CHEAP TRICK
Santa Monica Civic Center, April 1, 1977 "The Perfect Female Body" vinyl bootleg


Lineage: Thorens turntable -> Bose Receiver -> Nakamichi tape deck -> played on a Nak -> custom made audio cables -> E-MU 1212m sound card -> Sound Forge Audio Studio (volume levels raised & audio restoration) -> tlh -> dime


Recording quality: VG+ in my opinion, very clear, slightly distant, very full bottom end. Unfortunately, my black vinyl pressing was noisy (I suspect all of them are).


A1 Oh, Candy
A2 Southern Girls
A3 Cry Cry

B1 Big Eyes
B2 Taxman, Mr. THief
B3 He's A Whore
B4 Goodnight Now



When Cheap Trick's market value started to increase as import copies of "Live At The Budokan" made their way across the Pacific in the fall of '78, bootleggers started to look for source tapes in order to profit as well.
They did not find that much apparently. The albums "Samurai Rock Band" and IMP's "Trick Or Treat" released the same recording, except for one track that was exclusive to each release.
Audifon (Vicky Vinyl/Andrea Waters of "sued by Springsteen fame") filled three sides with a muddy sounding radio broadcast from The Paradise in Boston and the 4th with a fantastic recording from New York (available for purchase with 2 extra tracks from wolfgangsvault) for their "California Man '78" 2LP sets.
However, during final assembly, Audifon managed to mix up the Cheap Trick discs with those belonging to the acclaimed Bruce Springsteen box set "Piece De Resistance" due to the use of plain unmarked labels.
I was one of the unlucky recipients of these "Cheap Springsteen/Piece De California '78" sets after ordering via the Pied Piper catalogue.

And then, there was this. Cheap cover sporting an appropriately underground Robert Crumb drawing, a tape that emphasizes Tom and Bun E's contributions and gives them a certain Led Zeppelin-esque heavyness. It is kind of ironic that this bootleg LP has held up the best over the decades as is still the only source for this show, while all the other vinyl releases have been surpassed by upgrades.


Just for comparison, this is their setlist from a March 5th 1977 gig in Royal Oak, MI:
01. Intro
02. Hello There
03. Elo Kiddies
04. Speak Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace
05. Cry, Cry
06. Hot Love
07. He's A Whore
08. The Ballad Of T.V. Violence (I'm Not The Only Boy)
09. Down On The Bay
10. Goodnight Now
11. Come On, Come On



LP to TDK SA tape transfer ca. 1981, tape to .wav transfer in July of 2012


Images for this show: