Doobie Brothers
Seattle Center Coliseum
Seattle, WA
May 18, 1975
JEMS Full-Track Tandberg Mono Master

Recording Gear: Sony ECM-22P Microphone > Tandberg Model 11 Portable Reel to Reel

JEMS 2018 Transfer: Master reel > Tandberg Model 11 > Sound Devices USBPre 2 capture (24/96) > iZotope RX and Ozone > MBIT+ convert to 16/44.1 > Audacity > TLH > FLAC

01 Intro
02 Jesus Is Just Alright
03 Down in the Track
04 Neal's Fandango
05 Slack Key Soquel Rag >
06 South City Midnight Lady
07 Clear as the Driven Snow
08 Nobody
09 Eyes of Silver
10 Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)
11 Black Water
12 Sweet Maxine >
13 Long Train Runnin' > Jam
14 Road Angel > Jam >
15 China Grove
16 Without You > Extended Jam

Patrick Simmons � guitar, vocals
Jeff Baxter � guitar, vocals
Tiran Porter � bass, vocals
Keith Knudsen � drums, percussion, vocals
Michael McDonald - keyboards, vocals

The Memphis Horns:
Wayne Jackson - trumphet
Lewis Collins - flute

Known Faults:
None

Tale of the Tapes and the Tandberg

With Jared�s passing in October 2016, the complete JEMS Archive was moved south from his home up north. That move, sad impetus aside, presented the daunting opportunity to go through and organize the collection. With the help of amazing friends and experts (among them Slowburn, SS, RD and slipkid68), JEMS tapes are now accessible in ways they have never been before. SG was also on hand to help and fill in our taping history as he always does.

When the task was done and loaded into the truck, one box in particular captured my attention: master reels recorded by SG on his Tandberg portable reel to reel. We�ve posted some 30 or more of these on DIME over the years, but this box contained master reels that had never been digitized before and, in some instances, had seemingly never been traded or circulated.

More than a year later, most of the tapes from that particular box have been posted plus a few others we found on hard drives. Just last week I sorted through the reels collection yet again and identified another ten Tandberg masters that have never been transferred.

If you don�t know about the Tandberg, it was a remarkable piece of gear in its day, not only capable of recording at 3-3/4 and 7-1/2 IPS, but in full-track mono. I won�t do the math, but compared to a cassette, the surface area of tape capturing the music is orders of magnitude higher, which is why so many of SG�s Tandberg masters from the likes of David Bowie, Elton John, Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen are considered by some as audience-recording classics. The Tandberg required 10(!) D-cel batteries to operate, is roughly the size of a compact typewriter and weighs around ten pounds. Imagine sneaking that into a show and your respect for what SG accomplished only grows.

Happily, the original Tandberg deck is still fully functioning, so these new transfers offer full-track mono playback on the original tape recorder to maximize quality.

This is the twelfth in a series of Tandberg master reels digitized for the first time. If you want to find the others, search JEMS or Tandberg using �Search title and torrent filename only.� It is also the second appearance by the Doobie Brothers, as we previously posted their next Seattle show, exactly one year less a day later in 1976 (http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=584100)

As I wrote of the 1976 tape, I can't admit to being a fan of the Doobies other than knowing their hits, but there's no getting around that the playing in this performance is impressive and the addition of the Memphis Horns pushes the soulful pedal to the floor.

This time the band is touring in support Stampede, their fifth studio album, several songs from which feature here. Doing a bit of both web and DIME research, it seems there are very few if any circulating Doobies recordings from the first half of 1975, so this should be a welcome addition.

At the risk of over-hyping an audience recording, I have to say that once again Stan nails the capture, as the tape offers what to my ears is remarkable quality for a 14,000 seat arena more than 40 years ago. Once again, the distinct lack of close-up audience noise suggests SG placed the mic somewhere in the seating scaffolding and directly in line with the PA. Samples provided.

If you liked the �76 show we posted, you are going to love this.

Our hat goes off again to SG for his remarkable work in the �70s, �80s and beyond for capturing these shows in the first place, and to Jared, may his legacy live on as he rests in peace. Thanks as well to frostier, for his continued support in getting our tapes to your ears. All comments welcomed.

BK for JEMS

The JEMS' Tandberg Masters series has returned, again, with new additions.

As many of you should know, the Doobie Brothers were one of the greatest acts of the �70s in a time when exploration and musical innovation reigned.

I'm not a fan of the Doobies or anything close to being one by any means, but being familiar with their music and some recordings, I can declare that this could be one of the best existing recordings of this leg of the 1975 tour. Samples provided.

Like BK mentioned above, recordings of the Doobie Brothers during this tour are scarce, and considering that, this could be (in my opinion) one of their best (sounding) tours. We invite any fan (or non-fan) who has recordings of the Doobies that do not circulate to think seriously about transferring their tapes. If you do not know how, or do not have time to do it properly, please contact any of the JEMS members.

Regarding the concert, we could begin to say that the quality of this recording is the "common" Tandberg quality, that is, a clear recording with the music really up-front and above all, with absence of people shouting around the microphone, with the audience being only heard in the breaks between songs .

This specific concert stands out for its extensive jams. One of the most representative samples of this is at the end of the concert, where after "Without You" the Doobie Brothers do a jam that lasts more than 10 minutes.

Huge thanks to Stan for another amazing Tandberg recording, to BK for taking the time and care to transfer the master tape as well for providing me with the digital master file to work with.

frogster