Ok... Hi again folks. There is not much to say about this one that hasn't been said by those much more knowledgable than me and for many years past now. This is simply one of the greatest recorded artifacts of the chronological changing of Rock's infancy, of when it was then turning into the full blown sonic teen angst assault on the senses. When it stepped out of the conformity line into the soloing with abandon... and with fuzz. As we all know now... music and the world changed forevermore during this year in so many ways. What?! You don't have this? Well, you should have it. Enjoy...
Cream
Live At The Grande Ballroom
Detroit, MI
October 15, 1967
Digital Remastered From DAT copy of Source Tape by Graeme Pattingale
CRM101/2
SBD > Reel To Reel Master > DAT copy (see Inside 2 for further info > CD-R > Trade CD-R > EAC > FLAC (level 8, aligned to sector boundaries)
Setlist:
CD 1
01 Tales Of Brave Ulysses 4:12.66
02 N.S.U. 15:53.34
03 Sitting On Top Of The World 4:26.70
04 Sweet Wine 13:55.72
05 Rollin' And Tumblin' 7:18.64
Total Disc Time: 45:48.06
CD 2
01 Spoonful 20:48.43
02 Steppin' Out 11:03.40
03 Traintime 7:18.21
04 Toad 17:03.40
05 I'm So Glad 10:01.51
Total Disc Time: 66:15.45
About Grande Ballroom and Russ Gibb:
‘Uncle’ Russ Gibb was a lesser known promoter contemporary of Bill Graham - Detroit was less fashionable than San Francisco or New York. Russ’s Grande Ballroom was a popular venue with many bands because of the enthusiastic and noisy audiences. One classic album (to my current knowledge) was recorded there: MC5’s "Kick Out The Jams".
Cream performed here for three nights from Friday 13th October to Sunday 15th October. It was close to the end of their first US tour, which had commenced on 20th August. This tour, while frustrating in some ways for them (especially sound systems and low pay), had established them in the U.S. and was at the core of their golden period.
Detroit would have been a good town for the three of them with plenty of black music (Jazz, Blues, R&B and Soul) to listen to after hours. And they would have had plenty of after hours as these concerts started at 6.30pm on Friday and Saturday and finished no later than 10p.m. and on Sunday 6.00pm-9.00pm (an all ages show). I believe this would have contributed greatly to the quality of their performances (plus a good sound system!).
The supporting bands on Friday and Saturday were the Rationals and MC5 (basically the house bands at this time). Sunday the support band was the Apostles. One can assume that Cream was largely an unknown quantity to Detroit’s nascent Rock audience and MC5 were already becoming a local legend. Cream had nothing to loose, especially on Sunday when they had plenty of time to really lay out. And by then the word had got around and the audience was really responding.
Sound quality:
Well... as bootlegs go and for this era, excellent (generally rated by bootleg aficionados A, A-). And, there is much more info given inside the included artwork.
Learn more here
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment