The Carpenters - Imaginary Piano Recital, Volume 1: 1970-1975 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's another Fabio from Rio guest post. It's the first of two volumes featuring the Carpenters. Basically, Fabio and I love Karen Carpenter's voice, but the production of Carpenters records usually left a lot to be desired. Too often, the songs were drenched with syrupy strings and other overproduction that detracted from the beauty of her voice, and the song, instead of adding to them. So we've tried to counter that in various ways. First, I posted a "Near Acappella" album that stripped the music just down to vocals, bass, and drums. Then, we posted two completely "Acappella" albums. Now, there's this. The idea is, an imaginary piano recital, with nothing but Karen Carpenter singing, and usually her brother Richard playing piano.

Fabio found all the songs for this. First, he found some other people on the Internet who already had used audio editing technology to strip official studio versions of songs down to just lead vocals and piano. But many songs he liked hadn't been given that treatment, or hadn't been stripped enough, so he did his own audio editing. So all the songs have been edited, heavily, but the ones with "[Edit]" in them specifically indicate the ones with Fabio's editing.

Fabio has a lot more to say on this. So check out his liner notes that are included in the download zip. 

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 [They Long to Be] Close to You [Edit] (Carpenters)
02 Maybe It's You [Edit] (Carpenters)
03 For All We Know (Carpenters)
04 One Love [Edit] (Carpenters)
05 Rainy Days and Mondays [BBC Version] [Edit] (Carpenters)
06 Superstar [Groupie] [Edit] (Carpenters)
07 A Song for You [Edit] (Carpenters)
08 I Won't Last a Day without You [Edit] (Carpenters)
09 I Can't Make Music [Edit] (Carpenters)
10 Sing [Edit] (Carpenters)
11 The End of the World [Edit] (Carpenters)
12 Top of the World [Edit] (Carpenters)
13 Yesterday Once More [Edit] (Carpenters)
14 Love Me for What I Am [Edit] (Carpenters)
15 Solitaire [Edit] (Carpenters)

Top of the World [Country Singalong Version] [Edit] (Carpenters) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Jd2UdXrz

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/7Kd3757bXETVnXz/file

For the cover image, we wanted to show Karen singing and Richard playing piano. Luckily, we found two, just enough for our two volumes. I don't know the details of where or when this image was taken though, except that it's "circa 1971."

Aretha Franklin - Montreux Jazz Festival, Casino de Montreux, Montreux, Switzerland, 6-12-1971

Guest poster Fabio from Rio is in the process of making an interesting Aretha Franklin compilation. While I was helping him gather songs for that, I came across this concert. It was broadcast on T.V. in 1971, so the sound quality is excellent. However, it seems to have languished in obscurity as an audio bootleg. I'm hoping to help fix that with this post.

Franklin's peak years were 1967 to 1974. In terms of the song list, this was pretty standard for the time, and there's a lot of similarity with her 1971 live album, "Aretha Live at Fillmore West." But there are very few live recordings from that era with great sound quality, so I figure this is worth posting.

As a nice bonus, the leader of her band in this concert was saxophonist King Curtis, a star in his own right. He features prominently on the first two songs before Franklin even came to the stage, especially "Soul Serenade," which was a hit for him in 1964. Sadly, he died just two months later when he was stabbed by a stranger in New York City. 

This album is 54 minutes long. 

01 Soul Serenade [Instrumental] (Aretha Franklin)
02 Aretha Introduction [Instrumental] (Aretha Franklin)
03 Respect (Aretha Franklin)
04 [You Make Me Feel Like] A Natural Woman (Aretha Franklin)
05 I Say a Little Prayer (Aretha Franklin)
06 Call Me (Aretha Franklin)
07 Brand New Me (Aretha Franklin)
08 Share Your Love with Me (Aretha Franklin)
09 Don't Play That Song [You Lied] (Aretha Franklin)
10 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Aretha Franklin)
11 Dr. Feelgood [Love Is a Serious Business] (Aretha Franklin)
12 Spirit in the Dark (Aretha Franklin) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FtxvfkAE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/8YFwGQVz8UY0sPs/file

The cover image is a screenshot from this exact concert. 

Covered: Randy Newman, Volume 1: 1963-1973

Whenever I think about the "Covered" series of albums I've made, I get frustrated, because I've got dozens that I've never gotten around to posting. I guess I enjoy the making of the albums more than the steps needed to post them. It feels like unfinished homework. But I'm going to make more of an effort to fix that, starting with a triple-header of Randy Newman.

Here's some highlights from his Wikipedia entry:  

"[Newman] is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, composer, and arranger. Born in Los Angeles to an extended family of Hollywood film composers, he is known for his Americana-inspired songs, non-rhotic Southern-accented singing style, and typically mordant or satirical lyrics. Since the 1990s, he has worked mainly in film scoring, most popularly for Disney and Pixar. ... Newman has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards (out of 22 nominations), three Emmys, seven Grammy Awards, as well as nominations for a BAFTA Award and seven Golden Globe Awards. His award-winning film work includes 'Ragtime' (1981), 'The Natural' (1984), 'Toy Story' (1995), 'A Bug's Life' (1998), 'Pleasantville' (1998), 'Monsters, Inc.' (2001), 'Cars' (2006), 'The Princess and the Frog' (2009), 'Toy Story 3' (2010), and 'Marriage Story' (2019). He was honored with the Recording Academy's Governors Award in 2003, a Disney Legend award in 2007, and inductions into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013."

As mentioned above, he was born in Los Angeles. But he also spent many of his childhood summers in New Orleans. That would prove to be important, because his songwriting would be heavily influenced by New Orleans styles. And also as mentioned above, he was part of an extended family of Hollywood film composers. His mother and father had regular jobs (as secretary and internist, respectively), but three of his uncles were film composers, and so were three cousins. 

He began writing songs professionally by the age of 17. He put out a single under his own name in 1962, but it flopped. So he decided to try writing songs for others for a while. He began having successes almost immediately. The first song here, "Hold Your Head High" by Jackie DeShannon, is from 1963. 

Also very early on, he began writing instrumental music for TV shows, starting with an episode of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" in 1962. That talent would continue to grow, leading to him to eventually doing full movie soundtracks starting in 1971. More on that in a later volume though.

Alan Price helped boost Newman's songwriting career in 1967. For one thing, he had a hit with Newman's "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear." But also, he was so taken by Newman's songwriting that his 1967 album "A Price on His Head" had no less than seven songs by Newman. Harry Nilsson paid him an even bigger compliment by covering an entire album of his songs in 1970, "Nilsson Sings Newman."

Newman finally released his first album under his own name in 1968, "Randy Newman (Creates Something New Under the Sun)." It was a critical success, and it led to even more musical acts covering his songs, but it didn't sell well. It didn't even reach the top 200 U.S. albums chart. For the next ten years or so, he would continue to be a cult artist, meaning he was critically praised and beloved by a small group of fans, but didn't have much wider commercial success. 

