Bruce Springsteen - 1974-12-07 - Geneva, NY (AUD/FLAC)

(Audience FLAC)

Bruce Springsteen 
Geneva Theatre 
Geneva, NY 
December 7, 1974 
previously uncirculated show and recording 
ML reel source via JEMS 

recording gear: unknown tape recorder > stereo mics 

JEMS 2015 Transfer: Likely first-generation reel copy (3-3/4 IPS) > Otari 5050 mkII azimuth-adjusted transfer > USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 (24/96) capture > IZotope RX + Ozone 5 > iZotope RX MBIT+ resample 16/44.1 > Peak Pro XT (volume smoothing / edit / index) > xACT 2.21 > FLAC 

01 Incident on 57th Street 
02 Spirit in the Night 
03 Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street? 
04 I Want You (Bob Dylan cover) 
05 Growin’ Up 
06 E Street Shuffle 
07 It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City 
08 Gimme That Wine (Clarence Clemons lead vocals) 
09 Jungleland 
10 Kitty’s Back 
11 New York City Serenade 
12 Rosalita 
13 Sandy 
14 A Love So Fine 
15 Wear My Ring Around Your Neck (Elvis Presley cover, written by Carol and Moody) 
16 Quarter to Three (Gary US Bonds cover) 

Known Faults: 
-E Street Shuffle: splice 

JEMS is pleased to release another lost and found recording, this of a previously uncirculated show at the Geneva Theatre in Geneva, NY, December 7, 1974, Bruce and the band’s second to last gig of the year. According to the indispensible Brucebase, the concert was booked by the local Hobart & William Smith College and featured Jae Mason as the opening act. 

Geneva turns out to be an unusually solid tape for the era, recorded with two mics in stereo and remarkably free of material cuts. The crowd around the mics, presumably the taper and his friends, are going crazy but it only as to the atmosphere on this highly listenable document of a fantastic period in Springsteen’s concert history that featured Suki Lahav on cello. 

While the show is largely standard for the era, that sells short a set list that includes a stunning “Incident” to open, the striking cover of Dylan’s “I Want You,” and an epic three-song stretch that moves from the as-yet-unreleased “Jungleland” to “Kitty’s Back” to what just might be the longest ever performance of “New York City Serenade,” clocking in north of 24 minutes of majesty. 

From the sublime to the ridiculous, due to Bruce breaking a guitar string, we’re treated a rare lead vocal from the Big Man, Clarance Clemons, on the time-filling vamp, “Gimme That Wine.” The show wraps with a rousing “A Love So Fine” into a storming “Wear My Ring” and last but not least, “the greatest dance record ever recorded,” “Quarter to Three.” 

The tape itself is one of half a dozen reel-to-reels loaned to JEMS from ML, which were all low-gen copies of known recordings with this one major exception. A big thank you to him for shipping out the reels and letting us release the show. Thanks as well to AM and PR, whose enthusiasm for Geneva got me even more excited about it. Tapeboy handled the pitch adjustments, which are much appreciated. And last but not least, thanks to mjk5510 for catching the files as always when they come off the post-production line. 

BK for JEMS