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Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 [LP]
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Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 [LP]
Current price: $17.99
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Barnes and Noble
Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 [LP]
Current price: $17.99
Size: CD
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is the disc for those fans who didn't want to pony up the big money for the 30th anniversary edition of
and its two DVDs. This is the soundtrack for one of them, the
concert, from beginning to end captured in vibrant sound. This show has been revered by tape traders and bootleggers for decades and never has it been presented better, thanks to
's fantastic mix. What makes this show so historically important is that it was the first time the band was able to travel overseas to play. (They were barred from doing so in the United States because of a legal battle with
's former manager.) In any case, well in advance of the gig the notorious British music weeklies began to create a pick-and-pan hype to build and topple a potential new
messiah as they did all the time. Or, as
in his liner notes writes, "...this week's Next...Big...Thing." The band was terrified yet geeked to play the hallowed hall. These guys were scared; it fueled the gig, and they pulled it off in spades. They have everything to prove, and plenty to stare down. (Hell, the media hype almost made them the standard-bearers for the entire history of American
, whether they wanted to be or not -- and they may not have believed it themselves, but they played like they felt the responsibility for it, overtly referencing
,
, and even
by including pieces of their tunes in
originals, showing where it all came from. And then, by using a portion of
soulman
's
-- who was taking his own bit from
's read of his former boss
-- in
they reveal clearly that
, and
were nowhere to be found on this night.) Most of all,
had the quivering guts and naivete to pull it off. These guys play their asses off; it's as if tomorrow they'll die, so what the hell. The tape proves this show to be adrenaline-filled and fear-drenched. This is a mind-blowing gig. It was filmed for preservation and forgotten about until being resurrected by
.
The highlights? Hell, everything here. It begins with a tenderly desperate, under-orchestrated
sprints head on into a burning
before whispering into a
intro to a dramatic, swaggering
that oozes street-smart Jersey soul. And the train never stops; it only slows a bit for moments at a time. And it's not for the band to catch its breath; it's for the crowd, whether it's the frighteningly intense
the shuffling
that introduces the rollicking
or the swaggering anthem of
which only take listeners through a little over half of the first disc! They had the audience after
but they were into something deeper, wilder -- check the spit and vinegar in
-- so they kept pushing harder. This was a young band that musically was as good as anybody on that night. They were rehearsed, confident, and armed with a collection of songs that virtually any musician worth his or her salt would kill to have written even one of. Disc two offers no letdown. There's arguably the single most intense read of
on tape, and a riotously joyful version of
to counter the theater of darkness just visited upon the crowd in the previous song. This version of
is pure street urchin romance taken to the nth level.
' read of the
is an homage to
, whose scorching takes on
and
offer spiritual inspiration. They stay on full stun with
and cap it all with
leaving the crowd to fall back into the night, wondering if they could believe what they'd just witnessed.
himself says the night was a blur to him and he never looked back for 30 years at the film or even listened to the show. While the soundtrack is only half the experience of the
1975 document, it's a worthy half and a necessary set to add to any
live shelf. ~ Thom Jurek