The Lieutenant (1975 Original Broadway Cast Recording) - Thought to be lost

In 1975, Best Musical nominee "The Lieutenant", a rock opera about the trial of Lieutenant William Calley Jr. during the Vietnam War, recorded a cast album, but it was never released to the public, as the show closed after just nine performances and seven previews. However, a few promotional copies of the album on vinyl made it out in to the public and have been passed around collectors and traders for the past 44 years. However, to the best of my knowledge, nothing from this recording had ever been digitized, and as a result, this excellent show has essentially been forgotten.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon a copy of the cast recording on a vinyl collectors site and I decided to buy it (it only cost me $150, which was significantly less than I expected), to preserve it forever. Today, I finally got around to not only ripping the audio from the vinyl, but tracking and cleaning up the audio as well. Here's a link to the album: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1z9381RLr8i7SJsb-gPbREJPHLBRPH64B

Also included are the high-quality lossless audio files that I ripped directly from the two LPs. These don't have any of the edits I made to clean up the scratches and pops, and aren't split up by track, but I thought some of you might be interested in them as well.

I hope you all enjoy this bit of Broadway history, that was presumed lost for so many years.

Updated On: 12/30/18 at 10:24 PM

There have been digital files floating around for a while, but I've never heard them, so thanks for this bit of theatrical history. Was there two different covers for the 2 LPs because the one I saw was different.

Slightly OT: happened to watch a video of the 1975 Tony Awards the other day. Strangely,, it did not feature performances of the nominated musicals, but it did feature one of the most bizarre opening numbers ever, complete with a black-faced Al Jolson impersonator, who somehow missed his opening cue. Maybe The Lieutenant was too controversial for prime time? Who knows.

This guy claimed to have some recordings, but I never followed through and asked about them.

http://castalbums.org/forums/recordings/The-Lieutenant-1975-Original-Broadway-Cast/618

Here is the cover, but I'm thinking it might be from the Playbill.



Regards

I know this is such an old thread but I want to say thank you for this!!! This has honestly turned into a new fav for me :) Apparently they were considering a revival in 2018... here's hoping that turns into something some day!!

I also tried my hand at making an upscaled version of the album cover that goes around using a slightly higher quality scan of the playbill. Idk if this'll be useful for anyone but I thought I'd share :) 730 x 730 instead of 200 x 200. https://imgur.com/JcD7VFH

Updated On: 5/26/21 at 11:27 PM