither making the break out to mainstream AOR radio, but building their core audience by leaps and bounds with national touring, mostly at college town venues and small clubs in major markets. Key Lime Pie would be the final release, and this, their final tour (for the period) as artistic force and chief songwriter, David Lowery, along with guitarist Johnny Hickman, bolted to form Cracker the following year. It was there that he would find huge commercial success with a more traditional rock sound. In 2003 CVB would be revived with a return to indie Pitch-A-Tent Records and a new line-up. Their first release would be the odd choice of remaking Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk album, a bit quirky of an album in it’s own right. The new millennium would find both bands touring together and holding annual campouts for fans.

Mississippi  Nights finds the band in great form, hardly sounding like a band on the brink of a breakup. This set covers a cross-section of the bands career (one could hardly call them hits) as well as an assortment of songs from Key Lime Pie. It is often hailed by fans as one of their best shows ever, and it’s hard to argue with that. The limited edition official live album, In The Mouth Of The Crocodile (2004), while heads and shoulders above this release in terms of sound quality, falls far short in enthusiasm despite being recorded in a small club.

In conclusion, if I had checked archive.org first (or my own files obtained from there), I probably wouldn’t have bought this set. I could have spent my money on a different bootleg. 

Grade: B

Bonus View: Same club, two years earlier

Dead Kennedys on vinyl: Live at the Old Waldorf, multiple labels, same recording

 

[review by Rev. Keith A. Gordon]

DEAD KENNEDYS

Live At the Old Waldorf, San Francisco

(Mind Control Records, Europe)

VENUE: The Old Waldorf, 444 Battery Street, San Francisco CA; October 25th, 1979. 

SOUND QUALITY: Says that it’s a FM radio broadcast, but it sounds more like an average audience recording to these aging ears. There is a (mostly) clear distinction between instruments, and the vocals are strong and up front. There’s an overall shallowness to the recording, though, with little effort paid towards stereo separation, and a slight aural haze shrouds the entire performance. The audience sounds like it’s a mile away when clapping, so this could instead be a shabby soundboard recording. No matter, it’s good enough for hardcore punk and the band’s performance is the real deal.

COVER: Varies somewhat depending on which version you run across at your local green grocer. This 2019 Mind Control Records release offers a front cover photo of DKs’ frontman Jello Biafra crowd surfing with a microphone in his hand. The 2018 Suicidal Records release features an action shot of Jello on stage singing. The back cover of both LPs is identical with track listing and a kinda kool, high-contrast photo of the band members stacked atop each other. Jello looks like the Caesar Romero version of the Joker from the 1960s-era Batman TV show!

TRACKLIST: Side A: 1. Kill the Poor • 2. Funland At the Beach • 3. Back In Rhodesia • 4. Dreadlocks of the Suburbs • 5. Police Truck Side B: 6. Ill In the Head • 7. Short Songs • 8. California Über Alles • 9. Holiday In Cambodia • 10. Chemical Warfare

COMMENTS: The Dead Kennedys – incendiary vocalist/lyricist Jello Biafra (née Eric Boucher), chainsaw guitarist East Bay Ray (Raymond Pepperell), rock solid bassist Klaus Flouride (Geoffrey Lyall), and drummer ‘Ted’ (a/k/a Bruce Slesinger) – were at the forefront of the late ‘70s American hardcore punk movement, a scene which then included Black Flag, the Germs, and the Misfits, among others. Featuring a gatling-gun musical approach of assaulting the audience with instrumental shrapnel, the band’s whiplash sonic overkill was paired with Biafra’s politically-charged and often-times controversial lyrics. 

Even the band’s name raised the hackles of ‘polite’ Bay area society, and area shows at punk hotspots like Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco were often credited to “The DK’s” or “The Pink Twinkies” to downplay the band’s inciteful moniker. The LP at hand – the Dead Kennedys’ Live At the Old Waldorf, San Francisco – captures an October 25th, 1979 live performance at the Old Waldorf venue that was broadcast by KALX-FM radio, a student-run station operated by the University of California in Berkeley, California. The band itself was barely a year old at this point, and had lost its second guitarist, ‘6025’ (i.e. Carlos Cadona) earlier that year. 

