Hello.
My name is Jonathan Babcock and I support Live Jazz.
That pretty much says it all.
No, really, you don't have to read any further. To read further is detrimental
to both sanity and clarity.
OK. You asked for it.
(and don't say I'm not thorough!)
As the years go by, I'd say I support noisier and noisier Jazz, which is less
and less popular. (That's nice if you don't like crowds). My earliest "religious
musical experiences" happened at Yesshows. At their height, the band was capable
of transporting audience members to wonderful & unusual places. Of course,
after becoming immersed in these things, one's experiences tend to change.
For instance, your impression of CTTE or AWAKEN is very different when you've
heard it hundreds of times, as opposed to when it's something completely new.
(Back in High School, I had a friend whose mother used to tell us that Awaken
sounded like noise coming from the other rooml. She had documented proof of
this) These days my girl points out that this music is annoying, and I really
can't say she's wrong. But it's become a creepy spiritual thing. For me, listening
to the band work through their music from night to night is very rewarding.
For most of the people I know, that would be torture. But this page here anyway.
;-\
In the beginning, what I liked about this band was the "newness" the pieces
held upon repeat listening (remember your first time through "Supper's Ready"?).
I liked that you could isolate all or any of the different instruments and
hear them individually working against or with each other. But I'm a lot older
now, and I find what appeals to me in these guys changes from day to day.
It's still very personal music to me-- literally NONE of my close friends
are Yesfans, but several people I trade with are completists and audio fanatics
or ex-yesfans or whatnot. Hence some of the rarities on this list (it's a
list? So shut up already and show me the damn list!).
I work at home and still listen to quite a bit of Yes, but not as much as, say, Tom Cora or the Soft Machine or other not-so-accessable musics. Currently I am listening to... ...and don't get me started on the fine merits of Radical Jewish CultureÉ let's just say I prefer to have my mystical experiences in little clubs in NYC with less than 50 people in them these days, and at home I like to be surprised by music more often than Yes likes to surprise me. That might explain some of my opinions should you come across a post of mine somewhere.
.)(.
Meanwhile, I still have boxes and boxes of these Yestapes, and i'd say I get a complete concert out every 4 or 5 days and give it a listen (you'd be surprised how much listening time there is in a 12 hour workday), and every time I do this I realize that there are fans out there who'd love to get their hands on this stuff, or at least ought to know what to expect when they do. And there you have it! I can't say I'll have time to get you a copy, but I really wish this stuff were a hell of a lot easier to find than it has been.
Making CDR copies of of old live Cassettes was harder that it should be
with a Macintosh. In the earlier operating systems there was a handy little
program called Discribe, distributed
by Charismac which was the ONLY
program that could do it right-- that is, burn live discs on a mac without
any gaps between tracks. Check it out, if macs are your thing. Ssince all
the software changes so frequently, I have found that the new version of Toast
or Toast Lite will work fine with both system OS9 and system OSX. But I hate
system OSX. (see, I told you it was difficult! It didn't work with
system 8 and it didn't work while it was owned by Adaptec, but now distributed
by Roxio,
and as of this writing, I still feel it's a really crappy program.) Anyway,
it now seems that Roxio Toast Lite 5.1.3 is capable of burning without the
gaps now, and this software comes bundled with just about every burner I've
seen advertised. Don't take my word for it, though. Remember how to get to
Carnegie Hall: Practice. To top that off, I just heard that Roxio was
going to go public and be traded under the name Napster. (I heard that on
AM radio, so it has to be true!)
For editing I have been very happy with Felt
Tip Sound Studio which is a fantastic piece of shareware for mac users
like me. With these 2 products I was able to do wonders. Check out the "Fade
Special" & "Paste Mix" filters in Sound Studio. Unfortunately, Sound Studio's
resampling feature seems to be crap. Don't know why. I am currently seeking
a fix for this, but haven't found one, so i bought a copy of Peak. DAMN was
THAT expensive! I am saving spare dough up for a copy of Berkley Integrated
Audio Software's Soundsoap, which
I believe is exactly what I want to use to clean up old tapes, but I'm in
no hurry. (mainly because I have not switched to OS X yet, and it only seems
to be available in OS X. If anyone has an older version for OS9 drop me a
line. I have a few questions about it.)
Meanwhile...
Here
is a page detailing how I have patched in alternate sources or lowered clap-spikes.
I never use any EQ, but I will always "tweak" out the "bad"
parts of the tape if possible.
