PATTI SMITH GROUP

Friday, 3 June 1977 9:00PM

CBGB
315 Bowery
New York, New York 10003
USA


FLAC master, 3 June 2020, by elegymart:
Analog audience recording (mono) {recorded by Gene Poole & Nick P}: possibly Audio-Technica mic, wired for mini-jack > Panasonic recorder > probably 1977-79 Ampex 371 Plus Series (Type I Normal) 90-minute analog audio cassette master > Maxell UDXL 35-90B 7" x 1/4 reel-to-reel tape (at 3.75ips) {from the Gene Poole collection} > Revox A77 Mk III reel-to-reel > Roland R05 (24/96) > Cool Edit Pro 2.0 (audio cleanup, convert to 16/44) > SHNtool (fixed SBE) > CD Wave (track splits) > TLH (WAV > FLAC8).
Created this text file.


Total running time [68:17]
------------------------------------------------------------------
01 introduction [0:19]
02 We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together [2:58]
03 Privilege (Set Me Free) [4:31]
04 Kimberly [5:34]
05 Redondo Beach [4:05]
06 Ask the Angels [3:52]
07 Ain't It Strange [7:05]
08 When I Was Nineteen [3:41]
09 Gimme Some Lovin' [3:08]
10 Pumping (My Heart) [3:40]
11 You Really Got Me [3:10]
12 Radio Ethiopia [9:05]
13 Easter [5:38]
-- encore --
14 Land [8:54]
15 Let's Twist Again [2:28]


Band line-up:
Patti Smith - vocals, guitar
Lenny Kaye - guitar, bass, vocals
Ivan Král - bass, vocals, guitar
Richard Sohl - keyboards, synthesizers
Andy Paley - drums, percussion


Notes:

THE GENE POOLE COLLECTION VOL. 123

Here's the latest installment of the Gene Poole Collection, a random wellspring of recordings which have recently surfaced. To paraphrase Lou: This is gonna go on for a while, so we should get used to each other, settle back, pull up your cushions, whatever else you have with you that makes life bearable in what has already been the start of trying decade...

Some of Gene's handiwork has probably been heard by your very ears before, for the most part via the Stonecutter Archives, but this is the first major unearthing of tapes direct from the legend himself. As promising as that may seem, it's best to let the surprises hit as they are shared. The trade-off to the prolific taping on Gene's part is that the expectations for a perfect track record would be unrealistic and unfair. There will be instances of incomplete recordings, caused by late arrivals to gigs, recorder and mic malfunctions, and other assorted foibles as would befall any mortal taper. There will be times where a master from another source exists which could be superior. For the most part, Gene recorded with a variety of mics and recorders, and many shows suffered from wire dropouts, so that only one channel was extant in the capture. Due warning about the past imperfect given and out of the way, credit should be given where due as well -- for many shows thought lost forever, it's exciting to discover that many of these even in incomplete form have now cropped up.

The transfers, the audio fixes, and the research all have required some lead time -- many tapes had scant info (sometimes just the name of the artist/band, with no date listed for the performance). Needless to say, gear documentation is virtually nil -- if we wait around for that precise detail to be forthcoming, nothing from the collection would probably see the light of day.

For this edition we head back to CBGB for the fourth consecutive night of the Patti Smith Group's "Basic Training" run. A midnight show with separate admission unrelated to this run was with Spector and Harry Toledo.

It's Jay Dee's second night bedridden with rubella, so Andy Paley's back on the drums. The set tonight kicks off like a 1975 set with their Velvet Underground cover. At this point, Patti seems to recognize some familiar faces from the previous nights in the audience, many who are from Brooklyn. "Is Brooklyn violent? Do a lot of you guys go to college?" she asks. PSG played Manhattan, Staten Island and Long Island, but never Brooklyn, and Patti wouldn't perform there live until 2002.

Ivan covers the Kinks for the second night in a row, while Lenny covers the Spencer Davis Group. "Pumping" is performed as a standalone number, but unfortunately it's where the tape flip occurs, and the second half is slightly muffled. The real rare nugget tonight is the premiere of "When I Was Nineteen" -- an unreleased PSG song.

The show is brought to us by Flintstones vitamins, according to Patti's running joke from the first night. She also puts in a plug for her songbook ($6.95 at Gotham Book Mart in the coming week), and from there Lenny rambles about Haile Selassie as they launch into "Radio Ethiopia." Before going into a penicillin rap that bridges "Radio Ethiopia" with "Easter," Patti catches her breath and informs the audience she's having such a great time. She'd been performing all of the prior nights with her neck brace on, but tonight in a celebratory and victorious mood, she decides to finally remove it. "Land" which opened up the second night here shows up as the first song of the encore, and they end with the Chubby Checker cover they would pull out of their hat at some '76 shows.

Gene's first gen cassette of this was encoded with Dolby and for whatever reason, played back not only with no high ends (this is with/without the Dolby NR punched in during playback), but also was pitched too slow. Years ago, many of Gene's masters, especially in the mid to late 80's, would be immediately copied onto the Good Doctor's reels, fresh from taping out in the field. At some point, some of these earlier recordings were copied as well. They've been a useful secondary backup source, and the surviving reels have now been acquired by Gene, so they are all now are part of TGPC. For this show, we opted for the reel-to-reel as the transfer source. It's not perfect of course, and there's some distortion in parts, but it plays proper and without the muffled sound that dogged the first gen cassette. There's a possibility that the reel was copied from a first gen cassette, and the cassette procured for the transfer but unused was a second gen. If Gene can't recall, who really knows for sure what was done some forty-plus years ago.

N.B.: When Gene was asked for his specific memories of the gear used for this, he relayed that the taping involved a Fisher mono mic, about as big as the size of the vocal mics being used on stage. Well, there's no evidence of Fisher being in the microphone business (keep the jokes about the Fisher-Price kiddie mics to yourself please). Gene responded yesterday that he now believes it was actually an Audio-Technica mic. Based on his description, in 1977 that would have been the AT-813 which was cardioid but it wasn't mono. Just a reminder to update your text files from nights #1 to 3 of this run.

Enjoy,
elegymart