Dionne Warwick - Dionne, Burt and Hal: The Definitive Songbook, Volume 7: 1987-2012 (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

I'm back from my two week vacation from Peru. It got off to a rough start due to the plane flight there, which I posted about. But everything else since then went great, with no more problems. :) I even had good weather the whole time, despite it being the rainy season there.

Here's the last album in a series that contains all the songs written by Hal David and/or Burt Bacharach and sung by Dionne Warwick. Though note that there's a bonus album of sorts still to come that will be explained later.

As I mentioned in Volume 6, the Bacharach-David songwriting partnership broke up around 1973, and they didn't collaborate for a long time after that. The second half of Volume 6 consisted entirely of songs written by Bacharach and another successful songwriter, Carole Bayer Sager. (In fact, Bacharach and Sager were married for a few years around this time). 

The Bacharach and Sager collaboration continued for a little while. The first songs are from a 1987, and are all co-written by those two. One song, "Love Power," was a hit. After that, there are a bunch of songs from 1989 to 2011, one song per year with many years skipped. "Sunny Weather Lover" from 1993 is a key song here, because it's the first song Bacharach and David wrote together since about 1972. However, that was a rare collaboration. Their songwriting partnership didn't reignite after that. (They also co-wrote two songs for the 2000 movie "Isn't She Great," but Warwick didn't sing them.) Furthermore, both of them were simply getting older and didn't write songs nearly as often as they used to. 

So the rest of the songs were written by Bacharach with others or David with others. For instance, "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" was a Number One hit in the U.S. for Christopher Cross in 1981, and was written by Bacharach with Sager and two others. Track 101 is an unreleased live version by Warwick recorded in 2005.

The last four songs are from a 2012 album called "Now." It was billed as a celebration of Bacharach and David songs. However, it mostly consisted of rerecordings of old hits. The four new songs, presented here, were written by either Bacharach with others or David with others. For instance, "99 Miles from L.A." was written by David with Albert Hammond, and was a hit for Hammond in 1975. 

Hal David died in 2012, so that ended the chance for any more songs written by both of them. Bacharach died in 2023.

While I was on vacation, a commenter noted that a song, "(Theme From) The Valley of the Dolls" was included on Volume 4 of this series, despite neither Bacharach nor David being involved in writing it. Now that I'm back home, I was able to repost that album with that song removed. That also means that the numbering of all the songs after that has been fixed as well. So you might want to redownload Volumes 4, 5, and 6 if you're a stickler about such things. Also, since I had complaints about the cover art for Volume 1, I've posted an alternate version of the cover at the bottom of my write-up for that album that uses the original black and white photo, in case anyone wants that.

Thanks again to Mike Solof for putting this together.   

This album is one hour long. 

092 Take Good Care of You and Me (Dionne Warwick & Jeffrey Osborne)
093 Love Power (Dionne Warwick & Jeffrey Osborne)
094 In a World Such as This (Dionne Warwick)
095 Heartbreak of Love (Dionne Warwick & June Pointer)
096 On My Own (Dionne Warwick)
097 Sunny Weather Lover (Dionne Warwick)
098 Captives of the Heart (Dionne Warwick)
099 If I Want To (Dionne Warwick)
100 On My Way (Dionne Warwick)
101 Arthur's Theme [Best That You Can Do] (Dionne Warwick)
102 Keep Me in Mind (Dionne Warwick)
103 99 Miles from L.A. (Dionne Warwick)
104 Is There Anybody Out There (Dionne Warwick)
105 It Was Almost like a Song (Dionne Warwick)
106 Love Is Still the Answer (Dionne Warwick)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ieF2gBUW

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/DKTsSUgj9dgKC43/file

The cover photo shows her in concert in an unknown location, in February 1989.

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/esnnYxUY

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/vkDhlrs5SJscv2W/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. 

Kevin Gilbert - Originals (1984-1996) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Here's a really interesting album put together by guest poster Mike Solof. Have you ever heard of Kevin Gilbert? If you have, congrats, because he's not as well known as he sound be. Mike is a huge fan of Gilbert's music, so much so that he put together three albums to showcase Gilbert's musical talent. The first album, this one, consists of the original songs Mike considers the best. Then he's made another one of the best rarities, and a third one of the best cover versions. If you want to get started, this is the obvious first album to listen to. Then, if you're interested, check out the other two. (Then, hopefully, more than that.)

For a quick overview, I'll quote the intro paragraph to his Wikipedia entry, which states me "was an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and producer. He was best known for his solo progressive rock projects, Toy Matinee, and his contributions to 'Tuesday Night Music Club' (1993), the debut studio album of Sheryl Crow. Kevin Gilbert died from autoerotic asphyxiation. He was found dead at his Los Angeles-area home on May 18, 1996, at the age of 29."

Here's the link to the rest of the Wikipedia page:

Kevin Gilbert (musician) - Wikipedia

I have to admit I wasn't familiar with Gilbert's music before Mike made these albums, although I'd previously heard good things about his career here and there. After hearing the albums Mike made, I have to agree that Gilbert was a very talented musician who deserves to be much better known than he is. He often combined a catchy pop sensibility with the complexity of prog rock. That is a very difficult combination to pull off. It's a real shame he died so young, and the strange manner of his death probably didn't help his musical legacy.

Note that this albums combines songs from Gilbert's solo albums, as well as songs he did with bands he was in: Giraffe, Toy Matinee, and Kaviar. All the lead vocals are by Gilbert. 

Anyway, Mike has written extensive notes about Gilbert, his life, and why he likes his music so much. You can find that in the PDF included with the download zip, as usual for Mike's guest posts. 

This album is an hour and 23 minutes long. 

01 When Strangers Part (Kevin Gilbert)
02 This Warm Night (Giraffe)
03 Air Dance (Giraffe)
04 Tired Old Man Suite (Kevin Gilbert)
05 Last Plane Out (Toy Matinee)
06 Things She Said (Toy Matinee)
07 The Ballad of Jenny Ledge (Toy Matinee)
08 Goodness Gracious (Kevin Gilbert)
09 Shadow Self [Alternate Version] (Kevin Gilbert)
10 Miss Broadway (Kevin Gilbert)
11 Single (Kaviar)
12 The Sultan of Brunei (Kaviar)
13 The Best Laid Plans (Kevin Gilbert)
14 Certifiable No. 1 Smash (Kevin Gilbert)
15 All Fall Down [Alternate Horn Mix] (Kevin Gilbert)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GvEgk98D

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/BNCnBxCFRjJRq5o/file

I don't know the details of the cover image. It was found by Mike.

