THE BOOTLEGS DIGITALLY REMASTERED
1968 Recordings
Live at the Fillmore
Remaster Quality: A good, well balanced audience tape as the PA is excellent giving a good balance to the vocals and drums. Clapton now has a much cleaner sound while still being loud. The remaster has reduced noise, boosted the deep bass and tided up the hard stop/starts (same recordist as in '67!). This is the complete first set plus Stepping Out from the 2nd. There were recorder problems and Stepping Out has had to be heavily bass filtered to get rid of low frequency noise. It is now listenable. There exist only poor quality fragments of some of the rest of that set.
Comment: They were playing in a very different mode that night - extremely interesting and rewarding. Just shows they were still experimenting.
CD2 (60 min) (CD1 is Live at the Fillmore - Sept '67)
Fillmore Theatre, San Francisco, 3rd March 1968
1. NSU (Bruce) 16.48
2. Politician (Bruce/Brown) 5.50
3. Sunshine of Your Love (Bruce/Brown/Clapton) 9.03
4. I’m So Glad (James) 14.06
5. Stepping Out (Bracken) 14.28
Back Bay Theatre/Winterland Outtakes
Remaster Quality: An excellent, well balanced audience tape as the PA is excellent giving a good balance to the vocals and drums. This is from a 2nd generation copy and sound is excellent. The remaster reduced tape noise and got rid of the hall bass boom (100 & 200Hz). This very realistically captures there live sound as it is all well balanced. The set has been split after Stepping Out because there was a tape change and the start of Traintime was rough as the tape sped up, which is now edited out.
Comment: This is one of their great concerts - we are very lucky it was captured for us to enjoy.
CD1 (57 min)
Boston, 5th April 1968
1. Sunshine of Your Love (Bruce/Brown/Clapton) 17.13
2. Spoonful (Dixon) 17.32
3. Sleepy Time Time (Bruce/Godfrey) 8.47
4. Stepping Out (Bracken) 13.25
CD2 (68 min)
The Winterland Outtakes1. Traintime (Bruce) 6.53
2. Toad (Baker) 17.32
Remaster Quality: This night was the prime source for the official releases. This is an audience recorded on the bass side. The PA is excellent so the drums and vocals are very clear. The guitar is distant but clear. Some tape stretch and flutter is in evident but quality is reasonable. We're Going Wrong is actually from a reference tape so quality is notably superior. Once again filtered but with treble boost to get more guitar. Balance is now reasonable but overall quality can only be classed as reasonable
Comment: Rounds out the Winterland releases and shows that the released Stepping Out is not from this night! Sunshine and Stepping are both superior to the official releases.
3. Sunshine of Your Love (Bruce/Brown/Clapton) 6.30
4. We’re Going Wrong (Bruce) 6.48
5. Stepping Out (Bracken) 14.35
6. Traintime (Bruce) 6.01
7. Toad (Baker) 11.36
CD1
Anaheim, California, 18th March 1968 1. Spoonful (Dixon) 16.20The Fillmore, San Francisco, 7th March 1968
7. Sunshine of Your Love (Bruce/Brown/Clapton) 6.55
8. Sunshine of Your Love (Bruce/Brown/Clapton) 6.50
9. Bonus Track (Total: 73.49)
The Recording/Remastering
Anaheim
This was recorded well back from the stage with plenty of recorded chat from the guys. Quality is only reasonable with the drums distant. The PA was good as the vocals are clear but miking on the drums was poor.
The recording was underspeed and has been successfully corrected. Bass is prominent on "Spoonful" as Jack starts a bit turned up. This one of those gigs where Jack and Eric were really turned up and Baker drowned out.
Unfortunately the recordist did pause the tape between songs and stop it after "Stepping Out". Tape noise has been reduced but some momentary noises remain as they are imbedded in the recording.
Now a quite well balanced recording even with the recessed drums. And really we can't complain when a new recording does appear especially of this quite acceptable sonic quality and an excellent performance.
The Fillmore "Sunshine of Your Love"
"Sunshine of Your Love" from the 7th March 1968 Fillmore performance was released in 1988 on a limited edition 'After Midnight' CD single which is now a collectors item.
This is a rough mix off the master tape, which I believe was a quick mix by Tom Dowd to see if the tapes from that night were usable. It was the first night of the live recording sessions and Tom was trying to work out how to cope with Cream at concert volume levels.
To appreciate this recording you really have to listen to it on headphones as the guitar bleed into the drum mikes is very clear. In an attempt to mask it the guitar was panned centre during the solo - an effect that just wasn't right for a live recording. The most incredible sound is the bass drums on the ending jam. This is the most accurate quality reproduction of their live sound.
