Boston 1977 Master Tapes

~ Release by Pink Floyd (see all versions of this release, 4 available)

Annotation

Live at Boston Garden, Boston, MA on June 27th, 1977

This comes from “Direct-to-direct transfer of Steve Hopkins’ cassette master tapes”

Pink Floyd
Boston Garden
Boston, MA
June 27, 1977
Steve Hopkins Master via JEMS
16/44.1 Edition

Recording Gear: Sony ECM-99a Stereo Mic > Sony TC-158SD

JEMS 2016 Transfer: Steve Hopkins' master cassettes (Dolby B encoded) > Nakamichi CR-7A azimuth-adjusted playback (Dolby B decoded) > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 2.0 (24/96 capture to .wav) > iZotope RX > iZotope MBIT+ convert to 16/44.1

Known Faults:
-Sheep: slight cut in
-Pigs On The Wing Pt 1: splice
-Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX): splice

In 2012, Steve Hopkins was kind enough to loan JEMS his master cassettes of Pink Floyd, Boston, June 18, 1975, an outstanding recording from the famed Boston Garden, and one of the best tapes of the 1975 tour. We always planned to follow up that well-received project with his equally excellent 1977 master tapes from the same venue and now we have.

This torrent marks the first time Hopkins' master cassettes have been digital transferred without a media generation in the lineage and in high resolution. Hopkins himself transferred the show to DAT many years ago and there are circulating copies both from CD-R and multi-generation DAT rips. This should be the best transfer of the material to date.

Steve's seats for the show were Section AA, Row 10, Seats 3-4, which put him ten rows back, directly in front of the PA stack stage left (AA being one of four floor sections running right to left facing the stage). I often joke about the "Three Ls of Taping" being location, location, location, and if there was ever a tape to prove that axiom, this is it. His Sony stereo microphone is directly in front of what had to be an extremely loud and stunning clear PA. And while the stereo field of the recording is somewhat narrow, the trade-off in proximity is well worth it.

There is almost no sense of distance from the music to the microphone and ultimately playback. This is nothing short of a breathtaking recording in my opinion.

Over the last decade, I've posted hundreds of shows on behalf of JEMS and mastered nearly all of them to improve the sound. Those I didn't bother to master, I wish I had. I can't think of another recording in all that time that I listened to and thought I didn't need to do anything to improve it except this one. It has exceptional balance, warmth, high highs and low lows. As such, I've elected to leave it as is from a mastering perspective because it is just that good. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Samples provided.

That being said it has undergone de-clicking, azimuth-correction, level adjustments and other minor fixes we do to everything we post, but we haven't touched the sound characteristics. To offer the best possible quality, we are making the recording available in both 16/44.1 and 24/96 editions, each of them unmastered (in contrast to Steve's 1975 recording, where we mastered the 16/44.1 and left the 24/96 virgin).

It should be noted that Steve missed approximately seven minutes of the show due to taping issues. We have not filled in those gaps from the Lampinski source, though I'm sure the release of Steve's true master will prompt a redo of the extant matrix recording of the two sources. Our pal Goody recently redid the Boston 1975 matrix to much acclaim; perhaps he will do so again for Boston 1977. He was kind enough to review this transfer for pitch issues and gave us his blessing. Much appreciated, Goody.

Thanks once again to Steve Hopkins for allowing JEMS to present another of his outstanding audience recordings in a fresh light. As someone who has worked with a lot of audience tapes, Steve's work continues to amaze me as some of the very best. I defy anyone to make a better audience recording today, 40 years later. Please show him some love in the comments, he deserves it.

Tip of the hat as well to mjk5510 for doing the final prep work on both versions of the show. It really helps the shows keep flowing.

BK for JEMS

Annotation last modified on 2024-09-02 15:53 UTC.

