I must say, I have never heard a more schizophrenic tape of us! Were we good that day? Yes! Were we GREAT that day? Yes! Did we SUCK that day? YES!!! Listen....this wasn't a gig, this was a party! Or maybe it was a gig? Did we get paid?
The tape begins with Ward trying to diagnose the buzzing in the P.A. This guy, Ward.....I mean, first he starts the band......then he comes back to manage the band, run the P.A., attend every single gig.......Even back in the early days, he'd always be the first to arrive, always helped Ted set up the P.A. (I'd usually be exempt as I'd be engaged,setting up my drums). Definitely someone you'd want in your corner, onstage or off.
This is quite a relaxed "show" if you want to call it that! We run through everything we know with this lineup, and bring back a few oldies and electric versions of normally-acoustic songs. We're outside, right in front of the lake....not unlike the pictures of us here, at Thatch Meadow, the following summer. It was a big giant lawn. I remember boats filled with people watching us.....in between the sets, we'd take LONG breaks. One break found Hubie and others of us taking a rowboat and going across the lake....while onshore, they're asking when we're going to start playing again! We had to make announcements to the lake, "All musicians return to shore!"
We struggle with the P.A., but the tape sounds great! And this first set:we sound great! Obviously we are having a lot of fun, stretching out. Ted is particularly funny on this tape. Also the bass is super up front in the mix, which is always great to hear.
So the first set is great. The second set? Wow. More like.....not great. Maybe even....bad! Don't know what happened there. We were having ourselves a great day, playing was only part of it, what can I say....
Last set? Not bad! Interesting......even good! And predominantly mellow! "Return Britain" is great! "Girl So Sweet (She Don't Know)", a song we never played much (it was never quite finished, at least not when i was in the band), this version has a vocal thing at the end I had totally forgotten ("girl you make me...girl you make me!"). This has to be the only time we did "Return Britain" right into "Sailing"! (i seem to remember we arranged it that whenever the sun started going down, we'd go into "Sailing") Both sound really nice. Because the bass is so prominent in the mix, you can really hear Ted "throwing out" bass lines for me (and others) to pick up on......sometimes we do, sometimes we don't....when we don't, it feels like the road not traveled...I want to go back and join him on all of them! One thing that's so funny is at the very end of "Sailing", when we are at our most delicate and feathery.....Ward starts yelling out for Donna! "Donna! Hey Donna!" That's when you must keep in mind: this was a party! Not a recital!
 |
| "Hey Donna!......DONNA!....Over here!" |
Anyways, after someone requests "When Happiness Is Here" (obviously this person needed a shrink!), we do "Gone Strong"! Always good to hear! Another one that we did sporadically, don't know why because it was so fun, it was uptempo......can't answer that one.
And to wrap it up....the brand new and unfinished "Soon Come". I had previously thought we had written this and debuted it a few weeks later at NY Ave.....but I see that's wrong, as we are doing it here. (it was started at Mystery Fez in June...but that NY Avenue show we had an emergency daytime rehearsal at the Red House to get it up to snuff). At this point, the song is completely unwritten and we're totally winging it. Lawrence even tries his hand at a verse. It's a mess, but spirited, and we knew it wasn't going to be long until this song took shape. Tragically, it gets cut just as it starts getting good!
Because this was a big giant lawn, with a lake to play in....and though there were lots of people there, it wasn't a thousand people...so don't expect to hear applause or anything at the end of songs. Most of these people were friends or friends of friends, and they'd come up and watch us, go swim, go eat, go grab a beer, hang in the house, have a conversation, etc. This wasn't Delta House, this was serenity on Swartswood Lake!
Swartswood Lake, New Jersey 8/2/92
Floating Jam ->
I Owe ->
It's All Right
Bambaleda
Caveman ->
It's Warm Outside
We Both Wobble
Bucketful Of Rice (All I Wanted)/
/I Hear A New Voice ->
Thundersong
I'm Crying
Smile ->
Someone's In My Head
No Excuses
What You Say
Caught In The Rain
Gimme Fun ->
Island Music ->
Girl So Sweet (She Don't Know)
Roadrunner
Return Britain
Sailing
When Happiness Is Here
Gone Strong
Soon Come /
Hubert Poole - guitar, vocal, percussion
Ted Schreiber - bass, vocal, percussion
Lawrence Krauser - electric piano, synth, trumpet, percussion, vocal
Michael Goodman - drums, vocal
Steve Goodman - percussion, accordion
I think it's Ward operating the delay on the trumpet, and if so, he did an excellent job on "Return Britain"!
download here:
1st set - good!
http://www.mediafire.com/download/iu1fvz48b496eio/1992-08-01_Swartswood_Lake_(1st_set_-_good!).zip
2nd set/beginning of 3rd set - not as good!
http://www.mediafire.com/download/9lvxnl21aut5x77/1992-08-01+Swartswood+Lake+%282nd+set+-not+so+good%29.zip
3rd set - nice!
http://www.mediafire.com/download/p82hcv5t82bq5it/1992-08-01+Swartswood+Lake+%28end+of+3rd+set+-+nice%29.zip
OR you can download from Dropbox, this link will expire in a couple of weeks:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nsxopoke1yxzgi4/1992-08-01%20Swartswood%20Lake.zip?dl=0
