The Bold
1969-xx-xx* _ Amherst, Massachusetts _ University Of Massachusetts _ (M?-SBD)

~*~ Carefully remastered fixing various issues, without EQ* ~*~

01-[6:22]. Get Together
02-[4:26]. Why Do I Cry? ->
03-[3:34]. I Feel Free
04-[3:21]. ? (instrumental)
05-[4:07]. Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe
06-[7:51]. I Can't Keep From Crying, Sometimes
07-[4:54]. The Key To Love
08-[7:46]. Blues With A Feeling
09-[3:47]. Words Don't Make It
10-[5:47]. Don't Look Back
11-[4:40]. Pearly Queen ->
12-[4:30]. Spoonful
13-[2:43]. Lovely Rita
14-[9:28]. ...Fire (fragment) -> Purple Haze -> jam
15-[9:16]. Mellow Down Easy -> Baby, Please Don't Go -> Keep Everybody From Gettin' Down(?)
16-[3:44]. Theme From Mission: Impossible
17-[6:22]. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
18-[5:33]. Something You've Got
19-[4:24]. Like A Rolling Stone

Total Time ::: 1:42:34

::: VERY fine SBD. Check samples for nightmare potential or dream come true anticipatory exhilaration.
::: Warts: Repaired dullspots & dropouts but surely missed a few. Bit o' hiss (intermittent). Taper cut off deck betixt songs or 'twas done during a transfer, so there are some abrupt starts. 1 or 2 songs have a little whine or high pitched noise but it disappears. #10 7sec reel drag patched from another version. #12 missing except last few notes. Manually fixed about 1000 tiny clicks/pops (from a reel transfer?) one at a time (at this point no longer an audible issue!).
::: Mostly a single copy of the original source tape but 2 trax & a patch are from 2 other versions.
::: Legendary MA '66-70 band, known as The Esquires, The Bold, Steve Walker & the Bold & finally just "Bold".
::: *NO EQ except trax #4 & #6 which were from a different source tape.
::: Song order was unclear but hopefully returned to it's original order, courtesy of Bill Tobin, a Bold aficionado.
::: Exact date uncertain but probably prior to the ABC LP release in'69. Only 2 songs here appeared on the LP.
::: Surprisingly little written about the band online - mostly single paragraph descriptions.
::: Drummer Timothy Griffin and guitarist Robert LaPalm went on to form Clean Living.

Recording Information ::: unknown mono recording equipment (presumably reel recorder) -> master reel -> unknown tape generations -> unknown (low) generation x2 Maxell MX-90 & 1 Maxell XLII-S 90 cassettes, all Dolby B on.

Playback 2017-02-xx ::: unknown low generation x2 Maxell MX-90 & 1 Maxell XLII-S 90 cassettes on Nakamichi 680ZX cassette deck, Dolby B on, azimuth adjusted for individual tapes, heads cleaned & demagnetized -> Sony Linear PCM Recorder PCM-M10 (LPCM 44.10kHz/16bit WAV files) -> computer -> Audacity [normalisation to remove DC offset, channel/phase alignment (for left channel patches while remastering), fades, many manual one-at-a-time glitch, bump, pop, click, dropout & dullspot repairs, volume adjustments, A LOT OF pitch (speed) fixes with single pass per segment after frequency analysis & with pitchpipe verification, NO equalisation (except #4 & #6 to match alternate source tape), NO noise reduction. Only left channel used for final mix as it was significantly better quality] -> CD Wave (track splits) -> flacs (Trader's Little Helper) -> yr ears. First uploaded week of 2017-03-05.

Line-up ::: Stephen Walker - electric bass, lead vocals // Dick La Freniere - electric guitar // Robert La Palm - electric guitar, backing vocals // Michael Chmura - organ // Timothy Griffin - drums, percussion, (and possibly backing vocals).

Nothing here ever commercially released to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please advise & I'll take the offending trax offline. To my knowledge, there are NO live tapes of this band released, so there should be no issues)

DimeTravel 288 ::: Thanks to the original taper & traders! ::: Corrections welcome ::: This one goes out in memory of Bill Tobin, sorely missed - another central Massachusetts musician, a class act of a guy & a huge fan of The Bold. I know he spent lots of hours over the years working & listening to these tapes. I also spent years tracking down different versions & upgrading them - about 5 different sources overall. Here you have the best almost complete version plus 2 missing trax from another, both pulled together as coherently as possible, plus a patch from a 3rd version. Really weird what was deleted or rearranged (or copied drastically off-speed) over the years. One part was from my chiropractor (you know, his college girlfriend used to know a band member & he had a reel and and and). This is a recordings that got lost in the shuffle some years ago. I'd planned to get it out there long before now. There ARE some earlier tapes somwehere. A friend of a member of the band had a reel from a frathouse in Amherst in 1967 & over the years I called him several times to inquire about it but it never surfaced. Too damn bad. But at least we have this delightful, seriously long live recording - a cool mix of garage, West Coast sounds, innocent 60's vibes, psychedelic guitar & jamming. I like it better than the album which (in my opinion), while the band may have been thrilled to get signed to a major label (ABC) & have their album produced by Bill Szymczyk, was nowhere near what it could have been. Having said that, some of it is quite fascinating & well worth seeking out. This live show, though built around an awful lot of cover songs, will give you a much better idea what the band was like live, with smoking dual guitars, tasty organ playing & some fine harmony vocals. It may look like just another cover band of the era - but it ain't that at all. These guys lend their own unique sound & arrangements to the songs with joy & innovation. "Like A Rolling Stone" is somewhat lackluster & sounds overplayed - but that's clearly an exception here as many of the songs are extremely inspired versions. According to the Discogs entry, they were "the house band at the Playboy Club in New York City in 1968 where they played 7 nights a week", which might explain the fact they shelved some of their own material in favor of crowd pleasers during live gigs. Kind of cool that this one live tape that has showed up (so far) was recorded on their stomping grounds at UMASS, where they originally met & formed. Many of you will know the band from their early singles, one of which was made legendary on an early "Pebbles" compilation. The Bold was a legend in Western Massachusetts during my entire tenure there, with band members all held in high regard. Listen, enjoy, show appreciation, share, give, spread peace. Yrs truly, Knees

Support the artists! Their killer early garage 45s are available at https://teensoundrecords.bandcamp.com/album/bold-gotta-get-some & The Bold album was released as "Lullaby Opus Four" on CD & also includes the 45s.

Do whatever you want with it except sell it, 'cause that ain't cool!