Detroit Rock City

Source: Bootleg Addiction
Jimi Hendrix: Detroit Rock City
mp3 320 kbps

Cobo Arena, Detroit, Michigan, USA
November 30, 1968
Audience

1st Source Fire
Spanish Castle Magic
I Don't Live Today
Sunshine Of Your Love
Red House
Voodoo Chile (slight return)

2nd Source
Fire
I Don't Live Today
Sunshine Of Your Love
Red House
Foxy Lady
Hey Joe
Purple Haze
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info.rtf

November 30, 1968
Cobo Arena, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Source: audience
Fire
Spanish Castle Magic
I Don't Live Today
Sunshine Of Your Love
Red House
Voodoo Chile (slight return)

Fire
I Don't Live Today
Sunshine Of Your Love
Red House
Foxy Lady
Hey Joe
Purple Haze
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http://infromthestorm.net/hendrix.html

Detroit Rock City (ATM 231-232 / 12.12.2004 / 2CDR)
(Cobo Arena, Detroit, MI 30.11.68 - 1st & 2nd Source; 38:58 / 46:45) 1st Source: Aud; Low Gen - Digitally Restored & Speed corrected / 2nd Source: Aud; 1st Gen - Digitally Restored
Disc 1: 1st Source: "Fire" (41) / "Spanish Castle Magic" (19) / "I Don't Live Today" (23) / "Sunshine Of Your Love" (13) / "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (34) / "Red House" (34)
Disc 2: 2nd Source [Foley]: "Fire" (41) / "I Don't Live Today" (19) / "Sunshine Of Your Love" (13) / "Red House" (34i) / "Foxy Lady" (48) / "Hey Joe" (40) / "Purple Haze" (57)
notes (information mainly based on the set's release notes):
- The 1st source of this show is the tape originally thought to be from the 02.05.69 Detroit concert. This tape records the first part of the show but misses the remainder. This is another tape that has mostly circulated incomplete. Most sources end with the first minute of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (34i) followed by a 3-minute portion of the next song, "Red House" (34i). This tape is a real mess; A summary of some of the problems is given in Joel Brattin's article in UniVibes issue 28, p.27-32 (April 1998) about the Detroit recordings [online version available here]. Here are some more details: The tape is a mono recording, but somwhere during the analog copying that occurred many problems were introduced. Phase between channels had a large offset (large enough that it must have been intentional, to give a fake stereo effect), and wasn't constant. So even when the average offset was corrected, some variation in phase remained that made the sound wobble back and forth. The two channels have also been treated to different EQ, with the right channel more trebly and the the left channel more bassy. There was no feasible way to remove these problems (and additional ones described below) completely and combine the channels without losing sound quality, so the right channel of the recording was used, with some small patches from the other channel. Not knowing which channel (if either) has the more correct EQ, the average value was used and applied to the right channel. The tape gets 1 minute into "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (34), then the audio cuts and jumps into the middle of "Red House" (34). After "Red House" (34) reaches its end, there's another cut and we're back to "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (34) to capture the end of the song. Apparently what must have occurred is that the taper got to the end of the tape, but wanting to record some of "Red House" (34), rewound the tape and recorded over top of part of the previously taped "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (34). As the tape progresses past the start of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (34), the technical problems get worse. The pitch starts to droop substantially; this gets worse during "Red House" (34) (especially after a cut in the song at around the 3-minute mark). By the end of the tape, it is an unbelievable (and totally unlistenable) 75% slow. Since this pitch slowdown gets worse during the running of this source, but the original tape has a later-recorded song ("Red House" (34) before the end of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (34), it's clear that the slowdown occurred during a transfer stage and was not on the master. Also during this last part of the tape, there are speaking voices (recorded at a different speed, very high-pitched) overlaid on the music, mostly in the left channel (another reason for using the right channel). When slowed down, one of these can be heard to say "put that down and get your ass in here!". Because of this it seems likely that an early transfer was done by microphone rather than by cable, and that somebody was very unhappy. There are assorted other sounds, wobbling in the volume, dropouts galore, and one channel quits altogether at the end of the tape. It's really a total mess. The gigantic speed slowdown is probably the reason that the end of the tape isn't included on most transfers. But it's valuable, since the end of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (34) is included, which song isn't on the 2nd source (the Foley tape), and the end of "Red House" (34), which isn't on the Foley source either. It's probably safe to assume that the master would have been in substantially better shape than this tape, and that most of the technical problems (and deliberate alterations) came in at later stages, but sadly the master may no longer exist. A variable pitch correction was used to fix the speed at the end. "Red House" (34) was removed and placed after the two parts of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (34), to restore the actual recording order. Some EQ was applied to the two off-speed tracks; the original EQ on these two was substantially different from the rest of the tape, maybe some effect of the pitch sag. Sudden volume changes (some of these apparently not on the master) were corrected. This is still a rough tape, but it sounds a lot better now. At least the majority of the technical problems have been improved. Other than removal of one several-second portion during a tape cut where high-pitched voices are all that's heard, this is the complete source, and includes about 3 minutes of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (34) and 2 minutes of "Red House" (34) that aren't on most copies.
- The 2nd source is the tape recorded by Randy Foley. It skips some songs during the concert but captures the later part of the show. Most of the copies of this tape (aka. The "Detroit Fire" Tape) have been circulated without "I Don't Live Today" (23), which was recorded but left off of those transfers. The source used here is probably the best available, and is complete. It is a Digital clone of a transfer of the master onto videotape. Randy made a videotape transfer and a handful of cassette transfers, all 1st gen from the master. The master has since been sold to Experience Hendrix, and apparently no direct digital transfer of the master was made before the sale. In Foley's article in UniVibes, he implies that a digital transfer from the master was done, but that was probably an incomplete recollection. Very little has been done to this source. The CDR has index gaps (from Randy's comments it appears that his original digital transfer onto CDR has these too). These were removed. Tape speed sounds right so pitch wasn't altered.
- A 1st & 2nd Source composite is available on ATM 143 "Tomorrow We'll Do Our Last Gig In The States".
- A Stereo effect mix (merge) of "Fire" (41), "I Don't Live Today" (23), "Sunshine Of Your Love" (13) and "Red House"(34i) is available on the Collectors' Disc "Merge Vol.4".
- Refer to UniVibes issue 28, p.27-32 for a comprehensive review of the Detroit tapes (online version available here).