David Johansen Group
Live At Bunky's
Madison, WI
July 4, 1978
WIBA-FM
101.5 MHz
01 - Cool Metro (3:30)
02 - Looking For A Kiss (3:28)
03 - Not That Much (3:44)
04 - Funky But Chic (4:32)
05 - Donna (5:52)
06 - I'm A Lover (4:36)
07 - Build Me Up Buttercup (3:49)
08 - I Found A Love (5:07)
09 - Gimme A Pigfoot (3:49)
10 - Love Child (4:12)
11 - Reach Out (I'll Be There) (5:54)
12 - Frenchette (8:29)
13 - Lonely Tenement (6:00)
14 - Personality Crisis (3:43)
15 - It's A Heartache (4:12)
16 - Personality Crisis (2:52)
17 - DJ Outro (0:45)
Personnel seems to be the same as July 21, 1978, the Bottom Line, NYC:
David Johansen - Vocals, Harmonica, Acoustic Guitar
Sylvain Sylvain - Guitar, Piano, Backing Vocals
Johnny Rao - Guitar, Backing Vocals
Thomas Trask - Guitar, Backing Vocals
Buz Verno - Bass, Backing Vocals
Frankie La Rocka - Drums, Backing Vocals
Lineage: FM Live Remote > TDK Audua @ 3.75 ips > Zoom R16 > Audacity > TLH
A few years after the New York Dolls fractured, and a few years before developing the Buster Poindexter persona, the David Johansen Group brought a lively gutter rock / uptown soul hybrid to the scattered stereo systems and gin joints of America. Touring behind his first solo album, David and band play a spirited set, similar, but not identical to the well known Bottom Line appearances occurring a couple weeks later. Compared to the Bottom Line show released in truncated form as a promo LP (and eventually, an 18 track CD), this Madison show lacks "Girl Don't Come", "Girls", and "Babylon", but adds Bessie Smith's "Gimme A Pigfoot And A Bottle Of Beer" from 1933. David's genial personality and amusing stage banter are well displayed, and the band is a tight post-Dolls straight ahead rock and roll ensemble.
The left channel of the tape has some repetitive dropouts (perhaps due to reel warpage) in the first half of the recording. Manual repairs were not completely successful, so I mixed the channels a bit to minimize the distraction. Sound quality was steadier by the halfway point, so you may notice an increase in stereo separation at that point. Elsewhere, isolated dropouts and tape damage were repaired where possible. I may have missed some, of course. Just a little EQ, NR and limiting were applied. For maximum enjoyment, pour some beverages and have a party!
Bunky's was a small club above an Italian restaurant formerly at the corner of Park and Regent. It was not the longest lasting, or best known live music venue in town, but did manage to book, beside David Johansen, the Jam, the Ramones, and possibly even Graham Parker, on some of their earliest forays into Mad Town. I'm not aware of any other live broadcasts from the location, but WIBA (by far the best and most eclectic station in town, at the time) did a fine job frequency modulating the "late show". No commercial interruptions. Kirk's tape cuts off all the but the last couple syllables of the MC introduction, so I faded in on the applause, and no more editing was done until the end of the show. The DJ outro is optional, but it documents the date of the show (ending in the midnight hour of Wednesday morning, July fifth), so I included everything that was on the tape.