Covered: Tom Waits, Volume 1: 1973-1994

It's high time I post more for the "Covered" series, highlighting great singer-songwriters. This time, we're looking at the songs of Tom Waits. Enough material has been found for four volumes. Here's the first one. As with all albums in this series, the focus is on cover versions, instead of versions done by the songwriter.

First off, I've gotta say I wouldn't be posting this now had it not been for the help of musical friend Fabio from Rio. It was he who suggested making Covered albums for Waits. I would have wanted to tackle him eventually, but that probably would have been well into the future. I have an issue with Waits: I can't stand his voice. As a result, even though it's easy for me to see he's a very talented songwriter, I haven't been that familiar with his songs. But Fabio is a big fan. He sent me literally hundreds of Waits cover versions, with recommendations on the best ones. I went through that and narrowed it down quite a lot. Hopefully this will make a strong collection that can turn the curious on to Waits' music.

Fabio from Rio helped with all aspects of putting this together. He even wrote the write-ups for the four volumes for Waits. So first I'm posting the relevant Wikipedia page:

Tom Waits - Wikipedia 

And now, take it away, Fabio (and a big thanks to him for all his work on this!):

For the general public, Tom Waits is "that guy with the raspy wino voice and the weird songs. Wasn't he one of the convicted fellows in that offbeat Jim Jarmusch movie?" A few music aficionados may also know him as the writer of songs like Springsteen's "Jersey Girl" or Rod Stewart's "Downtown Train", but that is usually where the story ends.

What many are not aware of is that Waits is widely recognized by his peers and by musical experts as an exceptional and influential songwriter. He is praised for his unique voice, vivid storytelling, poetic lyrics, and innovative musical style that blends genres like blues, jazz, vaudeville, and experimental rock. Waits is also known for creating three-dimensional characters and detailed narratives, often exploring life on the fringes. His lyrics are celebrated for their specificity, humor, melancholy, and ability to evoke strong moods, often drawing comparisons to Beat poets and Mark Twain.

Waits is a "songwriters' songwriter," with songs covered by literally hundreds of artists, many of them great composers themselves. He has been subject to many tributes. While searching for tracks for that project, I collected about three dozen different albums fully dedicated to his songs, and around 400 assorted covers, adding up to almost 1,200 tracks and 80-plus hours of music!

I initially selected about 220 different tunes (an almost fully comprehensive "Tom Waits songbook" that would comprise about 15 hours) which Paul wisely helped reduce to around 60 tracks across four volumes. We could have another four or eight volumes with additional top-notch Tom Waits songs - there is enough quality material for that - but I feel this reduced version is just the right size for a first dive into Tom Waits vast catalog. I hope you enjoy it!

Some listeners may find Waits' music difficult to approach due to his peculiar tone (which, contrary to popular belief, was not destroyed by booze and cigarettes, but was conscientiously cultivated as a vocal persona, as he mentioned in some interviews). The fact that some of his more experimental work sounds like monkeys loose in a crystal store doesn't help either. For those, a "Covered" collection focusing on his more melodic output is a great starting point, where one may discover the essence of Waits' music (often through soothing, frequently female, voices).

This first volume includes performances from a long range of years (1973 to 1994), but most of the songs here were composed during Waits' early and middle phases (the seventies and early eighties). His first albums feature piano-led ballads, romantic melancholy, and a relatively smooth, crooning voice. The character is that of a late-night drifter, nostalgic and tender. As his career progressed, Waits' voice grew tougher (both literally and figuratively) and his narratives darker and more cinematic. His late seventies and early eighties albums introduced sardonic humor, social misfits, and a sharper sense of irony, while still rooted in jazz, blues, and cabaret traditions.

Waits started as a folk singer/songwriter in the early seventies, with heavy jazz influences, when his voice was still not so rough. You can hear this in the first selection of this collection, "Rosie," from his 1973 first album. It's the only song in these four volumes that is the composer's own interpretation. He also first caught the ear of the public with an early cover of "Ol' 55" by The Eagles (which we skipped in favor of Sarah McLachlan's 1993 version, which both Paul and myself prefer). Other famous interpreters at the first volume are Johnny Cash and Marianne Faithfull (with songs Tom composed specifically for them), and also 10,000 Maniacs, Elvis Costello, Crystal Gayle and Canned Heat, which showcases the full range of styles and performers reached by Waits' compositions.

---

Thanks again, Fabio. I'll just add that there were only a few cases where Waits wrote hit songs, so we weren't tied down much by that factor. ("Downtown Train" is probably his biggest hit, thanks to the 1989 Rod Stewart version, included here.) And often, his songs didn't get a lot of covers until many years after they were written. So if you don't see some of his songs you really like from this era, wait before you judge. There's a good chance those songs could show up on one of the later volumes.

This album is 54 minutes long. 

01 Rosie (Tom Waits)
02 Foreign Affair (Manhattan Transfer)
03 Jersey Girl (Bruce Springsteen)
04 Is There Any Way Out of This Dream (Crystal Gayle)
05 I Hope that I Don't Fall in Love with You (10,000 Maniacs)
06 Strange Weather (Marianne Faithfull)
07 Downtown Train (Rod Stewart)
08 Gun Street Girl (Canned Heat)
09 San Diego Serenade (Nanci Griffith)
10 Tom Traubert's Blues [Waltzing Matilda] (Rod Stewart)
11 More than Rain (Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet)
12 Ol' 55 (Sarah McLachlan)
13 Down There by the Train (Johnny Cash)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FBZaqvMS

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/IJ5fbwJ3YDrAHXl/file

The cover photo was taken in Chicago, Illinois, on May 30, 1986.

In Concert Against AIDS, Oakland Coliseum Stadium, Oakland, CA, 5-27-1989, Part 4: The Grateful Dead with Clarence Clemons

Here's the fourth and last out of four albums I made from the "In Concert Against AIDS" concert in 1989. This one consists of a set by the Grateful Dead. Furthermore, they were joined by saxophonist Clarence Clemons for more than half of the songs they played.

In the late 1980s, the Grateful Dead had a surge of popularity. This was due to their 1987 hit album "In the Dark," and especially one song from it, "Touch of Grey," which was their only song to ever reach the Top Ten of the U.S. singles chart. As a result, they were the headliner for this benefit concert. 

They proceeded to play a typical concert, with a typically long length. This album is nearly two and a half hours long, and that's after I cut out many lengthy pauses between songs. But they did make a nod to the fact that many in the crowd weren't the usual devout Deadheads by performing their two best known songs, "Touch of Grey" and "Truckin'." 

