Child (early Bruce Springsteen band)
Free University, Richmond, VA
September 20, 1969
This is a show I downloaded from DIME or Jungleland some years ago, then posted as a supposed Steel Mill show from the spring of 1970 (VCU Gym, Richmond). The original poster's info file text is included below. After some discussion when it was posted, there seems to be an agreement that this actually is a show from 1969, when Bruce and the band were called "Child".
Nothing is down with the files in the torrent except renaming them with track titles, and a new info text, fingerprints and included artwork (unknow source).
From Brucebase (http://www.brucebase.org.uk/gig1960.htm#9):
"20/09/69 - FREE UNIVERSITY, RICHMOND, VA
SISTER THERESA (3:52) / RESURRECTION (8:05) / GARDEN STATE PARKWAY BLUES (19:34, end cut) / THE WAR IS OVER (11:10) / KT-88 (3:45) / GOIN DOWN SLOW (15:22)
ONE show, held indoors at the University’s “Center”, with CHILD the lone act on the bill. The above-mentioned setlist is taken from a circulating 62-minute indoor audience recording of only fair sound quality. This is currently the earliest known CHILD-STEEL MILL audio in circulation. This audio first surfaced over 27 years ago but quickly became cannibalized in the tape trading pool. In 1977 two of these tracks (“Sister Theresa” and “Resurrection”) appeared on the vinyl boot “RESURRECTED” without any source information. The remainder of the audio has never been issued on any mainstream LP (or CD) boot and since the early 1980’s has tended to circulate with tracks missing. Fortunately it has begun to circulate again in recent years on CDR in its original 62-minute edition. There are discernable edits between tracks and this is not the complete show, which is likely to have lasted about 90 minutes and included 2 or 3 additional songs. However it is all the audio from this gig that is known to exist. All songs are complete except for “Garden State Parkway Blues”, which is faded out prematurely and could be missing several minutes. “KT-88”, an instrumental, is introduced by Bruce as a new creation. This is the only circulating performance of “Sister Theresa” and the flute-like sound heard on this track (and others in this show) is a recorder being played by Vini Lopez.
Over the years there has been considerable speculation regarding the time and location of this audio. The earliest traded specimens of this audio identified the source as a date-unspecified 1969 gig a Richmond club called “The String Factory”. Since no verified gig date at The String Factory was found in any early timeline sources, some collectors began assigning the audio to other gig dates. Consequently this audio has been linked to a plethora of shows from 1969 and 1970. It turns out that the early source identification was fairly accurate. This material is indeed from 1969 in Richmond – but it’s from “The Center”, which changed its name to “The String Factory” in the fall of 1970. This performance is prior to March 1970, as it features Vinnie Roslin on bass and background vocals. Although there were several shows at The Center during the Vinnie Roslin era, the sound of a heavy thunderstorm can be heard outside the building during “Garden State Parkway Blues” - this allows the candidate gigs from the winter months to be eliminated. Note: this audio may be from the previous evening’s performance on the 19th."
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This is from the discussion last time:
Attached is the poster from the 9-19 & 20-69 gig.
Note the comment about Vinnie Roslin's presence placing the date prior to March 1970. If the "Spring 1970" label is wrong this calls into question whether this torrent is actually taken from the master tape. Or was it labelled many years later by the taper, who got the date wrong then?
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mjk5510's original info text:
Bruce Springsteen (Steel Mill)
VCU Gym-Richmond, VA
Springs 1970
Lineage: Master Cassette > CDR > Flac
01 Sister Theresa
02 Ressurection
03 Garden State Parkway Blues
04 War Is Over
05 KT88
06 Gonig Down Slow
Here's a fairly rare one, an acutal Steel Mill master audience recording. The tape came my way via a business associate and mutual Springsteen fan. During one of our business meetings a few years back we were discussing the current tour (2002-2003) and bootlegs, he made the comment that he had taped Bruce a couple of times in the 70's. I was thinking one of the '78 shows and you can imagine I almost fell out of my chair when he said he had taped Bruce back when he was a member of Steel Mill and at the Backdoor Club (Bruce Springsteen Band), the circulating show from February 1972.
I inquired if he had traded it ever, he thought he had probably given out a copy or two to some friends over the years but had never circulated it in the traders circles.
So, there may be copies floating around but not from the master tape. The tape itself had "Spring 1970" written on it and he could not remember the exact date.
As far as I remember I've only sent one copy to anyone that does not regularly trade so it is not widely circulated if at all.
This is not the circulating show dated as 5/16/70 and has a completely different set list.
In doing research on this show, by accident, I discovered two songs (Sister Theresa/Ressurection) appeared on the vinyl bootleg "Ressurection" in very poor quality (they were not dated).
Known flaws, this is fairly clean overall, "Garden State Parkway Blues" had a very abrupt cut after about 19 minutes were the tape ran out, I've smoothed this some with a very slight fade (no music missing) so it isn't quite as harsh on playback. "Going Down Slow" also is cut at the very end but is not quite as harsh as it has a bit of fade on it's own as the recording went into the leader tape, I have not touched it further.
This runs 62 minutes long and was on a 60 minute tape, as with many analog tapes each side ran about a minute long so there was no dead space on the tape at all.
The first few seconds has a bit of wow and flutter but stabilizes pretty quickly.
All credit goes to Steve, the original taper, for this one who had the foresight to document this show over 30 years ago and hang on to the tape for that long. As well as unselflishly lending it to me (his is not part of the trading circles so just never gave out many copies or even thought a lot about anyone even caring much).
Samples below...
Enjoy!
mjk5510