GiGinJapan Artwork of Japanese CDs (mostly) Jeff Beck Group / Fillmore West December 1968 / 2CD / Wardour
Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, USA 7th December 1968
Play sample :
There is no doubt that JBG #1’s three greatest audience albums are “DALLAS 1968”, which was reissued last year, “DETROIT NOVEMBER 1968”, which has been a long-awaited brush-up, and “DEFINITIVE BOSTON TAPES”, which is now on sale. There is no room, but Fillmore West in December was the name audience who made the whole picture of their 68th stage known before them. Of course, speaking of Fillmore West of JBG # 1, the sound board “FILLMORE WEST 1968” in July is a standard translation, but while it was high quality, the recording time was less than 30 minutes. Above all, regarding the performance content, the December stage released this time was overwhelmingly fulfilling.
This sound source is a monaural recording with a slightly rough texture of Detroit, which will be released at the same time this time, but it is still very easy to listen to as a 1968 audience recording because it captures a moderate sense of distance and the contours of the performance. Therefore, from the early days of the CD, it first appeared on Scorpio’s “EAST WEST”, and has produced items such as the nostalgic SCARECROW board “WE LOVE YOU”. It was highly acclaimed in professional magazines as an upper version that made a clear distinction from the items that had an undeniable feeling of missing cassettes.
However, more than 15 years have passed since its release, and now that Beck has passed away, it is a classic sound source of 1968 that is eagerly awaited for the appearance of a new definitive edition. At this timing, Krw_co, who is familiar with releasing the upper version of the Fillmore December audience that maniacs all over the world have been waiting for. This was released with the mention that “the detailed number of dubbing is unknown, but it is definitely low generation”, and from there it is an upper feeling that you can understand at a glance. It is in a natural and clear state that is incomparable to “CLAMBAKE”, which has been reigning as the definitive version for many years. Rather, when listening to this version, it seems as if “CLAMBAKE” had sharpened the sound with equalization.
It is also true that the great audience of 1968 was an unfortunate sound source that was released with the problem that the pitch was extremely low. Even “CLAMBAKE”, which was praised as the definitive version, was unbearably low in pitch, and even unstable fluctuations were seen, so listening stress was considerable. Regarding this problem, even the Krw_co version was released with a carelessness, and it was in a state where the upper version could be ruined.
Therefore, for this limited press CD, we thoroughly adjusted the pitch that was too low, which had been an old chronic disease. The long-standing dilemma that a good sound source could not get out of the maniac level due to the pitch was finally resolved. December’s Fillmore, which was popular with JBG#1 maniacs, was finally reborn in a state where people could listen to it without worrying about losing out to Dallas and Detroit.This advantage is too great.
And above all, the outstanding performance content that has been well-received since ancient times. The stage that Nicky Hopkins joined from autumn and leveled up has finally reached the stage of completion. On top of that, compared to Detroit in November, the degree of performance is even more flexible. The best example is “Rice Pudding”. It is a different song from the instrumental of the same name released later in “BECK-OLA”, and at this point it was a jam for solo rotation between members.
Already at the time of Detroit, Nicky included the phrase of Rolling Stones “We Love You” that he played the intro in this jam, but here it evolved into part of the development of the jam, even Beck responds to the piano of On the contrary, Nicky played the ending phrase of “Salt Of The Earth”, which he himself played on the piano, in the song “BEGGARS BANQUET” that had just been released, showing off his imposing presence. I was.
In addition, the performance of “Jeff’s Boogie”, which was a highlight of Beck’s virtuosity on stage every night, expanded to include solo performances by each person. In addition, “Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye” is a big circle where Rod and Beck share vocals. The best vintage audience that captures the time when the group itself was growing into a powerful live act with the addition of Nicky as a catalyst, as well as Beck. If this famous performance & name recording comes with the highest sound quality ever recorded with accurate pitch, it will be a demon!
(remastered memo)
* It was around 40% of a semitone late, so I fixed it.
