Steve Goodman featuring John Prine
Clover Studios
Los Angeles, California
Likely September 1975
K-WEST FM Radio Broadcast
JF Archive Series Vol. 28

JEMS 2020 Transfer: First gen reel to reel > Otari 5050 (azimuth adjustment) > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 capture > iZotope RX8 > iZotope Ozone 8 > Audacity > TLH > FLAC

01 Red Red Robin
02 Moby Book
03 Door Number Three
04 Yellow Coat
05 Unemployed
06 City Of New Orleans
07 It's A Sin To Tell A Lie
08 Souvenirs
09 Paradise
10 The Hotel Room
11 You Never Even Call Me By My Name
12 Blue Umbrella
13 My Funny Valentine

Known Faults:
-My Funny Valentine: ends abruptly (possibly cut)

THE JF BACKSTORY

JEMS loves a vintage taper series and we are pleased to resume this one from the archive of our friend JF, who taped in and around Southern California in the '70s and Boston in the '80s. He frequented smaller venues, like the Troubadour and the Roxy, leaving arenas to others with rare exceptions and leaning more towards the folksier, jazzier and eclectic sides of rock.

Most of his '70s tapes were made on what I would describe as the kind of large, rectangular, portable, C-cell powered cassette recorder that my family and surely many others had in the '70s, either a Panasonic or a Sony. While I used ours to record myself, my friends and my sister around the house, the teenage JF figured: Why not try taking it into concerts?

I only learned what recorder JF used after I had heard some of his tapes and I have to say I was mildly shocked. Given the gear, his tapes are surprisingly clear. And make no mistake, this was an early era for audience recording, part of the first wave spurred on by of the vinyl bootleg revolution.

For further details and backstory on JF, his tapes and the extraordinary lost Van Morrison performances from 1975 that started the series, please refer to the notes in Vol. Three:

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=524853

Vol. 28 of our series is what appears to be a rare and previously uncirculated radio broadcast JF recorded off the K-West airwaves: Steve Goodman, joined by his friend John Prine, playing acoustically at Clover Studios in LA in what we believe is September 1975.

I could not find any record of this performance on the Internet, including Prine and Goodman sites. K-West regularly broadcast live sessions from Clover Studios in the mid'70s and the studio and station are mentioned on the recording, so that part checks out. JF labeled his tape as October 1975, but I was able to find a listing of Goodman playing The Troubadour the weekend of September 18-20, so it seems likely this recording was made closer to those appearances, hence us labeling it September 1975. If you have further information about the date of this performance, please let us know.

The recording captures a delightfully casual and informal set played in front of a small audience in the studio. Goodman starts out alone, playing primarily originals including his most famous work, "City Of New Orleans," plus a cover of Billy Mayhew's "It's A Sin To Tell A Lie."

Prine accompanies Goodman for the last half of the set starting with "Souvenirs," which he wrote, and sings a few of his own songs: "Paradise," "You Never Even Call Me By My Name" and "Blue Umbrella." Goodman closes the night with a slow, stark reading of "My Funny Valentine."

It was JF's practice to record on one tape and then consolidate recordings onto reels, so we have listed this one as first generation. While not pin-drop perfect, this is an excellent broadcast recording which we have tweaked to make it as listenable as possible. Samples provided.

We hope this this is new to fans of both the late, great singer-songwriters.

Special thanks to Professor Goody checking pitch on this one and to mjk5510 for his post-production support on the wide-range of JEMS releases. His steady hand is the straw that stirs the JEMS cocktail. My dear friend BW mentioned Goodman to me last month, which prompted me to dig out this reel.

Last but not least, our heartfelt thanks goes to JF, who reached out on DIME (you could be next!) and offered us his archive, which had been sitting in boxes, 6000 miles away from where he lives today, for 20+ years. Like so many early tapers, he had great stories to tell and the memories flooded back as we sorted through tapes. We are pleased to be able to bring his work to all of you. Please let him know through your comments that you are, too.

BK for JEMS