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JERRY JEFF WALKER - SAN FRANCISCO 1981

January 26, 2023 – 6:44 am

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JERRY JEFF WALKER
San Francisco 1981 [no label, 2CD]
Live at the Old Waldorf, San Francisco, CA; December 29, 1981. Very good audience recording.

Thanks to mjk5510 for sharing the show at Dime.

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Known Faults:
- Gettin’ By: splice
- Morning Song To Sally: 6 seconds of light static
- Hill Country Rain: end cut
- Derby Day: first half of song cut
- Johnny B Goode: end cut

Growing up in Texas, Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Viva Terlingua” was a mainstay in the mjk5510 household. The live album recorded in 1973 crossed generations from my parents to my brother who is six years older than me to this young lad just getting his musical footing. It’s the ultimate party record and has been described as the “Live At The Fillmore East” of the outlaw country Texas folk-rock scene.

This 1981 set broadcast on KFAT captures what a Jerry Jeff concert is all about, the ultimate party and guaranteed to lift a dark mood by the end of the first song. The quality is excellent throughout with a a few small cuts and one significant cut on “Derby Day”.

The j-card was labeled “San Jose Dec. 1981″ and the tape was labeled “12/31/81″ none of which are correct. During this California swing he played The Old Waldorf in San Francisco on December 29, The Catalyst in Santa Cruz on December 30 and The Palomino in Los Angeles on December 31. During the show he does sing about leaving 1981 behind and name checks San Francisco this coupled with the commonality of FM broadcasts from the Old Waldorf dates the show as December 29.

Jerry Jeff Walker not only was an excellent songwriter he could take others songs and really make them his own, Guy Clark’s “Desperados Waiting For A Train” turns into a flat out jam at the end and worth the download alone.

Thanks to a long time friend who facilitated acquiring the tape and to prof goody going the extra mile getting the pitch just right. This one was all over the board and had to be cut up into various sections to get the pitch just right.

mjk5510

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Jerry Jeff Walker, the singer-songwriter who wrote the much-recorded standard “Mr Bojangles” and later became a mainstay of the Texas outlaw movement that catapulted Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings to fame, died on October 23, 2020 at a hospital in Austin, Texas. He was 78. His former publicist John T Davis said the cause was cancer. Walker learned he had throat cancer in 2017.

In a career that spanned six decades, Walker never had a Top 40 pop hit. But in his 1970s heyday, he and the Lost Gonzo Band, his loose-limbed group of backing musicians, made a number of definitive Texas outlaw recordings. “I wanted our records to sound like we were having a grand time at a party thrown for a bunch of our best friends - which, I guess, is exactly what it was,” Walker was quoted as saying in the 1998 edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Music.

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bobinchicago, Dime:

Very nice sounding show when he was with a very good band that wasn’t often captured. There are a handful of shows from this era on that Vaulty site, which unfortunately is why I guess they don’t show up elsewhere. Worth noting that a significant portion of Tomás Ramirez’ gorgeous intro to “Hill Country Rain” was also cut here. That song typically ran 9–12 minutes and the ending didn’t lose that much, mostly the end of the outro.

sgolston, Dime:

Really appreciate everything that went into capturing, acquiring & fixing this one up.  FM broadcasts that capture relatively less-documented bands & artists like JJW (especially 1979-1981) are like gold nuggets & we should all be grateful that this one has been plucked from the river & refined & shared!

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Lineage:
Cassette Tape > Nakamichi DR-01 (azimuth adjusted) > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity > iZotope RX / ozone 5 (mastered) > Peak Pro 6 (post production) > xACT 2.39 > 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. Gettin’ By 3:50
Track 102. Up Against The Wall Redneck Mother 3:17
Track 103. Morning Song To Sally 3:11
Track 104. Mr Bojangles 4:52
Track 105. LA Freeway 5:08
Track 106. She Knows Her Daddy Sings 4:12
Track 107. Rodeo Cowboy 3:44
Track 108. Jaded Lover 3:15
Track 109. Desperados Waiting For A Train 8:46
Track 110. Stoney 5:50
47 mins

Disc 2
Track 201. Hill Country Rain 7:43
Track 202. Derby Day 1:22
Track 203. Got Lucky Last Night 2:45
Track 204. Contrary To Ordinary 7:21
Track 205. Night Riders Lament 5:14
Track 206. London Homesick Blues 5:23
Track 207. Pissin’ In The Wind 3:19
Track 208. Takin’ It As It Comes Medley 7:05
41 mins

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