From: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org (basia-digest) To: basia-digest@smoe.org Subject: basia-digest V3 #175 Reply-To: basia@smoe.org Sender: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "basia-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. basia-digest Friday, August 21 1998 Volume 03 : Number 175 Today's Subjects: ----------------- From the mists of history... [Joel Cairo ] Re: From the mists of history... ["Ashoke S. Talukdar" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 16:49:30 -0700 From: Joel Cairo Subject: From the mists of history... Hey everyone… I realize that most folks on this list have probably at one time or another had a chance to see Basia, Danny et al, in concert, but I somehow, have always had the misfortune to miss her shows… (Probably the most frustrating was during the TSI tour in '94… I was over in northern Japan when she opened her world tour in Tokyo-- only 600 miles away, and I just couldn't break away from my teaching duties long enough to go see her…. AAARGH!! Japan, by the way, is one of her strongholds, fan-wise… the big pop FM station, J-WAVE, had been given the "More Fire Than Flame" track to release as an advance single in October of '93, in celebration of their 5th anniversary, so everyone was anxiously awaiting both the release of the TSI LP, and her upcoming tour dates. I remember seeing a short interview segment on the local Japanese news as she came in off the flight… much as I love her, she looked awful; something I can certainly empathize with after having flown for 11 hours to get there myself. Anyway-- what this is all leading to is that, even though BOB was some solace, there is no way I'm going to miss her next set of shows (particularly since I'm not altogether certain that we'll have many more of them :^)…)-- but I was sorry that I'd never had the chance to hear how the band had sounded in years past… Well, recently, I got quite a treat… in my spare time, as some of you may have guessed from my e-mail address, I do audio work (archiving & restoration), and not too long ago, someone contacted me about a tape that they wanted preserved… with my usual curiosity, I asked them what It was, and they replied that it was a tape of a concert that they had attended years ago, which they had particularly enjoyed, and wanted to have transferred to a more permanent form. Well, I'm sure everyone knows where this is going, but-- the tape turned out to be a recording of Basia's Kansas City, Missouri show from October 6, 1988!! Well, to make a long story short, even though the fidelity of the recording leaves an awful lot to be desired (it was done from the balcony of the concert hall, with a portable cassette recorder that had built in microphones-- yes, I see you cringing) the show itself is easily audible & enjoyable, though perhaps best experienced with headphones. (The crowd next to the recorder was remarkably well-behaved, too… I think I could count on one hand the amount of intrusive comments that come through on the tape) I must say, the band sounded absolutely great, but the biggest surprise to me was a couple of selections that were played in the course of the 81 minute show. As you might guess, T&T was the dominant theme for the evening, and in fact, Basia announces near the beginning of the show that the band is prepared to play all of the tracks from the album, which they do… with "From Now On" being played twice (both the acoustic and the "Band" versions). Additionally (and much to my surprise), however, 2 ½ numbers from LWNY also made their appearance about midway throught the show, after Basia told the audience that she and Danny are "already at work on another album, which will be out… sometime". (Hope no one in the crowd was holding their breath till it showed up in the stores!!) Just previous to this annnouncement, the band had played a 6+ minute version of "Freeze Thaw", which as it turned out, incorporated the horn riffs from "Ordinary People" as part of the instrumental bridge. Thereafter, the first complete new song played was a fairly straightforward version of "Baby You're Mine", followed closely by "Best Friends", which at this point had a rather more upbeat opening prior to the first verse, though the balance of the song is just about identical to the final studio recording. The real treat for me, though, was the next track, which Basia announced they were playing " so you won't get bored with our songs." She continued by saying, "It wasn't written by us, it was written by better of us"-- and it was a 6 ½ minute medley of songs originally performed by her favorite singer, Aretha Franklin!!! As you might guess, the medley opens with "Until You Come Back to Me", which at this point was missing its distinctive horn fills (and is sung somewhat less authoritatively by Basia, in comparison to the LP track), and then segues into a spirited version of "Baby, I Love You", which gets a great reaction from the crowd. Following this is an almost-complete version of one of my favorite songs (though I'm not sure that Aretha actually sang it) "I Say a Little Prayer", and the song cycle closes with a rousing rendition of "Respect", which gives the already-appreciative crowd a nice jolt. The show "closed" with "How Dare You", and the the two encore numbers were "Half a Minute" during which Basia shouts "Get up and DANCE!!!", and the previously-mentioned "band version" of "From Now On". The crowd received the show quite warmly, and judging from the comments made by people passing by the tape recorder on the way out (which, interestingly, was left on as my clients walked out to their car), a good number of copies of T&T were sold in the KC area the next day!! Anyway, I just thought I'd share my reactions to this unexpected chance to eavesdrop on history with all of you. To those of you who actually got to see one of these shows, I envy you-- but at least now I've got some small idea of what it was like… and helped to save a little of the past for future fans!!! Take care, all!! - -Kevin (who will now go back and listen to the medley for the 47th time…) By the way... if, in spite of the fidelity, anyone would like to hear some of this, I'd be willing to MP3 it, and upload it to the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3 newsgroup... just let me know!! - -Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 21:48:24 -0400 From: "Ashoke S. Talukdar" Subject: Re: From the mists of history... > >By the way... if, in spite of the fidelity, anyone would like to hear >some of this, I'd be willing to MP3 it, and upload it to the >alt.binaries.sounds.mp3 newsgroup... just let me know!! > >-Kevin > > DEFINITELY!!!!! Dude! You're the man! Ashoke. ________________________________________________________________ Ashoke S. Talukdar | When the darkness takes you talukdar@morph.ebme.cwru.edu | with her hand across your face Home : 216-381-5872 | Don't give in too quickly Imaging Lab : 216-368-8812 | Find the things she's erased MetroHealth : 216-778-8987 | Find the line, find the face Pager : 216-670-5872 | Through the grain... Cellular : 216-317-7079 | Fax : 216-368-4969 | Suzanne Vega ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 21:22:03 -0700 From: Joel Cairo Subject: Re: From the mists of history... Ashoke S. Talukdar wrote: > > > > >By the way... if, in spite of the fidelity, anyone would like to hear > >some of this, I'd be willing to MP3 it, and upload it to the > >alt.binaries.sounds.mp3 newsgroup... just let me know!! > > > >-Kevin > > > > > > DEFINITELY!!!!! > > Dude! You're the man! > > Ashoke. No problem, Ashoke... Two things, though-- First, my ISP has been rather dicey over the past few days... I've already tried one upload, and GTE timed out on me, so I'll try again later. The MP3 itself is a bit phase-y though, owing to the way the original tape was recorded. I tried 4 different encodes, and the one I'm posting is the best of the batch-- I'm just sorry it didn't turn out better. That's the perfectionist in me, though. Anyway, caveats aside, it should be up in alt.binaries.sounds.mp3 later on tonight. Hope you like it, everyone! - -Kevin ------------------------------ End of basia-digest V3 #175 ***************************