Warren Zevon
Paramount Northwest
Seattle, WA
June 24, 1978
JEMS Full-Track Tandberg Mono Master

Recording Gear: Sony ECM-22P Microphone > Tandberg Model 11 Portable Reel to Reel

JEMS 2018 Transfer: Master reel > Tandberg Model 11 > Sound Devices USBPre 2 capture (24/96) > iZotope RX and Ozone > MBIT+ convert to 16/44.1 > Audacity > TLH > FLAC

01 Intro & Tunning
02 Veracruz
03 Johnny Strikes Up the Band
04 Tenderness On The Block
05 Mohammed's Radio
06 Excitable Boy
07 Accidentally Like A Martyr
08 talk & band introductions
09 Nighttime In The Switching Yard
10 Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner
11 Werewolves Of London
12 Poor, Poor Pitiful Me
13 A Certain Girl
14 Desperados Under the Eaves
15 Lawyers, Guns and Money
16 I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
17 Encore Break
18 Hasten Down The Wind

Warren Zevon - piano, vocals
David Landau - guitar
Jorge Calder�n - guitar, vocals
Stanley Sheldon - bass
Paul Silva? - drums

Known Faults: None

Tale of the Tapes and the Tandberg

With Jared�s passing in October 2016, the complete JEMS Archive was moved south from his home up north. That move, sad impetus aside, presented the daunting opportunity to go through and organize the collection. With the help of amazing friends and experts (among them Slowburn, SS, RD and slipkid68), JEMS tapes are now accessible in ways they have never been before. SG was also on hand to help and fill in our taping history as he always does.

When the task was done and loaded into the truck, one box in particular captured my attention: master reels recorded by SG on his Tandberg portable reel to reel. We�ve posted some 30 or more of these on DIME over the years, but this box contained master reels that had never been digitized before and, in some instances, had seemingly never been traded or circulated.

Over a year later, most of the tapes from that particular box have been posted plus a few others we found on hard drives. Just last month I sorted through the reels collection yet again and identified another ten Tandberg masters that have never been transferred.

If you don�t know about the Tandberg, it was a remarkable piece of gear in its day, not only capable of recording at 3-3/4 and 7-1/2 IPS, but in full-track mono. I won�t do the math, but compared to a cassette, the surface area of tape capturing the music is orders of magnitude higher, which is why so many of SG�s Tandberg masters from the likes of David Bowie, Elton John, Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen are considered by some as audience-recording classics. The Tandberg required 10(!) D-cel batteries to operate, is roughly the size of a compact typewriter and weighs around ten pounds. Imagine sneaking that into a show and your respect for what SG accomplished only grows.

Happily, the original Tandberg deck is still fully functioning, so these new transfers capture full-track mono playback on the original tape recorder to maximize quality.

Warren Zevon

This is the fourteenth in a series of Tandberg master reels digitized for the first time. If you want to find the others, search JEMS or Tandberg using �Search title and torrent filename only.�

It is also our second Warren Zevon tape, the other being a fantastic short set opening for Jackson Browne at the We Don�t Need Nuclear Power benefit concert, also held at the Paramount, the following February (you can download that here: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=583030)

This full concert was in support of Zevon�s third album, Excitable Boy, produced by Browne and released in January �78. It would be his breakthrough behind songs like �Werewolves Of London,� �Lawyers, Guns and Money� and the title track.

At the risk of sounding like a broken recording, this recording is another Stan Gutoski Paramount classic, undoubtedly recorded from his preferred spot, row JJ in the back corner of the main floor, from which so many great tapes were made. It is a clear, punchy mono recording that is sure to please any Zevon fan. There�s a moment where you can hear Stan saying loudly, �I think that guy saw the recording equipment,� but happily nothing happens and the recording continues through the end of the show where Stan chimes in again and says, �This one is for Simon,� a nod to the legendary east coast taper and Dylanophile, Simon Montgomery.

JEMS Recording trainspotters might also note that this recording was made one night before Stan�s well-known recording of Bruce Springsteen at the same venue, in the same seats. It was a busy week.

Our hat goes off once again to Stan for his remarkable work in the �70s, �80s and beyond capturing these shows in the first place, and to Jared, may his legacy live on as he rests in peace. Thanks as well to frogster, for his continued support and encouragement to get the tapes out of the vaults and into your ears. His post-production is the critical last mile in getting shows posted. All comments welcomed.

BK for JEMS

It's nice to, once again, work with JEMS to liberate more recordings for your enjoyment.

This next installment is a really surprising one being a previously uncirculated Warren Zevon recording. I must admit that when BK talked to me about the Tandberg recordings, I didn't expect another Zevon tape to exist besides the one he mentioned above.

Makes you wonder what other recordings are in the archive, waiting to be discovered...

This recording is a great one, again another top-quality Tandberg capture.

Contrary to other recordings featured in this series, this recording has a bit more presence of audience noise. But make no mistake about it, the audience is rarely present during songs and is only (obviously) noticeable between songs. Also, in contrast to some other Tandberg recordings, this has a more close-up quality regarding the music sound, more vibrant and more energetic ambience.

Despite being a 2000-plus seat venue, the recording feels intimate, which suggests that Stan may have been closer to the PA with his recorder than other Paramount/Tandberg recordings, where the tape deck was somewhat away from the audience. BK thinks otherwise, but it sounds to me like a closer location.

It is also worth noting that the band supporting this show is completely different from the other line-ups that supported Zevon during the tour. Why did this happen? Well, that's another question to be answered...

A previously uncirculated recording of Warren Zevon is something you do not see every day, that's for sure, so we are pleased to, once again, contribute to the trading pool with another recording of excellent quality.

Huge thanks to Stan for his immense contributions to the JEMS Archive. There are many more good things to come from him.

Last but not least, I thank the JEMS team for the opportunity they have given to me, allowing me to present to all of you many of their recordings.

frogster