BAND – RICH STADIUM 1974: 1ST GEN REEL-TO-REEL (CD)

Description

Rich Stadium, Buffalo, NY, USA 6th July 1974 TRULY AMAZING/PERFECT SOUND (from Original Masters)

　From the recent influx of The Band’s live recordings from 1974, this time we have a superb audience recording of their July 6th Buffalo show. What’s more, this precious recording includes a surprise appearance by Eric Clapton!

　After enjoying great success on their tour with Bob Dylan from January to February, The Band didn’t make any significant moves to create a new album. Instead, they embarked on another tour in July, but it mostly consisted of opening for other artists in stadiums, simply to keep themselves in shape as musicians.

　However, their opening acts were Eric Clapton and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the luxurious opening acts, which were well-received. It was, in a sense, an “opening act tour,” but the Buffalo show on July 6th was the one they played before Clapton. This release is an audience recording that captured that performance.

　The opening of this opening tour traditionally began with Garth Hudson’s saxophone instrumental “Hard Times (The Slop),” but midway through the performance, the sound suddenly becomes much closer and surprisingly easier to listen to. For an audience recording capturing a 1974 stadium concert, this level of quality makes it undeniably worthy of a limited-edition CD release.

　In fact, this recording had been circulating among traders for some time, but this time we have managed to record the best possible version, the first generation. The original version had significant pitch inaccuracies and hiss noise, so both issues have been thoroughly adjusted for this limited-press CD release. In particular, the pitch inaccuracies have been completely eliminated.

　In the past, only “Chest Fever,” featuring Clapton, was included on his CD “KING AND THE BAND,” but the difference in sound quality compared to that is quite obvious.

　During the 1974 opening tour, Richard Manuel’s condition was unstable due to his unhealthy lifestyle, and in the soundboard recording of the September 1st St. Paul show that was recently unearthed, he couldn’t sing at all from the very beginning of the show. In fact, there was even a performance during the August opening for CSN&Y that went ahead without Richard.

　In that respect, Richard was in great form on this day, as it was right after the start of the opening act tour. Above all, you can clearly feel the energy in the group’s performance. Also, the soundboard recording from St. Paul had a generally fuzzy sound, which made it difficult to hear, so the audience recording is probably more enjoyable as it captures The Band’s laid-back sound.

A photograph taken from the side of the stage that day captures Clapton, wearing a Western shirt, borrowing Robbie’s Telecaster and taking to the stage. This impromptu performance by Clapton was “Chest Fever.” At the 4-minute mark, Clapton plays a solo, and from there, he passes the solo back to Robbie. It was a moment that truly handed the baton to the main act, Clapton (although Clapton’s performance that day was that of extreme intoxication…). This superb audience recording comes from The Band’s opening tour in the summer of ’74, an event for which very few items exist. And to top it all off, it’s a great performance with Clapton joining in!

★Although it originally has a noticeable hiss noise, the natural and clear sound quality is wonderful.

(59:36)
01. Hard Times (The Slop)
02. Just Another Whistle Stop
03. Stage Fright *Tape degradation in the first half of this song. No problems after that.
04. The Weight
05. The Shape I’m In
06. Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
07. Across The Great Divide
08. Endless Highway
09. Up On Cripple Creek
10. Unfaithful Servant
11. Smoke Signal
12. Genetic Method
13. Chest Fever (with Eric Clapton)

Robbie Robertson – vocals, guitar
Rick Danko – vocals, bass guitar
Levon Helm – vocals, drums
Garth Hudson – vocals, keyboards
Richard Manuel – vocals, piano