Bridge School Benefit
11/02/91
Shoreline Amphitheatre
Mountain View, CA
Bridge School Benefit #5

Nakamichi CM-300’s w/CP-1s >Sony WM-D6C Cassette Master (Lawn) >CDR >FLAC
XLIIS Masters Transferred: Sony TC-D5M >HHb CDR 800 PRO Via Analog i/o
CD Masters >Audacity (Minor Edits: Remove Tape Flips, Loud Hand Claps, And Cable Noise) >FLAC (Level 8) + Tags Via xACT 2.47

Recorded, Transferred, FLAC’d, Tagged, & Front-Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr
2016 Remaster!

Sonic Youth Set NOT Recorded!

Disc I:
Neil Young w/ Nicolette Larson:

1. Forever Young

Larry Keegan w/ Gene LaFond:

2. Ain’t Got The Blues
3. Wheelchair Blues

Intro by Neil Young
John Lee Hooker w/ Roy Rogers:

4. Crawlin’ Kingsnake
5. Hobo Blues
6. Ride Johnny Ride

Don Henley:

7. The End Of The Innocence
8. River
9. Heart Of The Matter
10. Come Rain Or Come Shine
11. Best Of My Love

Disc II:
Nils Lofgren:

1. Blue Skies
2. Sticks And Stones
3. Big Tears Fall
4. Believe (w/ Neil Young)
5. Just A Little

Intro by Neil Young
Tracy Chapman:

6. Crossroads
7. Bang Bang Bang
8. Mountains Of Things
9. Short Supply
10. The Love That You Had
11. Amazing Grace (dedicated to Bill Graham)

Disc III:
Willie Nelson:

1. Valentine
2. Times Slip Away
3. Crazy
4. Night Life
5. Mamas, Don’t Let Your Baby Grow Up To Be Cowboy
6. On The Road Again
7. Blue Eyes Cryin’ In The Rain

Neil Young w/ The Stray Gators:

8. Long May You Run
9. Birds
10. Harvest Moon
11. From Hank To Hendrix
12. Comes A Time

Finale:
Neil Young w/ The Stray Gators (all)

13. Forever Young
14. Greensleeves (a tribute to Bill Graham) Outro

OldNeumanntapr Notes-
This was my first Bridge School Benefit and I was so glad to be there. I’ve seen/recorded four Bridge School Benefits and this one was my favorite. I don’t know if it was the band line up, or because it my first Bridge show, or if it was because of Bill Graham’s recent passing, but there was a lot of energy in the air. I really wanted to record a Bridge show, after having obtained 1st generation cassettes of the 1989 show. I believe that this is the first time that I recorded Neil Young. My friends Dave, Brian, and Rick met up with my ex wife and me at the show. They had reserved seats, while I wanted to be near the repeater speakers on the lawn to record. Dave told me that, though there was a pat down search getting into Shoreline, they would allow you to bring in food. I had the idea to take a small box of saltine crackers and hollow it out. I cut down the cellophane wrappers and only left about 15 crackers in each wrapper. My D6 fit perfectly inside the box, and I left it open with the remaining crackers exposed. We brought in a small tupperware of sliced cheese and cold cuts, and some sealed bottled water. I had a canvas bag with a solid sturdy bottom to hold everything. I took the microphones and custom XLR >RCA shortened cables and used a velcro Ace Bandage to conceal them on my body. Fortunately, being November, we had heavy coats that further concealed the gear. (It was really cold up on that lawn in November!) I opened the bag when we went through security, being careful to not let the gate people notice the added weight of the recorder inside, and we went in without a hitch. I ran the Nakamichi microphones in a Levi jacket, with holes sewn into the front two pockets so the capsules would protrude. I used hollowed out 35 mm film can lids to go over the microphone bodies to keep them from falling through the bottom of the pockets. As long as I stood near the repeater speakers it worked really well. I also had long hair that I wore down to further conceal the microphones. The recorder went into a hip pack so I was totally self contained. This was a really emotional weekend, with the recent death of Bill Graham. Tracy Chapman dedicated ‘Amazing Grace’ to Bill during her set. Nils Lofgren, who played the most touching set of any Bridge set I ever saw, made repeated references to Bill and told a story of getting caught by Graham trying to sneak into the Fillmore East. Nils Lofgren’s song ‘Big Tears Fall’ was very powerful. Nils asked the crowd if there were any parents in the crowd, and I remember thinking of our daughter Lucy, who was born in May of ’91 and was at home with Nikki’s folks while we went to the shows. I had just recorded two very emotional Grateful Dead shows at the Oakland Coliseum on October 27 and October 31. The 10/27/91 show was the first Dead show after Bill’s helicopter crash, (They opened with Bill’s favorite Dead song ’Sugar Magnolia’), and the Halloween show featured Ken Kesey as a special guest. After the Bridge School Benefit show, Nikki and I drove my ’67 VW camper bus to Atherton where we parked in front of my friend Karl’s friend’s parent’s house. Sunday morning we got up early and drove to Golden Gate Park to record the Bill Graham Benefit, which was another emotional all day event. It was billed as ‘Laughter, Love, And Music’. It was quite the weekend. I heard later that Dave, who didn’t stay overnight to see the Sunday Bill Graham memorial concert, ran out of gas driving his friends home in the middle of the night near Santa Margarita, CA.

Do NOT Convert To MP3.
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