Description
Cornerstone is Dead... Long Live Cornerstone is a double disc live album by the American rock band The Seventy Sevens, independently released on Lo-Fidelity Records in June 2012. In both celebration and mourning of the last Cornerstone Festival, we present an album produced by YOU, the fans. In early June we asked for and received recordings and photographs spanning the 12 times the 77s played Cornerstone, and have compiled the ultimate bootleg-style collection. A 2-CD set, 28 songs performed, and over 2 hours of music, with tracks you submitted lovingly restored and mastered by Kevin Fromer and former 77 Scott Reams.
Our concerts at Cornerstone spanning 24 years are among our most memorable as a band. I couldn’t believe how many fans documented each of them in various ways, and it was certainly fun listening back to some of our most exciting moments. Like an audio version of fans’ personal home movies, this collection will take you back to when you were young and wild and out in the audience going nuts for us. Some of the stuff we played at Cornerstone was so outrageous it blew my mind, but I had no recollection of how titanic some of this stuff was until I heard all of your recordings. We took the best of what you sent us and collected it all in one package for you to relive and enjoy as a permanent souvenir and document of your times with us at the greatest festival ever!. [Michael Roe]
The cover of the 2-CD Echos O’ Faith + Played Naked is a painting of dinosaurs. Now, I’m not about to imply anything here, but Mike Roe and friends seem to have excavated some interesting markers from the early stages of the evolution of a decidedly raucous strain of musical animal. Not that we’re talking about an extinct species here – The 77s are still alive and well, as Johnny Winter might say. Of course, there are those that have drawn varying evolutionary conclusions based on discovering carnivorous, aggressive, electric artifacts as well as less aggressive, acoustic evidences – possibly indicating a vegetarian ancestor to the musical meat-eaters we’ve come to know and love.
Okay – enough of that.
The simultaneous release of three recordings by the 77s is a treasure-trove of goodies for fans of the legendary Californian rockers. ‘Played Naked‘ is an audio-document capturing the accidental origin of the “77s unplugged” concept and ‘Echos O’ Faith‘ is the year-later follow-up concert – this time intentionally unplugged, with Steve Hindalong providing percussion. The whole story is wonderfully detailed in Roe’s liner notes. Both shows are well-recorded, raw documents featuring a decidedly enthusiastic audience (at Ontario’s Echoes of Faith Church – get it?) cheering on The 77s, equally adrenaline-fueled in their more stripped-down mode.
We all know by now that the Cornerstone Festival has reportedly had its last hurrah. The 77s were there right from the beginning in 1984, and ‘Cornerstone is Dead… Long Live Cornerstone’ is a collection of recordings – mostly audience recordings – spanning some 24 years of live performances from the iconic venue. The sound quality ranges from barely listenable – if you’re an audiophile – to pretty darn good. All things considered, it’s a time-capsule project that gives the average listener who never got to attend Cornerstone a chance to get a tin-can telephone earful of what the fuss was all about. The 2002 through 2008 recordings feature The 77s at their rocking best – at full-strength, a frighteningly potent rock and roll outfit.
‘Cornerstone Forever’ is an audio thank-you card to the festival that made the 77s appearances over the years an always-anticipated highlight. The three song EP was recorded at Cornerstone’s 25th Anniversary Main Stage celebration in 2008 and features Michael Roe, Mark Harmon, Bruce Spencer and David Leonhardt.
If you’re a fan of The 77s or someone who’s been to Cornerstone, these are must-have recordings. As you might expect, there’s some amazing musicianship coming from the various incarnations of the band, and of course, Mike Roe’s verbal between-song banter is priceless. If you’re reading this, you already know the songs – this is about the character of the band in a live setting. [Bert Saraco, The Phantom Tollbooth, 09 August 2012]
2CD tracklist:
Disc One – Cornerstone Is Dead/1984-1999
1-01. Ping Pong Over The Abyss (1984) – 3:46
1-02. A Different Kind Of Light (1984) – 3:47
1-03. Caught In An Unguarded Moment (1986) – 3:17
1-04. I Can’t Get Over It (1990) – 6:15
1-05. Don’t This Way (1990) – 7:47
1-06. This Is The Way Love Is (1992) – 9:04
1-07. God Sends Quails (1992) – 6:50
1-08. Make A Difference Tonight (1992) – 5:32
1-09. Mezzo (1994) – 2:38
1-10. Nuts For You (1994) – 6:23
1-11. Nobody’s Fault But Mine (1995) – 6:03
Disc Two – Long Live Cornerstone/ 2000-2008
2-01. Tattoo (2000) – 4:55
2-02. Woody (2000) – 5:28
2-03. The Jig Is Up (2001) – 4:42
2-04. The Years Go Down (2001) – 6:03
2-05. Unbalanced / Indian Winter / Bright Star / Rocks In Your Head / Snowblind / Honesty (2002) 11:59
2-06. Mercy Mercy (2003) – 3:18
2-07. Unbalanced (2003) – 8:32
2-08. Blue Sky (2006) – 4:39
2-09. Outskirts (2006) – 10:58
2-10. Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burning / Riders On The Storm / Pearls Before Swine / Money (That’s What I Want) (2008) – 13:47
Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://the77s.bandcamp.com/album/cornerstone-is-dead-long-live-cornerstone
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