Rolling Stones, The / Rubber Bowl 1972 Revised Edition / 1CD / Non Label
Live at Rubber Bowl, Akron, Ohio, USA 11th July 1972

Speaking of Rubber Bowl, the Rolling Stones Akron in 1972 is known as an audience recording that is especially easy to listen to during the same year’s American tour, but even so, the best title that makes full use of the sound source has not appeared easily. It will be familiar to enthusiasts. In 2012, a Low gen version of the same sound source was released, and “RUBBER BOWL 1972” was released based on it, but it was released with problems such as sound duplication and noise, but these problems were successfully resolved. DAC board “TOURING PARTY VOL.3”
became the definitive edition.
However, it is true that the unnaturalness of the smooth texture with a weak analog feel made enthusiasts feel uncomfortable from the time the sound source was released, and in the end, the DAC version fell short. “GRAF ZEPPELIN” raised this issue. Even though it is a 1st gen., it is strange that there was no hiss in the 1972 cassette audience. In short, it became clear that equalization had been applied when the sound source was released.
Therefore, “GRAF ZEPPELIN” has made full use of technology that has evolved far since the release of those items, and has revived the original analog taste of the cassette, as well as meticulously restoring the entire sound source.The masterpiece is “RUBBER BOWL”. 1972 REVISITED”. Its natural analog feel is remarkable, and it easily surpasses the two titles mentioned above, and it has been sold out since it was very popular as the definitive version of Rubber Bowl.
Even though it was recently released at the end of 2020, it has already become difficult to obtain, proving that it was a release that excited enthusiasts. Of course, calls for a re-release were pouring in, but for this re-release, “GRAF ZEPPELIN” took it as an opportunity to review the previous release and reconsidered the sound source. The lack of analog feel that was lost when the sound source was released had already been completed in the previous release, so this time we carried out further restoration while making minor adjustments.
For example, “Sweet Virginia”, which tends to get distorted due to the aging of vintage audiences, has been carefully corrected for distortions that could not be addressed in the previous release. Of course, the final result had already shown a high degree of perfection, so there aren’t many major differences overall, but there’s still nothing to miss.
Rubber Bowl is a stereo audience that became known after entering the CD era, but the closeness of the sound image is a big attraction compared to Charlotte, which was known as a standard high quality audience for 1972 even before that.
Even so, the rubber bowl sound source is really easy to listen to because the sound image is close and it is a stereo recording. In particular, it can be said that Mick’s singing voice is captured in an extremely balanced way. Therefore, the sense of reality of the accident where Mick’s song stopped sounding at the venue due to the sound trouble that occurred in the first half of “Tumbling Dice” is really vivid. This happened so often that the situation became tense, with the audience on the verge of booing.
Mick was not discouraged by this, and was happy that he recovered by singing passionately. On the contrary, it seemed like he was even more excited, and for example, on “All Down The Line”, he exploded with shouts that kept the audience transfixed. Originally, the 1972 American tour was very exciting, but on this day it was even more sharp, and because it was a high-quality audience, it was clearly conveyed.
Mick Taylor, whose phrases are as clear as such high-tension Mick, is also truly amazing. From “Gimme Shelter”, the splendid Taylor verse is exploding, and on the other hand, “Love In Vain”, sung by Mick, is a more talkative phrase than usual. And the ultimate song is “Street Fighting Man,” which is played with a high-tension performance in the background. Not only these high-tension scenes, but also the excitement of the Rubber Bowl, which showed a very enthusiastic response to the introduction of each member including the supporter, is the secret to making this sound source attractive. The best audience of the 72 tour full of charm. For all the enthusiasts who missed the last release, don’t miss it this time!
From Silver: [
we.tl]