By most accounts, their performance wasn't extraordinary or unusual compared to their many other concerts that year. But what did set it apart was the presence of Clarence Clemons of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band joining with his saxophone on a majority of the songs. I mentioned Clemons in Part 2 of this concert, because he also played saxophone on a couple of John Fogerty's songs.

I looked it up, and it turns out Clemons joined in a Jerry Garcia Band concert earlier in 1989. But this was the first time he played with Garcia in an actual Grateful Dead concert. His soulful style added an interesting element. It was so successful that he went on to play at about a dozen more Dead concerts later that year. He sometimes played with the Dead and/or splinter bands after that, but not as frequently.

This album is two hours and 23 minutes long. 

53 Touch of Grey (Grateful Dead)
54 Greatest Story Ever Told (Grateful Dead)
55 Althea (Grateful Dead)
56 Walking Blues (Grateful Dead)
57 Iko Iko (Grateful Dead with Clarence Clemons)
58 Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (Grateful Dead with Clarence Clemons)
59 Bird Song (Grateful Dead with Clarence Clemons)
60 Promised Land (Grateful Dead with Clarence Clemons)
61 Hell in a Bucket (Grateful Dead with Clarence Clemons)
62 Fire on the Mountain (Grateful Dead with Clarence Clemons)
63 Blow Away (Grateful Dead with Clarence Clemons)
64 Truckin' (Grateful Dead with Clarence Clemons)
65 Drums [Instrumental] (Grateful Dead)
66 Space [Instrumental] (Grateful Dead)
67 I Will Take You Home (Grateful Dead)
68 The Other One (Grateful Dead)
69 Wharf Rat (Grateful Dead)
70 Turn On Your Lovelight (Grateful Dead with Clarence Clemons)
71 Brokedown Palace (Grateful Dead with Clarence Clemons)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Mg13oudf

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xe9CMacMKAPTz4f/file

The cover photo shows the band's lead guitarist Jerry Garcia at this exact concert. 

In Concert Against AIDS, Oakland Coliseum Stadium, Oakland, CA, 5-27-1989, Part 2: John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead

Here's the second out of four albums I made from the "In Concert Against AIDS" concert in 1989. This one consists of a set by John Fogerty, backed by the Grateful Dead. Well, kind of the Grateful Dead, as I'll explain in a minute.

At the time, Fogerty hadn't been on tour since 1985, and he didn't have a backing band, so he got some very talented musicians to support him just for this concert. Specifically, he was supported Jerry Garcia on lead guitar, Bob Weir on rhythm guitar, Randy Jackson on bass, and Steve Jordan on drums. Jackson and Jordan were very well respected session musicians at the time. Jackson would later go on to greater fame as one of the judges on the "American Idol" TV show. And if you know anything about the Grateful Dead, you'd know the two best known members were Garcia and Weir. They were the lead vocalists and songwriters for the vast majority of the band's original songs. So whether one can consider this the Grateful Dead is debatable, since the other band members were missing. But in my opinion, at least, I'd consider anything with Garcia and Weir in it to be the essence of the Grateful Dead, even if it was just the two of them in a duo.

On top of that, Clarence Clemons added his saxophone playing for the last two songs. He was a long time member of Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band, but he also had a hit of his own in the 1980s. 

Fogerty is best known as the leader of Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) in the 1960s and early 1970s. He effectively retired from the music business from 1976 to 1985. But then he came back with a big hit album in 1985 ("Centerfield") and another album in 1986. When he went on tour in 1985 and 1986 to support those albums, he avoided playing all of his many CCR hits, due to a dispute with his record company. But in 1987, he was persuaded to resume playing his CCR songs, and did so at a one-off benefit concert that year. I think this was the second big concert where he played those songs, and it was a big deal at the time. Furthermore, the fact that Garcia and Weir were going to back him on was announced in advance, adding to the anticipation.

Here's what a Los Angeles Times article from the day after the concert had to say: "Fogerty's set... [was] a wonderful occasion in and of itself. It wasn't just that Fogerty devoted most of the show to old Creedence Clearwater Revival hits that he rarely plays because of bitterness toward his old record company. It was the sheer, smiling delight and vocal aplomb he brought to the performance. Grateful Dead guitarists Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir lent unremarkable support, but Fogerty, drummer Steve Jordan, and bassist Randy Jackson supplied all the sizzle one could ask. Saxophonist Clarence Clemons, the day's only surprise guest, turned up to haunt through an encore rock-out to 'Suzie Q' and 'Long Tall Sally.'" 

As the article noted, Garcia and Weir were pretty restrained in their playing. Fogerty's songs were short and simple, so they respected that. That meant Garcia didn't go off on lengthy solos like he did with the Dead, but stuck to what the songs needed, based on the original versions. They also added backing vocals on some songs, with Weir singing more than Garcia. It looked like Garcia was having a ball, smiling through most of the set. Probably, he enjoyed simply being a backing musician through a bunch of classic songs that he loved, instead of having to be the main star, which was almost always the case for him. 

This album is 41 minutes long. 

24 Born on the Bayou (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead)
25 talk (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead)
26 Green River (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead)
27 Down on the Corner (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead)
28 talk (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead)
29 Rock and Roll Girls (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead)
30 talk (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead)
31 Centerfield (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead)
32 Proud Mary (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead)
33 Midnight Special (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead)
34 Bad Moon Rising (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead)
35 Fortunate Son (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead)
36 talk (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead)
37 Suzie Q (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead & Clarence Clemons)
38 talk (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead & Clarence Clemons)
39 Long Tall Sally (John Fogerty with the Grateful Dead & Clarence Clemons) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/eLjiHABc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MZAspsTu9FmVaWK/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. Fogerty is wearing the baseball cap, while Garcia can be seen further back.

In Concert Against AIDS, Oakland Coliseum Stadium, Oakland, CA, 5-27-1989, Part 3: Tracy Chapman

Here's the third out of four albums I made from the "In Concert Against AIDS" concert in 1989. This one consists of a set by singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman.

By 1989, Chapman was a big star, after her self-titled debut album sold about 20 million copies. At the time of this concert, she was still a few months away from releasing her second album, "Crossroads." A couple of songs she performed, "Subcity" and "All That You Have Is Your Soul," would appear on that album.

None of the other musical acts spoke about AIDS in their banter between songs, but she did. Here's how a Los Angeles Times article at the time put it: "Chapman, known for her pointed avoidance of between-song chatter, told a respectful audience that the occasion demanded talk as well as music. She decried a lack of government commitment to fighting AIDS, then called for listeners to have personal commitment that might lead to change."

