The Boots Galore remarks thread.

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Inder
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The Boots Galore remarks thread.

Post by Inder »

Maybe this can be a cool kind of companion to the megalist, with observations and things about various shows.

I don't listen to live Clash as much as I used to, but got on a bit of a kick recently.

Norway 1984 02 16 — great show, flies a bit under the radar. The 1-2 Dictator/This is England is great.

San Francisco 1982-06-22 — I grabbed this off Napster way back in the day and it sounded like someone recorded it underwater. The Megalist/Dime one has great sound. I thought it was annoying how Mick wanted to co-sing everything, but now it sounds like Joe was losing his voice or was hoarse that night. Terry's slowness works for a tunes, but things like Spanish Bombs are painfully stiff. Ghetto Defendant sounds like an apocalyptic dub.

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Re: The Boots Galore remarks thread.

Post by Rat Patrol »

Ghetto D was pretty choice all crunched up and dubby on that tour. I obviously prefer the '81 versions because Topper was bouncy-sweet, but I think Terry acquitted himself well on that number with the BIG sound of the '82 arrangement. Especially when he went all "Moar cowbell!!!" on the choruses. Both arrangements bring something totally fresh and different to the song.

Both of the San Fran dates are two of the most depressing Terry Tour shows of all. 4 guys, 4 long distance phone-ins from 4 parts of the stage. The air went out of the tires frighteningly fast in June after a really strong start in New Jersey and the Texas swing. Hollywood residency seems to be where the temporarily shored-up band unity came back apart.

Inder
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Re: The Boots Galore remarks thread.

Post by Inder »

Offhand, I really love St Paul, Troy, Dallas, Kent State and Pittsburgh from the Terry tour.

Chuck Mangione
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Re: The Boots Galore remarks thread.

Post by Chuck Mangione »

Inder wrote: San Francisco 1982-06-22 — I grabbed this off Napster way back in the day and it sounded like someone recorded it underwater.
It was an underwater gig. Bernie suggested the idea to the band when he dubiously went into the future and heard about the whole situation with either Muse or Coldplay planning on playing in outerspace.

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Re: The Boots Galore remarks thread.

Post by boogie »

Barrowlands Glasgow Feb 84 is a really lively gig. Right from the off in a hail of gob, Strummer's on a mission.
Good quality sound and a good solid performance

Inder
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Re: The Boots Galore remarks thread.

Post by Inder »

Some banter-related observations —

In one of the late-84 Italian shows, Joe asks the crowd for requests and this happens:
"Lover's Rock? You must be crazy, man! WE'RE ALL FUCKING CRAZY!"
There's also a great bit in Milan 81 where someone must've thrown something at Joe, to which he replies: "HAH! Missed you cunt!"

And there's that bit from Wichita 83 (or one of those shows) where he asks for requests and intones the first verse of Crooked Beat, Simmo-style.

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Re: The Boots Galore remarks thread.

Post by Heston »

Inder wrote:And there's that bit from Wichita 83 (or one of those shows) where he asks for requests and intones the first verse of Crooked Beat, Simmo-style.
Joe's banter is great in that show, I'm gonna go away and listen to it now.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: The Boots Galore remarks thread.

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Inder wrote:Some banter-related observations —

In one of the late-84 Italian shows, Joe asks the crowd for requests and this happens:
"Lover's Rock? You must be crazy, man! WE'RE ALL FUCKING CRAZY!"
There's also a great bit in Milan 81 where someone must've thrown something at Joe, to which he replies: "HAH! Missed you cunt!"

And there's that bit from Wichita 83 (or one of those shows) where he asks for requests and intones the first verse of Crooked Beat, Simmo-style.
I like the bit in the either 1981-05-08 or 1981-05-10 (can't remember) show where right before Ivan, someone shouts "Cheat!" and Joe replies, "yeah, I get violent, when I'm fucked up!" and then they go into Ivan :disshame:
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

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Post by Inder »

Liverpool 81: I got to track 19 (Stay Free) and figure it must be near the end of the show — there're 31 songs in the set!

* God, LC sounds so much cooler when it's in the middle of the set.
* Amazing Radio Clash. Tops is really grooving.
* Who the hell is playing harmonica in Ghetto Defendant? Paul? This rules.
* Mick makes a crack about the next one being sentimental and the band goes into a great mid-tempo Stay Free. MJ's tone sounds fantastic here (and throughout this show, actually).

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Re: The Boots Galore remarks thread.

Post by Rat Patrol »

Inder wrote:Liverpool 81: I got to track 19 (Stay Free) and figure it must be near the end of the show — there're 31 songs in the set!

* God, LC sounds so much cooler when it's in the middle of the set.
* Amazing Radio Clash. Tops is really grooving.
* Who the hell is playing harmonica in Ghetto Defendant? Paul? This rules.
* Mick makes a crack about the next one being sentimental and the band goes into a great mid-tempo Stay Free. MJ's tone sounds fantastic here (and throughout this show, actually).
Yes...that's Paul on harmonica. The bass doesn't kick in until Joe starts singing. That song was so bouncy and tasty in 1981. They seemed to enjoy playing it more than every other proto-CR song; it was in the set on every single circulating Fall '81 show except I think one of the Lyceum dates. (Nice improv verse stuck in the middle of this performance, BTW).

