ROBERT GORDON

Friday, 4 June 1982

Peppermint Lounge
100 5th Avenue
New York, New York 10011
USA


FLAC master, 10 September 2023, by elegymart:
Analog audience recording (stereo) {recorded by Gene Poole}: unknown mics/recorder > 1980-82 US Maxell UDXLI C90 (Type I Normal) analog audio cassette master {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 [62:20]
------------------------------------------------------------------
01 The Way I Walk [4:33]
02 I Love You So [2:44]
03 band introductions [0:44]
04 There You Go [3:13]
05 Heart Full of Soul [4:38]
06 Twenty Flight Rock [2:22]
07 Linda Lu [4:16]
08 Mary Lou [6:22]
09 Silver Bullet [5:28]
10 Crimson and Clover [2:25]
11 You're Undecided [2:53]
12 Treat a Dog [4:50]
13 It's Only Make Believe [2:43]
14 Fire [5:23]
15 Rock Billy Boogie [3:03]
16 Someday, Someway [2:53]
17 Black Slacks [2:17] >
18 Red Hot [1:26]


Band line-up:
Robert Gordon - guitar, vocals
Chris Spedding - guitar, vocals on t08 and t09
Tony Garnier - bass, bass fiddle
Anton Fig - drums, percussion


Notes:

THE GENE POOLE COLLECTION VOL. 220

Here's the latest installment of the Gene Poole Collection, a random wellspring of recordings which surfaced during the pandemic. 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 microphone 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.

Carrying on with our thin association game of the Stones thread from the prior volume, this time we find ourselves at the new Peppermint Lounge, for Robert Gordon with Chris Spedding. This is Anton Fig's first gig with Robert's band, although they had worked before with Link Wray. The band took the stage at 2 in the morning, so technically it was June 5th, but that's the city that never sleeps for you.

Spedding plays and sings the same numbers as he did at the Lone Star gig we presented way back in Volume 26, and the performances here are just as solid, with little to fault on Gene's tape for this outing. Compared to that set, you get some more Johnny covers on this one -- Burnette and Cash, that is.

Paul Shaffer and Will Lee from television's "Late Night with David Letterman" house band at the time had spotted Anton at one of these Robert Gordon shows, who Shaffer probably remembered from a Joan Armatrading recording session back in 1980. When Steve Jordan bowed out of what they began at this time to jokingly refer to as "The World's Most Dangerous Band" in 1986, they recruited Anton to take over his spot.

Enjoy,
elegymart