LAURA NYRO
1970-1-24
Berkeley Community Center
Berkeley, California, USA
"8:30 PM, one performance only"
Lineage:
AUD Reel > CDR > WavePad Sound Editor (amplification @ 400%) > Trader's Little Helper (FLAC 8, align on sector boundaries)
Laura Nyro, piano and vocals
1. New York Tendaberry
2. Captain for Dark Mornings
3. He's a Runner
4. Spanish Harlem
5. Blackpatch
6. Nyro addresses the audience (inaudible) > Wedding Bell Blues > Stoney End
7. Emmie
8. Buy and Sell
9. Poverty Train (tape change)
10. When I Die (fade in)
11. Tom Cat Goodby
12. Time and Love > Save the Country
13. Timer
Total Time: ~ 65:00
QUALITY NOTES Rating: C+/B-
When I got this tape, it was DISTANT and VERY LOW, almost inaudible. The
vocals are often muffled and difficult to hear clearly. The intimacy of the
performance and Nyro's tendency to modulate greatly, within a single song, her
touch at the piano and her voice, as well as the large hall itself, all contribute
to difficulties the taper - whose excellent work is represented elsewhere on
Dime - had capturing this performance.
I amplified it as much as my system would allow, which improves
some tracks, while others - particularly the first few, and the first
few measures of many of the others - remain very low and difficult listening.
At the same time, the applause was quite loud to begin with, and now it's
unfortunately even louder. There is also quite a bit of STATIC and TAPE NOISE.
A few of the tracks have some tape damage as well, in particular on tracks 1 and 12.
So, this is not the kind of thing you could burn and listen to in the car; rather,
it demands a careful listening. I'm putting it out here mainly for the fans of her
music (of which I'm one) who will be happy it exists regardless of the quality
(to be sure, there are some nice moments here); and also for someone with more
audio savvy than I who might know how to repair it further. As we all know,
there exist precious few Laura Nyro live tapes from this period...