The Game of Clones: Bruceploitation Collection Vol. 1 is the Pick of the Week

cover art

I haven’t remembered to post one of these in a while. I do write them every week for Cinema Sentries, but just forget to post them here. I have been linking to CS for all my old picks on my My Writings page if you get a hankering for me yammering about Blu-ray releases.

Anyways, this week there are a bunch of cool Blu-rays coming out, my favorite of which is this awesome-looking set of Bruce Lee-inspired flicks. Apparently, just after Lee died a bunch of low-budget films were made with dudes that kind of looked like Bruce Lee and called themselves names like Bruce Li and Dragon Lee. They were cashing in on his famous name, but the films got increasingly bizarre and amazing.

Anyway you can read all about it and more here.

Percy Crosby’s Skippy: Daily Comics 1931-1933

cover

Growing up I loved the newspaper comic strips. My parents subscribed to two newspapers – The Tulsa World which ran every morning and the Claremore Progress which ran every afternoon. The Tulsa World had the better comics selection and more of them. The Claremore paper mostly overlapped with the Tulsa comics but there were a few that Tulsa didn’t have and I cherished them.

My siblings and I often fought over who got to read the comics section first, especially on Sundays when there were even more of them and they were in color.

I read all of the funny ones (even the ones I didn’t actually find that funny) but always skipped the dramatic comics. My favorites were Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side. My mother would buy us a copy of their annual books every Valentine’s Day.

Skippy was no longer around when I was growing up but I suspect I would have loved it. I love it now, as you can see from reading my review of this collection.

Owsley and Me: My LSD Family by Rhoney Gissen Stanley

bok cover

Owsley Stanley is a name very familiar to Deadheads. He was their sound engineer and financial back in their early days. He designed the infamous wall of sound. He made some of the purest LSD the world has ever known.

Rhoney Gissen Stanley was Owsley’s lover and helped him make a lot of that Acid in those early days. She wrote a book a few years ago and I wrote a review of it, which you can read here.

All Our Colors Benefit – Mountain View, CA (10/10/92)

Mickey Hart & Friends
John Trudell
John Lee Hooker & Ry Cooder
Steve Miller Band
Jackson Browne & Friends
Santana
10/10/92
Native American Indian Benefit, “All Our Colors, The Good Road Concert”
Shoreline Amphitheatre
Mountain View, CA

Mickey Hart
w/Carlos Santana, Steve Miller, Kitaro, D’CuCKOO, Michael Shrieve, etc.

Any help with a setlist?

John Trudell

  1. Intro >Junkman
  2. Rockin’ The Res
  3. Reality
  4. Wait For Me
  5. Johnny Damas and Me
  6. Crazy Horse >band intros
  7. Fool’s War
  8. Bombs Over Bagdad

    John Trudell – vocals
    Mark Shark – guitar, backing vocals
    Gary Ray – drums
    Bobby Tsukamoto – bass, backing vocals
    Rick Eckstein – keyboards
    Quiltman – vocals, percussion

John Lee Hooker & Ry Cooder

  1. Lonely Man
  2. It Serves Me Right To Suffer
  3. Hobo Blues
  4. Crawling Kingsnake

Steve Miller Band

xx. Intro*
xx. Fly Like An Eagle*

  1. //Seasons
  2. You’re So Fine
  3. Mercury Blues
  4. I’m Tore Down
  5. Gangster Of Love
  6. Living In The USA
  7. Dance Dance Dance
  8. Rock ‘N Me
  9. Take The Money And Run
  10. Jet Airliner

Encore:
11. The Joker

Jackson Browne & Friends

  1. Intro
  2. Before The Deluge (w/ David Lindley)
  3. I’m Alive
  4. Miles Away
  5. Soldier Of Plenty
  6. Shape Of A Heart
  7. World In Motion (w/ Bonnie Raitt)
  8. Here Come Those Tears Again (w/ Mark Shark & Bonnie Raitt)
  9. All Good Things
  10. Lawless Avenues

encore:

  1. The Pretender
    [64:40]

Bonnie Raitt & David Lindley sat in on Jackson’s set and were the ‘friends’.

Santana

  1. Peace On Earth * >
  2. Mother Earth * >
  3. Somewhere In Heaven *
  4. Viva La Vida (Life Is For Living) *
  5. Savor >
  6. Percussion Jam
  7. The Healer ^
  8. All Your Love ^#
  9. Sacred Fire ^#
  10. Why Can’t We Live Together? *^# >
  11. Exodus *^#%$

Carlos Santana – Electric Guitars, Vocals
Alex Ligertwood – Electric Guitar, Percussion, Vocals
Chester Thompson – Keyboards, Vocals
Myron Dove – Electric Bass
Karl Perazzo – Percussion, Vocals
Raul Rekow – Percussion, Vocals
Walfredo De Los Reyes – Drums

* w/ Jorge Santana
^ – w/ Ry Cooder
# – w/ Steve Miller
% – w/ Norton Buffalo
$ – w/ Native American Dancers

Nakamichi CM-300s w/CP-2 Omnis >Sony WM-D6C Cassette Master
XLIIS Master Transferred: Sony TC-D5M >Tascam DR100mkII (24bit/48khz)
(Recorded From Lawn Repeater Stacks, Left)

WAV >iZotope RX4 advanced & Har-Bal 3.0
Frequencies balanced for additional clarity and some compression to bring the recording some additional presence.

WAV >Audacity (Track Splits, Down Sample / Dither To 16bit/44.1khz) >FLAC (Level 8) + Tags Via xACT 2.37

(Recorded, Transferred, Audacity + FLAC, Tags, & Front-Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr)
(iZotope/Har-Bal Post Production by Flying -M-)

OldNeumanntapr Notes-
These performances were Bill Graham’s last big festival that he was working on before he died the previous year. I’m sorry that he never lived to actually see them performed. On the surface it seemed these benefit concerts were held to commemorate the 500 year anniversary of Columbus ‘discovering’ the new world. 1492-1992. Actually, it was more to open people’s eyes to the suffering and misery that the Native American people have endured during that 500 year history. One of the Native American speakers between sets commented, “Why do we celebrate Columbus? He was LOST!!” Santana headlined on Saturday and Bonnie Raitt headlined on Sunday. Saturday was billed as ‘All Our Colors, The Good Road Concert” and Sunday was billed as ‘Healing The Sacred Hoop’. I remember that between songs, Bonnie remarked that there were a bunch of young girls trying to get into John Lee Hooker’s dressing room. “That’s what I call ‘Healing The Sacred Hoop'”, she said. They were awesome shows. Some of the sets were kind of quiet and have more crowd noise on the recordings than I would have liked. I’m kind of amazed that there are not more recordings of these shows out there. I recorded both days up on the lawn with Nakamichi CM-300s with CP-2 omni capsules->Sony WM-D6C. The music went on from about 3pm to around midnight, so bringing in enough blank tape was a major problem. Another big problem was that since the shows started so early in the afternoon it was nearly impossible to hide recording equipment in broad daylight. I rode up to the shows with my friends Dave and Brian and it wasn’t until I was putting my equipment together in the back seat of the car that I discovered that I had the CP-2 omni capsules on the mics instead of the CP-1 cardioid caps. I was really upset because the omnis add a lot more crowd noise because they lack the side and rear isolation that the cardioids have. My previous recording had been in a bar back home the week before and we did a matrix mix with a feed off of the soundboard plus the two CM-300 omnis that were hung from the ceiling. I had forgotten to replace the omni capsules, which I hardly ever used, with the CP-1 cardioids.

I got everything in OK on Saturday but Sunday I had a problem. (This saga became one of my best ever taping stories in the years to come!) Because it was kind of cold at night I had brought extra clothing to both stay warm and conceal equipment. I had taken a long-sleeved flannel shirt and wrapped up the mics and knotted the sleeves together. I hid the D6 and cables and a couple of tapes with an ace bandage wrapped around my crotch and had no other option but to put the mics at the bottom of a backpack with misc. crap on top of it. I looked for a line with a security guy that seemed to be doing a minimum of searching and had Dave and Brian go through the turnstiles ahead of me. At the last second a supervisor took over my line just as I stepped up to the search. My heart kind of did a double beat but I hoped for the best. I always relied on the old magician’s sleight-of-hand trick of showing them what you wanted them to see while at the same time distracting them from what you wanted to hide. While my friends went through the turnstiles the supervisor was rummaging around in my bag and felt the mics wrapped up in the shirt. “What’s This?,” he wanted to know and stopped the line. I had to think fast as he was trying but could not untie the knots on the shirt. “It’s a beer bottle,” says I, after the other guy had already torn my ticket. He pulled me out of line and, yelled at me,”You can’t bring that in here!” I stepped out of line and said that I’d get rid of it. Meanwhile, Dave looked back and saw what was going on. I put my hand up in the air palm up and he tossed the car keys to me over the top of the turnstiles. I went back to his car, opened the trunk, and took out two blank cassettes from under my ace bandage and left them in the car. I unwrapped the mics and shoved them down next to the tape deck under the ace bandage and hoped for better luck! When I went back I picked a different line and got through without a problem. The usher at the gate did a double take when he saw that the ticket had been torn already and then signed off on the back by the supervisor. He asked me about it and I said, with my best ‘dumb-guy’ look, that they had found a beer bottle on me and made me go and get rid of it. What did he say? You guessed it! “You can’t bring that in here!!!!” Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dave found me inside as I was making my way to the lawn and asked me about it as I gave him back his keys. I told him I had to lighten the load a bit and had to leave some tape behind. “I guess I just won’t tape Don Henley,” I said. “Oh you’ve Got to tape Henley,” he said. Later on, about 5 minutes before Henley came on stage, I looked up to see Dave drop two blank tapes in my lap. “How in the hell did you get Those??” I asked. He said that he had gotten cold and asked the people at the gate if he could go out and get his sweatshirt! Naturally, he had another thought in mind as well. I laughed and shook my head. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it! That’s the closest I’ve ever come to getting caught taping.

