...I bought my first bootleg at School Kids Records in Athens, OH (Ohio University). A 4 record set of Bruce Springsteen live in Cincinnati, OH on July 6, 1984. It was $25, which was an astronomical price back then. It was an average at best audience recording. I remember trying to figure out which order to play the records in because they were not numbered - and back then you really didn't have access to setlists at your fingertips. I used to pull it out and just look at it while the record played - it began my love affair with bootlegs.There were many more to come after this. I remember talking to my friend several years later wondering if there would ever be "cd bootlegs." It seemed so out of the realm of possibility at that time. Then one day we saw a Springsteen boot cd behind the counter under glass. It had an ugly Born In The USA mosaic cover with demos from the early 70s - and was $30! That's in 1988 money too.
Then came cdrs. Then the internet...
As much as I like having access to everything so easily, I do miss the hunt and satisfaction of finding a rare show or a recording of a show you actually attended. Sitting down and listening to them over and over and memorizing every nuance of the performance - the stories, when a fan would yell out, the untouched vocals... I miss the romance of walking out of a record store (that always had that certain smell) with a black disc and a cheap photo-copy insert glued to a cover that was turned inside-out to save money. Wondering if you just bought a treasure or junk, because it was always a gamble, then going home and putting that on the record player for the first time. If you've never had that experience, odds are you never will. But I miss it. Now I have literally thousands of recordings, but I always find myself going back to the old ones. Luckily I still have every one....
My very first bootleg was Bruce Springsteen's You Can Trust Your Car to the Man Who Wears the Star, one of the many versions of the great February 5, 1975 Bryn Mawr show. Kinda ruined me for bootlegs, in many ways, starting off with a boot that incredible, although I never stopped loving them or searching them out.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yeah, I'm with you. I love being able to easily grab (it sometimes seems) just about anything by anyone from any period, there was something magical about walking into one of my favorite stores and seeing if they'd scored anything new, and then listening to my most recent acquisition dozens of times, until I knew every pop in the horrible vinyl.
That was the first CD boot I bought - "The Saint, The Incident & The Main Point Shuffle." Could contain the greatest version of 'Incident' ever. I paid $50 for it and about five years later it was useless due to cd rot. I did eventually get the remastered version though. It was to great not to own a physical copy.
DeleteI was...I guess, about 14 when I got it? I think I already had a CD player, but CD boots were still at least a few years in the future (at least for me). I already knew "Thunder Road" so well, had heard it so many hundreds of times, that it was practically part of my DNA. So the first time I heard "Wings for Wheels" and he sang "Angelina" instead of "Mary," as God is my witness, I felt like the entire planet shifted a few degrees. It was one of the trippiest musical experiences I've ever had—not something commonly associated with Bruce Springsteen. :)
DeleteMy first buy was Iggy Pop, Stowaway DOA, a love affair for boots that continues to this day. Oh how I remember the addiction of a vinyl boot, putting it on the deck, is it gold or is it junk. Now I know how a junkie feels when scoring on the street. later working in a music store I got the chance to tape the boots for only £1 a go. This led to a tape collective where we would sell on the tapes to fund the recording of more boots from the dealers. The joys of when the man with the van would turn up with his stock of the latest goodies. This then led to producing our own vinyl boots, but that's another story.
ReplyDeleteGreat story and memories!!! My first bootleg (on vinyl) was from Pink Floyd's The Wall show in Long Island NY. I thought I was pretty slick when I got it...until I listened to it. Horrible sound...didn't even listen to the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteI've thanked you before for all your efforts, but it bears repeating. Thank you for all of the wonderful live music you've provided.
Hey, great post. I think it will resonate with a lot of us from that era. Now I love that now there are tons of great recordings just a click away, AND I am pleased not to shell out my hard earned bucks for some lousy sounding boot or a set of "studio outtakes" where the apparently new tracks are just different names for the same tracks, but there definitely was a mystery and excitement to the old vinyl boot days.
ReplyDeleteGreat site.
Ace K.
yep, same story here... I bought a ton of Springsteen boots on vinyl back in my high school and college days (late 70s early 80s). Not sure which was the first. Maybe Piece de Resistance (an unbelievable 78 show at the Capital Theater in Passaic, NJ) or Live in the Promised Land (78 at Winterland in SF). Still have them and the Roxy and You Can Trust Your Car. I sold off a bunch of them in the mid 80s as CDs were coming into play. Many of these I bought from under the counter at a local indie record store. The deal was cash up front and the owner would order them from someone (always wondered who) and a week or two later you get the mystery records. More than a few were complete shit audience recordings (which hurt when you spent $30 for a box set), but the good ones were just mind blowing.
ReplyDeleteAnyone remember a catalog (zine?) of boots called Wax Tracks?