Covered: Geoff Stephens: 1964-2002

I recently posted a couple of "Covered" albums dealing with British professional songwriters from the 1960s and 1970s (as I write this in May 2026). As I said elsewhere, there was a circle of a dozen or more who often collaborated with each other, and wrote lots of pop hits. Here's another one from that group, Geoff Stephens.

Many of the other songwriters in this group that I've been discussing came up with the British Invasion, the musical trend that started around 1963. But Stephens was slightly older - he was 29 years old in 1963- and his music career began before that. He served in the military for a couple of years and held a series of odd jobs before getting serious about songwriting. His first song was covered by a musical act in 1961. 

His first hit was "Tell Me When" in 1964, co-written by Les Reed, another songwriter in that group. I've already posted the hit version by the Applejacks in the "Covered" album for Barry Mason and Les Reed. So I went with a different version here. Later that same year, he had an even bigger hit with a song he wrote all by himself, "The Crying Game." The version by Dave Berry went all the way to the Top Five in Britain, although it wasn't a hit. (Boy George eventually had a hit in the U.S. with it in 1992.) It had an unusual melody, showing surprising musical sophistication for a pop hit 1964.

He had an even bigger hit in 1966 with "Winchester Cathedral," performed by the New Vaudeville Band. It actually was recorded by session musicians. The lead vocalist was John Carter, another songwriter I've profiled with a "Covered" album." Stephens had a fondness for vaudeville/ music hall music from the 1920s and earlier, and wrote the song in that vein. It was such a massive success - hitting Number One in the U.S. and some other countries, and selling three million copies worldwide - that it started a mini-vaudeville trend for the next couple of years. Few British artists could resist performing at least one or two songs in that style, for some reason.

Sometimes, Stephens was the sole songwriter, as was the case with "Winchester Cathedral." But more often, he wrote with other members of that unnamed British professional songwriter group. For instance, "There's a Kind of Hush" was written with Les Reed, "Sorry Suzanne" was written with Tony Macaulay, "My Sentimental Friend" was written with John Carter, "Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast" was written with Peter Callander, and so on. As you can see, Stephens didn't favor just one songwriting partner. In fact, he had many more, including Roger Greenaway, Barry Mason, Don Black, and Mitch Murray. All of those other people have their own "Covered" albums, or their albums are coming.

Stephens had many more hits through most of the 1970s, until about 1978. In fact, one of his biggest hits was one of his last, since "Silver Lady" by David Soul went to Number One in Britain in 1977. (That one was co-written with Tony Macaulay, by the way.) But musical styles changed drastically in the late 1970s, with the rise of disco, punk, and new wave. So his hits stopped at that time, as was the case with most of the other songwriters in that group he'd been working with since the mid-1960s. 

Starting in the early 1980s, he mostly switched to writing songs for musicals. In doing so, he still collaborated with people from that same group, writing different musicals with Don Black, Les Reed, and Peter Callander. He died in 2020 at the age of 86.

Here's his Wikipedia page:

Geoff Stephens - Wikipedia 

Because Stephens often wrote with other songwriters who have their own "Covered" albums, sometimes I've resorted to using non-hit versions, so the same versions don't appear on two different albums. So, for instance, I have "Sorry Suzanne" here by the Glass Bottle, instead of the hit version by the Hollies. "Smile a Little Smile for Me" is an outliner, because I chose a late cover for the same reason. The hit version was in 1970. Without that one, this album would end in 1980. 

This album is one hour long. 

