Central Park ’75 Master (no label)
Woolman Rink, Central Park, New York, NY – August 29, 1975
(64:20) Introduction, Walking The Dog, S.O.S. (Too Bad), Somebody, Big Ten Inch Record, Sweet Emotion, Dream On, Write Me A Letter, Walk This Way, No More No More, Same Old Song And Dance, Train Kept A Rollin’ (Slow), Drum Solo, Train Kept A Rollin’ (Fast), Toys In The Attic
Aerosmith’s performance in Central Park 1975 was part of the Schaeffer Music Festival and was the source for a King Biscuit Flower Hour FM broadcast. This is probably the most booted show from this era and for good reason. It is no doubt the best sounding document to surface from the early years and comes before their performances were marred by the excesses of their lifestyle. The band delivers an incredible performance all around and are supporting their latest LP Toys In The Attic, released in April.
The many previous releases contained a variety of different selections from the performance and all issues to CD and vinyl were incomplete. The show first surfaced on the vinyl releases Look Homeward Angel (ZAP 7868 and its reissue on Fantasy Disco P7868) and Rock This Way (TKRWM 1812) and were all largely incomplete. Early releases to CD include Sweet Emotions (Viva CCD 7520), Live Emotions (Main Events ME-CD 020) and disc two of Boston Stranglers (Beech Martin BM 021/022) which are more complete than the vinyl issues but were still missing “Walking The Dog”, “Big Ten Inch Record”, and “Train Kept A Rollin”.
From The Attic Of ’75 (Polar Bear PB-073) contains “Sweet Emotion”, “No More No More”, “Same Old Song And Dance”, and “Toys In The Attic” as bonus tracks and sounds rather lifeless. Last True Document (Polar Bear PB-109/110) has “S.O.S.”, “Somebody”, “Dream On”, “Write Me”, “Walk This Way”, “Train” with an edited drum solo, and “Toys” as bonus tracks and is listed from an unknown location. While it sounds better than the bonus tracks on From The Attic Of ’75 there is a slight echo added to the recording which causes some loss of detail. Central Park ’75 Master appears to be complete for the first time adding “Walking The Dog” and “Big Ten Inch Record” and has the songs in the proper running order. The sound quality is much better and cleaner and is certainly an upgrade to all previous versions.
The disc starts as Aerosmith are taking the stage with Tyler addressing Central Park. The opening three tracks are run non-stop before the first of the new Toys In The Attic songs. Steven says “Bless your stoned little heads” and introduces “Mr. Scott Cushnie on piano” before “Big Ten Inch Record”. Scott’s presence during the show adds a lot to the sound of the band which includes adding the occasional vocal harmony as well. Tyler has a bit of trouble with the high notes in “Dream On” and he comments “every rose has its thorn” at the end. Steven also makes a mess of the last verse in “Walk This Way”, which was released as a single in the U.S. the day before, and is forced to improvise his way through it, something he is very good at. “No More No More” is one of the highlights and isn’t something you see in the set often enough. The slow and fast sections of “Train Kept A Rollin” are separated by Joey Kramer’s (unedited) drum solo and are indexed accordingly. Other than a few very minor performance flaws this is one intense set and some of these songs sound better here than they ever will again.
Central Park ’75 Master is highly recommended for all Aerosmith fans and appears to be the complete version of this show. It comes packaged in a single jewel case with the heavy stock high gloss artwork similar to what Sirene/Wardour/Beano was using in the past and has a very classy appearance. With the band in great form and the quality of this recording, it is amazing this hasn’t been considered for some sort of official release. Although the entire show is available on Wolfgang’s Vault, nothing beats having a nice shiny silver edition.
4 Comments
I believe this was a Japanese release.
Anybody able to confirm whther this is a Japanese release (as I suspect) or a European? I’m having troublke tracking this one down and any clues as to origin would help (whereas it having no label doesn’t!) Cheers, in hopeful advance.
This title is one of the best early Aerosmith titles sound quality and performance wise. It is special for me as I was at this show. It was a great show and Aerosmith was excellent but it was far too short. What made it for me was the fact that Ted Nugent opened before anyone realy knew who he was. He had just released his first solo album in April but I had never heard of him as his music was not gettig much exposure on NY radio. I was blown away by his performance as he just stood there and played and did not do his wildman act yet. He played the majority of his solo album and probably played “Great White Buffalo” I ran out the next day and bought his solo album and wore that thing out. The Schaeffer Festival put on amazing shows in the Wollmans Ice Skating Rink in Central Park. with tickets priced from $1.50-2.50. I used take the train for an hour down to the city to get tickets, as you could only buy them at the department store Macy’s at the time, and would get tickets for 10 shows for $25.00. I saw some great shows in the early-mid 70’s, CSN, King Crimson, Original Foghat, etc….Imagine seeing the 1969 Led Zeppelin for $2.00..Those were amazing times!!!
I have the “Boston Stranglers”,”From the Attic of 75, and “Last True Document” titles, and while they sound good, I can tell you this is HUGE upgrade over those releases. Not only is this the complete show but the sound quality is incredible it is better then most official releases. The stereo seperation is fantastic with Brad Whitford in the right channel and Joe Perry in the left channel. This show was broadcast on KBFH and the “Boston Stranglers” release is most likely the radio version edited to fit the time alloted. This appears to be the unedited complete show. I have a handful of the KBFH releases and the recordings are all top notch. If you want one Aerosmith show before their perfromances started to suffer from drug use this is highly recommended….