PATTI SMITH GROUP

Tuesday, 7 June 1977 11:00PM

CBGB
315 Bowery
New York, New York 10003
USA


FLAC master, 7 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 > 1977-79 US Maxell UD Ultra Dynamic C90 (Type I Normal) analog audio cassette {from the Gene Poole collection} > Sony TC-WE435 (azimuth adjustment) > 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 [1:23:47]
------------------------------------------------------------------
01 rant [1:50]
02 My Generation [3:14]
03 Just Like Magellan [3:38]
04 Kimberly [4:56]
05 Redondo Beach [4:29]
06 Space Monkey [4:48]
07 When I Was Ninteteen [3:45]
08 Birdland [8:22] >
09 Seven Ways of Going [7:08]
10 Ask the Angels [3:11]
11 Worst That Could Happen [4:19]
12 Break It Up [4:58]
13 Parachute Woman [3:22]
14 Radio Ethiopia [8:48] >
15 Rock n Roll Nigger [3:22]
-- encore --
16 Land [10:38] >
17 Jailhouse Rock [2:53]


Band line-up:
Patti Smith - vocals, guitar
Lenny Kaye - guitar, bass, vocals
Ivan Král - bass, vocals, guitar
Richard Sohl - keyboards, synthesizers
Jay Dee Daugherty - drums, percussion
-- special guest --
John Cale - bass on t02


Notes:

THE GENE POOLE COLLECTION VOL. 127

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.

We're back at CBGB for the eighth night of the Patti Smith Group's "Basic Training" run. Although Gene attended and taped all the nights of this run, he's never been able to find Night #7 and unfortunately that night also never was put to reel by the Good Doctor nor to a cassette dub by Stonecutter. Show time beginning with the prior missing night had switched to a later start of 11:00PM; there likely were other non-PSG shows in the earlier part of the evening at CBGB, but it's unknown at this time what acts those may have been.

Patti goes off on an expletive-filled rant to start off tonight's set, about the New York Post and being shut out of the Schaefer Music Festival. All throughout PSG's lifetime Patti had been on an anti-censorship screed, decrying her ban from WNEW-FM after saying "fuck" on their airwaves during an interview, speaking out against the jailing of the Plastic People of the Universe by the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, bemoaning the reluctance of radio to play "Pissing in a River," and now receiving no invitation to play Central Park for the summer. Also: the B-side of "Gloria" featured a live rendition of "My Generation" from a Cleveland Agora 1976 show, and the initial UK pressings of it had the line "I don't give a fucking shit" bleeped out, much to Patti's chagrin, making that number a no-brainer to open with, replete with John Cale on bass, as he was at the Agora and on the single. After tearing into the Who cover, Patti defiantly declares "don't fuck with me!"

Next PSG serve up the first of their two unreleased songs for the night, "Just Like Magellan" circa 1975. The setlist tonight offered up the most varied selections of the entire run, but they go into a languid version of "Space Monkey" that coupled with a few other stretched out pieces drags the pacing somewhat. "When I Was Nineteen," the other unreleased song of the set, circa the then-present 1977, was probably only the second time performed live (unless it made it into the setlist the night before). "Birdland" and "Seven Ways of Going" are more retrospective compositions that work well live when one of them are inserted into an energetic set, but a strange choice to string the two together back to back, where they bring the set to a crawl after fifteen minutes. They wisely play the ever reliable "Ask the Angels" after that to breathe some life back into the proceedings, and then Lenny totally kills it on the Jimmy Webb-penned classic "Worse That Could Happen," performing it stripped of all the brass instrumentation that adorns the Brooklyn Bridge hit single. "Break It Up" is new to the set on this run (unless again it had been played the prior night), and would be welcome were it not for the fact that they already performed two long slow numbers for the night, and so here was a third dip in the pacing. Ivan gives us another reading of "Parachute Woman" -- perhaps "You Really Got Me" was reserved only for the nights where Andy Paley filled in? The saving grace of this "Basic Training" run is they always ended with the feral "Radio Ethiopia" usually into the borderline controversial but no less hyper "Rock n Roll Nigger" -- no different this night. When the band come back out for their encore, "Land" segues into "Jailhouse Rock" instead of the other way around like on Night #6. With the shows now running close to ninety minutes, and possibly in the interest of time, they dispense with the tease of "Highway 61 Revisited," ending the night with full-on Elvis.

Gene and Nick P finally get closer to the stage now that they've done enough recce with the sound of the room from their repeated experience taping these night after night. They're a bit too close so that the start of the louder numbers all punch in with some initial distortion, and "Birdland > Seven Ways" with its quiet passages doesn't represent well during its infrequent louder peaks. The start of "Land" is clipped with just that brief second of a delayed trigger finger on the record button, but it's all minor plaintive notes amidst a bounty of previously uncirculated classic PSG.

Enjoy,
elegymart