01 Tell Me When (Jaybirds)
02 The Crying Game (Dave Berry)
03 Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James (Manfred Mann)
04 Winchester Cathedral (New Vaudeville Band)
05 My World Fell Down (Ivy League)
06 There's a Kind of Hush (Herman's Hermits)
07 Boy (Lulu)
08 Sunshine Girl (Herman's Hermits)
09 Lights of Cincinnati (Scott Walker)
10 My Sentimental Friend (Herman's Hermits)
11 Sorry Suzanne (Glass Bottle)
12 Knock, Knock, Who's There (Mary Hopkin)
13 Daughter of Darkness (Tom Jones)
14 Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast (Wayne Newton)
15 You Won't Find Another Fool like Me (New Seekers)
16 Doctor's Orders (Carol Douglas)
17 Silver Lady (David Soul)
18 It's Like We Never Said Goodbye (Crystal Gayle)
19 Like Sister and Brother (Frank Hooker & Positive People)
20 Smile a Little Smile for Me (Chris von Sneidern)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/bm3YSnFy

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/pEoVVFc3lzQ7Bfp/file

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

Covered: Barry Mason & Les Reed: 1964-2002

Here's another album for my "Covered" series, highlighting the talents of singer-songwriters. This time, I'm tackling the songwriting team of Barry Mason and Les Reed.

I have to admit that I'm not terribly impressed by the songwriting of Barry Mason and Les Reed. But I'm posting this for two reasons. One, they wrote an undeniable number of big hit songs in the 1960s and 70s, so they shouldn't be forgotten. But also, they were part of a small group of professional songwriters working in Britain at the time, often writing songs with others, so they need to be included as part of that scene. At times, one or the other co-wrote songs with Geoff Stephens, Roger Greenaway, Roger Cook, Tony Macaulay, John Carter, Ken Lewis, Don Black, Mitch Murray, and Peter Callander. It's probable that you've heard of few to none of those songwriters. That was the case for me until I started making the "Covered" albums. But I'll bet you know a lot of their hit songs. I plan to post "Covered" albums for all of those other songwriters I just mentioned as well.

Both Mason and Reed were born in small towns in England in 1935. (Mason was born in Wigan and Reed was born in Woking.) Mason got started in profressional songwriting do to working as a producer. He later explained, "I met this boy called Tommy Bruce and I spent my last few pounds making a demo of him singing an old Fats Waller song, 'Ain't Misbehavin'' - and he had a hit. Suddenly, I was his manager, not knowing anything about the business. But the important thing was, I was in the business." 

However, Les Reed had the first big hit. "Tell Me When," written with Geoff Stephens, was a hit for the Applejacks in early 1964. Reed would go on to write many more songs with Stephens, though not as man as with Mason. Both of them worked with other songwriters from the start, and kept doing so. For instance, Mason co-wrote "She Just Satisfies" with Jimmy Page, future lead guitarist for Led Zeppelin. It was a failed solo single for Page in 1965.

I don't know how Mason and Reed met, but by 1964 they were writing songs together. Their first hit song together was "Here It Comes Again." The Fortunes took it to Number Four in Britain in 1965. After that, they began writing together more consistently, while still also working with other songwriters. In 1965, Reed had his first massive hit with "It's Not Unusual," which hit Number One in Britain and turned Tom Jones into a big star. It was co-written with Gordon Mills, a songwriter who also was Jones's manager. A year later, he had another banger with "There's a Kind of Hush," co-written with Geoff Stephens. Herman's Hermits had the big hit in 1966, but I chose to include a 1971 version by the Carpenters instead, since I put the Herman's Hermits version on a different "Covered" album. 

Their first really huge smash hit together was "The Last Waltz." Although Engelbert Humperdinck only had a Top Forty hit with it in the U.S., it Britain it went all the way to Number One in 1967. It stayed on top for five weeks, making it one of the best selling songs of the year.

I'm not a fan of "The Last Waltz." It's a sappy love song, oversung by Humperdinck, and overproduced, with lots of strings. I find it mystifying it dominated the charts for a portion of 1967, when that was one of the best years of hit music ever, in my opinion. I've included it because it's such a big hit, and so pivotal in their careers. But Mason and Reed began writing a lot of hit songs in that same style. I've elected to not include many of them, even when they were big hits, if I wasn't that impressed with them as songs.

