TINA TURNER

Thursday, 5 November 1981 (probably)

Brendan Byrne Arena
50 New Jersey Route 120
East Rutherford, New Jersey 07073
USA


FLAC master, 9 May 2020, by elegymart:
Analog audience recording (stereo) {recorded by Gene Poole}: unknown mics/recorder > 1978-79 Ampex 371 Plus (Type I Normal) 90-minute analog audio cassette master {from the Gene Poole collection} > re-shelled to 1985-87 BASF LH extra I "small window" version (Type I Normal) cassette housing > 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 [38:25]
--------------------------------------------------------------
01 Foolish Behaviour [5:13]
02 Hot Legs [3:11]
03 River Deep, Mountain High [2:39]
04 Nutbush City Limits [2:48]
05 Givin' It Up for Your Love [5:24]
06 Acid Queen [2:22]
07 Shake a Tail Feather [1:27]
08 Help! [5:04]
09 Proud Mary [8:14] >
10 Music Keeps Me Dancing [1:59]


Band line-up:
Tina Tuner - lead vocals
Kenny Moore – piano, vocals
James Ralston – guitar
Chuck O'Steen - keyboards
Bob Feit – bass
Jack Bruno - drums
Annie Behringer, Lejeune Richardson - backing vocals, dancer


Notes:

THE GENE POOLE COLLECTION VOL. 98

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 -- we wait around for that precise detail to be forthcoming, nothing from the collection would probably see the light of day.

This time we're headed back over the Hudson River to East Rutherford, New Jersey, for what Gene believes was the first of three consecutive nights that Tina Turner opened for the Rolling Stones at the Brendan Byrne Arena.

Before she had her commercial comeback with "Private Dancer," Tina's solo career was in a bit of a rut. She'd been performing on the cabaret circuit, but was encouraged by her manager to rework her show into more of a rock n' roll act. She caught a little bit of a break opening for Rod Stewart on his US tour. Tina had already been covering "Hot Legs" for a few years, but she nonetheless was brought out by Rod to join him when he performed the song on "Saturday Night Live" on US television the month before this show.

Her next bigger break leading up to the comeback was when she opened for the Stones for this New Jersey run. While she was still very much respected by her peers, Ike and Tina opening for the Stones in 1969 seemed so far away in 1981. It's not hard to fathom that audience and soundboard recordings for all three nights of the Stones circulate, but was everyone that indifferent to the Tina Turner sets? It seems the only circulating recordings of Tina from these nights are when she joins Mick to sing on "Honky Tonk Women" during the Stones sets. Well, we're gonna fix that now.

Unfortunately the sound on this one has all the trappings of an arena recording. It's up there, just as boomy and distant as Wang Chung and the Cars were (see Vols. 58 & 59). While we haven't been able to confirm this is indeed the first night, one possible indication to support that might be the feedback midway into the opening number. They at least crank up Tina's mic and that's what you here for anyway.

But that opening number... Tina had strange ideas for a setlist, or maybe her management did. The set starts off with two Rod Stewart covers, the second one being the tried and true "Hot Legs." But "Foolish Behaviour," a dark-humored ditty about a husband dreaming of killing his wife, and possibly the most Faces-like song penned in the post-"Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" era by Rod and his band, when you think about her history with Ike... Whether you want to call her Queen T or Queen A or Queen T&A, she was there before Queen Bey, so she gets to do what she wants, but what an odd and ballsy choice for an opening number. The rest of the set contains some older chestnuts, a Delbert McClinton cover (see Vol. 96) and her Beatles cover pre-dating its appearance on "Private Dancer" (sorry, no sexy and silky sax solo though). Like Joe Cocker, Tina could take a setlist that's all over the place like this one and give it pure cohesion by effortlessly putting her distinct imprint on each song's interpretation.

Oh, as for the fixing on this one -- Ampex may have been at the vanguard of open reel and cassette recorders, and their brand name may forever be cemented in the history of recording tape, but they made the crappiest cassette tapes that don't hold up like their competitors do over the years. They must have cheaped out during the manufacturing process of not applying any lubricant coating on their tapes. This particular master tape could barely get past the deck transport during playback. Frustrating multiple passes were done to gather enough takes in order to put together the reconstituted recording you'll hear, and while it's now minimized, there's still some residual flutter in places.

Enjoy,
elegymart