Bruce Springsteen - 1975-12-16 - Oswego, NY (AUD/FLAC)

(Audience FLAC)

Prettier Oswego

Laker Hall Gym
State University of New York (SUNY)
Oswego, NY
December 16, 1975
ER Archives via JEMS

Audience Recording (equipment unknown)

JEMS Transfer: presumed 2nd generation cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A
azimuth-adjusted transfer (July 2012) > Sound Devices USBPre 2 >
Audacity 2.0 (24/96) capture > iZoptope RX click repair and resample
to 16/44.1 > Peak 6.0 with iZotope Ozone 5.0 > FLAC

01 Thunder Road
02 Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
03 Spirit in the Night
04 Lost in the Flood
05 She's the One
06 Born to Run
07 Pretty Flamingo
08 Saint in the City
09 Backstreets
10 Kitty's Back (small cut near end)
11 Jungleland
12 Rosalita
13 Sandy
14 Santa Claus is Comin' to Town
15 Detroit Medley
16 For You
17 Quarter to Three

Welcome back to the second in a planned series of releases from the ER Archives, the collection of an active '70s taper and trader who stepped away from collecting, leaving his tapes pretty much dormant until now. We're still culling through the archive, but it is already clear that it contains previously uncirculated shows as well as upgrades to circulating tapes, both audience and soundboard. ER used high-end tape decks and good tape, so his copies of even well-known shows may well be improvements.

This installment falls squarely into the "upgrades" category as it offers a material enhancement over the previously marginal recording in circulation of Oswego, NY, December 16, 1975.

The extant version, which circulates as Pretty Oswego, suffers from several problems including being pitched too fast, sounding muffled from generational loss and having cuts. This new version has been speed checked and corrected and is more complete. As a result it runs longer than Pretty Oswego. The clarity of this transfer is far superior to its predecessor as well--the recording has body, space and instrument separation that just wasn't there before and it sits  comfortably next to some of the better (though perhaps not best) audies from 1975. Hence Prettier Oswego. Also, cuts previously found in "Pretty Flamingo" and "Detroit Medley" are gone, though there is a tiny piece missing near the end of an epic "Kitty's Back."

The pitch issues with this show proved deceptive as there are songs, like "Saint in the City," that are played at such a breakneck pace they felt like they still must be running too fast after we pitch corrected. But you'll hear that even as the band seems to be in overdrive, Bruce's vocals sound right on key.

Oswego is a strong show, a few weeks removed from the band's quick trip to Europe and 13 days removed from the two-night run at the Boston Music Hall JEMS presented earlier this year from Steve Hopkins' master tapes. The quality here isn't at Hopkins' level, but it is highly listenable both on quieter material like the piano-opening "Thunder Road" and the solo encore "For You," and rollicking passages like "Kitty's Back" and "Detroit Medley." Samples provided.