Tales From The Who/Philly/Largo

[lukpac]

Since this board is 90% Who according to Mr. Hunte...

Wolfgang's has what (they claim) are the '73 Philly and Largo shows, nearly in their entirety:

The Who, Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA 12/04/1973

The Who, Center Largo, MD 12/06/1973

I'm not an expert on these shows, but Roger does say "Philly" at least once during the show listed as such. And then there's this and this:

As many of you already know, we've had a show up on the Vault for a while now from The Who identified as the Philadelphia 12/4/73 show. A few Vault regulars have stated in a separate forum thread that at least some tracks from this show are actually from The Who's 12/6/73 show at the Capital Center in Largo, MD, and they are correct. What has been on the Vault was an amalgam that was created for a single King Biscuit Flower Hour radio broadcast.
[...]
Now to the puzzle. It is well documented that The Who played in Boston on 12/3, Philadelphia on 12/4, and Largo, MD on 12/5. It is also well documented that the latter two shows were recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour. In fact you can hear the band mention "Philadelphia" several times during the 12/4 show on the Concert Vault.

Imagine our surprise, when we found the reels for the Philadelphia show, that they are all marked 12/3, not 12/4. They are marked consistently this way, and the studio engineer comments that are captured on tape also reference 12/3. We have included a few images of the tape boxes below.

Also interesting is they clearly have 16-track masters in their possession. Yet the shows posted sure seem taken from the same strange mixes that have always been around - mostly mono but with bits spread around here and there. If they have the masters, how did VFABP come about?

[David R. Modny]

I'll just add that the 7 songs that were remixed in 1999, for re-airing on the KBFH, all sound really good if you can ever hunt them down. Mixed in a similar discrete style to what we're more used to hearing from the Who - bass left, guitar right, etc.

The '99 remixed tracks:

I Can't Explain, Summertime Blues, My Wife (which aired for the first time in '99), My Generation, The Real Me, Drowned, Pinball Wizard


And, of course, WGFA on the Biscuit comp.

[David R. Modny]

Here's a little taste of what the '99 remixed version sounds like. Sloppy performance aside, I think it presents a pretty good case for getting the entire remix out there. As I'm sure most know, the original Tales From The Who vinyl boot was probably just sourced from someone's home taping of the original 70's broadcast...and it sounds like it!

As much as I've been a defender of much of Wolfgang's stuff, I'll never get why they can't post the best KBFH sources if they are indeed aligned with them. Compare this with the version that was posted on WV today:

http://www.lukpac.org/~dave/04%20-%20My%20Wife.flac

[Chris M]

Goddamn. They have the complete Largo and Philly shows up now. This is huge.

[lukpac]

Here's a little taste of what the '99 remixed version sounds like. Sloppy performance aside, I think it presents a pretty good case for getting the entire remix out there. As I'm sure most know, the original Tales From The Who vinyl boot was probably just sourced from someone's home taping of the original 70's broadcast...and it sounds like it!

Interesting. The stereo spread is certainly more pleasing (even if the drums are mono in this case), but that aside it really doesn't sound that much better than what Wolfgang's has. Kind of thin and compressed.

In terms of what Wolfgang's is posting, it seems as if at the very least the Philly show is from a tape mixed with radio broadcast in mind - Dr. Jimmy is edited like every previous version.

I think it's certainly interesting that these two shows have finally (kind of) made it out, but honestly they don't excite me that much from a musical standpoint. Some of those Quad arrangements just don't work well, and the band is sloppy as hell. Maybe a "Leeds" mix (and sounding as good) would change my mind, but at least thus far I don't regard these as much more than a curiosity...

[David R. Modny]

Interesting. The stereo spread is certainly more pleasing (even if the drums are mono in this case), but that aside it really doesn't sound that much better than what Wolfgang's has. Kind of thin and compressed.

I think it sounds better than the WV version - particularly in the vocals.

That old story about the original broadcast begin a quadraphonic one seems like it might explain the original mix to some extent as well. I still think the overall fidelity is better on the remix. While it may be "thin and compressed," it doesn't have as much of that splashy, midrange guitar sound of the original. Mono drums aside on the latter. And I do like the more solid, upfront vocal sound of the remix.

[David R. Modny]

After listening to the WV version, I *will* say that it sounds miles better than the booted "Tales" tracks. I just compared Bellboy.

One more thing that I mentioned to Luke privately -

I think *some* of that squashed sound on the remix might be attributed to the fact that KBFH often pre-compressed the sound on their radio station CD's before sending them out to their affiliates. I have three different vintages of the '75 Fleetwood Mac show on transcription CD, and all have different levels of compression between them. Some eras of KBFH rebroadcasts seemed to be treated to this more than others.

[Jeff T.]

I need the 99 remix version of this Who 1973 KBFH in my collection. So if anyone would be willing to do a quick and easy trade in snail mail I would appreciate it. Lots to trade, might be more King Biscuits in my boot collection than Wolfgang has currently up. I too have things from original pre-FM reels.

PM me and we'll exchange lists. I also a fairly deep collection of rare dvd.