1970-02-08 Boston, Massachusetts Boston Tea Party 15 Lansdowne Street (M1-SBD* BostonGold/CoolSonics TRUE STEREO upgrade versions)
§§§ UNISSUED Tea Party jam experience in aural technicolor §§§
§§§ From BostonGold's 1st generation reel by way of The Florida Kid §§§
§§§ Complete true stereo(!) upgrade: Remasters with & without EQ plus raw tape & new bonus version §§§
*** ABSOLUTELY NOT the same as Joe Walsh & Clapton "Encore Jam" on Fleetwood Mac "Live At The Boston Tea Party" box set ***
*** Also NOT the same as "On We Jam" on CD3 from that set ***
*** Uploaded with DIME Mods' permission after they also compared & verified this jam is NOT commercially released ***
°°° In my opinion, for the best continuous enjoyable listening, go directly to #1 °°°
°°° For me, the EQ'd BostonGold version UPGRADES circulating copies as it's a continuous, true stereo, warmer, remastered source °°°
DOWNLOADS as Fleetwood Mac & Clapton 1970-02-05 but subsequently corrected to the above
TWO "NEW" !completely true stereo! VERSIONS of the unissued Tea Party Fleetwood Mac & Eric Clapton jam
01. Unissued Jam Version 1 - BostonGold remastered & speed correction & EQ (16:53)
02. Unissued Jam Version 2 - BostonGold remastered & speed correction & NO EQ (16:53)
PLUS:
03. Unissued Jam Version 3 - Sidewindersf version NEWLY remastered WITH new BostonGold 6 minute ending with more extreme EQ (16:52)
04. Unissued Jam Version 4 - BostonGold RAW tape (dithered down from 48/16 to 44.1) (17:00).
Total Time (all 4 versions) ::: 1:07:37
::: LOVELY, excellent stereo soundboard (*tho' possibly miked on stage). Check samples for aural audits or brief byte-size blasts o' bliss, but you really gotta hear the whole enchilada for real satisfaction.
::: BostonGold is an ALL ONE SOURCE 1st gen. all-stereo reel which is less bright & distorted than the commonly circulating sidewindersf version & doesn't have the dull areas, glitches, tape fatigue spots, poor mono patches & ending, and has a different sound to it anyway.
::: Warts: Some light distortion from signal overload in parts, especially in the 2nd half (on all circulating versions). Slightly muffled. Bit of de ole hiss. More info below.
::: Boston Tea Party ::: February 5,6,7 James Gang opened for Fleetwood Mac. February 8&9 James Gang opened for Delaney & Bonnie & Friends with Eric Clapton.
::: DATE/LINE-UP: Sometimes alternately listed as Fleetwood Mac with Clapton 1970-02-05 and as February 8or9 with Green joining Clapton at/after a Delaney&Bonnie Tea Party gig (more on this below).
::: Multi-version set offered since it's one track & it seemed much better to have all 'new' versions together rather than uploading 4 different ones.
::: COMPARISON CLAUSE: Nothing on the tracker now but different than previously uploaded versions by Toy_Boat, sidewindersf, all boot versions (& hezekiahx2?) . Details below.
::: Many of you probably only hear a small percent of what you download, but this is REALLY exceptional, some very hip sh*t. Sit down, turn up yr stereo & take a heartfelt listen - with volume!
Recording Information ::: stereo soundboard (*or possibly on stage microphones) -> unknown stereo equipment -> master stereo 2 track reel-to-reel -> 1st generation (7&1/2 ips?) stereo reel -> circa 2008 transfer on unknown equipment to digital data DVD-R as a 48kHz/16bit wav file. (*Stage mikes possibility based on extraneous sounds in a couple of places & noise after jam). EXCEPT.... Version 3, the first 2/3rds has one additional reel generation (noted as 2nd Gen Maxell tape @7&1/2 ips on a Technics 1506 > Tascam Professional CD Recorder > EAC > wav > flac) & other unknown subsequent digital generations & tinkering.
Playback 2013-10-12 ::: 48kHz/16bit wav file -> Audacity (normalisation to remove DC offset, channel/phase alignment, fades, manual one-at-a-time glitch / dropout / pop / click / dullspot repairs, volume adjustments, speed fixes as noted, equalisation only on versions 1 & 3 as noted), dithered down to 44.1 -> CD Wave (track splits) -> Trader's Little Helper -> yr ears. First uploaded week of 2013-12-14.
