Everyone has those moments, not quite a "life changing" moment, but a realization moment when you discover something, in this case an artist, something so good you can't believe you almost missed out on. Liz Phair was one of those artists I heard about before even listening to her music. Her debut record, Exile In Guyville was getting a lot of attention and buzz (I hate that word!) and for a guy that actually didn't have a lot of female artists in his collection (shamefully), I was curious. I dubbed a cassette copy from a friend and nearly wore out the tape because I played it so much. The songs were fresh, intelligent and oh, so interesting. The blunt, honest sexually open lyrics and Phair's low almost mono-tone vocal style had me hooked. It didn't hurt that she was cute with a tomboy-ish, "one of the guys" look and attitude. I can watch her early (pre-2000) interviews all night, she's that charming. For me, Exile In Guyville is one of the best records from the 90's and Fuck And Run and 6' 1" from the album can be on any of my playlists. In 2018, Liz revisited this album on the 25th anniversary of the original release with a repackaged boxset edition of Guyville called, Girly-Sound To Guyville which included re-mastered versions of the three Girly-Sound tapes. I posted mp3 versions from the original tapes back in 2012 and those unremastered versions are still posted here.
Sorry, for the poor quality. These are screenshots from a video on YouTube. |
Getting back to Sessions at West 54th, I saw the original broadcast on PBS-TV back in the day. The show is an hour long and Liz's slot was split with John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards, so the televised portion for each artist was half an hour. I VCR-ed the broadcast as well as audio recorded (jacked into the back of the TV) it onto cassette. The sound quality was good and I listened to it a lot, but it broadcast only 5 songs from her set. As luck would have it, I eventually found the complete live audio recording of the performance and that's what's posted below. The sound quality is excellent and Liz's performance is outstanding. There is some dispute of the actually date because on my file it's listed as October 5, 1998 (change the text file if need be), but according to other sources it should be October 15th. (setlists.com lists Oct. 5, she was in Washington)
Enjoy!
Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!
Do NOT convert to lossy formats (except for personal use)
Please share!
Video broadcast (televised portion)- YouTube
Liz Phair
October 15th, 1998
New York, NY.
Sessions at West 54th
CDr(trade)->WAV->Flac FrontEnd(level 6)->Flac->You
01 Intro (David Byrne) 00:19
02 Mesmerizing 05:00
03 Johnny Feel Good 04:11
04 Never Said 03:36
05 Support System 03:29
06 WhiteChocolateSpaceEgg 05:31
07 Uncle Alvarez 04:20
08 6' 1" 03:22
09 Dance Of The Seven Veils 04:15
10 Polyester Bride 03:54
11 Supernova 03:31
12 Divorce Song 04:07
13 Perfect Life 05:53
14 Fuck And Run 05:08
15 What Makes You Happy 04:45
LIZ PHAIR- Sessions At West 54th FLAC. rar
Thank you. I loved this show and it's great to hear these later songs without the glossier production.
ReplyDeleteOct 15 is the correct date. I was there, and just found my ticket!
ReplyDelete