Monday, July 7, 2008

Ry Cooder - unique & ancient reel-to-reel tape offered

Free to good home...

Gathering dust on my bookshelf is a box of 1/4" tape holding the only recording (mono) of Ry Cooder from a BBC TV session in the early 80s - recorded on a Studer in TC4, I think (info for headbangers) ;-)

It's free to anyone who wants it - you'd need a 1/4" reel-to-reel tape player capable of holding large (10.5"-12") reels to make any sense of it... and it may have all faded away by now - it's only magnetic dust, after all...

Contact me here and we can liaise about dispatch. It would be nice to know someone wanted it after all these years...

13 comments:

goneforeign said...

What would be nice would be to convert it to CD, which would be quite simple, I've got a Revox A77 but shipping costs to the West Coast would be prohibitive, I assume it's a 101/2" reel probably recorded at 71/2 ips.

Anonymous said...

While converting old VHS tapes to DVD recently, I came across a film of Ry Cooder with the Tex-Mex band he put together for Chicken Skin Music and Showtime. It comes complete with TV ads from the time and I don't think it's available commercially; it's certainly not on Amazon. I could probably make copies if there are other devotees on the blog.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
If you can describe the contents any better, maybe it's something I have on DVD or CD allready for you. I own what probably is the most complete coillection of Cooder recordings. Just let me know.
Kind regards,
Marc

CB said...

Is there a story behind the acquisition of this tape that you can tell us cauli?

cauliflower said...

Responding to CB first... I was the tape&grams girl in the studio on this recording - it was a BBC2 special, I think. The rehearsal lasted most of the day - it was quite fantastic!

And the recording would've been too, had not the Health & Safety guys not decided to try out a new toy - all the musician's equipment had to go through a noise level breaker box, so if the test mic thought it was too loud, their power went off. And of course, mid-recording, it did. It hadn't all day, but they wanted it to, so they moved it bang in front of the bass amp speaker. Ho hum.

I fell in love with Ry (who wouldn't?) and recorded the whole thing, warts and all, on 1/4". But it's never been played since, as I don't have the equipment. Perhaps someone could convert it to digital for all interested - a RR special, perhaps?

goneforeign- it might be worth the post ;-) Than Marc and CB could have a copy too...

Ry gave me a backstage pass to his Hammersmith Odeon gig the following week... I was so star struck! And he saw me in the wings when they came off stage and kissed my cheek. I haven't washed since. Obviously.

cauliflower said...

oops. and mnemonic too!

Anonymous said...

I would absolutely love a copy. I've been devoted to Ry since I first saw him on the Old Grey Whistle Test back in the mid-seventies.

I could have sworn I'd seen him earlier the same week busking in Oxford Street but maybe it was just a devoted copyist.

DarceysDad said...

If you ever do get it copied, cauliflower, I'd love a disc, and will find some way to make it up to you, but I can't help otherwise.

And talking of "could have sworn I saw", I'm convinced it was a VERY sick-looking Jim Bowen who was wheeled past me in a hospital bed at BRI today (got to have my bad knee done again - grrrr!)

treefrogdemon said...

Me too, for any Ry Cooder stuff that's going...

CB said...

Great story Ms Flower. Thanks. I am happy to contribute to any postage costs.

CB said...

Speaking of the Hammersnith Odeon - did any one else queue for Dylan tickets there in 1978 and get in to spend the night there (after the sitar concert was over) and recall the cleaner being treated like a rock god?

goneforeign said...

Somewhere I have a very short open reel tape letter from my father who died in 1965 and have been planning to dub it to CD for quite a while, this could be the catalyst. Just now I'm busy with several household renovation projects but if I can find an odd hour 'twixt now and the weekend I'll drag the Revox out of storage and try it. If it works OK I'm willing to have a go at making the dub, I'd send you back the master CD from which any number of copies could be made. I think DD has my address. Let me run the test first though.

cauliflower said...

cool ;-)

I'm also up to my ears in work, but will happen one day... and be shared among the crowds at a social, maybe, as well as pigeon post to far off lands.