Two More Bite the Dust

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a BBC album by Tears for Fears. That got taken down due to a copyright violation. A couple of days ago, I posted a BBC album by Judy Collins. That also got taken down for the same reason. I'll try to see what I can do to point to those being available elsewhere. Stay tuned for more info.

Sara Bareilles - Non Sequiturs, Volume 1 (2007-2023) (A MIKE SOLOF GUEST POST)

Have you heard of Sara Bareilles? Up until recently, I had not. But frequent guest poster Mike Solof came to me recently with a proposal to post an album of original, unreleased songs by her. I listened to it and thought it was good, so I approved posting it. But I also wondered how many people will download it if they hadn't heard of it before, like me. So I suggested to Mike that he make an album of cover songs she's done, all from stray tracks, so people who just love good music can listen to her and discover she has a great voice. So that's what this is.

As usual with Mike's post, you can find a lot more information in his PDFs he writes and includes in the downloads. So check that out. And the other Sara Bareilles album I mentioned is in the works and should be posted here too.

This album is an hour and four minutes long.

01 I Want You Back (Straight No Chaser & Sara Bareilles)
02 Single Ladies [Put a Ring on It] (Sara Bareilles)
03 Oh Darling (Sara Bareilles)
04 I Can Let Go Now (Sara Bareilles)
05 In Your Eyes (Sara Bareilles)
06 I've Had the Time of My Life (Sara Bareilles)
07 Fuck You (Sara Bareilles)
08 Truly Brave [Mash-Up of Brave and True Colors]] (Sara Bareilles, Cyndi Lauper & Hoda Kotb)
09 I Don't Know How to Love Him (Sara Bareilles)
10 River (Sara Bareilles)
11 What's Going On (Sara Bareilles, Clarence Bekker & Titi Tsira)
12 What the World Needs Now Is Love (Sara Bareilles)
13 When You Wish upon a Star (Sara Bareilles)
14 Chandelier (Sara Bareilles)
15 Stoney End (Sara Bareilles)
16 You've Got a Friend (Sara Bareilles)
17 California (Sara Bareilles, Brandi Carlile & Lucius)
18 Come On Eileen (Sugarland & Sara Bareilles)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16631634/SARBARLLES2007-2023NnSqitrsVlum1_atse.zip.html

I have no idea when or where the cover photo is from, and I doubt Mike does either. But he presented a bunch of options to me for the cover photo, and I liked this one the best, so here we are. I'm guessing there are different colors on her because she was sitting near a stained glass window, which I think is a cool effect.

Cliff Richard - BBC Sessions, Volume 8: In Concert, Bournemouth International Centre, Bournemouth, Britain, 11-16-1988

I'm not much of a Cliff Richard fan, but somehow I keep posting BBC albums from him. Here's the eighth one. Like the previous two, this is a concert broadcast by the BBC. Although I'm not much of a fan, I figure he's such a big star in Britain that a fair amount of people will want to hear this.

If you got just one Cliff Richard concert, this is probably the one to get. It's late enough in his career that it includes pretty much all of his big hits. But it's far back in time enough for him to still be in his vocal and physical prime.

This concert is totally unreleased, as far as I know. The sound quality is generally excellent. However, I boosted the vocals a lot for the banter between songs. Also, there was a flaw in the song "We Don't Talk Anymore." Luckily, it was in the middle of a chorus, not a verse. So I was able to patch it when a bit from another chorus. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in the title.

This album is an hour and 37 minutes long.

01 Born to Rock 'n' Roll (Cliff Richard)
02 Move It (Cliff Richard)
03 Daddy's Home (Cliff Richard)
04 Devil Woman (Cliff Richard)
05 We Don't Talk Anymore [Edit] (Cliff Richard)
06 Another Tear Falls (Cliff Richard)
07 Some People (Cliff Richard)
08 Ocean Deep (Cliff Richard)
09 talk (Cliff Richard)
10 Living Doll (Cliff Richard)
11 The Young Ones (Cliff Richard)
12 talk (Cliff Richard)
13 Bachelor Boy (Cliff Richard)
14 talk (Cliff Richard)
15 In the Country (Cliff Richard)
16 Visions (Cliff Richard)
17 The Minute You're Gone (Cliff Richard)
18 Carrie (Cliff Richard)
19 True Love Ways (Cliff Richard)
20 My Pretty One (Cliff Richard)
21 talk (Cliff Richard)
22 Miss You Nights (Cliff Richard)
23 talk (Cliff Richard)
24 Thief in the Night - UFO - Get It Right Next Time (Cliff Richard)
25 talk (Cliff Richard)
26 Rock and Roll Medley (Cliff Richard)
27 It'll Be Me (Cliff Richard)
28 Mistletoe and Wine (Cliff Richard)

https://www.imagenetz.de/mWjdn

The cover photo comes from a concert in Nurnberg, Germany, in 1988.

The Knitters - The Ritz, New York City, 10-24-1985

Have you even heard of the Knitters? Maybe not. But it's more likely you've heard of the punk band X. The Knitters are a basically an X side project, featuring three out of four members of X, including their two singer-songwriters, Exene Cervenka and John Doe. But there are two other members, including Dave Alvin, a singer-songwriter from the Blasters. The reason for this side project is because the Knitters play a very different style of music. They were alt-country about five years before the alt-country movement even began.

The Knitters were formed around 1982, and they generally perform a handful of concerts each year. They only released two studio albums, "Poor Little Critters in the Road" in 1985 and "The Modern Sounds of the Knitters" in 2005. They've never put out an official live album.

So if you're a fan of this band, as I am, this album is really great. It's double the length of their debut album, so it contains lots of songs that they never put out on either album. They played a couple of X songs redone in a country rock style ("The New World" and "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts") as well as some Knitters originals. But mostly they did classic and obscure folk or country covers. So not every fan of X is going to love this. But if you're open-minded about country rock, you should really like it. They were way ahead of their time back in 1985.

This is a soundboard bootleg. It's the only Knitters bootleg that I know of, so it's a lucky thing that the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 11 minutes long.

