Country Joe and the Electric Music Band
2017-04-29 _ Berkeley, California _ Corner of Telegraph Avenue & Haste Street
50th Anniversary of Summer of Love Street Fair

01. --end of tuning up--
02. Death Sound Blues
03. Rock & Soul Music
04. Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
05. Bass Strings
06. Flying High
07. Section 43
08. Superbird

Total time ::: 40:26

::: VERY fine stereo AUD. Check samples for pleasure estimation or curiousity alleviation.
::: Warts: 1st 8 minutes has some bass distortion, see notes below.
::: This is the complete set. Country Joe was played from about 3:50-4:30

Recording Information ::: Sony PCM-M10 using internal mics on the recorder -> master wav.

Playback 2017-05-08 ::: master 44.1 kHz wav -> computer -> Audacity [fades, manual stray peak correction, level/volume adjustments to roughly match oversaturated first 8 minutes to rest of recording, NO equalisation or noise reduction] -> CD Wave (track splits) -> flacs (Trader's Little Helper) -> yr ears. First uploaded 2017-05-08.

Recording notes (technique) ::: M10 attached to a small stand which I held just below head level. Stood about 30 feet back from the stage, slightly to stage left of center, pointed partly at the stage & partly at the left PA speaker stack. About 10 minutes into the show I noticed that the mic sensitivity was set to "Hi" & that there might have been some overload occurring on the levels, so I reset the switch to "Low" at that point (about 8 minutes into the music; there is a clear temporary diminution of volume on the recording). Bass guitar had a large amp on stage, & it was unclear how much was coming through the PA & how much from the amp; the bass sound was distorted at various points during the show, possibly intentionally. Drums were mic'd but it didn't seem like too much was coming through the PA, most of the drum sound seemed to be coming from the stage, direct. The harmonica on "Section 43" was low in the mix & very hard to hear. The scene was pretty chaotic & the sound mixing was done on the fly, with no soundcheck & very little time to set up. I had to move around a bit from time to time due to people walking around & moving through the space & this maneuvering caused some changes in sound quality. There was also some wind, but that didn't seem to affect the recording too much.

Line-up ::: Country Joe McDonald - vocals, harmonica // Matt Piucci - electric guitar // Derek See - electric guitar // Alec Palao: electric bass // Andrea Hensler - keyboards // Jozef Becker - drums.

From whence they come/came: Alec Paleo (Grammy-nominated writer & archivist), Matt Piucci (Rain Parade, Hellenes), Derek See (Gentle Cycle, Strangers In A Strange Land), Jozef Becker (Thin White Rope, Loud Family, Game Theory, etc.), Andrea Hensler (Flower Furnace, Jean Genies).

Nothing here ever commercially released to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please advise & I'll take the offending trax offline.

DimeTravel 357 ::: Thanks to the original taper, Zongo! ::: Corrections welcome ::: I thought about going out to California for this one. It was advertised on the Telegraph Fair website map for a couple of months as "Country Joe & The Fish" with a 2 hour time slot, but since other info didn't appear until not long before the show, we were rather suspicious. One of my faves since childhood, I missed seeing Country Joe & The Fish back in the day, but managed to catch a reunion in the 70s in SF, then subsequently have seen various combos & reunions. Too bad Joe & Barry couldn't pull it together for one more round 50 years on, but this is a lot of fun. Thanks to Zongo, we all get to hear it. There was at least one other taper, so perhaps another capture will appear. We can very much hope this motivates some folks to go & tape their upcoming shows, so far announced as June 9 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco & June 10th at the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley & July 27 in Berkeley at the Freight & Salvage, & probably more to come. At those shows the program will include the �Electric Music For The Mind & Body� in its entirety, along with an acoustic segment. Certainly it's a sign of the times if you read Zongo's description - 50 years on, in their hometown, a FREE Saturday afternoon show (& actually mis-advertised in places as 'Country Joe & The Fish'), and Mr McDonald & friends only pulled in a couple of hundred dedicated listeners. Times are going by. However, FANTASTIC that this music is being kept alive. Thanks to Zongo for persevering with the recorder in the midst of some chaos. Listen, enjoy, show appreciation, share, give, spread peace. Yrs truly, Knees

Taper observations: "Beautiful sunny day, but not overly hot. Chaotic scene with large street festival extending up and down the streets, perhaps a couple hundred people watching the performance, but many others walking through the space where the performance was occurring. There were also people on stilts walking around in the crowd strewing various objects around and adding to the confusion. Great!"

Support the artists! www.countryjoe.com -- https://twitter.com/derekspins45s (Derek See) -- www.facebook.com/people/Jozef-Becker/588208422 -- www.jeangenies.com
and they ain't playing here, but you can find more fish at www.barrymelton.com -- www.facebook.com/pages/Barry-Melton/162745911009 -- www.davidbennettcohen.com -- www.brucebarthol.com -- www.chickenhirsh.com

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