FURTHER MASTERING NOTES ::: I spent MANY hours remastering & removing/repairing every tiny blemish I could. Also, if my EQ doesn't sound good to you, work with the remastered non-EQ version I've included & do your own thing... I suggest playing #1 for a warm, most enjoyable experience, but my ears ain't your ears. A screenshot of my EQ curve for #1 is included with upload. If you really like the old sidewindersf version (which is too bright & distorted for me), you can now hear it as version #3 here with many glitches & volume issues fixed AND with the mono patches & mono ending removed & substituted with a new BostonGold stereo ending (BostonGold portion more heavily EQ'd than on #1 to try to closer match the sidewindersf sound). Original Toy_Boat & some other versions were 17:25 with incorrect speed (3.5% slow). Spectral analysis speed correction best average for the BostonGold reel seemed to be around -.41% but I liked the sidewindersf pitched version better against my pitchpipe & it still looked good in spectrum analysis, so I went with a match to that version at -.31%.
The previously DIMED toy_boat version which was pitched (and more?) was uploaded by sidewindersf, tho' it looks like the original upload was by hezekiahx2 back in 2004 in the pre-BOT easytree daze & I don't have that one. Someone did the mono patches before toy_boat/sidewindersf & then at some point some EQ (possibly after the original hezekiahx2 upload & before sidewindersf got hold of it from what the notes say). Also, while it is brighter than the non-EQ'd Boston Gold version, the seemingly overbrightened sound exacerbates the distortion. Also the bad mono patches from the lesser quality source on & off for the last third of the jam (6 minutes) are VERY distracting. It also has some non-repairable dropouts, as well as some dullspots & low volume areas & some tape damaged areas, almost none of which appear on the Boston Gold reel. However, I also have done a new remastered without EQ sidewindersf version (repairing volume issues & glitches) & added a BostonGold patch from 10:36 to the end (with some additional EQ on the BostonGold portion) to get a completely stereo merged version from both.
Boston Gold's 1st gen reel should definitely be completely raw with no EQ. However, the sidewindersf (much brighter) version was ostensibly from a 2nd generation (supposedly no EQ) reel (the stereo part anyway, which presumably was from hezekiahx2 originally), & I must say the transfer process must have been radically different. The wav forms are extremely different in parts, there is much more visible distortion on the wav form in many places &, as stated, it looks like it was EQ'd at some point (to my non-professional eyes) - otherwise the transfer reel to reel machines were very different along the way with what they did to the wav. As stated, I don't have the original hezekiahx2(?) uploaded version which was supposedly 16:51, so it's not clear to me when the mono portions were added in and/or when the thing went off-speed so drastically, or the EQ was used.
Line-up (unconfirmed except Green & Clapton!) ::: Peter Green - electric guitar // Eric Clapton - electric guitar // Jim Gordon - drums // Donnie Scott (Tea Party employee) - congas // Joe Walsh(?) - electric guitar (or maybe bass?) // ? - electric bass.
The above line-up (and date) is still a work in progress. For one thing I don't see how Peter Green can say he was kind of tricked into it & Clapton just appeared with Jim Gordon if it wasn't a Mac gig...
At the end the announcer says something which for some 40 years people have assumed was "Jim Wells" (mistakenly for "Junior Wells") but I don't think he says "Jim" at all. "Mr Eric Clapton... Peter Green... x?x?x?x?x?... All right...". Maybe he says something like "Hear well" or "Here it was" if he isn't giving another name? I tried a LOT of experimenting but couldn't really clear it up enough. I even tried to contact the guy by phone, as we have his name from the Byrds Tea Party gig & it's the same announcer... no luck. There are other transciptions online that claim the last 'name' is "Fleetwood Mac" but that is certainly not correct either. More line-up comments below.
Nothing here ever commercially released to my knowledge. If I'm wrong, please advise & I'll take it all offline.
CoolSonics 271 ::: Thanks to the original taper & traders! This is sourced from BostonGold's reel by way of the Florida Kid. We owe both of them a lot of credit for many great recordings! ::: Corrections welcome ::: This is one juicy, often overlooked & underestimated nugget of tremendous historical importance. I find it joyful & transcendent & it is guaranteed to put me in motion which is a major factor in my listening criteria. As much as it will horrify some folks, I must say this jam has always had a Grateful Dead-like flavor to it in my ears with the cascading guitar sounds of Peter & Eric together. Certainly the comparison has been made before about this period of Fleetwood Mac & they'd just played with the Dead the week before anyway. In my opinion (& others are in agreement) this is a MUCH more interesting jam than the ones on the official Tea Party box set which I find fairly lame (labeled with Walsh & Clapton, tho' it appears Clapton is perhaps not really on it, something I have always doubted anyway from the sound of it). Speaking of Tea Party tapes, where the hell are the multi-track James Gang sets...?!
