The Ultimate Lou Reed Bootleg Page

Lou Reed
Paramount Theater
Seattle, WA
December 9, 1976

JEMS Full-Track Tandberg Mono Master

Recording Gear: Sony ECM-22P Microphone > Tandberg Model 11 Portable Reel to Reel

JEMS 2016 Transfer: Master reel > Tandberg Model 11 > Sound Devices USBPre 2 capture (24/96) > iZotope RX and Ozone > MBIT+ convert to 16/44.1 > YOUR STUFF

01 Tune Up
02 Sweet Jane
03 I Believe In Love
04 Lisa Says
05 Kicks
06 She's My Best Friend
07 I'm Waiting For The Man
08 Sheltered Life
09 You Wear It So Well
10 Claim To Fame
11 Vicious Circle
12 Walk On The Wild Side
13 Coney Island Baby
14 Rock And Roll Heart
15 Charley's Girl
16 How Does It Feel?
17 Berlin
18 Temporary Thing
19 Ladies Pay
20 Rock And Roll
21 Heroin

Known Faults:
None

With Jared’s passing in October 2016, the complete JEMS Archive was moved south from his home up north. That move, sad as its impetus was, presented an opportunity, however daunting, to go through and organize the collection. With the help of some amazing friends and experts (among them Slowburn, SS, RD and slipkid68), JEMS tapes are now accessible in ways they have never been before. SG was also on hand to help and fill in our taping history as he always does.

When the task was done and loaded into the truck, one box in particular captured my attention: master reels recorded by SG on his Tandberg portable reel to reel. We’ve posted some 20 or more of these on DIME over the years, but this box contained master reels that had never been digitized before and, in some instances, had never been traded or circulated.

If you don’t know about the Tandberg, it was a remarkable piece of gear in its day, not only capable of recording at 3-¾ and 7-½ IPS, but in full-track mono. I won’t do the math, but compared to a cassette, the surface area of tape capturing the music is orders of magnitude higher, which is why so many of SG’s Tandberg masters from the likes of David Bowie, Elton John, Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen are considered by some as audience-recording classics. The Tandberg required 10(!) D-cel batteries to operate, is roughly the size of a compact typewriter and weighs more than ten pounds. Imagine sneaking that into a show and your respect for what SG accomplished only grows.

This is the second in a series of Tandberg master reels digitized for the first time. Happily, the original Tandberg deck is still fully functioning, so these transfers offer full-track mono playback on the original tape recorder to maximize quality.

We follow up Boston (http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=581370), as you would (!), with Lou Reed, on the penultimate night of the Rock and Roll Heart Tour. It’s a jazzy, rollicking and occasionally ramshackle two hours of pure Lou and a set list consistent with the rest of the tour. There are requests throughout the show for “Heroin,” and Lou obliges to close the show.

SG’s preferred taping spot at the Paramount was always row JJ, the last row, in the corner where his microphone could be easily hung on a giant velvet curtain that took up the end of the row. While at the back of the main floor, that position was well removed from other audience and resulted in yet another excellent and balanced tape with almost no unwanted crowd interference. Samples provided. If the file size seems small, remember it is a mono file, half the size of stereo version of the same thing.

Our hat goes off again to SG for his remarkable work in the ‘70s, ‘80s and beyond for capturing these shows in the first place, and to Jared, may his legacy live on as he rests in peace. Thanks as well to mjk5510, for his steadfast support of JEMS’ efforts and indispensable post production work.

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZNinrZhaOJmLhO9NS849qyR4CnkRIjAkW7