Meanwhile, his songwriting continued to get better and better. It arguably peaked with his 1972 album "Sail Away," though he has maintained remarkably high consistency for his entire career. Rolling Stone Magazine has put that album on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. His 1974 album "Good Old Boys" would also make that list, though lower down it.

Newman's songwriting is extraordinary, but it's also idiosyncratic, with frequent heavy sarcasm. Some songs have general romantic themes that lend themselves to being covered a lot, for instance "I Think It's Going to Rain Today." There are over a 100 different cover versions of that one. But then consider a song like "God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)." It's a sarcastic song about how God seemingly could care less about the human race, and even laughs at the calamities it throws at humanity. I think it's a great song, with deep meaning, but it's not exactly typical Top Forty subject material! So there are a lot of songs I would have wanted to include but didn't, because either there's no cover versions at all, or at least no worthy covers. And I've followed my usual rule for the "Covered" series of generally not including versions by Newman himself (although he'll show up with one song in a later volume, and in a duet in the other volume).

Note that some of the best songs written by Newman during this time period only show up in one of the later two volumes. So if you don't see a favorite, wait to see what's on those first. 

This album is 52 minutes long. 

01 Hold Your Head High (Jackie DeShannon)
02 Baby, Don't Look Down (Billy Storm)
03 I've Been Wrong Before (Cilla Black)
04 Nobody Needs Your Love (Gene Pitney)
05 Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (Alan Price Set)
06 Snow (Claudine Longet)
07 Illinois (Everly Brothers)
08 I Think It's Going to Rain Today (Dusty Springfield)
09 Just One Smile (Blood Sweat & Tears)
10 Bet No One Ever Hurt This Bad (Linda Ronstadt)
11 Love Story (Peggy Lee)
12 Dayton, Ohio, 1903 (Wayne Fontana)
13 Mama Told Me [Not to Come] (Three Dog Night)
14 Cowboy (Nilsson)
15 The Beehive State (Doobie Brothers)
16 Living without You (Manfred Mann's Earth Band)
17 God's Song [That's Why I Love Mankind] (Etta James)
18 Guilty (Bonnie Raitt)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/i6jjx6vk

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/JKPIcpuJQBtagaN/file

The cover photo is from 1968.

Jackson Browne - Jabberwocky, Syracuse, NY, 3-27-1971

Here is a really great concert bootleg from Jackson Browne. It may well be the most interesting concert recording out of his long career, because it's from very early, about a year prior to the release of his debut album. The most interesting aspect is that there's no less than nine songs here that weren't officially released at the time (and only a couple of have come out in different versions much later). So it's basically like there's an entire album of songs prior to his debut included here.

I've known about this concert for a long time, but I hadn't posted it yet because it had a number of sound quality issues, and I'd never gotten around to fixing them. But yesterday, I saw a person named "twrona" posted a version on a popular bootleg sharing site that fixed most of those issues. (I left that person's notes so you can read what they fixed.) So I grabbed that and made some fixes of my own. Mostly, that had to do with volume adjustments. I also ran all the talking tracks through the Adobe vocal enhancer to help get rid of hiss and other background noise, which were much more noticeable during those bits.

This is a solo acoustic concert. (There's some talk at the beginning about Browne having a backing musician, referred to as "the Famous Flame" or "Tom Jones," but that's just jokey references to his guitar.) This very possibly is the earliest concert recording available for him. Note that it took place the same night as a Bonnie Raitt concert in the same venue. You can find that one here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/04/bonnie-raitt-jabberwocky-club-syracuse.html

(I just updated the cover art for that one. Taking a look at it again after a long time, I didn't like it. So I changed the font colors and style to match this Browne one.) 

This appears to be a combination of early and late shows. (I'm not sure where the break is, but "Jamaica Say You Will" is probably the last song of the early show.) Perhaps Raitt also did early and late shows, and her recording is a combination of those as well. At one point, Browne noted that Raitt was backstage during his set, and he also noted a written set list she'd left on stage. It's a shame the two of them didn't perform any songs together, but they probably were just starting to get to know each other. They would go on to become good friends, and perform together on stage many, many times.

I cut out some dead air and guitar tuning between songs. I also cut out about three minutes of crowd interaction in the middle of the show. Basically, someone in the audience was very aggressive, and all but demanded to be allowed to sing a song. Browne obliged, and the person sang... and was absolutely terrible. Trust me, you don't want to hear it. By the way, this same person asked for Raitt at one point. I think it's the same person who basically was an annoying heckler during Raitt's concert that same evening.

Here are all the songs performed in this concert that remain unreleased by Browne: 

Together Again (performed twice, the first version being much shorter)
Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood
Last Time I Was Home
Jesus in 3-4 Time (a J.D. Souther cover)
Take It Underground
When You Lose Your Money
Someday Morning
World to Gain
Shadow Dream Song

Most of the rest of the songs would appear on Browne's 1972 debut album "Jackson Browne," also known as "Saturate Before Using." But two, "Our Lady of the Well" and "These Days," would appear on his 1973 album "For Everyman."

Everything here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. That's because it was broadcast live on the WNEW radio station, as was Raitt's performance. 

This album is an hour and 24 minutes long.

01 talk (Jackson Browne)
02 Under the Falling Sky (Jackson Browne)
03 World to Gain (Jackson Browne)
04 talk (Jackson Browne)
05 Together Again [Short Version] (Jackson Browne)
06 talk (Jackson Browne)
07 Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood (Jackson Browne)
08 Last Time I Was Home (Jackson Browne)
09 talk (Jackson Browne)
10 Jesus in 3-4 Time (Jackson Browne)
11 talk (Jackson Browne)
12 My Opening Farewell (Jackson Browne)
13 talk (Jackson Browne)
14 From Silver Lake (Jackson Browne)
15 talk (Jackson Browne)
16 Rock Me on the Water (Jackson Browne)
17 talk (Jackson Browne)
18 Jamaica Say You Will (Jackson Browne)
19 Together Again (Jackson Browne)
20 talk (Jackson Browne)
21 Take It Underground (Jackson Browne)
22 talk (Jackson Browne)
23 When You Lose Your Money (Jackson Browne)
24 talk (Jackson Browne)
25 Our Lady of the Well (Jackson Browne)
26 talk (Jackson Browne)
27 These Days (Jackson Browne)
28 Someday Morning (Jackson Browne)
29 Shadow Dream Song (Jackson Browne)
30 talk (Jackson Browne)
31 Song for Adam (Jackson Browne)
32 talk (Jackson Browne)
33 Looking into You (Jackson Browne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Hh5vD1WT 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/xBaMAUmjTlwnzgL/file

The cover image is supposed to be "circa 1971" at the Troubadour club in Los Angeles. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. 

