My life has changed so much in the last two years that I simply don’t have time for the blog anymore and there are more changes coming. Also, truth be told I’ve lost some of the enthusiasm & motivation that have pushed me to keep looking for better images and spend yet another hour doing research. While I wanted to continue with WCF 2001/2 – 2058, which is not the most exciting bootleg label in the first place, I can see from the blog stats that hardly anyone’s interested in Grateful Dead boots in 2018 (and WCF happens to be the Dead bootleg label: Another 5 Dead titles would have been in that next batch), I can clearly feel I just don’t have it in me. So, this is the honest moment where I say it’s curtain time.
A deep heartfelt thanks to those who have supported the blog and all who enjoyed reading the posts.
I considered asking if anyone wanted to continue it but they are probably better served starting from scratch and 100% according to their own vision.
In the words of John Lennon: I hope I passed the audition.
2235 JIM HENDRIX – ‘SCUSE ME WHILE I KISS THE SKY -> I was not able to find an image for this. If you have one, please leave a comment.
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Matrix: 6969 A/B (the included Donovan label was only included to show where the mirror image on the Dead label originated from)
The insert cover version above and the folder cover reissue from around 1974/5 below:
Source: Soundboard, recorded on 02 May, 1970 at Harpur College in Binghampton, NY, on half track 7½ ips analog tapes. “In a 1993 poll of Grateful Dead tape traders, the 5/2/70 show was ranked #6 on the list of all-time favorite Dead concert tapes.” The complete show, including the second and third sets (in mono) was officially released as Dick’s Picks Volume 8 in June of 1997 as a 3-CD set.
Nepalese Productions / Har-Glo Records JCS-7001 version advertising the “Crateful Dead”
Black Gold Concerts was the new label name Berkeley Records used in the second half of the 1970’s (BG 6969)
(not shown) Version with “Karma City” labels
Side 1 of Ken’s SILENT DEAD – (smoking pig) TMOQ 73010 used four tracks from this date.
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More material from this date appeared on this title, shown here with all three slip sheet variations (black & red; orange and b&w):
Although the 803-A/B matrix looks like a WCF release not much else does. The insert design has none of the WCF-typical features and the record label has an inner ring, never seen with WCF pressings. On the other hand, there is also a gatefold reissue that does look very much like it may be part of their 1974 reissue series that placed an image or drawing of (one of) the artist(s) on the back panel.
If you know more about this release, please leave a comment.
Based on the label I would date this to 1973 but it may exist with other labels and in different insert/cover variations.
I could not list this one when I tried to cover all of the Contraband releases, as it’s one of the rarer ones and I only had a small image of it taken from a sales list of the Warehouse record store in Tokyo (now closed in that location).
This is mostly a pirate release.
Track list (taken from HW, so likely incorrect in places):
S1: Not Yet / She’s Gone (But Morning Lives On) / Tear Jerker / Teenage Fool / High School Dance Instrumental / Dancing Wild S2: Pretty Boy / Two Teenagers / Please Answer / High School Dance Instrumental 2 / 59th St. Bridge Song* / Feeling Groovy* / Cloudy*
The first 10 tracks were supposedly recorded by Simon & Garfunkel in the second half of the 1950’s when they called themselves Tom & Jerry. I looked hard and was only able to confirm three of the titles on compilations released decades later. The tracks marked ‘* ‘ were taken from their appearances on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour TV show in 1967 (in season 1, episode 14 – taped in May – and season two, episode 107, taped in October ’67).
Likely a copy of this early, ca. 1971, Contraband release (the use of “Microgroove” gives it away) that I had not been aware of so far. HW didn’t mention it (on the other hand, they mention a version called Solo ’65 that I cannot confirm exists):
A further clue is HW’s quality rating for the WCF album: “Vgs, hissing”. Clearly, this was a couple of generations removed from the original.
In a past eBay auction this CBM album was mis-identified as an advance pressing of the official album due to the stamped title. A rare but funny misunderstanding (for those hip to the world of bootlegs).
For comparison purposes, here is another CBM title released around the same time:
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The official release from August 1965:
Apparently, the story goes that Simon spent a lot of time in London in the summer of ’65 and as his album with Garfunkel, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. had not been released in the UK (yet), he decided to record his own solo album, which would get a limited release in the Commonwealth countries (UK, CAN, AUS, NZ) only. By the time rock bootlegs had been invented this made the album attractive for those in the US not minding to get involved in a bit of piracy, despite the flagrant copyright violation.
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Even TMOQ could not resist and released their own re-sequenced version around May of 1971.
A1 Kathy’s Song A2 He Was My Brother A3 Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall A4 The Side of a Hill A5 A Simple Desultory Philippic A6 Patterns B1 A Most Peculiar Man B2 I Am a Rock B3 A Church Is Burning B4 April Come She Will B5 Leaves That Are Green B6 The Sound of Silence
Here are early versions from ’71/2:
And later ones:
I have never seen an insert for this nor a smoking pig label version. Do they exist?
