Beat The Boots I: Unmitigated Audacity

Release Information

Recorded: 12-May-1974
Location: Notre Dame University
Length: 46:53
Sound quality: Audience B
Label: D-549 (original)
FOO-EEE R2 70540

 

Notes & Comments

Sound Quality

Jon Naurin

Unmitigated Audacity: Very good show by the short-lived "10 Years of the MOI" 1974 band. Unfortunately the sound sucks badly—worst in the BTB series.

TTrocc7007

One of the stipulations of the Boots series as set down by ICA was that all music had to be reproduced directly from the original bootleg albums, with no tweazing of any kind. Well that's OK for them, but It was Tom Brown, myself, and Rhino who took the heat over the audio quality of Boots 1. For example one of the discs on Boots1 (Unmitigated Audacity) was included (and remember also that supposedly these decisions were coming from ICA, and in fact I have read interviews in print were their one-time employee and shipping clerk Gerry Fialka claimed that HE chose the material obn Boots1! HAH! If that's the case, ask him WHY each title was included. Only Tom and I know that.) because it was recorded May 12, 1974, or in fact the actual 10th anniversary of THE MOTHERS. With the exception of Camarillo Brillo, all of the tunes performed were from the 1965-69 period Mothers. We thought that just for historical reflection alone it was worth inclusion, not to mention our wanting to be able to show a Frank that was human, sentimental, and in love with his own material. Well, it was also the worst sounding of the lot, and the volume we got the most complaints on.

Tom Brown, interviewed by Vladimir Sovetov, Arf, c. 1999

I'd like to take this opportunity to clarify and offer my defense in behalf of the piss poor audio quality of the "Unmitigated Audacity" title from box 1. Even though the sound is rancid on the original boot, the devious plan I had in mind was as follows . . . a much superior quality tape of this show was available and I was going to get it into Bob Stone's hands when the mastering was being done, when Gail surprised us all by stepping in and forbidding it. It was a great disappointment to me as it was a terrific performance by one of my favorite groups of material that doesn't appear in whole on any legitimate release. It essence, this leads to the reason of why BTB2 is overall a better sounding set than box 1. I went out off my way to make sure that all the titles I submitted for approval for BTB2 were among the better sounding boots.

Different Versions

Rolf Maurer

My copy of Unmitigated Audacity lacks the screened-back hammer, and the rhino with the clothespin on his nose, on the back cover, and the little FOO-EEE speech balloon on the spine, that my copy of The Ark has. What is the meaning of this discrepancy?

Additional clues: The disks are in the same catalogue number sequence (R2 70538 for The Ark, R2 70540 for Audacity). The Ark is made by Disque Americ in Canada; the Unmitigated Audacity disk doesn't identify either a manufacturer or a country of manufacture (aren't records required to have that information?). The difference doesn't seem to have anything to do with BMG, either.

JWB

If "Unmitigated Audacity" was the one from Canada, then that would explain it. But "The Ark" is. So, that leaves us with nothing.

I have never seen an American BTB CD with the details you describe. But I have seen imports like that, however these imports have different catalog numbers and are not on FOO-EEE. So, it's a mystery to me. Perhaps your copy has mis-pressed artwork. Or maybe some Canadian copies are like that. As long as it's on the FOO-EEE label with an R2 prefix, it is distributed by Rhino, and must be a North American copy.

ifekete

I have the same CD you described. Here's my take on this. This must be a legitimate Rhino US release with the first version of the artwork which was later modified. Somehow this is still in the shops in the USA.

The first UA CD I bought was the european pressing on Castle/Essential. During one of my visits in the US I noticed that the record shops there had either of two versions of this: one with the same cover art as the european CD, and the we are talking about. (There are much more differences between the two than you described—see below). So in the end I bought this version too.

'strange' US CD 'straight' US CD/european CD

catalog number R2 70540 R2 70540 (US) ESMCD 959 (EU)

back/spine color yellow blue

foo-eee balloon on spine no yes

hammer on back no yes

rhino saying foo-eee on back no yes

barcode on back 0 8122-70540-2 1
The EU version has, of course, a different barcode. As far as I can remember, the US version has the same barcode as the strange one.

'booklet' 2 pages 2 pages (US)
4 pages (EU)
(p. 2&3 empty though)

rhino+catalog number yes yes (on page 4—EU)
on page 2

front cover:

white square top left 'LTD. EDITION (empty)
COLORED VINYL'

track list 'SIDE 1 (23:53)' blacked out
'SIDE 2 (23:16)' blacked out

bootleg catalog number 'D-549' missing bottom right

disc

picture disc w/hammer yes yes (US) no (EU)
(blue on white)

The 'strange' disc has the following text around the hole on the shiny side of it (What do you call this anyway? It is not a matrix number...):

(asterisks) 3 R2 70540-2 SRC#01. (asterisks) M1S3

I also have the US pressing of other BTB CDs too,
Our man in nirvana, e.g., must come from the same pressing plant as UA;
OMIN has:

(asterisks) 3 R2 70372-2.5 SRC*05 (asterisks) M1S2

What I think is the strange CD was the first one in the BTB series. It clearly has the same front cover art as the original bootleg LP with some items that were removed on later pressings.

They must have decided on the final graphics design for the series only after this batch was already out...