Joan Baez - Baez Sings Baez, Volume 1: 1967-1971 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's an album that was entirely made by guest poster Fabio from Rio. I just helped it along here and there, for instance making the cover art. Recently, Fabio really got into the music of Joan Baez, and devoured all 40 or so of her albums. He thought she was almost entirely about singing cover songs. But as he listened to those albums, he discovered many good songs that were written by her. So he came up with the idea of compiling all of her original songs, to show that she's had a lot of songwriting talent, as well as singing talent. He found about 70 songs, enough for five albums. This is the first one.

A well known Joan Baez compilation album has the title "Baez Sings Dylan," and consists just of her covers of Bob Dylan songs. Fabio came up with the idea of riffing on that, and calling this series "Baez Sings Baez." So that's what we're calling it. And the font type, color, size, and so on is a close match to the "Baez Sings Dylan" cover.

Fabio has a lot more to say about this. But, like guest poster Mike Solof does, he prefers to put his comments in a file that's included in the download zip. So please give that a read to learn a lot more. 

Everything here comes from officially released studio albums, so the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 57 minutes long. 

01 North (Joan Baez)
02 Saigon Bride (Joan Baez)
03 A Song for David [David's Song] (Joan Baez)
04 Sweet Sir Galahad (Joan Baez)
05 Here's to You (Joan Baez)
06 Blessed Are... (Joan Baez)
07 Three Horses (Joan Baez)
08 Last, Lonely and Wretched (Joan Baez)
09 Outside the Nashville City Limits (Joan Baez)
10 When Time Is Stolen (Joan Baez)
11 Gabriel and Me (Joan Baez)
12 Milanese Waltz - Marie Flore (Joan Baez)
13 The Hitchhiker's Song (Joan Baez)
14 Fifteen Months (Joan Baez)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PMuEKXwc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/gZhw4tt48XqFdZv/file

I mentioned above how I made the cover art as an homage to the cover of the official album "Baez Sings Dylan." Fabio selected the photograph. All I know about it is that it dates to 1965.

Covered: Van McCoy, Best Of: 1962-1985

Here's another artist for my "Covered" series. To remind you, this highlights the talents of songwriters by collecting cover versions of their songs. This time, the focus is on Van McCoy.

These days, McCoy is probably seen by many as a one-hit wonder, because he had one huge hit under his own name: "The Hustle." This instrumental was a huge hit in 1975. It went to Number One on the main U.S. singles chart, as well as on the soul chart. It reached at least the Top Ten in most other countries as well, including hitting Number Three in Britain. 

That was his only Top 40 hit in the U.S., so technically that makes him a "one-hit wonder" in that country. But he did have other hits in other countries. For instance, he had three more Top 40 hits in Britain. But more important, he had a very long and successful career as a songwriter and producer. The focus here will be just on the songwriting part though.

 

McCoy was born in Washington, D.C., in 1940. He started playing piano and singing in a church choir at a young age. He began writing songs at the age of 12. Eventually, he would have 700 of his songs recorded and released by himself or other musical artists. He started to study psychology at Howard University, but dropped out in 1960 to pursue a music career. 

 

He formed his own record company from the very start. He had a little success with his own recordings. His first single, "Mr. D.J.," was a minor hit in 1960. But he soon found more success writing and producing songs for others. He mostly concentrated on that, though he continued to release singles under his own name. His first really big hit as a songwriter was "Baby, I'm Yours." Singer Barbara Lewis took it to the Top Ten in 1965. He continued to write many more hits in the 1960s and 1970s. I've included the ones I liked the best here. Note these aren't necessarily all the biggest hits on the charts.

 

In the 1970s, he began focusing more on his own career. In the 1960s, he only released one album under his own name. But in the 1970s, he released ten. His solo career really took over after his 1975 hit "The Hustle." But he continued writing and producing songs for others as well. Unfortunately, his career was cut short, because he died of a heart attack on June 29, 1979, at the age of 39.

 

Here's his Wikipedia entry if you want to know more. It's surprisingly detailed compared to other similar entries:

 

Van McCoy - Wikipedia 

This album is an hour and nine minutes long. 

01 Stop the Music (Shirelles)
02 Getting Mighty Crowded (Betty Everett)
03 Giving Up (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
04 Baby, I'm Yours (Barbara Lewis)
05 It’s Starting to Get to Me Now (Irma Thomas)
06 Where Does That Leave Me Now (Nancy Wilson)
07 Before and After (Chad & Jeremy)
08 Let It All Out (O'Jays)
09 Stop and Get a Hold on Myself (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
10 When You're Young and in Love (Marvelettes)
11 You're Gonna Make Me Love You (Sandi Sheldon)
12 The Way to a Woman’s Heart (Billy T. Soul)
13 I Get the Sweetest Feeling (Jackie Wilson)
14 So Soon (Aretha Franklin)
15 Lost and Found (Kenny Carlton)
16 Nothing Worse than Being Alone (Ad Libs)
17 Right on the Tip of My Tongue (Brenda & the Tabulations)
18 Let Me Down Easy (Derrick Harriott)
19 The Hustle (Van McCoy)
20 This Is It (Melba Moore)
21 Heavy Love (David Ruffin)
22 Baby Don't Change Your Mind (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
23 Sweet Bitter Love (Aretha Franklin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/pgC1na27

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/6J8Pg2jDSyrxSmE/file

The cover photo dates to 1975. I assume it's from an awards ceremony, but I don't know the details. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: 1971-1972

I recently discovered a big amount of Lulu performances for the BBC, so much so that I'm expanding the four albums I'd previously posted into nine albums. This is almost entirely due to finding many more performances from the BBC TV shows she hosted. So here's a fifth volume.

Previously, I'd had one volume stretching from 1971 to 1975 (the old "Volume 4," now deleted). Nearly all of what had been on that volume is on this volume: tracks 1 through 8, and 10 through 14. So the only new tracks are 9 and 15. That means that virtually all the songs on the volumes after this will be new.

Although Lulu had a BBC TV show of her own during this time period, called "It's Lulu," I could find very few songs from this time period from that show. Actually, I only found two: "The More I See You," and the bonus track, "Scarborough Fair." (That's a bonus track due to poor sound quality.) So there's a possibility that many more songs from these years will eventually emerge, if some more recordings of those TV shows were saved somewhere. 

Instead, most of the songs on this album come from performances for the "Top of the Pops" BBC radio show (not to be confused with the BBC TV show of the same name). That makes up tracks 1 through 7 and 12 through 14. Note that you'll see "[Edit]" in the titles of a lot of those songs. That's due to the usual problem of BBC radio recordings from this era of DJs talking over the music. I did my usual editing, using the UVR5 program to remove the talking while keeping the music.

That leaves just tracks 8 through 11, and 15. All of those come from other BBC TV shows that had Lulu on as a guest. If you want specific details, please check the mp3 tags, as usual. These songs generally had audience applause. But I got rid of most of that using the UVR5 program. 

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is generally excellent, though it varies some. 