The DKs released their first single, “California Über Alles,” on their independent Alternative Tentacles Records label and had suffered through an unsuccessful East Coast tour that lost money due to the band’s obscurity. They were a hot property in the Bay Area, though, and a natural choice for the legendary Old Waldorf stage, which had also hosted performances by a diverse range of artists like Spirit, Metallica, Rory Gallagher, Blondie, Iggy Pop, and others between 1976 and 1983. The Dead Kennedys may not have been the most polished of live performers after spending a year in the trenches, but they were definitely one of the most exciting. 

Although Biafra’s high-register vocal snarl was derided by mainstream critics (Robert Christgau of the Village Voice likened his singing to Tiny Tim’s), it has since become one of the most easily recognized and imitated voices in punk rock. Side one kicks off with the lyrical barbs of “Kill the Poor,” the band then ripping ‘n’ roaring through tunes like the oddly-syncopated “Funland At the Beach,” the haunting “Back In Rhodesia” (later reworked into “When Ya Get Drafted”), the supercharged cod-reggae of “Dreadlocks of the Suburbs,” and the explosive social commentary of “Police Truck,” with its barbed-wire garrote of a circular guitar riff and elements of the Batman TV show theme song.             

Side two cranks off with the cacophonic “Ill In the Head,” which does a great job of approximating the sound of insanity with discordant instrumentation and Biafra’s angular, disjointed vocals. The short, sharp shock of “Short Songs” is delivered at breakneck speed (under a minute) while the band’s first single, “California Über Alles,” combines all of the band’s best aspects, from Biafra’s eerie vocals and anarchistic lyrics to the unrelenting barrage of instrumentation, the charge led by East Bay Ray’s flamethrower guitar. 

“Holiday In Cambodia” was the band’s second single and, perhaps, their best-known song. Lyrically juxtaposing yuppie consumer culture with Cambodia’s murderous Khmer Rouge, the song is devasting in its reach, delivering one of hardcore punk’s most memorable performances with wiry amphetamine guitar licks and Biafra’s strident vocals, which are delivered atop a tsunami of clashing instrumentation. The show-closer, “Chemical Warfare,” sounds downright pedestrian by contrast, its traditional machinegun H/C instrumentation supporting Biafra’s caustic lyrics, with a touch of whimsy injected into the song’s chaotic ending. 

Most of the material on Live At the Old Waldorf, San Francisco would land on the band’s 1980 debut, Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. Originally released by Cherry Red Records in the U.K. the album would subsequently be released by I.R.S. Records stateside before finally landing on Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label. Drummer ‘Ted’ left the band after the album’s release, replaced by the D.H. Peligro, who would remain with the DKs until their break-up in 1986. The enduring influence of the Dead Kennedys on rock ‘n’ roll is inestimable, with artists as diverse as Green Day, Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, Slayer, and Sepultura all citing the Dead Kennedys as an influence.

This particular DKs’ show has seen a lot of mileage over the past five years. Best as I can tell, it was originally released as a European “copyright gap” LP in 2016 by the Interference Records imprint, which has some pretty cool titles by folks like the Dictators, Meat Puppets, Pere Ubu, Hüsker Dü, Slaughter & the Dogs, and others that seem worth your time to track down. The aforementioned Suicidal Records release is one of a handful of albums by what seems to be a real fly-by-night label (their catalog only includes releases by the DKs, the Minutemen, the Misfits, and the Descendents). This Mind Control release offers the same bootleg quality sound as its predecessor, and the vinyl sports the exact same black labels and typeface, making one wonder if this just isn’t a reworked version of the Suicidal disc. Mind Control also has a slew of intriguing live discs available by punk-related artists like the Ramones, the Cramps, Alice Cooper, the Gun Club, and Bad Religion, to name but a few. 

No matter which version you grab, the Dead Kennedys’ Live at the Old Waldorf is a decent representation of the Dead Kennedys early’ sound, which improved somewhat once the band put the talented Peligro behind the kit. Unlike many of their peers, the DKs weren’t exceptionally prolific, with only four studio albums to their credit after eight years together. There’s not a wealth of live DKs to be found, either – two legit releases, to be exact – with 2001’s Mutiny On the Bay an amalgam of various performances circa 1982 to ’86, and 2004’s Live At the Deaf Club, which documents a March 1979 performance that includes original guitarist ‘6025’ and a longer set list than the Old Waldorf show. If you’re a DKs fan, though, you’re gonna want them all, and Live at the Old Waldorf is worth your time and money.

