Oil Well Bootlegs - RSC CD: The Who - Sparks On The Bay Oil Well, RSC CD 044

The Who - Sparks On The Bay

Oil Well, RSC CD 044

01 Heaven And Hell 4:54

02 I Can't Explain 2:47

03 Fortune Teller 4:30

04 Young Man Blues 9:14

05 Overture 3:03

06 It's A Boy 3:19

07 1921 2:38

08 Amazing Journey - Sparks 7:50

09 Eyesight To The Blind - Miracle Cure 4:55

10 Summertime Blues 3:32

11 Shakin' All Over 6:50

Note:

All songs by The Who unless noted.

~~Live in Oakland, July 21, 1969~~

Recorded at Fillmore East, New York, USA - 1969-10-22

Lineup:

Pete Townshend - Guitar

Roger Daltrey - Vocals

John Entwistle - Bass

Keith Moon - Drums

This album is a digital clone of: "Accept No Subsitute" - Big Music

Please note that: track 9 is: Eyesight To The Blind + Christmas + Set Me Free

On th front cover Roger Daltrey performing live during a concert with The Who.

Oil Well version has a fine cover, fine quality. Limited to 200 copies only.
Due to its rarity and good quality, this disc is recommended.

This is another very important bootleg for The Who fans. Until 1991 there were very few official live albums released by the band. The versions of Live at Leeds were certainly not the ones we know today with the full concert or the deluxe edition of the early 2000s. This 1969 live also given the excellent audio quality was one of the band's best-selling bootlegs. Bread for many fans!

This disc suffers from the same off-speed recording as does Accept No Substitute (CD) (Big 011).

In addition, this disc does not feature the more indepth graphics or disc design / graphics that Accept No Substitute (CD) (Big 011) does.
Read below for other infos about this bootleg!

Audio quality:

Quality content:

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Fillmore East
Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the (at the time) Lower East Side neighborhood, now called the East Village neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan of New York City. It was open from March 8, 1968, to June 27, 1971, and featured some of the biggest acts in rock music at the time. The Fillmore East was a companion to Graham's Fillmore Auditorium, and its successor, the Fillmore West, in San Francisco, Graham's home base.

The theatre at 105 Second Avenue that became the Fillmore East was originally built as a Yiddish theater in 1925–26 – designed by Harrison Wiseman in the Medieval Revival style – at a time when that section of Second Avenue was known as the "Yiddish Theater District" and the "Jewish Rialto"[1] because of the numerous theatres that catered to a Yiddish-speaking audience. Called the Commodore Theater, and independently operated, it eventually was taken over by Loews Inc. and became a movie theater, the Loews Commodore.

It later became the Village Theatre, owned by Roger Euster, with on-site management by Ben Barenholtz.[1][2] When Bill Graham took over the theatre in 1968, it was unused and had fallen into disrepair. Despite the deceptively small front marquee and façade, the theater had a substantial capacity of almost 2,700.

The Who live
Following the worldwide success of Pete Townshend’s rock opera, Tommy, consolidated by their blistering appearance in the movie of the Woodstock festival, the former Shepherd’s Bush mods were now a bona fide ‘serious’ albums act and were freed from their tag as 60s singles merchants. Their stage shows now lasted well into the three hour mark, usually involving an entire performance of Tommy and a host of oldies and blues and rock ‘n’ roll chestnuts, all boosted by Pete’s guitar pyrotechnics, John’s Entwistle’s thundering bass and Keith Moon’s apoplectic drumming. What’s more, singer Roger Daltrey had grown into the role of charismatic, mic-twirling frontman. Aside from the Rolling Stones (who had released their own masterful live document, Get Yer Ya-Yas Out, the previous year), the Who were now the most exciting live act on the planet. If you need proof, listen to this…

With too many tapes from the year’s touring to go through (they ritually burnt them in the end) and with Townshend’s ambitious Lifehouse project running into early difficulties, the band decided to do the sensible thing and make a proper document of how damn good they were on stage. With this in mind they booked two nights at Leeds University and proceeded to give a performance of their mighty stage act at the time. Whittling the gig down to just six tracks at the time of release, the album came wrapped in a mock bootleg, brown paper sleeve with a free ephemera of their 60s ‘Maximum R’n’B’ Marquee club heydays - showing just how far they’d come.

With a 50/50 mix of Townshend numbers and standards the album kicks off with Mose Allison’s “Young Man Blues” and never looks back. Keith Moon may well be remembered for his schoolboy antics with hotel rooms and Rolls Royces, but to hear him here in full flow is an object lesson in rock trio drumming. It’s a measure of the band’s power that they can take hoary old standards like Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” and Johnny Kidd’s “Shakin’ All Over” and make them their own.

Little Billy Relaxes At The Fillmore
(The Godfatherecords G.R. 907/908)
Godfather’s second Who release is like a companion piece to their first title, The Dutch Seduction (Godfather Records GR 820/821) the brilliant Amsterdam Soundboard from 1969. This new title is from a similar period in history and collects together four recordings, three of which have been released prior and are now gathered together, in superb quality for all to enjoy.

