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1989-09-04
Saratoga Performing Arts center
Saratoga,NY
HQ Audience Recording
320 kbps
Artwork Included
01. My My Hey Hey
02. Rockin In The Free World
03. Sugar Mountain
04. Winterlong
05. Someday
06. Helpless
07. Pocahontas
08. Crime In The City
09. This Old House
10. Barstool Blues
11. Too Far Gone
12. Roll Another Number
13. This Note's For You
14. The Needle And The Damage Done
15. No More
16. After The GoldRush
17. Heart Of Gold
18. Ohio
19. Rockin In The Free World
20. Powderfinger
Neil Young - 1989-09-04 - Saratoga Springs, NY (HQ Aud)
On September 6, 1989, I got to see Neil Young live for the first time. Neil was in the midst of an acoustic tour, so it made sense that he would pick a smaller, more intimate venue for his NY area shows. He selected the Palladium, on 14th Street, which at first glance, seemed to make a great deal of sense. The Palladium, which held about 3000 people, had long been a favorite concert location in NY due to its size and outstanding sound system. The Clash and U2 made their US debuts at the venue. Bruce Springsteen, in the midst of his first arena tour in 1978, played 3 nights at the Palladium so he could be closer to his audience. So, it seemed like the perfect place for Neil’s show, except for one small problem. In 1985, the Palladium had been converted into a nightclub by the former owners of Studio 54. All the seats were removed and a huge second floor balcony was installed overlooking the dance floor. There was no real stage to speak of. The idea of Neil Young playing acoustic rock and roll in a disco seemed ironic at best, ludicrous at worst. Upon learning there were no seats in the building, one of my buddies refused to go, stating, “you know you’re getting old when you need to sit down at a concert or a bar”. It was his loss, because, somehow, Neil pulled it off. Despite having to lean over the balcony and look around poles to see him, I was amazed by Neil’s ability to mesmerize an audience with his singing and playing. From the opening My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue) to the heartfelt The Needle and The Damage Done to a still defiant Ohio, Neil was in outstanding form. Last year, I brought you an excellent audience tape of that show. This year, we’ll bring you 2 other shows from that tour starting with this high quality audience recording from Saratoga Springs on September 4, 1989, a quarter century ago today. Download this one, then come back on the September 9 for part 2 of this entry.
12 comments:
thanks alot Speedy :-)
'89 shows are among my favorites and todays my birthday so this show makes it more special...use to go to alot of shows at SPAC but wasnt on the east coast for this show sadly....wolfclan77
Enjoy Wolf! And one more from Neil in 1989 coming on 9/9!
Thanksss.
thanks for the great show Speedy, 89 was a great year for Neil, I have been reading many comments lately about overdubs and edits on official releases, Why do you feel that the artists do this? is it because of record company pressure or the feeling that the sound should be perfect. I don't want a live concert to sound exactly like the artist sounds on an album. An occasional out of tune guitar or cracked vocal or flubbed line just makes the show more real, Live rock music wasn't meant to sound clean and pretty but raw and energetic. I'm fine with raising or reducing instruments and vocals in the mix as needed to get a good sound, Its when they add vocals and instruments in the studio that weren't there that it becomes a farse. according to the many forums ive gone on lately many live albums that I loved in my youth are filled with these studio enhancements, I know that it is what it is but why do you feel that it is done and is it being done as much today as in the past?, also edits, why not just put out a complete show instead of songs from various shows, also seems more authentic ,thanks for all that you do
Thanks for the kind words. Whether we like it or not, artists have been adding overdubs to live official releases since the beginning of time, It's their music so they have the right to release it sounding however they wish. I guess many of them feel the music sounds better when they add the extra studio effects. Sometimes, it may be the record company wanting the live stuff to sound more like the studio recordings people are used to. Other times, the artist picks and chooses songs from different shows because they want the "best sounding" version of each song. I'm not in their heads so i really can;t tell you why its done - I'm just giving you my best guess. In any event, that's why so many of us love these unofficial recordings - its the music, as it happened, warts and all.
when overdubs are added to live recordings the album ceases to be live , it then becomes a studio album. they should not be advertised as live. live means as it happened. as for edits and having songs from different shows,i heard that some artists even have more than one venue to create individual songs. led zeps how the west was won apparently splices several songs together from different venues, thank goodness for bootlegs
The file is big enough to be flac or shn but what is High Quality ? mp3 320 ? I'll wait and see (listen). Thanks !
All files on this blog are mp3 - this one is 320 kbps. The kbps is alos listed in the post right below the source. By High Quality, I mean to my ears, it sounds really good. Of course, when it comes to audience tapes, what sounds good to one person may not to some one else - see here http://so-many-roads-boots.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-dilemma-of-audience-recordings.html for more on that sybject
SEPTEMBER 5, 2014 AT 8:11 AM
Right, I haven't read the kbps. Soundboard tapes has various quality too. Thanks for the Neil.
Thanks for the Neil also Speedy, appreciate you giving more audience recordings, Believe it or not some actually sound better than soundboards, especially The Dan Lampinski and Mike Millard recordings. A good audience has more atmosphere sounds more alive ecc. Think a lot of it has to do with the equipment used and where the taper is seated. also some arenas have better sound than others. the best places are LA Forum, Boston Garden, Massey Hall. any of the smaller venues Large stadiums have more screaming fans and a better chance that the taper might be far away from the stage, Some really good audience tapes are Rolling Stones 73 Hawaii shows especially the one from 1/21,73 thanks again
Speedy, speaking of great audience bootlegs Led Zep has two I would highly recommend , LA forum 9/4/1970 also known as live on Blueberry Hill, Someone used a shotgun mike close to the stage whatever that is, anyway you would swear it was soundboard, also Burn like a candle which is he name of their show from LA Forum 6/25/72. this is one of the best if not the best show they ever gave, truly a legendary performance, on stage for almost 4 hours 3 or 4 encores. They used many songs from this show to make How the west was won. of course the official was edited , missing songs, they also cut out Roberts banter with the audience, overdubs cant be sure but wouldn't surprise me sounds perfect but too perfect , give me the boot every time, Thanks again
Thanks for the kind words and the suggestions on audience tapes.
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