This is a very odd concert, even for Hitchcock. Consider that 1977 was the year of punk rock, and while the Soft Boys weren't a punk band, they were a rocking band influenced by that late 1970s punk rock energy. So, to totally buck the trends of the time, not only was this concert acoustic in format, a good portion of the songs were done acappella style! And furthermore, even though the Soft Boys had plenty of good originals already, most of the songs were covers from the 1950s or earlier, often quite obscure ones. (The only originals are tracks 1, 3, 5, 8, 22, and 24.) In 1978, there wasn't exactly a clamor for songs like "The Deck of Cards" by T. Texas Tyler in 1948 or "That's When Your Heartaches Begin" by Shep Fields Rippling Rhythm in 1937. But that's one thing I like about Hitchcock, that he's so weird.
Most of this concert was officially released at one point, but in a limited way, for a limited time. It came out as "Live at the Portland Arms" in the 1980s on cassette and vinyl, but never on CD or any other format. And that record is long out of print. It also didn't include all the songs, but some extras came out on bootleg with the same high sound quality. Apparently, just one song is missing, the original "Wey Wey Hep Uh Hole," which was the second to last song. However, "Caroline Says" may also have been played.
I'm still puzzled how or why this concert came to be. This is the only Soft Boys concert I know of in the acoustic/ acappella format. According to the Hitchcock database askingtree.com, many of the songs here were only played one time ever by the Soft Boys or Hitchcock solo, such as "My Evaline," "Horns Large Horns," "Wish I Had My Baby," "White Shoe Blues," "In the Mood," and so on. Yet they must have practiced quite a bit to get the acappella harmonies right. Maybe it was all done with the intention of making that limited release live record. But for whatever reason, it's really nice that we have this.
Even though most of this was officially released, I still needed to do a lot of editing to make it sound better. The songs were fine, but the volume of the banter between songs was quite low. Furthermore, it was often obscured by crowd noise. I used the UVR5 audio editing program to add volume and clarity. And by the way, there's a lot of talking. It's interesting to see that even back at the beginning of his music career, Hitchcock had the exact same kind of stream of consciousness surreal banter that he'd been known for in later decades.
By the way, a couple of the songs are songs by other band members than Hitchcock, but I don't have the details on that. Also, there is a claim that the concert actually took place on January 13, 1979. But I haven't been able to confirm that, so I'm sticking with the dates from the official version for now.
This album is 56 minutes long.
01 Give It to the Soft Boys (Soft Boys)
02 talk (Soft Boys)
03 Sandra's Having Her Brain Out (Soft Boys)
04 talk (Soft Boys)
05 Give Me a Spanner, Ralph (Soft Boys)
06 My Evaline (Soft Boys)
07 talk (Soft Boys)
08 Human Music (Soft Boys)
09 talk (Soft Boys)
10 I Like Bananas [Because They Have No Bones] (Soft Boys)
11 talk (Soft Boys)
12 Horns Large Horns (Soft Boys)
13 talk (Soft Boys)
14 Book of Love (Soft Boys)
15 Wish I Had My Baby (Soft Boys)
16 talk (Soft Boys)
17 White Shoe Blues (Soft Boys)
18 In the Mood (Soft Boys)
19 talk (Soft Boys)
20 That's When Your Heartaches Begin (Soft Boys)
21 talk (Soft Boys)
22 Have a Heart, Betty [I'm Not Fireproof] (Soft Boys)
23 talk (Soft Boys)
24 The Duke of Squeeze (Soft Boys)
25 talk (Soft Boys)
26 All Shook Up (Soft Boys)
27 Postman's Knock (Soft Boys)
28 Deck of Cards (Soft Boys)
Good photos of the Soft Boys in concert are few and far between. I couldn't find any that didn't show them playing electric instruments, which doesn't fit this concert. So instead I went with a photo of the venue. The small size of the place helps show what an intimate performance it must have been.
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