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A 16-bit version will be posted as soon as there are seeders for this torrent.
Alex Chilton
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Uptown Bar + Grill
10 January 1985
[mono audience recording; total running time: 44:29]
A-side of cassette (22:41)
[with Tommy Stinson on bass]:
001 start (00:32)
002 Tee Ni Nee Ni Nu [James "Slim Harpo" Moore;1967] (3:00)
003 interim (00:22)
004 Rock Hard (2:48)
005 interim (00:34)
006 Tina The Go-Go Queen [Mack Rice; 1975] (3:25)
007 Boogie Shoes [aborted] (1:04)
[edited during 1st-gen transfer]
008 It Hurts Me Too [Elmore James; 1957] (2:29)
[edited during 1st-gen transfer]
009 Ten Commandments (From Man To Woman) [Prince Buster; 1967]
[edited during 1st-gen transfer]
010 interim (00:26)
[with "Miles Off" on bass]
011 Hey! Little Child (3:14)
B-side of cassette (21:48):
[fade-in applied during 1st-gen transfer]
012 Disco Lady [Johnnie Taylor; 1976] (3:42)
[edited during 1st-gen transfer]
013 Alligator Man (3:03)
014 interim (1:06)
015 The Greatest Love Of All [Michael Masser + Linda Creed; 1977] (2:40)
016 applause (1:00)
[edited during 1st-gen transfer]
017 'Deed I Do [music: Fred Rose, lyrics: Walter Hirsch; 1926] (2:07)
018 applause (1:00)
019 Margie [Con Conrad; Benny Davis; J. Russell Robinson; circa 1920s] (2:51)
020 interim (1:17)
021 Albatross [Peter Green / Fleetwood Mac; 1969 (instrumental)] (2:12)
022 applause (00:28)
023 introductions (00:15)
opening for The Replacements
bass: Tommy Stinson [tracks 1-9]
drums: Tony Marino [sic?]
bass: "Miles Off" [unknown]
A fellow who ran a local record store in Minneapolis suggested I should go check out Alex Chilton at The Uptown Bar, which at the time, was a venue I had never set foot in, so I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what to expect from Alex, either, as he had been fairly reclusive for a number of years. He had been urged to come to Minneapolis and produce a recording for The Replacements, which resulted in their first major label album, Tim. By the time the record was released, however, Chilton became relegated to "assistant" status. The engineer who worked on the sessions once told me the situation was a disaster; he claimed that all Alex did was sit around and smoke pot and play with the faders, and the folks at the studio called in Tommy Erdelyi [aka Tommy Ramone] to produce the record. Anyone who has the 2008 Rhino re-issue of Tim finally got to hear some of the fruits of Alex's contibution to that album.
I was living between NYC and Minneapolis during this time, so I was able to see Alex again at Folk City later in the same year. I recorded that show as well, with the same unit - a table-top mono deck, similar to the Panasonic RQ-2102 model (which can still be found online pretty easily). Hardly optimal, but it was that or nothing, as I was in between decent stereo cassette recorders at the time. I stood in front of the P.A. speaker on the left side of the stage for the entire set, and cradled the deck so the built-in condenser mic was facing the stage. The crowd up front were large, drunk, and enthusiastic fans of some phase of Alex's musical career. Unfortunately, I found myself pinned in between a couple of elbow-swinging biker-wannabees, and their female counterparts (who were less interested in the music than stumbling back and forth through the crowd spilling beer on anyone in their path). At one point, my record store pal intervened on the behalf of my tape recorder, and the recording improved noticeably after that.
All said, the recording turned out better than I might have expected, although somewhere over time, I made an un-wise decision to transfer the original to another cassette, converting it to faux-stereo, and adding a bit of EQ in the process. I don't think those changes helped at all, but apparently at the time, I was confident enough with the results that I decided not to keep the original tape. Ouch. For this "re-constructed master" version, I converted the 2-channel transfer back to mono. No additional EQ or any other type of enancement has been added. Although this is far from audiophile quality, I do believe that this version is a vast improvement over what I started with.
Based on one of Alex's comments during this set, there had been another show the previous night - as I recall, someone told me that had taken place at either Seventh Street Entry or First Avenue, in downtown Minneapolis. I have no idea why I wasn't there. Recently, a pal of mine who used to play guitar in the Mpls band Vertigo, told me that their drummer had played with Alex at First Avenue, possibly around this time, so that might have been the same show, but I can't say for certain. For this particular show, I believe Alex had come into town and hired a rhythm section through the Musicians' Union, or something like that. Alex was opening for The Replacements, and his bass player hadn't shown up, so Tommy Stinson was recruited to fill in on bass for about half the set. This led to a couple of awkward moments, as Tommy's playing abilities were of a different caliber than Alex's. "Boogie Shoes" was aborted, which was too bad, but they did what they could. Alex had a bunch of loose leaf sheets of music in his guitar case, and he was obviously cherry-picking material he thought would work for this set; there is a definite shift in the second half, as far as key changes and time signatures are concerned.
The 16-bit version will follow, after a few folks have completed downloading this version.
I know some people like to make artwork for their collections, but I would like to ask that those kinds of things aren't posted on my uploads, please. I just want to make it clear that I'm into sharing music, but I feel like the whole thing about posting artwork publicly de-values the merits of the music itself, and makes it into something that resembles a bootleg. I can't make anyone agree with me, but I'm asking that people will please respect my request, which will definitely influence how much music I share in the future. If someone wants to make a little sleeve or something for their own personal collection, they can always do that on their own. Anyway, thanks, and please enjoy the music.
This recording is presented courtesy of Sonic Archives.
source:
1st-generation stereo cassette copy from orignal mono cassette
lineage:
Azimuth-optimized NAK analog-digital transfer > HD
tracks split with CDWav editor
post-processing applied:
SoundForge:
DC offset correction applied
Channel Converter: Stereo to Mono [ 35.4% (-9.0dB)]
16-bit .flac fileset:
Resampled from 96kHz to 44.1kHz
Bit-depth conversion from 24-bit to 16-bit
Traders Little Helper:
Level 8 .flac conversion