Note however that while the other musical acts didn't directly address the issue, there were video presentations between the sets about AIDS, as well as a lot of informational pamphlets handed out, and the like. 

The music is unreleased, but the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 50 minutes long.

24 talk by Bill Graham (Tracy Chapman)
25 talk by Danny Glover (Tracy Chapman)
26 Why (Tracy Chapman)
27 She's Got Her Ticket (Tracy Chapman)
28 For My Lover (Tracy Chapman)
29 talk (Tracy Chapman)
30 Subcity (Tracy Chapman)
31 For You (Tracy Chapman)
32 Mountains O' Things (Tracy Chapman)
33 Fast Car (Tracy Chapman)
34 talk (Tracy Chapman)
35 All That You Have Is Your Soul (Tracy Chapman)
36 Talkin' bout a Revolution (Tracy Chapman)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uEoyX6dx

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/K2KcpYBo4tsDdKK/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

In Concert Against AIDS, Oakland Coliseum Stadium, Oakland, CA, 5-27-1989, Part 1: Tower of Power, Joe Satriani, and Los Lobos

Here's another big benefit concert with lots of big name stars. It's another case where these kinds of concerts seem to have mostly been forgotten, so I'm trying to give them the attention they deserve. I found enough for four albums from this concert. Here's the first one.

In the 1980s especially, the disease AIDS was a big issue. There was a lot of misinformation and fear about it. Ronald Reagan, who was president of the U.S. from 1981 to 1989, didn't even mention AIDS in public until 1985, despite it being a big news story since 1981, and he didn't give a speech addressing it until 1987. Foolish people were saying AIDS was a punishment from God for homosexuality (though eventually way more non-homosexuals would get it), and that one could get it from toilet seats and kissing and the like (which was untrue). So this concert was meant to help raise awareness about to issue as well as raise money to fund non-profits that were working on the issue.

The concert was held in the Oakland Coliseum, which could hold about 50,000 people. But I've come across some articles from the time period. It turns out there was so much fear and misinformation about AIDS at the time that about 20,000 tickets were unsold, and the articles cited opinions that some people were staying away out of fear of AIDS. For instance, famous music promoter Bill Graham, who helped promote this festival, said at the time, "There are people who are staying away out of fear, and they need to be educated." As if you could get AIDS just by attending a concert about AIDS! Sheesh!

Anyway, this first album essentially contains the warm-up acts before the bigger names performed later. Los Lobos was already a pretty big name, especially after they had a Number One single in the U.S. with "La Bamba" in 1987, so they get most of the time here. However, it's possible the first two acts, Joe Satriani and Tower of Power, performed more songs. I don't know. I put these albums together from multiple sources, and none of them had everything, which increases the chances there are more pieces I couldn't find.

This album is an hour and two minutes long. 

01 Always with Me, Always with You [Instrumental] (Joe Satriani)
02 Surfing with the Alien [Instrumental] (Joe Satriani)
03 The Crush of Love [Instrumental] (Joe Satriani)
04 Believe It (Tower of Power)
05 talk (Tower of Power)
06 What Is Hip (Tower of Power)
07 talk (Los Lobos)
08 Evangeline (Los Lobos)
09 Don't Worry Baby (Los Lobos)
10 talk (Los Lobos)
11 Will the Wolf Survive (Los Lobos)
12 I Walk Alone (Los Lobos)
13 talk (Los Lobos)
14 The Giving Tree (Los Lobos)
15 talk (Los Lobos)
16 Let's Say Goodnight (Los Lobos)
17 talk (Los Lobos)
18 Someday (Los Lobos)
19 Georgia Slop (Los Lobos)
20 Shakin' Shakin' Shakes (Los Lobos)
21 I Got Loaded (Los Lobos)
22 Why Do You Do (Los Lobos)
23 talk (Los Lobos) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/jXifNoFo

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/P9BFcCIUhqeQ3SE/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from a video of Los Lobos performing at this exact concert. It's a bit low-res, but it was the best I could find. I tried to use the Krea AI program to increase the detail, but in this case it didn't seem to help much.

Aerosmith - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 11-15-1989

Here's an Aerosmith concert broadcast by the BBC, from 1989.

I kind of fell into this album by accident. I previously posted an Aerosmith BBC concert album from 1990. I thought that was the only one they'd done for the BBC. But I recently stumbled across a 1993 one, which I plan on posting soon. That inspired me to dig for more, and I came across this one too.

Note that the one I posted before has been renamed to "Volume 2." If you want the updated version, with changed cover art and mp3 tags, here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/12/aerosmith-with-jimmy-page-bbc-in.html

Aerosmith was very popular in the 1970s. But they had tough times in the early and mid-1980s, with drug use and personal conflict problems. But they got their act together and had some smash albums starting with "Permanent Vacation" in 1987. This was from the tour to support their second comeback album, "Pump," released in 1989, which sold seven million copies in the U.S. alone.

Finding these BBC concerts from the band's second wave of popularity made me wonder if the BBC ever broadcast any concerts from their first wave of popularity in the 1970s. It seems not. I checked the setlist.fm website. According to that (which admittedly in sometimes incomplete), Aerosmith only performed five concerts in Britain in all of the 1970s. It appears they were almost entirely focused on building up a fan base in the U.S. at the time. Sometimes, the BBC bought the rights to broadcast concerts recorded by other radio networks in the U.S. or elsewhere, but I guess they didn't do that with Aerosmith back then.

Anyway, this is a fairly short bootleg concert. No doubt, the BBC edited it down to fit into an hour-long radio show time slot. But the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 56 minutes long. 

01 Rats in the Cellar (Aerosmith)
02 Same Old Song and Dance (Aerosmith)
03 talk (Aerosmith)
04 Monkey on My Back (Aerosmith)
05 Don't Get Mad, Get Even (Aerosmith)
06 Permanent Vacation (Aerosmith)
07 Hangman Jury (Aerosmith)
08 Mama Kin (Aerosmith)
09 Dream On (Aerosmith)
10 Love in an Elevator (Aerosmith)
11 talk (Aerosmith)
12 Dude [Looks like a Lady] (Aerosmith)
13 Walk This Way (Aerosmith)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/sLs97NHT

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/Ltx4qhCADVp7R08/file

The cover photo of lead singer Steven Tyler is from a 1989 concert, but I don't know any details. (My God, he has the world's largest mouth!)

