Portland 1972

[Perk]

Here´s info on a new live recording i recently aquired. This show hasn´t been listed anywhere else i belivie. The sound is not so good, the typical 70´s "audience" sound. Also the story behind it is included.

Perk



-------------------------------
Jerry Lee Lewis/Freddie Hart/Bruce Mullen
Live in Portland, October 27, 1972
Portland Civic Auditorium


setlist:

The Heartbeats:
01) intro
02) (don't take her) she's all i got
03) sensuous woman

Bruce Mullen:
04) auctioneer's love
05) heart

The Heartbeats:
06) whole world holding hands

Freddie Hart:
07) intro
08) keys in the mailbox
09) togetherness
10) easy lovin'
11) my hangup is you
12) love's vibrations
13) fingerprints
14) hank william's guitar
15) easy lovin'
16) drink up and go home

Jerry Lee Lewis:
17) intro
18) there must be more to love than this
19) great balls of fire>high school confidential
20) you don't miss your water
21) another place another time
22) once more with feeling
23) old rugged cross
24) amazing grace
25) what i'd say
26) sweet little sixteen
27) would you take another chance on me
28) me and bobby mcgee
29) chantilly lace
30) who's gonna play this old piano
31) mom and dad's waltz
32) we live in two different worlds
33) whole lotta shakin'
34) jailhouse rock>whole lotta shakin' going on
35) outtro
36) backstage banter
37) jerry lee's hermiston organ spot

On what was apparently a hard, raining night in Portland, a man named Leon Mach recorded the Jerry Lee Lewis/Freddie Hart show on a portable reel recorder. It's also Mach you will hear occasionally making comments on the tape.

Mach was then a d.j. for station KOHU in Hermiston, Oregon and had often interviewed country stars for his station. On this night, his station had nothing to with the show-this was presented by KWJJ in Portland-but in a documenting mood, brought his machine and recorded not only the show but got the Killer backstage as well. Mach had recorded the killer rockabilly tune "You Hurt Me So" back in 1961 among others, and that song has been anthologized many times, most recently by Norton Records.

Jerry Lee may have been the headliner, but Freddie Hart was riding pretty high at this point. "Easy Lovin'" was the #1 country song for 1971 & 1972-quite a feat. He had several other hits as well, including the terrific "Keys In The Mailbox". His backing band The Heartbeats are heard opening the show; they also back Bruce Mullen and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Bruce Mullen's story is a lot more obscure, but he had a hit in 1968 with "Auctioneer's Love" (and again in 1974). "Heart" was his latest Capitol single in 1972; he was soon dropped afterwards. In researching this show, I contacted Mullen who remembered the gig-he had been asked to join the tour literally at the last minute and played several dates, including this one. He remembers Hart playing him a new song in the car on the way to the show, which he didn't think much of, but didn't offer that opinion. That song, "Trip To Heaven", wound up being a #1 song in much of the country.

The Jerry Lee set is typically brief, covers country and rock territory, and is actually pretty engaging. A highlight is "Chantilly Lace", which was his current single.

Although this is a somewhat distant audience recording, I consider it a miracle it even exists. I had acquired a box of Mach's tapes 20 years ago at a garage sale in which I discovered two reel boxes listing this show. Reel one was the Hart portion; the other box with Jerry Lee's set was empty. At that time I looked through all the tapes but never did locate the reel; I hung onto the box distressed but hopefully it would somehow turn up. Then in 2007 I tackled all the tapes again. It still didn't turn up, and I decided it was lost to the ages. However, a solitary reel was found in another box with other items, and I put it on. There it was! So, I'm happy I didn't give up...

Technical notes: This took a long time to prepare. I used Soundforge Professional to split the show into the many tracks; there was a number of tape stops & starts and tape flips, and I eased those transistions; also some moderate eq to take off some of the high end harshness and give some low end as well. There was a 16 db drop during "Keys" that I had to rectify. Also, to facilitate a 80 minute cd, I dropped two songs from the opening Heartbeats set- "Delta Dawn" and ""Nice To Be With You". Finally, this was a one channel recording so it was copied to create a two channel mono.

