Smoked Samhain: X Purgatory

Brand X - Black Moon

Happy Hallowdaze! We'll cap off the tombstone for this month with the anniversary of a show from a Brand I've always wanted to put on here.

The sweet symmetry is that we began October with the birthday of Funk drum deity Mike Clark, and lo and behold! Here he comes again, in a completely different context but no less Funky.

Brand X is probably most notorious for their association with co-founder Phil Collins, and a bunch of Skins Samurai drummers from Kenwood Dennard to Chuck Burgi have passed through their ranks, but it's Headhunter Mike that steals the show with galaxies of groove here.

This performance has been a legendary bootleg since the original days of vinyl, somewhat salaciously titled Rated X.

It's from the tour where band mastermind John Goodsall -- who sadly passed after a lifetime of mayhem in 2021 -- had broken his hand, and was recovering from his injury whilst Mike Miller subbed for him on guitar.

He's just dexterous enough to substitute for his substitute on a couple of tunes, so he must have accompanied the rest of the guys over from England anyway. His 64th-note axe assault sure doesn't sound hurt.

This is also the period when original keyboard player Robin Lumley had left, and they got production legend Peter Robinson in on keys.

Like I was saying it's been a bootleg LP and CD for ages, but sourced from a somewhat compressed sounding FM broadcast and then only part of the whole set.

I nicked this much-more-complete version off Graham's Crackerbox, and found upon inspection that it's one of those that goes lossless to 20 kHz, making it essentially equivalent to the preFM materials we love to trick into even more delicious treats.

I did have to patch the last little finale portion of one of the songs, which was incomplete on Wolfgang's but is all there on the bootleg.

They sounded very dissimilar and the boot was nearly a semitone fast, but after speed correcting it I did the best I could to make the transition the least jarring I could.

In addition to Mike Clark funking everything past Planet X, watch out for percussionist Morris Pert flailing mightily on all kinds of batterie.

I went through the whole thing twice, just to meticulously remove the noises from all the dozens of times he struck the microphones recording him that night... let's just say he got more hits than the Yankees just did in all five World Series games, and in just under 95 minutes.

OK, parental advisory is in effect for the deluxe edition of Rated X!

Brand X

Bottom Line

New York City, New York USA

10.31.1978

01 The Ghost of Mayfield Lodge

02 Earth Dance

03 Black Moon

04 Access to Data

05 percussion solo/The Poke

06 Deadly Nightshade

07 Nuclear Burn

Total time: 1:34:57

disc break goes after Track 03

Mike Miller - guitar 

Peter Robinson - keyboards

Percy Jones - bass

Morris Pert - percussion & keyboards 

Mike Clark - drums 

John Goodsall - guitar, Tracks 04 & 05

Tracks 01-05 are from the late set

Tracks 06 & 07 are from the early set

320/48k audio streamed from Wolfgang's Vault

spectral analysis goes lossless to 20 kHz, making this equivalent to a preFM source

converted to 16/44 CD Audio, edited, denoised and remastered -- 

with the last 90 seconds of Track 06 pitch-corrected & patched from an unknown gen, off-air FM capture of indeterminate origin -- 

by EN, October 2024

632 MB FLAC/direct link

That will do it for The Tenth Month, and I shall return with November embers to warm your toes with jam, but before we lay it to rest I thought I'd fill the Jack O'Lantern with a little bit of the real X Factor.--J.

Lesh Is More

Grateful Dead - Stronger Than Dirt, or Milkin' the Turkey pt. I

I have a whole bunch of stuff happening for the end of the month, but I'm sliding this in today to memorialize a dearly departed who left this world at age 84 a few days ago.

People seem extra broken up over this event, even though the guy in question lived to be very old after a world-altering life.

Full disclosure moment: I -- for the most part and maybe exempting parts of 1970, all of Spring 1977, and today's share -- cannot stand The Grateful Dead.

That aside, I strive on this page to spread the love around and even occasionally work on stuff I feel will be in the best interest of people other than myself.

That aside times two, like I said today's thing is easily one of my favorites of their galaxy.

Obviously Phil Lesh is as beloved a musician as will exist in our rapidly-shortening lifetimes, and there's little need to drill down into The Dead and why they occupy the space they do in the culture of the last 60 years.

You'd have to have been living a hundred thousand miles beneath the surface of the Earth during those decades to have missed their impact, as significant and lasting as any band that will likely ever be.

For my part, I probably enjoy Phil's wild collaboration with electronicist Ned Lagin called Seastones the most.

The Dead did a weeklong run at Winterland 50 years ago this month, where this piece was played several times in a more improvisational concert setting.

The bonus track I have here is me, combining four different takes of Seastones to play simultaneously, so I apologize if it's a bit heretical to the original, but I thought it worked incredibly well, so it's included.

What it's included with is a performance that sees The GD get as close to the Miles Davis Electric Period as they maybe ever got.

The show -- a benefit for SF schools that Jerry Garcia talks about in the interview segment here -- is kind of a living legend among GD lore, and I've remastered it to get it boppin' as best as I could do from the original pre-broadcast reel.

The encore comes from an FM capture, as no preFM source of that apparently exists.

So here we are, in honor of the passing of this bass icon.... now let's ALL have a delicious S.N.A.C.K.