Georgie Fame - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: In Concert, Barbican, London, Britain, 8-1-1989

Here's another BBC album by Georgie Fame. This one is a concert from 1989.

Fame had most of his commercial success in the 1960s and early 1970s with a pop style of R&B. In the 1980s, he moved into more of a jazzy style, and that can be seen here. He performed this concert with a swing-styled big band. He generally avoided performing his 1960s hits, though he did do a different styled take on "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde."

I didn't even know this recording existed, but it came to me thanks to musical associate Progsprog. So thanks again to him. This is yet another recording that had disappeared from the Internet but now can go back into circulation.

Once again though, there's some renumbering involved. I had already posted a Fame BBC concert from 2005. So that one is now being renamed to "Volume 6." You can find the revised version of that one here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/01/georgie-fame-bbc-sessions-volume-5-bbc.html 

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 Strike Up the Band (Georgie Fame)
02 talk (Georgie Fame)
03 The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde (Georgie Fame)
04 talk (Georgie Fame)
05 Cool Cat Blues (Georgie Fame)
06 talk (Georgie Fame)
07 The More I See You (Georgie Fame)
08 talk (Georgie Fame)
09 J and B [Instrumental] (Georgie Fame)
10 talk (Georgie Fame)
11 Drip Drop (Georgie Fame)
12 talk (Georgie Fame)
13 Rockin' Chair (Georgie Fame)
14 talk (Georgie Fame)
15 The Blues and Me (Georgie Fame)
16 talk (Georgie Fame)
17 Little Pony (Georgie Fame)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iboMUfnN

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/FBCmRws7SbqkRdk/file 

All I know about the cover image is that it was taken in concert at some point in 1990.

Labi Siffre - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: In Concert, Hexagon Theatre, Reading, Britain, 5-14-1989

This is quite a surprise. I thought I'd posted all the BBC material that exists for singer-songwriter Labi Siffre. But a couple of days ago, an anonymous helper sent me this concert. To say it has been hard to find is an understatement. Once I knew the details about its existence, I did an Internet search and only found one mention of it. So hopefully this will bring it back into circulation.

Siffre had a few hits in Britain in the early 1970s, but his music career essentially petered out by the end of that decade. However, in the mid-1980s, he watched a TV documentary about Apartheid in South Africa, and that inspired him to write the song "(Something Inside) So Strong." When it was released in 1987, it went all the way to Number Four in the British singles chart. This gave his career a second wind. He released the album "So Strong" in 1988 (his first since 1975), which contained two more minor hits, "Listen to the Voices" and "Nothin's Gonna Change."

Be aware that the music is quite different from his 1970s stuff. That was very acoustic based. Whereas his late 1980s sound was more typical of that era, with a full band, synths, heavy drums, and so forth. In fact, I was surprised (and disappointed) that he seemed to entirely turn his back on his earlier music. He didn't play any of his earlier hits. His new music isn't bad, but it is a big change. One thing that remained consistent though was his interest in socially progressive topics in his lyrics, like fighting racism.

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long.

01 Lovers (Labi Siffre)
02 Listen to the Voices (Labi Siffre)
03 Schooldays (Labi Siffre)
04 Hard Road (Labi Siffre)
05 And the Wind Blows (Labi Siffre)
06 All I Wanna Do (Labi Siffre)
07 Never Let You Down (Labi Siffre)
08 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] (Labi Siffre)
09 I Will Always Love You (Labi Siffre)
10 talk (Labi Siffre)
11 With a Little Love (Labi Siffre)
12 Snowman (Labi Siffre)
13 talk (Labi Siffre)
14 Nothin's Gonna Change (Labi Siffre)
15 I'm Alright (Labi Siffre)
16 Hard Road [Second Version] (Labi Siffre)
17 [Something Inside] So Strong (Labi Siffre)
18 Home (Labi Siffre)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vEHzj6ZQ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DE75rjUpf71GXyE/file

The cover photo is from the Prince's Trust concert in London in 1987. I've posted that concert here. It features Siffre performing one song, "(Something Inside) So Strong."

Fine Young Cannibals - The Paramount, Seattle, WA, 10-21-1989

Here's a concert by the Fine Young Cannibals, from 1989.

The Fine Young Cannibals were formed in 1984, made of a couple of former members of the English Beat (known just as the Beat in Britain), plus a new lead singer, Roland Gift. They put out the album "Fine Young Cannibals" in 1985. It did pretty well. But then they put out "The Raw and the Cooked" in 1989. It was a very big success, reaching Number One in the album charts in both the U.S. and Britain. It was helped by two Number One singles in the U.S., "She Drives Me Crazy" and "Good Thing." This concert is from a tour to support that album.

Unfortunately, the band unraveled from there. Gift later said, "Everyone got inflated after the success. There were squabbles about me being in films and people were telling each of us stuff about the other members. Divide and rule, basically." They ended up only recording one new song for a greatest hits album in 1996 before breaking up.

 

This concert was recorded for a DVD, so the sound quality is excellent. Someone else converted it to audio format. I found that bootleg and I'm passing it on.

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 Johnny Come Home (Fine Young Cannibals)
02 Like a Stranger (Fine Young Cannibals)
03 I Couldn't Care More (Fine Young Cannibals)
04 talk (Fine Young Cannibals)
05 Good Thing (Fine Young Cannibals)
06 Tell Me What (Fine Young Cannibals)
07 I'm Not Satisfied (Fine Young Cannibals)
08 Funny How Love Is (Fine Young Cannibals)
09 Ever Fallen in Love [With Someone You Shouldn't've] (Fine Young Cannibals)
10 Don't Look Back (Fine Young Cannibals)
11 Suspicious Minds (Fine Young Cannibals)
12 I'm Not the Man I Used to Be (Fine Young Cannibals)
13 It's OK [It's Alright] (Fine Young Cannibals)
14 My Girl (Fine Young Cannibals)
15 She Drives Me Crazy (Fine Young Cannibals)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QCk2XDML

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/OwQE8lZ9P2vrZih/file

The cover photo shows the band's lead singer Roland Gift in a 1989 concert.

Covered: John D. Loudermilk: 1956-2002

Here's another album for my "Covered" series, highlighting the talents of songwriters who got covered a lot. This one is for John D. Loudermilk.

Loudermilk is probably best known for three big hits: "Indian Reservation," a Number One hit in the U.S. for Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1971, "Ebony Eyes," a Number One hit in Britain for the Everly Brothers in 1961, and "Tobacco Road." That last one wasn't as big of a hit, although the Nashville Teens did have a hit with it in 1964. But its one of those songs lots of musical acts love to cover. Wikipedia says it "has since become a standard across several musical genres." 

