Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Susanna Hoffs - McCabe's Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, CA, 7-15-1994

Here's a nice Susanna Hoffs acoustic concert. Hoffs hasn't had nearly the success with her solo career as she's had being a member of the Bangles. I also don't think she's put that much work into it, judging by the limited number of solo albums and concerts. Furthermore, she often was dragged down by bad production. But this concert gets past any production problems due to its simple acoustic nature, with just Hoffs and a second guitarist. It revealed she had lots of very good songs in the early 1990s, as well as excellent taste in covers.

I suspect this is an audience recording, not a soundboard. But the fact that I'm not sure shows it doesn't matter much. This is very listenable. Sometimes, her comments between songs were too quiet, but I've boosted the volume on those.

In the early 1990s, Hoffs' record company wanted to push her as a pop star based on her beautiful looks and wasn't that interested in her musical talent. She mostly went their way with her 1991 album "When I Was a Boy," so it wasn't that good. She tried to go in a different direction with a 1994 album, but her record company rejected it and dropped her from the label. Ironically, this concert seems to be promoting that album that didn't actually exist. 

She wouldn't release another album until 1996, the simply titled "Susanna Hoffs." It would use a few of the songs here, like "Enormous Wings," "Happy Place," and "Darling One." But others - "Go," "Ghost of His Smile," "Right by You," and "You Lost My Mind" - fell by the wayside and remain officially unreleased by her to this day. ("You Lost My Mind" was written by Sam Phillips.) The rest of the songs are Bangles hits or covers of famous songs.

The last song, "Manic Monday," was almost certainly performed in this concert because it was her closing song for all her concerts that year. But it wasn't included in the bootleg recording. I've found a version from a different concert as a substitute. The sound quality isn't as good, but it gets the job done for just one song.

This album is an hour and nine minutes long.

01 Walking on a Wire (Susanna Hoffs)
02 Enormous Wings (Susanna Hoffs)
03 Go (Susanna Hoffs)
04 talk (Susanna Hoffs)
05 A Hazy Shade of Winter (Susanna Hoffs)
06 talk (Susanna Hoffs)
07 Happy Place (Susanna Hoffs)
08 talk (Susanna Hoffs)
09 Ghost of His Smile (Susanna Hoffs)
10 talk (Susanna Hoffs)
11 Catch the Wind (Susanna Hoffs)
12 talk (Susanna Hoffs)
13 Right by You (Susanna Hoffs)
14 talk (Susanna Hoffs)
15 If She Knew Want She Wants (Susanna Hoffs)
16 Darling One (Susanna Hoffs)
17 talk (Susanna Hoffs)
18 Turning Over (Susanna Hoffs)
19 talk (Susanna Hoffs)
20 Walk like an Egyptian (Susanna Hoffs)
21 Hero Takes a Fall (Susanna Hoffs)
22 talk (Susanna Hoffs)
23 To Sir with Love (Susanna Hoffs)
24 Eternal Flame (Susanna Hoffs)
25 talk (Susanna Hoffs)
26 You Lost My Mind (Susanna Hoffs)
27 talk (Susanna Hoffs)
28 Stop (Susanna Hoffs)
29 talk (Susanna Hoffs)
30 Manic Monday (Susanna Hoffs)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15292652/SusannaH_1994_McCabeGuitarShpSantaMonicaCA__7-15-1994_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any photos of Hoffs in concert in 1994 or around that time. So I used a photo of her at a movie premiere in January 1994.

9 comments:

  1. I love the McCabes stuff! I have a great concert by Nancy Wilson of Heart from there. Just beautiful stuff!!

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    1. Yeah, McCabes seems to be a special place for concerts. I have that Nancy Wilson one too.

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  2. Thanks! The stuff she wrote with Mark Linkous and David Lowery from around that time is great!

    Btw, my download didn't include tracks 01 or 02....

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    1. Oops, you're right. I just fixed the link.

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  3. I went to several of her shows after the release of the 1996 album, and even got to meet her. (She was very nice.) Don't often find full concerts by her, so much thanks. Looking forward to this!

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  4. McCabe's is indeed terrific. Saw a Matthew Sweet show there where Susanna was with him providing backing vocals. (Would love to find a bootleg of that one).

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  5. Sorry to be off topic but I was wondering if a Spleeter version of the pink Floyd live in Stockholm (from the early years boxset) could be created, it doesn't have any vocals, I just wondered if the album audio could be lifted and synched onto it, creating a unique 'live' version. The tempo of the songs is very similar

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    1. Hmmm. That's an interesting idea. I'm aware of the Stockholm material but I hadn't thought of that. I'm bummed that there's never been a recording of a good live version of See Emily Play with Syd Barrett singing. I'll try experimenting and see what happens.

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    2. I just came up with something interesting, I think, but this isn't the place to discuss it. I'm moving this topic to this Pink Floyd album here:

      https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/05/pink-floyd-see-emily-play-various-songs.html

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