75 A Primer on R.E.M. Bootlegs/Live Tapes
Description
This article is from the R.E.M. FAQ, by Ron Henry (rgh3@cornell.edu) with numerous contributions by others.
75 A Primer on R.E.M. Bootlegs/Live Tapes
Bootlegged recordings of R.E.M. concerts, and early demo versions of songs
from their albums, are widely available; comparisons have been made between
R.E.M. fandom and Deadheads on the basis of their shared appetite for live
recordings of their respective favorite band. Remember that these
recordings are, strictly speaking, illegal, and are therefore not available
in retail record outlets. So, if you want to get hold of some, here are a
few ways to go about it:
1. Go look in USED record and CD stores. Some used stores won't deal in
boots, but many do. If you live in or near a big city (bootlegs tend to be
harder to find in small-town used stores), take a field trip and dig, dig,
dig. Some older bootlegs are only on vinyl, but most new ones are on CD.
Some stores also sell multiple-generation taped copies of random shows,
which don't sound as good, but are certainly much cheaper.
2. Go to record shows. While many dealers will sell recordings of
questionable legality and origin, you can also find things at record shows
not available elsewhere... you pay your money and you take your chances!
But there are great finds to be had.
3. Mail order. _Goldmine_ magazine has extensive advertisements from people
who deal in bootlegs. You may want to ask other group readers about
particular dealers before sending off your money, since some of them aren't
too reliable. From some people's experience, Midnight Records (out of NYC)
is a legitimate record store that has a very good mail order department, as
is Minus Zero Records at 2 Blenheim Crescent in London. They both are
reputed to have great bootleg selections.
4. Trade. If you see someone talking on Rec.music.rem about a bootleg they
have you think sounds interesting, ask that person politely if they might
be willing to trade.
Some folks (but not all) will send you a copy of their bootleg in exchange
for enough cash to cover both return postage and the cassette, some will
also want to be compensated for the time they will spend taping for you,
and still others will only want to exchange with you for some rare
recording that they are looking for (in which case, if you don't have what
they're looking for, they won't be interested in trading with you).
This kind of person-to-person trading is a great way to acquire boots since
you're dealing with a private individual instead of a store, or bootleg
company of questionable morals -- sometimes you can not only get a cool
R.E.M. recording, but make a friend as well.
HOWEVER: Make sure you come to a solid agreement before you send off tapes
or cash! This cannot be stressed enough. Many flame wars have gotten
started over a misunderstanding about terms and the time-frame for getting
the recordings done and mailed back (some people will get it done in a
week, others may take months; everyone has differing priorities). Please
try to contact the person by phone or email before posting to Rec.music.rem
that they are dishonest... people are sometimes busy, and sometimes
honestly forget commitments. It's real ugly when people start making
accusations in public about other Rec.music.rem contributors' honesty (or
lack thereof).
You may find that if you offer some bootleg or compilation tape of rare
songs to the entire net, you will be SWAMPED with requests for it. Be aware
of this if you don't want to get committed to making dozens and dozens of
copies of a single tape -- remember, many THOUSANDS of people read
Rec.music.rem each day. Sometimes people will offer to make a certain
number of copies for the first `N' number of people who reply, or will ask
for a particular type of recording in trade, in order to reduce the number
of responses.
In Summary
Bear in mind that buying new bootlegs is expensive. Vinyl boots used to go
for least US $10 per LP disk, and now, in "vintage record" shops, may cost
more than twice that. CD boots run about US $20-30 per disc. However,
making an investment in buying an excellent quality CD boot means you can
easily tape and trade copies of it for other things, and your collection of
tapes can therefore grow quickly.
Because the sound quality of bootlegs varies widely, if you are considering
buying or ordering a bootleg, consult the bootleg discography first, watch
the newsgroup for discussions on titles you are interested in, or post a
question about the sound quality (it would appear that most of the common
boots are owned by at least a few readers) before shelling out the cash. If
you are buying a bootleg in a used CD shop, ask the clerk if they will play
a couple cuts for you before you buy.
The Great Bootleg Discography (see http://www.svs.com/rem/bootdiscog.html
or http://www.svs.com/rem/other/boots.discog) has descriptions, ratings,
and setlists for just about every bootleg that has been released on LP and
CD. Boots taken from radio broadcasts of concerts are usually good-quality
soundboard recordings, though are often very widely available under
multiple titles from different bootleg outfits -- so be careful you don't
inadvertently duplicate a show you already own.
Audience recordings, meanwhile, are generally of mediocre quality and may
not be worth the effort unless the sound turned out surprisingly well and
the people in the rows around the person making the recording kept their
mouths shut (yeah, sure, you wanted a tape of Joe Shmoe's drunk buddy in
the next seat singing along out of key at the top of his lungs to "Losing
My Religion", or somebody's airhead date saying "Ohmigod, the singer is
like tot'ly bald!"), or if the show itself was particularly significant (a
show you attended, for example, or something cool like the pre-_Murmur_
performances, most notably _So Much Younger Then_).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally, A Word About Posting Scurrilous Rumors
Don't expect anyone to believe a rumor you've heard unless you can back it
up with concrete evidence. "My best friend said so," is NOT enough. If you
hear something that you'd like to try to confirm, please specify that it is
a rumor and not a fact, and take your chances (in other words, you might
still get flamed). But bear in mind nearly all gossip about a celebrity
(especially about Michael Stipe, who in R.E.M. seems to be the rumor
magnet) is only innuendo without real evidence.
Continue to:
My Books
