The 5th Annual Bridge School Benefit
1991-11-02
Shoreline Amphitheater
Mountain View, California

Source: Beyer M201s > Sony D6C > Master Cassette (Maxell MX110)
Transfer: Tascam 112MKII > M-Audio 24/96 > Soundforge; 24 bit > Edits > Highpass triangular dither to 16 bit > CDWave > Flac (by Dub Irie 2007-07-07)

Total Time: 99:15

Setlist:

Disk 1

Neil Young and Nicolette Larson
01 - Forever Young

Larry Keegan and Gene LaFond w/ Gary Smith on Harmonica
02 - Aint Got the Blues
03 - Can't Keep Me Down

John Lee Hooker and Terry Gleason
04 - Crawlin Kingsnake
05 - When I First Started Hoboin'
06 - Ride Johnny Ride

Don Henley
07 - Heart of the Matter
08 - Come Rain or Come Shine
09 - Best of My Love

Disk 1 Time: 42:00

Disk 2

Nils Lofgren
10 - Blue Skies (partial)
11 - Sticks and Stones
12 - Big Tears Fall
13 - Believe (with Neil Young)
14 - Bill Graham Story
15 - Cry Just a Little

Willie Nelson
16 - Time Slips Away (end) > Crazy
17 - Nightlife
18 - Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys
19 - On the Road Again
20 - Blue Eyes Cryin In the Rain

Neil Young, Nicolette Larson and The Stray Gators
21 - Birds
22 - Harvest Moon
23 - From Hank to Hendrix
24 - Comes a Time
25 - Forever Young (finale w/guests)
26 - Greensleeves (fades)

Disk 2 Time: 57:15

Show notes:

This was a great show, even if it was somewhat inadvertantly a wake for Bill Graham. The mood at Shoreline was somber at this (not sold-out) Bridge show and the air was heavy with the reality of Bill Grahams fateful helicopter crash only 7 days before while flying home after a Huey Lewis concert. Most of the participants at this show were well aware that it was Bill Graham that brought all this to them over the years, and this was the house that Bill built - Shoreline. Some of the performers clearly had Bill in mind throughout their sets. The following day was the spontaneous Laughter, Love and Music event in Bill's memory that drew hundreds of thousands to Golden Gate Park.

etree show ID 277681 lists another version of this show made with Nak mics, however the Larry Keegan and Gene LaFond and Nils Lofgren portion of the show are missing from that.

This is a nice sounding recording overall. Shoreline is one of the best outdoor venues for sound because there is precise delay of the in-house sound system timed with the sound coming off the stage, so no matter where you are in the venue, there is never an echo.

The Sony D6C (Walkman Pro) that this tape was made on had an intermittent grounding issue that caused a static sound and some pops during several songs. This was an on/off type problem that didn't affect most of the songs, but it did manage to ruin a few. This show is only 80% complete as a result, however the Larry Keegan set which is missing from the other version of this is included in full as is the Nils Lofgren set (with only a minute missing). I didn't include a couple of songs from Don Henley and Willie Nelson because the static was present. I was tempted to include it but it is too distracting to be enjoyable and doubtfully can be fixed, at least with current technology.

So as a result of this, I took the additional step of adding specific comments on each set and any songs that I excluded or had any sound issues, just to clarify:

The Neil and Nicolette opener sounds great.

Larry Keegan and Gene LaFond provide handicapped inspiration with two entertaining tunes about the wheelchair perspective.

John Lee Hooker - Classic, some minor static and mic handling during Crawlin Kingsnake, but no big deal. This was a mellow set with the late DC area blues/rock/fusion guitarist Terry Gleason providing juicy guitar backup to the twangy blues legend, Mr Lucky.

Don Henley performed a great set but unfortunately the first two songs had static issues. The End of the Innocence and Coming on Christmas were left out because of this. Thankfully, the second half of the set came through nicely.

Nils Lofgren - The first song, "Blue Skies" is missing about a minute, and 30 seconds of static exists in the first part of "Big Tears Fall", however I left it there because it goes away and it such a great song. The rest of the set constitutes what many thought was the highlight of the show - Neil and Nils wonderful version of "Believe", and then Nils' tribute to Bill Graham and the ensuing version of "Cry Just a Little" - a Very memorable moment with Nils passionately hammering away at his guitar at the end of the song.

Willie Nelson - Willie's set begins with the final notes of Time Just Slips Away and gives way to Crazy and the rest of his enchanting set (missing Valentine > Time Slips Away).

The Neil Young with Nicolette Larson & Stray Gators set is also missing the first song, Long May You Run, but the rest of their set sounds real nice! This set has real magic and charm to it. Nicolette was the best with Neil, and is sorely missed.

Greensleeves fades before its end.

The Tracy Chapman and Sonic Youth sets weren't taped here.

Special thanks to Neil and Pegi for hosting all the Bride Benefit shows over the years and for thankless devotion to the Bridge School. - Dub Irie 07-07-07