Gymnasium 4-30-67 recording

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Sheila Klein
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Gymnasium 4-30-67 recording

Post by Sheila Klein » 23 May 2021 03:41

I've been obsessing lately over the hour-long April 30 '67 set from the Gymnasium, included in Universal's 45th anniversary White Light/White Heat package. The balance is rather unfortunate, but the performance is blistering and the inclusion of two songs we've never heard before in live versions is revelatory.

A few questions:

* Does anyone know who recorded the show?

* I'd always thought that the backing track to "The Gift" was entitled "Booker T." This set, though, is bookended by instrumental songs of those respective titles, and they're clearly different songs. Has it been simply an error to think the "Gift" track was "Booker T," or is there some other explanation?

* A portion of "Not A Young Man Anymore" is at significantly lower volume that the rest of it. I've found that easy to correct with digital tools, but I'm at a loss to understand how it might've happened in the first place; and also why Universal chose to leave it as-is. It's certainly not an area where it'd make sense to apply the rule of "historical fidelity."

The levels on "Sister Ray" show a similar problem, but a harder one to correct for as the problem area is not discrete and as there is some graduation to the amount that it's off. I've done my best to correct for it, but it remains imperfect.

I'll be happy to upload these modified versions to those interested in hearing them with the distraction of those drop-downs minimized; and would also welcome any improvement to my hack of "Sister Ray."

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Re: Gymnasium 4-30-67 recording

Post by DavidH » 23 May 2021 04:22

Sheila Klein wrote:
23 May 2021 03:41
* I'd always thought that the backing track to "The Gift" was entitled "Booker T." This set, though, is bookended by instrumental songs of those respective titles, and they're clearly different songs. Has it been simply an error to think the "Gift" track was "Booker T," or is there some other explanation?
This is an interesting question, and one that I also obsessed over at the time the box set was released, but I haven't thought about it for some time. I think it comes down to the difficulty of tracking the development of jams/instrumentals, when they don't have lyrics. I believe that the band probably had a song they called 'Booker T' that they played live for a while that ended up inspiring/being the basis for the studio backing for 'The Gift', but if it didn't have a definite form, it's hard to really pin it down. It was always obvious that the track we knew as 'Booker T' from the Gymnasium was a completely different tune than what's on the WL/WH album, but I think we were collectively bullied into thinking it was 'close enough'.

Imagine if 'Sweet Sister Ray' was a fully instrumental recording (either because it was played without any lyrics, or if JK had turned on his recorder too late to catch them). It's unlikely we would have jumped to the conclusion that it was connected to Sister Ray without that context, just based on the sound and melody. There are musical connections, but if the lyrics that were sung that night mentioned Severin and Furs, we would have called it 'Venus In Furs part II' or something, without too much confusion. I think it's the same case with Booker T/The Gift.

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Sheila Klein
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Re: Gymnasium 4-30-67 recording

Post by Sheila Klein » 23 May 2021 05:37

JK is Jonah Kugelheim?

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Re: Gymnasium 4-30-67 recording

Post by peppergomez » 23 May 2021 07:16

Jamie Klimek


The unfortunate thing about the Sister Ray Gymnasium recording is that Cale's organ is almost entirely inaudible. Hopefully the recordings from their other Gymnasium shows will be released at some point.

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Re: Gymnasium 4-30-67 recording

Post by Wick Pick » 23 May 2021 16:36

Ya I have a hard time following Cale’s organ on Sister Ray, but it’s there and doesn’t always sound like an organ.

The Booker T./ Gift thing always seemed pretty simple to me. Someone recalled using a live instrumental song as the backing for The Gift. When the Peel Slowly box came out in the 90’s someone wrongly assumed that track was Booker T. as it was close enough and they obviously hadn’t listened to the entire tape of that show. But Booker T. was too generic for use by the band on an album. Clearly they would go with the superior and more experimental instrumental.

Question is, what did they call it before it became The Gift? It must’ve been called something else at the time the Gymnasium concert was recorded. Could this be the unknown ‘I Guess Things Happen’ ?

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Re: Gymnasium 4-30-67 recording

Post by Mark » 23 May 2021 18:36

It's worth noting as well that the version of this show that's on the deluxe WL/WH is not definitive. The bootlegs that emerged beforehand included little snippets of chat/tuning between songs that are omitted from the release, and of course it doesn't include the long-bootlegged second version of Guess I'm Falling in Love.

I can't remember offhand - is the version of Booker T that's released here still shorter than the one on that old Cale EP?
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Re: Gymnasium 4-30-67 recording

Post by iaredatsun » 23 May 2021 20:28

Sheila Klein wrote:
23 May 2021 03:41
I've been obsessing lately over the hour-long April 30 '67 set from the Gymnasium, included in Universal's 45th anniversary White Light/White Heat package. The balance is rather unfortunate, but the performance is blistering and the inclusion of two songs we've never heard before in live versions is revelatory.

A few questions:

* Does anyone know who recorded the show?

* I'd always thought that the backing track to "The Gift" was entitled "Booker T." This set, though, is bookended by instrumental songs of those respective titles, and they're clearly different songs. Has it been simply an error to think the "Gift" track was "Booker T," or is there some other explanation?

