Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Prettier Oswego

Laker Hall Gym
State University of New York (SUNY)
Oswego, NY
December 16, 1975
ER Archives via JEMS

Audience Recording (equipment unknown)

JEMS Transfer: presumed 2nd generation cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A
azimuth-adjusted transfer (July 2012) > Sound Devices USBPre 2 >
Audacity 2.0 (24/96) capture > iZoptope RX click repair and resample
to 16/44.1 > Peak 6.0 with iZotope Ozone 5.0 > FLAC

01 Thunder Road
02 Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
03 Spirit in the Night
04 Lost in the Flood
05 She's the One
06 Born to Run
07 Pretty Flamingo
08 Saint in the City
09 Backstreets
10 Kitty's Back (small cut near end)
11 Jungleland
12 Rosalita
13 Sandy
14 Santa Claus is Comin' to Town
15 Detroit Medley
16 For You
17 Quarter to Three

Welcome back to the second in a planned series of releases from the ER
Archives, the collection of an active '70s taper and trader who
stepped away from collecting, leaving his tapes pretty much dormant
until now. We're still culling through the archive, but it is already
clear that it contains previously uncirculated shows as well as
upgrades to circulating tapes, both audience and soundboard. ER used
high-end tape decks and good tape, so his copies of even well-known
shows may well be improvements.

This installment falls squarely into the "upgrades" category as it
offers a material enhancement over the previously marginal recording
in circulation of Oswego, NY, December 16, 1975.

The extant version, which circulates as Pretty Oswego, suffers from
several problems including being pitched too fast, sounding muffled
from generational loss and having cuts. This new version has been
speed checked and corrected and is more complete. As a result it runs
longer than Pretty Oswego. The clarity of this transfer is far
superior to its predecessor as well--the recording has body, space and
instrument separation that just wasn't there before and it sits
comfortably next to some of the better (though perhaps not best)
audies from 1975. Hence Prettier Oswego. Also, cuts previously found
in "Pretty Flamingo" and "Detroit Medley" are gone, though there is a
tiny piece missing near the end of an epic "Kitty's Back."

The pitch issues with this show proved deceptive as there are songs,
like "Saint in the City," that are played at such a breakneck pace
they felt like they still must be running too fast after we pitch
corrected. But you'll hear that even as the band seems to be in
overdrive, Bruce's vocals sound right on key.

Oswego is a strong show, a few weeks removed from the band's quick
trip to Europe and 13 days removed from the two-night run at the
Boston Music Hall JEMS presented earlier this year from Steve Hopkins'
master tapes. The quality here isn't at Hopkins' level, but it is
highly listenable both on quieter material like the piano-opening
"Thunder Road" and the solo encore "For You," and rollicking passages
like "Kitty's Back" and "Detroit Medley." Samples provided.

Thanks to the ER Archive for opening up the vault doors and sharing
this recording with the fans. Feel free to let him know how you feel
in the comments.

When the ER Archive returns, we will shuffle off to Buffalo.

Wayne Darlington for JEMS and the ER Archives

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