Journey: 1973-12-31 San Francisco, CA (FLAC_SB_1 CD)

It was 41 years ago overnight that Journey closed out 1973 in their first ever concert and brought in a new year to San Francisco and new career to the world that is still alive today.  And this is the recording of that show.  I love what I am guessing is Bill Graham's introduction of the band before they start playing too.  It was very prophetic you might say!

This is a superb recording but it also has some flaws unfortunately.  For some of the earlier part of the show there is a high pitch tone.  It seems to come and go and even be in the background a lot more quietly at times too.  After a little bit, it seems to disappear and there are a few other tape issues and various poor transferring related problems I'd guess.  Either that or the tape this audio came from had a lot of play and wear itself.  But it still is a excellent sounding recording and it isn't too hard to put up with the flaws if you enjoy the music.

LINEAGE:
Soundboard > ? > cassette > ? > CD-R > EAC > FLAC > me > TLH > WAV (to test for lossiness) > Audacity (to view waveform, embed metadata/track titles & info, and then to re-encode) > FLAC 8 > TLH (to check for SBE's and create and verify new ffp & md5 files) > you

DETAILS:
Artist: Journey
Date: December 31st, 1973
Location: San Francisco, California
Venue: Winterland Ballroom
Title: None
Label: None
Source: SB
Format: FLAC
CD's: 1
Artwork: No
Size: 196 MB
Length: 39:30:61

SETLIST:
01. Topaz
02. It's All Too Much
03. In My Lonely Feeling/Conversations
04. Mystery Mountain
05. Can You Feel Me
06. Kohoutek
07. Charge Of The Light Brigade
08. In The Morning Day

BAND:
Neal Schon  -  guitar/vocals
Gregg Rolie  -  keyboards/vocals
Prairie Prince  -  drums
George Tickner  -  guitar/rhythm guitar
Ross Valory  -  bass guitar/piano/vocals

LINK:
(1) 1973-12-31 San Francisco, CA (SB)

A number of these tracks in the show have been unnamed or even wrongly named over the years since some never appeared on any officially released materials.  I can say without a doubt that one of the rarest songs, track 5, is titled "Can You Feel Me".  How do I know you ask?  Gregg Rolie, the song's writer told me in May of 2006 when I met him.  He was very cool and answered a lot of questions I was asking him.  He wasn't trying to push me or my friend off, took a few shots (phjotos I mean) with us, and was really nice and intelligent.  He had a sharp memory when it came to recalling the early days I could tell.  I had heard the song ("Can You Feel Me") on a studio outtake recording many years earlier and only knew part of the lyrics because the studio recording wasn't very good or clear (at least my copy wasn't at the time).  I barely started quoting the lyrics to Rolie and he immediately said "Oh, that's 'Can You Feel Me'."  He wrote it down for me and I just double checked to make sure I had it right.  I only know of this song being on two or three recordings and this is one of them.  The quality and sound in the recording also seems to be a lot better at this point in the show and the high pitch tone has disappeared.

There are a few unique things about this historic show besides the 1973/1974 first show information.  Journey only did one show with a drummer named Prairie Prince.  It was the band's very first show (this one) and then they replaced him with Aynsley Dunbar.  He must not have made the cut even though he sounds great in this show?

Another interesting fact I might not would have believed had I not seen it on video has to do with the origina; member who is still with the band today and still playing bass.  I'm talking about Ross Valory.  He also played piano in the early shows.  Standing right next to Gregg Rolie as he was jamming on the keyboards you can see Ross Valory banging away too on keys.  I have two 1974 DVD's of the band at this same venue, Winterland Ballroom, and he is doing it in both shows on certain songs.  I would have never guessed.

And last but not least, there is an additional member Journey had for a very short time in their early days also on guitar along with Neal Schon.  George Tickner was the band's second guitar player for a very short (about six months) time frame.  Neal Schon was so far ahead of his time musically speaking and talent wise.  I imagine that having a second guitar player might have forced him to slow down a little and could have had something to do with why Tickner was not kept?  But once again, I don't know because I wasn't there.

The tape goes back and forth between a superb sound and then a less than superb sound throughout the short 40 minute show.  It sounds to me like the cassette tape in the lineage is where the problems entered.  Some of the sounds heard sound like a less than stellar transfer of a tape on a machine with heads needing cleaning or demagnetizing.  I think there is likely a better copy circulating and I'll keep looking.  But since there is not a high demand for these excellent, early Journey shows and even a lot of the Steve Perry era shows are hard to find in something other than a shameful mp3 format, it may take a while.

Happy New Years to everyone.  Let's hope 2015 is a great year for all of us as well as the surfacing of some new, great music too.  God bless you!

I hope you enjoy the show...

Bootradr

SPECIAL NOTICE TO ALL!!

THESE DOWNLOADS ARE FOR FREE ONLY!  NEVER BUY OR SELL ANY LEGALLY RECORDED BUT ILLEGAL TO SELL SHOWS LIKE THIS ONE.  THIS IS FOR FANS AND FUTURE FANS WHO WANT TO HEAR THE ARTIST'S MUSIC RAW & LIVE BUT NOT OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE OR RELEASED.

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