[peterchecksfield]

Interesting!

Incidentally you can get rid of those that appeared by clicking "Disable Smilies in this post".

[bailbath]

That set list is great.
That must have taken you a lot of time to get that project complete!
IAN

[jayhawks]

great report & a close look to that bootleg-story.
thank you!

[flip54]

Just back on a high from the new Buddy touring play (on its way back to London) and both Andrew Macvinyl's Ember reply and Perkster's Portland detailled write up remind me of why I love music chat so much, thanks guys

Flipped Out

ps as a treat for uncle Perky, check out BBC radio 2 listen again feature for tonight's musical feature Smoke Smoke That Cigarette

[Perk]

Thanks Phil! Too bad i missed that BBC 2 thing, though i know the song.

Perky (smoking hot)

[peterchecksfield]

What no-one has mentioned is that 'We Live In Two Different Worlds' is a SOLO performance, without Linda Gail, & it's fantastic (great fiddle / steel guitar solos from Kenny Lovelace / Charlie Owens!). Similarly, I have a solo performance of 'Sweet Thang' from 1974. It is performances like these that remind what an incredible performer Jerry Lee Lewis once was. These days it's impossible to imagine him even doing songs like 'Pink Cadillac' & 'Honky Tonk Women' on his own, & if anyone requested something like 'Sweet Thang' he'd probably just get annoyed & walk off stage...

[Perk]

I did mention it awhile back, but maybe unclear why! It was in the "what are your current favorites" subject.

Too bad the sound ain´t that hot!

Perk ; )

[peterchecksfield]

I did mention it awhile back, but maybe unclear why! It was in the "what are your current favorites" subject.

Too bad the sound ain´t that hot!

Perk ; )

No, you didn't mention that it was a solo performance:

http://www.topfreeforum.com/jerryleelewis/viewtopic.php?t=109&mforum=jerryleelewis

[Perk]

I know, but tried to excuse myself for that "bad" mistake ..hehe!
I did list it though because i liked it being solo!

Perk ; )

[unchained]

Thanks!, I downloaded this concert a few weeks ago and was a happy
to have it, to bad about the sound.

[Tommy]

[quote="peterchecksfield"]What no-one has mentioned is that 'We Live In Two Different Worlds' is a SOLO performance, without Linda Gail, & it's fantastic (great fiddle / steel guitar solos from Kenny Lovelace / Charlie Owens!). Similarly, I have a solo performance of 'Sweet Thang' from 1974. It is performances like these that remind what an incredible performer Jerry Lee Lewis once was. These days it's impossible to imagine him even doing songs like 'Pink Cadillac' & 'Honky Tonk Women' on his own, & if anyone requested something like 'Sweet Thang' he'd probably just get annoyed & walk off stage...[/quote

Which year did he record "Sweet thang"? On what record can I find it?

[peterchecksfield]

What no-one has mentioned is that 'We Live In Two Different Worlds' is a SOLO performance, without Linda Gail, & it's fantastic (great fiddle / steel guitar solos from Kenny Lovelace / Charlie Owens!). Similarly, I have a solo performance of 'Sweet Thang' from 1974. It is performances like these that remind what an incredible performer Jerry Lee Lewis once was. These days it's impossible to imagine him even doing songs like 'Pink Cadillac' & 'Honky Tonk Women' on his own, & if anyone requested something like 'Sweet Thang' he'd probably just get annoyed & walk off stage...[/quote

Which year did he record "Sweet thang"? On what record can I find it?

'Sweet Thang' was recorded & released in 1969, & can be found on the Bear Family 'The Locust Years' boxset.

[Forrest Mayer]

I am a young JLL fan, just starting to collect. Is there any way I may purchase a copy of this show from you? Or maybe trade?

[unchained]

I found this concert and a few others on this forum http://www.thetradersden.org

The files are always wave files, upoladed as flac files so it's not lossy MP3 quality. Still it better to trade...