Return to Forever
Atwood Hall
Clark University
Worcester, Mass
1 February 1974

This has a sound/performance quality of A- for me but the bigger draw is some unusual songs from RTF. That said, there is some weird mixing. Adjustments were made that helped make this a nice clean source recording,

Compilation from 2 RTF Shows! Total unedited* runtime 183:45* (see Note below in info. file), Through the 2 shows, only 2 songs are duplicated here (Space Circus and Cap't Senor Mouse). It  has songs from Hymm of the 7th Galaxy (the only RTF album with Bill Connors) and Stanley's solo album Children of Forever which sounds alot like a pre-Connors era RTF record.

Source: 1st generation cassettes of master sbd reel (WCUW Worcester 91.3 FM radio, which was at this time Clark University's radio station before
going independent/public radio > transferred from Revox reel > Tascam cassette deck with no dolby used.

lineage: WCUW radio station master reel (10", 3 3/4 ips) > (played on Revox reel deck into Tascam cassette deck) my copy (Maxell XLII-S) > soundforge 4.5 (to WAV) > FLAC 6 > torrent. Technically that makes this a 4 X 3 step torrent: 4 steps from master tape to you and 3 steps for you: 1 download. 2: FLAC > WAV 3: burn CD (or to DAT). lineage: WCUW radio station master reel (10", 3 3/4 ips) > (played on Revox reel deck into Tascam cassette deck) my copy (Maxell XLII-S) > soundforge 4.5 (to WAV) > FLAC 6 > torrent. Technically that makes this a 4 X 3 step torrent: 4 steps from master tape to you and 3 steps for you: 1 download. 2: FLAC > WAV 3: burn CD (or to DAT).

First Show 88:51 1.  Band Introductions - 3:41 2.  Beyond the 7th Galaxy - 4:11 3.  After the Cosmic Rain - 20.:13 4.  Theme to the Mothership - 21:50 5.  Children's Song (Corea & Clarke duet) - 6:41 6.  Space Circus - 15:08

1.  Captain Senor Mouse - 16:51 Second Show 95:18 2.  Band Introductions - 3:03 3.  Captain Senor Mouse - 17:05 4.  Bass Folk Song - 15:16

1.  Sometime Ago - 45:01 2.  E: Space Circus - 14:40

RTF played alot of college gigs in 1974, and apparently used students to do the sound, either to save some $ (they didn't have alot at this early stage) and/or to help give some students some experience at a difficult job. There are a few RTF recordings circulating that have some strange mixing issue. In this one, sometimes the drums and bass are almost not there, other times too there, or one instrument overwhelms everything else. RTF is NOT the band to be learning how to do your 1st mixing assignment. they are one of the toughest assignments a soundperson will ever mix, because the mix is supposed to change some when a player does a solo, and everyone in RTF does that quite a bit. this is probably the weirdest sound mix ever heard in a RTF concert. there are many drastic changes that shouldn't be there and Corea is frequently asking for adjustments to be made. Corea himself, is very aware and conscious of things like that, and it was bugging him, even though it's still a very good performance. But trying to REALLY fix it would be a major undertaking. The only way a better recording of it could surface is if someone does a direct transfer of the master reel to HD or CD or DAT, but if you think the mix here sounds bad, that would sound even more erratic.

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