I think they got so freaking bored opening every single show with LC. Joe always seemed to be shaking the cobwebs out while doing it, and first verse especially just got so lifeless over time. Most shows didn't really start until song #2, so that became an auto-skip for me until they seemed to kick it up a notch on the second-leg Terry Tour. Whereas I like it in the middle of the set like they did Fall '81 and in '83. They used it to either break up a long string of S! atmospherics with a change back to punk tempo or tried out some different, more restrained takes (Shibuya, Wichita Falls, etc.)


For what it's worth, I think this is the "Clashiest" Clash tour of them all. It needs a representative A+ SBD to surface to really hit a par with Impossible Mission. I can't believe we haven't seen one yet from those two massive residencies. And the CR songs--still-evolving as they were--were absolutely ace and high-energy. Whatever fell apart at Electric Ladyland later that Fall that sucked the life out of the material, they certainly came into it with a head of songwriting steam. If they only struck fast enough and put out "Radio Clash: The Album" in time for Xmas with the rehearsal material and Radio Clash session leftovers they had on-hand--TIRC, KYR, Ghetto D, Inoculated, SISOSIG, Funk, STH, Car Jamming, Long Time Jerk--plus one more for an even 10 and some B-sides, that would've been one tight-as-hell album. Then do a Casbah EP or something the next summer for the icing on the cake. I think problem is they didn't move fast enough to avoid overthinking it.

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Re: The Boots Galore remarks thread.

Post by white man »

Inder wrote:Liverpool 81: I got to track 19 (Stay Free) and figure it must be near the end of the show — there're 31 songs in the set!

* God, LC sounds so much cooler when it's in the middle of the set.
* Amazing Radio Clash. Tops is really grooving.
* Who the hell is playing harmonica in Ghetto Defendant? Paul? This rules.
* Mick makes a crack about the next one being sentimental and the band goes into a great mid-tempo Stay Free. MJ's tone sounds fantastic here (and throughout this show, actually).
I've d/loaded the lossless version on the megalist and LC is corrupt :cry:

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Re: The Boots Galore remarks thread.

Post by Heston »

I gave San Antonio '83 a blast today. Not as good as Wichita but still pretty great. I think they were really starting to click as a live outfit by then, Joe was showing a bit restraint and actually singing, Mick had calmed the FX down.

Shame it was brutally cut short not long after.
There's a tiny, tiny hopeful part of me that says you guys are running a Kaufmanesque long con on the board

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Re: The Boots Galore remarks thread.

Post by matedog »

Heston wrote:I gave San Antonio '83 a blast today. Not as good as Wichita but still pretty great. I think they were really starting to click as a live outfit by then, Joe was showing a bit restraint and actually singing, Mick had calmed the FX down.

Shame it was brutally cut short not long after.
What a wild tour:
Image
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.

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Re: The Boots Galore remarks thread.

Post by Chuck Mangione »

I don't know if this has been said before, but the whole band is very creative at the Shibuya gig, especially Mick. Topper is on fire! For instance Complete Control with Joe an Mick singing the shared lyrics on and off in the beginning. In Clampdown, Topper does some cool drumming bits during the breaks that you can tell the crowd liked a lot. And This is Radio Clash ("This is Radio Clash, This is ooooowww!!!") has a whole different intro that is also good. Very good performance with different Clash feel to it. You can Topper is having a blast when he drums the intro to Brand New Cadillac at the start of the encore gig, too. Fuck, I love this band.

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Re: The Boots Galore remarks thread.

Post by Rat Patrol »

Heston wrote:I gave San Antonio '83 a blast today. Not as good as Wichita but still pretty great. I think they were really starting to click as a live outfit by then, Joe was showing a bit restraint and actually singing, Mick had calmed the FX down.

Shame it was brutally cut short not long after.
Plus it's pretty clear Paul was rehearsing for the first time in 2 years.

San Antonio's a little bass-heavy; Wichita Falls is a little more balanced on the mix. I think San An's the better overall performance. The Garageland opener is awesome...really fun and ad-libby angle on it, utterly great way to open the show. Pete's a lot more disciplined about not overdoing it on the fiddley-bits. And the Fingernails/SISOSIG/IFTL encore with Joe Ely smokes. Plus it's got that relaxed vibe that's wholly unique to this one tour. I don't care how much they spin it about the misery behind the scenes or how distant they were from each other after-hours, they were having a lot of fun on this tour.

And, has to be said...I give late-era Bernie a lot of credit for shifting focus on the U.S. tour itinerary from the non-Who Fall '82 dates through '84 to college towns. There was nowhere else big for them to go after the arena gigs and festivals, and the diminishing returns of the 80's audience were starting to depressingly show themselves. College radio and mid-market cities with major campuses were the only places in the U.S. where punk and evolution of Clashy-type music was still happening at a meaningful level and where the audiences were still pretty astute and unspoiled by corporatization of their culture. I think these were the fans they had to bank on to move forward in the decade. They seemed to get that, and the energy and enjoyment level is so much higher at those gigs than it was anywhere else. Execution obviously failed them in the end, but the Spring '84 campus-heavy tour was where Clash II peaked and got its most consistently enthusiastic reception...and it's where B.A.D. found its most steadfast support in the U.S.


I still think Tucson is one of the 5 best Clash shows ever played. It's like the looseness of the earlier gigs amped up to 1980 frenetic energy levels. Everything's firing on all cylinders. That's the one that illustrates what this lineup could've achieved on a full regular tour. And it's a striking contrast from the constipation at the US Festival 2 days later. It just badly needs a tape upgrade or some second source with a lot less distortion. Good one to listen to on headphones when you can fully immerse yourself, but it's a little rough over speakers.

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