However, he wrote many more hits than just those three, and his songs have been widely covered. He had a reputation for writing songs that were a little bit quirky and different from the usual.

Loudermilk was born in 1934, and grew up in a musical environment in North Carolina. In fact, two of his cousins made up the Louvin Brothers, a very famous country music duo. The first big hit of one of his songs, "A Rose and a Baby Ruth," happened in 1956, while he was 21 years old and still going to college. After that, he tried having his own career as a performing musician, and he ended up releasing many singles and albums. However, he only saw modest success that way. He had two songs that barely made it into the Top Forty in the U.S., "Sittin' in the Balcony" in 1957, and "Language of Love" in 1961, and some smaller hits. He found much more success having other musical acts record his songs. 

Most of his successes came in the late 1950s and all through the 1960s. He wrote many hits for many different musical acts. This album includes most of his best known songs, but there are plenty more that I didn't include. For instance, he wrote lots of country hits, and I was more selective with those since I'm not such a big country fan. 

Most of the songs here are the original hit versions, if they were hits. I've included a couple of lesser known songs performed by Loudermilk himself, "Road Hog" and "The Jones'," to show some of the diversity of his songwriting talent. The last really big hit he had was "Indian Reservation" in 1971. The four songs that come after than on this album are covers of songs that generally were first released a lot earlier.

It seems he retired from songwriting in the 1970s, and apparently was able to live on royalty checks. That freed him up to pursue passion projects, and he had many. For instance, in the 1990s, he devoted himself to traveling, studying ethnomusicology, chasing hurricanes, and doing research on Native American burial mounds! 

Here's the Wikipedia entry about him, if you want to know more:

John D. Loudermilk - Wikipedia 

But here's a better article that sums up his career:

LifeNotes: Songwriting Great John D. Loudermilk Passes - MusicRow.com 

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 A Rose and a Baby Ruth (George Hamilton IV)
02 Angela Jones (Johnny Ferguson)
03 Ebony Eyes (Everly Brothers)
04 Road Hog (John D. Loudermilk)
05 [He's My] Dreamboat (Connie Francis)
06 Norman (Sue Thompson)
07 Watch Your Step (Brooks O'Dell)
08 Windy and Warm (Ventures)
09 Abilene (George Hamilton IV)
10 Tobacco Road (Nashville Teens)
11 Bad News (Johnny Cash)
12 This Little Bird (Marianne Faithfull)
13 I Wanna Live (Glen Campbell)
14 The Jones' (John D. Loudermilk)
15 Indian Reservation [The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian] (Paul Revere & the Raiders)
16 Break My Mind (Wreckless Eric)
17 You Call It Joggin' [I Call It Runnin' Around] (Mose Allison)
18 Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye (Maria McKee)
19 Turn Me On (Norah Jones)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/h2wgDDB2

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Y1UEO9WQYOuk47p/file

There are very few color photos of Loudermilk from when he was young. So I had to resort to using the cover photo from the album "Blue Train." I don't know when the photo was taken because it's an archival album.

Covered: Will Jennings, Volume 2: 1988-1999

Here's "Volume 2" celebrating the songwriting of Will Jennings.

With "Volume 1," I showed that Jennings co-wrote many popular hits in the late 1970s and all through the 1980s. His winning streak continued through all of the 1990s in this volume.

Jennings co-wrote five Number One hits in the U.S. in Volume 1. He only co-wrote two in this volume: "Roll with It" and "My Heart Will Go On." But it was a fluke "Tears in Heaven" only reached Number Two (held back by "Save the Best for Last" by Vanessa Williams), since it was one of the top five best selling singles of the year. Rolling Stone Magazine also put it on their list of the top 500 songs of all time.

I found an article that talked a bit about Jennings' involvement with "Tears in Heaven." Eric Clapton wrote the music and lyrics for the first verse, with lyrics about the tragic and untimely death of his young son. However, he got stuck at that point. He'd been impressed with Jennings being involved co-writing many hits for Steve Winwood, so Clapton recruited him to help. Jennings not only wrote the lyrics of the other verses, he wrote both the music and lyrics of the bridge. So that's a good example showing that while he was best known for his lyric writing, he was capable with music composition too.

The biggest hit here, though, has to be "My Heart Will Go On," the theme song for the blockbuster "Titanic" movie. It was a Number One song in the U.S., Britain, and over twenty more countries. It was the best selling single of 1998, and is currently listed as the tenth best selling single of all time, as I write this in 2025! It basically won all the awards, including Academy Award for Best Original Song, Grammy Award for Song of the Year, Grammy Award for Record of the Year, and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. 

The music to the song was written by James Horner. He didn't write many other big hits, but he did the scores to well over 100 movies. Originally, director James Cameron just wanted the theme song to be an instrumental. But Horner felt it needed lyrics, so he secretly got Jennings to write the lyrics, since he'd worked with Jennings on a few songs previously. After Cameron heard it, he wasn't keen on having vocals. But he was under intense pressure from the movie studio to make a profit since "Titanic" was the most expensive movie ever made up until that point. So Cameron ultimately gave the okay, and was glad he did, since the song helped make the movie the top grossing film of all time up until then.

After that though, Jennings didn't have many more hits. No doubt, at that point, he could have retired and slept on a hill of money from his "My Heart Will Go On" profits alone. He did have some more music projects into the early 2000s, but seems to have retired by about 2005. He died in 2024 at the age of 80.

As with "Volume 1," all the songs here are the original versions, which were usually hits. I could have included many more lesser hits, but I generally wanted to limit these volumes to the bigger hits, which usually were the best songs. 

This album is 57 minutes long. 

01 Roll with It (Steve Winwood)
02 If We Hold On Together (Diana Ross)
03 Don't You Know What the Night Can Do (Steve Winwood)
04 Many a Long and Lonesome Highway (Rodney Crowell)
05 Holding On (Steve Winwood)
06 The Blues Come Over Me (B.B. King)
07 Tears in Heaven (Eric Clapton)
08 What Kind of Love (Rodney Crowell)
09 Help Me Up (Eric Clapton)
10 My Heart Will Go On [Love Theme from Titanic] (Celine Dion)
11 I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You (Tina Arena & Marc Anthony)
12 Please Remember Me (Tim McGraw)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/3Pu5JVo1 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/XOU3PDIFFAyEJhE/file

The cover photo is from 1999. In full picture, Jennings is holding a Grammy Award in his hands.

