The Talking Heads - Jabberwocky Club, Syracuse, NY, 10-13-1977

Yesterday, I posted a live album by James Taylor, where he played at the Jabberwocky Club in Syracuse, New York in 1970. I'd previously posted a live album by Bonnie Raitt at that same club in 1971. That reminded me that I have another excellent concert at the same venue, this one by the Talking Heads. What makes this venue special for bootlegs is that while the club was in existence, from about 1969 to 1985, the club management regularly recorded the concerts there and played them on the local college radio station. That's the case here, so once again the sound quality is excellent.

The Jabberwocky Club was small, only holding about 250 people at most. It was so small that bigger bands couldn't even get all their band members on the stage, and some would have to stand with the audience near the stage. Because it was such a small place, big name acts wouldn't play there. But occasionally a future big name act would play there when they were starting out. That's the case with the Talking Heads. In October 1977, at the time of this concert, they had just released their debut album, "Talking Heads: 77" the month before. So we're very lucky to get this soundboard quality recording at this point of the band's career.

It was a bit tricky for me to figure out what and when this recording was frin, exactly. There are a number of different recordings claiming to be from the Jabberwocky Club, but often giving different dates (including in 1976) and different sets. After doing some research, I figured out that the Talking Heads played the Jabberwocky Club twice in 1977, once in January and again in October. The two dates had very similar set lists, and they played two sets each night. Recordings for most of the sets exist, but I've chosen the best set in terms of sound quality, performance, and song selection, which is the late set from October, because I don't want lots of repetition. However, they played three songs at the January date that they didn't play at the October one, so I've added those three in at the start.

Most of the songs played were released on that first album, "Talking Heads: 77." But they did some non-album originals, like "Love Goes to a Building on Fire," "A Clean Break," and "I Wish You Wouldn't Say That." They also played some covers, like "Sugar on My Tongue," "Love Is All Around," and "Take Me to the River." Also, a few songs would appear on their second album in 1978, such as "Artists Only," "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel," and "I'm Not in Love."

There were a couple of minor problems that I fixed. For the intro to "Artists Only," the sound wobbled in parts, probably because it was the very first song of that particular recording. Luckily, there was a section of the intro that didn't wobble, so I used that to patch in the repeats of that section. Also, for "No Compassion," about five seconds of the song was missing in the middle. Again I got lucky, because it was another case of a repeating section, and I was about to patch that too. I also boosted the volume of the banter between songs. Plus, in some cases, I boosted the volume of the audience applause, or extended it when it got cut off prematurely.

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long, including the three songs at the start from the earlier concert.

01 talk (Talking Heads)
02 Artists Only (Talking Heads)
03 talk (Talking Heads)
04 Sugar on My Tongue (Talking Heads)
05 I Wish You Wouldn't Say That (Talking Heads)
06 Love Goes to a Building on Fire (Talking Heads)
07 talk (Talking Heads)
08 Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town (Talking Heads)
09 Don't Worry about the Government (Talking Heads)
10 Take Me to the River (Talking Heads)
11 The Book I Read (Talking Heads)
12 talk (Talking Heads)
13 New Feeling (Talking Heads)
14 A Clean Break [Let's Work] (Talking Heads)
15 Stay Hungry (Talking Heads)
16 talk (Talking Heads)
17 Thank You for Sending Me an Angel (Talking Heads)
18 Who Is It (Talking Heads)
19 Pulled Up (Talking Heads)
20 No Compassion (Talking Heads)
21 Psycho Killer (Talking Heads)
22 talk (Talking Heads)
23 I'm Not in Love (Talking Heads)
24 talk (Talking Heads)
25 Love Is All Around (Talking Heads)

https://www.imagenetz.de/m7j4h

I couldn't find any photos of the band playing at this particular club. But I did find a good one of them playing at CBGB's in New York City some time in 1977, so I used that.