Bootleg Of The Week #9: Bremen '83
I'm a day late this week. :)
Our last show was Just One Night at the end of 1979. It’s been a four year gap, and it’s been a rough four years. We get an album rejected by the record label, a change of record label, a hospitalization, rehab, and another mass firing of his band.
THE BOOT
Bremen 4/20/83 is a show where there are a lot of good options. I'm listening to the Swinging Pig release, but I'll list the Mid Valley release also. But the 3BR and Stardust releases called No One Else are also excellent.
Wonderful Tonight (Swinging Pig TSP-CD-196, discs 3-4)
Dress Code (Mid Valley – 298/299)
BACKGROUND
The obvious question: why have there been no quality concert recordings since 1979?
In March of 1980, Clapton recorded a new album entitled Turn Up Down with the all-English band from Just One Night, plus ex-Procol Harum keyboard player Gary Brooker. RSO Records rejected the album, on account of Clapton giving his bandmates a little too much of the spotlight for the label's tastes. The label put out Just One Night instead. Without a new album to promote, E.C. only did a couple dozen tour dates all year.
E.C. went back into the studio and reworked the Turn Up Down material into Another Ticket, which was released on February 20, 1981. (When RSO Records sold out to Polydor after that, E.C. took the opportunity to tell them to pound sand.) But E.C.’s drinking caused him to be hospitalized with stomach ulcers on March 13, 1981, cancelling almost the entire Another Ticket tour. He wouldn’t appear in public again until September.
In January 1982, his manager prodded him to check into the Hazelden Foundation for his first attempt at rehab. He returned to touring when he got out, but on very light duty — just 17 dates in the Eastern US over the summer. Then in late 1982, he was off to Nassau to record Money And Cigarettes.
So 1983 was E.C.’s first year with a full tour schedule since 1979.
The Money And Cigarettes sessions prompted another lineup overhaul in the band. After 2 weeks with no good tracks, producer Tom Dowd pushed E.C. to reshuffle the deck, and he fired everyone but Lee. (No telegrams, he did it personally this time. This could be interpreted as a sign of growth.) Dowd called in Ry Cooder, Roger Hawkins, the drummer from Muscle Shoals house band (“The Swampers”) and Duck Dunn, the bassist from the Stax house band (a.k.a. Booker T & the MGs). Money And Cigarettes was released on Jan 31, 1983.
Of the studio pros on Money And Cigarettes, only Duck Dunn wanted to tour. E.C. rehired Jamie Oldaker, who he had let go in 1979, and Stainton, who he had just let go before the album session. (Oldaker would leave again in 1986, but returned to the band for the blues shows on 24 Nights.) So the band is now Albert Lee on guitar, Duck Dunn on bass, Jamie Oldaker on drums, and Chris Stainton on keyboards.
I’m not sure why this show was recorded. My suspicion is that it’s a King Biscuit Flower Hour recording, because it appeared on a set with Santa Monica ’78 and Richmond ’85, which were both KBFH shows. But I can’t find any record of a radio broadcast.
SOUND
Decent balance on Swinging Pig. Bass, piano are loud. Second guitar and lead vocals are a little faint. (As usual, Mid Valley sounds a little sharper, Swinging Pig sounds a little warmer.)
The audience responds loudly after songs, but during the performances they are generally either very quiet or faded down. You can hear some clapping after the first solo in Double Trouble, when the band gets quiet. There's more applause after the first line of Wonderful Tonight, when the crowd figures out what the song is.
Technical issues are very minor. There's a bit of feedback at 1:50 of Ramblin' On My Mind. There are occasional faint electronic buzzing noises, usually just audible when the music is very faint, such as 0:04 of Worried Life Blues, 0:52 of Double Trouble, 3:34 of Double Trouble, 0:18 of Wonderful Tonight, 0:46 of Blues Power. These are clearly on the master tape, since they appear on all sources.
PERFORMANCE
Despite this being released just three months after Money And Cigarettes, the only song from that album here is The Shape You’re In. There are no songs from Another Ticket. And then only Tulsa Time from Backless. So this setlist includes all of 1 song from the last 4 years, and only 2 from the last 5!
I Shot The Sheriff is a jam number, but most of the long jams are the slow blues numbers, Worried Life Blues, Double Trouble, and Ramblin' On My Mind > Have You Ever Loved A Woman. (The last of those has E.C. doing the trick of calling out key changes again.) Cocaine is super high-octane, but not particularly drawn-out.
Dunn and Oldaker are strong backing crew. They didn't have specific parts that stood out, but the show has drive and energy throughout.
Chris Stainton does the same great piano intro on Tulsa Time as he did on Just One Night. He switches to organ for Worried Life, and gets called by name for a solo. He's noticeable throughout, with some great little piano fills on Let It Rain (which hasn't appeared here since 1974), Sweet Little Lisa, and After Midnight. He switches to organ for The Shape You're In, and Wonderful Tonight, then back to piano for Blues Power, then back to organ for Ramblin' On My Mind > Have You Ever Loved A Woman, and Cocaine. Layla gets the piano coda back, after missing it both late 1978 shows, and also has a wonderful new introduction with guitar and piano.
Albert Lee gets called out by name for a guitar solo in Lay Down Sally, and again for a piano solo in Worried Life Blues (he took an organ solo on that song on Just One Night). He gets a vocal showcase on the Dave Edmonds song Sweet Little Lisa, which E.C. introduces with "Now it's time for the wonderful, incredible Albert Lee". (Lee played guitar on the original recording.) There's some great call and response licks between Albert and E.C. on The Shape You're In. And he also handles all the backing vocals, on I Shot The Sheriff, Lay Down Sally, After Midnight, The Shape You're In, and Blues Power.
E.C. seems in better shape than he has been in years. Double Trouble in particular shows his singing really progressing, getting a level of wailing and growling that wasn't there in the 1970s.
E.C. introduces the band one at a time before Further On Up The Road, and they begin playing when he calls them, which means the band introductions after Oldaker are mostly drowned out by the drums.