01 talk (Knitters)
02 Silver Wings (Knitters)
03 talk (Knitters)
04 Cryin' but My Tears Are Far Away (Knitters)
05 talk (Knitters)
06 Poor Little Critter on the Road (Knitters)
07 talk (Knitters)
08 The New World (Knitters)
09 Someone like You (Knitters)
10 talk (Knitters)
11 Hand Me Down My Walking Cane (Knitters)
12 talk (Knitters)
13 Poor Old Heartsick Me (Knitters)
14 talk (Knitters)
15 Mama Tried (Knitters)
16 talk (Knitters)
17 I'm Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail (Knitters)
18 I Can't Hold Myself in Line (Knitters)
19 Pipeline [Instrumental] (Knitters)
20 Long White Cadillac (Knitters)
21 talk (Knitters)
22 Love Shack (Knitters)
23 talk (Knitters)
24 The Call of the Wreckin' Ball (Knitters)
25 I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts (Knitters)
26 talk (Knitters)
27 Jackson (Knitters)
28 Rock Island Line (Knitters)
29 talk (Knitters)
30 The Trail of Time (Knitters)
31 talk (Knitters)
32 Tennessee Border (Knitters)
33 talk (Knitters)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16625127/TKNITTRS1985TRitzNwYrkCty__10-24-1985_atse.zip.html

 I couldn't find any photos of the Knitters in concert back in 1985 (or any year around then, for that matter). So I used a photo from an X concert taken from a TV appearance in August 1985. The two singers shown here, Exene Cervenka and John Doe, are also the two main singers for the Knitters.

Kate Bush - Manchester Apollo, Manchester, Britain, 4-10-1979

I'm not a really big fan of Kate Bush's music, though I do like some of her stuff. However, I'm posting this because it seems like something that needs more attention.

Bush really only performed full concerts in 1978, 1979, and 2014. There's an official live album from her 1979 tour, called "Live at Hammersmith Odeon," which was released in 1994. However, it's only 53 minutes long. That's unfortunate, because her concerts that year were about two hours long. I haven't seen any excellent sounding bootlegs from this tour. However, I did find a great sounding video, taken from a concert in Manchester, Britain. I converted it to audio and broke it into mp3s. 

You can find an interesting article from NME Magazine about Bush's 1979 tour, with lots of photos, here:

The Big Picture - Inside Kate Bush's Groundbreaking 1979 Tour (nme.com)

In short, she considered performing typical concerts to be boring, and she wanted to do something artistically challenging and groundbreaking. So her concerts were big productions, with costume changes, dozens of supporting musicians, magicians, mimes, video projections, and dance routines. Bush ran around and danced so much that it was a wonder she was able to sing as well. If you listen closely to this recording, you might hear her a little breathless at times.

There was no banter between songs at all, because she felt that took the concert goer out of the immersive experience. But she did talk a little at the end of the concert.

This album is an hour and 54 minutes long.

01 Moving (Kate Bush)
02 Saxophone Song (Kate Bush)
03 Room for the Life (Kate Bush)
04 Them Heavy People (Kate Bush)
05 Man with the Child in His Eyes (Kate Bush)
06 Egypt (Kate Bush)
07 L'Amour Looks Something like You (Kate Bush)
08 Violin (Kate Bush)
09 Poem by John Carder Bush (Kate Bush)
10 The Kick Inside (Kate Bush)
11 In the Warm Room (Kate Bush)
12 Fullhouse (Kate Bush)
13 Strange Phenomena (Kate Bush)
14 Hammer Horror (Kate Bush)
15 Chant (Kate Bush)
16 Kashka from Baghdad (Kate Bush)
17 Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake (Kate Bush)
18 Wow (Kate Bush)
19 Coffee Homeground (Kate Bush)
20 In Search of Peter Pan (Kate Bush)
21 Symphony in Blue (Kate Bush)
22 Feel It (Kate Bush)
23 Kite (Kate Bush)
24 James and the Cold Gun (Kate Bush)
25 Oh England My Lionheart (Kate Bush)
26 Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush)
27 talk (Kate Bush)

https://www.imagenetz.de/fisMS

The cover photo was taken of Bush at a concert in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on April 29, 1979. It doesn't look like a concert photo at first, but these concerts were elaborate productions, and this is indeed from a concert.

Squeeze - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 10-14-1985

For much of the 1980s, it seemed like the British band Squeeze performed a BBC concert every time they released another studio album, and here's another example of that. 

In 1982, Squeeze broke up, when they arguably were at their peak of commercial and critical success. But they only stayed apart for three years. They reunited for a benefit concert, decided they liked being together, and recorded a studio album that year, "Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti." This concert was from part of a tour to support that album.

The sound quality here was a bit below par for the BBC, even though it's an unreleased bootleg. I boosted the lead vocals on all the songs, and especially on the banter between songs (using the audio editing program UVR5), and I think it sounds very good now. 

There was a more significant problem with the song "Is That Love," where there was a sonic flaw in one part of the songs. But I was able to patch that with another bit from elsewhere in the song. That's why that one has "[Edit]" in the title.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 talk (Squeeze)
02 Another Nail In My Heart (Squeeze)
03 Is That Love [Edit] (Squeeze)
04 In Quintessence (Squeeze)
05 talk (Squeeze)
06 Hits of the Year (Squeeze)
07 Last Time Forever (Squeeze)
08 By Your Side (Squeeze)
09 talk (Squeeze)
10 King George Street (Squeeze)
11 Up the Junction (Squeeze)
12 No Place like Home (Squeeze)
13 Annie Get Your Gun (Squeeze)
14 Take Me, I'm Yours (Squeeze)
15 Pulling Mussels [From the Shell] (Squeeze)
16 Labelled with Love (Squeeze)
17 Black Coffee in Bed (Squeeze)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16622377/SQUZE1985BBSssonsVlum6InCncrtHmmrsmthOdonLndonBrtin__10-14-1985_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from a concert at Hoffman Estates, Illinois, on September 6, 1985.

SNACK Benefit, Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, CA, 3-23-1975, Part 8: Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band

This is the eighth and last major act to perform for the 1975 SNACK benefit concert in San Francisco. In my opinion, it's the most interesting one, because it was a very rare collaboration between Neil Young and Bob Dylan, with three members of the Band assisting for good measure.

It's not entirely clear how this collaboration came about. Only Neil Young was billed as the final act for the concert. Promoter Bill Graham later said that Young and the Doobie Brothers were the biggest draws. Bob Dylan seemed to a last minute addition because this group probably didn't practice much. I'm guessing the Band members joined due to their connection with Dylan. They'd never played with Young before, as far as I know, but they'd been Dylan's most frequent backing back from 1966 all the way until a big tour in 1974. Only three members of the Band were there though: Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson. That meant Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel were missing. But the key thing was that Helm was there, because he was the lead vocalist on most of the songs by the Band. And indeed he sang lead on a couple of the songs here.

According to Rolling Stone Magazine's account of the concert, Dylan wasn't expected by the crowd whatsoever. When he showed up on stage, very few people recognized him until Bill Graham introduced the band members. Then a huge roar went up, naturally, since he was arguably the biggest name of all the acts in the concert.

But what's curious is that one normally would have expected Dylan to dominate the set, but for this concert he seemed content to be just one member of a group. For most of the songs, he just played guitar and/or harmonica, and sang backing vocals some. He only sang lead on two of the nine songs, his "I Want You" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," which was inexplicably renamed "Knockin' on the Dragon's Door" for this concert only. He also sang lead on some of the verses for the traditional song "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," but he forgot how a verse went, so the song finished more as an instrumental.