Most of the songs here were co-written by Mason and Reed. I'll only mention the other exceptions. "Daughter of Darkness" was another one written by Mason and Stephens. "A Man without Love" was written by Mason with three other songwriters.n"Love Me Tonight" was written by Mason with two others. "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" was written by Mason and Tony Macaulay. I put the 1970 hit version by Edison Lighthouse and a "Covered" album for Macaulay, so I chose a interesting, non-hit version here. "There Goes My First Love" was written by Mason with Roger Greenaway.

Mason and Reed had most of their success in the mid-1960s until the mid-1970s, both together and with other songwriters. Their songwriting partnership faded away around the same time the hits slowed down. Reed moved into writing more for movie soundtracks and musical plays. Mason continued writing the occasional hit with other songwriters. He even co-wrote a Top 40 song as late as 2002, which is the last song here, "Tell Me Why." Reed died in 2019 at the age of 83. Mason died in 2021 at the age of 85.

Here's the Wikipedia link for Mason:

Barry Mason - Wikipedia

And here's the one for Reed:

Les Reed (songwriter) - Wikipedia  

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 Don't Turn Around (Merseybeats)
02 Tell Me When (Applejacks)
03 Here It Comes Again (Fortunes)
04 It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones)
05 Leave a Little Love (Lulu)
06 The Last Waltz (Engelbert Humperdinck)
07 Delilah (Tom Jones)
08 Kiss Me Goodbye (Petula Clark)
09 Les Bicyclettes de Belsize (Johnny Worth)
10 Love Me Tonight (Tom Jones)
11 A Man without Love (Engelbert Humperdinck)
12 Daughter of Darkness (Tom Jones)
13 There Goes My First Love (Drifters)
14 Good Love Can Never Die (Alvin Stardust)
15 There's a Kind of Hush (Carpenters)
16 Love Grows [Where My Rosemary Goes] (Freedy Johnston)
17 Tell Me Why (Declan Galbraith)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/hVs6Rga9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/0Qd4g12HWY8WrK4/file

The cover image shows Barry Mason on the left and Les Reed on the right. I took two different pictures and put them together, using Photoshop. The Mason one is from 1966 and the Reed one is from 1967. Both were originally in black and white, but I colorized them with the use of the Kolorize program.

Covered: Randy Newman, Volume 3: 1999-2025

Here's the third and final volume of the "Covered" series for Randy Newman.

Newman's usual solo albums have been released less frequently as he gets older, which is usually the case for songwriters. By now, 2026, he averages about one album a decade. But unlike a lot of aging songwriters, he's kept his standards high. Pretty much every album he's made has been critically praised. 

But he's been much busier and prolific with his other career, composing soundtracks for Hollywood movies. I mentioned in the write-up for "Volume 2" that his career got a big boost starting in 1995, when he composed the soundtrack for the first "Toy Story" movie. That led him to a new line of work making soundtracks for blockbuster movies for kids, such as the other "Toy Story" movies (including "Toy Story 6," released in 2026), "Cars," "A Bug's Life," "Monsters, Inc.," and more. Most of those are a mix of songs with lyrics and background music. I didn't find a lot of songs from these movies sung by others that fit this collection, but there are a few in this volume. 

Some others are from earlier in his career. For instance, "Burn On," a 1972 song based on a true incident of the Cuyahoga River, which runs through Cleveland, Ohio, catching fire in 1969 due to excessive pollution. 

All the songs in all three volumes were officially released, except for the last two on this volume. "I'm Dead (But I Don't Know It)" is from Randy Newman's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2013. It's sung by Newman and Don Henley. The album ends with "I Love L.A.," one of Newman's better known songs. I had trouble finding a worthy version, until I found this one. It comes from the 2025 Grammy Awards ceremony, and features a bunch of stars singing together.

This album is 49 minutes long. 

