Return to Forever: Worcester 1974 (Pre-FM) FLAC

"Clarke at Clark"

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

Atwood Hall (I think, not absolutely sure of this), Clark University, Worcester, Mass. (I am sure of this and date) February 1, 1974

(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.

First show 88:51
1: band introductions
2: beyond the 7th galaxy
3: after the cosmic rain
4: theme to the mothership
5: children's song (Corea & Clarke duet)
6: space circus
7: captain senor mouse

Second show 95:18
1: band introductions
2: captain senor mouse
3: bass folk song
4: sometime ago
5: encore: space circus

lineage: WCUW radio station master reel (10", 3 3/4 ips) > (played on Revox reel deck into Tascam cassette deck) my copy (Maxell XLII-S) > soundforge 4.5 (to WAV) > FLAC 6

OU: I needed to upload because it is probably the best recording there is of this show, and there was an incomplete version of this posted several months ago on dime. 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".
I worked at WCUW radio from 1987-2001, and hosted a show there for over 10 years that featured recorded live in concert recordings, about 200 of which were my own. Most were bands few have likely heard of, but a few are definitely worth hearing and will be heard in time, along with several from my own archives. This was about 14 years before I was at WCUW, and one of WCUW's first concert broadcast recordings, 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. This was the only RTF w/Connors show I'd heard with any of those songs (until a few that popped up on dime recently). 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 I rebroadcasted most of this show 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.

OU Note: for CD burning purposes, I copied the last 2 seconds (exactly) of Track 2 Second show (Captain Senor Mouse, a quiet section) onto the start of track 3 (bass folk song) without a fadein (as I usually do to start a disc) in case someone wishes to save this to another media (DAT) and not lose any continuity. That's important to me. This is the ONLY editing done to this file (as in adding or removing anything). It's not real clear which show is 1st or second, but all tracks of each are complete and in correct order. If you burn to disc or save to DAT, either way it will sound fine without any editing, and I like to give people that option especially with this long a show. If burning to CD I suggest CD 1 here as 1st show tracks 1-6, CD 2, 2nd show tracks 3-5, disc 3 with 1st show first 2 tracks and encore of second show (track 7)
If you have a DAT tape with 184 minutes on it, this would make a good use for it. I believe that Maxell 3 hr. DATS have a little extra time on them, not sure if it's enough for this unedited but there are some silent parts that could be edited out of this if you wish to put it on a 3 hour DAT. I thought about doing that but I know many RTF fans are completists (myself included) This sounds alot better than what anybody else got from me of this (only a few) and it's all here now, a first time seed in 2008 from a 1st generation source of this entire show. It's not a "Glasnost
Radio production" originally, but sort of, since I get to be the doctor! A bit of role-reversal is a good thing sometimes, and I really do like Return to Forever a LOT, especially with Al DiMeola. This edition was pretty good too, and this is the longest RTF show I've ever heard. 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. So I hope to share some of the best of Glasnost Radio archives, my own archives, and here, something from WCUW archives of well before Glasnost Radio days.
This is the only recording I recall ever broadcasting on the show from 1974, which was WCUW's first full year on the air, and recorded by WCUW staff. The next big thing they broadcasted (to my knowledge) was Oregon in 1975. That's been posted before.
I hope to have something for almost every kind of taste, my ups will come from many different microphones/decks and sources, some will be sbd, some auds, some a mix of both. Glasnost Radio Productions liked to seek out better ways to record concerts and improve recordings, although no noise reduction is used for a glasnostrd19 upload (with only a few exceptions, unless it's before or after it passes through my hands.) I have a partial and less than optimal recording of possibly the greatest RTF concert of all time (also the only time I saw them- Boston Nov. 14, 1975) which will be seeded with a complete Nov. 74 RTF Boston show (soon). If anyone has
this whole show do the RTF world a big favor and upload it please! (World premiere live performance of Romantic Warrior- amazing show!!!) It has made the list of glasnostrd19's Top 10 most wanted torrents of all time.

rar files packed with a (winrar) recovery record -
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Comments welcome.