Young sang lead on three songs: "Are You Ready for the Country," "Lookin' for a Love," and "Helpless." "Lookin' for a Love" wouldn't be released until it appeared on the "Zuma" album towards the end of the year. This was its concert debut. The Band dominated the singing on "Ain't That a Lot of Love," "Loving You Is Sweeter than Ever," and "The Weight." "Helpless" flowed directly into "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (er, "Dragon's Door") in an interesting way.

Unfortunately, there was one very big problem with the audio of this set that I think has prevented it from being much better known: Bob Dylan's microphone was turned off or malfunctioned for the entire set! As a result, he was practically inaudible at times. The only reason he could be heard at all was because he was singing in a particularly shouty style (perhaps because he noticed the microphone problem?) and his voice was picked up somewhat by some of the other nearby microphones.

Luckily, in this day and age there are things that can be done to fix this. Using the UVR5 audio editing program, I did my best to boost Dylan's voice up to normal levels as much as possible. However, in some cases there wasn't enough there to do any boosting. For "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (sorry, "Dragon's"), and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," I was able to get by with just boosting. It doesn't always sound great, but it's way better than previous versions. 

However, I had a lot more trouble with "I Want You." His voice was nearly totally gone for the first verse. So I found a soundboard of him singing the song from 1976 and pasted his vocals in for that part. But for the bridge and the second and third verses, I was able to get by with just boosting the existing vocals. The choruses were also a problem. Rick Danko sang backing vocals, and that was picked up very loudly, totally drowning out Dylan. So again I used that 1976 version and pasted in Dylan singing on the choruses, trying to match it with Danko's timing. I think the end result more or less works, but you can tell the difference in style between the 1976 parts, where he was singing the song normally, and the parts from this concert, where he was much more shouty. 

So that's why the three songs with Dylan lead vocals all have "[Edit]" in their titles. With "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," the last verse didn't have a chorus following it due to Dylan forgetting the words, so I pasted in the chorus from earlier in the song.

I'm afraid there are probably other songs where Dylan sang backing harmonies that are now totally lost due to the microphone problem. In such cases, his quiet voice would have been totally drowned out by whomever happened to be singing lead. Oh well.

It's too bad that Dylan and Young in particular didn't collaborate more, but at least we have this. 

This album is 36 minutes long.

73 talk by Bill Graham (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
74 Are You Ready for the Country (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
75 Ain't That a Lot of Love (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
76 talk (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
77 Lookin' for a Love (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
78 Loving You Is Sweeter than Ever (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
79 I Want You [Edit] (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
80 The Weight (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
81 Helpless (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
82 Knockin' on the Dragon's Door [Knockin' on Heaven's Door] [Edit] (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
83 Will the Circle Be Unbroken [Edit] (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16603894/VA-SNCKBnefitKzarStdumSnFrncscoCA__3-23-1975_08NilYungBbDylnthBnd_atse.zip.html

For this set, due to the big names involved, I found some more photos from this exact concert, including a couple of color ones. But the one I liked the best was a black and white one. So again I colorized it with the Palette program. Then I used the color ones as a guide to get the colors of the clothes right.

SNACK Benefit, Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, CA, 3-23-1975, Part 7: Joan Baez

The seventh major act to perform at the 1975 SNACK benefit concert was folk singer Joan Baez.

Between the previous Jefferson Starship set and Joan Baez's set, famous actor Marlon Brando gave a speech about the importance of education to the vast stadium audience that went over very well.

Rolling Stone Magazine pointed out that Baez was given a difficult task of following that speech with her mellow solo acoustic folk music. But that's what she did, and the audience seemed to enjoy it.

Baez played some of the best songs from her career up until that point. Note though that one of her best known songs and biggest hits, "Diamonds and Rust," was released as a single in April 1975, a few weeks after this concert. So she didn't play that one.

This album is 31 minutes long.

60 talk by Bill Graham (Joan Baez)
61 I Shall Be Released (Joan Baez)
62 talk (Joan Baez)
63 Help Me Make It through the Night (Joan Baez)
64 We Want Our Freedom Now (Joan Baez)
65 Joe Hill (Joan Baez)
66 talk (Joan Baez)
67 All My Trials (Joan Baez)
68 talk (Joan Baez)
69 The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Joan Baez)
70 A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (Joan Baez)
71 talk (Joan Baez)
72 Amazing Grace (Joan Baez)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16603895/VA-SNCKBnefitKzarStdumSnFrncscoCA__3-23-1975_07JanBez_atse.zip.html

The cover is another case of an exact photo from this concert. In this case, I actually found a decent color one, but I liked this black and white one more. So I had it colorized using the Palette program. But I also looked at that other actual color photo to make sure I got the colors of her clothes and guitar just right.

SNACK Benefit, Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, CA, 3-23-1975, Part 6: Jefferson Starship

The sixth major musical act to perform at the 1975 SNACK benefit in San Francisco was Jefferson Starship.

Jefferson Starship was the 1970s version of the 1960s band Jefferson Airplane. At the time of this concert, the band had just released the single "Miracles" earlier in the month. It would go on to reach Number 3 in the US chart, the band's biggest hit by far. However, the song wasn't performed at this concert. That's probably because the song was written by Marty Balin and co-sung with him and Grace Slick. Balin was only a sometimes member of the band at the time, and he wasn't at this concert.

The album "Miracles" was on, "Red Octopus," wouldn't be released until July. It would go on to be a huge seller, reaching Number One in the US album chart. The band played some songs from it, like "Fast Buck Freddie" and "Play on Love," that would have been brand new to the audience.

There was some drama going on behind the stage prior to this set taking place. The band's bassist Peter Sears got stuck in traffic trying to get to the concert, and the band felt they couldn't go on stage without him. The audience grew restless as everyone waited for Sears to show up. Promoter Bill Graham was getting frantic. He was going to have Joan Baez go on stage instead (and have Jefferson Starship take her time slot later), but at literally the last minute, Sears showed up and ran to the stage, allowing the band to go on after all.

By the way, I don't think I've mentioned this, but for all the sets, the lead vocals were too low. So I used the UVR5 audio editing program to boost the vocals relative to the instruments.

This album is 39 minutes long.

