this is a sneak preview of a very rare ‘safety tape’ made in 1969 by KQED-TV in San Francisco. A safety tape is simply a backup copy made in real time by the studio that recorded it. It is the only known professional recording that includes all of the 5 original members, David laFlamme, Linda ‘neska’ LaFlamme, Hal Wagenet, Mitchell Holman and Pattie Santos
I only had time to get a few photos and a short video. the photos are of David laFlamme, Linda laFlamme and Pattie Santos. The video is scanned through a bit and only partly in real time to show that this safety tape, while in excellent condition, suffers from the exact same problem here and here, namely, that it’s extremely difficult to find the right matching equipment that will play these old style reel-to-reel videos without tracking problems
it’s frustrating and it’s so close, yet so far away. The quality is excellent except for the tracking problems and I’m told the sound quality is actually better than the original 1969 album. The video was never officially released publicly due to 40 years of legal problems with the former manager
Linda LafLamme
this is the only studio video recording known to exist with Linda ‘Neska’ LaFlamme on it. She left the next year in 1970 and co-wrote most of IABD’s songs, including White Bird
David LaFlamme
Pattie Santos
the short video preview in HD…just 30 seconds and some fast forwarding. There is no sound from the video here, only background sound from Ray’s shop. Part of the tracking problem includes tracking and the way he described it, it’s almost like having to choose one or the other, but not quite both, because the right equipment is so hard to find after all these years
the album, released at the same time as this recording in 1969
