Torso is the Pick of the Week

blux

I recognize that no one really cares what my Blu-ray pick of the week is. Out of the few hundred people who will even see these articles there’s probably only a dozen or so that actually read them. And I can’t imagine any of them are in any way influenced by my choice.

I’m not an influencer. I don’t have millions of followers. You don’t have to click here and subscribe. And that’s okay. I’m fully satisfied with my tiny little corner of the internet.

So, yeah, I totally get that these picks aren’t in any way important. And yet. And still. I take them seriously. I actually do sit and think about what release is my pick.

This is why I must admit to you that this week, I messed up. I picked the wrong thing. Let me explain. What I actually picked this week was Torso, the pretty great, and stylish, and admittedly rather sleazy Giallo from director Sergio Martino. It has a new 4K upgrade from Arrow Video and they’ve loaded it with some new extras.

Normally that would be a great pick. But normally there aren’t nice releases of a Martin Scorsese film celebrating its 25th anniversary. The thing is I saw that release, but assumed it was just another bare-bones release.

That’s what makes these picks so difficult. Everything gets multiple releases now. There were DVD releases and Blu-ray releases, special editions, and anniversaries. Now there is 4K UHD. It never stops. I’m not smart enough to be able to keep up with all the releases and which film has come out in what format with which special features.

But that Bringing Out the Dead release looks pretty fab.

Anyway, my pick is Torso and you can read about it here.

Bob Dylan – Osaka, Japan (03/06/86)

Bob Dylan, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and The Queens of Rhythm
6 March 1986
Castle Hall
Osaka Fu, Japan

Bob Dylan set 1

  1. Justine (Don Harris/Dewey Terry)
  2. Positively 4th Street
  3. Clean-Cut Kid
  4. Emotionally Yours
  5. Trust Yourself
  6. That Lucky Old Sun (Haven Gillespie/Beasley Smith)
  7. Masters Of War

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers set 1

  1. Straight Into Darkness (Tom Petty)
  2. Breakdown (Tom Petty)

Bob Dylan set 2

  1. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
  2. Girl From The North Country
  3. It’s All Right, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
  4. I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know (Cecil A. Null)
  5. Just Like A Woman
  6. I’m Movin’ On (Hank Snow)
  7. Lenny Bruce
  8. When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky
  9. Lonesome Town (Baker Knight)
  10. Ballad Of A Thin Man

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers set 2

  1. So You Want To Be A Rock & Roll Star (Roger McGuinn/Chris Hillman)
  2. Refugee (Tom Petty/Mike Campbell)

Bob Dylan set 3

  1. Rainy Day Women #12&35
  2. Seeing The Real You At Last
  3. Across The Borderline (Ry Cooder/John Hiatt/Jim Dickinson)
  4. I And I
  5. Like A Rolling Stone
  6. In The Garden

Encore

  1. Blowin’ In The Wind
  2. Uranium Rock (Rock ’em Dead) (Warren Smith)
  3. Sukiyaki (Ue o muite aruko) (Rohusuke Ei/Hachidai Nakamura)
  4. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

THE BAND IS:

Bob Dylan – vocal, guitars, harmonica

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Tom Petty – guitar, vocals
Mike Campbell – guitar
Benmont Tench – keyboards
Howie Epstein – bass
Stan Lynch – drums

The Queens Of Rhythm
Debra Byrd – backing vocals
Queen Esther Marrow – backing vocals
Madelyn Quebec – backing vocals
Elisecia Wright – backing vocals

Bob Dylan – Sydney, Australia (02/24-25/86)

Bob Dylan With Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
Hard To Handle
Entertainment Centre
Sydney, Australia
02/24-25/86

1 In The Garden
2 Just Like A Woman
3 Like A Rolling Stone
4 It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
5 Girl From The North Country
6 Lenny Bruce
7 When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky
8 Ballad Of A Thin Man
9 I’ll Remember You
10 Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

This has no source information but it is presumably an audio rip of an out of print VHS movie.

Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XX

cover

Alan Ladd was one of the great film noir actors. He had a star-making turn as a contract killer in This Gun For Hire alongside Veronica Lake. He made three more noirs with her and continued to star in various noirs throughout his career. Kino Lorber presents two of those films in this set (Captain Carey, USA & Appointment with Danger) and then there is one film without him (Make Haste to Live).

The two films with Ladd are pretty good and the other – not so much. But I continue to love this noir sets from Kino. You can read my full review here.