01 When She Loved Me (Sarah McLachlan)
02 If I Didn't Have You (Billy Crystal & John Goodman)
03 Every Time It Rains (Joe Cocker)
04 Rider in the Rain (Reckless Kelly & Joe Ely)
05 Texas Girl at the Funeral of Her Father (Kim Richey)
06 Marie (Allison Moorer)
07 Our Town (James Taylor)
08 Burn On (Mason Williams)
09 I Will Go Sailing No More (Los Lobos)
10 Almost There (Anika Noni Rose)
11 Down in New Orleans (Dr. John)
12 Losing You (Mavis Staples)
13 It's Lonely at the Top (Big Bad Voodoo Daddy)
14 I'm Dead [But I Don't Know It] (Don Henley & Randy Newman)
15 I Love L.A. (Dawes, John Legend, St. Vincent, Brittany Howard, Brad Paisley & Sheryl Crow)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZoccZuhY

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/zKj0ZEWCA6LlgOM/file

The cover image is from 1995.

Covered: Neil Young, Volume 4: 1999-2005

Here’s the fourth album in the Neil Young covered series. Once again, thanks to Fabio from Rio for doing most of the work. I also want to mention that I have a long list of songwriters that I want to make Covered albums for. Many of the biggest ones, like Dylan, Lennon-McCartney, Jagger-Richard’s, Ray Davies, etc… are still to come. I’m sure I wouldn’t have gotten around to Young for a couple more years. But Fabio’s involvement and energy brought this one to the front of the line.

Here are Fabio’s comments about the time period of this volume:

By the turn of the millennium, Neil Young's songwriting had become a shared reference point for several generations of musicians. Musical artists from the folk revival, alt-country movement, and indie rock scene were all revisiting different eras of his catalog - from the fragile acoustic songs of the late sixties to the electric epics recorded with Crazy Horse. During this period, Young himself remained remarkably active, releasing albums such as "Silver and Gold" and "Greendale" while continuing to tour extensively. The covers gathered here reflect that generational dialogue: younger singer-songwriters, Americana performers, and alternative rock musicians rediscovering both famous classics and some of the most obscure corners of Young's songwriting. 

--- 

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. 

This album is an hour and one minute long. 

01 Piece of Crap (Slobberbone)
02 Pushed It Over the End (South Ontario)
03 Long Walk Home (MrChuck)
04 I've Been Waiting for You (David Bowie)
05 Running Dry [Requiem for the Rockets] (Steve Von Till)
06 Albuquerque (Walkabouts)
07 Pocahontas (Gillian Welch)
08 The Old Laughing Lady (Thea Gilmore)
09 Old Man (Wilson Phillips)
10 I Believe in You (Patricia O'Callaghan)
11 Helpless (k.d. lang)
12 Barstool Blues (Maria McKee)
13 Broken Arrow (Kate Rogers)
14 Last Trip to Tulsa (Leo Koster)
15 Roll Another Number [For the Road] (Mike McClure)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xP2bMEgi

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/F0bJfmxhH1onFkG/file

The cover photo is from 1975. The original was in black and white. I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. I also used the Krea AI program to improve details. 

I got a complaint that the cover image was ruined by AI. I don't think so. Here's the unaltered black and white original. As I've said elsewhere, I typically only use Krea AI to make minor changes, mostly with color and contrast. If you don't like the colorization and other changes, feel free to use this version. 

Elton John - Cover Versions, Volume 5: 2002-2007

In 2023 and 2024, I posted four volumes collecting all the cover versions performed by Elton John that I could find. However, I stopped this series before finishing it because I ran into copyright issues with the fourth volume. But I've had way less of those issues in recent months, so I'd going to try to post the fifth volume. If that works out, the sixth and final volume will follow. But you might want to grab this quickly, just in case.

Tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8 are all unreleased, and from concerts. Out of those, tracks 2 and 3 are from a CMT Crossroads episode with Ryan Adams. Track 9 was also performed live, but it's from a tribute album to Luther Vandross. For all these live songs, I used the MVSEP program to wipe the cheering, so those songs would fit with the studio tracks.

That leaves the studio tracks, all of which are released. Those are from a mix of movie soundtracks, tribute albums, and duets done on albums by other musical acts. If you want more details, please look at the mp3 tags for the individual songs. Like always, I include the source info for each song on every album I post. 

