Return to Forever (feat. Bill Connors), Worcester (1974)

Описание: first show
00:18 band introductions
03:59 beyond the 7th galaxy
08:10 after the cosmic rain
28:24 theme to the mothership
50:15 children's song (Corea & Clarke duet)
56:56 space circus
1:12:04 captain senor mouse
second show
1:28:55 band introductions
1:31:59 captain senor mouse
1:49:04 bass folk song
2:04:21 sometime ago
2:48:53 encore: space circus

Return to Forever: "Clarke at Clark"
Atwood Hall ("I think, not absolutely sure of this")
Clark University, Worcester, Mass. ("I am sure of this and date")
February 1, 1974

Chick Corea: keyboards
Bill Connors: guitar
Stanley Clarke: bass
Lenny White: drums

Original comments:
"(Two Shows!) Total (unedited*) runtime 183:45* (see Note below)
Source: 1st generation cassettes of master sbd reel (WCUW Worcester 91.3 FM radio,
which was at this time Clark University's radio station before
going independent/public radio, long before I worked there)
performance quality: B+/A, some unusual songs for RTF
recording quality: B/A It varies some, mostly due to
some weird mixing. I have made some adjustments that
has helped this considerably. It's a nice clean source recording,
transferred from Revox reel to Tascam cassette deck with no dolby used.

This is complete and all of it comes from cassettes made from the original
radio master reel. This is not an FM broadcast version, but as some call it,
a "pre-FM". I simply call it a "soundboard".
in the original tape (some too on this but a little less so) I could hear
parts where all of a sudden the drums would get loud and the bass and guitar go way in the background. RTF is probably a tough band to mix sound for,because they like to feature all their players at various times (as in this most interesting pair of shows.) so there's a tendency to turn up
one guy and then turn him down after the solo. It takes a real pro
sound(wo)man to do that right at a RTF concert, and this person
seemed to have some trouble at times with it. But after some level
adjusting in needed places I'm finally not only content, but anxious to
upload this torrent because it sounds pretty nice now. When I first got it
I didn't know jack about computers, never mind torrents. But I know enough
now to sometimes turn what I once thought was so erratic a recording that
I couldn't even stand listening to it, into one that although a bit
tedious to fix, wasn't nearly as big a project, or as bad a result as
I was expecting. The mixing did sound alot better in the second show,
but I'm seeding this all together as one huge lump of Chick stew
because it kinda sounds like one long show, and even on RTF standards
the songs in this thing are really stretched out. They duplicate Cap.
Senor Mouse and Space Circus, but also play a couple from Stanley's
solo album "Children of Forever", Children's Song, and Sometime Ago
which runs 45 minutes (just that 1 song) and a long version of Bass Folk
Song.
They must have been in a good mood this night, because they played over
3 hours, and whoever recorded it managed to get it all uncut (without interruption).
Not easy with this show! Good thing he (she?) was using a reel. It took some work to do that on cassettes but all the songs and dialogue are complete and in set sequence. The 1st week of February 1994, most of this show was rebroadcasted to celebrate its 20th anniversary, from the 1st year of WCUW broadcasting- most, because the reel hubs they used did not always stay on, and about halfway through the second set during the rebroadcast, the hub came off and the reel fell off the recorder.
Not one of the shining moments in Glasnost Radio history.
Anyone who heard it on the radio knows WCUW radio quality was terrible,
and has been for most of the station's history, due to a tube transmitter
circa J.F. Kennedy/P.T.109. Unless and until someone digitizes this directly from the master reel this is quite likely the "definitive" edition of this long fine night."

Thanks to the incredible glasnostrd19.

Footage and production by bigfootpegrande.