Allman Brothers Band – Santa Barbara, CA (09/09/03)

Allman Brothers Band
9/9/03
Santa Barbara County Bowl
Santa Barbara, CA

8th Row Center: Neumann KM-140s (ORTF) >Tascam DA-P1
(Beyer MV-100 Was Not Used, As It Was In The Shop Getting A Left Channel XLR Connection Re-soldered)
DAT Master Transferred: Tacam DA-30 >HHb CDR 800 PRO Via Analog i/o,
CD Masters >FLAC (Level 8) Via xACT 2.28, Tags Via xACT 2.53
Recorded, Transferred, FLAC’d, Tagged, & Front-Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr

Disc I:

  1. Hot ‘Lanta
  2. Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More
  3. Trouble No More
  4. Rocking Horse ->
  5. Desdemona (with Karl Denson)
  6. Leave My Blues At Home
  7. Soulshine
  8. Who To Believe
  9. Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right (with Susan Tedeschi and John Molo)

Disc II:

  1. Statesboro Blues (with Susan Tedeschi)
  2. Stormy Monday
  3. Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’
  4. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
  5. Midnight Rider ->
  6. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed ->
    xx. Drums ->
    xx. Bass ->
    xx. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed

Encore:

  1. One Way Out

OldNeumanntapr Notes-
This was the last time that I was to see and record the Allman Brothers Band. The SB County Bowl is a small intimate venue that holds about 3,500 people. We were up front in the 8th row. Space was tight and I had to run my gear under the seat but as I remember I believe that they let us bring in microphone stands this time, as opposed to back in 1992.

Do NOT Convert To MP3.
Enjoy! Share freely, don’t sell, play nice, don’t run with scissors, etc. 😉

Allman Brothers Band – Mountain View, CA (07/01/95)

Allman Brothers Band
July 1, 1995
Shoreline Amphitheatre
Mountain View, CA

Nakamichi CM-300’s w/CP-1 Cardioid Capsules >Sony TCD-D7 (16bit/48kHz)
SEC 204, Row A, Seat 10
DAT Master Transferred: Tascam DA-30 >HHb CDR 800 PRO Via Analog i/o,
Tayio Uden CD Masters >FLAC (Level 8) Via xACT 2.28, Tags Via xACT 2.43

Recorded, Transferred, FLAC’d, Tagged, & Front Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr

Disc I:

  1. Statesboro Blues
  2. Midnight Rider
  3. You Don’t Love Me
  4. Blue Sky
  5. What’s Done Is Done
  6. Soulshine
  7. The Same Thing
  8. Dreams
  9. End Of The Line
  10. Stormy Monday

Disc II:

  1. Back Where It All Begins
  2. Hoochie Coochie Man
  3. No One To Run With
  4. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed >
  5. Drums >
    xx. Bass >
    xx. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed

Encore:

  1. One Way Out
  2. Whipping Post

OldNeumanntapr Notes-
My fourth Allman Brothers Band show, and my second ABB show at Shoreline. This time we were in the reserved section rather than on the lawn and the crowd was a little bit better behaved. (At least this show I didn’t have people purposely coming up to my microphones and trying to scream into them!) I still didn’t have an external microphone preamp yet and the internal pre on the D7 was kind of finicky. Fortunately the Nakamichi’s didn’t require phantom power. It was nice to be able to bring in a microphone stand, as opposed to the ’92 show when I had to duct tape my microphone brace to the steel cables that separate the reserved from the general admission section. I believe Rusted Root opened this year. I do remember that I was not that impressed with them and did not record their set.

Do NOT Convert To MP3.
Enjoy! Share freely, don’t sell, play nice, don’t run with scissors, etc. 😉

Allman Brothers Band – Santa Barbara, CA (07/18/92)

Allman Brothers Band
7/18/92
Santa Barbara County Bowl
Santa Barbara, CA

8th row, left: Nakamichi CM-300 CP-1’s (on T-Bar) >Sony WM-D6C
(Maxell MX-S Metal, No Dolby)
Cassette Master >CDR Via: Sony TC-D5M >HHb CDR 800 PRO,
CD Masters >FLAC (Level 8) Via xACT 2.35 (Tags Via xACT 2.53)

Recorded, Transferred, FLAC’d, Tagged, & Front-Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr

disc 1:

  1. Don’t Want You No More
  2. It’s Not My Cross To Bear
  3. Statesboro Blues*
  4. Blue Sky
  5. Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’
  6. Nobody Knows
  7. Black Hearted Woman
    –acoustic–
  8. Seven Turns
  9. Midnight Rider
  10. Southbound
  11. Melissa

disc 2:

  1. Pony Boy
    –electric–
  2. Hoochie Coochie Man
  3. Get On With Your Life
  4. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
  5. Drums / Bass
  6. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
  7. Revival
    Encore:
  8. One Way Out
  9. Whipping Post