The first disc has the Fillmore East show, often attributed as April 6 1968, the quality is superb soundboard recording and has seen many releases over the years, beginning with vinyl on Fillmore East (TMOQ 71071), and the various vinyl permutations such as Fillmore East (K&S RECORDS 014), Fillmore East (Koine V880805), Fillmore East 1968 (LXXXIV SERIES 40), Fillmore East 1968 (TMQ 71071), Furious Prelude (WPOCM 0888B008-1) and Live At Fillmore East (EXIL LP-EX-002), ultimately on CD under such titles as Live Over 20 Years (Live At The Fillmore East) (Koine K880805), Fillmore East 1968 (Back Trax CD 04-88007), Furious Prelude (WPOCM 0888B008-2), Live At Fillmore East, 1968 (Living Legend LLRCD 010), Live In New York (Black Panther BPCD 034), Who Were These Masked Men? and Shakin’ All Over (Gold Standard), and most recently as Fillmore East 6 April 1968 (Sunrise SR-0012).

There is no new tape as the cuts in “Relax”, “A Quick One”, and “My Generation” are still present but the band’s performance more than makes up for any short comings. What makes the performance so intriguing is that the band melds their early pop sensibilities (“Can’t Explain”, “Happy Jack”) with stage favorites that give them the ability to improvise (“Summertime Blues”, “Shakin All Over”, “My Generation”) plus a couple new songs from the Sell Out record. The version of “Tattoo” is particularly enjoyable, the trading of lyrics between Townshend and Daltrey is perfect and the lyrical content is funny yet disturbing. As most already know, this is an essential tape to have.

The remainder of the disc is a 20 minute fragment of the first five songs from the bands set at the Capital Theatre in Ottawa Canada. It has seen previous releases as Pure Rock Theatre (Hiwatt ZA59), Roulette Rock and Tangled In Tommy. The quality is excellent soundboard and well balanced but has a small amount of top end distortion and it is most unfortunate that the tape is so short as it seems that the band is playing with gusto. They hit the stage with “Heaven And Hell”, Entwistle’s song that was the B-side to “Summertime Blues”, it makes a good opener and features some great bass runs from The Ox. After a quick “Can’t Explain” Roger introduces “Fortune Teller” as something from Benny Spellman, the song seems to be a 60’s favorite amongst bands and one The Who would most certainly make their own. The version here simply swings with swagger and fierce playing, it segues into another strong version of “Tattoo”, the lines about the Dad beating Mom who beats the brother is stunning. Pete’s introduction to “Young Man Blues” is quite quiet and he gives the history of the song originating from Jazz musicians. I remember getting my first taste of this song from The Kids Are Alright record and being amazed by the playing, certainly a vehicle for improvisation, Pete’s guitar has a great fuzzy and nasty tone to it that give a real thick sound.

The second disc begins with the Fillmore East soundboard fragment from October 22, 1969, the recording has seen previous releases as Accept No Substitute on Big Music (Big 011), Sparks On The Bay on Oil Well (RSC CD 044), The Who Live (Mojo 058), and Live At The Fillmore 1969 (Rockmasters RMC-009). The quality is excellent, well balanced and most enjoyable recording and has the best bottom end of all the recordings on this set. What can be debatable is the introduction, it is attributed to Bill Graham but to my ear does not sound like his voice but certainly has his catch fraises, I love the “Mad master of the skins” intro.

The band easily creates an intimate feeling at the 2,700 seat venue, during Pete’s introduction to the speech prior to “Young Man Blues” the tale of stage gremlins has the crowd chuckling. While the band’s playing is tight and professional it is certainly not as spirited as the Capital Theatre gig on the previous disc. Tommy is unfortunately the most fragmented part of the tape, Pete gives a fine introduction to the piece and you are immediately swept in as they kick into the “Overture” and by the time the are in an incredibly heavy “Sparks” you can really appreciate Entwistle’s amazing playing. Sadly a large portion of Tommy is missing but the music seems to invigorate the band and by the time the music fades back with the closing moments of “See Me, Feel Me” the group is in full swing and “Summertime Blues” is full of energy and the band finish with an epic “Shakin’ All Over” with snatches of “The Seeker” and “Spoonful” for good measure.

The final fragment of tape is attributed to the State University of New York October 19, 1969; the sound is most similar to the other soundboard on this tape and is very clear and powerful with virtually no hiss or other tape issues. Clocking in at just over 15 minutes the recording contains the first few pieces of Tommy, all songs are complete save for “Sparks” that has a tape cut at 22 seconds and fades out at the 3:50 mark. A nice tape but frustratingly short.

The tri gatefold is beautifully adorned with live shots of the band and artwork based upon graphic from a Fillmore East program, there is also a 4 page booklet with liner notes from Ian Iachimoe. While this material has seen many prior releases it is certainly nice to have it all collected in one volume and the excellent sound quality make this a very worthwhile release, I for one am looking forward to more Who releases from The Don.