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DON HENLEY - INGLEWOOD 1990 [MILLARD TAPE]

October 6, 2022 – 7:02 am

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DON HENLEY
Inglewood 1990 [Mike Millard Master Tapes via JEMS, 2CD]
The Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Tapes Volume 152. Live at The Forum, Inglewood, CA; June 8, 1990. Very good audience recording.

Thanks to Mike Millard; Rob, Jim R; Barry G; JEMS; BK; Goody; and mjk5510 for sharing the show at Dime.

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Welcome to JEMS’ Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone series presenting recordings made by legendary taper Mike Millard, AKA Mike the MICrophone, best known for his masters of Led Zeppelin done in and around Los Angeles circa 1975-77.

Until 2020, the Lost and Found series presented fresh transfers of previously unavailable first-generation copies made by Mike himself for friends like Stan Gutoski of JEMS, Jim R, Bill C. and Barry G. These sources were upgrades to circulating copies and in most instances marked the only time verified first generation Millard sources had been directly digitized in the torrent era.

That all changed with the discovery of many of Mike Millard’s original master tapes.

Yes, you read that correctly, Mike Millard’s master cassettes, long rumored to be destroyed or lost, have been found. Not all of them but many, and with them a much more complete picture has emerged of what Millard recorded between his first show in late 1973 and his last in early 1992.

The reason the rediscovery of his master tapes is such a revelation is that we’ve been told for decades they were gone. Internet myths suggest Millard destroyed his master tapes before taking his own life, an imprudent detail likely concocted based on the assumption that because his master tapes never surfaced and Mike’s mental state was troubled he would do something rash WITH HIS LIFE’S WORK. There’s also a version of the story where Mike’s family dumps the tapes after he dies. Why would they do that?

The truth is Mike’s masters remained in his bedroom for many years after his death in 1994. We know at least a few of Millard’s friends and acquaintances contacted his mother Lia inquiring about the tapes at the time to no avail. But in the early 2000s, longtime Millard friend Rob S was the one she knew and trusted enough to preserve Mike’s work.

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Don Henley - The Forum, Inglewood, CA; June 8, 1990

Another week, yet another artist added to the Mike “The Mike” Millard roster. Don Henley should come as no surprise, given Mike was a fan of the Eagles and taped them twice in 1980 (one released as Vol. 10 in the Lost and Found series; the other still to come). This is one of four Henley performances he recorded, include a couple of special benefit gigs at the Santa Monica Civic two months before on a shared bill with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Henley’s 1990 tour was essentially an arena-level victory lap capitalizing on the success of his third and most successful solo album, The End Of The Innocence released in June 1989. Ten years removed from the last Eagles show (and four years ahead of their reunion), Henley had built himself a major solo career–this album alone had three Top 25 singles, including the smash title track, and went six-times platinum.

Curiously, Henley’s setlist only includes five songs from the album, including the other singles “The Last Worthless Evening” and “The Heart Of The Matter.” Don seemed to have good luck with song titles starting with “The.”

The rest of the set is a mix of Eagles’ classics (unplayed by The Eagles themselves since 1980) and the other huge hits from his previous solo albums, notably “Sunset Grill,” “Dirty Laundry,” “All She Wants To Do Is Dance” and “The Boys of Summer.”

With his biggest solo records all released in the ’80s, there is a HEAVY synthesizer component to Henley’s live sound and in this mix especially, making it a bit of a dated affair sonically, but Millard captures the show brilliantly in an excellent, up-close recording.

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JEMS is proud to partner with Rob, Jim R, Ed F, Barry G and many others to release Millard’s historic recordings and to help set the record straight about the man himself.

We can’t thank Rob enough for reconnecting with Jim and putting his trust in our Millard reissue campaign. He kept Mike’s precious tapes under wraps for two decades, but once Rob learned of our methods and stewardship, he agreed to contribute the Millard DATs and cassettes to the program. Our releases would not be nearly as compelling without Jim’s memories, photos and other background contributions. As many of you have noted, the stories offer an entertaining complement to Mike’s incredible audio documents.

Even internet outages won’t slow the Lost and Found series train. Special thanks this week to Goody for his continued pitch correction guidance and to mjk5510 for overcoming bandwidth limitations to get this one up and out.

Finally, cheers to the late, great Mike the MICrophone. His work never ceases to impress. May he rest in peace.

BK for JEMS

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Lineage:
AKG 451E microphones (CK-1 cardioid capsules) > Nakamichi 550 cassette recorder
JEMS 2022 Transfer: Mike Millard Master Cassettes > Nakamichi Cassette Deck 1 azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX > iZotope RX9 Advanced and Ozone 9 > MBIT+ resample to 16/44.1 > Audacity > xACT 2.50 > FLAC

Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (320 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

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Disc 1
Track 101. Drivin’ With Your Eyes Closed 4:25
Track 102. Dirty Laundry 7:02
Track 103. The End Of The Innocence 7:48
Track 104. If Dirt Were Dollars 7:00
Track 105. Sunset Grill 6:36
Track 106. New York Minute 9:45
Track 107. The Heart Of The Matter 6:47
Track 108. Hotel California 6:45
57 mins

Disc 2
Track 201. Life In The Fast Lane 5:33
Track 202. The Boys Of Summer 5:42
Track 203. All She Wants To Do Is Dance 5:31
Track 204. I Will Not Go Quietly 7:44
Track 205. Band Introduction/Dialogue 12:43
Track 206. Desperado 5:01
Track 207. The Last Worthless Evening 6:22
49 mins

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