Civic Auditorium
Santa Monica, California
Delaney Bramlett on all songs, except "Everyday I have the blues"
Toe Fat on "Everyday I have the blues"
Geetarz Comments:
This Paddington set should not be confused with earlier vinyl release of the same title, or the CD with the same title released on the Trade Mark of Quality label (TMoQ 71082).
Paddington's release is a definite improvement on many earlier releases, but it's great that they preserved the groovy graphics!
Of special note, the Paddington release includes instructions, so you, too, can make your own "Kami-Jake Peparsleeve" [sic]. NO, it's not as cool as an Air Guitar or an Eric Clapton Head on a Stick, but it comes in at #3 on our Cool-O-Meter.
Goofy stuff aside, it's time to talk about a few of the MANY releases of this performance. Perhaps the earliest was the aforementioned vinyl ROIO, and subsequent CD release "Stormy Monday" on the Trademark of Quality (TMoQ) label. Those, and the later, "Live at Santa Monica" are incomplete, as they only feature only one of the two performances that day.
Empress Valley's impressively packaged 1999 release "The Majestic Stand", was available in 3CD and 4CD Gold "Limited Editions" (200 Copies for the latter) editions, and featured, in addition to the October 16, 1970 D&D performance in Philadelphia, both the Afternoon and Evening performances of the Santa Monica show.
As impressively packaged as the Empress Valley release was, it was later supplanted by the Mid Valley 3CD release unsurprisingly titled "The Majestic Stand", Why not "The Even More Superlative Majestic Stand", I don't know?. The only thing funnier than bootleggers ripping off people, is when bootleggers rip off other bootleggers and then sort of "flip 'em the bird" by not even pretending they did any work to arrive at a different source by stealing the title, too!
The Mid Valley release of "The Majestic Stand" (Mid Valley 068-071) is subtly remastered, and from that point on it's up to personal preference which version a listener will prefer, the Mid Valley or this Paddington version. The Mid Valley version is a little warmer and darker, the Paddington trades off being a bit brighter for a little more overall volume and hiss.