JBG#1の三大極上オーディエンス・アルバムが昨年再発された『DALLAS 1968』と今回待望のブラッシュアップを果たした『DETROIT NOVEMBER 1968』、そして好評発売中の『DEFINITIVE BOSTON TAPES』であることに疑いの余地はありませんが、それら以前に彼らの68年ステージの全貌を知らしめてくれた名オーディエンスが12月のフィルモア・ウエスト。もちろんJBG#1のフィルモア・ウエストと言えば7月のサウンドボード『FILLMORE WEST 1968』がド定番な訳ですが、高音質であった一方で収録時間は30分足らず。何より演奏内容に関しては今回リリースされる12月のステージの方が圧倒的に充実していた。
この音源はモノラル録音で今回同時リリースとなるデトロイトを少し荒くしたような質感なのですが、やはり程よい距離感と演奏の輪郭をしっかり捉えていたことで68年のオーディエンス録音としては非常に聞きやすい。それ故にCD黎明期からスコルピオの『EAST WEST』にて初お目見え、さらには懐かしのSCARECROW盤『WE LOVE YOU』といったアイテムを生み出してきていたのですが、21世紀を迎えて登場した『CLAMBAKE』はそれまでのカセットジェネ落ち感が否めなかったアイテムとは一線を画したアッパー版として専門誌などでも絶賛されたものでした。
とはいえリリースから15年以上の歳月が経過し、何よりベックがこの世を去られた今こそ新たな決定版の登場が渇望されている68年定番音源でもある。このタイミングで世界中のマニアが待ち望んでいたであろうフィルモア12月オーディエンスのアッパー版を公開してくれたのがお馴染みKrw_co。これは「詳しいダビング回数は不明ながらも確実にロージェネ」という触れ込みで公開されたものでして、そこからは一聴して解るほどのアッパー感。もはや長年の決定版に君臨していた『CLAMBAKE』と比較にならないほどナチュラルでクリアーな状態。むしろ今回のバージョンを聞いてしまうと、いかにも『CLAMBAKE』がイコライズで音をシャープにしてあったかのように映るほど。
そんな68年の名オーディエンスはピッチが非常に低いという問題を抱え続けたままリリースされていた不遇の音源であったのも事実。あれほど決定版だと絶賛されていた『CLAMBAKE』ですらピッチの低さはいかんともしがたく、おまけに不安定な変動までみられたのだからリスニング上のストレスは相当なものだった。この問題に関してはKrw_coのバージョンですらおざなりなままで公開されてしまっており、せっかくのアッパー版が台無しとなりかねない状態だったのです。
そこで今回の限定プレスCDに際しては古くからの持病であった低すぎるピッチを徹底的にアジャスト。せっかくの良音源がピッチのせいでマニア向けレベルを脱せなかったという長年のジレンマが遂に解消されたのです。ダラスやデトロイトに負けじとJBG#1マニアには人気のあった12月のフィルモアがようやく安心して聞き込める状態に生まれ変わった…このアドバンテージはあまりに大きい。
そして何と言っても古くから定評のあった抜群の演奏内容。秋からニッキー・ホプキンスが加わってレベルアップしたステージが遂に完成の域に到達。その上で11月のデトロイトと比べても演奏度がさらに自由度を増している。その最たる例が「Rice Pudding」。もっとも後の『BECK-OLA』でリリースされた同名のインストゥルメンタルとは別の曲で、この時点ではメンバー間のソロ回し用ジャムと言った趣。
既にデトロイトの時点でニッキーはこのジャムの中で自身がイントロを弾いたローリング・ストーンズ「We Love You」のフレーズを盛り込んでいましたが、ここではジャムの展開の一部にまで進化、ベックまで彼のピアノに応酬します。それどころかニッキーは正にリリースされたばかりであった『BEGGARS BANQUET』の収録曲で、やはり自身がピアノを弾いていた「Salt Of The Earth」エンディングのフレーズを弾きだすなど、堂々たる存在感を見せつけてくれました。
さらに毎晩のステージでベックの妙技の見せ場となっていた「Jeff’s Boogie」までも各人のソロ回しにまで演奏が拡大。おまけに「Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye」ではロッドとベックがボーカルを分け合う大団円。ベックはもちろん、ニッキーの加入が触媒となってグループ自体が見事にまとまって強力なライブ・アクトへと成長を遂げていた時期を捉えた最高のビンテージ・オーディエンス。この名演＆名録音が過去最高音質に正確なピッチでの収録とくれば鬼に金棒！
（リマスター・メモ）
★半音の40%前後遅かったので修正しました。
Disc 1 (45:01)
1 You Shook Me
2 Let Me Love You
3 The Sun Is Shining
4 Rice Pudding
5 Shapes Of Things
6 Jeff’s Boogie
Disc 2 (38:45)
1 Blues De Luxe
2 Ain’t Superstitious
3 Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye
4 Rock My Plimsoul
Jeff Beck – guitars, vocals
Rod Stewart – vocals
Nicky Hopkins – piano, organ
Ronnie Wood – bass
Micky Waller – drums
Wardour-537