Covered: Stevie Wonder, Volume 5: 1981-1989

Here's Volume 5 in my "Covered" series highlighting the songwriting of Stevie Wonder. As with the other volumes in this series, this consists of other musical acts covering his songs.

Wonder was still very commercially successful in the early 1980s, but there was a slow decline as the decade went on. However, that isn't so important for this album, because many of the covers here are of songs he wrote earlier in his career.

Some songs here were written by Wonder but never officially released by him. Those are tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, and 12. That's a lot of songs. It's too bad he didn't put more of those songs on his own albums. 

My usual rule is to only include one version of each song in this series. However, I couldn't resist with "Superstition," since it's one of the greatest songs of all time and I really like two covers of it. I included a version by Jeff Beck on an earlier volume, and a version by Stevie Ray Vaughan here.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 Happy Birthday (Brotherhood of Man)
02 Betcha' Wouldn't Hurt Me (Quincy Jones)
03 Lately (Rudy Grant)
04 Buttercup (Carl Anderson)
05 Try Jah Love (Third World)
06 If You Really Love Me (Mary Wells)
07 You're Playing Us Too Close (Third World)
08 The Crown (Gary Byrd & G.B. Experience with Stevie Wonder)
09 Ribbon in the Sky (Nancy Wilson)
10 Superstition (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
11 Remembering the Sixties (George Duke)
12 Hold On to Your Love (Smokey Robinson)
13 Higher Ground (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SMBE8DsJ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/tBVPCnxrzfmeh4J/file

The cover photo is from 1985. That's all I know about it.

Status Quo - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: 1973-2005

Here's another Status Quo BBC album that I'd overlooked. This time, it's an album of studio sessions.

Boy, are these sessions spread out in time. The first three tracks come from a 1973 session hosted by BBC DJ John Peel. Tracks 4 through 7 come from a 1989 acoustic session. The remaining tracks are from a 2005. 

Status Quo did a bunch of studio sessions from 1966 to 1972, which make up Volumes 1 and 2 in this series. But it seems these are the only three sessions they did after that, even though their popularity grew quite a lot. I think a big part of that is that the BBC often switched to broadcasting concerts instead of studio sessions in the early 1970s, especially for a band like this one, which thrived in a concert setting.

All of the songs here come from the official box set "Live at the BBC." However, I had issues with the 1989 acoustic session, and I made changes to all the songs. The problem, in my eyes at least, is that the BBC DJ, Steve Wright, was one of those loud and aggressive morning DJ types, although he had an afternoon show at this time. It seems he couldn't help by try to make himself to focus on attention, loudly saying things all through the songs. So, using the UVR5 audio editing program, I tried to edit out his commentary over the music as much as possible. Sometimes I couldn't do it when he was talking while the band members were singing, but I got rid of most of it. I also got rid of the clapping and cheering, thanks to the MVSEP audio editing program. So now you can hear the actual songs being performed. If you prefer all the DJ talk, there's still the official box set version for you to have that option.

This album is 39 minutes long.

01 Paper Plane (Status Quo)
02 Softer Ride (Status Quo)
03 Don't Waste My Time (Status Quo)
04 In My Chair [Edit] (Status Quo)
05 Caroline [Edit] (Status Quo)
06 From a Jack to a King - Down the Dust Pipe [Edit] (Status Quo)
07 Railroad [Edit] (Status Quo)
08 Caroline (Status Quo)
09 The Party Ain't Over Yet (Status Quo)
10 Whatever You Want (Status Quo)
11 Belavista Man (Status Quo)
12 Rockin' All Over the World (Status Quo)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PosJQdGo

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/4zydP2amyCMYIzi/file

The cover photo shows the band in 1978. That's Francis Rossi, Alan Lancaster, Rick Parfitt, John Cocklan, and Andy Bown.

Suzanne Vega - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-16-1989

Back in the summer of 2023, I posted a BBC album by Suzanne Vega, but then forgot to follow up with more. Finally, here's another one. 

This is from the big annual Glastonbury Festival, though perhaps it wasn't so big back in the 1980s. As I write this in 2025, Vega has performed at this festival a surprising number of times. Seven times in all so far: 1989, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2022. However, the only BBC recording I can find from her is this 1989. That's also surprising, since the BBC didn't broadcast many sets back then, and has broadcast more and more as time has gone on. So if anyone has any of her other Glastonbury sets, please pass them on so I can post those too.

I read an interview with Vega many years after this concert in which she was asked: "What is the closest you've come to death?" She responded, "A death threat at Glastonbury Festival in 1989. The police told me not to go on, but I said I had to because I was headlining. So I wore a bullet-proof vest. It seemed unlikely that I would be assassinated, but it was shocking and very stressful." Given that, I give her kudos for putting on a remarkably poised performance here.

Vega was probably close to the peak of her popularity around this time. Her 1988 album "Solitude Standing" did especially well in the the British charts, making it to Number Two there, compared to Number 11 in the U.S.

This concert is unreleased, but the sound quality is excellent.

This album is 47 minutes long.

UPDATE: On March 9, 2025, I redid the mp3 download file. I added one song I'd missed, "Undertow." Plus, it turned out "Ironbound - Fancy Poultry" had been misnamed.

01 talk (Suzanne Vega)
02 Solitude Standing (Suzanne Vega)
03 talk (Suzanne Vega)
04 Undertow (Suzanne Vega)
05 Small Blue Thing (Suzanne Vega)
06 Cracking (Suzanne Vega)
07 talk (Suzanne Vega)
08 Ironbound - Fancy Poultry (Suzanne Vega)
09 Left of Center (Suzanne Vega)
10 The Queen and the Soldier (Suzanne Vega)
11 talk (Suzanne Vega)
12 Pilgrimage (Suzanne Vega)
13 talk (Suzanne Vega)
14 Men in a War (Suzanne Vega)
15 talk (Suzanne Vega)
16 Luka (Suzanne Vega)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QNpgcQoy

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/ETiitPHCU0iUCfM/file

All I know is this photo is from 1989. However, I saw a really poor quality photo of her at Glastonbury this year, and I think she's wearing the same jeans jacket, so it could be from this show.

Van Morrison - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: One Irish Rover, Ronnie Scott's Club, London, Britain, 5-24-1989

Here's another BBC album performed by Van Morrison.

To call this a BBC album is technically true, but I had to work to make it. The basis of it is a BBC TV special focused on Morrison released in 1991, called "One Irish Rover." This was composed of different segments, including duets with John Lee Hooker and Bob Dylan. But most of it consisted of songs from two concerts. This is one of them. 

