Cale-Era Concert Tape Recovery?
Posted: 13 May 2019 02:55
I’m sure you’re all aware of the Velvets concert tape made by Jamie Klimek (of Mirrors) back in the sixties. However, I should still clear things up for fans who haven’t. Anyway, Klimek taped a complete Cale-era performance of the band at La Cave in April, 1968, which contains the only known recording of “Sweet Sister Ray,” a song used by the band as a prelude to “Sister Ray” during live gigs. 90% of the recording was accidentally wiped years ago, and “Sweet Sister Ray,” fragments of “Venus in Furs” and “Sister Ray,” and “Heroin” are the only songs that were spared. The reel included the only known recording of the Cale lineup in 1968, and includes the only(?) known live recording of “Hey Mr. Rain,” alongside other awesome goodies. After the accidental erasure, all of this material was presumed to be gone forever. The surviving contents were bootlegged, and the tape was shelved away indefinitely. End of story.
Well... Not quite.
You see, I read an article online explaining that, more often than not, wiped reel-to-reel recordings are, at least in part, easily recoverable. This works because tape machines’ erasure heads very often fail to completely line up with the tracks that they’re trying to wipe, and thus only delete part of the signal. Of course, your typical tape player won’t pick up on this leftover data (which is probably why its existence so often goes unnoticed), but many more advanced devices can. I was thinking that if we sent Klimek’s tape (hopefully the original master still exists) to a professional media preservationist, we could very easily recover at least some of the concert. I’m very much hoping that this is possible, and am excited to see what you have to say about it.
Well... Not quite.
You see, I read an article online explaining that, more often than not, wiped reel-to-reel recordings are, at least in part, easily recoverable. This works because tape machines’ erasure heads very often fail to completely line up with the tracks that they’re trying to wipe, and thus only delete part of the signal. Of course, your typical tape player won’t pick up on this leftover data (which is probably why its existence so often goes unnoticed), but many more advanced devices can. I was thinking that if we sent Klimek’s tape (hopefully the original master still exists) to a professional media preservationist, we could very easily recover at least some of the concert. I’m very much hoping that this is possible, and am excited to see what you have to say about it.