*w/John Popper on harp

Taper Notes:
I had heard that the Allman Brothers were becoming taping friendly and trying to attract some of the Dead’s taper crowd. When I got to the County Bowl that afternoon I noticed that the sign that says ‘No Cameras, Tape Recorders, Weapons, Etc’, had black electrical tape over the words ‘tape recorders’. I took that as a Good Sign! They let me in with no problem after I explained that my bag contained Only audio taping equipment; my usual spiel. I just wish that the head of security had clued in the rest of the staff! The security sure tried to hassle me as I was setting up my mics. They were clueless that the Allmans allowed taping. The Bowl wouldn’t allow mic stands so I had to hold a T-Bar with the CM-300s on it the whole night. Man, was my arm tired later! As I was setting up my mics on the T-Bar, this security guy comes over, frowns, and says, ‘What are Those?’ Ah, microphones, says I. ‘What are they FOR?’, he asks. For Recording, says I. I Almost added, ‘Is this a trick question’? It seemed obvious to me what they were for! ‘We’ll see about this!’ he says, and storms off. A little while later he comes back, about 20 feet away, looks at me and shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head as he walked away! I had a lady complain to me that they wouldn’t let her bring in a camera so why was I able to tape the show? Hey, rules are rules. I asked her if she’d ever had a flash go off in her eyes but she wasn’t listening. There were a couple of other tapers there that night but I think that I was the closest to the stage. I’ve never seen another recording of this show from another source in circulation. Anyway, this was my 1st Allman Brothers concert and I thought that they were awesome. I loved the interplay between the musicians. Warren was on fire!!! Hootchie Coochie Man sent chills down my back. He is such a bluesman! I had seen and recorded the Dead since early 1986 but I understood after the show why people say that NOBODY COOKS LIKE THE ALLMAN BROTHERS!!! Blues Traveler opened the show and I recorded them with the same Nakamichi CM-300s->Sony WMD-D6C rig. Even now, after seeing the Allmans quite a few times over the years, I have to say that the 1992 line up is still one of my favorite incarnations of the band.

Do NOT Convert To MP3.
Enjoy! Share freely, don’t sell, play nice, don’t run with scissors, etc. 😉

Allman Brothers Band – Los Angeles, CA (05/15/79)

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND
INGLEWOOD, CA @ THE FORUM
1979-05-15

Cassette Master -> Untracked Aiff File -> Soundforge -> FLAC

  1. -intro-
  2. Don’t Want You No More
  3. It’s Not My Cross To Bear
  4. Can’t Take It With You
  5. Blue Sky
  6. Need Your Love So Bad
  7. Blind Love
  8. Crazy Love
  9. Just Ain’t Easy
  10. In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
  11. Statesboro Blues
  12. Try It One More Time
  13. One Way Out
  14. Southbound
  15. Jessica
  16. Whipping Post
  17. Pegasus
  18. -intro-
  19. Ramblin’ Man
  20. -intro-
  21. Midnight Rider
  22. Will The Circle Be Unbroken?

Gregg Allman – Ventura, CA (05/27/99)

Gregg Allman & Friends
5/27/99
Majestic Ventura Theater
Ventura, CA

Neumann AK-40’s (x/y) >LC3 >KM-100’s >Beyer MV-100 >Tascam DA-P1
DAT Master Transferred: Tascam DA-30 >HHb CDR 800 PRO Via Analog i/o,
CD Masters (HHb Gold Discs) >FLAC (Level 8) Via xACT 2.28

FOB, 2nd Tier, Center Table. Microphones On 10ft Stand

Recorded, Transferred, FLAC’d, Tagged, & Front Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr

Set I

  1. Hot ‘Lanta
  2. I’m No Angel
  3. Slip Away
  4. Rendezvous With The Blues
  5. Midnight Rider
  6. Love The Poison
  7. These Days
  8. I’ve Been Hurt Real Bad
  9. House Of Blues

Set II

  1. Demons
  2. Born Under A Bad Sign
  3. Just Before The Bullets Fly
  4. Back To Daytona
  5. Melissa
  6. Whipping Post
  7. Trouble No More
  8. Please Call Home

OldNeumanntapr Notes:

This ‘review’ I had originally posted to DAT-Heads soon after the show in 1999

Just back from Greg Allman and Friends at the Ventura Theatre.
The theatre people gave me the usual run around even though I had a print
out of the ABB web page which stated the taping policy. I finally went
directly to Robert, the manager, who is a friend of a friend of mine.
He was cool and said he didn’t mind but someone would have to personally
ask the road manager. I relayed this to one of the security people outside
who came back 5 minutes later with a long face and said, ‘sorry dude. You
can’t’. I told him that Robert had already given his OK but they would
have to talk with the road manager. This guy then said he would go back
and ask again. I figured I was just going to get the run around so I
walked down the street and found an open side door near back stage. The
road manager was outside talking to this same security kid. I walked up
and smiled and the security guy looked at me then looked at the road
manager and said, ‘oh yeah. One other thing. You can answer this guy’s
question. You Don’t allow recording do you?’ He asked expecting the answer
no. ‘Sure. Audio, no video’ was his response.

I thanked him and went to go in. The door people were a little alarmed at
my mic stand and wanted to know what it was. All the tables on the floor
were reserved for dinner except for 4 seats on the center table, second
tier. Myself and another taper sat down. He had already paid for dinner, I
hadn’t. Immediately the floor manager was all over me telling me I
couldn’t set up here because it was for dinner people only, blah blah
blah. So I had to pay the $20 on the spot for dinner but got to keep my
killer FOB center location. Right where I wanted to be anyway.

Moral to the story is it helped having the printout of the web page but it
also helped more being able to go right to the manager. But still I had to
work to get my gear inside because I basically had to ask the band’s road
manager myself. I couldn’t believe I was the only stand in the room!
I was expecting more tapers in Ventura. Especially since it was so close
to LA.

Do NOT Convert To MP3.
Enjoy! Share freely, don’t sell, play nice, don’t run with scissors, etc. 😉