Guilty Crown: Randy Newman 75

Yes, baby

I been drinkin'

And I shouldn't come by, I know

But I found myself in trouble, darlin'

And I had nowhere else to go

Got some whiskey 

from the barman

Got some cocaine 

from a friend

I just had to keep on movin'

Til I was back in your arms again

I'm guilty

baby I'm guilty

And I'll be guilty

all the rest 

of my life

How come I never do 

what I'm supposed to do?

How come nothin' that I try to do 

ever turns out right?

You know

you know how it is with me baby

You know I just can't stand myself

It takes a whole lot of medicine

For me to pretend that I'm somebody else

Randy Newman

Universal Amphitheatre

Universal City

Los Angeles, California

8.18.1978

01 tuning

02 Naked Man

03 Little Criminals

04 band introductions

05 Birmingham

06 Jolly Coppers On Parade

07 Short People

08 Political Science

09 Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear

10 Sail Away

11 Sigmund Freud's Impersonation of Albert Einstein In America

12 God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)

13 Linda

14 I Think It's Going to Rain Today

15 Rider In the Rain

16 You Can Leave Your Hat On

17 Louisiana 1927

18 A Wedding In Cherokee County

19 Kingfish

20 Baltimore

21 Rednecks

22 Lonely At the Top

23 Guilty

24 Mama Told Me Not to Come

Total time: 1:11:30

Randy Newman – vocals & piano

Fred Tackett - guitar

Willie Weeks - bass

Bill Payne - synthesizers

Michael McDonald – Fender Rhodes & vocals

Andy Newmark - drums

Bobby LaKind – congas & percussion

Ted Templeman - percussion & vocals

sounds like a 1st or 2nd gen cassette off-air capture of a mono FM or TV broadcast;

repaired, remastered and denoised by EN, November 2018

404 MB FLAC/November 2018 archive link

Randy Newman, born this day in 1943, is 75, so I dug out this -- perhaps the only bootleg of him performing with a full band -- and tried to improve on its admittedly flawed sonics. The spectral indicates an FM broadcast of unknown capture, but judging from the days I spent in the headphones with it, I'd guess it's a gen or two from a master cassette of some indeterminate origin.

It gets tempting on these FMs, where there's nothing above 15k anyway, to break out the demonic Noise Reduction, but I avoid that like The Plague so none was used here. Honestly it's not so much hissy but buzzy, with amplifier noises drifting about and maybe a microhint of tape flutter on the piano. 

The performance is so tremendous -- and the between-song patter from The Maestro so hilarious -- that none of this really matters, but it is what it is until the coveted pre-FM of whatever broadcast this comes from surfaces.

Heck, it could even be from some lost TV thing, who knows? This is all we have, so I made some (IMO) necessary modifications trying to get it sounding less dull, and to get it to leap from the speakers a little more without taking the noise profile into the upper ionosphere.

Anyway it'll never be perfect until that mythical pre-broadcast source surfaces, but I hope what I've done here -- this is probably my favorite circulating show of Randy's and I wanted it to sound at least measurably closer to its best -- is satisfying and made this set sound a bit more upfront and center as we celebrate the man's big day here.

Enjoy, and that goes for all you rednecks and short people too!--J.

Jamaican History: Uhuru '82

No one likes Mondays, but I promise you'll like this Monday anniversIrie post.

This is another set from the infamous Jamaica World Music Festival of 1982, considered by some to be the best fest ever blessed.

I've posted several of these, but this one might be the deepest.

We're just glad these got captured in the sparkling way they all did, that there might be a lasting document of such a seminal, legendary festival.

Our fare for today features one of the great Reggae bands, on their home turf and closing the second night of the JWMF like a boss.

It also features Reggae's most celebrated rhythm section, going fresh out of their minds for a full 80 minutes of dubtastic mayhem.

If I had to say what I love most about Black Uhuru, it'd be the way Michael Rose sings with the weary wisdom of the ancients, or the way Puma Jones puts otherwordly, equally-as-ancient-sounding harmonies on top of his remonstrations.

Puma's vocals on this stuff sound like they are cast down from the Upper Room or something; it's like an ancient, righteous plea for Justice denied in every syllable.

Another genius aspect of this badass set are the live Dub effects, prevalent throughout. I have no idea who mixed this live but they killed.

Overall it plays like a live greatest hits thing of these cats, in the near-perfect quality we wish all bootlegs could feature.

Black Uhuru

Jamaica World Music Festival

Bob Marley Performing Arts Center

Montego Bay, Jamaica

11.26.1982

01 Shine Eye Gal

02 Plastic Smile

03 I Love King Selassie

04 Chill Out

05 Darkness

06 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

07 Abortion

08 General Penitentiary

09 Happiness

10 World Is Africa

11 Sensemilla

12 Sponji Reggae

13 Mondays

Total time: 1:19:55

Derrick "Duckie" Simpson - vocals & percussion

Sandra "Puma" Jones - vocals & percussion

Michael Rose - vocals

Sly Dunbar - drums 

Robbie Shakespeare - bass 

Christopher "Sky Juice" Burth - percussion 

Darryl Thompson - guitar 

Billy Johnson - guitar 

Franklyn "Bubbler" Waul - keyboards 

master soundboard cassette, recorded by Frank Streeter and transferred and mastered by Charlie Miller;

small sections of Track 05 repaired and subtly reconstructed as necessary by EN, Nov. 2018

480 MB FLAC/November 2018 archive link

I worked on one song, which had some issues, to make it whole again. The "Darkness" track faded in very suddenly off the tape flip, so it was subtly lengthened a bar to be more realistically musical, if you will. 