Known as Turn On Your Lovelight as that’s the first and only song on side one of the track list. WCF were not inclined to come up with album titles around this time (1972?).
Source: I found this comment on audiokarma: “Grateful Dead,” #GD-2222. No notation of date or venue, but I seem to have written my own note next to the side one track listing for Love Light (the entire side) that it was recorded in Boston on 12-2-71. “
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Matrix: GD-2233 A / GD-2233 B
A1 “Recorded June; 1969 Central Park” (10:32) – 1969/06/22 performance in Central Park and song on set list confirmed, audience recording. A2 “Recorded Nov; 1970 Action House L.I.” (08:08) – Two shows attributed to this venue on Nov. 9+10 ’70; “Saint Stephen” not on those set lists though. B1 “Recorded May; 1970 Bill Graham’s Fillmore East” (02:50) – The Dead were regular visitors to the Fillmore East throughout 1970. B2 “Recorded Nov; 1970 Action House L.I.” (15:02) – see comment above.
Released around 1974 with a white label, here in a recycled folder cover originally printed for WCF’s copy of the Loggins And Messina release and in its correct cover:
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Matrix: GD-2244 A / GD-2244 B
I have found no further recording details regarding this release. If you know morw, please leave a comment.
The first WCF release of their copy of disc two of the TMOQ double. Note how a xerox of TMOQ’s stamped title was used for WCF cut & paste art work (I have included the complete stamp as it appears on a TMOQ reissue). The track list missed “That’s The Way” which should be the 2nd song on the A-side.
Released in 1973, after TMOQ had reissued the title with a stamped cover.
WCF reissued this title as part of their folder reissues ca. 1974-5. A copy seen on eBay has the black generic Berkeley labels with the 1975 copyright date, so these types of covers were still in use after their re-branding as a bootleg label with a proper name in that year, The reprint was not kind to Jimmy’s photo on the front, robbing it of whatever little contrast it had left the first time around. On the other hand, he now occupied “prime real estate” on the back panel.
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The TMOQ originals:
Folder cover, perhaps released in this form as early as (late) 1971 due to the evidence from the Neil Young video mentioned below.
The TMOQ wiki places this release – later numbered 72004 – in February of 1973 but that appears to be wrong (a buyer in the UK received his copy on Friday, the 19th of January 1973). We need a collector who wrote down when exactly they bought this particular version.
A pendant to this Crosby & Nash release (#72005, I read it was taped at L.A.’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on 10 October 1971 and not in Berkeley, as stated in a 2017 Tight But Loose article – is this correct? ), which can be seen in the film clip in which Neil Young discovers bootlegs in an L.A. record store, likely filmed in November or December of 1971 (a Rolling Stone magazine with a cover date of 09 Dec. ’71 can be spotted), YT title “Neil Young finds bootleg records of his own work in an LA store – 1971 ”
The theory supporting the late 1971 release date for the Led Zeppelin title will make the convincing point that both titles were released at the same time in their similar packaging.
Above: Neil confronting the store clerk with the album.
The evidence chain used in the 2017 Tight But Loose article dating the album to late 1972 runs like this:
The same taper – not Dub – recorded these two shows at the Berkeley Community Theater in September and October of ’71.
It then took a few months for the tapes to reach Dub/TMOQ.
An ad from a UK bootleg mail order company advertising both releases as new is also shown as evidence.
However, the album(s) received after ordering is not the folder version but the stamped & sticker-ed (later) version and since the folder version clearly came earlier, the theory formulated in TBL fails at this point.
TMOQ trying folder style covers years before WCF did. It appears these were the only two titles receiving this treatment.
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With an alternate insert. As pointed out in the comment section by YesDays, the images used here come from 1975.
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With Stout designed insert, ca. mid-1973:
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Later versions:
There are many more pressings but I’ll just concentrate on the earlier ones.
The famous recording from Berkeley’s Community Theater, 2nd night, 14 September 1971. The master tape has never surfaced to the best of my knowledge and even the pressing plates may have ended up in the Pacific ocean around 1980 in an attack of paranoia by Ken’s associate Michael.
Master tape details: Immigrant Song >> Heartbreaker (<< Bouree..), [ cut ], Since I’ve Been Loving You [ cut ], [ cut ], Out On The Tiles Intro >> Black Dog, [ cut ], Dazed And Confused (<< Back In The USA..) [ cut ], [ cut ], Stairway To Heaven, [ cut ], That’s The Way [ cut ], Going To California, [ cut ], Whole Lotta Love (<< Just A Little Bit, Boogie Chillun, Hello Mary Lou, My Baby Left Me, Mess O’ Blues, You Shook Me, The Lemon Song..)
Quality rating: Excellent, slightly top-heavy. Length: 96 minutes, missing is the encore. argenteumastrum states: Surprisingly clear recording taped much close to the stage without any distortion! All the instruments are perfectly balanced and almost no hiss here.