This album is 46 minutes long, not including the bonus track.

01 Bridge Over Troubled Water [Edit] (Lulu)
02 You've Gotta Believe in Love [Edit] (Lulu)
03 Save the Country (Lulu)
04 Get Ready [Edit] (Lulu)
05 I Got Love [Edit] (Lulu)
06 Resurrection Shuffle [Edit] (Lulu)
07 Everybody's Got to Clap (Lulu)
08 It Don't Come Easy (Lulu)
09 The More I See You (Lulu with Dudley Moore)
10 Just a Little Lovin' (Lulu)
11 Nights in White Satin (Lulu)
12 Amazing Grace (Lulu)
13 It Takes a Real Man [To Bring Out the Woman in Me] (Lulu)
14 Even If I Could Change [Edit] (Lulu)
15 My Father's House (Lulu with the Young Generation)

Scarborough Fair (Dusty Springfield & Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SFJw5zRP

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/chnsyalqmBk42N6/file

I don't know anything about the cover photo except it's "circa 1972."

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: 1969-1971

If you think I've posted a "BBC Sessions, Volume 4" for Lulu, you're not wrong. I recently discovered a ton of Lulu's BBC material that I'd missed before. In fact, I found so much that previously I'd posted four volumes, but now I'll be posting a total of nine! The vast majority of the new stuff is from the 1970s, especially 1975, but there is some music from the late 1960s. There are so many changes that I got rid of the old "Volume 4" and I'm replacing it with this one. I'd guess about half of the songs on this revamped volume are new.

Note also that I radically overhauled "Volume 3." I added a bunch of songs to that, and moved some other songs from that one to this one. So if you're interested in this at all, I strongly suggest you download the revised version of that album. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/10/lulu-bbc-sessions-volume-3-1968-1972.html

The first song is the only one not actually from the BBC. It's a duet with Johnny Cash, from Cash's own TV show. Most of the next bunch of songs are from the BBC radio show "Top of the Pops." Specifically, tracks 2 through 11 (with the exception of "Boom Bang a Bang," which was from a BBC TV special), plus track 19. These come from a musical associate named Marley, who sent me a bunch of performances from the BBC radio show "Top of the Pops." So a big thanks to him.

I mentioned in the previous volume that Lulu had her own BBC TV show from 1968 to 1975. I haven't been able to find many songs from her TV show from this time period, but I did find a handful from 1970. Those make up tracks 12 through 17. Track 18 ("Saved") is from another BBC TV show.

All of the performances here are officially unreleased. One snag with the new "Top of the Pops" tracks is that most of them had BBC DJs talking over the music. But I was able to remove the talking and keep the underlying music thanks to the X-Minus audio editing program. Those are the ones with " [Edit]" in their titles. I also got rid of the crowd noise as best I could for the songs that had that, mostly the TV show-sourced ones.

This album is 48 minutes long. 

01 Games People Play (Lulu & Johnny Cash)
02 Oh Me, Oh My [I'm a Fool for You Baby] [Edit] (Lulu)
03 Sweep Around Your Own Back Door [Edit] (Lulu)
04 The Letter [Edit] (Lulu)
05 Boom Bang a Bang (Lulu)
06 Feelin' Alright [Edit] (Lulu)
07 Marley Purt Drive [Edit] (Lulu)
08 Mr. Bojangles [Edit] (Lulu)
09 Dirty Old Man [Edit] (Lulu)
10 Hum a Song [From Your Heart] [Edit] (Lulu)
11 Show Me [Edit] (Lulu)
12 Girl Talk (Lulu & Cass Elliot)
13 Sugar, Sugar (Lulu, Dudley Moore & Cass Elliot)
14 Keep the Customer Satisfied (Lulu)
15 Sweet Little Sixteen - Long Tall Sally - Blue Suede Shoes (Lulu)
16 Free the People (Dusty Springfield & Lulu)
17 Joy to the World (Dusty Springfield & Lulu)
18 Saved (Lulu)
19 Help [Edit] (Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iCGFCJJK 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/uYCahxSGauK9xJd/file

The cover art photo comes from a BBC TV show in 1971, but I don't know the details.

Chicago - Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX, 3-17-1971

Here's another nice guest post. About a month ago as I write this in late March 2026, a frequent commenter named Sax and Guitar helped me post a collection of TV appearances by the Rascals (a.k.a. the Young Rascals). He's expressed doing more, so hopefully this is just the beginning. With the Rascals one, I happened to have my own version the album he had in mind basically done already. But in this case, pretty much everything was done by Sax and Guitar. He came up with this concert, and did a lot of careful editing to get it just right. (And it needed some help.) About the only thing I did was offer some suggestions, plus making the cover art. So, thanks again, Sax and Guitar.

On top of everything else, Sax and Guitar has written extensive notes, which are included in the download zip file. So I'll leave most of the commentary to him. But I'll just note that this is an unreleased soundboard recording, all from one show, except for the last two songs, which come from a different show from the same era, to complete their typical set list from this time period. And while I've posted two Chicago concerts from 1969, and one from 1970, it's nice to get one from 1971 as well. Those early years were their best years, in my opinion.

This album is an hour and 46 minutes long.  

01 Listen (Chicago)
02 talk (Chicago)
03 Happy, 'Cause I'm Going Home (Chicago)
04 Poem for the People (Chicago)
05 Lowdown (Chicago)
06 Free Form Piano Intro [Instrumental] (Chicago)
07 Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is (Chicago)
08 Sing a Mean Tune, Kid (Chicago)
09 Ballet for a Girl from Buchannon (Chicago)
10 Fancy Colours [Edit] (Chicago)
11 talk (Chicago)
12 Elegy Suite [Instrumental] [Edit] (Chicago)
13 Beginnings (Chicago)
14 I Don't Want Your Money (Chicago)
15 talk (Chicago)
16 Loneliness Is Just a Word (Chicago)
17 talk [Edit] (Chicago)
18 A Song for Richard and His Friends [Edit] (Chicago)
19 25 or 6 to 4 (Chicago)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GHuEnPXu

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/m9e8r1RIedJIRO1/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in 1971. Most, but not all of the band members, are shown.

Country Joe McDonald - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1970-1972

I left for a two-week vacation about two weeks ago. (I'm writing this in late March 2026.) Around the time I left, I heard that singer-songwriter Country Joe McDonald had died. Specifically, he died on March 7, 2026, at the age of 84, of complications from Parkinson's Disease. 

To be honest, I can't say I'm that familiar with his discography. But since he died, I wanted to see if there were any worthy albums I could post of his music. To my surprise, I found not one, not two, not three, but four albums of unreleased material he performed for the BBC, all of it from the 1970s. Here's the first one. It consists of BBC studio sessions. 

