Venue: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena
City: Oakland,Ca.
Date: March 14, 1989
Taper: Persic
Source:Nakamichi cm300 > sony tcd5m
transfer fom master cassettes
Disc One:
01 Pop Song 89
02 Exhuming McCarthy
03 Welcome To The Occupation
04 Turn You Inside-Out
05 The One I Love
06 Orange Crush
07 Sitting Still
08 Feeling Gravitys Pull
09 The Flowers of Guatemala
10 World Leader Pretend
11 Begin The Begin
12 Pretty Persuasion
13 Tired Of Singing Trouble
14 I Believe
15 Get Up
16 Just A Touch
17 Auctioneer (Another Engine
18 It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine
Disc Two:
encores:
01 Stand
02 We Walk
03 I Remember California
04 You Are The Everything
05 Finest Worksong
06 King Of Birds
07 See No Evil
08 Crazy
09 Dark Globe
10 Perfect Circle
11 After Hours
Grade: A
Notes:
MS bungles the intro to Welcome To The Occupation
*********End Persic text begin Walt K text*********
R.E.M.
March 14, 1989
Oakland Coliseum Arena
Oakland, California
(incomplete recording)
Walt K. Master Series, Vol. VII
via JEMS Archive and slipkid68
Recording Equipment: Sony ECM-150 mics > Sony WM-D6C
2022 JEMS Transfer: Master cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A (azimuth adjustment) > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.4.2 24/96 .wav capture > iZotope RX7 > downsample to 16/44 > FLAC> Audacity 3.1.3 (tracking and finishing with RX7 and TLH)
R.E.M. is
Bill Berry (drums, vocals, bass)
Peter Buck (guitar, mandolin, dulcimer)
Mike Mills (bass, accordion, vocals)
Michael Stipe (vocals, percussion)
with Peter Holsapple (guitar, keyboards, vocals)
01_intro
02_Pop Song ’89
03_Exhuming McCarthy
04_Welcome to the Occupation
05_Turn You Inside-Out
06_The One I Love
07_Orange Crush
08_Sitting Still
09_Feeling Gravity’s Pull
10_The Flowers of Guatemala
11_World Leader Pretend
12_Begin the Begin
13_Pretty Persuasion
14_I Believe
15_Get Up
16_Just a Touch
17_Auctioneer (Another Engine)
18_It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
19_Crazy (joined in progress)
20_Dark Globe
21_Perfect Circle
22_After Hours
The seventh installment of the Walt K. Master Series takes us back to 1989 for the first leg of the Green World Tour, the longest one R.E.M. had undertaken at that point. Starting in Japan and Oceania, the 11-month trek took them to Europe and twice through North America.
March 14 in Oakland is a well-covered gig: master recordings by BW, JEMS, persic, and slipkid68 have circulated at one time or another.
Now, the previously-uncirculated Walt K. capture rises as one of the better ones of the entire Green tour. Its dynamics and clarity are remarkable, making for a marvelous playback. Samples provided.
But alas, it’s not complete. For some unknown reason, we couldn’t find much of the encore, an eight-song stretch from “Stand” to “Harpers.” Whether Walt didn’t record or a cassette went missing, we don’t know. While disappointing, fans can still hear three-quarters of Oakland from this source (and choose from others, noted above, to hear the show in its entirety; props, persic, for seeding your master!).
The set included seven of 11 tracks from Green and older songs like “Sitting Still,” “The Flowers of Guatemala,” and “Just a Touch” (for the sixth and last time on the entire tour, apparently). And we hear “Perfect Circle,” which the band carefully constructed around its familiar arrangement from “Murmur” — an absolute delight to hear every night in 1989.
Someone just off-mic remarks, “Jerry Garcia is sitting right behind us!” — and they weren’t just imagining things; Grateful Dead founders Garcia and Bob Weir both attended in Oakland. An item in the San Francisco Chronicle appeared several days after the show: an usher had walked up to the seated pair and asked Garcia (whom he did not recognize) to kindly extinguish whatever it was he was smoking. Jerry politely obliged. Years later, Mike Mills and Robyn Hitchcock (who opened shows on this leg) spoke of Jerry coming backstage to visit, noting that he was gracious and complimentary of their respective work.
Thank you, Helen, for entrusting us with Walt’s tapes. And thanks to my old pal BK for the righteous transfer and mastering. His handiwork makes this version of March 14 sound groovy and reminded me again about the times we had that year, covering so much ground. Over two tours, we recorded R.E.M. shows from Sacramento to Tempe to Vancouver, B.C..
A few words about Walt. We met right outside this very building in 1984 as we waited for Bruce Springsteen tickets to go on sale. He became a generous friend, ever enthusiastic about music, and sage in his advice about life, whether from his own experiences or rooted elsewhere in the universe.
Sharing his field recordings is a great way to honor his memory. Here’s to Walt, here’s to R.E.M., and here’s to that great concrete and glass structure just off 880.
As Walt himself once said, “share it freely, and for free!”
- slipkid68
********
End Walt K text
Grade: A
Missing: Stand
We Walk
I Remember California
You Are The Everything
Finest Worksong
King Of Birds
See No Evil