Monday, August 14, 2023

California Jam, Ontario Motor Speedway, Ontario, CA, 4-6-1974, Part 4: Seals & Crofts

Posting big various artists festivals like this one forces me to post some musical acts I probably otherwise would never have posted. Seals & Crofts is a case in point.

This soft rock duo is best known for their hits "Summer Breeze," "Diamond Girl," and "Get Closer." "Get Closer" wouldn't be released until 1976. "Diamond Girl" is here, but "Summer Breeze" surprisingly is not. They only ever released one live album, in 1976, but it was an album of all new material. So this set is probably the closest thing you'll find to a live album by them, since I'm not aware of other bootlegs.

At first glance, Seals & Crofts seems like an odd choice for inclusion at a rock festival that had headlining acts like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. However, this may be due to a slight of hand. By 1974, rock festivals had gotten a bad name, and local officials rarely approved permits for them. So the organizers of this festival at first portrayed it as a pop festival with the likes of the Osmonds and Jackson Five. Once they got the approvals, they slipped in the more controversial hard rock acts, claiming they were the only big names they could find. 

You can read more about that here:

California Screaming: How the California Jam banished Altamont's demons | Louder (loudersound.com)

Anyway, this appears to be the complete Seals and Crofts set. The last song may have actually been played first (according to setlist.fm), but I kept it this way because that's how it was on the bootleg I found, with the songs flowing into each other. It's likely it was rearranged this way for the TV and/or radio broadcast.

This album is 43 minutes long.

21 talk (Seals & Crofts)
22 Windflowers (Seals & Crofts)
23 Diamond Girl (Seals & Crofts)
24 King of Nothing (Seals & Crofts)
25 talk (Seals & Crofts)
26 Ruby Jean and Billy Lee (Seals & Crofts)
27 Hummingbird (Seals & Crofts)
28 Unborn Child (Seals & Crofts)
29 The Gate [Instrumental] (Seals & Crofts)
30 High on the Mountain (Seals & Crofts)
31 Ridin' Thumb (Seals & Crofts)
32 Standing on a Mountain Top (Seals & Crofts)
33 The Fiddle Song [Instrumental] (Seals & Crofts)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15574913/CalifrniaJmOntrioMtorSpeedwyOntarioCA__4-6-1974_04SealsCrfts.zip.html

This cover photo comes from this exact concert.

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