There was also a section midway through the song where the transfer was bad or some sort of dropouts/digiskips happened and disoriented the music, so I reconstructed those few bars using what was there to be seamless and musically correct instead of jarring and confusing. 

The thing is still fitting a single CD and besides, I felt this monster show and incredible, sonically sparkling capture merited the fix, which takes the whole 80 minutes of Irie into the realm of blissful perfection, or darn near close.

I'll be back with one last milestone blast for November on Wednesday, because you've got a friend in me.

Today, however, is your day to groove on this ridonkulously tasty Black Uhuru set; now that's it's more optimized it's probably one of my all-time favorite shows by anyone. Ras Tafari!--J.

Beaucoup d’État

Here comes the second of two consecutive posts, this time to mark the 19th anniversary of a great show by a great and undersung band.

I was introduced to them in the 2000s, when I lived in a house with a friend who swore by their music.

Something like a cross between The Velvet Underground's Pale Blue Eyes and Halleluwah by Can -- with occasional, vaguely obscured Marxist polemics for lyrics -- their sound was defined by two female vocalists weaving their memorable style of harmony around each other.

They made a whole slew of essential albums in the 1990s and were gaining steam commercially when horrible tragedy struck.

One of their singers was killed when she was run down by a motorist whilst riding her bicycle in late 2002.

They continued for a few records without her, but the void was too great and they ended up fading from view into other projects.

Today we recall them with an absolute burner of a performance from their heyday, when Mary Hansen was still alive and they were firing on all cylinders.

Stereolab

The Fillmore

San Francisco, CA

11.23.1999

01 Miss Modular

02 Infinity Girl

03 Escape Pod

04 The Free Design

05 Op Hop Detonation

06 Metronomic Underground

07 Des Etoiles Electroniques

08 Blips, Drips and Strips

09 Strobo Acceleration

10 Analogue Rock

11 Blue Milk

12 The Seeming and the Meaning

13 crowd

14 banter

15 Come and Play In the Milky Night

16 Low Fi

17 John Cage Bubblegum

Total time- 1:23:32

disc break goes after Track 08

Tim Gane - guitar, keyboards

Lætitia Sadier - vocals, keyboards, percussion, horns

Andy Ramsay  - drums

Mary Hansen- vocals, guitar, percussion

Morgane Lhote - keyboards

Simon Johns - bass

DAT master recorded straight from the mixing desk by Teddy Ballgame

475 MB FLAC/November 2018 archive link

This one was taped right across the pond from here in San Francisco, and is easily the deepest and funkiest Stereolab show I have ever had the pleasure of hearing.

And!! It was recorded 19 years ago tonight!! When the dates line up for kickass bands, I must comply.

I will be back in a couple of days, but you should definitely check this monster Stereolab set while you are waiting for my next move!--J.

Eternal Bass & Abundance

It's the big holiday and time for some appropriate T-giving.

Today we interrupt the preposterously testosterized sausage fest that is this page with a necessary tribute to a lovely lady of the low end.

One half of maybe the greatest husband-and-wife rhythm section in music history, she was born this day in 1950.

Not too many people can say they were part of not one but two of our epoch's most beloved groups, but here's one.

You know you're doing it right when even your side projects generate tracks that people will play in 10,000 years.

Whether it's as part of Talking Heads or Tom Tom Club, today's birthday girl has got the subsonic sui generis in spades.

Now that I think of it, it must be odd to have your birthday fall on Thanksgiving sometimes, and the JFK assassination every time... I think of all those Christmas kids who grew up feeling aced out of birthday gifts, and my 9/11/1938-born dad.

No matter though, for Tina Weymouth is a year-'round gift that's been giving for over 40 years at the top of the bottom.

I asked her magnificent husband, whom I follow on Facebook, if it would be ok to tribute her today with this legendary T-Heads concert that no one can believe has never seen an official issue, and he said it was cool, so here we go!

Talking Heads 

Berklee Performing Arts Center

Boston, MA

8.24.1979

01 intro

02 Artists Only

03 Stay Hungry

04 Cities

05 Paper

06 Mind

07 Heaven

08 The Book I Read

09 Electric Guitar

10 Air

11 Warning Sign

12 Building On Fire

13 Memories Can't Wait

14 Psycho Killer 

15 Life During Wartime

16 Take Me to the River

17  outro

Total time: 1:10:40

David Byrne - guitar, vocals & percussion

Jerry Harrison - guitar, keyboards, vocals

Tina Weymouth - bass & percussion

Chris Frantz - drums & percussion

the complete master WBCN-FM pre-FM reel

461 MB FLAC/November 2018 archive link

This ultra-fab set typically circulates with one track removed, as it was issued on the cataclysmic live TH LP The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads. I left it in so no one would have to lose their Mind.

I will be back tomorrow with some more rare bullion for your personal Fort Knox, but for now you turkeys must give the most copious thanks for a true Lama of the low end! Bon Appetit!--J.