The first seven tracks come from an appearance on John Peel's radio show, "Top Gear," in 1970. Tracks 8 and 9 are from the "One in Ten" radio show "One in Ten" in 1971. The rest of the songs are from the "Old Grey Whistle Test" TV show. Tracks 10 through 14 are from a 1972 episode. Most of the songs were performed in solo acoustic mode.

All the music here is unreleased. The sound quality is generally excellent, especially since there was no audience noise. 

This album is 40 minutes long. 

01 Hold On, It's Coming (Country Joe McDonald)
02 Balancing on the Edge of Time (Country Joe McDonald)
03 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
04 It's So Nice to Have Love (Country Joe McDonald)
05 Maria (Country Joe McDonald)
06 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
07 Tell Me Where You're Bound (Country Joe McDonald)
08 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
09 Jean Desprez (Country Joe McDonald)
10 Tricky Dick (Country Joe McDonald)
11 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
12 Trapped Inside a Fantasy (Country Joe McDonald)
13 talk (Country Joe McDonald)
14 Coulene Anne (Country Joe McDonald)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/N124GwUt

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/LXstnTF0Kdc6Uyi/file

The cover image is from an appearance on an unnamed British TV show some time in 1972. 

Covered: Neil Young, Volume 1: 1967-1989

I'm leaving for a vacation to the Amazonian region of Peru tomorrow. I'll be gone for nearly two weeks. But while I'm gone, I'm going to try to keep posting. I have two big music projects that I have all set up. So pretty much all I need to do is hit "publish" on my cell phone to post each album. We'll see how it works out. Given that I'm going to a pretty remote area, I might be out of Internet contact for days at a time. So cross your fingers. 

Anyway, this is one of the two projects: a "Covered" collection for one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Neil Young. This one was mostly done by musical friend Fabio from Rio. That includes writing really great liner notes. 

--- 

This is certainly one of the most daunting projects I've worked with Paul yet, and certainly the biggest and most demanding "Covered" collections at the "Albums That Should Exist" blog ever, at least at the time of writing these liner notes. 

I assume Neil Young needs no introduction. Everybody (or at least everybody who has not lived in an offline bunker for the last half century) knows that Neil is one of the most important rock artists of the last sixty years. He has been influencing generations of musicians since the 1960s, resulting in literally thousands of covers and tributes, officially and unofficially available on studio albums, tribute records, live performances, and YouTube uploads.

Our aim here was not to include every Neil Young composition (that would easily result in more than 25 volumes), but to present a good representation of his output, including not only the all-time hits but also deep cuts, some officially unreleased songs cherished by long-time fans (the so-called "Rusties"), and at least a few lesser-known but equally strong compositions from more recent years, since Neil has never stopped composing, performing and recording.

We would like this project to become "The Best Neil Young Cover Collection Ever" - not out of personal vanity, but as a tribute to the quality of the songs and artists featured. For that reason, we walked the proverbial extra mile in order to select what we believe are some of the best performances of each song. In some cases, this was quite difficult to determine and remains subject to endless debate, since certain songs have literally hundreds of different versions recorded by dozens of artists. Subjectivity inevitably played a part, since our personal tastes (mine and Paul's) may have resulted in some biased selections. However, we tried whenever possible to focus on performances that are widely recognized as among the best or most representative interpretations of a given song. At the same time, we also looked for unusual readings that might give a different or fresh spin to familiar melodies.

My initial selection comprised about 230 different songs, and I listened to more than a thousand performances (1,072 to be exact) in order to prepare the first short list, which was later shared with Paul. For some songs there were literally dozens of available covers, so our main challenge was deciding which one to include. For others, it was surprisingly difficult to find a strong version. In some cases - particularly with more obscure tunes - we had to resort to unofficial recordings, including some provided by the Rusties community, where both amateur and professional musicians share their interpretations.

Since my initial selection would result in too-long a collection even for die-hard fans standards, Paul made editorial cuts, excluding some songs (which I accepted with stoic dignity), but also requesting the inclusion of some of his personal favorites, which I happily complied. In the end, we settled on a 10-volume collection with about 150 tracks, with very little repetition (only two songs - "Heart of Gold" and "Cortez the Killer" - appear in more than one version, in different volumes). 

--- 

Note that Fabio wrote individual paragraphs about all the songs in this volume. To see that, please look at the Word file added to the download zip file. Thanks again to Fabio for his help putting these albums together.

I also want to add that these albums are ordered by the years the covers were recorded, not the years the songs were first recorded by Neil Young. So if you don't see songs you want included, please wait. There are no less than TEN albums! And for instance, some songs from this time period don't show up until the last one. 

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It (Gallery Production)
02 Sugar Mountain (Joni Mitchell)
03 Everybody, I Love You (Happy Day)
04 Round and Round (Bernie Schwartz)
05 Southern Man (Merry Clayton)
06 Birds (Linda Ronstadt)
07 Ohio (Isley Brothers)
08 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Jackie DeShannon)
09 See the Sky about to Rain (Byrds)
10 New Mama (Stephen Stills)
11 Love Is a Rose (Linda Ronstadt)
12 Mr. Soul (Cher)
13 The Loner (Stephen Stills)
14 Lotta Love (Nicolette Larson)
15 Look Out for My Love (Linda Ronstadt)
16 Like a Hurricane (Roxy Music)
17 Are You Ready for the Country (Jason & the Scorchers)
17 Winterlong (Pixies)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oE16d9b7

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/Y8RaicNK2j2Donc/file

The cover photo is from 1966 or 1967. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. I also used the Krea AI program to add detail.  

The Carpenters - Full Acappella, Volume 1: 1966-1976 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Back in 2018, I posted an album by the Carpenters called "Near Acappella." It featured versions of their best songs done with very minimal instrumental backing, usually just vocals, bass, and drums. Lately, I've been collaborating with Fabio from Rio on some albums. He shares my appreciation for the vocals of Karen Carpenter. I don't know what it is, but there was something very special and unique about her singing. So Fabio wanted to make a "Full Acappella" album, and he did most of the heavy lifting to make it happen. It turns out we had enough material for two albums. Here's the first one.

The rest of this write-up here was written by Fabio:

Inspired by Paul's "Near Acappella" Carpenters collection from some years ago, I decided to check if there were "full acappella" versions of Carpenters songs available, since in recent years audio tools (with or without AI) have gotten better separating vocals from instrumentals. It turns out there are indeed a lot of acappella versions of Carpenters songs out there, so I selected the best ones I could find. At first, the album I made from the acappella versions I found made for a relatively short album. So Paul suggested "two or three more tracks." But I got excited with my "new toy" (the MVSEP online tool that makes it possible to segregate all kinds of tracks from a multitrack source) and ended up creating an additional dozen tracks myself, while also finding some more. That ended up being too much for a single disc. So, as per another suggestion by Paul, this became a "twofer", or two volume collection. These albums may be considered twin siblings of the earlier "Near Acappella" collection.

