Jackson Browne
Paramount Theater
Seattle, WA
February 5, 1977
Pacific Alliance "We Don't Need Nuclear Power" Benefit Concert
JEMS Full-Track Tandberg Mono Master

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

JEMS 2016 Transfer: Master reel > Tandberg Model 11 > Sound Devices USBPre 2 capture (24/96) > iZotope RX and Ozone > MBIT+ convert to 16/44.1 > Peak Pro XT (volume smoothing / edit / index) > xACT 2.35 > FLAC

01 Rock Me On The Water
02 Fountain Of Sorrow
03 For Everyman
04 Something Fine
05 For A Dancer
06 Late For The Sky
07 Walking Slow
08 Red Neck Friend
09 Take It Easy
10 Doctor My Eyes
11 These Days
12 Here Come Those Tears Again
13 Sleep's Dark And Silent Gate
14 Before The Deluge
15 The Pretender
16 Cocaine

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 an opportunity, however daunting, to go through and organize the collection. With the help of some 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 20 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.

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 more than ten pounds. Imagine sneaking that into a show and your respect for what SG accomplished only grows.

This is the fifth in a series of Tandberg master reels digitized for the first time. Happily, the original Tandberg deck is still fully functioning, so these transfers offer full-track mono playback on the original tape recorder to maximize quality.

We follow up Boston (http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=581370, Lou Reed (http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=582027), ELO (http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=582643) and Warren Zevon (http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=583030) with Jackson Browne playing his full set behind Zevon's opener at this anti nuclear power benefit concert.

According to The Road & The Sky website, this was the third of five benefit concerts Browne did at the start of 1977 featuring David Lindley, Mark Jordan, David Mason and David Landau in the band. It is a lovely set, with Jackson coming off genuinely inspired by the cause and his band playing beautifully throughout.

Prior to this release there was only one circulating tape, Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, from the five benefit shows Jackson did in February 1977. The Seattle set includes a few variants from that show including "For A Dancer," "Red Neck Friend," "Before the Deluge" and "Cocaine." Any Browne fan should find the performance compelling.

On home court at the Paramount, SG was surely in his favorite taping position, Row JJ, where he could hang the microphone in the folds of a giant velvet curtain away from close-up audience interruptions. It's another rich recording for the period. Samples provided. If the file size seems small, remember it is short opening set AND a mono file, half the size of stereo version of the same duration.

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 mjk5510, for his unwavering support of JEMS� efforts and indispensable post production work.

BK for JEMS

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