By the way, some of the links in the previous volumes in this series weren't working, but I just replaced them with new links. 

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 Oh My Sweet Carolina (Elton John)
02 Firecracker (Elton John & Ryan Adams)
03 La Cienega Just Smiled (Elton John & Ryan Adams)
04 Makin' Whoopee (Elton John)
05 Moon River (Elton John)
06 Nighttime Is the Right Time (Elton John & Mary J. Blige)
07 Born to Lose (Elton John)
08 Rock This House (B. B. King & Elton John)
09 Anyone Who Had a Heart (Elton John & Luther Vandross)
10 Dreamland (Bruce Hornsby & Elton John)
11 Where We Both Say Goodbye (Catherine Britt & Elton John)
12 Rags to Riches (Tony Bennett & Elton John)
13 Blueberry Hill (Elton John) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PWY7tZVF

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Tk5ynn7dYAJmOmv/file

The cover photo is from a concert at Wembley Arena, in London, on December 5, 2003. 

Covered: Tom Waits, Volume 2: 1994-2004 (A Fabio from Rio Guest Post)

Here's the second Covered volume for Tom Waits. Like the Covered albums made for other musical acts, the talent of a songwriter is shown through cover versions, rather than that person performing their own songs.

And like the rest of this series for Waits, most of the heavy lifting in making this album is thanks to Fabio from Rio. He basically found a zillion Waits covers, then whittled them down to his favorites. That was still a very large number, so I then listened to them and whittled them down a lot more.

Fabio also answered my request to do the write-ups for each album in this series. So here's what he had to say about this one. And thanks, Fabio, for all your work on these albums. Take it away:

--- 

Around the mid-1980s, Waits began to break away from conventional arrangements. The music became more percussive and raw, foreshadowing a major stylistic shift. This period marks the end of his "classic singer-songwriter" phase and the start of a more radical artistic reinvention. Waits embraced experimental instrumentation, junkyard percussion, polyrhythms, and global folk influences. His work became deeply theatrical, influenced by Brecht, Weill, and his collaborations with his wife Kathleen Brennan. Songs feel like surreal street operas populated by grotesques and dreamers. This second volume includes mostly songs from that period.

The best known cover here is probably "Way Down in the Hole," due to its use in the HBO series "The Wire." (The Blind Boys from Alabama's version was used as the first season opening music, and other versions were selected for the remaining four seasons, including Waits' own original version.) Norah Jones' delicate outtake "Picture in a Frame" also got some recognition, especially after its inclusion in special editions of her breakthrough album "Come Away With Me."

"I Don't Wanna Grow Up" sounds so natural in the Ramones' catalog that many listeners assume it is an original. It was used as the opening track and first single of their last studio album. Waits' version (from the excellent 1992 album "Bone Machine") is way darker. 

"Little Boy Blue" was only performed by Waits in the movie "One from the Heart." Here we have a bluesy version by jazz singer and pianist Holly Cole. Other highlights of the volume include Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "Whistling Past the Graveyard" and John Hammond's "Big Black Mariah" (which is taken from an album he did fully dedicated to Waits songs). 

On the mellower side, there are soft-sounding melodic folk versions by Shawn Colvin and Valerie Carter that prove Waits can write poignant ballads. Overall, another very nice flowing album with well performed covers that honor Waits' music.

--- 

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 The Heart of Saturday Night (Shawn Colvin)
02 Whistling Past the Graveyard (Screamin' Jay Hawkins)
03 16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six (Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band)
04 I Don't Want to Grow Up (Ramones)
05 Better Off without a Wife (Pete Shelley)
06 Little Boy Blue (Holly Cole)
07 Whistle Down the Wind (Valerie Carter)
08 The Briar and the Rose (Niamh Parsons)
09 Dirt in the Ground (Christine Collister)
10 Heartattack and Vine (Popa Chubby)
11 Invitation to the Blues (Jennifer Warnes)
12 Big Black Mariah (John Hammond)
13 Picture in a Frame (Norah Jones)
14 Way Down in the Hole (Blind Boys from Alabama)
15 Jockey Full of Bourbon (Los Lobos)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zUDkHa5i

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/2nAIGV2f2Rq1n6p/file

The cover photo was taken in San Francisco in 2002.

