Bonds had a rather strange career, and his strange stage name is a part of that. His real name is Gary Anderson. But early in his career, back around 1960, his record company insist that he call himself "U.S. Bonds." The thinking is that radio stations would mistake his records for obligatory public service announcements for the sale of U.S. bonds, which was a thing at the time, and thus he would get extra exposure. Whether he liked it or not, the name stuck, though he soon at least changed it to "Gary U.S. Bonds."
Bonds had a number of hits, all between 1960 and 1962, with "New Orleans" and "Quarter to Three" being the biggest. But then his career was basically forgotten for a long time. Between 1963 and 1980, he released over 20 singles, and none of them even made the charts. But then, in 1981, everything changed, due to music superstar Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen had long been a fan of Bonds' music, and performed "Quarter to Three" in many concerts. Springsteen was heavily involved in making Bonds' 1981 album, called "Dedication." He wrote three songs for it, including "This Little Girl," which became a Top Ten hit in the U.S. He and/or his E Street Band played on many songs, and he dueted with Bonds on another song, "Jole Blon." That helped the album reach Number 27 on the U.S. album chart. Music critic Dave Marsh later called it "one of the most successful comeback albums in rock and roll history." Springsteen would also be involved in two more albums by Bonds, in 1982 and 2004, though to less commercial success.
This concert leaned heavily on the "Dedication" album. Many of the songs are from it: "Jole Blon," "From a Buick 6" (a Bob Dylan cover), "Daddy's Come Home," "The Pretender" (a Jackson Browne cover), "It's Only Love," (a Beatles cover), "Dedication," "Way Back When," "Your Love," and "This Little Girl" (those last two being Springsteen covers). In fact, only two songs aren't from the album, "Dear Lady Twist" and "Quarter to Three." Even his big 1960 hit "New Orleans" wasn't included (although that probably was a BBC editing decision, since this almost certainly consists of selections from a longer concert).
This is another album where I had help from a new volunteer named Ed. I gave him a long list of albums to choose to work from, and this was one he picked. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have posted it for a long time. Ed edited all the files to improve the mix.
There was one problem with the recording. The last song, "Quarter to Three," ended badly. On the BBC recording, a BBC DJ began talking over the music, announcing that the time allotted for the concert had come to an end. Then the song came to a sudden stop. I used the MVSEP program to wipe the DJ's voice, saving a little more of the music. Then I faded the song out, while adding in a growing amount of crowd noise, to bring the concert to a more satisfying end. That's why that last song has "[Edit]" in its title.
Everything here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.
This album is 57 minutes long.
01 Jole Blon (Gary U.S. Bonds)
02 From a Buick 6 (Gary U.S. Bonds)
03 talk (Gary U.S. Bonds)
04 Daddy's Come Home (Gary U.S. Bonds)
05 talk (Gary U.S. Bonds)
06 The Pretender (Gary U.S. Bonds)
07 talk (Gary U.S. Bonds)
08 Dear Lady Twist (Gary U.S. Bonds)
09 talk (Gary U.S. Bonds)
10 It's Only Love (Gary U.S. Bonds)
11 talk (Gary U.S. Bonds)
12 Dedication (Gary U.S. Bonds)
13 Way Back When (Gary U.S. Bonds)
14 Your Love (Gary U.S. Bonds)
15 talk (Gary U.S. Bonds)
16 This Little Girl (Gary U.S. Bonds)
17 talk (Gary U.S. Bonds)
18 Quarter to Three [Edit] (Gary U.S. Bonds)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/gth4teJz
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/PExtveOGjFIloHW/file
The cover photo is from a concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1981. But I don't know if it's from this exact concert or not, because I saw photos of him at that venue that year in different clothes, so he probably performed more than one concert there.
WOW, Thank you!
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