Message-ID: <39181DC1.80F831C4@javanet.com> Date: Tue, 09 May 2000 10:16:33 -0400 From: csdixon Reply-To: csdixon@javanet.com Subject: JH+30 30 years ago today, on May 9, 1970, Jimi played a show at the Will Rogers Coliseum in Ft. Worth, Texas. This is yet another tape which surfaced in the last couple of years but, important though the search remains, sadly in this case the rewards were slim. The tape is extremely distorted as the taper was probably directly in front of the Marshalls...in front of *Billy's* Marshalls! As a result, the bass saturates the tape to the point of almost completely masking the guitar, vocals and drums. It was just too much for whatever tiny recorder was being used and the distortion is compounded by tape defects and modulation of the deck's electronics. So a very rough listen but a few things can be discerned here and there.... (Setlist): Fire; Lover Man; Hear My Train; Foxy Lady; Room Full Of Mirrors; Red House; Freedom; Ezy Rider; Machine Gun; Star Spangled Banner; Purple Haze; Voodoo Child (SR) - -The tape opens with the emcee and someone yelling "Boogie!", not the last time we'll hear from him. Jimi thanks the crowd for waiting and wishes them "peace and happiness". The tryouts of the various instruments sound OK, but as soon the band cranks up 'Fire', the sound blurs into a distorted mess. We do hear Jimi slip in the 'Outside Woman Blues' quote, and the places where Mitch plays without the others come through reasonably. - -'Lover Man' gets a nice, and relatively clear, solo coda from Jimi. - -'Hear My Train' does OK during Jimi's intro and again around 5:00 when the band pulls back for a short interlude before the final verse. - -Jimi introduces the band and thanks the crowd for "the last three years" before doing 'Foxy'. As would be expected, this rocker is all distortion but at one point we do hear Jimi adding some climbing unison bends similar to the ones in 'Manic Depression'. - -Before 'Roomful' we hear our yahoo yell "I said Boogie!" as Jimi adjusts the UniVibe speed. Jimi does a false start on the wrong chord. - -Jimi intros 'Red House' as one they did "3 1/2 years ago". 'RH' usually can be relied on have a bit more clarity on marginal tapes, but even here the bass obscures the guitar for the most part (makes one wish for one of those unaccompanied interludes like we heard in early '69 versions...). Solo is just two 12 bar verses long. - -The tape cuts into 'Freedom', already in progress. We can make out, barely, some nice soloing from Jimi in the middle section. - -Mitch's drum intro to 'Ezy Rider' sounds great, but alas when the band kicks in it's back to mush. We can, however, hear some of the cool fills Billy throws in during the solo section. Afterward we hear someone ask the taper "Do you record all the concerts you go to?" and he says something about recording Chicago- hope it came out better than this one! - -'Machine Gun' atypically gets no spoken intro (could be cut, though). Jimi lingers a little on the verses, getting into the main solo about 4 min. into the song. We can make out some very fiery playing through the din. They go to the secondary riff at 5:30 and at 6:45 the band pulls back for one of the quietest, and therefore clearest, parts of the tape while Jimi does the 'wobbly' vibrato and thankfully stretches it out with some nice variations. Wraps it up with a few 'rat-a-tats'. - -We hear a nearby voice ask "Pretty good concert, huh?" then Jimi thanking the crowd for coming then saying something like "We have to leave..because the time is past..a long time ago..."(?). Asks everyone to stand up and says "thank you, goodnight and peace always..." before launching into 'Star Spangled Banner'. Since this is guitar only, it can be heard pretty clearly (hey, what's a little extra distortion on SSB !?). Good version w/ slightly longer tag at the end. Straight into 'Purple Haze' which of course is again an auditory mess. - -'VC(SR)' sounds OK on the intro and good (well, reasonable) again around 4:00 in when the dynamics lighten up and Jimi does some clean soloing with wah, including a cool climbing riff at one point. After restating the intro riff at 7:45 he ends it with another unusual move, a coda of his flamenco-style playing ala parts of the Woodstock Improvisation- almost like he knows what a tough listen the tape is and wants to let us down easy! Despite such fleeting moments, pretty tough to recommend this one. I wonder how many Jimi tapes like this were recorded over or thrown in a box after a quick listen because they "didn't come out"? Chris ------------------------------