Albums That Should Exist: The Box Tops - Tramps, New York City, 6-21-1997

Sunday, June 4, 2023

The Box Tops - Tramps, New York City, 6-21-1997

Normally, if I have to choose between a live recording of a musical group when they were originally together and when they were taking part in reunions decades later, I'll take the original time period one every time. But sometimes there are no live recordings from that original time period whatsoever. That's the case with the Box Tops. And this reunion show is a soundboard bootleg that sounds great and has been very hard to find until now.

In case you're not aware, the Box Tops were the first group for singer Alex Chilton, best known for "blue eyed soul" hits like "The Letter," "Cry like a Baby," and "Soul Deep." They broke up at the end of the 1960s. Then Clinton went on to have a major role in the power pop band Big Star in the early 1970s. Then he gave that up too, and became a celebrated by rather obscure indie rocker instead. Eventually, he took part in occasional reunions of Big Star and the Box Tops. The Box Tops reunited in 1996, and toured occasionally until Clinton's death in 2010.

This show features all of the original members of the Box Tops. A key thing to know about this concert is that they would release a studio album a year later called "Tear Off!" (Although they were so low profile at this time that it was only released in Europe.) That consisted almost entirely of covers of classic 1960s soul songs (plus one new original, "Last Laugh"). So this concert is a mix of Box Tops hits and those covers they would put on their album. It's probable these are the same sorts of covers the Box Tops would have done in concert back in the 1960s. Also, "Trip to Bandstand" was originally an obscure single one of the band members was involved with back in the 1950s that they did for the "Tear Off!" album.

In my opinion, the sound quality is excellent. This is the best sounding Box Tops bootleg I've come across (not that there are many, or even any). However, I had to do some work to get it there. The lead vocals were low, so I used the audio editing program UVR5 to boost that in relation to the instruments. I also had to drastically increase the volume of the banter between songs. And I found there was a buzz in the bass channel during the banter, so I was able to remove that and keep the talking intact.

Weirdly, it was like Alex Chilton lived three musical lives. When he played Box Tops concerts, he never played any Big Star songs, and when he played Big Star concerts, he never played any Box Tops songs. And when he played as a solo artist, he only rarely played Box Tops or Big Star songs. So this is all Box Tops. But I think they had something special, and I'm very glad to have this.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 talk (Box Tops)
02 Cry like a Baby (Box Tops)
03 talk (Box Tops)
04 Ain't That a Lot of Love (Box Tops)
05 Treat Her Right (Box Tops)
06 talk (Box Tops)
07 Choo Choo Train (Box Tops)
08 talk (Box Tops)
09 It Tears Me Up (Box Tops)
10 Flying Saucers Rock and Roll (Box Tops)
11 Wang Dang Doodle (Box Tops)
12 talk (Box Tops)
13 Soul Deep (Box Tops)
14 I'm in Love (Box Tops)
15 Little Latin Lupe Lou (Box Tops)
16 talk (Box Tops)
17 Last Laugh (Box Tops)
18 talk (Box Tops)
19 Soothe Me (Box Tops)
20 talk (Box Tops)
21 Neon Rainbow (Box Tops)
22 talk (Box Tops)
23 Trip to Bandstand (Box Tops)
24 talk (Box Tops)
25 The Letter (Box Tops)
26 Big Bird (Box Tops)