The Band, Eric Clapton / NY, USA 7.6.1974 Remastered

From the recent discovery of live recordings from The Band’s 1974 career, a superb audience recording of their July 6th Buffalo show has been released. What’s more, this precious recording includes a surprise appearance by Eric Clapton! After the great success of their tour with Bob Dylan from January to February, The Band didn’t seem to be making any significant moves to create a new album. Instead, they embarked on a tour in July, but mostly as opening acts for other artists in stadiums. For them, it was simply a way to keep their musicianship sharp. However, their opening acts included Eric Clapton and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the luxurious opening acts. It was essentially an “opening act tour,” but the July 6th Buffalo show was performed before Clapton’s performance. This release captures that performance with an audience recording. The opening of this opening tour traditionally began with Garth Hudson’s saxophone instrumental “Hard Times (The Slop),” but midway through the performance, the sound image suddenly becomes much closer and surprisingly easier to listen to. In fact, this recording had been circulating among traders for some time, but this time we have managed to capture the best version, the first generation. The original had significant pitch inaccuracies and hiss noise, so both issues have been thoroughly adjusted for this limited-press CD release. In particular, the pitch inaccuracies have been completely eliminated. In the past, only “Chest Fever,” which featured Clapton, was included on his CD “KING AND THE BAND,” but the difference in sound quality compared to that is striking. Furthermore, Richard Manuel’s condition was unstable during the 1974 opening tour due to his unhealthy lifestyle, and in the recently unearthed soundboard recording from St. Paul on September 1st, he was completely unable to sing from the very beginning of the live performance, and there was even a stage performance during the August opening for CSN&Y that went ahead without Richard. In that respect, Richard was in great form on this day, as it was right after the start of the opening act tour. More than anything, you can clearly feel the energy in the group’s performance. Also, the soundboard recording from St. Paul’s was generally a bit distorted and difficult to hear, so the audience recording is actually more enjoyable as it captures The Band’s laid-back sound. There are photos taken from the side of the stage that day, capturing Clapton, wearing a Western shirt, borrowing Robbie’s Telecaster and going up on stage, and that’s how Clapton’s impromptu appearance came about, resulting in “Chest Fever.” Clapton plays a solo at the 4-minute mark, and then passes the solo back to Robbie. It was a moment that truly handed the baton to the main act, Clapton (although Clapton’s performance that day was extremely intoxicated…). A superb audience recording has been released from The Band’s opening act tour in the summer of ’74, an item that was originally extremely rare. And on top of that, a great performance with Clapton joining in! The original recording has a noticeable hiss noise, but the natural and clear sound quality is superb. Rich Stadium, Buffalo, NY, USA 6 July 1974 TRULY AMAZING/PERFECT SOUND (from Original Masters) (59:36) 01. Hard Times (The Slop) 02. Just Another Whistle Stop 03. Stage Fright *There is tape degradation in the first half of this song. No problem after that 04. The Weight 05. The Shape I’m In 06. Night They Drove Old Dixie Down 07. Across The Great Divide 08. Endless Highway 09. Up On Cripple Creek 10. Unfaithful Servant 11. Smoke Signal 12. Genetic Method 13. Chest Fever (with Eric Clapton) Robbie Robertson – vocals, guitar Rick Danko – vocals, bass guitar Levon Helm – vocals, drums Garth Hudson – vocals, keyboards Richard Manuel – vocals, piano