Hershey Blues (Beano-044)
Hershey Park, Hershry, PA – March 2nd, 1983
DISC ONE:Opening 2-After Midnight 3-I Shot The Sheriff 4-Worried Life Blues 5-Slow Down Linda 6-Lay Down Sally 7-Let It Rain 8-Sweet Little Lisa 9-Key To The Highway 10-Tulsa Time
DISC TWO:1-I’ve Got A Rock ‘N Roll Heart 2-Wonderful Tonight 3-Blues Power 4-Blues Medley:Who’s Loving You Tonight/Have You Ever Loved A Woman/Rambling On My Mind 5-Cocaine 6-Layla 7-Band Introduction 8-Further On Up The Road.
Beano; after a long layoff presents a very high grade audience recording with the bottom end sounding excellent as well as bringing out the highs.
The show begins with the audience applause as the band hits the stage; opening the show is a very upbeat boogie version of After Midnight with some hot Clapton licks as Albert Lee’s rhythm guitar blends in nicely; following this is one of the better versions of I Shot The Sheriff i have heard; very passionate notes from Eric with the band in a very hot groove led by Jamie Oldaker’s superb drumming. Worried Life Blues is the 3rd track,nothing noteworthy although a solid blues track. The band hits back into high gear on the rarely played Slow Down Linda,an excellent rocker with Eric in fine form on the vocals. Lay Down Sally is next and is another uptempo boogie number,sounding as if the band was having a great time on stage this evening!
Eric introduces Let It Rain as “Here’s An Oldie for ya”; proceeding to have a great energy and flow about it; Eric happens to be in wonderful form this evening with very passionate vocals and the guitar intensity picks up as the show carries onward. Sweet Little Lisa us next with Albert Lee handling the vocals; an uptempo rocker,albeit nothing but the standardized version here.
Key To The Highway is next, with some excellent interplay between Eric & Albert; it being rather obvious who is playing what!! Chris Stainton shines here,as well. Ending disc one is Tulsa Time with Chris’ keys getting this tune off to a rollicking start,fueled by Eric’s pleasant slide guitar work; an excellent rocker!
Disc two begins with the rarely played Rock’N Roll Heart, rather slowed down and seemingly bland version, breaking straight into a very melodic version of Wonderful Tonight to the delight of the audience. Chris follows with the keyboard intro to Blues Power which quickly launches itself a very fast paced Blues Power intertwined with Eric’s hot fiery licks,deserving to be cranked up; volume wise!
A blues medley follows with the opening being the rarely performed Who’s Loving You Tonight as Eric excels on this very slow intense blues segment including Have You Ever Loved A Woman/Rambling On My Mind with enough hot licks to satisfy everyone’s inner self; cocaine does not seem to interject itself with the fiery wah-wah part that made this track a blistering live staple,although Eric’s vocals are excellent.
Layla follows with a nice intro then the tape is cut dropping 2 or 3 minutes from the tape; rather annoying as it caught me total unexpectedly; when it resumes there is some superb inter weaving between Eric and Albert making it a very hot version of this anthemic track,as Eric shows his sustainability with the coda following for a very pleasant last number of this show.
The band comes back for the encore and is introduced by i presume the house announcer, leading into Further On Up The Road with the band locked in a very hot rhythm as Albert takes the opening leading into Eric pushing it up higher.
All in all a nice return by Beano of a very high grade audience with a solid yet not great performance. If you are a casual fan you may want this and for the Eric collector…. yeah pick it up!!
