Bruce Springsteen
The Agora
Cleveland, OH
June 3, 1974
New pre-FM reel source via JEMS
16/44 Edition

JEMS 2018 Transfer: pre-FM 7” reels at 7.5 IPS > Otari 5050 mkII azimuth-adjusted transfer > USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 capture (24/96) > IZotope RX 6 and Ozone 6> resample to 16/44 > Audacity (track split, volume smoothing, edit) > FLAC

01 Spirit In The Night
02 E Street Shuffle
03 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
04 You Never Can Tell
05 Tokyo (And The Band Played)
06 Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
07 Let The Four Winds Blow > I’m Ready

Known Faults:
-None

Bruce Springsteen (vocals, guitar)
Clarence Clemons (saxophone,, backing vocals, percussion)
Danny Federici (organ, accordion, glockenspiel, piano)
Garry Tallent (bass, tuba, backing vocals)
David Sancious (piano, backing vocals)
Ernest "Boom" Carter (drums)

JEMS is pleased to present a fresh transfer of the famous Cleveland ’74 radio broadcast. This show has been bootlegged and circulated in many forms under many titles, including the Swinging Pig CD, And The Band Played. In 2009, the esteemed Spider-Web posted a massive upgrade of the Agora recording, sourced from pre-FM reels that had been copied from WMMS in Cleveland. That version of Agora ’74 was bootlegged as Where The Four Winds Blow (Godfather) and The Cleveland Shuffle.

The Spider-Web release definitively stated that no mastering or manipulation was done to the recording.

Earlier this year we were approached by "chrs1961815" who recently acquired two 7” reels that were also pre-FM copies of Agora ’74, but did not come from WMMS. As good as the Spider-Web version was, we thought a new transfer might yield a different result and also clean up the lineage, as the 2009 version had three CD-R generations in the chain.

Our 2018 edition is a direct capture of the new tape source, and is further differentiated from Spider-Web version in that we have attempted to fix numerous issues inherent in the original recording. As good as the pre-FM source is, it always had problems: odd noises, vocal sibilance, at times wild channel imbalance, hiss, buzz, hum, rumble and more. With the help of longtime friend o’ the firm Hoserama, many hours were spent trying to correct those glitches.

Did we fix them all? No. Is our version better than Spider-Webs? That’s up to the listener. Fixing problems like those found on the Agora is always a tradeoff: when you fix X are you negatively effecting Y? After many iterations, the new Agora goes as far as it could to tame and mitigate the problems without sacrificing musical fidelity. But you be the judge. Samples provided. We are offering the show in both 16/44 and 24/96 editions.

It seems clear to me that neither the previous pre-FM version or this edition can claim to be from the master reels, as the show was clearly edited after it was recorded. I suspect both the WMMS reels and this new set were safeties made at the time of the one-hour edit made for later broadcast.

That’s the technical side of the story. But let’s talk about the show. 

“Springsteen’s next Cleveland date was a WMMS Night Out at the Agora, four months later on June 3, 1974. The club was a little over half full, with a smattering of college students from the Jersey Shore and Philadelphia. (That show, which has appeared on numerous bootleg CDs and sites, is often listed as taking place in February, because of a show that was cancelled.) Despite an offer from Columbia Record to be their guest at the show, Kid Leo had no interest in attending. Springsteen played just short of two hours that night, and the concert was edited to fifty minutes for its Wednesday night broadcast on WMMS.” - Excerpted from the book, The Buzzard: Inside the Glory Days of WMMS and Cleveland Rock Radio by John Gorman (2007)

The first broadcast two days after the show took place on Wednesday, June 5 from 10 PM to 11 PM. Based on other contemporary setlists, the songs likely edited out of the broadcast were “Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street,” “New York City Serenade,” “Kitty’s Back,” and maybe “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City.”

This is one of nine known soundboards or radio broadcast from 1974, but it remains an essential one as arguably the best document we have of the David Sancious/Boom Carter era of the E Street Band. The performance is pure delight and for many this is the definitive version of “Tokyo” (known to many by its longtime bootleg title, “And The Band Played”). Its also the only known version of “You Never Can Tell” from the era and a fine outing for the rare “Let The Four Winds Blow” tagged nicely with Fats Domino's “I'm Ready.” 

As fans, we’re lucky to have so many great soundboards being released through the official channel, but until such time as they release something pre-1975, the Agora ’74 might the best tape we have of the period.

Huge thank to "chrs1961815" for reaching out to us and loaning us his reels, providing great background information, this being another stellar release from his archives, the last being the previously un-circulated June 27, 1982 SB with 'Cats On A Smooth Surface'. Without him, there would be no new version of the Agora ’74. Hoserama also put in a lot of time and effort as only he can, to clean up the tape and I think the results were worth it. Thanks to him, too. Finally, hats off to our longtime partner mjk5510 for his continued support, final polishing of JEMS projects and tireless efforts to upgrade recordings and put new sources into circulation.

BK for JEMS