Front cover, Suicidal Records version:

Editor Bill's bonus pick (This one would make a fine vinyl consideration for bootleggers)

New Eddie Hinton Live CD: bootleggers really are heroes of culture

 

[review by Bill Glahn]

Eddie Hinton and The Nighthawks: Rose’s Cantina Atlanta ’79 (Echoes ECHOCD2070)

Venue: as stated but specific date unknown

Sound Quality: Very good soundboard with some distortion on the vocals in some places. (8 out of 10) The cover claims to be a WLIR broadcast. I don’t believe it. You shouldn’t either.

Cover: Attractive 8-page booklet and tray card with lengthy but not entirely accurate liner notes.

Tracklist: My Lover’s Prayer/ 634-57-89/ Get Off In It/ True Fine Mama/ Brand New Man/ A Change Is Gonna Come/ Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay (start)/ Announcement/ Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay (finish)/ Shout Bamalama/ Crawling King Snake/ Can’t Turn You Loose

Comments: Because of the low cost of producing CDs versus the high price of vinyl, most of the vinyl producers are sticking to more popular classic rock artists (with some exceptions, of course). For collectors of lesser-known artists, the real boon is in compact discs. Attracted by higher profit margins and lower entry costs, CD producers in Europe have been mining their collections and the Internet for radio broadcasts that comply with the loophole for broadcasts that exists there now. This has made for some surprising releases. Certainly, during the ‘70s, live radio broadcasts were at their peak, sometimes syndicated nationally, sometimes only locally.

 

Although this release claims to be one of those, it is not. WLIR is a station in Long Island (NY) noted for having up and coming artists perform live broadcasts from Roslyn, NY, usually from a club called My Father’s Place. They did not broadcast club shows from Atlanta. To put it politely, Echoes is fudging.

In fact, what appears as “Radio Announcement” on track 8 is actually a pathetic attempt to simulate one, (in a British accent no less) by telling “listeners” in mid song that it’s time to flip their tape for the continuation of the show. There is no station ID given. I suppose we should believe that members of the WLIR audience only recorded on 60 minute tapes (sarcasm intended). So what you end up with is less than a minute of “Sitting On The Dock of the Bay” interrupted with an anonymous voice, and then the conclusion – not the two versions one would expect to hear going by the tray card track listing. It’s amateur hour in unauthorized CD land. I can appreciate not wanting to exclude the song (great performance) but the disc would be better served by doing a fade in for the second part, since it is the bulk of the song anyway.

So what do we have?

It sounds like a soundboard tape recorded a little hot and a couple of generations removed from the master. Still not bad – a very enjoyable CD. The amazing thing about this CD is that it got made at all. Much to the delight of fans of the “swamper” sound that emanated from 2 studios in Muscle Shoals, AL., Hinton was an instrumental part of the studio musicians that contributed to that area’s reputation and a supremely talented soul singer in his own right.

Eddie Hinton made 4 albums during his lifetime, all excellent. One posthumous release,  came from unfinished recordings from his first album sessions (Very Extremely Dangerous, Capricorn Records) and late period sessions (90s) which were completed and assembled  with the aid of the very same Muscle Shoals musicians that Hinton had spent anonymously backing those great soul performers that traveled south to Alabama to record with the fabled Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and The Swampers – artists like Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Arthur Conley, The Staple Singers, Solomon Burke, Otis Redding and many others. If you’ve never heard of Eddie Hinton, you’ve heard his guitar playing and song writing.

In more recent years, Hinton’s specter has been raised by The Drive-By Truckers on a song about his life (“Sandwiches on the Road,” 1998 Gangstabilly album), a documentary (Dangerous Highway narrated by Robert Cray, 2008) and a 2009 series of Hinton songs released on singles (Shake It Records). The DBTs contributed “Where’s Eddie” b/w “Everybody Needs Love,” a tune which they continue to perform live and can be found on the Go-Go Boots album in addition to the Shake It Records single. That Hinton never received such accolades during his lifetime is a story all too familiar in the world of music – mental illness, self-medication with drugs and alcohol, periods of homelessness, the resulting volatile nature that left him estranged from some of the musicians he shared the studio with. None of those musicians, however, would deny his enormous talent and vocal abilities – perhaps the best white r&b vocalist that ever lived.