47 Ride the Tiger (Jefferson Starship)
48 talk (Jefferson Starship)
49 Fast Buck Freddie (Jefferson Starship)
50 talk (Jefferson Starship)
51 Get Fiddler (Jefferson Starship)
52 talk (Jefferson Starship)
53 Play on Love (Jefferson Starship)
54 I Want to See Another World (Jefferson Starship)
55 Sweeter than Honey (Jefferson Starship)
56 talk (Jefferson Starship)
57 Somebody to Love (Jefferson Starship)
58 talk (Jefferson Starship)
59 Volunteers (Jefferson Starship)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16603897/VA-SNCKBnefitKzarStdumSnFrncscoCA__3-23-1975_06JffrsonStrship_atse.zip.html

Yet again, I could only find one photo of this act performing at this exact concert, so I used it. But it was another black and white one, so I colorized it with the help of the Palette program. The photo only should Paul Kantner on guitar and Grace Slick on vocals. I had to guess on the colors for Kantner (and I stuck with the colors chosen by the Palette program), but I read in a review of the concert that Slick wore all black.

SNACK Benefit, Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, CA, 3-23-1975, Part 5: The Doobie Brothers

The fifth major musical act at the 1975 SNACK benefit in San Francisco was the Doobie Brothers.

I actually posted this set already, in June 2023. Unfortunately, it was later taken down to a copyright violation issue. So I'm going to roll the dice and try again here. Grab it fast!

Here's what I wrote when I posted it last time, with some minor changes.

This is a concert that seems to have slipped under the radar. But hopefully this post will help change that. I previously posted a Doobie Brothers concert from 1973. I said I wanted a concert of the band from the time when Tom Johnston was still the main lead vocalist, because he was replaced by Michael McDonald in 1975 (and then kicked out of the band in 1977). I said I had found what appeared to be the best bootleg from that era.

But then I came across this one. It's even better, because it's from two years later, which means more classic songs were included, especially their Number One hit "Black Water." I think this bootleg has gone under the radar because it's part of the SNACK benefit concert, which had lots of other big name artists, like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Santana, Jefferson Starship, and the Grateful Dead. 

Note that when I posted this, I included two bonus tracks from a different 1975 concert. Perhaps the copyright issue was with those tracks, since I'm pretty sure this entire show remains officially unreleased. We shall see. This version doesn't include those bonus tracks.

This album is 33 minutes long.

34 talk (Doobie Brothers)
35 Jesus Is Just Alright (Doobie Brothers)
36 talk (Doobie Brothers)
37 Neil's Fandango (Doobie Brothers)
38 talk (Doobie Brothers)
39 Take Me in Your Arms [Rock Me a Little While] (Doobie Brothers)
40 talk (Doobie Brothers)
41 Black Water (Doobie Brothers)
42 talk (Doobie Brothers)
43 I Been Workin' on You (Doobie Brothers)
44 Long Train Runnin' (Doobie Brothers)
45 talk (Doobie Brothers)
46 China Grove (Doobie Brothers)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16603893/VA-SNCKBnefitKzarStdumSnFrncscoCA__3-23-1975_05DobiBrthrs_atse.zip.html

The photo I used for the cover does not come from this exact concert. However, I picked one that looks like it could have, with the same daytime appearance, complete with tarp and scaffolding in the background. This one is actually from a concert at the Oakland Coliseum June 29, 1975. It only shows one person, who I believe is lead guitarist Jeff Baxter, a member of the band at the time. The photo was in black and white, but I colorized it using the Palette program.

SNACK Benefit, Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, CA, 3-23-1975, Part 4: Santana

The fourth major musical act at the 1975 SNACK benefit in San Francisco was Santana.

There's not much to say about this set. Santana did their usual Latin soul music thing with lots of tasty lead guitar from Carlos Santana. Most of the songs were better known songs from earlier albums, with the exception of one new one, "Let the Children Play."

During their set, a large group of people tried to scale a 70-foot high wall in the stadium in order to get in free, but they were foiled by the stadium security forces.

After the set, there were speeches by baseball hero Willie Mays and football hero Gene Washington.

This album is 36 minutes long.

25 talk by Bill Graham (Santana)
26 Incident at Neshabur [Instrumental] (Santana)
27 Let the Children Play (Santana)
28 Oye Como Va (Santana)
29 talk (Santana)
30 Toussaint L'Overture [Instrumental] (Santana)
31 talk (Santana)
32 Soul Sacrifice [Instrumental] (Santana)
33 Black Magic Woman - Gypsy Queen (Santana)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16604655/VA-SNCKBnefitKzarStdumSnFrncscoCA__3-23-1975_04Sntna_atse.zip.html

Once again, I could only find one photo of Santana from this exact concert, so I used it. Once again, it was in black and white. So I colorized it with the help of the Palette program. I did find a mention that lead guitarist Carlos Santana wore "a knee-length white sweater trimmed in blue, with a photo of guru Sri Chinmoy pinned at his throat," so I made sure the colors reflected that.

SNACK Benefit, Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, CA, 3-23-1975, Part 3: Tower of Power

The third major music act to perform at the 1975 SNACK benefit in San Francisco was Tower of Power.

Tower of Power was formed in 1968. The American band focused on soul and funk music with an emphasis on horns. They were a big band at the time of this concert, with ten band members. They had their biggest success in the early 1970s. 

A few months prior to this concert, they changed lead singers, from Lenny Williams to Hubert Tubbs.

This album is 32 minutes long.

16 talk (Tower of Power)
17 Oakland Stroke (Tower of Power)
18 What Is Hip (Tower of Power)
19 talk (Tower of Power)
20 Down to the Nightclub [Bump City] (Tower of Power)
21 talk (Tower of Power)
22 Sparkling in the Sand (Tower of Power)
23 You're the Most [To Say the Least] (Tower of Power)
24 You're Still a Young Man (Tower of Power)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16603876/VA-SNCKBnefitKzarStdumSnFrncscoCA__3-23-1975_03TwerofPowr_atse.zip.html

I found only one photo of the band from this exact concert, and I used it here for the cover. However, I had to crop out some of the band members on the left and right because it was a long rectangular photo that I needed to fit into a square space. I also colorized the photo with the help of the Palette program, and then some Photoshop fixing.

SNACK Benefit, Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, CA, 3-23-1975, Part 2: The Grateful Dead

The second major act to perform at the 1975 SNACK benefit was the Grateful Dead. 

Note that this was a very unusual concert for the Grateful Dead. That probably explains why the band appeared quite early in the day, to lower expectations. 1975 was a strange year for the band. They went on touring hiatus in October 1974, and only resumed touring on a regular basis in June 1976. In 1975, they just played four concerts, including this one.

Technically, this act was billed as "Jerry Garcia and Friends." But actually, it was every member of the Grateful Dead plus Merl Saunders on organ and Ned Lagin on keyboards. 

