James Gang
1972-08-12 Westbury, New York Roosevelt Raceway Festival Of Hope (M-AUD)

*** remastered without EQ from taper's original master cassettes ***

01. -audience noise & band setting up-
02. Funk #49
03. I Tell You Why (->)
04. Stop -> You're Gonna Need Me
05. My Door Is Open ->
06. Walk Away
07. Lost Sleep Blues(?) -> Woman -> jam -> Woman
Encore :::
08. --audience noise--
09. Roll Over Beethoven (with clapping)

Total Time ::: 1:07:25

::: Enjoyable but active AUD in large outdoor setting. Check samples for examination & inspection or fits & giggles.
::: Warts: Some AUD talk & clappin' goin' down! Fixed most dropouts/dullspots but surely missed a few. Clapping in part of "My Door Is Open" (reduced), in a solo guitar bit fairly early in"Woman" (too much to deal with), & in the encore - thru much of it (WAY too much, more like "Clapping Over Beethoven"!). Tapeflips late in "You're Gonna Need Me" & during/just after bass solo in "Woman".
::: Festival Day 1 : 1972-08-12 Saturday (order from Christgau review & announcements):
James Brown / Chuck Berry / Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen (approx 4pm) / Elephant's Memory / James Gang / McKendree Spring / Stephen Stills & Manassas / Jefferson Airplane.
::: Festival Day 2 : 1972-08-13 Sunday (order from Christgau review):
Billy Preston / Bo Diddley / Lighthouse / Shirelles / Ike & Tina Turner / Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show / Sha Na Na / Sly & The Family Stone
Looking Glass on Day 2 billing but not in review (Possibly a no-show as "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" was at top of charts?).
::: This taper only taped Day 1 & did everything except McKendree Spring & Chuck Berry's main set (only taped or kept his encore).
::: Benefit for Nassau Society for Crippled Children & Adults sponsored by Nassau Easter Seal Society.
::: Purportedly the first rock festival used to raise funds for an established charity.
::: Ticket Price: $10.00 per day, noon to midnight (tho' Day 1 apparently ended about 2AM).
::: Vintage Robert Christgau review at http://robertchristgau.com/xg/news/nd720820.php
::: One online listing has Malo listed on 1972-08-12 but it's incorrect as far as I can know.
::: "Straight Shooter" recorded early '72 & released the month before this gig, in July. "Passin' Thru" (also this line-up) hit the racks in October but there's no sign of it here.

Recording Information ::: $35 Lafayette monaural cassette recorder with adjustable recording level & unknown monaural Sony microphone -> master normal bias mono cassettes no noise reduction.

Playback (circa 2008) ::: master normal bias mono cassettes on unknown brand azymuth adjusted cassette deck -> unknown digital equipment -> wavs @ 48 kHz on DVD-Rs.

Mastering (2013-08-xx) ::: 48 kHz wavs in Audacity (normalisation to remove DC offset, channel/phase alignment, fades, manual one-at-a-time glitch / dropout / bump / pop / click / dullspot repairs, volume adjustments, speed correction +.25%, NO equalisation, dithered down to 44.1 kHz) -> CD Wave (track splits) -> Trader's Little Helper -> yer ears. First uploaded week of 2013-08-23.

Line-up ::: Roy Kenner - vocals // Domenic Troiano - electric guitar, vocals // Dale Peters -electric bass, vocals // Jim Fox - drums, percussion. (Kenner & Troiano were ex-members of the Canadian band Bush). "Straight Shooter" & "Passin' Thru" line-up (both albums issued in 1972).

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

CoolSonics 265 ::: Thanks to the original taper & trader, The Florida Kid! ::: Corrections welcome ::: While I never did really rate this line-up, I did like several songs on "Straight Shooter", so it spun round my turntable on some number of occasions. All I had to go on were the 2 studio albums. But this is pretty great, aside from some rather clich�, sexist rock moves in places (mostly attributable to Kenner) & the jamming in general is rockin' pretty f'in' hard. Head into "I Tell You Why" or "Stop" to get a taste. I like this recording much better than either of their studio albums. I'd be happy to hear some more live tapes of this line-up if anyone would be so kind...

The audience around the taper doesn't seem particularly entertained by the rap leading into the already rather lame call & response request from the band in "My Door Is Open" (this group is going to be the bass drum, this group the snare, this group the cymbals... Their response as this is initiated is, "F*ckers!".

A few of the classic audience quotes during the James Gang set... "That's so freakin' hot." "I've got about 75 cents. If I buy that are you going to...". "Open Your Mouth" (shotgun or something more psychedelic?)! "Can I get some of those?", "Goin' in the pipe!", "...Before we get really fucked up...", "I was freaked out today, man.", "You're BOTH taping?", "How many tapes did ya use already?", "I seen Led Zeppelin last June 15th. - That was good.", "I wish Hendrix was still livin'.", "They got some weird ones, real weird.", And then... In the middle of the jamming in "Woman" (after the stoner neighbor yells for "water"), the taper(?) makes an announcement that, "We've just had our first born baby today"! Sounds like it was happening right there in the audience!". The baggie fumbling noise near the mike during "Stop". And then, during other sets, "Where's that alligator clip?", "You know I'm straight again?", "I can't understand with this kind of a line-up where the fuck everybody is!" and SO many more!

Anyway,the main thing is the music. Cool it got recorded. Enjoy!

Kudos to Zongo for life support, Lochner for mikes&more & Fast Freddie for runnin' Video Dick's Record Emporium with the bathroom office full of tape decks. Thanks to Hanwaker (few among us can keep his pace). Mountains of gratitude to Davmar, D.White, Sanchez, Elliot, The Florida Kid, Kloiber, Zingg, JTW, Bershaw, Boston Gold, Dixon, Moore, Gough & SO many more for all that collecting & sharing... Royal thanks to The Man In The Palace, Doc Tinker, Brinkhoffs, Barely Eatin', Reel Master Gaule, Parrish & all the traders who housed me thru my music acquisition & travel years. Hats off to Brother Kent, Uncle Jake, Little Queenie (& her neighbor Frank) & his honor Ptomaine Thomas. Glasses raised to Byron for musical horizon expansion & much obliged to J & Thurston for keepin' my concert fires burnin' since my continental shift. Thanks to the Mods for keepin' DIME alive. Enjoy, share, give, spread peace. Yers truly, Knees

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