I got bored with this week’s topic very quickly (although all your posts are delightful, she hastily added) so, having downloaded a few TP bootlegs earlier this evening and found them to have very poor sound quality, I turned to a long-postponed project – using Audacity to break a concert which was all one file into its component tracks, so that I can listen to them separately if I want to. I see from iTunes that I’ve listened to the whole thing five times – it lasts an hour and a half – so I must’ve had it for quite a while.
Success! This is a brilliant, brilliant concert, and unlike the ones I downloaded today it’s got really good quality sound so it was well worth doing. It’s Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in Utrecht on December 4 1982 and they are in terrific form, though TP is a little hesitant in addressing a foreign audience. (However I find this endearing.) It’s possible that you won’t want to listen to the whole thing, so here’s A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me) which has a specially lovely piano intro.
Bootleg names tend to be a bit various, and this one is often called Straight Into Darkness, but I prefer the name Europe Calls Petty because I like the cover picture better.
Forgot to say that the website SugarMegs Streaming Server has LOADS of concert bootlegs – each one has a setlist, sometimes with comments about the sound from the bootlegger, and you can also stream each one to see whether you want it before downloading it.
But each one is only one file, remember – you have to split them yourself.
This is a really good quality recording! And it is a really great song!
I had never heard this track before and I really enjoyed! Thank you for posting the link to the SugarMegs Streaming Server – I will have fun exploring the site!!!
For an audience recording, this is great quality, tfd. There’s a remarkably good balance between instruments with the right amount of room atmosphere. In Deadworld there are people who slave for days mixing soundboard and audience tapes to get a dynamic this good.
I do wish I could love TP&TH more. They’re a cracking band, he’s got a strong musical personality and there’s real sincerity in the performances. And, from watching the long documentary, I have great respect for him as a person of integrity. It’s just a bit like almost everything else of his I’ve heard and his voice has an echo of the Brooce strain that makes me want to suggest they sing in a slightly lower key (oh yes, there are plenty of songs where I’d make the same suggestion to Jerry Garcia, too).
But I’m so glad you’re consuming them so obsessively. I know how enjoyable that is!
The SugarMegs site seems to have plenty of Dead recordings, too, although they seem to come from archive.org.
But just think how boring it would be if everybody liked the same stuff! You won’t be surprised to hear that I love TP’s singing voice and he can go as high as he likes – I’ll still be happy. It’s interesting to me as well that in 1982 Howie Epstein had only just joined the band and they are obviously still working on how to combine his voice with TP’s and Stan’s for the harmonies.
I don’t agree that Bruce sings too high. When does he? TP has a far bigger vocal range, anyway.
You are of course correct about my obsessive consumption. Luckily my hard drive is mighty. (And, yes, it has external backup.)
I’ll have to come back to this later. Got busy last night.