Rose’s Cantina finds Hinton during a relative period of calm in his life. Not that Hinton was ever a “calm” vocalist – he was a soul shouter in the best tradition and equally as adept at ballads. On this performance he is backed by Washington D.C.’s Nighthawks, one of the finer retro revivalists of the period, whom Hinton had worked with in the past. It follows the release of his first album, the set list including three songs from Very Extremely Dangerous mixed with some of the Muscle Shoals classics he had played on. The band is in fine form and Hinton still possesses that wonderful voice – the thing that most deteriorated during his demise. He wouldn’t record again for 8 years, Capricorn suffering a decline in chart dominance with disco and punk replacing southern rock as the genre de jour for the mass music audience. By his second album, 1988’s Letters From Mississippi, there was noticeable deterioration in his vocal ability from hard living. But his talents for singing and writing were still superb on those late period albums and they should find homes in any comprehensive collection of soul music.

While editorializing about the first Beatles bootlegs on CD years ago, the New York Times called bootleggers “heroes of culture.” As long as previously unavailable recordings of this importance continue to be issued, that accolade will remain true. It’s the first live recording of Hinton in my collection. In a just world, it won’t be the last. Kudos, Echoes Records!

Grade: B (an A- if not for the fake radio announcement)

Bonus view: Listen up y'all!

Repertoire has a winner with historic Yardbirds recordings!

 THE YARDBIRDS

Live In France

(Repertoire Records U.K.)

VENUE: Palais des Sports, June 20th, 1965; Music Hall De France, June 27th, 1966; Grand Spectacle de Jeunes, April 30th, 1967; Bouton Rouge TV show studio, March 9th, 1968. 

SOUND QUALITY: Damn good mono recordings, really, considering the 50+ year vintage of these performances. While there’s a little distortion here and there, the odd drop-out, and some echo, overall the CD provides an enjoyable listening experience with clear vocals and separation of instruments. Kudos to ‘Eroc the Engineer’, whoever that is, for a fine job in digitally remastering these performances for release.  

COVER: Gatefold digipak with plastic tray; perfunctory photoshopped front cover photo with track listing and a smaller live concert photo on the back. Impressive 16pp booklet with plenty of rare color photos and informative liner notes, including quotes from original band members Paul Samwell-Smith and Jim McCarty, written by noted British music historian and critic Chris Welch.

TRACKLIST: 

1. For Your Love • 2. I Wish You Would (both 1965) • 3. Train Kept A-Rollin’ • 4. Shapes of Things • 5. Over, Under, Sideways, Down (all 1966) • 6. Shapes of Things • 7. Train Kept A-Rollin’ • 8. You’re A Better Man Than I • 9. Heart Full of Soul • 10. My Baby • 11. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) • 12. Over, Under, Sideways, Down (all 1967) • 13. Train Kept A-Rollin’ • 14. Dazed and Confused • 15. Goodnight Sweet Josephine (all 1968) 

COMMENTS: Although they enjoyed only modest chart success in the U.K. and, belatedly, in the U.S. the Yardbirds were often overshadowed at the time by fellow British Invaders like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Formed in London in 1963, the original band line-up included singer Keith Relf, rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja, bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, and drummer Jim McCarty. The teen-aged Top Topham was the band’s original lead guitarist but, being too young to tour, he was replaced by the up-and-coming talent Eric Clapton. This was the line-up that recorded the ‘Birds initial single releases, with Clapton leaving in 1965 after the release of “For Your Love” to pursue a ‘purer’ blues sound with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.

Clapton was involved in the recording of the band’s 1964 debut, Five Live Yardbirds and, after his departure, he was replaced by an equally-talented guitar-slinger in Jeff Beck, fresh from British R&B band the Tridents. Beck would hang around for a little over a year, recruiting his friend Jimmy Page – then an in-demand session player – to join the band and eventually take his place as the band’s lead guitarist. The latest Yardbirds release by U.K. label Repertoire Records, Live In France, documents several appearances by the blues-rockers on French TV and radio in their post-Clapton era. The CD is a great representation of the band circa 1965-68 with solid performances, and serves to compliment numerous BBC radio/TV and British concerts previously released by Repertoire.  

Two tracks circa June 1965 come from a concert at the Palais des Sport where the band opened for the Beatles and feature “For Your Love” and “I Wish You Would.” The former was actually the band’s third single and their first U.K. Top Ten hit (#3), the latter song was their 1964 debut single. Both performances are lively, energetic, and sound much better than they have any right to (antiquated recording technology and all that). Derived from a French radio broadcast on Europe 1, this line-up of the band included Beck, but it’s frontman Keith Relf that shines with spirited vocal performances and raging harp-play.

