Arthur Lee & Love
(actually Arthur Lee backed by The Cheetahs)
1993-10-04 Northampton, Massachusetts Northampton Center For The Arts (DM-SBD)
NOTE : This is an UPGRADE to all circulating copies of this recording.
01. Alone Again Or
02. Orange skies
03. My Little Red Book
04. Andmoreagain
05. L.A. Caloca
06. That's The Way It Goes
07. Signed D.C.
08. Stephanie Knows Who
09. A House Is Not A Motel
10. Singing Cowboy
11. She Comes In Colors
12. 7 & 7 Is
13. Can't Explain
14. Everybody's Gotta Live
Total Time ::: 57:26
::: Perfect digital stereo SBD recording. Check samples to set yr saliva drippin' & pulse a'racin'.
::: Warts: Couple of tiny glitches in first few seconds of show, mostly repaired. Nothing else worth mentioning. SWEET.
::: This recording also circulates as an AUD, with incorrect dates & with substantially inferior sound - hissy, muddy, low levels, speed problems - none of which are here!
::: New Radiant Storm Kings & The Veronica Cartwrights opened.
Recording Information ::: stereo soundboard -> Sony TCD-3 portable DAT recorder -> Master SBD stereo 48KHz TDK R120 Digital Audio Tape (DAT).
Playback 2009-xx-xx ::: Master SBD stereo 48KHz TDK R120 DAT on professional Tascam portable DAT recorder -> Tascam CD-RW900SL CD recorder -> 44.1KHz CD-R.
Playback 2012-12-xx ::: 44.1KHz CD-R clone (*) of Master 48KHz DAT -> computer -> Audacity (phase corrected, fades & glitches fixed, some volume adjustments, no EQ) -> CD Wave (track splits) -> Trader's Little Helper -> yer ears. (*call it what you want). I raised the volume of the solo acoustic set somewhat; it was too low. First uploaded week of 2013-01-05.
Line-up ::: Line-up ::: Arthur Lee - acoustic & electric guitars, harmonica, tambourine, vocals.
with The Cheetahs (line-up unknown but certainly with some of the following folks: Nelson Bragg, Chris Soucy, Ezra Gale, Brent Nielsen & a flute player.
Nothing here ever commercially released to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please advise & I'll take the offending trax offline.
CoolSonics 208 ::: Thanks to the original taper, yrs truly! ::: Corrections welcome ::: Well, the true story behind this recording is one I am pleased about, but also a bit embarrassed by... When I heard me friend Mal Thursday was really going to bring Arthur Lee to Noho, I was REALLY psyched. I had never seen him before (though I would end up seeing him in Boston the night before this gig) & given that not too long before I had acquired a digital recording device that cost more than my car at that time (and in fact the most expensive thing I'd ever bought to date, if memory serves me correctly), I was quite intrigued with multiple possibilities. The main one being that at that point there were no soundboards of Love or Arthur Lee circuating at all & it seems like the chance of a lifetime & was kind of holy taper grail! The evening finally arrived & as pre-arranged with Mal, I showed up at the gig, DAT machine & blanks in hand & got board access. YES! soundcheck run-thru, then about 2 minutes before Arthur was to go on, the manager came up the board, circled around behind me & said, "What's that?" (pointing at my tiny Sony TCD-3 DAT recorder). I told him and he said, "We don't allow soundboard recordings, so you'll have to unplug the machine or give me the tape afterwards." I imagine I stuttered a bit as I was sorely disappointed, but said I would record & give him the tape after the gig. Within a few seconds (immediately) after the last song, the guy showed up at the soundboard. I did something that was quite out of character for me... I palmed the DAT as I took it out of the machine & switched it for a fresh blank I had already removed the plastic from. Ooops... and I went home with the master - SCORE! Now this was so out of character for me I felt extremely guilty. So (and this is absolutely true) I got the address of the management & sent the guy a copy of the DAT two days later & apologised for the "mixup". Fortunately not long after the tour, Arthur dumped him & he wasn't around when Arthur returned a few months later.... and I taped again.
Another thing that happened was that I was sort of concerned that the show might be bootlegged & so I never gave out any digital copies direct from the DAT, but only traded cassette copies. I actually got a call from someone who had heard a cassette copy & wanted to acquire a direct DAT. He claimed Arthur owed him money & wanted to boot the recording to "recover his money" or something to that effect. I turned him down & then later he booted the show anyway, from the cassette copy he had. I've never actually seen the silver boot CD, but apparently it does exist. The copy of this show I downloaded from the net has very degraded sound with MANY problems & the high end is clearly missing - for one thing the cymbal peaks are wiped off the recording.
Arthur was really out there. Hanging out with him off stage he was kind of the mad hatter - spaced plus - and made a lot of really off the wall comments. Then, on stage, while performing, the guy was clued in, with it, dynamic & totally magical.
Another part of this story is that one of the biggest disappointments for me about the recording was the fact that the begining was screwed up, marred by a couple of bad glitches. The sound guy & I had everything all set up, but right when the music started, he flipped some switch & there was a glitch in the signal. Right after that he changed the mix, raising the guitar in one channel & the first 2 seconds sounded screwed up, so every time I listened to the show I was quite distracted right at the beginning. While no professional, given the wonders of modern computer technology, I was able to to patch something together at this point that almost completely gets rid of the problems, they are minimised enough to not bother me anymore. If someone quite skilled at audio editing technology wants to take a shot at it, I can send out the first few seconds to be worked to see if it can be done better.
This was my favorite Arthur Lee gig of all the ones I went to. The band was much more interesting than the others I saw Arthur with, with the exception of Baby Lemonade, who had months & then years of rehearsing & touring with Arthur & certainly had the whole production much more down pat after a while. But this band really captured the subtlety & fragile aspects of many of the songs, as well as rocking out in the heavy parts with excellent psychedelic guitar. I mean, given that there was no real rehearsal with Arthur, the thing is damn unbelievable. There is a song where someone is out of key a bit, and there is some uncertainty here & there with the guitar parts, but many of the songs are among my favorite live versions & I have listened to this recording more than a hundred times over the past couple of decades. Don't forget for many years it was one of the only live recordings of it's quality there was to listen to. Now you got it from the source. Enjoy!
Kudos to Zongo for life support, Lochner for mikes&more & Fast Freddie for runnin' Video Dick's Record Emporium with the bathroom office full of tape decks. Thanks to Hanwaker (few among us can keep his pace). Mountains of gratitude to Davmar, D.White, Sanchez, Elliot, The Florida Kid, Kloiber, Zingg, JTW, Bershaw, Boston Gold, Weeks, Dixon, Moore, Gough & SO many more for all that collecting & sharing... Royal thanks to The Man In The Palace, Doc Tinker, Brinkhoffs, Barely Eatin', Reel Master Gaule, Parrish & all the traders who housed me thru my music acquisition & travel years. Hats off to Brother Kent, Uncle Jake, Little Queenie (& her neighbor Frank) & his honor Ptomaine Thomas. Glasses raised to Byron for musical horizon expansion & much obliged to J & Thurston for keepin' my concert fires burnin' since my continental shift. Thanks to the Mods for keepin' DIME alive. Enjoy, share, give, spread peace. Yers truly, Knees
Do whatever you want with it except sell it, 'cause that ain't cool!