What really sets this concert apart for the band though was the set list. For one thing, they were used to playing two hours or longer each concert. But here, they were limited to a 30-minute long set. (They went a little over.) They decided to fill nearly all of that with a completely instrumental performance, except for the encore. Furthermore, their big instrumental section was music that they'd never put on record or performed in public yet. According to media reports, they called the entire thing "Space Age." However, later in 1975 they would release the studio album "Blues for Allah" and most of it was on that album in different forms, so we can assign names to the parts of the instrumental sections.

That was a pretty ballsy move to perform such experimental music, especially in front of a crowd that mostly did not consist of their usual "Deadhead" fan base. The only thing they did to appeal to the masses was the encore, a lively cover of the Chuck Berry standard "Johnny B. Goode," with vocals. This has to be one of the most unique concerts the band ever did. The only times they played versions of this "Blues for Allah" song making up most of their set was in their four 1975 concerts.

This album is 37 minutes long.

Note that the track numbering continues where the numbering for the previous album from this concert left off. All the rest of the albums from the concert follow that same pattern.

08 talk by Bill Graham (Grateful Dead)
09 Blues for Allah [Instrumental Version] (Grateful Dead)
10 Milking the Turkey [Instrumental] (Grateful Dead)
11 Drums [Instrumental] (Grateful Dead)
12 Milking the Turkey [Instrumental] (Grateful Dead)
13 Blues for Allah [Reprise] [Instrumental Version] (Grateful Dead)
14 talk (Grateful Dead)
15 Johnny B. Goode (Grateful Dead) 

https://www.upload.ee/files/16603877/VA-SNCKBnefitKzarStdumSnFrncscoCA__3-23-1975_02GrteflDed_atse.zip.html

I was ready to post the albums from this concert weeks ago, but I was held up by the cover art. I found photos for six of the eight acts from this exact concert, but all of them were in black and white. So it took me a while to get around to colorizing them with the help of the Palette program. This photo only shows the band's two lead singers, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir. I know I got the colors right for Garcia, because I found a color photo of just him. I preferred this one though. I had to guess the colors for Weir, and stuck pretty closely to what the Palette program chose.

SNACK Benefit, Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, CA, 3-23-1975, Part 1: Graham Central Station

It's time for me to post another big rock festival. This one is the SNACK Benefit in San Francisco in 1975. SNACK stood for "Students Need Athletics, Culture and Kicks." This concert was a charity benefit organized by rock promoter Bill Graham after he found out the San Francisco school district was going to make drastic budget cuts, including eliminating all after school sports and other extracurricular activities. 

Since this is the first of eight albums containing the sets from the SNACK concert, here's where I'll give some background to the concert as a whole. If you want to know more, here's the Wikipedia entry about it:

SNACK Benefit Concert - Wikipedia

You can also read an interesting Rolling Stones Magazine article about it here:

Dylan, Brando and Co. Work for Snack (rollingstone.com)

Bill Graham called up famous musicians he knew and convinced them to perform at this concert. He later told the media, "The children will not have musical instruments. There will be no football practices. There will be no cheerleaders. No after-school tutoring. ... We make our living from the youth of San Francisco. This is one way we hope to thank them." The school district was facing a two million dollar shortfall. The concert didn't raise that much money, considerably less than a million dollars. However, the date before the concert, the district announced they had "found" two million dollars in the budget due to an accounting error, eliminating most of the shortage and saving the cuts from happening. I'm sure the district was embarrassed into doing this due to bad publicity, so the concert was successful in its goal.

The concert was held in a huge sports stadium, resulting in an audience of 60,000 people. That made it the largest benefit concert in rock history up until that point. In addition to a bunch of famous music acts, some famous celebrities gave speeches between the music sets, including Willie Mays, Marlon Brando, and Jesse Owens.

Now let me discuss this exact album. The albums in this concert are sorted chronologically by the times the acts went on stage. The American funk band Graham Central Station was the first major act to perform. (Latin jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri actually went on first, but I don't have that set.) In 1974, Graham Central Station released their first two albums. They had a minor hit with the song "Can You Handle It."

The band has only ever released one live album, and that's from way later, a 1992 album by a reunited version of the band. So it's good to get a live recording of the band in the mid-1970's prime. Their commercial peak was actually be 1975, when they had their biggest hit, "Your Love," later in the year.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 The Jam (Graham Central Station)
02 Feel the Need (Graham Central Station)
03 We've Been Waiting (Graham Central Station)
04 Release Yourself (Graham Central Station)
05 Can You Handle It (Graham Central Station)
06 People (Graham Central Station)
07 It Ain't No Fun to Me (Graham Central Station)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16603879/VA-SNCKBnefitKzarStdumSnFrncscoCA__3-23-1975_01GrhmCntrlStaton_atse.zip.html

I was able to find photos from this exact concert for the cover art for all the acts except two. One of those two was Graham Central Station. Instead, I found a photo of the band at Munich TV Studios in Munich, Germany, on January 23, 1975. Using Photoshop, I removed the band from their background and put in a background that would match all the other covers from this concert. The end result isn't great, but hopefully it's good enough to get the job done. 

The logo at the top left was taken unchanged from promotional materials for the concert.

The Specials - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-26-2009

I hadn't planned on posting this, because I prefer music from artists when they were in their prime, and this concert took place long after the Specials had their prime in the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, I made an exception here because the band reunited in 1993 and stayed together after that, but it wasn't until some months before this concert that Terry Hall, the band's original lead singer until 1981, rejoined the band. So this was an important reunion of sorts. Hall was the singer on the original versions of most or all of these songs.

Another reason I posted this is because the bootleg recording of this show sounded excellent in general, but had one big flaw that I could fix: the lead vocals were way too low in the mix. I used the UVR5 audio editing program to bring up the vocals. It sounds much better now.

Virtually all of the songs here were originally done in the 1979 to 1981 time frame. The band continued until about 1986 without Hall (as "Specials AKA"), and had some hits, including "Free Nelson Mandela," but I guess Hall didn't feel comfortable doing those.

The album is 59 minutes long.

01 talk (Specials)
02 Do the Dog (Specials)
03 Gangsters (Specials)
04 It's Up to You (Specials)
05 Rat Race (Specials)
06 Monkey Man (Specials)
07 talk (Specials)
08 Blank Expression (Specials)
09 Too Hot (Specials)
10 Doesn't Make It Alright (Specials)
11 talk (Specials)
12 Concrete Jungle (Specials)
13 Friday Night, Saturday Morning (Specials)
14 Man at C&A (Specials)
15 A Message to You, Rudy (Specials)
16 talk (Specials)
17 Do Nothing (Specials)
18 Hey Little Rich Girl (Specials)
19 Nite Klub (Specials)
20 Too Much, Too Young (Specials)
21 You're Wondering Now (Specials)
22 Ghost Town (Specials)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16604043/TSPECLS2009BBSssonsVlum4GlstnbrFstivlWrthyFrmPiltnBitin__6-26-2009_atse.zip.html

The photo of lead singer Terry Hall is from this exact concert. I couldn't find any good photos showing the entire band.

