The Meters

Original Meters

The Meters
Showboat Lounge
Metairie, La.
Jan. 2, 1977



01. Just Kissed My Baby            6:25
02. Big Chief ->                   3:21
03. jam -> band intro -> jam       6:09
04. Jungle Man                     6:00
05. They All Asked for You         5:01
06. Hey Pocky Way                  7:53
07. People Say                     5:51
08. Ain't No Use (cut in middle)  29:07
09. Fire on the Bayou              7:31

Total: 77:21



source: WNOE-FM > pre-FM reel(s) > DAT (48kHz)

Transfer to FLAC (Richard Russell, August 2024): DAT > Sony PCM-R500 (spdif) > Metric Halo MIO-2882 > Macintosh MacBook Pro > MIO Console 5.6 > split stereo wav files > MacBook Air M1 > iZotope RX 11 Advanced (feedback manually attenuated, trimmed) > xACT 2.57 > FLAC


Notes
This show circulates widely as Jan. 22, 1977. That date, according to newspaper entertainment listings, is not correct, as the band was playing a different venue on that date. (Additionally, about a minute into Fire on the Bayou, George wishes everyone Happy New Year...)

The tape change occurs about 7:35 into Ain't No Use. There is a gap of about 2 seconds.

I used iZotope's Spectral Repair feature to manually select and attenuate about 5-10 instances of feedback (mostly in the first track). A couple of instances remain that either could not be repaired without affecting the music OR because it was unclear if the feedback was intentional by Leo.

I seeded this show about 15 years ago using a different source where I used notch filters to remove a persistent high-pitched squeal (apparently from the FM broadcast). Most circulating sources from torrents that I've seen seem to originate from that source -- it's obvious by looking at the spectrogram where 3-4 narrow horizontal lines show where I used the notch filter.

This 2025 edit is a completely different recording from a new transfer (of a different DAT source). No EQ or noise reduction has been applied to this recording (other than addressing the feedback issues where each change was less than a half-second in duration.)

I received this recording on DAT from Henry Llach circa February 1998.

--Richard Russell, 3/29/2025



The Meters:
	Art Neville, organ, vocals
	Zigaboo Modeliste, drums, vocals
	George Porter Jr., bass, vocals
	Leo Nocentelli, guitar, vocals

Cyril Neville is not present. "Jimmy Bolero" is introduced as a guest, but this appears to be a pseudonym or inside joke for one of the band members.

Several audience members are invited on-stage to sing during Ain't No Use...




The Meters
May 4, 1977
The Bottom Line
New York City
Source:SBD
Trade cdr>EAC>FLAC

01.Fire on the Bayou
02.Look-Ka Py Py
03.Africa
04.Doodle Oop
05.Here Comes The Meter Man>
06.Soul Island
07.Make It With You
08.Chug-a-Lug
09.Jungle Man
10.It Aint No Use
11.Hey Pocky A-Way
encore
12.They All Ask'd For You fade

Rec. Notes:
some light hiss, fade out encore.
field cut(no music lost) after tk.8-
indicates probable cassette lineage.
some interference at 0:11 tk10 in master
Comments:
this is a good line recording of the original meters lineup.
these guys were workin' hard. i think you can dig it.
unfortunately, the encore fades out just after the appearance of
a mystery vocalist whom i believe to be dr. john despite
the fake-ass introduction thats given.
it would be great if a complete version surfaced...

enjoy,  shaq75


The Funky Meters
July 25, 1977
New Orleans, LA - The Showboat
broadcast on WNOE

Source: Cass(m)
Transfer: JVC TD-W209 (Playback) > JVC 5010 Standalone > CDR(2) > EAC (secure, offsets correct) > FLAC (level 8, verify enabled)
Taper/Transfer: Freezer
EAC Extraction+FLAC Encoding: Five

01. No More Okey Doke
02. My Name Up In Lights
03. Be My Lady
04. Look-Ka Py Py - "Looking Down Is Quite A Drop"
05. They All Ask'd For You
06. Funkify Your Life


Notes from Freezer: It's the Meters WITHOUT any Neville participation, as Art and Cyril had already left to be the Neville Brothers Band. Its a very short-lived edition of the Meters (early on billing themselves as The FUNKY Meters....years before the 'official' date for the use of that name....)

Willie West is on vocals here.

freezer wrote: "Please take note:

This radio show was aired on July 25, 1977 as part of WNOE-New Orleans' 101-LIVE series of live concert broadcasts.

The very next night, July 26, 1977, Quicksilver Messenger Service was broadcast on this same series.

(By the way, the WNOE 101-LIVE announcer is Bobby Reno, who still can be heard on WTIX in New Orleans. Bobby was Earl King's protegee back in the mid-sixties, and Bobby had a regional hit in 1966 with a song Earl wrote, "Soul Train"..... long before there was a TV show or a "Don Cornelius"......)"


