The circulating bootleg of the '74 Sunday show was an audience recording, recorded on reel-to-reel, according to the people who were (at one time) selling it online. They had a web site for about 6 months, after which they were closed down - reportedly by some artist or record company, but not Lightfoot.
I spoke to the man who was selling them, and the "reel-to-reel" came from him. That's what it sounds like to me. The sound quality is much better than the typical audience recording of today, but of course nothing like what you get from a sound board. I always wondered just how someone could get away with making such a recording. You certainly couldn't hide a reel-to-reel tape recorder under your clothes; nor were there any that didn't have to be plugged in. It always seemed rather incredible.
I believe that Lightfoot has the original masters from that series. We can still hope to see something released some day.
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