Grateful Dead & friends

S.N.A.C.K. (Students Need Athletics, Culture & Kicks) Benefit

Kezar Stadium

San Francisco, California USA

3.23.1975

01 introduction by Bill Graham

02 Blues for Allah pt. I

03 Stronger Than Dirt, or Milkin' the Turkey pt. I

04 Drums

05 Stronger Than Dirt, or Milkin' the Turkey pt. II

06 Blues for Allah pt. II

07 FM chatter

08 Johnny B. Goode

09 K101-FM interview with Jerry Garcia

10 A Symphony of Simultaneous Seastones (bonus track)

Total time: 1:16:52

Jerry Garcia - guitar & vocals

Phil Lesh - bass & vocals

Bob Weir - guitar & vocals

Mickey Hart - drums

Bill Kreutzmann - drums

Keith Godchaux - keyboards

Merl Saunders - keyboards (Tracks 02-06 & 08)

Ned Lagin - keyboards & electronics (Tracks 02-06, 08 & 10)

Tracks 01-06: S.N.A.C.K. Benefit  Kezar Stadium, SF CA 3.23.1975 K101-FM preFM reels

Tracks 07-09: same as above, off-air cassette FM capture of indeterminate origin; probably the master

reassembled, edited & remastered by EN, October 2024

Track 10: Phil Lesh, Ned Lagin & Jerry Garcia, Winterland SF 10.16-20.1974

(four performances of Seastones at once! assembled & edited by EN, October 2024)

496 MB FLAC/direct link

Again: don't be mad, Deadhead purists... I really thought my little Seastones Symphony went well with the S.N.A.C.K. thing, so that's why they are here together at the wake.

OK? I shall return before October ends with a bit more, but I saw so many people online, grieving so hard for Phil Lesh, that I thought I'd concoct a worthy tribute on here to him.--J.

3.15.1940 - 10.25.2024

Awaken Bake Relayer Cake: Jon Anderson 80

Jon Anderson & Animation - The Friends of Mr. Cairo

Well happy birthday to me, huh? And happy birthday #11 to this page. And a very happy milestone birthday to today's rock star.

Where have I been? I'll explain in a minute.

But back to the rock star guy, exactly 22 years my senior as he is.

Is he the only high alto male rock singer? There must be others, but my addled brain fails me like a rusty bucket with a hole in it. Oh, well.... my bucket's got a hole in it and I can't buy no beer.

Of course he's most beloved and renowned as the main singer and co-founder of one of the three Prog bands Jann "eternal adolescence" Wenner could stand to put in the Hall Of Fame.

When that happened, I think a lot of folks said YES.

So where have I been? Hahahaha, wouldn't you like to know?

OK, so YES. About 20 years ago, before smartphones came with their 500 MB of storage space, I had this device called a NOMAD that held all my walking-around music.

This had a lot of stuff in it, among the goodies this 2CD length compilation I made of them, with several of those goofy edits I used to like to do where I'd make imaginary single 45 versions of lengthy Prog Rock epics and such.

This device, and that YES tape, are long lost to the digital mists of time. Or at least it was *sinister laughter, twirls moustache ominously*

So YES, that's where I've been. Only it isn't 2 1/2 hours anymore. It's almost eight. There's nothing obsessive or extreme about that, is there?

I even went the full ridiculosity and remade all the special edits, adding a whole bunch more the intervening, additional 20 years of editing skills allowed me to dare to profane such sacred texts with an attempt.

Of course, it's all officially released material, so I would never, ever ever ever smash it into the cloud as the biggest Easter Egg of all time, alongside this wild 1982 concert of the birthday guy touring solo with another band that I remastered a few weeks ago, before The Affirmatives set in. Never happen. Never.

Jon Anderson & Animation

Convention Hall

Asbury Park, New Jersey USA

8.6.1982

01 Ocean Song/Sleight of Hand/State of Independence

02 Song of Seven

03 The Friends of Mr. Cairo

04 medley incl. Gamelan/Close to the Edge/Heart of the Sunrise/Long Distance Runaround

05 band introductions

06 The Play and Display of the Heart

07 Animation

08 Surrender

09 All In a Matter of Time

10 Soon

11 medley pt. 1: Perpetual Change/I've Seen All Good People/Yours Is No Disgrace

12 medley pt. 2: Starship Trooper/Awaken

13 Animation jam

14 Roundabout

15 Olympia

Total time: 1:51:17

disc break goes after Track 07

Jon Anderson - vocals, guitar & percussion

David Sancious - keyboards

Clem Clempson - guitar

Guy Shiffman - drums & percussion

Stefano Cerri - bass & vocals

preFM reels of the complete concert recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour

sourced from the 2019 Japanese bootleg silver CD "New Jersey 1982" on the "Alive the Live" label

edited, retracked and denoised -- with dropouts repaired, channels balanced and volume boosted as necessary throughout -- by EN, October 2024
689 MB FLAC/direct link that definitely does not have that 6CD playlist in it, no not at all

Watch out for guitarissimo Clem Clempson -- I know I've threatened to cover him by himself 18 times in 11 years -- who handles the Steve Howe YES parts more than capably and goes for broke as only those in his and Steve's league can go.

One more thing about that playlist that is not in the folder: it's all in alphabetical order and designed to shuffle up all at (more or less) a consistent volume, the YES Family solo stuff too. But it doesn't matter, because it isn't in there. LOLOL

Anyway we will try to do a few more things as part of the anniversary October celebrations, a couple more are slotted. But before we do that, we do wish a tremendous 80th b'day to Jon Anderson, born this day in 1944 and a source of Affirmation for tens of millions of listeners for many's the decade now!--J.