Various Artists - KHJ Second Annual Appreciation Concert, Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA, 4-29-1967

Here's a really special concert, in my opinion. It's a totally unreleased, and even rarely shared as a bootleg, concert from the magic year of 1967. Check out the acts: Buffalo Springfield, the Fifth Dimension, Brenda Holloway, the Seeds, Johnny Rivers, and the Supremes! Those are all acts who have little to no unreleased live recordings, and in some cases virtually no live recordings at all.

The reason this is unreleased and even rarely shared as a bootleg, has to do with sound quality. The concert was professionally recorded, probably by the radio station that promoted the show, KHJ. But there was one problem that was essentially a fatal flaw, making this nearly unlistenable. The concert took place at the famous Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, California. In early 1967, this venue was updating their sound system. They introduced a new piece of equipment, the radio mic. Unfortunately, there were technical problems with this. A high-pitched squeal could be heard through the entire recording that apparently was heard by the audience there at the time.

Due to this problem, I had been aware of this recording for years, and intrigued by the list of acts, but I never added it to my music collection due to that fatal flaw. However, recently I remembered it, and realized that the technological advancements in audio editing could possibly get rid of that annoying squeal. So I gave it a try. The good news is, I got rid of the vast majority of the problem. The bad news is, I couldn't get rid of it entirely. But I believe this is now very listenable. Even when the squeal can be heard, it's much lower in the mix.

Actually, the squeal wasn't as bad as it sounds at first because it really was only a problem during times of relative quiet, usually between songs. When there was a full band playing, the squeal usually disappeared entirely. So my challenge was to get rid of the squeal whenever it showed up. Using the UVR5 program, I split the songs into different tracks (vocals, drums, bass, and other). I often found the squeal would only be on one track, which I could then reduce or eliminate entirely. For instance, during the banter between songs, much of the squeal would be on the "other" track, and all I needed was the "vocals" track. 

When that wasn't enough, I also used noise reduction with the Audacity program. People rightly object to the use of this technique because it degrades the music. But I've found it usually doesn't cause a problem when it's only used for talking between songs, so that's all I used it for here. Sometimes, even that wasn't enough, so I would manually drastically lower the volume of the squeal whenever it appeared during significant pauses in the banter.

I'd say I was about 90 percent successful overall. The squeal is still there in some places where I couldn't get to it without harming the music. One example is the song "Yesterday" by the Supremes. That one was quiet enough for the squeal to show up. But because it was a song and not just banter, I couldn't use noise reduction and other techniques. Luckily, there are only a couple other songs like that.

Otherwise, the recording is surprisingly good for a 1967 bootleg. At times, the vocals microphone would max out, especially when backing vocals were added. So some parts sound a bit rough. But overall, this is a good soundboard quality bootleg. Considering the acts involved, the recording is pretty amazing, in my opinion.

The only other significant problem I had was with the song "Do What You Gotta Do" by Johnny Rivers. The first half and then some was completely missing. As an experiment, I found his studio version from a 1967 album, and I tried filling in the missing section with that. I think it worked out okay, though not perfectly. The fact that it even comes close to matching is an indication of the overall quality of this boot. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in the title.

Now, let me discuss the musical content here. This concert was put on by the Los Angeles radio station KHJ, and they used it as a way to promote themselves and especially their DJ's. I must admit I cut out a lot of what I consider unnecessary DJ chatter between the acts, while keeping all the music. Some of the DJs went on and on way too long. For instance, the DJ who introduced the Seeds took six minutes for the introduction, repeating the fact that he was holding flowers to give the band over and over. I suspect the band wasn't ready, so he was stalling for time. Still, it's painful to hear. I cut those six minutes down to one. I did a lot of editing with the others, cutting things down to just the basic introductions of each act, and getting rid of a lot of the radio station promotion and hype. 

There also was a section in the middle of the Supremes set where Berry Gordy, the head of Motown Records, gave a speech and presented an award. I thought that was somewhat interesting, since Gordy is a famous figure, so I kept most of his speech. But I cut out a lot of that section too, including the entire speech by the person who received the award.

Let's consider the acts involved here. The sheer musical diversity is pretty amazing. Every single act in the concert is interesting to me. Note that the more popular acts came later, with each succeeding act getting more stage time. The first two acts only got 16 minutes each, but the final act, the Supremes, got 48 minutes.

These days, I think people would be most interested to hear Buffalo Springfield's set. Unfortunately, it was only four songs long. But on the plus side, it's historic, because it included the very first public performance of "Mr. Soul," which was on the verge of being released as a single at the time. Even though the Buffalo Springfield set is only 16 minutes long, it's still a gem due to the rarity of live recordings by them with this quality.

The Fifth Dimension were just starting to get popular when this concert happened, which is why they only had a short set at the start of the concert. Their debut album, "Up, Up and Away," wouldn't be released until a couple of months after this concert. They had released a few singles already, but their first really big hit, also "Up, Up and Away," hadn't been released yet either. But they did play it here. I'm not aware of ANY Fifth Dimension bootlegs, and their one live album, simple called "Live," is from 1971, with a very different set list.

Brenda Holloway was a Motown act. She was often ignored by Motown. Consider how she released tons of singles in the 1960s, but was only allowed to release one album, in 1964. At the time of this concert, she hadn't had a hit in two years. But she was promoting her latest single, "Just Look What You've Done," which would prove to be a minor hit (in the Top Twenty of the Soul chart), and should have been a bigger hit. She never released a live album in the 1960s and I'm not aware of any bootlegs by her either.

The Seeds were a garage rock band was a very simple and primitive sound. Their most famous song, "Pushin' Too Hard," only uses two chords, and most of their other songs are just like that, and sound similar to each other. Yet somehow there's charm in their simplicity. The Seeds only had two national hits, "Pushin' Too Hard" and "Can't Seem to Make You Mine," both of them scraping around the bottom of the Top Forty. But they were based in Los Angeles and much more popular there, which explains why they got a more prominent billing and longer set time than some other acts here. The Seeds never released a live album in the 1960s (although there is one studio album with fake crowd noise added, bizarrely). I could only find one bootleg from the 1960s, an Anaheim concert in 1968, but the sound quality of that is a lot poorer than this.

Johnny Rivers was a big star in 1967. He'd had a bunch of big hits, including the self-composed "Poor Side of Town," which was Number One in 1966. His version of the Motown classic "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" was a Number Three hit around the time of this concert, an even bigger hit than the original by the Four Tops. But he was possibly even better known for his series of live albums, which were all good sellers. Between 1964 and 1967, he released no fewer than five live albums! That said, this is probably a better set list than any of those albums, because it contains all of his biggest hits by that point in his career. 

