John Cale & Chris Spedding
February 2, 1988 [1988-02-02]
Bogart's
Long Beach, California

Remastered and pitch-adjusted

Original lineage: cassette audience master (unknown deck and mics) > untracked Aiff File > Soundforge tracking > FLAC > TTD download

> [grner1 - 2021-10-11] > Macintosh with Digidesign MBox audio interface > xACT (decode to AIFF files) > Digidesign Pro Tools (speeded up 20 cents, edited some applause out) > Aiff files > xACT (Flac level 8 files, tagged with sector boundaries verified).

01 Ghost Story 2:52
02 Ship Of Fools 5:16
03 Amsterdam 3:10
04 Leaving It Up To You 4:46
05 The Endless Plain Of Fortune 4:31
06 Buffalo Ballet 2:51
07 A Child’s Christmas In Wales 3:25
08 Antarctica Starts Here 2:45
09 Darling I Need You 3:44
10 Where There's A Will 2:33
11 Dead or Alive 5:24
12 Guts 4:33
13 Heartbreak Hotel 5:15
14 Chinese Envoy 3:37
15 Thoughtless Kind 2:34
16 Cable Hogue 5:17
17 Dying On The Vine 5:01
18 Paris 1919 3:56
19 Fear Is A Man's Best Friend 4:15
20 I Keep A Close Watch 2:40
total - 78:25

Notes: Thanks to the original taper! This is from a review of this show in the L.A. Times:

POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Cale and Spedding in Long Beach, BY CHRIS WILLMAN, FEB. 5, 1988

John Cale has played both solo shows and band shows over the years. On his current trip, which included a stop Tuesday at Bogart’s in Long Beach, the longtime cult favorite has compromised by bringing along famed guitarist Chris Spedding to accompany him on his otherwise unadorned, mostly melancholy musings.

That Cale is offering this subdued show in noisy drinking establishments instead of more typical acoustic outlets is surprising. What really made it work Tuesday was the bravura assist from Spedding, who expertly brought some instrumental emotion into the affair where Cale’s singing and songwriting get a trifle dry.

Cale was at his most melodic and his least avant-garde - staying behind the piano for most of the set and only occasionally picking up the acoustic guitar, always offering exquisite interplay with Spedding’s electric guitar.

Alas, the reserved Cale doesn’t take full advantage of being band-less by becoming more intimate with his audience. He did occasionally add a bit of dynamism to his normally flat vocals, though, sounding touchingly tortured in “Heartbreak Hotel", with appropriately queasy minor chords to match the downbeat words and his own lovely “I Keep a Close Watch on This Heart of Mine,” which closed the show.

Notes [grner1 2021-11-13]: Thanks to the original taper! Please support the artists and live venues any way that you can. Enjoy and SHARE!

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