20/09/69 - FREE UNIVERSITY, RICHMOND, VA
Child
1 SISTER THERESA (3:52)
2 RESURRECTION (8:05)
3 GARDEN STATE PARKWAY BLUES (19:34, end cut)
4 THE WAR IS OVER (11:10)
5 KT-88 (3:45)
6 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.