Once night fell, I could get the mics up higher and make a better recording, but in broad daylight I had no other choice but to sit on the ground under the repeater towers and build a little pile of clothing on top of my backpack. I hid the mics in the sleeves on the shirt and ran the mic cables back to the backpack where the D6 was.

The music was pretty good. I couldn’t see much of the stage, especially in the daytime, because the view screens were not on. I remember that the Hooker / Cooder set and the Lindley / Cooder set was kind of quiet. Those sets have more crowd noise on them, plus the omni caps sure didn’t help matters. It would have been nice to have the shotguns but they are a little noticeable!

I finally got around to making 24 bit digital transfers of the master cassettes. Thanks so much to Flying M for the post production. These sets sound a lot better now.

Bo Diddley – Isla Vista, CA (01/31/92)

Bo Diddley
1/31/92
The Anaconda
Isla Vista, CA

FOB Left; Nakamichi CM-300 CP-1 Cardioids >Sony WM-D6C
TDK SA-90 Masters >CDR Transferred: Sony TC-D5M >HHb CDR 800 PRO Via Analog i/o
CD Masters >FLAC (Level 8) Via xACT 2.25
FLAC Tags Via xACT 2.53

Recorded, Transferred, FLAC, Tags, & Front-Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr

Disc I:

  1. Bo Diddley
  2. Roadrunner
  3. I’m A Man
  4. Hey Girl
  5. You Got Another Man
  6. talk
  7. I’m Not The One

Disc II:

  1. Put Your Suitcase Down
  2. I’m Confused
  3. Diddley Daddy >
  4. This Should Not Be
  5. Hey! Bo Diddley

Oldneumanntapr Notes:
This was the first time that I had seen a show at the Anaconda, which was previously known as the Graduate. Before that it started out life as the Isla Vista Bank Of America, (and was torched in the Viet Nam era from what I’m told.) The Anaconda was located in Isla Vista, near Santa Barbara and where the UCSB campus is located. Bo Jammed a lot that night, with one song being over 22 minutes long. The recording sounds pretty good. I returned there a month or so later and taped John Lee Hooker, which was also good. The Anaconda is long gone, but at least I was able to record two blues shows there.

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

Roger Daltry – Glenside PA (06/10/24)

Roger Daltrey
Keswick Theatre
Glenside, PA
June 10, 2024

Source: DPA4061 > CA-UGLY > Sony PCM-A10 (24/48)
Transfer: wav file > Sound Studio (16/44.1) > xACT > FLAC (level 8)
Recording location: Front row
Recorded by: Tapehead2

01 Let My Love Open the Door
02 Freedom Ride
03 Who Are You
04 Waiting For a Friend
05 After the Fire
06 Days of Light
07 Giving It All Away
08 The Kids Are Alright
09 Another Tricky Day
10 Squeeze Box
11 Won’t Get Fooled Again
12 Going Back Home
13 As Long as I Have You
14 Baba O’Riley
15 Have You Ever Seen the Rain
16 Without Your Love

Length: 1:47:10

Roger Daltrey: Lead vocals and guitar
Simon Townshend: Guitar and backing vocals
Billy Nicholls: Mandolin and backing vocals
Jody Linscott: Percussion
Doug Boyle: Guitar
John Hogg: Bass and backing vocals
Katie Jacoby: Violin and backing vocals
Steve Weston: Harmonica
Geraint Watkins: Keyboards/accordion
Scott Devours: Drums

