Bad Company – Boot Co (Tarantura TCDBC-1-1, 2)

Boot Co (Tarantura TCDBC-1-1, 2)

Budokan, Tokyo, Japan – March 3rd, 1975

Disc 1 BAD:  Opening, Deal With The Preacher, Rock Steady, Little Miss Fortune, Ready For Love, Whiskey Bottle, Feel Like Makin’ Love, Shooting Star, Seagull

Disc 2 GOOD:  Intermission, Bad Company, Easy On My Soul, Movin’ On, Can’t Get Enough, The Stealer, Good Lovin’ Gone Bad

Boot Co from Tarantura features a good somewhat distant audience source from Budokan in support of Bad Company’s second album, Straight Shooter. The upper frequencies are clear in the mix and guitar and vocals stand out in the recording but the tape catches a bit of the echo from the venue which affects mainly the clarity in Boz Burrell’s bass. There is also very little audience interference making the recording more enjoyable.

Bad Company was a great guitar driven straight ahead rock and roll band that delivered equally as well live as on record. From the start of the show it’s obvious that the band is full of energy.  Immediately following “Deal With The Preacher” Simon Kirk starts a groove for “Rock Steady” to keep things flowing. “Ready For Love” slows things down a bit and Kirk turns the end into a march giving it a heavier feel than the LP. “Feel Like Making Love” is dominated by vocals but the harmonies are on so it doesn’t ruin the track, they just stand way out in the mix. Paul Rodgers performs solo on acoustic guitar and vocal for “Seagull” before the intermission and adds piano for “Bad Company” and “Easy On My Soul” after the break.

“Easy On My Soul” reaches almost ten minutes where Paul Rodgers has some fun with the crowd. This track along with “Whiskey Bottle” was recorded during the Straight Shooter sessions but did not make the album. Both tracks finally saw an official release on Original Bad Company Anthology released in 1999 on Elektra/WEA. Mick Ralphs plays a slide solo in “Movin’ On” and the band almost loses it coming out of the drum break. “The Stealer” is the only track from Rodgers and Kirk’s previous band, Free, and makes me wonder why “All Right Now”, easily their biggest hit, wasn’t performed. “Good Lovin’ Gone Bad” is the second encore and introduced as their new single.

This show has been previously released on the CDR label Trial as The Preacher with ten tracks from August 1974 in San Francisco as bonus material and is followed up by Tarantura with the silver release, Boot Co. Tarantura is capable of some great releases and it’s nice to see they are expanding their catalog with some different artists. The cover is a gatefold glossy paper sleeve very similar to the cover of their first LP. Boot Co is a good solid release of a great show but the distant recording keeps this title from being excellent.  (WGPSEC)