* A portion of "Not A Young Man Anymore" is at significantly lower volume that the rest of it. I've found that easy to correct with digital tools, but I'm at a loss to understand how it might've happened in the first place; and also why Universal chose to leave it as-is. It's certainly not an area where it'd make sense to apply the rule of "historical fidelity."

The levels on "Sister Ray" show a similar problem, but a harder one to correct for as the problem area is not discrete and as there is some graduation to the amount that it's off. I've done my best to correct for it, but it remains imperfect.

I'll be happy to upload these modified versions to those interested in hearing them with the distraction of those drop-downs minimized; and would also welcome any improvement to my hack of "Sister Ray."
Like you I love this live VU document. I consider it one of the best we have of the band.

The recording itself, I've assumed that it was Cale who taped it. Wasn't he in possession of a Wollensak reel-to-reel by this time? There is a story about how he came to 'own' the Wollensak, but I do not know the point in time that the events of the story occurred. Maybe somebody else does?

>at a loss to understand how it might've happened in the first place; and also why Universal chose to leave it as-is

I almost hate to say that the engineer should have been paid to try and fix any tape issues with these archive releases, because it does look like lack of care from the archive release producers. Or is there a 'leave it as it is' ethos at play?

With regards the music titled Booker T and the assumption that it was the backing music to The Gift. I agree with what else has been said here – that it was an unknowing mistake until the real music to The Gift was uncovered.

Without set lists to the contrary, there no reason to assume that the instrumental to The Gift had any title at all until it was used on WLWH. I assume that they might have referred to an alternative title on the WLWH 45th release, if there was one.
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Sheila Klein
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Re: Gymnasium 4-30-67 recording

Post by Sheila Klein » 23 May 2021 22:35

The Wollensak was used back in mid '65 to record the early batch of VU demos.

I seem to recall Moe, many years ago, referring to the "Gift" backing as "Booker T," but I might be misremembering that.

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Re: Gymnasium 4-30-67 recording

Post by searchin4mymainline » 23 May 2021 23:12

iaredatsun wrote:
23 May 2021 20:28
The recording itself, I've assumed that it was Cale who taped it.
In the White Light/White Heat Super Deluxe notes Cale is quoted as saying he doesn't know who taped it.

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Re: Gymnasium 4-30-67 recording

Post by Wick Pick » 24 May 2021 12:01

iaredatsun wrote:
23 May 2021 20:28
Sheila Klein wrote:
23 May 2021 03:41
I've been obsessing lately over the hour-long April 30 '67 set from the Gymnasium, included in Universal's 45th anniversary White Light/White Heat package. The balance is rather unfortunate, but the performance is blistering and the inclusion of two songs we've never heard before in live versions is revelatory.

A few questions:

* Does anyone know who recorded the show?

* I'd always thought that the backing track to "The Gift" was entitled "Booker T." This set, though, is bookended by instrumental songs of those respective titles, and they're clearly different songs. Has it been simply an error to think the "Gift" track was "Booker T," or is there some other explanation?

* A portion of "Not A Young Man Anymore" is at significantly lower volume that the rest of it. I've found that easy to correct with digital tools, but I'm at a loss to understand how it might've happened in the first place; and also why Universal chose to leave it as-is. It's certainly not an area where it'd make sense to apply the rule of "historical fidelity."

The levels on "Sister Ray" show a similar problem, but a harder one to correct for as the problem area is not discrete and as there is some graduation to the amount that it's off. I've done my best to correct for it, but it remains imperfect.

I'll be happy to upload these modified versions to those interested in hearing them with the distraction of those drop-downs minimized; and would also welcome any improvement to my hack of "Sister Ray."
Like you I love this live VU document. I consider it one of the best we have of the band.

The recording itself, I've assumed that it was Cale who taped it. Wasn't he in possession of a Wollensak reel-to-reel by this time? There is a story about how he came to 'own' the Wollensak, but I do not know the point in time that the events of the story occurred. Maybe somebody else does?

>at a loss to understand how it might've happened in the first place; and also why Universal chose to leave it as-is

I almost hate to say that the engineer should have been paid to try and fix any tape issues with these archive releases, because it does look like lack of care from the archive release producers. Or is there a 'leave it as it is' ethos at play?

With regards the music titled Booker T and the assumption that it was the backing music to The Gift. I agree with what else has been said here – that it was an unknowing mistake until the real music to The Gift was uncovered.

Without set lists to the contrary, there no reason to assume that the instrumental to The Gift had any title at all until it was used on WLWH. I assume that they might have referred to an alternative title on the WLWH 45th release, if there was one.
I’m pretty sure that most of their known instrumentals did in fact have titles. Unless they were actually one-off improvisations, which the Gift does not appear to be.

Aronowtiz had his wollansak tape recorder stolen from the first VU gig at Summit High. I always hoped it was Cale that stole it as it does seem to match up with some of his other behaviour. My personal theory is that he stole all the tapes we’ve heard about. Like the San Diego gig from ‘68. :). Doesn’t that story also include mention of a stolen tape? Maybe just wishful thinking on my part but there are a few clues that suggest there is a possibility in my mind.

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