DONOVAN

personnel:
Donovan

venue: Berklee Performance Center
location: Boston MA
date: 1997-03-10 [March 10, 1997]

source: audience MASTER
recording location: approximately 3/4 of way back on the floor - - - if memory serves, somewhere between the 5th and 10th row after the aisle that separates the front of the orchestra section from the rear, so c. 25th row?
recording gear: Nakamichi 300 microphones (cardioid capsules) > Sony WM-D6 (dolby C enabled)
lineage: audience MASTER (pb on Nakamichi 480 2-head cassette deck, dolby C on, azimuth manually adjusted) > Pioneer SG 9500 [10 band stereo equalizer] > Sound Forge 4.5 [digital conversion] > CDR [unknown make & model outboard burner] > Exact Audio Copy [wav files extracted uncompressed] > De-Glitch [glitches detected & repaired] > Sound Forge 11.0 [transitions smoothed, minor edits, a few instances of clipping eliminated] > Traders' Little Helper [SBEs checked & fixed, flac files level 8 created, checksums created] > torrent creation > www
total running time: 72' 28"
file size: 353 MB
sample rate: 16 bit / 44.1 kHz [CD compliant]
imaging: stereo
sound quality: 7 (out of 10)
recorded and mastered: Isotope Feeney
title: Season Of The Leitch
artwork: yes

01 The Hurdy Gurdy Man
02 Catch The Wind
03 Colours
04 The Little Tin Soldier
05 Please Don't Bend
06 Nirvana
07 Laléna
08 Give It All Up
09 Jennifer Juniper
10 Eldorado
11 Be Mine
12 Universe Am I
13 Sunshine Superman
14 Mellow Yellow
15 Goo Goo Barabajagal (Love Is Hot)
16 Season Of The Witch
17 Atlantis
18 There Is A Mountain
19 Sleep

PERFORMANCE NOTES
Just Donovan and acoustic guitar(s). In a couple of spots there was music pumped into the room as intro to the next song: South Asian in style, like something out of a Bollywood movie to these unbaptized ears. He performed a bunch of eastern-tinged songs from his then brandnew release Sutras. Nevertheless, by keeping the vintage songs short (close to the times of their original vinyl releases), he was able to squeeze in almost all of the Don classics you wanted to hear in under 90 minutes. He even resisted the temptation to turn Atlantis into a Hey Jude-type singalong [something I was sure he would do as an un-strenuous way to turn a 70 minute performance into 90 minutes] by truncating the long multi-repeated chorus.

RECORDING NOTES
This was recorded from pretty far back on the floor: not my preferred taping spot obviously, and not what I was used to. As I remember things, I had seen Donovan the day before at some sort of members-only freebie performance [and how I was able to sleaze my way into that is a story unto itself] at a Whole Foods Expo in a downtown hotel. (And if you had to take a blind guess as to what 60s rock stars would be into 'whole' foods, I think Donovan's name would be near the top of the list.) While there I dutifully bought his new CD. When I took it home and listened to it, I thot <<Wow, this is really good - - - What's wrong with me? How am I not going to see him tomorrow night?>> You might be wondering the same thing: why didn't I already have a ticket? Well folks, you can't go to everything (tho' I've come closer than most). Tickets aren't free, and there's other things to do in life. Sometimes going to 3 and 4 shows in a given week became like a homework assignment. But, I decided I must go, I must get tickets. However by this time, the prime 'exploitation' seats were gone, and I had to settle for the best of what was left. I consoled myself with the thought that the acoustics at the Berklee (a place a friend of mine once characterized as "the church of rock & roll") were so good that things would sound fabulous (and recordings would come out nice) no matter WHERE you were situated.

WARTS
And it's true that the sound was really good even as far back as I was sitting. And if things were as simple as that, this would be an A+ recording. But . . . with no aisle-seat armrest or balcony ledge to rest microphones on, I had to kinda hold them sternum-high to get them above the heads of the people seated in the row in front of me. And arms get tired after a while, so I had to adjust things or change hands from time to time. This created an unusual (for my recordings) amount of mike rustling. It's not loud, and for the most part I had the discipline (physical agony notwithstanding) to wait 'til between songs for adjustments. It's the type of thing that would have been essentially drowned out by any medium volume rock band. But this performance was so quiet and so delicate . . .

The audience was for the most part subdued and respectful, but a burp CAN be heard at one point. It wasn't me.

TRUTH IS MOLTEN
Please refrain from sharing this elsewhere. I'll take care of it when it feels right (when the moon is in the 7th house, when Jupiter aligns with Mars . . . )

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