Various Artists - Concert for a Landmine Free World, Point Theatre, Dublin, Ireland, 1-14-2002

I just found this the other day, and I liked it so much that I'm posting it straight away. I've posted a bunch of "Songwriter's Circle" BBC TV shows. This isn't from that show, but it follows the same format: several singer-songwriters sitting next to each other and taking turns singing their songs. In this case, there were four: Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Elvis Costello, and John Prine.

The concert was one of six concerts in Europe in 2002, all called "Concert for a Landmine Free World." This, in turn, was just one of several concert tours for that cause, which took place from at least 1997 to 2017. Most of them have been helmed by Emmylou Harris. However, I can't find much information about these tours. There was one official album containing some highlights from a 1999 tour, but it's very hard to find. Other than that, there are only a small number of bootlegs, and they generally are audience boots with sound quality too poor for my standards. 

This one concert is an exception though. This recording has been called a soundboard boot. I doubt that though, because one often hears clapping between songs from what sounds like people extremely close to the recording spot. I think it's more likely that it's just a very, very, very well recorded audience boot. Not all audience boots are the same. Every now and then, you can find one that sounds as good or better than a typical soundboard, if superior recording equipment was used, and the location was ideal, and the people nearby were quiet, and so forth. But whatever the case, this sounds good enough to be an official live album, so don't worry about the quality.

Of the six concerts in 2002, five of them also had Nanci Griffith in it. For some reason, in seems she couldn't attend this one. That's a bummer, but on the plus side it means we got even more songs from the remaining four stars, who in my opinion are all major musical talents. For the most part, each of them just sang and played guitar on their own songs. But later in the show, Emmylou Harris, who is kind of the queen of harmony vocalizing in the music world, sang backing vocals on some songs. And everyone joined in on two songs ("God's Comic" and "Paradise").    

This album is two hours long exactly. 

01 talk (Emmylou Harris)
02 Red Dirt Girl (Emmylou Harris)
03 talk (Steve Earle)
04 Now She's Gone (Steve Earle)
05 talk (Elvis Costello)
06 Our Little Angel (Elvis Costello)
07 talk (John Prine)
08 Souvenirs (John Prine)
09 talk (Emmylou Harris)
10 Bang the Drum Slowly (Emmylou Harris)
11 talk (Steve Earle)
12 Hometown Blues (Steve Earle)
13 talk (Elvis Costello)
14 Please (Elvis Costello)
15 That's the Way that the World Goes Round (John Prine)
16 talk (Emmylou Harris)
17 Michelangelo (Emmylou Harris)
18 talk (Elvis Costello)
19 God's Comic (Elvis Costello with Everyone)
20 Goodbye (Steve Earle & Emmylou Harris)
21 talk (Elvis Costello)
22 Shipbuilding (Elvis Costello)
23 talk (John Prine)
24 talk (John Prine)
25 The Other Side of Town (John Prine)
26 talk (Emmylou Harris)
27 Hour of Gold (Emmylou Harris)
28 talk (Steve Earle)
29 Tom Ames' Prayer (Steve Earle)
30 talk (Elvis Costello)
31 Alibi (Elvis Costello)
32 Sam Stone (John Prine with Emmylou Harris)
33 talk (Emmylou Harris & Elvis Costello)
34 Sleepless Nights (Emmylou Harris & Elvis Costello)
35 talk (Steve Earle)
36 Galway Girl (Steve Earle)
37 talk (John Prine)
38 Speed of the Sound of Loneliness (John Prine with Emmylou Harris)
39 talk (Emmylou Harris)
40 talk (Steve Earle)
41 Fort Worth Blues (Steve Earle with Emmylou Harris)
42 talk (Emmylou Harris)
43 Paradise (John Prine with Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/v18WJsJZ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xWxX8iu7hB5JDuJ/file

I couldn't find a photo from this exact concert. However, I found one from a concert in Belfast the day before. It had two other people in it, including Nanci Griffith. So I carefully zoomed in and cropped them out. The quality is a bit rough, and Krea AI didn't help much in this case.