Blue Oyster Cult – Ogden, UT (08/09/01)

Blue Öyster Cult
08/09/01
Golden Spike Room
Weber County Fair
Ogden, UT

8th Row, Right; Neumann AK-40s (x/y) >LC3 >KM-100s >Beyer MV-100 >SBM-1 >Sony TCD-D7 DAT Master

Master DAT Transferred: Tascam DA-30 >HHb CDR 800 PRO Via Analog i/o.
CDR >FLAC (Level 8) + Tags Via xACT 2.47

(Left Channel Preamp Battery Began To Fail Near End Of Show) Last Twentynine Minutes Of Show [Complete Disc 2] Had to Be Bridged From Right Channel When Transferred To CDR.)

[2024] FLAC >WAV >Audacity (Combine Last Three Songs That Had Been Converted To Mono To A One-Track File, Add .30 Milliseconds Of Silence To Copied Left Channel To Mimic A Stereo Effect, Re-Track) FLAC (Level 8) + Tags Via xACT 2.53

Recorded, Transferred, Audacity, FLAC, Tag, And Front Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr

Disc I:

  1. Stairway To The Stars
  2. Teen Arche
  3. E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)
  4. Dance On Stilts
  5. The Vigil
  6. Harvester Of Eyes
  7. Burnin’ For You
  8. Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll
  9. Pocket
  10. Take Me Away
  11. Then Came The Last Days Of May

Disc II:

  1. Godzilla >Drums >Godzilla
  2. Don’t Fear The Reaper

Encore:

  1. Dominance And Submission

OldNeumanntapr Notes- (2001)
This was my first show I recorded out of my home state of California. In 2001 I flew to Salt Lake City and my buddy Jack and I drove to Red Rocks to record the Allman Brothers Band. Before we left on that journey we recorded BOC in Ogden, UT. I foolishly waited to buy nine volt batteries for the preamp until right before the show and we ended up stopping at a Texaco station in Ogden. NEVER BUY batteries at a gas station!! I didn’t notice until we got to the show, but the cardboard / plastic container had been opened and one of the batteries was used. So, one channel of the preamp failed toward the end of the show so I had to ‘Y’ the good channel to mono for the last 29 minutes. No other post production has been done to this recording. There is some crowd noise but the music is clear. This was the first time that I had seen Blue Oyster Cult. I listened to them a lot in high school and always liked their music.

OldNeumanntapr Notes (2024)
I added .30 milliseconds of silence to the start of disc two in Audacity to mimic a stereo effect and minimize the ‘flat’ sounding monaural tracks.

Avacado Sundae – San Luis Obispo, CA (05/14/93)

Avocado Sundae
5/14/93
SLO Brewing Company
San Luis Obispo, CA

Yamaha 16 Channel Soundboard; Sony TC-D5M Cassette Master
Cassette Master Transferred: Sony TC-D5M (Original Record Deck) >Tascam DR-100mkII (16/44.1)
WAV >Audacity (Track Splits, Minor Edits) >FLAC (Level 8) Via xACT 2.37

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

Need Set List!!!

Members:
Pete Delaney – Guitar
Bill Burke – Keyboards
Rich Mahan – Bass
Neil Gegna – Drums

OldNeumanntapr Notes-
This was the first of 46 SLO Brew shows that I would record throughout the next twenty three and a half years. From 1988 to 2001 the bands played upstairs at SLO Brew next to the restaurant. In mid 2001 the stage was enlarged and moved downstairs and the capacity was increased to 457 people. It was still a nice intimate setting, but larger than what it used to be upstairs. I have never seen this band before, or since. My friend little Jack used to do sound at SLO Brewing Company back in the early 90s. This was before Kip became the house sound man, as Kip was still doing sound at Loco Ranchero up on the hill across town where KSBY TV Channel 6 is now. I helped Jack on occasion with the load in/out and set up/tear down of sound equipment at various local venues. I recorded Avocado Sundae through Jack’s 16 channel Yamaha mixer board with my Sony D5. The board was old, and was taken from a club in Los Angeles that had been town down. It had dust in the sliders because it was stored in a barn and we used to use it out doors in the summertime to do blues concerts, but it had great analog sound. I had jack give me a stereo output for this show and I think it sounds good. Avocado Sundae is a good California psychedelic jam band, based in Fairfax. I was surprised that there wasn’t any other Avocado Sundae shows on etree. I tried to reach out to the band to get them a copy (and to get a set list for the show) but I don’t do the Facebook thing and that seems to be the only way to get a hold of them. Someone please make sure they hear this recording. I took the band member’s names off of Facebook and correlated them with the onstage band intros to match up the musicians with the instruments, but I wasn’t certain about who did the respective vocals, so I left that blank.

