Lovely People (Tarantura TCDEC-23, 24)
Lovely People collects two new tape sources from Eric Clapton’s first tour of Japan as a solo artist. The first two discs cover the November 1 Budokan concert from a Sound Brothers source. This tape is good to very good mono with some distance from the stage. There are slight amounts of hiss present on the tape but this is better sounding than the older tape source that circulates as Rachel’s Wing. The only problem is it runs a tad too slow and the music drags. It is a shame too because it sounds like a great show.
Budokan, Tokyo, Japan – November 1st, 1974
Disc 1: Opening, Let It Grow, Can’t Find My Way Home, Tell The Truth, Singin’ The Blues, Badge
Disc 2: Willie And The Hand Jive, Get Ready, I Shot The Sheriff, Have You Ever Loved A Woman, Layla, Little Wing, ending backing home
Budokan, Tokyo, Japan – November 2nd, 1974
Disc 3: Opening, Smile, Let It Grow, Can’t Find My Way Home, Better Make It Through Today, I Shot The Sheriff, Key To The Highway, Willie And The Hand Jive, Get Ready
Disc 4: Badge, Presence Of The Lord, Singing The Blues, Layla, All I Have To Do Is Dream, Blues Power
Review
The second two discs contain a Mr. Peach recording of the November 2 Budokan concert. This tape source is distant, muffled and hissy. An incomplete soundboard recording exists for this show and has been released on Legend Comes Alive (Keep Out KO0001/2) which is missing “Layla,” “All I Have To Do Is Dream,” and “Blues Power.” Tarantura has the advantage of being more complete, but unfortunately this tape also runs a tad too slow and the music drags.
Tape speed is a problem that can be addressed by listening to the tape and making the necessary adjustments. It is a shame because this could have been an important release. Hopefully another label will remaster these tapes. The packaging is great though and is the best thing about this release.
3 Comments
The very first appearance of the November 2 ’74 Budokan show was on a very rare Japanese bootleg double album on the OG label released in 1975, called LIVE IN JAPAN (OG-818). Perhaps as few as 200 copies were pressed.
I got my copy last week and LedMan is right. The box is beautiful. Not sure it was worth the $200 I spent. I was looking forward to hearing the shows and was disappointed about the tape speed. Would Tarantura do the honorable thing and offer a speed corrected version free to those who bought it?
I have just finished listening to this release which I have #107 of 130 copies and I’m in no way a authority on Clapton. I have around 15 to 20 titles in my collection and agree these sources run slightly slow however considering these are new sources which IMO are better than good or even very good although they do contain some hiss, this is a very important release when you take these factors into consideration. Tarantura’s main focus is their art and this box set is no exception. This title comes in a hinged box which when opened has a nice colorful live shot of Clapton on the outside. the inner sides have pictures of the sources tapes used and each set comes in it’s own digpack which has different pictures on the out and insides including pictures of the J cards of the source tapes. One thing that I always find fascinating with the Tarantura discs is many times they have their own individual pictures painted on the top. This is the first title I have in my collection where Clapton asks the audience several times to SHUT UP!!. This happens at the end of “All I Have To Do Is Dream” during the 2nd show.