So I extracted all the songs from this concert that made it into that video. I also found an audience bootleg of the same concert. The sound quality is obviously worse, but still decent, so I added three songs from that (tracks 2, 3, and 5). Having that extra source turned out to be crucial, because two of the songs from the video were mostly complete, but had some of their beginnings cut off. I was able to use the audience boot to fill in those missing pieces. That's why "Help Me" and "Summertime in England" have "[Edit]" in their titles.

The concert appears to have been an unusual one. It took place in Ronnie Scott's, a relatively small jazz club in London. It also seems to have been short, well under a hour. It probably was done specifically for the BBC documentary, since it was professionally filmed. It took place a couple of weeks before the release of his studio album "Avalon Sunset," and featured some of the first performances of songs from that album. For instance, this seems to be the very first public performances of "Whenever God Shines His Light," "When Will I Ever Learn to Live in God," and "Have I Told You Lately."

By the way, as one can see from the video, Georgie Fame played keyboards on these songs. He was a member of Morrison's band for quite a few years, after being a big star in the 1960s.

Sorry about the noticeable difference in quality of the songs from the video compared to those of the audience boot. If that bothers you, just delete tracks 2, 3, and 5. 

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Did Ye Get Healed (Van Morrison)
02 Whenever God Shines His Light (Van Morrison)
03 Have I Told You Lately (Van Morrison)
04 It's All in the Game - You Know What They're Writing About (Van Morrison)
05 When Will I Ever Learn to Live in God (Van Morrison)
06 Help Me [Edit] (Van Morrison)
07 Summertime in England [Edit] (Van Morrison)
08 Moondance (Van Morrison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/EpHd731e

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/v8YCl8xqjaUqswE/file

The cover image comes from this exact concert. I took a screenshot from the One Irish Rover video. Then I ran it through the Krea AI program to improve the quality.

Pete Townshend - Who Demos, Volume 10: 1982-1995: It's Hard & Solo Albums

I recently posted the ninth volume in this series. Here's the tenth and final one, before I forget. Generally, the series is about the demos Pete Townshend made that later turned into songs for albums by the Who, as opposed to a separate series I've made of Townshend's non-album tracks, which are mostly demos. But for this final volume, it's dominated by songs that went to Townshend's 1980s solo albums.

The only album by the Who represented here is "It's Hard," from 1982. But for whatever reason, there aren't many demos from that one, just "Popular" (an early version of "It's Hard") and "Cry If You Want." Plus, there's a version of "Eminence Front," but it's stuck at the end because it's all the way from 1995. Apparently, Townshend made a new demo of the song before going on tour, and liked it enough to include it on his archival album "Scoop 3."

Track two through five are all demos of songs from Townshend's 1982 solo album "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes." Those four songs are all unreleased, as is "Cry If You Want" mentioned above. I really like Townshend's 1985 album "White City," but there are only two demos of songs from that album, "Crashing by Design" and "I Am Secure." All the remaining songs relate to his 1989 album "Iron Man." Those are all officially released, mostly from his "Scoop 3" album, except for "I Eat Heavy Metal."

This album is an hour and five minutes long.

01 Popular [Early Version of It's Hard] (Pete Townshend)
02 Stop Hurting People (Pete Townshend)
03 Face Dances, Pt. 2 (Pete Townshend)
04 Uniforms [Corp d'Esprit] (Pete Townshend)
05 The Sea Refuses No River (Pete Townshend)
06 Cry If You Want (Pete Townshend)
07 Crashing by Design (Pete Townshend)
08 I Am Secure (Pete Townshend)
09 Man and Machines [Man Machines] (Pete Townshend)
10 Dig (Pete Townshend)
11 I Eat Heavy Metal (Pete Townshend)
12 I Am Afraid (Pete Townshend)
13 Outlive the Dinosaur (Pete Townshend)
14 Iron Man Recitative (Pete Townshend)
15 Eminence Front (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AWvjgje9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/R5nBhcu5RAHyazo/file

The cover photo is from a 1985 photo shoot.

Stevie Ray Vaughan - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Austin City Limits Studio, Austin, TX, 10-10-1989

Here is the third and last album of guitar wizard Stevie Ray Vaughan performing for the BBC. Sadly, he died a year later. So it's unlikely for there to be more BBC material unless I missed something from earlier. This is a concert.

This one is rather strange for a "BBC concert," because it clearly originally was an episode of the U.S. TV show "Austin City Limits." However, it was also broadcast on BBC radio. You can even find it listed on the BBC website as part of their "In Concert" series. This kind of thing seemed to have happened more than I'd first realized when starting out with my big BBC project. I'm guessing there were times when a musical act was really popular and the BBC wanted to feature them, but they couldn't arrange to record them. For instance, perhaps they weren't going to Britain that year. So instead the BBC would simply buy the rights to someone else's radio or TV broadcasts. 

That's one reason I'm really enjoying gathering this BBC material, because they so often managed to feature musical acts at their commercial and/or creative peaks, because the BBC had the power and money to do that kind of thing. The one glaring exception is when a musical act got so popular that they decided not to do any radio or TV broadcasts at all. That certainly happened sometimes. A classic example was the Beatles stopping all BBC broadcasts in mid-1965, even though they kept touring for another year.

Anyway, I digress. Getting back to this recording, although you can easily find video of this show on YouTube and elsewhere, it hasn't been released in audio format. In fact, I was surprised that I couldn't even find any audio bootlegs of this, only a few songs here and there. So I put it together myself, based on a high quality video source. The sound quality is excellent. But one problem was that there often wasn't enough audience applause at the ends of songs. Probably, there were cutaways to commercials or an emcee talking. So in many cases I patched in applause from the ends of other songs to give adequate space after every song. 

Of course it's a tragedy that he died as young as he did. But it's especially tragic because, in my opinion, he was getting better and better as a songwriter and guitar player, probably helped by the fact that he'd stopped abusing drugs and alcohol. So of the three BBC albums I've posted by him, I think this one is the best.

This album is an hour and six minutes long.

01 The House Is Rockin' (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
02 Tightrope (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
03 talk (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
04 May I Have a Talk with You (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
05 Mary Had a Little Lamb (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
06 Leave My Girl Alone (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
07 Crossfire (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
08 Look at Little Sister (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
09 Superstition (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
10 talk (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
11 Cold Shot (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
12 Couldn't Stand the Weather (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
13 Voodoo Child [Slight Return] (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
13 Riviera Paradise [Instrumental] (Stevie Ray Vaughan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1K9ZaGFE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/S9ykouDU5WbkFrP/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.