Many of these digital tools can be really useful now that tape decks are leaving
town.
Now I can't say that it's always a good idea to do these patches, but as we
get more and more into the digital age, you can rescue your listening experience
with just a little work. Usually I recieve shows quite raw and there are always
a few glitches that can be fixed or tape flips where a good tape could have
an alternate source spliced in. And while I don't think it feels "right"
to splice into a live tape anything but another live tape of the same night,
I can't say i haven't done it or won't do it again.
I'm just ponting out that we've come a long way from dubbing cassettes and begging the guy passing them on not to use Dolby or run the thing at 2X speed.
.)(.
Anyway.
I make great tapes. I like to call them tapes.
While I'm happy to trade with any of you reading this, the true purpose of
this list is to find lower gen copies of these shows and master them into
better/more complete versions than my crappy old tapes from the 80's. Keep
that in mind when you stumble across the right connections. Get the master,
get a cleanA>D transfer, send it out far and wide so we can all hear it!
If you absolutely must remaster the living fuck out of it, save a copy
of the master. I guarantee you will need it. (if only so I can ask for it
one day)
If you see something here you absolutely MUST have, I'll probably understand and we can work something out. If you have more information on any of these shows-- who taped them-- what equipment was used-- if they got hassled by security-- that's even better. I just dig that kind of stuff.
.)(.
A couple of years ago I was forced to learn to type (that's right, born in '63 and I never, ever had to actually type with any authority-- I even made a decent living as a Calligrapher) and I used this as an excuse to catalog & review some of the Yesshows I'd collected.
So this began as a list of what I've catalogued so far + some new stuff from
current traders.... this was exhaustive work, but it's proved helpful in identifying
some of the tapes I enjoy. If you have some of these shows in your hands,
compare them to what I've described, maybe you have a lost master or low-gen
tape. Remember: that's the whole point.
Since putting this up, I've gotten mail from some of the original tapers,
and been put in contact with one old trading friend from '84. Read on, and
between this list and YOUR list, maybe we can find a way to upgrade some of
this stuff into even more listenable/enjoyable shows. Since I started this
page, about 20 shows have actually been upgraded + some new stuff has turned
up, so I guess this really is working! But it's a slow process and
the mass-distribution of remasters doesn't really help. That may be selfish
of me to say so, because mass-distribution gets a lot of people listening
to Live Yes and hopefully listening to quality-sounding Live Yes. But it also
comes with the great curse of CDR trading (something that wasn't as much of
an issue with Cassette Trading), the curst of NO INFORMATION. When people
can burn at 32x, download shows daily without ever using their hands to touch
the media, shows become mislabeled or information gets lost.
2002 was the year I gave up because I would get mail from people I didn't
know SWEARING they had what sounded like the master tape or soundboard of
some lost tales or Relayer show, and I'd get it only to find it's a heavily-EQ'd
tape of a different show or the same show, sounding nothing like the master.
There are a world of places to go find mislabeld shows now:
Phishhook
is a good place to look. There are a lot of shows listed there that someone
should check up on.
Tapetrader.com used to be a good
place. I don't know if it's still there.
Etree.org
was once a fabulous place to find mislabeled shows.
I think today there are at LEAST 10 more similar places to meet people who
enjoy and collect live tapes and mail them back and forth, but the new trend
is to have a fast connection and share them via download. Let's just hope
the new trend comes with fabulous record-keeping skills or it will mean the
end of pages like this.
Back in 1984 I was trading with guys 2 generations away from the masters;
since putting up these pages I've met 4 people who taped shows in the '70s,
which is KIND OF like getting mail from one of the original tapers of stuff
I'd been listening to for years-- but better than that, they had stuff I'd
never heard before or even knew existed! I was also put in touch with an old
trading buddy, only to find he didn't care anymore. THAT is the unfortunate
fate of many old cassettes, and the primary purpose of this page: to save
the old Cassettes before they disintegrate!
I'm currently not JUST listening to Yes, so have a look at the most important
part of this whole list ;-) ...myÊ Want
List.
Here'slink to a List for the Advanced Traders who have been doing this long enough that the details below are unnecessary, or those that can't stand the detail.
|
OPEN YOUR EYES Shows |
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| MASTERWORKS
Shows |
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| YES2002 Shows |
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Meanwhile:
More
Common, Usually Pretty Crappy Factory Boots: 1969 to 1980
Almost-As-Crappy,
Even-More-Common Factory Boots: 1984 to 1999