JOHN CALE New York 1981-10-11 ** REMASTER **

[schnittstelle]

JOHN CALE New York 1981-10-11 (w/ Chris Spedding & James Honeyman-Scott) ** REMASTER **

JOHN CALE & FRIENDS

Mudd Club
New York, NY

1981-10-11 (October 11)

John Cale -- vocals - except track 5, guitar
David van Tieghem -- drums
James Honeyman-Scott -- guitar
Chris Spedding -- bass, vocals - track 5


"The first rehearsal we ever had" - JC


This is a brilliant experiment. Most jam sessions (totally unrehearsed) would, perhaps
understandably, go the covers route (especially with a member not even on their natural
instrument). Here instead these masters do brand new songs he never even released (and
that is a shame since they're great). Cale may not have been joking when he says he
wrote one of them "yesterday". This band is totally inspired. What might have been???

Chris Spedding is announced by Cale as playing bass in the initial intro. John seems to
plug in his guitar before the second song and can be heard playing brilliantly there and
on the last track (and perhaps elsewhere).


Recording/remaster notes :

This recording had some good sound in it, but the bass was overwhelming on all but one track,
and the vocals were buried. This was recorded very close to the stage (the sound is from the
monitors, and the vocals/PA are mostly somewhere else than on this recording). As such the
mix changed drastically from song to song (and within songs), so this effort is intended to
draw out the middle spectrum, which was entirely buried, and lend some presence to the vocals,
by remixing each track individually. I think the transitions (which were huge) all came out
pretty seamless, other than the second song (where for the bass was more in a normal range,
so the mix for it was completely different and the change points can be heard before and after
the song). The recorder seems to have been an inexpensive hand held model, probably with a
built in mono mic (perhaps one of those Sonys that were popular then, and relatively decent).
Considering how close this seems like it was recorded from, it is amazing anything reasonable
came out. I tightened up the beginning and end. There was one spot where the tape stopped
and started abruptly in between songs (you can hear the recordist asking if "this thing has
a pause on it" just before that, so apparently our benefactor/s *to whom we should be eternally
grateful* were not even familiar with the machine). That blip was pretty rough on the ears,
so I cleaned it up. I don't think any music is missing.


Remaster strategy/opinion/show review :

Since this show was so great, but the recording was very unbalanced, I found myself immediately
adjusting it for a better listen. One thing led to another, so I thought I'd share it more as
I hear it. The uploader who sourced and posted this jewel agreed that seemed a good idea.

Of course with a mono recording done under extreme conditions there are limits to how much
clarity can be found, but that was my goal. A surprising amount of detail is present on the
recording but it was overwhelmed (mostly by the bass, sometimes by the overall volume).

Since this was essentially recorded off the monitors the instrumental balance changes frequently.
I found it needed an independent mix for each song to get closer to what may have been there at
the show. I will (again) note the vocals were mostly in the PA (and therefore not in this - up
front - recording), which is a bit frustrating given the unreleased lyrics that were sung (but I
think you can actually hear almost all the words now). There's a penalty to recording really
close! The bass was also far lower on the second song than anywhere else (likely due to Spedding
mostly sitting that one out in favor of whatever effects device/s were running on Cale's guitar
(and I think on the bass too?).

Projects of this kind inevitably involve compromises. Taking the bass down revealed some transient
issues that were not apparent before. The unmixed nature of the original recording also meant that
the balance changed dramatically several times within songs. So if something still seems a little
off or overly present at some point give it a little time and you'll hear where I think it all came
together. I've listened to my final mixes a few times in a few systems and think this is the best
that I can get the elements in place given what we had (which was actually pretty good). There
are a few points where one might still want to try to better deal with a specific transient aspect
but I don't have time to try to go after multiple mixing points within songs (though this could
deserve that sort of effort).

I hope you'll enjoy this edition of this show. It is a truly brilliant performance, reminding me
why I mostly listen to jazz : four musicians get together to play something they've never done
before and wind up at the top of their (or anyone's) craft. I always thought Honeyman-Scott had
style, but he can seriously bring it live. I don't know if there is any other document of him in
a more open context like this? Then there's Spedding's bass, and Cale really digging into the
guitar himself on dual solos and into these songs that may only have been played here.

This is the bomb.

I give thanks that someone had sense to record this and that eventually it came to us to hear.
Things like this are why I always thought everything should be recorded.


Lineage :
cassette (unknown but low generation) -> Xitel -> LP Recorder -> hd ->
Nero Wave Editor -> Nero (tracking) -> flac 8

Additional lineage :
flac > TLH > wav >
Cool Edit Pro 2.1:
combine all tracks
equalization (major, to reduce lows and highs) - individual mixes for each track
hard limit/balance channels
correct minor dc offset
slight edits
retrack >
TLH > flac (level 8)


Tracks :

1. band introduction (by JC) >
2. All in a Night (?)
3. Ship of Lust (aka All Aboard or All On Board)
4. Fire in the Heart
5. Mary Lou
6. What They Do in School (?)

TT : approx. 27:20


from Original Notes :

All songs except Marylou are unreleased. Sounds like Cale wrote a couple of songs, got his
buddies together and went down to the club to try them out.

Other than Marylou, the only song I'm familiar with is Track 3, which had already been
performed live at earlier concerts, and is usually referred to as "All on Board". This time
around Cale introduces it, and it appears that the title is "Ship of Lust".

I'm pretty sure this is in mono, which explains the small file size, but the sound is quite
good.


additional notes :

Regarding Honeyman-Scott's presence the Pretenders would have been on tour in the States
about the time of this show but on October 1, 1981 the remainder of their US tour was cancelled
when drummer Martin Chambers punched a lamp in a hotel room, severing tendons in his hand.
Cale played this same club with his regular band a week or two prior (on October 3) and then
played elsewhere in New York City on October 24th. Cale and Spedding of course played
together frequently (in other years).


Huge thanks to the original seeder!

A Bombdiggity remaster - 2011-06



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