Had the choice of seeing Nugent or Jackson Browne while at USF in late 77 or early 78...
Made the error and picked Ted..way too loud, distorted and didn't sound like the album..cat scratch fever didn't sound anything like it was supposed live..
Friends that saw JB said it was fantastic!
Eagler
Ya I saw Ted in 76 and 78. Loud music back then didn't have the modern gear to clean it up. No one manufactured sound systems then. Even showco the biggest they made arean gear for sports games,.. people grabbed that and subs out of movie theaters and managed to make a loud speak system,.. it was all wrong...but the only thing available. Those sound engineers walked into a room of arena echo and approached it backwards, with volume, which is exactly what you should not do. Ted is great on the albums but live he wonders. Because on an album you're not in front of people trying to act cool instead of playing right. His ego smashed him. He always claimed best gtr player in the world,... the world mind you. He was just really good at what HE did. IMO, high volume is testosterone over-load, and irresponsible sound engineers, who themselves have egos to be seen mixing and the power in finger tips. That's why I took up monitors, the ego guys HAD to be seen mixing FOH,.. I'm not ego, in fact on the shy side in crowds. Being hidden on stage rockin with the band was my thing... it was all about the fun, I may have done it for free it was that much fun one stage,.... most times.. Since no one wanted monitors because they are the hardest thing back then, it left a vacuum for me to fill and I worked more than them.
IMO Ted was all about Ted. Derek St. Holmes the vocals for his best stuff and this album,.. ya know,... his vocals really made the songs, when Teddy pushed him outta the way because he got too much recondition, things went down hill. His Gtr may have been great but Derek St. Holmes brought it full circle and made that album rock.
Jackson Browne is a great writer, but he could be hard to work with too at times. Anyone on that road that long can get jaded....<Raises Hand> I love most of his stuff for sure. Now back to volume,... it probably sounded better in an arena because he was not going after volume, just enough for room resonance. And that's how echo chambers are warred. Besides at that lower volume you get more of a feeling for the mix itself. Today,... I'd hit a JB show. He also hired really good players who stayed in line.
BTW, Drugless Teddy is nonsense. I won't get myself started on Stevie Nicks,... she was disgusting with it. She could snort the best right under the table, and when she couldn't it went in somewhere else, not a needle. Stories from their former crews