Jump forward a year to 1966 and the ‘Birds dropped by the studio on June 27th, 1966 to record songs for the French TV show Music Hall De France. With Beck still in tow and Page replacing Samwell-Smith on bass, the band knocks out three rave-ups on film to be broadcast weeks later. The sound is a slight bit hollower here than on the previously-mentioned radio broadcast, the performances likely derived from the old film reels. The band kicks out the jams, though, beginning with the old blues chestnut “Train Kept A-Rollin’,” which offers plenty of McCarty’s enthusiastic timekeeping, blasts of hurricane-force harmonica, and subtle guitarplay between Beck and Dreja. 

“Shapes of Things” was another Top Ten U.K. hit (#3) for the band, and the audience raucously applauds the song which features Relf’s strong vocals, subtle fretwork, and some explosive mortar-fire drumbeats hovering atop Page’s understated bass lines. “Over, Under, Sideways, Down,” with its familiar Beck circular guitar riff, was another bona fide U.K. hit and here the band revs up the engine and hot rods through the song in slightly more than two minutes, leaving a stunned audience in its wake.

An April 1967 appearance at the Grande Spectacle de Jeunes near Paris comprises the heart of Live In France. Representing nearly half of the CD’s 15 songs, the liner notes are a little oblique about the source of these seven recordings. The Yardbirds played on Saturday afternoon on a bill that included American R&B great Percy Sledge and a number of unnamed French singers. The concert was evidently filmed (a couple of director’s names are mentioned in the album’s credits) but no info is offered about potential TV broadcast. There are a few video clips of these performances readily available online, however.   

The band stomps and hammers these seven performances with their usual aplomb. Beck is gone at this point, rhythm guitarist Dreja moved over to bass, and Page is the band’s lone six-stringer. There’s some duplication in songs from previous shows, with energetic performances of “Shapes of Things,” “Over, Under, Sideways, Down,” and “Train Kept A-Rollin’” (which features even more maniac harmonica riffing by Relf than the ’66 take!) before we get to the meat of the meal. “You’re A Better Man Than I,” the B-side to the band’s “Shapes of Things” 45rpm flapjack, is musically complex with subtle rhythmic patterns, Relf’s vocal gymnastics, and elegant shading by Page (along with a wiry mid-song solo that presages Zeppelins to come…). 

The band immediately rips into “Heart Full of Soul,” riding on the back of Page’s monster riff. The song was two-years-old by this time, a former Top Ten U.K. hit (#2), but the band sounds as enthusiastic in its performance here as they did when the song was riding high. Switching gears, Relf turns on his love light with a soulful reading of the R&B gem “My Baby” before tackling Bob Dylan’s “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine).” Lots of singers have taken on the Dylan songbook, but by quickening the pace and interjecting even raspier harmonica blasts than the original, with the band providing a warm rhythmic soundtrack beneath Relf’s voice, the Yardbirds makes the song their own. 

Sound quality for these 1967 tracks is good, impressive really, with slight distortion at times and an overall buzzy brightness, with Relf’s voice riding high in the mix. The last three songs here date from March 1968, filmed for the French TV show Baton Rouge and the studio sound is astounding. “Train Kept A-Rollin’” makes its third appearance on Live In France, and it’s just as rollicking and ramshackle here as previous, the band coming dangerously close to jumping off the tracks with unrelenting rhythms and steely harmonica reminiscent of Deford Bailey (look him up). Adapted and/or inspired from American singer/songwriter Jake Holmes’ acoustic song “I’m Confused” (or so the lawsuit claimed), “Dazed and Confused” makes one of its earliest appearances here, Page first taking bow to guitar in the creation of haunting, otherworldly sounds. 

Clocking in at five-minutes-plus, “Dazed and Confused” is probably as heavy as the Yardbirds ever got, and if McCarty isn’t quite the skin-shredder than John Bonham was, it’s still an impressively progressive musical performance for 1968 (and it foreshadows much of Zep’s swingin’ ‘70s…). The set closes out with a wildly contrasting “Goodnight Sweet Josephine” which, curiously was the band’s final U.S. single release. Engaging and lively, musically, with skronky guitar licks and heavy drumbeats and cymbal-bashing, the song plays like a mix of British dancehall and (futuristic) hard rock. Needless to say, it went over stateside like a lead…well, it peaked at #127 on the U.S. charts and pretty much stamped “paid” to the band’s career, the Yardbirds splintering into different bands by the end of the year.