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

Bridge School Benefit – Mountain View, CA (10/18/98)

Bridge School Benefit
10/18/98
Shoreline Amphitheater
Mountain View, CA

SEC 203, Row P, Seat 22
Nyquist Omnis >Sony TCD-D7
DAT Master Transfered: Tascam DA-30 >HHb CDR 800 PRO Via Analog i/o,
CD Masters >FLAC (Level 8) Via xACT 2.28
FLAC >WAV >Audacity (De-Amplify Countless Close-Proximity Hand Claps, Various Crowd-Noise Reduction, Minor Edits & Fades) >Fix SBEs >FLAC (Level 8) + Tags Via xACT 2.53

(Recorded, Transferred, FLAC, Tags, & Front-Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr)

Disc I:
Neil Young:

  1. Looking Forward
  2. I Am A Child

The Eels: (not recorded except for:)

  1. Novocaine For The Soul

Pete Droge/Mike McCready: (not recorded)

Jonathan Richman: (not recorded)

The Wallflowers:

  1. Three Marlenas
  2. One Headlight
  3. Don’t Cry No Tears (Neil Young* Cover)
  4. 6th Avenue Heartache
  5. Invisible City
  6. Heroes (David Bowie Cover)

The Barenaked Ladies:

  1. Old Apartment
  2. Straw Hat And Old Dirty Hank
  3. My Fly Was Undone
  4. It’s All Been Done
  5. Jane
  6. One Week
  7. Brian Wilson
  8. If I Had A Million Dollars >
  9. Memories >
    The Medley

Disc II:
Sarah McLachlan:

  1. Adia
  2. Possession
  3. Elsewhere
  4. I Love You
  5. Angel
  6. Ice Cream
  7. The Path Of Thorns
  8. Building A Mystery (cuts)

Neil Young:

  1. From Hank To Hendrix
  2. Distant Camera
  3. Horseshoe Man
  4. After The Gold Rush
  5. Expecting To Fly
  6. Powderfinger
  7. Ambulance Blues

Disc III:
R.E.M.:

  1. Losing My Religion
  2. New Test Leper
  3. Country Feedback (w/Neil Young)
  4. Daysleeper
  5. At My Most Beautiful
  6. Electrolite
  7. Everybody Hurts
  8. Man On The Moon

Disc IV:
Phish:

  1. Hello My Baby
  2. Billy Breathes
  3. Piper
  4. Roggae
  5. Loving Cup (Rolling Stones Cover)
  6. Albuquerque (Neil Young Cover)
  7. The Old Home Place (Dillards Cover)
  8. Guyute
  9. Brian And Robert
  10. Sad Lisa (Cat Stevens Cover) w/Sarah McLachlan

Neil Young & Cast:

  1. Four Strong Winds
  2. I Shall Be Released

*Not Recorded (except for ’Novocaine Of The Soul’

OldNeumanntapr Notes:
This was the last Bridge School Benefit that I recorded, and the first with the custom hat-loaded Nyquist Omnis. We had a seat this time, as compared to the first two years in 1991 and 1992 when I froze my behind off up on the lawn. Shoreline can get cold for the Bridge shows, especially because they are always in October or November. I had seen The Barenaked Ladies before, in Avila Beach, and I knew they were good and funny as well. I hadn’t ever seen The Wallflowers, R.E.M., Sarah McLachlan, or Phish before so that was a treat. I really liked the acoustic Phish show, much more than when I saw them play electric. They really seemed to be having fun during their set. I really enjoyed hearing Sarah and Phish sing the Cat Steven’s song ‘Sad Lisa’. I noticed that when REM played there was someone recording with large diaphragm microphones, which could have been AKG 414s. I’ve never seen that source circulate before however. My friends Dave and Brian were with me, and my ex-wife Nikki, at this show. I think Dave had a single seat down in the 100 sections, but Brian was seated next to me on my right. At the end of the Phish show I turned to Brian and said, “I was waiting for you to say, There’s that scruffy guy with the hat again”, which is what he said, referring to Neil Young, at a previous Bridge School Benefit.

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