I got about half of the tracks from YouTube channels or Facebook fan groups, and the remaining were done with MVSEP. I used Audacity software to exclude instrumental breaks, intros, and outros, as well as cleaning up the occasional odd instrument (a drum roll, a sax riff), in order to keep this new collection truly "full acappella." All those that have "[Edit]" in their titles had some additional cleaning done by Paul or me (other than what was already done by whoever shared the acappella tracks originally).

We (myself and Paul) discussed a bit about pros and cons of including harmony vocals (by Richard and/or backing singers, or even occasionally a full choir, like in "Sing" and "Goodnight"). Paul was inclined to keep only Karen's leading vocals. But I argued that a full album with just Karen's voice, regardless of how beautiful it is, could sound a bit monotonous, while the harmony vocals help to provide additional color and variety. So, in the end, we decided to keep them.

---

There's more to Fabio's comments, including explanations of the sources of all the songs. Check out the Word file included in the download zip for that. However, here's one final comment from him, about the bonus track: 

While mining for tracks, I found two already done acappella versions of "We've Only Just Begun": one with only Karen's lead vocal track, and another with lead vocals and harmony vocals. Both are good - the "lead singing only" is more intimate and a bit melancholic, while the "lead vocals with harmonies" is quite exquisite. So, I suggested to Paul that we could keep them both, one at the official track list and another as a bonus track for Volume 1.

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 I'll Be Yours [Edit] (Karen Carpenter)
02 Goodnight (Carpenters)
03 We've Only Just Begun (Carpenters)
04 Maybe It's You [Edit] (Carpenters)
05 [They Long to Be] Close to You [Edit] (Carpenters)
06 Baby It's You (Carpenters)
07 Rainy Days and Mondays [Edit] (Carpenters)
08 [A Place to] Hideaway (Carpenters)
09 Sometimes (Carpenters)
10 A Song for You (Carpenters)
11 Goodbye to Love [Edit] (Carpenters)
12 Sing [Edit] (Carpenters)
13 From the Heart Comes the Soul (Carpenters)
14 Aurora (Carpenters)
15 Only Yesterday [Edit] (Carpenters)
16 Solitaire [Edit] (Carpenters)
17 Love Me for What I Am [Edit] (Carpenters)
18 Eventide (Carpenters)
19 Good Friends Are for Keeps (Carpenters)
20 Ordinary Fool [Edit] (Carpenters)

We've Only Just Begun [Harmony Vocals Version] [Edit] (Carpenters)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/En3Makbp

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/2L3B4h5poc7r7wm/file

I don't know anything about the cover image except it's Karen Carpenter "circa 1970." The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. 

Arlo Guthrie - Hesterly Armory, Tampa, FL, 11-11-1971

Arlo Guthrie was a prominent folk singer in the early 1970s, yet there are very few live recordings from that time with worthy sound quality. I've posted live recordings from him from 1969 and 1974, but there's basically nothing in between. So I decided to try to make something worthy. I found the best sounding audience bootleg from that era and used audio editing to bring it up close to soundboard-level sound quality.

I checked out a handful of audience boots from the era, and this one easily had the best sound quality. I wouldn't have given this a try if I didn't find this one with potential. The biggest problem was a lot of echo on the vocals. So I used the MVSEP program to split the vocals from the instruments. While I was at it, I boosted the vocals to a good level in the mix. Then I took the vocals track and ran it through the Reverb Removal option in MVSEP. But even that wasn't enough. I further ran those results through Adobe's vocal enhancer. I also ran all the banter between songs through that.

Between all these things, the very echo-y vocals sound almost normal now. Not quite, but close. So, while the sound quality still isn't ideal, I'm confident this is very listenable, and the best sounding live recording of him between 1969 and 1974.

In 1972, Guthrie would have the biggest hit of his career, with "City of New Orleans." But this is some months away from that, so that song wasn't performed here. According to the original notes I found, there was at least one more song played at the end of the concert, "Hobo's Lullaby." It's quite possible there were other missing songs, since this is relatively short compared to most concerts from that time period. Also, it seems the beginning of the first song, "Anytime," is cut off. So there could have been one or more missing songs there too. The way "Anytime" started sounded okay to me, even with the cut off, so I left it that way. Plus, I didn't have any other good live recordings of that song from that time period to use to fix it.

By the way, I find it interesting that although this concert is only two years after the 1969 concert I posted by him, only two songs are the same between those concerts: "Coming into Los Angeles" (his other hit) and "Stealin'." 

This album is an hour and two minutes long. 

01 Anytime (Arlo Guthrie)
02 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
03 I Could Be Singing (Arlo Guthrie)
04 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
05 1913 Massacre (Arlo Guthrie)
06 Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (Arlo Guthrie)
07 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
08 Mapleview (20%) Rag [Instrumental] (Arlo Guthrie)
09 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
10 Coming into Los Angeles (Arlo Guthrie)
11 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
12 Waiting for a Train (Arlo Guthrie)
13 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
14 Days Are Short (Arlo Guthrie)
15 Stealin' (Arlo Guthrie)
16 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
17 Gabriel's Mother's Hiway Ballad No. 16 Blues (Arlo Guthrie)
18 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
19 Lay Down Little Doggies (Arlo Guthrie)
20 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
21 Ring-Around-A-Rosy Rag (Arlo Guthrie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZFAGqFSG

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Y2qkyDWWUF50qr1/file

The cover photo is from 1972. I don't know additional details. 

Covered: Shel Silverstein - Volume 1: 1963-1972

Here's the next songwriter in my Covered series: Shel Silverstein. To say Silverstein was a colorful character is putting it mildly. Among his many talents was songwriting. I've found enough good covers of his songs for two volumes. Here's the first one.

Silverstein was born in Chicago in 1930, and raised there. He went to college, then spent a few years in the U.S. army. After that, he started to get known for his cartoons published in magazines. He especially had many of his cartoons published in Playboy Magazine, from the 1950s into the 1970s. He developed another creative career as the author of children's books. He eventually sold 20 million books. His most acclaimed books include "The Giving Tree," "Where the Sidewalk Ends," and "A Light in the Attic." He also had success writing for plays, movies, and TV shows.

So he was a creative Renaissance Man. But out focus here is on his songwriting. He was a music performer too, and released many albums, with the first one coming out in 1959. But he had a gruff voice with limited range. Also, it seems he very rarely performed in public, probably because he had so many other creative projects going on to want to go on long tours. So he was much more successful having others cover his songs.

His songwriting career started fairly slowly. He only had a few successes for most of the 1960s. But that changed drastically in 1969, when Johnny Cash had a huge hit with "A Boy Called Sue." That was such an unusual song, with lots of comedy, that many other musical acts went looking for other songs he'd written. It turns out his biggest fans were the band Dr. Hook. Their debut album "Doctor Hook," released in 1972, consisted entirely of songs written by Silverstein. And their second album, "Sloppy Seconds," released later in 1972, also consisted entirely of his songs! Those albums gave Dr. Hook their first two big hits, "Sylvia's Mother" and "The Cover of the Rolling Stone."