As talented as they were, the Yardbirds may have remained an obscure rock ‘n’ roll footnote if not for the monster commercial success enjoyed by Page’s Led Zeppelin (a/k/a ‘The New Yardbirds’), which caused many a 1970s-era teenager to search for old Yardbirds sides. I’d wager that more Yardbirds albums were released stateside in the 1970s than during the previous decade, and the band’s status as rock ‘n’ roll innovators has only grown in the decades since. In the new millennium, the band has become a veritable cottage industry with a wealth of live recordings and compilation LPs of various quality released. Live In France is one of the better late-model Yardbirds releases, featuring decent sound and a slate of dynamic live performances that display the full range of the band’s enormous talents and groundbreaking sound. Grade: A (Rev. Keith A. Gordon) 

Bonus views:

Tom Stevens on bootlegs (October 1999 issue of Live! Music Review) R.I.P., Brother

 

Bootlegs

By Tom Stevens

Bootlegs. I love ‘em. It’s August of 1971 again, I’m 14, at a music camp at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. I’m walking hand in hand into a record store near the campus with Laura Berry, a beautiful, frizzy light brown-haired violinist from Fort Wayne I’d just met. On a wire rack to the right of the counter was a rack of bootlegs. James Taylor, Cat Stevens. Yeesh, I thought, folk’s sure getting popular. I wound up purchasing a Jimi Hendrix record and leaving, no doubt to engage in more pleasures of the 14-year-old flesh with my new sweetie Laura.

Hearing the same records over and over got boring. The thought of hearing my faves in the raw was a welcome promise when I first read about the existence of bootleg LPs in Hit Parader magazine. It was about how pissed Led Zeppelin (or their manager) was over their bootlegs.

Later when I was in a band that a lot of people came to see play, I found myself bootlegged. Strange. When you’re listening to other people’ performances on a bootleg, you expect them not to be up to professional standards, which is exactly what intrigued me. Slickness is falsehood, guts are everything.

The buzz I got listening to The Beatles “Kum Back” or the Stones “Live-r Than You’ll Ever Be” was indescribable. Now, while listening to an audience tape of me, I was reminded of the first time I heard a tape of myself talking into a tape recorder at a young age. Like meeting a new person, or in this case, a new band.

I personally allow taping at all my gigs. The last big venue I played there was a sign saying “no taping/no photography” like it was a proprietary thing. Who knows how many brilliant, earthshaking performances have been lost forever over the centuries due to that mindset. Speaking of proprietary, a big moralistic complaint about bootlegs is that the artist sees no money from it. Wrong, bucko.

Canadian radio plays (and subsequent royalty checks) from my unreleased song “Silence” made me release it legitimately on Points Revisited. Through the miracle of bootlegging (or in this case, tape trading) some radio station in Canada was playing my song, and reporting it to MI, who in turn was sending me checks. Go figure.

As I write, The Long Ryders were just honored by their second bootleg and first boot CD. This was taken from a Bottom Line in New York FM broadcast from 1987, at the start of my last tour with them. I thought it was a terrific piece, better than the live BBC disc that was taken from the UK leg of that fateful tour.

The Long Ryders, despite being praised in the press, have up to now never been a cash cow for anyone, so I knew immediately that whoever it was that put out that disc did not consider the profit motive (or lack thereof) but rather, took the risk on sheer love of the music. All I can say is, thanks.

[2021 editor's note: Tom Stevens passed away today. It was completely unexpected as Tom had been active just a day before in a bootleg forum. The CD he refers to in this article was called The End of the Trail (Massive Attack Discs) and it became useful when the Long Ryders released the same show officially years later. From Sid Griffin's website: "A great bootleg CD taken from an FM broadcast of the show at the Bottom Line in New York City on 7th May 1987. This is the very same release as the new official Long Ryders album Three Minute Warnings: The Long Ryders Live In New York City on Prima Records (SID015). However Three Minute Warnings has much, much better sound as it is from the original master tapes. Interestingly enough those original master tapes ran out with some ninety seconds left in the concert so the tail end of 10-5-60 on Three Minute Warnings is actually a digital edit from The End Of The Trail bootleg!]

Happy trails, Tom. It was great to know you.