One interesting side note is that Rivers played with an orchestra, and it was conducted in person by none other than Jimmy Webb. Webb would go on to become a famous songwriter, with many classic hits written by him but performed by others. But at the time of this concert he was just starting to find success with his songs. He wrote seven songs on Rivers most recent album at the time, but none of them were hits. However, "Up, Up and Away," played by the Fifth Dimension earlier in the concert, would be the first big hit for him a couple of months later, reaching the Top Ten.

That takes us to the closing act, the Supremes. They were the jewel in the crown for Motown, having hit after hit after hit all through the 1960s. At the time of this concert, the Supremes were promoting their latest single, "The Happening." It would hit Number One a few weeks after this concert. The Supremes did release a few live albums, including one in 1965 and another in 1968. But I'm not aware of any bootlegs by them, so this is an interesting addition.

I believe that at the time of this concert, band member Florence Ballard was having trouble due to alcoholism and depression. As a result, she was missing many concerts. This led to her being replaced by Cindy Birdsong, a member of the Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles. I believe that Birdsong was on stage here, not Ballard. Ballard returned to the Supremes in May, but performed badly. She was permanently replaced by Birdsong in July.

I'd be curious what people think of this concert, and especially if any of the lingering squeal sound is still bothersome.

This album is two hours and 24 minutes long.

01 talk by Gary Mack (Buffalo Springfield)
02 Pay the Price (Buffalo Springfield)
03 talk (Buffalo Springfield)
04 Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing (Buffalo Springfield)
05 For What It's Worth (Buffalo Springfield)
06 Mr. Soul (Buffalo Springfield)
07 talk by Gary Mack (Buffalo Springfield)
08 talk by Johnny Williams (Fifth Dimension)
09 It's Not Unusual (Fifth Dimension)
10 Go Where You Wanna Go (Fifth Dimension)
11 On Broadway (Fifth Dimension)
12 talk (Fifth Dimension)
13 Up, Up and Away (Fifth Dimension)
14 The Beat Goes On (Fifth Dimension)
15 talk by Bobby Tripp (Brenda Holloway)
16 Happy Together - Sunny (Brenda Holloway)
17 talk (Brenda Holloway)
18 Just Look What You've Done (Brenda Holloway)
19 Every Little Bit Hurts (Brenda Holloway)
20 talk by Humble Harve (Seeds)
21 talk (Seeds)
22 Tripmaker (Seeds)
23 talk (Seeds)
24 Pushin' Too Hard (Seeds)
25 talk (Seeds)
26 Mr. Farmer (Seeds)
27 talk (Seeds)
28 Up in Her Room (Seeds)
29 talk (Seeds)
30 Can't Seem to Make You Mine (Seeds)
31 talk by Humble Harve (Seeds)
32 talk by Johnny Mitchell (Johnny Rivers)
33 Seventh Son (Johnny Rivers)
34 California Dreamin' (Johnny Rivers)
35 Mountain of Love (Johnny Rivers)
36 Do What You Gotta Do (Johnny Rivers)
37 The Tracks of My Tears (Johnny Rivers)
38 talk (Johnny Rivers)
39 Baby, I Need Your Lovin' (Johnny Rivers)
40 Memphis, Tennessee (Johnny Rivers)
41 talk (Johnny Rivers)
42 Poor Side of Town (Johnny Rivers)
43 talk (Johnny Rivers)
44 Secret Agent Man (Johnny Rivers)
45 tallk by Don Steele (Supremes)
46 You Keep Me Hangin' On (Supremes)
47 Stop in the Name of Love - Come See about Me - My World Is Empty without You - Baby Love (Supremes)
48 Michelle (Supremes)
49 More [Theme from Mondo Cane] (Supremes)
50 talk (Supremes)
51 Back in My Arms Again (Supremes)
52 talk (Supremes)
53 Love Is Here and Now You're Gone (Supremes)
54 Yesterday (Supremes)
55 You Can't Hurry Love (Supremes)
56 talk (Supremes)
57 talk by Berry Gordy (Supremes)
58 talk (Supremes)
59 The Happening (Supremes)
60 Somewhere (Supremes)
61 I Hear a Symphony (Supremes)
62 talk (Supremes)
63 You Send Me - For Sentimental Reasons - Cupid - Chain Gang - Bring It on Home to Me - Shake (Supremes)
64 talk by Gary Mack (Supremes)

https://www.imagenetz.de/bgXf3

I couldn't find any photos of the acts on stage at this concert. However, I did find a promotional poster for the concert, so I decided to use that as the basis of the cover. I made some edits to get everything to fit in the necessary square space and to look nice. I greatly enlarged the title in purple at the top, and I cut out some other text. But all the rest of the text is original and unchanged.

Elton John - Cover Versions, Volume 4: 2000-2002

I've been gradually posting a series of non-album cover versions by Elton John. However, when I posted Volume 3 in this series at the end of 2013, I ran into some copyright violation trouble. The link was taken down. Despite that, I'm going to foolishly post Volume 4 anyway. But there will be no direct download link. Instead, look to the comments section for a link to another website. Let's see how that works out.

It seems Elton John was really into performing cover songs in the early 2000s. Volume 2 stretches over nearly two decades, whereas this volume stretches over only about two and a half years. 

Nearly all of the songs were done in concert. There are only two exceptions, which are from studio albums: "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On" and "Teardrops." One more song was done live but has been officially released: a duet of "Stan" with Eminem at the Grammy Awards in 2001. That's from an Eminem greatest hits album. Everything else is unreleased and from concert bootlegs.

During this time period, Elton John was doing many concerts as a co-headliner with Billy Joel. Typically, they played lots of songs together, and sometimes sang each other's songs. Four of the songs here are with Joel. 

There was a glitch in "Piano Man" that I managed to fix. That's why that one has "[Edit]" in the title.

By the way, just a couple of days ago I posted a 2001 Brian Wilson tribute concert. Two of the songs here happen to also be from that.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Free Man in Paris (Elton John)
02 Come Together (Elton John)
03 Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On (Elton John)
04 Just the Way You Are (Billy Joel & Elton John)
05 You May Be Right (Billy Joel & Elton John)
06 Stan (Eminem & Elton John)
07 God Only Knows (Elton John)
08 Wouldn't It Be Nice (Elton John & Brian Wilson)
09 Piano Man [Edit] (Billy Joel & Elton John)
10 Teardrops (Elton John & Lulu)
11 Here Comes the Sun (Elton John & Billy Joel)
12 Answering Bell (Elton John & Ryan Adams)

NOTE: There is no download link, as mentioned above, but check out the comments section. You may also find a link to Volume 3 there.

