Search - Leslie West :: Electric Ladyland Studios 1975

Boots is Boots

PHILIP S WOLF | SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CA. USA | 10/16/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"As I really believe that Leslie West is one of the very best rock guitar slingers to ever come out of the USA, this two CD set of Leslie in the studio {with a small audience} and live on stage in Detroit while on tour promoting the "Great Fatsby" LP, was made to order for me.



All Leslie's best works are here: "Mississippi Queen" the Mountain classic is of course here, but the real "Stars" of these shows are Mr. West's solo classic: "Don't Burn Me" and his amazing cover of: "House Of The Rising Sun" that is transformed into a blistering slow blues burn with Leslie turning in some outstanding solos to drive home the most fantastic version of this old American folk tune that I have ever heard.

The Cream classic: "Sunshine Of Your Love" is here as well along side "Honky Tonk Woman" by The Rolling Stones. They both are smokers as well, that deserve a listen.



The real problem with this set is the sound quality. Yes, It is advertised as a: "Bootleg" and we all know that bootlegs have less than stellar audio quality, but this one sounds worse than any average bootleg out there. And I was expecting higher standards of sound from The Electric Ladyland Set, from one of the best recording studios of it's day. Alas, that is not the case, the Detroit set {it sounds like an audience tape} is a few notches above the "Live in the Studio" set for sound so IT is the winner here, even with the lousy sound, I have been playing the Detroit set non-stop as of late because the performance is so riveting.



So there you have it, two CD's of pretty crummy soung quality that contain some of the greatest live Music of the 1970's. If you love Leslie West's music, you will grit your teeth, and try to live with the horrible audio acoustics, and marvel at these mammoth performances from one of the greats. The two records that most of this material is from: "The Leslie West Band" & "The Great Fatsby" have the studio versions of a lot the songs of these sets in higher fidelity than what is presented here, they are much better purchases.



These are 5-star shows taken from 2-star analog tape sources.

"Electric Ladyland Studios - 1975"

Three Stars."