Tracklist

| |
CD 1
#TitleRatingLength
1Sheep11:07
2Pigs on the Wing 11:19
3Dogs17:57
4Pigs on the Wing 22:25
5Pigs (Three Different Ones)19:18
CD 2
#TitleRatingLength
1Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part 1-5
recorded at:
Boston Garden (1st incarnation, 1928–1995) in West End, Boston, Massachusetts, United States (on 1977-06-27)
live recording of:
Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts I–V (on 1977-06-27)
lyricist:
Roger Waters
composer:
David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Roger Waters and Richard Wright (Pink Floyd keyboardist)
publisher:
Artemis Muziekuitgeverij B V, BMG Platinum Songs US, Pink Floyd Music Publishers, Pink Floyd Music Publishers Inc., Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd., Roger Waters Music Overseas Ltd., Warner–Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (Warner–Tamerlane Publishing Corporation, publisher; do NOT use as release label) and Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. (renamed as Warner Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. since 2019/05/16)
part of:
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
13:07
2Welcome to the Machine
recorded at:
Boston Garden (1st incarnation, 1928–1995) in West End, Boston, Massachusetts, United States (on 1977-06-27)
live recording of:
Welcome to the Machine (on 1977-06-27)
lyricist and composer:
Roger Waters
publisher:
Artemis Muziekuitgeverij B V, BMG Platinum Songs US, Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd., Roger Waters Music Overseas Ltd., Warner–Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (Warner–Tamerlane Publishing Corporation, publisher; do NOT use as release label) and Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. (renamed as Warner Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. since 2019/05/16)
8:35
3Have a Cigar
recorded at:
Boston Garden (1st incarnation, 1928–1995) in West End, Boston, Massachusetts, United States (on 1977-06-27)
live recording of:
Have a Cigar (on 1977-06-27)
lyricist and composer:
Roger Waters
publisher:
Artemis Muziekuitgeverij B V, BMG Platinum Songs, Pink Floyd Music Ltd., Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd., Roger Waters Music Overseas Ltd., Warner–Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (Warner–Tamerlane Publishing Corporation, publisher; do NOT use as release label) and Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. (renamed as Warner Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. since 2019/05/16)
5:06
4Wish You Were Here
recorded at:
Boston Garden (1st incarnation, 1928–1995) in West End, Boston, Massachusetts, United States (on 1977-06-27)
live recording of:
Wish You Were Here (on 1977-06-27)
lyricist:
Roger Waters
composer:
David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) and Roger Waters
publisher:
Artemis Muziekuitgeverij B V, BMG Platinum Songs US, Chappell Music Ltd., Pink Floyd Music Publishers, Pink Floyd Music Publishers Inc., Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd., Roger Waters Music Overseas Ltd (Artemis BV), Roger Waters Music Overseas Ltd., Warner–Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (Warner–Tamerlane Publishing Corporation, publisher; do NOT use as release label) and Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. (renamed as Warner Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. since 2019/05/16)
6:51
5Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part 6-9
recorded at:
Boston Garden (1st incarnation, 1928–1995) in West End, Boston, Massachusetts, United States (on 1977-06-27)
live recording of:
Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts VI–IX (on 1977-06-27)
lyricist:
Roger Waters
composer:
David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Roger Waters and Richard Wright (Pink Floyd keyboardist)
publisher:
Artemis Muziekuitgeverij B V, BMG Platinum Songs US, Pink Floyd Music Publishers, Pink Floyd Music Publishers Inc., Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd., Roger Waters Music Overseas Ltd., Warner–Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (Warner–Tamerlane Publishing Corporation, publisher; do NOT use as release label) and Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. (renamed as Warner Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. since 2019/05/16)
part of:
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
17:12
6Money
recorded at:
Boston Garden (1st incarnation, 1928–1995) in West End, Boston, Massachusetts, United States (on 1977-06-27)
live recording of:
Money (on 1977-06-27)
lyricist and composer:
Roger Waters
publisher:
Artemis Muziekuitgeverij B V, Chappell Music Ltd., KPM (music publisher), Pathe‐Marconi (not for release label use! consider “Pathé” instead), Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd., Roger Waters Music Overseas Ltd., TRO-Hampshire House Publishing Corp., Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. (renamed as Warner Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. since 2019/05/16) and Hampshire House Publishing Corp. (in 1973)
12:42
7Us and Them
recorded at:
Boston Garden (1st incarnation, 1928–1995) in West End, Boston, Massachusetts, United States (on 1977-06-27)
live recording of:
Us and Them (on 1977-06-27)
lyricist:
Roger Waters
composer:
Roger Waters and Richard Wright (Pink Floyd keyboardist)
publisher:
Artemis Muziekuitgeverij B V, KPM (music publisher), Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd., Roger Waters Music Overseas Ltd., TRO-Hampshire House Publishing Corp., Warner/Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. (renamed as Warner Chappell Music Publishing Ltd. since 2019/05/16) and Hampshire House Publishing Corp. (in 1973)
is based on:
The Riot Scene
is based on:
The Violent Sequence
7:53

Credits

Release group

part of:Pink Floyd “In the Flesh” Tour Bootlegs (number: 1977-06-27) (order: 31)