John Cale * 1979-09-22 * McCabe's Guitar Shop * Santa Monica, CA * RG First Gen Cassette via JEMS * New Wave LA Series

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John Cale * 1979-09-22 * McCabe's Guitar Shop * Santa Monica, CA * RG First Gen Cassette via JEMS * New Wave LA Series

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John Cale * 1979-09-22 * McCabe's Guitar Shop * Santa Monica, CA * RG First Gen Cassette via JEMS * New Wave LA Series Vol. 30


John Cale
McCabe's Guitar Shop
Santa Monica, California
September 22, 1979
RG First Generation Cassette via JEMS
New Wave LA Series Vol. 30

Recording equipment: unknown microphone and unknown cassette deck

JEMS 2020 Transfer: RG First Generation Cassette > Nakamichi RX-505 (azimuth adjustment) > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 capture > iZotope RX6 > iZotope Ozone 6 > CD Wave > ffmpeg > FLAC

01 Child's Christmas in Wales
02 Fear is a Man's Best Friend
03 I'm Waiting For the Man
04 I Keep a Close Watch
05 Amsterdam
06 instrumental
07 Pablo Picasso
08 Heartbreak Hotel
09 Chorale
10 Cable Hogue

JEMS is pleased to extend a series of historic recordings made by our longtime friend and diehard music collector RG. He was on the scene in LA as a teenager, began recording shows in 1977 and continued on well into the 2000s. Our series will focus on tapes he made between 1977 and 1987.

What sort of music was he into? Well, one simple way to put it is KROQ music, meaning the bands that LA's "world famous" new wave radio station was playing were the bands he saw and recorded. First wave if you will, with forays into indie and punk(ish) artists. The early years are dominated by UK artists breaking in the US. Over time his work expands to US bands in the second wave. Some of the artists RG taped include:

Siouxsie & the Banshees (Vol. 4)
Madness (Vol. 8)
The Specials (Vol. 6)
OMD (Vol. 10)
The Damned (Vol. 25)
The Stranglers (Vol. 1)
Public Image Limited (Vol. 3)
John Cale (Vol. 9, Vol. 30)
Magazine (Vol. 21)
The Buzzcocks (Vol. 7)
Orange Juice (Vol. 13)
U2 (Vol. 28)
Wreckless Eric (Vol. 27)
The Cramps (Vol. 22)
Johnny Thunders (Vol. 18)
Talking Heads (Vol. 24)
Iggy Pop
XTC (Vol. 2)
The Jam
The Only Ones (Vol. 19)
The Undertones (Vol. 17)
Boomtown Rats (Vol. 5)
The Birthday Party (Vol. 15)
Penetration (Vol. 26)
The Bluebells (Vol. 12)
The Plimsouls (Vol. 11)
Athletico Spizz '80 (Vol. 29)
Killing Joke (Vol. 14)
Jonathan Richman (Vol. 16)
The Records (Vol. 20)
Robert Fripp (Vol. 23)

Later on he caught The Smiths, R.E.M., Hüsker Dü, The Replacements and many more.

RG used good, not Millard-level recording gear, which means his tapes are mostly solid and listenable, with the occasional very good one and also sorta crappy one. What makes his tapes compelling is that RG was recording in a particularly vital window of time. In many instances these were the first or second times these acts played Los Angeles. Some never did proper US tours, only playing select dates in key markets like LA or NYC. Also, for many of these gigs, RG was the only taper. He grabbed a few local radio broadcasts along the way, too.

Because these shows were almost exclusively at clubs like The Whisky and The Roxy, the sets are generally short, 45 to 60 minutes because that's what you did at The Whisky. On occasion, RG would copy his own masters to save tape and we have done our best to distinguish what's a true master and what's a first generation copy. If there's a doubt, we will note it. Regardless, the series will offer the lowest generation copies available of his recordings, digitized directly for the first time from RG's tapes which had been stored in boxes for the last 15+ years.

We continue with another recording from the very active year of 1979 and a special appearance by John Cale at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. I'm lucky enough to have seem several shows at the legendary venue and never knew Cale played there. It seats barely 100 people which means the only artists who play there want to play there by choice.

RG taped Cale at McCabe's on two occasions, this show in 1979 and another in 1983. On this night Cale moves between piano and guitar in a short but compellingly edgy performance. He hadn't released an album since 1975, so the set is more career spanning, opening with a solo piano version of "Child's Christmas in Wales," and also featuring "Fear Is A Man's Best Friend," the Velvet Underground's "Waiting For The Man," "Pablo Picasso" and his haunting reworking of "Heartbreak Hotel."

The recording is a little rough on the vocals, but otherwise clear and a rare capture of such an intimate performance. Samples provided.

We're grateful to RG for letting JEMS dig through his tape boxes and pull out the assets for this series. He witnessed amazing LA music history. Tip of the hat as well to cpscps who volunteered to handle post-production on our series which is a huge help to us and makes it possible to get more music in your hands. Stay tuned for more New Wave in LA.

BK for JEMS


01 - Child's Christmas in Wales.flac:96a7bda78a440cfb0704e6bf33506ca5
02 - Fear Is a Man's Best Friend.flac:b3966e12882b0fbfa2aca0fb535ed7fa
03 - I'm Waiting For the Man.flac:d7f3f0231ed296b1a6a962b5ebd85665
04 - I Keep a Close Watch.flac:760210f67ce75c2336d1c94ecfac2932
05 - Amsterdam.flac:c4724c29c5c5d639c8eb583b61530631
06 - instrumental.flac:9ebd9f3815e406c379459ad57a9b1f35
07 - Pablo Picasso.flac:a66625f745e3c74da2442db8a1b530ba
08 - Heartbreak Hotel.flac:a446b63266723ba24f93ed35f486ccb6
09 - Chorale.flac:9d08533178b7f06bf520c16f6df0b2ef
10 - Cable Hogue.flac:fae494788fffba2f81ba619ee15a2eb4
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at Dad