On the remaster I have created a two channel mono mix which eliminates the panning while still retaining the instrument balance. For comparison a tweaked version of the official remaster release, from 9th March Winterland, is included.
CD2 San Jose, California, 25th May 1968
1. Tales of Brave Ulysses (Clapton/Sharp) 4.23The Recording/Remastering
This was recorded on an 8 track cartridge recorder which were long ago, thankfully, assigned to the technological garbage bin. In this quality it has been released as a 'commercial' bootleg - a total rip-off.
For this concert they had a great PA and the drums were quite well miked . The recordist started well back in the auditorium but between Sunshine and Glad they moved forward with a resulting increase in presence and reduction in hall reverb.
The remastering was long and tedious but worth the effort. Major speed variations have been largely corrected but in terms of pitch it remains quite variable but very much improved - some 4 minutes longer!
Tape reversals have been edited but remain obvious, though much less intrusive. The "Toad" ending is abrupt after removal of the harsh noise of the tape termination. Basic balance was quite good and it is now very listenable but still quite flawed.
FINAL TOUR USA - On the West Coast (Reviewed)
CD1 (62 min)Remaster: These are a reference tape off the masters from the full concert. Quality is very good except that the guitar is undermixed (explained in the liner notes). Sound is really one for the Bruce and/or Baker fans. Remastering boosted the guitar a bit but there just wasn't enough there - the sound is very weird for such a quality recording. Performance is very poor - so bad that it has to be listened to. Sound quality 4+ (5 except for the mix)
1. White Room (Bruce/Brown) 6.34
2. Politician (Bruce/Brown) 5.16
3. Crossroads (Johnson arr Clapton) 3.57
4. Sunshine of Your Love (Bruce/Brown/Clapton) 5.12
5. Spoonful (Dixon) 17.09
6. Deserted Cities of the Heart (Bruce/Brown) 4.19
7. Passing the Time aka "Scatterfaragus" (Baker) 10.57
8. I’m So Glad 7.02Tracks 1, 2 & 6 released on Live Cream Vol II with a different mix
CD2 (59 min)
Sports Arena, San Diego, California, 20th October 1968
Remaster: Another reference tape but the master tape is better balanced. The guitar is higher in the mix and the remaster has improved it even more. The bass and drums remain clean and clear with the drum sound more live then the official releases. Despite some equipment problems it was a good performance - Crossroads being quite reasonable and Spoonful actually producing some sparks. The LA Forum "White Room" is better then the released version except for a recording drop out. Please note that the bootleggers have wrongly attributed this recording (explained in the liner notes). This is the best boot from the final tour in terms of sound (by a very long mile!) and performance (there are a couple of as good but sound is bad). Sound - 5.
1. White Room (Bruce Brown) 6.38
2. Crossroads (Johnson arr. Clapton) 4.29
3. Sunshine of Your Love (Bruce/Brown/Clapton) 6.40
4. Traintime (Bruce) 9.47
5. Toad (Baker) 14.16
6. Spoonful (Dixon) 15.09Track 1 recorded LA Forum 19th March
Goodbye & Farewell
CD1
New Haven Arena, 11th October 1968
1. White Room (Bruce/Brown) 6.28
2. Politician (Bruce/Brown) 5.39
Rhode Island Auditorium, 4th November 1968
3. Spoonful (Dixon) 22.40
4. Toad (Baker) 13.49 (48.39)
The Remastering: These are reasonable audience recordings. Only the first two songs were captured at New haven which was a pity as it sounds like it was a good show. Only two songs were performed at the 2nd show at Rhode Island. It was there last US performance and, comparatively, a pretty strong one. Sound balance is generally good but the drums are overwhlemed by the stacks, as usual.
CD2
Royal Albert Hall, 26th November 1968
1. White Room (Bruce/Brown) 6.27
2. Politician (Bruce/Brown) 7.27
3. I’m So Glad (James) 6.44
4. Sitting on Top of the World (Burnett) 4.56
5. Crossroads (Johnson) 4.45
6. Toad (Baker) 10.35
7. Spoonful (Dixon) 13.57
8. Sunshine of Your Love (Bruce/Brown/Clapton) 8.37
9. Stepping Out (Bracken) 4.26 (67.59)
The Remastering: This is the complete audience recording of the 2nd show. A version from the film soundtrack is around giving better quality audio but including commentary intrusions and some songs are incomplete (Toad, Spoonful) and Stepping Out not included. As an audience balance is reasonable with drums audible if not clear. Sitting on Top of the World and Crossroads are particularly strong with Spoonful benefiting from a short treatment.