That takes us to the end of 1972. I'll write more about him in the second and last volume.

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 Hey Nelly Nelly (Judy Collins)
02 In the Hills of Shiloh (Modern Folk Quartet)
03 25 Minutes to Go (Johnny Cash)
04 The Mermaid (Glen Yarbrough)
05 Boa Constrictor (Johnny Cash)
06 The Unicorn (Irish Rovers)
07 A Boy Named Sue (Johnny Cash)
08 Once More With Feeling (Jerry Lee Lewis)
09 One's on the Way (Loretta Lynn)
10 I Call That True Love (Dr. Hook)
11 The Taker (Kris Kristofferson)
12 Freakin' at the Freakers' Ball (Dr. Hook)
13 On Susan's Floor (Gordon Lightfoot)
14 Sylvia's Mother (Dr. Hook)
16 The Cover of Rolling Stone (Dr. Hook)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Vdghqyqe

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/YfWSztH9v8E8ui0/file

The cover image is from 1972.

Canned Heat - Marianhill, Arcen, Netherlands, 8-12-1971

I've been looking for a really good concert bootleg for the band Canned Heat, and I recently found this one. It took place in the Netherlands. I'm not sure, but I think it was broadcast by a Dutch radio station, thus explaining the excellent sound quality.

Unfortunately, one of the band's two lead singers and leaders, Alan Wilson, died in 1970. So he's not on this recording. But on the plus side, two of the band's three hits are here: "Let's Work Together" and "Goin' Up the Country." The version of "Goin' Up the Country" is very different from the hit version, being much faster and more rocking. Personally, I don't like it as much, but I give them points for trying something different anyway.

On most of the songs, the lead vocals were rather low in the mix. I fixed that by using the MVSEP program.

This album is 54 minutes long. 

01 Let's Work Together (Canned Heat)
02 talk (Canned Heat)
03 Hill's Stomp [Instrumental] (Canned Heat)
04 talk (Canned Heat)
05 That's All Right (Canned Heat)
06 talk (Canned Heat)
07 Goin' Up the Country (Canned Heat)
08 Long Way from L.A. (Canned Heat)
09 Pay My Rent Boogie (Canned Heat)
10 talk (Canned Heat)
11 Utah (Canned Heat)
12 Big City (Canned Heat)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PGKKGhXT

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/t9jnzbFquZWWqa1/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, in London, on October 11, 1971. At the center is lead singer Bob Hite.

Roberta Flack - With These Hands - Non-Album Tracks (1970-1971)

This is a collection of non-album tracks for Roberta Flack that I recently found. They make up an excellent album from what I consider the peak of her career.

I've already posted some albums of non-album tracks from around this time period. So I was pleasantly surprised to find an entire album's worth more. That's because her 1970 album, "Chapter Two," and her 1971 album, "Quiet Fire," were recently rereleased with lots of bonus tracks. The first song here is the only "Chapter Two" bonus track, while the rest are all "Quiet Fire" bonus tracks.

I don't know why these songs weren't officially released at the time, because they sound as good to me as the ones on her albums. Perhaps it was that many of them were classic hits already, and she wanted to do more obscure material. But in any case, this makes for a very nice album all these years later.  

This album is 48 minutes long. 

01 Midnight Cowboy (Roberta Flack)
02 What's Going On (Roberta Flack)
03 Free at Last (Roberta Flack)
04 Chasin' the Sunshine (Roberta Flack)
05 Here, There and Everywhere (Roberta Flack)
06 O-o-h Child (Roberta Flack)
07 With These Hands (Roberta Flack)
08 Superstar [Groupie] (Roberta Flack) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uyTa5KfK

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/2JNZyu1zumLlqsq/file

The cover photo is from a promo photo taken around 1971. I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 7-4-1971, Part 5: Van Morrison, Linda Tillery, Lydia Pense, and More

Here's the fifth set from the fifth day out of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. So this is the very last album of the series. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set is a spontaneous jam session featuring pretty much any musician who wanted to be on stage.

Promoter Bill Graham wanted his final night of the week of concerts closing the Fillmore West to go out with a bang. So the radio station broadcast on KSAN continued until the early morning hours as the jamming continued. Surprisingly, Van Morrison didn't get a set of his own at any point that week. But maybe that was in order to save him as a surprise for this final jam session, I don't know. For the song list below, I'm only including the prominent lead vocalists for the songs that had vocals. You can see Van Morrison sang on most of the songs. But Linda Tillery of the band the Loading Zone sang quite a lot, as did Lydia Pense, of the band Cold Blood. 

But those weren't the only ones on stage. I found information that at least these other musicians were on stage during this jam session: Carlos Santana, Sam Andrew (Big Brother & the Holding Company), Michael Bloomfield, Jack Casady (Hot Tuna), John Cipollina (Quicksilver Messenger Service), Vince Guaraldi, George Hunter (an artist who did many record covers), George Marsh (the Loading Zone), Bernard Purdie (a jazz drummer), and members of Tower of Power. The biggest surprise there for me is Vince Guaraldi, a jazz musician best known for his soundtracks to Charlie Brown TV specials.

It's clear no songs were carefully practiced for this jam session in advance. So the musicians stuck to simple songs that most everyone on stage was likely to know, or at least could fake it, such as "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven." 

A Rolling Stone Magazine article written just after the concert had this to say about the final jam session: "[Bill] Graham and his staff pelted the audience with gifts – paper plates, beer, champagne, and ice cubes. Sometime between 4 and 5 A.M., everyone gave up and went home. About 40 fans stuck around to shake hands with Graham, then left him to wander alone among the amps and debris." 

We actually have a photo of Graham "wandering alone among the amps and debris," so, what the heck, I'll show that here. 

It sounds like the Fillmore West was a great venue, and certainly a lot of phenomenal music was performed there during its relatively brief run, from 1968 to 1971. At least it went out in proper style with these concerts. 

This album is 55 minutes long. 

01 talk (Jam Band)
02 Rock Me Baby (Van Morrison & Linda Tillery)
03 I Found a Love (Van Morrison, Linda Tillery & Lydia Pense)
04 Flute and Guitar Jam [Instrumental] (Jam Band)
05 talk (Jam Band)
06 Roll Over Beethoven (Van Morrison, Linda Tillery & Lydia Pense)
07 Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On (Van Morrison, Linda Tillery & Lydia Pense)
08 Johnny B. Goode (Van Morrison, Linda Tillery & Lydia Pense)
09 My Angel Baby - Sh-Boom - Blue Moon - My Angel Baby (Linda Tillery)
10 Final Jam [Instrumental] (Jam Band)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Wh56F1Mw

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/fBIQ5OtldjBWT6P/file

Once again, I got lucky with the cover art. The cover only shows Van Morrison, but apparently it comes from this exact concert. 

