I have good news and bad news about this set. The good news is that what exists from it here sounds excellent. Most of it was officially released on a DVD, as well as on the album "Then and Now." Two more songs, "Still ... You Turn Me On" and "Lucky Man," are unreleased but sound as good as the others.
The bad news is that the set is incomplete. It is known the band also played "Hoedown" and "Jerusalem" at the start, and "Tarkus" after "Toccatta." If anyone has any music that I missed from this act, or anything else from this festival, please let me know.
Prog rock reached a peak of popularity around this time, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer were one of the biggest prog rock acts. Their album "Brain Salad Surgery" was released in late 1973. It reached Number Two on the charts in Britain, and just barely missed the Top Ten in the US.
This album is 43 minutes long.
By the way, if you put all eight of these California Jam albums together, it totals six hours and ten minutes. I'm guessing there's at least another hour, maybe two, that was performed but isn't included here.
Note that there was a second California Jam, in 1978. I'll probably try to post that in the future.
However, next up for me in terms of big festivals is the 1970 Isle of Wight festival. There were dozens of big festivals in the early 1970s, but most of them are fading from memory due to lack of quality recordings. The Isle of Wight festival, has great soundboard recordings for nearly all the major acts, making it special. But there are a few that I've heard exist but can't find. For instance, I've only found three songs performed by Kris Kristofferson, but I found someone who had his full set in great quality but no longer has it. It's a similar situation for Sly and the Family Stone, with only some of the set being easily found. If you have any of these hard-to-find recordings, please let me know soon so I can add them in.
77 Toccatta (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
78 Take a Pebble (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
79 Still ... You Turn Me On (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
80 Lucky Man (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
81 Piano Improvisations [Fugue & Little Rock Getaway] [Instrumental] (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
82 Karn Evil 9, 1st Impression, Part 2 (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
83 Karn Evil 9, 3rd Impression (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
84 Pictures at an Exhibition- Great Gates of Kiev (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
The cover photo, of Greg Lake, is from this exact concert.
The Goose Lake International Music Festival held August 7–9, 1970 in Leoni Township, Michigan had around 200,000 attendees. The only professionally released set is from Iggy & The Stooges. Which is sad because the line was killer.
ReplyDeleteIf the Stooges were well recorded, that makes it likely the other acts were too. So maybe someday. For the vast majority of these festivals, nobody recorded anything at all (except for random people in the audience with tape recorders sometimes, which usually sound pretty bad).
DeleteObrigado pelos postes
ReplyDeleteHey, I know earlier this year you went through a lot to switch around the download sites. Just a note to say "thanks" - all of the downloads have gone smoothly. Really appreciate all of the time and effort you take to share the music.
ReplyDeleteThanks for saying that. I think things are better now, even though I hated having to do all the moving.
DeleteI second alga's comment, Paul.
DeleteOn another note, this looks like a great album that could use your editing magic:
https://twilightzone-rideyourpony.blogspot.com/2023/08/elvis-costello-attractions-radio-radio.html
Except for Sly Stone and Chicago, every act at the Isle of Wight in 1970 was professionally filmed, so a lot of live albums (Hendrix, Leonard Cohen, The Who, Free,...) from that festival come from the movie soundtrack recordings. Chicago's set has been released as an album by Rhino, so everything except possibly Sly is out there somewhere. There is a 14-album bootleg collection of many of the festival performances circulating. When I was there myself, I particularly enjoyed Tiny Tim's set.
ReplyDeleteSome Isle of Wight tracks were released on a triple album alongside tracks from another festival in Atlanta, so that's another major festival to add to your list.
See what I'm doing for the Isle of Wight. I've got most of it. As for the Atlanta Pop Festival, I'll look into it, but I'm not sure there's enough music available with good sound to justify it.
DeleteGood to see your latest posts. Even though I was there, I missed some of the acts - I don't remember Tony Joe White's for example - so it's good to hear them now. Thanks!
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