This Great James Taylor Show...Comes With A Little History!...I First Received This Bootleg A Few Years Ago.......With The
Given Show Date July 5th 1972 And Show Location Oakland, California...And That It Was Also A Live Album Recorded
By Warner Brothers But Never Released...And Then Released By The Polar Bear Records As A "Silver CD" Release...That Was It!
Just Recently I Discovered That The Original Bootleg Was Not The Complete Show...When I Saw This On A "James Taylor Blog"...
"Previously available on the CDR trading circuit, this excellent recording of a 1972 Oakland, CA show was originally planned as an
official live release by Warner Brothers. Collectors will note that this CD omits 25% of the planned double-album, as it was mastered
from only three available reels of the original four-reel set."
Which Led Me On A Search For The Complete Show....And In Doing So I Discovered The Following......
The Original Recording Date Was Wrong.....This Was Confirmed By Checking The Events Held At The Oakland Coliseum On That Date.
I Found This Description On A "James Taylor Music Blog"........."If this show was at the Oakland Coliseum then it is probably
March 25, 1971...Carole King and Jo Mama opened. They had a giant closed circuit TV screen over the stage. The review appears to
match up fairly good with the set list provided,"It is definitely NOT July 5, 1972 The "Ice Follies" played at the Oakland Coliseum
each night July 5 - July 9, 1972"!
So Unless James Taylor Was On Ice Skates....And Doing A "Triple Lutz"....The Date For This Show Is Certainly Not July 5th 1972
But The All But Confirmed...March 25th 1971....I Think The Mistake Was Made Because The Date On The Original Tape Box Turned
Over To Warner Brothers Was July 5th 1972 (See Photo Below)...But This Was Just The Date Warner's Received The Tapes...Not The
Actual Show Date!
This Is Where It Gets Interesting.........
I Found This Info....On Another "James Taylor Blog"....."Here's the story of this recording...This was JT's first attempt (of several) at
recording a live album, with label Warner Brothers...He was touring with Carole King and Kootch's band, "Jo Mama"... guitarist
Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar, bassist Leland Sklar, and drummer Russ Kunkel.
Planned for release as a double album, the masters were passed around on four reel-to-reel tapes for a while until it was decided
to air the show on FM instead of releasing a record.(They would try again--unsuccessfully--to capture James live for an album in 1981)
About five years ago, I paid through the nose for three of the four original WB reel-to-reel tapes at ebay
(reel #2--these 6 songs--was missing) and I lovingly transferred them to CDR for the free trading community. I am attaching a jpeg of
one of the reel covers, which makes a nice CD cover.(See Photo Below) My Oakland 1972 CD made the rounds until some bastards at
Polar Bear bootlegs decided to release my (and others') hard work on silver CDs and make some money at it.
I didn't get too upset, this wasn't the first time this happened...I also mastered the "Alternate One Man Dog" set from quad
reel-to-reel tapes, intended for free trading only"..... By Greg B.
Then This From The "Complete"..."James Taylor Sweet Baby James By The Bay"...Bootleg Text File I Received With The Show.
"The "Baby James By The Bay" show is a really nice sounding soundboard...It was however, missing 6 songs.
So I dug them up from an old reel to reel copy.This show was originally rebroadcast on FM radio (I believe WNEW in NYC)
around 1974.At that time, the venue for the show was listed as the Oakland Coliseum.The missing songs went between
"Rainy Day Man" and "Highway Song"...Unfortunately, the missing songs were recorded at a slow tape speed (3.75 ips)
way back then and some tape degradation has set in. The quality is a step below the James Taylor "Baby James By The Bay"
original Warner Brothers SBD recording...In spite of that, I decided to include the missing songs, so that everyone can have
a complete show from a really good concert."
"I took both sets of Shn files and decompressed and converted them to Flac. I ran them through cool edit pro 2.0 to take
care of any glitches...amplify the volume overall where necessary and to amplify some of James banter which you couldn't hear.
I then recombined the whole show into one file and tried to ease the track transitions and patch in the missing songs as well
as I could. Although I was tempted to use some hiss reduction, especially on the missing songs, in the end I decided not to.
To do this half right, it always takes more hours than one thinks,I'm no pro but I think it came out very good."
(If I Knew Who Did This Fine Job...I Would Give Them All The Credit!)
And Finally This Description From Another "James Taylor Music Blog"...................
A great soundboard recording. It's been claimed that this is a Warner Brothers official recording that was initially going to
be released as a live album but was instead replaced by another studio album. The quality is fantastic and James puts on a very good
performance. There are a few fades between songs but that is all there really is to complain about. I'm not sure how much this show has
been circulated but it will make a great addition to any James Taylor collection. Overall, a definite must have!!
So There You Have It....The Whole Crazy History Of This Fantastic...And Now Complete..."Sweet Baby James Bootleg".....So Now
James Taylor
"Sweet Baby James By The Bay"
The Oakland Coliseum
March 25th 1971
Recorded By Warner Brothers For An Unreleased Live Album (SBD)
*Taken From WNEW-FM NYC Broadcast 1974 (FM SOURCED)
01.Sweet Baby James
02.Something In The Way She Moves
03.Greensleeves
04.Tube Rose Snuff Commercial
05.Sunny Skies
06.Chili Dog
07.Rainy Day Man
08.Riding On a Railroad*
09.Places In My Past*
10.Carolina On My Mind*
11.Long Ago & Far Away*
12.Blossom*
13.Country Road*
14.Highway Song
15.On Broadway
16.Fire And Rain
17.Love Has Brought Me Around
18.Whoa, Don't You Know
19.Steamroller Blues
20.Help Me Find This Groove
21.Promised Land~(Pre-Encore Applause)
22.You Can Close Your Eyes