PRETTY AWFUL, BUT IF YOU MUST OK
Syd | Chicago | 06/10/2007
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I love Nico. I love live Nico. The problem here is any number of bootleg tapes out there are better than this. All the boot tapes I have of Nico, including the worst, are actually better than this. Now my worst ones don't sound so bad to me. I think bootleg recordings should be kept on tape that are traded or sold among collectors themselves. I am even generally oppossed to profesionally packaging bootleg recording because they are then turned into a product like a regular CD and can't be returned upon disappointment. At least if you buy it or trade it on tape you can always swap it back for something else from 'your man.' I think professional packaging of bootleg recordings is ok if it is really something outstanding and is too rare to make the general circulation among tape collectors. A bootleg CD of Reed/Nico/Cale Bataclan '72 comes to mind. The bootleggers got the real quality and the correct speed. Same soundboard tape, too. Zappa repackaging bootleg LPs is another tacky example that comes to mind. However, the artists are free to do as they please. But die-hard fans and collectors genreally don't need their help or the help of the recording industry for these types of recordings. If you have something great and rare to offer, fine. We don't even mind a bit of substandard quality, you know that. But this recording is awful. The recording industry is just not good at releasing bootlegs. They should stop trying and give us the really rare stuff. I thought the first disk was bad, until I heard the 2nd disk. At least you can hear a band on the 1st disk, although it appears to have been recorded with a built in mic on a video camera, totally flat and mono, distant, boomy. The 2nd disk, oh god. It sounds like the band has nodded off, leaving Nico alone in a large bomb shelter. All you hear is her voice echoing off of nothing. Even given this, if you're some kind of real freak you might like this. Just don't pay anything but rock botton, Or better yet, wait till people start to dump their copies and get it used if you must. Nice green color on the cover."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1