As for why the quality on the tapes is less & different sound than the box set, this is from a 1st gen. reel of a 2-track stereo master reel supposedly SBD but perhaps recorded with on-stage mikes & the box set is taken from multi-track master reels. The BostonGold reel was just labeled 1970-02-xx, but others have decided for 1970-02-05. There are certainly still questions about the date & exact line-up, though apparently not the location, as the club announcer (as one uploader pointed out) is from the Boston Tea Party (the same guy who introduces the Byrds from that venue).
The multi-track tapes used for the commercially released Fleetwood Mac box "Encore Jam" with Clapton would seem to be the source for the 1970-02-05 date but seem to be possibly wrong about Clapton being on it at all. Delaney & Bonnie & Friends with Eric Clapton were in New York City at ABC Studio TV-15 (Elysee Theatre) for the "The Dick Cavett Show" on February 5, 1970, then did 2 nights at the Fillmore East February 6 & 7, then were at the Boston Tea Party on February 8 & 9. After the pre-recording for "The Dick Cavett Show" Eric could have made it up to Boston by the middle of the night on the 5th for Mac's encore(s) but I think there is enough evidence to point to the likelhood all this is incorrect. Peter Green's next known gig after Boston February 7 seems to have been February 11 in New York City, so theories that this from a Delaney & Bonnie & Friends evening at the Tea Party are very plausible. I will say the reel was supposedly labeled "Fleetwood Mac" & not just Peter Green. One thing I must note is if the announcer is saying another name, it doesn't sound like someone from the Delaney & Bonnie line-up to me. So, there you go. As always, enjoy!
Post upload UPDATES:
--courtesy of DIMER gv0000, "Chris Hjort's "Strange Brew" book suggests that the jam took place on Sunday February 8 after the Delaney & Bonnie set and that the participants were Clapton, Green, Walsh & Donnie Scott (the Boston Tea Party light show operator and janitor)".
--courtesy of dino000, "Probably he's saying or is meaning to say 'Jim Gordon'". According to Peter Green, he is the drummer, not Fleetwood: 'I didn't know that this jam with Eric Clapton (Boston February 1970) was recorded, I was more or less tricked into it, all of a sudden there was Eric and drummer Jim Gordon on stage playing with us.'
--Dimer aziboy weighed in with, "Just for the record Eric Clapton did not jam with Fleetwood Mac during their Boston shows. The official Boston booklet is incorrect. Fleetwood Mac stayed in town and Peter Green and other members joined Delaney and Bonnie and Clapton for a jam during their show on 8 February. This was confirmed by their sound guy. Photos were taken, but have yet to surface."
--Dimer gv0000's rejoinder is: 1) that the James Gang also opened for the Delaney & Bonnie nights and 2) that aziboy's assessment is correct as Mac's soundman Dinky Dawson states in his book "Life On The Road", that Donnie Scott, who worked at the Tea Party, played congas on a jam with Eric, Peter & Walsh after the Delaney & Bonnie set on February 8th.
If we assume Peter is correct about Jim Gordon, we have most of the line-up. I can't hear Walsh at all - maybe he's playing bass? I am quite sure the announcer does NOT say Joe Walsh, Donnie Scott or Jim Gordon, but February 8 is now the most likely possibility for the date.
Kudos to Zongo for life support, Lochner for mikes&more & Fast Freddie for runnin' Video Dick's Record Emporium with the bathroom office full of tape decks. Thanks to Hanwaker (few among us can keep his pace). Mountains of gratitude to Davmar, D.White, Sanchez, Elliot, The Florida Kid, Kloiber, Zingg, JTW, Bershaw, Boston Gold, Dixon, Moore, Gough & SO many more for all that collecting & sharing... Royal thanks to The Man In The Palace, Doc Tinker, Brinkhoffs, Barely Eatin', Reel Master Gaule, Parrish & all the traders who housed me thru my music acquisition & travel years. Hats off to Brother Kent, Uncle Jake, Little Queenie (& her neighbor Frank) & his honor Ptomaine Thomas. Glasses raised to Byron for musical horizon expansion & much obliged to J & Thurston for keepin' my concert fires burnin' since my continental shift.
So, is this 02-05 or 02-08?
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