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NOT FOR SALE!!! TRADE ONLY!!
MP3 ONLY FOR PERSONAL USE!!!
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161bbdc0139a571748a0a0c48d926951  [shntool]  meters1977-07-25t01.flac
f26625441a82c7debc9697b1a20a39a6  [shntool]  meters1977-07-25t02.flac
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df2634645bc502f186f8abd226798e67  [shntool]  meters1977-07-25t05.flac
0aceccc36cf387aeb0fee6fb70e90f67  [shntool]  meters1977-07-25t06.flac

    length     expanded size   cdr  WAVE problems filename
     5:38.72       59792588    ---   --   ---xx   meters1977-07-25t01.flac
     5:49.38       61653020    ---   --   ---xx   meters1977-07-25t02.flac
     7:11.23       76082540    ---   --   ---xx   meters1977-07-25t03.flac
    12:03.44      127640732    ---   --   ---xx   meters1977-07-25t04.flac
     6:45.11       71467916    ---   --   ---xx   meters1977-07-25t05.flac
     8:57.71       94893836    ---   --   ---xx   meters1977-07-25t06.flac
    46:26.34      491530632 B                     (totals for 6 files, 0.7552 overall compression ratio)




The Meters
Showboat Lounge
Metarie, Louisiana
7.25.1977

01 No More Okey Doke
02 My Name Up In Lights
03 Be My Lady
04 Look-A-Py-Py/Let Me Have It All
05 They All Asked for You
06 Funkify Your Life

Total time: 46:24

Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste - drums
Willie West - vocals
Leo Nocentelli - guitar & vocals
David Batiste Sr. - keyboards & vocals
George Porter Jr. - bass & vocals
Mario DeMaurier - guitar & vocals

sounds like an off-air FM master reel; taped from WNOE-FM in New Orleans
remastered and restored by EN, Dec. 2018

original notes from Freezer:
It's the Meters WITHOUT any Neville participation, as Art and Cyril had already left to be the Neville Brothers Band. Its a very short-lived edition of the Meters (early on billing themselves as The FUNKY Meters....years before the 'official' date for the use of that name....)

notes on the remaster:
This ridiculous tape is one of those things that makes archival music what it can be: unrecorded lineup of a seminal band, an incredible capture from a legendary radio station (even before the sonic issues I'll explain about)... and Holy Toledo! the performance is just well the hell out into the Funkosphere of several higher dimensions. The big drawback with this tape was always the earcrushing, unbelievably intense clipping issues... there were literally thousands of megaclips in the 46 minutes and change that comprise this 1st Degree Assault With Intent To Funk. That mess was just evaporating the lower end of the sound and generally squishing it all up as if the whole band was trying to break through some invisible ceiling or somesuch. Once I remediated these issues with a healthy dose of the Sound Forge 11 Clipped Peak Restoration tool, the ambiance and audio spectrum really opened up into a gorgeous and transparent capture, with tons of funky detail that just wasn't audible when it languished in its previous, clipfest form. Then there was the first track... the bass began badly buried and the engineer didn't really get the bottom presence into the music until halfway through the song. I used the Sound Forge Graphic EQ and Graphic Dynamics tools to bring out the lows until the point where that presence entered, and worked to smooth this transition out so the surge of bass when it hits wouldn't be quite so obvious and disconcerting.

There was also quite a bit of channel fluctuation, in terms of passages where one channel would become slightly lower than the other over the course of a song, so I balanced all this out to try and make this 3/4th of an hour of asswhipping all it can possibly be, unless of course a pre-FM source mystically appears from the Sacred Holodeck of Pre-Broadcast Sources. I shifted all the track markers to begin with actual music and made a cute, sorta Nawlins-themed cover thumbnail (font: "Metermiser"), and of course I titled and tagged the files. A set of new fingerprints, this message I'm typing, and the most arduous task later -- which turned out to be figuring out who exactly is playing in this short-lived version of The Meters -- and here it is to Funk you to Death. This, in dual honor of both George Porter Jr.'s 71st birthday a couple of days ago and the 70th birthday of perhaps the greatest and most important drummer of our lifetimes -- the man they call Ziggy -- today.

Like I said, this is one of the craziest and best recorded 1970s Meters shows and is perhaps the very first recorded instance the distinction "Funky" started to get added to the name to distinguish it from the original group, several of whom at this point had just recently split to form another, equally as unbelievable and essential group: The Neville Brothers. Anyway, play it loud at your New Year's Eve parties, and of course the best of b'day wishes to both George Porter and Zigaboo!--EN, 12/2018

lineage: FLACs from another tracker > WAV via DB Poweramp > Sound Forge 11 remediations and remasterizzations > FLAC 8 via DB Poweramp > DIME > funkifying your life


SHNID	Date	Venue	City	State
170690	1977-01-02	Showboat Lounge	Metairie	LA
Source: Wnoe-fm > Pre-fm Reel(s) > Dat (48khz) Transfer To Flac (richard Russell, August 2024): Dat > Sony Pcm-r500 (spdif) > Metric Halo Mio-2882 > Macintosh Macbook Pro > Mio Console> Split Stereo Wav Files > Macbook Air M1 > Izotope Rx 11 Advanced (feedback Manually Attenuated, Trimmed) > Xact> Flac
171311	1977-05-04	The Bottom Line	New York	NY
Source:SBD Trade cdr>EAC>FLAC
169444	1977-07-25	Roy LaRocca's Showboat Lounge	Metairie	LA
Source: Cass(m) Transfer: JVC TD-W209 (Playback) > JVC 5010 Standalone > CDR(2) > EAC (secure, offsets correct) > FLAC (level 8, verify enabled) Taper/Transfer: Freezer EAC Extraction+FLAC Encoding: Five
169445	1977-07-25	Roy LaRocca's Showboat Lounge	Metairie	LA
lineage: FLACs from another tracker > WAV via DB Poweramp > Sound Forge 11 remediations and remasterizzations > FLAC 8 via DB Poweramp > DIME > funkifying your life

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