The cover photo comes from a concert in Madison Square Garden in New York City on October 20, 2000.

Neil Finn - Acoustic Radio Sessions, Volume 1: 1996-1999

At the end of last year (2023), I posted two albums consisting of unreleased acoustic radio sessions by the New Zealand/Australia band Crowded House. The material for these albums was given to me years ago by someone whose name I have unfortunately forgotten. At the same time, he provided me with material for three albums of acoustic radio sessions by Neil Finn, the main singer-songwriter for Crowded House. Here's the first of those three.

Just like the Crowded House material, this all has excellent sound quality, despite being totally unreleased. And also just like that material, this had fallen into total obscurity. I doubt any of this would survive to be shared on the Internet had it not been for that one fan recording it at the time and passing it on to me. So I wish to thank that person yet again.

Most of the songs here were originally done by Crowded House, which put on a final concert in 1996 (though they reunited years later). But there's a few cover songs rarely done by Finn elsewhere, such as "Southern Man" and "I Can See Clearly Now." Also, four of the songs here were performed by Neil Finn with his brother Tim Finn, another talented singer-songwriter and sometime member of Crowded House. Tim Finn was also the leader of Split Enz, a band in which Neil Finn was a member for most of their successful years. Split Enz had a big hit with the song "I Got You," written by both Finn brothers, and that song was performed here as well.

All the songs are from in-person radio station performances around the world. Only one, "12 Guitars," was done before an audience. A few were from BBC performances, but not enough for me to deem this a BBC album.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 Better Be Home Soon (Neil Finn)
02 Angels Heap (Finn Brothers [Neil Finn & Tim Finn])
03 Six Months in a Leaky Boat (Finn Brothers [Neil Finn & Tim Finn])
04 Suffer Never (Finn Brothers [Neil Finn & Tim Finn])
05 Weather with You (Finn Brothers [Neil Finn & Tim Finn])
06 I Got You (Neil Finn)
07 Last One Standing (Neil Finn)
08 Southern Man (Neil Finn)
09 Try Whistling This (Neil Finn)
10 Falling Star (Neil Finn)
11 She Will Have Her Way (Neil Finn)
12 What I Get Paid For (Neil Finn)
13 King Tide (Neil Finn)
14 Only Talking Sense (Neil Finn)
15 12 Guitars (Neil Finn)
16 I Can See Clearly Now (Neil Finn)
17 Four Seasons in One Day (Neil Finn)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16588415/NELFNN1996-1999AcustcRdoSssonsVlum1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from the Concert for Linda McCartney at London's Royal Albert Hall in April 1999.

Various Artists - An All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson (Radio City Music Hall, New York City, 3-29-2001)

Here's something that any fan of the Beach Boys will certainly enjoy. I don't know much about the backstory for this one (maybe someone else can explain?) - I'm guessing it was an anniversary of some sort. But in 2001, a bunch of great musicians got together to celebrate the music of Brian Wilson. That's basically the same thing as celebrating the music of the Beach Boys, since I think all but one of the songs performed here was originally recorded and released by the Beach Boys. (The lone exception, "Love and Mercy," is from Wilson's more hit and miss solo career.) 

In my opinion, most of these kinds of tribute concerts have more dud performances than good ones. But this one is solid pretty much all the way through. It's hard to go wrong with Beach Boys songs, for starters. But also, a lot of big names took part, such as Paul Simon, Elton John, Billy Joel, Heart, David Crosby, Aimee Mann, and many more, and it's hard to go wrong with them as well. Plus, Brian Wilson himself joined in at the end.

Most or all of the performances are unique, meaning these particular artists never did these songs before, and probably not since. They were special versions just for this show.

This concert has never been released in any kind of audio format, as far as I know. But the songs here all come from a DVD that has been released. I edited it down somewhat to remove some speeches praising Wilson. I wanted to keep it more focused on the music. (One section I removed was a talk by Beatles producer George Martin about the song "Good Vibrations.")  However, I did keep all the talking that directly preceded or followed each song that was relevant.

Unfortunately, there was a lot more to this concert that was not included on the DVD, and I can't find it anywhere else. For instance, Wilson sang lead or co-lead on five songs at the end of this album. But in the concert, he sang a few more: "Lay Down Burden," "Do It Again," "Caroline, No," and "Surfin' U.S.A." If anyone has more than I do, please let me know so I can add it in.

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long.

01 talk (Chazz Palminteri)
02 Our Prayer (Boys Choir of Harlem)
03 California Girls - Help Me, Rhonda (Ricky Martin)
04 talk (Chazz Palminteri)
05 Surfer Girl (Paul Simon)
06 Surf City (Go-Go's)
07 talk (Chazz Palminteri)
08 In My Room (David Crosby, Carly Simon & Jimmy Webb)
09 talk (David Crosby)
10 The Warmth of the Sun (Vince Gill)
11 talk (Chazz Palminteri)
12 I Get Around (Evan & Jaron)
13 talk (Chazz Palminteri)
14 God Only Knows (Elton John)
15 talk (Chazz Palminteri)
16 I Just Wasn't Made for These Times (Aimee Mann & Michael Penn)
17 talk (Chazz Palminteri & Billy Joel)
18 Don't Worry Baby (Billy Joel)
19 talk (Chazz Palminteri)
20 Sail On Sailor (Darius Rucker & Matthew Sweet)
21 talk (Chazz Palminteri & Chynna Phillips)
22 You're So Good to Me (Wilson Phillips)
23 talk (George Martin)
24 Good Vibrations (Heart)
25 talk (Chazz Palminteri)
26 Surf's Up (David Crosby, Vince Gill & Jimmy Webb)
27 talk (Chazz Palminteri & Brian Wilson)
28 Heroes and Villains (Brian Wilson)
29 talk (Elton John)
30 Wouldn't It Be Nice (Elton John & Brian Wilson)
31 talk (Brian Wilson)
32 Barbara Ann (Brian Wilson & Everyone)
33 Fun, Fun, Fun (Brian Wilson & Everyone)
34 talk (Brian Wilson)
35 Love and Mercy (Brian Wilson with the Boys Choir of Harlem)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16584567/VA-_2001AllStrTrbtetBrnWlsnRdoCtyMsicHllNwYrkC__3-29-2001_atse.zip.html

I have to admit, the cover is a bit fakey. I found a photo of Elton John, Billy Joel, and Paul Simon sharing the same microphone during a finale at this concert. But since it's a Brian Wilson tribute and he was there, I wanted him on the cover too. So I Photoshopped him in, using a photo that also comes from the finale at this concert. They were on stage together, just not this close. The lighting is pretty accurate. For instance, there's a shadow falling on his body that actually fell on someone else standing there.