Mazzy Star - 1990-08-14, Cleveland, Babylon A Go Go club
http://www.filefactory.com/file/762yj7x ... veland.zipThis is a much improved, re-mastered (Jan., 2019) version of this recording thanks to "kneesfudd" who worked on it with technical skills and resources beyond my own. It will replace versions of the recording I've previously been sharing.
This show contains four never released songs, including one (track 09) which appears to be a unique rarity as it's the only recording I know of of the song. I have put one song on my Hermesacat youtube channel, if you want to hear a sample, track 9, "It's Over."
00 (Intro)
01 Be My Angel
02 Blue Flower [Slapp Happy cover]
03 When You Were Young [unreleased. Also findable on other live recordings]
04 Ghost Highway
05 She Hangs Brightly
06 Bells Ring
07 Halah
08 Candle [unreleased. Findable on other 1990 live recordings. Formerly mis-titled "It's a Shame"]
09 It's Over [unreleased. My tentative title. We don't know its true title. It's the only recording of this song I know of]
10 Walk in Dark [unreleased. Findable on other 1990 live recordings.]
11 Give You My Lovin'
12 I'm Sailin' [Memphis Minnie cover]
12a (MC speaks)
.............................
Here are kneesfudd's descriptions of the fixes he
applied to this recording, QUOTE:
"differential EQ applied
averaged single speed correction +0.7% to all but last 2 songs
level issues at ends of songs corrected
some fades fixed
dead air at beginning deleted
some claps & clapping reduced
NO NR (noise reduction)"
Kneesfudd also sent me a second version with NR, but I prefer the results in this version without NR so am going with it. The NR one had more problems with the audio in spots.
Facebook fan Group member Ray Sferra attended this 1990 show and made the original recording with
a Panasonic RQ-335 walkman-style cassette recorder. Thanks go to Ray for generously sharing his recording.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6071129794/I've included lyrics of the unreleased original songs from this show. The lyrics are
my own attempts to transcribe words. Biggest challenge was the song tentatively
titled "It's Over." This show has the only version of the song I'm aware exists, so it's all I had
to work with, and unfortunately Hope's words on the track here are not very clear, but are somewhat muffled, instead. But I ended up being pleased with the transcribed results after listening carefully and repeatedly with headphones, adjusting EQ, and using Audacity audio software to create an audio file of the song 20% slower in speed, making it easier to hear more clearly every sound of a line or word. I like to think I likely got most of the words right.
Lyrics to the three other unreleased songs I transcribed from another 1990 show, one recorded by Scott Simpson (and shared via Dime previously), Aug. 2, 1990, NYC, Woody's, as words are easier to discern in Scott's recording.
The unreleased songs in this recording are also findable on some other 1990 show recordings - except for the one song, Track 09, I've tentatively dubbed "It's Over," a song I've never before heard Mazzy Star or any other artist do. The lyrics' theme and style it's written in is reminiscent of another unreleased 1990 Mazzy Star song the band played at this same gig, "Walk in Dark," which I assume Hope likely wrote.
Online searches of lyrics lines hear-able in the mystery song turn up no known songs. Plus, when I upped the song to youtube, yt's scanning computers ID-ed no copyright holders: more evidence it's likely an unreleased Mazzy Star original.
At the venue, Hope signed an insert from the "She Hangs Brightly" CD for Ray Sferra, the taper of this 1990 Cleveland show. Here's Ray's account (he posted to the FB fan Group) of meeting Hope there, QUOTE:
"Here is a CD liner inside from She Hangs Brightly... The CD liner I had Hope sign at [the] Cleveland show, 8/14/90, at a place called Babylon-a-Go-Go, which is in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood and was across from the West Side Market. I could find no reference to that show online. I went early to that show hoping to meet her and after a little wait there she was. It was just me and her for about two minutes. I remember asking her about the lyrics for Blue Flower and she clarified some for me. I did ask for a picture, but she said her manager doesn't allow them. She was really nice and a little shy..." (-Ray Sferra)
Ray did later find, via a library archives search, a newspaper review of this show, and a 1990 newspaper ad for the club that listed Mazzy Star's show. He says a club with the same name "Babylon A Go Go" is still in Cleveland as of 2017, but it's on a different street.
A handwritten set list used on stage by Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, 1990-08-18, Chicago, Metro Cabaret was collected from the stage by Roman Tatus after the show and a photo of it was shared by Roman in a FB fan group. It's significant as it helps ID several songs Mazzy Star played live in 1990, but never released. Live recordings of the songs exist but their correct song titles were previously uncertain. By cross-referencing audible lyrics to titles on this set list, I was able to ID correct titles for the three of the unreleased songs played at this 1990 Cleveland show: "When You Were Young," "Candle'" and "Walk In Dark."
The photos folder here includes the 1990 newspaper ad and review of the Cleveland show, plus a photo of the set list used by Hope in Chicago in 1990 as described above. Plus some 1990 Mazzy Star photos, and one dating from 1989.
-Hermesacat (Bob B.)