The audio (mp3) files are stored on a Google drive. There are known issues with playing .mp3 files on Google drives from iPhones..... it doesn't work with iTunes. But you can get another mp3-player from the app store. "MP3Free" works fine it shows up as an option in the Google Drive-app.
A laid-back, tight and funky dance tune from one of our favorite bands.
This was our first tune that night and is a good example of why Legion was so popular.
Recorded live 10/15/74 at the Casino
Steve - guitar and lead vocal
Bryan - organ and vocal
Richard - bass and vocal
Chris - clavinet
Pat - drums
Recorded live 1973
Steve - guitar
Bryan - organ
Richard - bass
Chris - clavinet & synth
Thane - drums
An instrumental tune we learned early in
Legion and played for years. It is the best
example available of our sound with Thane
on drums.
This was a fast, furious, fun dance tune.
Static from the terrible rain storm going on outside that night. This was the last night we recorded before the band broke up.
Recorded live 6/16/75
Steve - guitar and lead vocal
Bryan - organ and vocal
Rick - bass and vocal
Chris - clavinet and synth
Pat - drums
Recorded live 10/15/74
Steve - guitar
Bryan - B3 & key bass
Rick - trombone
Chris - trumpet
Pat - drums
An ambitious instrumental horn tune that showed off what made Legion so different from other bands.
A brave team of daring archaeologists led an expedition deep into uncharted territory in Steve Downey's closet and unearthed some very cool relics. Thanks to their work, we've posted several new tunes... well... unheard for 35 years, anyway!
Steve says,
"Several times thru the years I have come across 4 track tapes I made of Legion back in the 70’s. The tracks had separate channels including some live mics and a feed from the P.A. Since I haven’t had a Tascam 3340 since then I had no way of knowing what was on the tapes or how they sounded but I have kept them in hopes of one day finding a tape deck and hearing them. At honestly, I couldn’t bear to throw them away for sentimental reasons!
Long story short, I found a great guy who will loaned me a Teac 3340 to use and I have another wonderful friend with a multi track recording studio complete with Digital Performer who helped convert them to 24 bit digital, and clean them up a bit. Keep in mind, my tapes are 35 years old and haven’t been kept in careful condition so working with them was a real crap shoot!"
The tapes were pretty delicate and brittle. To prepare the tapes and minimize loss of oxide, (no kidding) Steve baked 'em in a food dehydrator at 130 degrees for 8 hours, turning every half hour! He musta used some hot sauce, too, 'cause some of the stuff is really burnin!
The tapes were recorded at 7.5 ips in the following format:
Track one: pure guitar out of a feed from Steve's Kustom head.
Track two: general drum mic
Track three: feed from the PA that clips occasionally and is a little dark sounding.
Track four: a distant mic (complete with a big audience ambience)
There are some clicks, pops, drop-outs and lots of clipping, but there's some good musicianship beneath it all.
Many thanks to Dennis Craven, the owner and engineer of his studio, for his work restoring the Legion archive tapes.
MP3 Files
The following is a list of songs performed by Legion. The highlighted tunes are links to the associated MP3 audio files. You can listen, and even download the files if you wish.
Recording Notes: All tunes were recorded live to tape at 3 3/4 ips by taking a mono feed from the PA mixer. None of our instruments went through the mixer, so you hear the instruments only as bleed-through into the vocal mics. There's no reverb, some phase cancellation here and there, and lousy balance throughout. Still, you get a sense of what a special band this was, especially for its time. We were all between 21 and 24 years old when these recordings were made. The MP3 files run from 3.5 MB to 5.2 MB.