The Byrds 1969-02-22 Boston Tea Party, Boston MA(SBD)

 Ok guys and gals here is the story behind the ‘Byrd’s Boston Tea Party Tape’. I was in touch with a few folks at WBCN around 1978. I frequented the station regularly and was given tapes to copy in return for any rare tapes I had. It was 90% (WBCN)/10% (me) as they were very picky about what they wanted and would often ask me if I had permission from the artist (oh sure). So…though they copied a few of my reels…I’m sure folks/DJ’s just took them home.
So one day I am given (2) 10 ½” reels of BASF tape marked ‘Byrd’s Tea Party’. My jaw just about dropped.  I had only two songs from this performance (from WBCN Rare Tape Nights) and now I had the entire show! As I walked away with these tapes I quickly realized there was tape running out of one box into the other. Once home I unpacked the reels carefully and soon found that the reels had never been rewound. So I rewound one reel on to the other by hand. What a disaster. The tape was creased many times, it was flipped over…edge issues from not being wound properly, and it was stretched in a few places.. ect. [Someone had taken the tape and made loops to identify beginning and end of songs.  I was told the DJ’s often used this original tape when requested for ‘Jesus is Just Alright’. They seemed to always use the version from the 2nd set which didn’t help the ‘8 Miles High Jam’.] Anyways… I couldn’t fully rewind the tape as there was too much tape on either reel. I looked for a splice and broke the tape there. During playback of the second reel I found that someone had spliced the Byrds Tea Party show with the Colosseum Tea Party set!?!? Probably so they didn’t need to use a valuable ‘take-up reel’.  So now I had another Tea Party show!! Both reels were rewound slowly several times to make sure they were consistent. I soon found out that the Colosseum reel of tape was badly torn! Once I was comfortable with the results I made my copies. It was the best I could do as I was only allowed to keep tapes for a few days. My copies were done on Maxell UD 35-90 7” reels @ 7ips. There was NO noise reduction used.
The BASF reels were recorded ½ track at 7ips. The speed change during 8 miles high is due to the length of tape that was between the two boxes (it was stretched in a few places). There are a few more speed changes through out. "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man" has a break before it. I am assuming someone tried to fit more of the 2nd set on the reel? “Fido” is cut as I assume the Original Reel ran out. Once I gave the tapes back to WBCN, they decided to broadcast the sets. However, they didn’t like the speed changes in 8 miles high. So for the broadcasts they edited the sets into one large set. This quickly made the trading/bootleg rounds but was missing some songs. This is why there were FM versions floating around.
According to folks at WBCN and those in the Boston Area, the Byrds show up at WBCN around midnight with the tapes and began playing back parts of the sets from that night. The folks at WBCN ask if the station can keep the tapes over night in order to make a copy. They agree and a copy is made. I believe the copy was done rather poorly as there is some overlapping of audience noise during a few songs. Maybe someone did it during the day over a period of time.
Anyways, this is how the show came to be………Hezekiahx2

Heads were aligned for optimum playback. I never used noise reduction. All tapes were recorded at 7 1/2 ips. I put a MP3 file below so you can check out the sound quality. I also decoded the flac files, burned them onto cd and listened to both sets. Sounds great No issues!!


As with all Digital releases, this is for free trade or blank media trade only.
Not to be bought or sold. Keep the spirit of trading alive and well.
Nothing has been edited out or EQ'd.

Lineage:
Byrds Master reels (7½ ips  ½  Track) -> WBCN Station Copy (7½ ips  ½  Track) ->
Maxell Reel (7½ ips  ¼  Track Technics 1506) -> Tascam CD-RW2000 -> EAC ->
CDWav -> Flac.

The Byrds
Boston Tea Party, Boston Mass
2-22-1969  Soundboard

1st Set (1st CD)

01-intro > You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
02-He Was A Friend of Mine  (slight speed change)
03-Old Blue
04-Long Black Veil
05-Goin' Back
06-Get Out of My Life Woman
07-Ballad of Easy Rider
08-Jesus Is Just Alright
09-Tulsa County Blue >
10-Mr. Spaceman
11-Sing Me Back Home
12-This Wheel's On Fire >
13-Hold It & announcer

2nd set (2nd CD)

01-Into > Lay Lady Lay
02-Time Between
03-My Back Pages >
04-Baby What You Want Me To Do?
05-Take A City Bride
06-It's All Over Now Baby Blue
07-Way Behind The Sun
08-Jesus Is Just Alright
09-Turn! Turn! Turn! >
10-Mr. Tambourine Man >
11-Eight Miles High (severe speed changes)
12-I Shall Be Released (severe speed change)
Break (maybe to fit more of the show on the station master?)
13-Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man
14-Nashville West [instrumental]
15-Fido [cut] (TAPE RUNS OUT?)


The lineup for The Byrds on this show:

Roger McGuinn -  most of the lead vocals, 12 string
Clarence White - vocals, lead guitar
John York - lead vocals on Long Black Veil, Tulsa County Blue, Way Beyond The Sun, I Shall Be Released, and Fido, co-lead vocals on a few others, bass guitar
Gene Parsons - vocals (lead vocals on Take A City Bride), drums

Link