The dB’s
CBGB
New York, NY
March 21, 1979
+ early demos
With all the recent talk of the band’s history and “30 Years Ago...”,
I thought a musical dose of The dB’s early days might be fun.
BIG THANKS to the taper and Batchain for the share!
In the live set, only 2 songs from the debut album appear, alongside several early tunes that later disappeared from the group’s repertoire. For extra fun, compare the punked-up live version of "If & When" to the demo!
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Central Park Lake, NYC, 1980
photo by Laura Levine
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CBGB, NYC
March 21, 1979
(aud., sound quality VG to VG+)
01 The Summer Sun (first few secs. cut, fades in)
02 Dynamite (sound quality dips for about 90 secs.)
03 You're Gonna Want Me To*
04 She's Green, I'm Blue
05 Everytime, Anytime
06 Bad Reputation
07 Rendezvous (brief distortion at 0:46 & 2:19)
08 My Back Pages
09 If and When
10 We Were Happy There
11 Let's Live for Today
12 The World Keeps Goin' Round (slight buzzing on this & final track)
13 Hey Baby*
*titles are guesses, based on song lyrics
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The dB’s and the NYC skyline, c. 1980 |
The dB’s
Early Demos (late 1970s)
(sbd., from multi-gen. cassette; sound quality Gd+ to VG-)
01 (I Thought) You Wanted to Know (demo)
02 If and When (demo) + instrumental
03 We Should Be In Bed (demo)
04 What I Dig (demo)
05 Nonsequitur of Silence (demo)
A probable date for these demos would be 1978 (the first 3 at least). The sound quality is a bit less than the live set, and you can hear a dropout once in a while, but otherwise pretty darn listenable for the age & origins of the material. I checked to be sure there’s no overlap with the oldest tracks on The dB’s excellent Ride the Wild Tom-Tom comp or either of the Sneakers comps (look HERE or here). One or two may be the same take, but in any case, the mixes are different than the released versions.
Check out the instrumental that Chris tacked onto the “If and When” demo — guitar feedback segueing into classical woodwinds; very weird & very cool!
Chris Stamey & The dB’s
Gene Holder - bass
Will Rigby - drums
Chris Stamey – guitar, vocals
Peter Holsapple – guitar, vocals
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Before the name was shortened, the band was
known in the early days as “Chris Stamey & The dB’s”
(flyer from March 1979 show, Hot Club, Philly) |