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 7-4-1971, Part 4: Santana & Mike Bloomfield

Here's the fourth set from the fifth day out of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set is kind of a continuation of the previous set by Santana. But it's separate from that because the band was joined by lead guitarist Mike Bloomfield all the way through. Plus, there were other guests. Most notably, Van Morrison showed up near the end to sing his song "I've Been Working."

This essentially was one long jam. I broke the music into two tracks, but the song "I've Been Working" sort of emerged from the jam without a clear break. I also don't know if the name of the jam, "Feel It Jam," means anything. I just copied that name from a bootleg.

I don't know who else performed on these jams, though it's a good bet there were others. If anyone knows, please let me know. If I recall correctly, at one point, someone on stage mentioned the name John Cipollina, so I figure he was involved. He had been one of the lead guitarists for Quicksilver Messenger Service, but he'd quit the band about six months prior to this concert. So probably this was a way for him to be involved in the final Fillmore West concerts without taking part in the Quicksilver Messenger Service performance the night before.

This music was followed by another jam session featuring some different performers. That'll be the final set from this series of concerts. 

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 Feel It Jam [Instrumental] (Santana & Michael Bloomfield)
02 I've Been Working (Van Morrison, Santana & Michael Bloomfield)
03 talk (Santana) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/BXEhUMpq

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/WJ53WQC8NTU2xEn/file

Boy, did I get lucky with the cover photo for this album. I didn't expect to find any photos of Mike Bloomfield and Carlos Santana together. But I found one from this exact concert! The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. 

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 7-4-1971, Part 3: Santana

Here's the third set from the fifth day out of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the band Santana.

I've already posted a lot of music by Santana, so I don't feel the need to introduce the band here. However, I will note a bit about what the band was doing at the time of this concert. They had just finished recording their third album, "Santana III," but it wouldn't be released until September, a couple of months away. Still, that didn't stop them from performing five songs from that album: "Batuka," "Gumbo," "No One to Depend On," "Taboo," and "Toussaint L'Ouverture." Neal Schon had recently joined the band as a second lead guitarist, so you can hear his playing here.

Right after this set ended, Carlos Santana and much of the band played more music with lead guitarist Mike Bloomfield and others. But I'll be posting a different album for that.

I believe this is the only set from the closing of the Fillmore West that has been officially released in full. But I'm posting it here anyway so one can get all of the sets. You can find it on the deluxe edition of "Santana III." It's very fortunate that this has been officially released, because it also happens to be the only set from these five days of concerts that wasn't broadcast on the radio at the time, and thus wasn't bootlegged. I found this explanation at the santanaamigos.com music blog:

"It is rumored that the band (afraid of being bootlegged heavily with this show), did not permit KSAN to broadcast the official band segment. Reportedly, KSAN was set up completely but the plug literally got pulled out at the very last moment by some Santana roadies! It wasn't until the final part of 'Soul Sacrifice' that the broadcast lines were re-opened." 

For a long time, I only had two songs from this set, "Incident at Neshabur" and "In a Silent Way," because they had been officially released as part of the "Fillmore - The Last Days" album. Thank goodness somebody had recorded it after all.

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 Batuka [Instrumental] (Santana)
02 No One to Depend On (Santana)
03 Toussaint L'Overture [Instrumental] (Santana)
04 Taboo (Santana)
05 Jungle Strut [Instrumental] (Santana)
06 Black Magic Woman - Gypsy Queen (Santana)
07 Incident at Neshabur [Instrumental] (Santana)
08 In a Silent Way [Instrumental] (Santana)
09 Savor [Instrumental] (Santana)
10 Para los Rumberos [Instrumental] (Santana)
11 talk (Santana)
12 Gumbo [Instrumental] (Santana)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/qUkpk1Qp

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/hNNtLE3IuMcPEb2/file

The cover photo of Carlos Santana is from this exact concert.

Our Final Week - The Closing of the Fillmore West, Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 7-4-1971, Part 2: Creedence Clearwater Revival

Here's the second set from the fifth day out of five days of concerts that closed the Fillmore West venue in San Francisco in 1971. (See my write-up on the Boz Scaggs set for general information about the closing.) This set features the band Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR).

I previously posted this music in 2023. So I'm deleting that album and replacing it with this one. Back when I posted it for the first time, I noted that there aren't many well recorded CCR concerts, and this one seems to be the best one. I think that's still true. I like it even better than a couple of official live albums.

CCR had been a foursome ever since it was formed in the mid-1960s. But in January 1971, Tom Fogerty, lead singer John Fogerty's brother, quit. This was the very first concert by the band as a threesome. Apparently, their appearance was a surprise, since they hadn't been mentioned in the promotion for the concert. 

I made some comments in the 2023 version which I'll copy and paste here: 

The bootleg has been traded a long time, but it didn't sound that impressive to me. However, I discovered a version that has been recently remixed, and it sounds significantly better. But there still was a problem: the lead vocals were low in the mix. So I used the audio editing program X-Minus to boost them up. Now, this finally is the live CCR I had been looking for. I also like that it's from 1971, near the end of the band's existence, allowing them to pick the best songs from all their albums. There are even three songs from the band's final album, "Mardi Gras," which wouldn't be released until 1972.

I cut out quite a lot of unnecessary stuff between songs. There was a lot of guitar tuning, plus radio station call letters (this was broadcast on a local radio station, which explains the sound quality), talk by promoter Bill Graham, and so on. (The Bill Graham talk was leading up to introducing a speech by poet Allen Ginsburg that took place just after this concert, but I cut that since the speech is missing.) I kept all the actual banter by the band members. 

By the way, I found a newspaper article about this performance. It's from 2022, but it contains some good information about CCR and the closing of the Fillmore West in general. It's also where I got the cover photo.

Rock of ages: Creedence Clearwater Revival played the Fillmore West’s final show in 1971  

None of the songs here were released on the "Fillmore - The Last Days" album. So I believe everything here remains unreleased. 

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 Born on the Bayou (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
02 Green River (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
03 It Came from Out of the Sky (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
04 Door to Door (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
05 talk (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
06 Travelin' Band (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
07 Fortunate Son-Commotion (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
08 talk (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
09 Lodi (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
10 talk (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
11 Bad Moon Rising (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
12 Proud Mary (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
13 Up Around the Bend (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
14 Hey Tonight (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
15 talk (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
16 Sweet Hitchhiker (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
17 talk (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
18 Keep On Chooglin' (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/gQUvHxZc

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/CsiVQyhTJbi1wMY/file

The cover image highlighting John Fogerty on guitar is from this exact concert. When I first posted this in 2023, I colorized it from black and white. I generally went with the colors suggested by the program Kolorize, which meant a grey suit for Fogerty. However, when I got ready to repost this, I ran across a review written at the time by someone at the concert who mentioned that Fogerty's suit was "shocking turquoise." So I used Photoshop to change the color to something closer to that.