Covered: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Volume 2: 1998-2011

Here's the second out of three albums celebrating the music of songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim. Like the others in this series, Fabio from Rio was more responsible for putting this together than I was. So a very big thanks to him. Due to the fact that he's a Brazilian with deep knowledge of Brazilian music, he knew Jobim covers way better than I did.

Jobim wrote most of his classic songs from the 1950s to the 1970s. He actually died in 1994, of heart and cancer problems at the age of 67. So all the covers here are from after his death, of songs that often were written decades earlier. That's a sign that his songs keep getting covered, long after their first appearances on records. 

Fabio and I selected these choices together. We rarely went for the big hit versions, because his songs rarely turned into big hits. But he's had dozens of songs with literally hundreds of cover versions. Typically, Fabio selected a bunch of versions of a given song, then I would listen to them and pick my favorite. If you want to hear more versions, go to the write-up for Volume 1, because Fabio has made six more albums of Jobim covers that you can find there.

Also note that I kept this to versions in English, despite the fact that Jobim wrote nearly all of the original versions of his songs in Portuguese. And I kept my selections to versions with vocals, since there are countless hundreds of instrumental versions of his songs as well. I figured English versions would have more popular appeal for people who aren't that familiar with his music. 

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 For All of My Life [Por Toda a Minha Vida] (Eliane Elias)
02 Modinha [Broken Heart] (Paquito D'Rivera & New York Voices)
03 Ela e Carioca [She's a Carioca] (Celso Fonseca)
04 Someone to Light Up My Life [Se Todos Fossem Iguais a Voce] (Ann Hampton Callaway)
05 No More Blues [Chega de Saudade] (Idea of North)
06 Porpoise [Boto] (Beijbom Kroner Big Band)
07 Song of the Jet [Samba do Aviao] (BR6)
08 Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars [Corcovado] (Diana Krall)
09 I Was Just One More for You [Esperanca Perdida] (Dawn Clement)
10 That Look You Wear [Este Seu Olhar] (Elly Hoyt)
11 Zingaro [Retrato em Branco e Preto] [Portrait in Black and White] (Nina Ripe)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NHjBNpsC

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/N32g9Tfg2rPVxZM/file 

I don't know the details about the cover photo. But based on his appearance and the other photos I saw of him putting this together, I'd guess the picture was taken in the 1980s. 

Covered: Hank Williams, Volume 2: 1995-2017

Here's the second part to the "Covered" series about country music legend Hank Williams.

As I said in my write-up for Volume 1, I wanted to make these albums accessible to more than just country music fans. So that's why I mostly chose covers from recent decades, and by the likes of Beck, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Norah Jones, and so on. 

The vast majority of these were hits when Williams did them before his death in 1953. While there were a lot of hit cover versions of his songs, these generally were not hits. As I just mentioned, I was striving to get away from country versions, and those were most of the hit versions.

As always with these "Covered" albums, the songs are in loose chronological order, based on the year of release. And, as always, check the mp3 tags for the details. 

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 I'm a Long Gone Daddy (The The)
02 I Can't Help It [If I'm Still in Love with You] (Cat Power)
03 [I Heard That] Lonesome Whistle (Beck)
04 I Can't Get You Off of My Mind (Bob Dylan)
05 Alone and Forsaken (Emmylou Harris & Mark Knopfler)
06 You're Gonna Change [Or I'm Gonna Leave] (Tom Petty)
07 Cold, Cold Heart (Norah Jones)
08 Lost Highway (Lee Rocker)
09 Ramblin' Woman (Cat Power)
10 Take These Chains from My Heart (Rosanne Cash)
11 A House of Gold (Patty Griffin)
12 How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart (Norah Jones)
13 Mansion on the Hill (Willie Nelson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/pJcuyMJv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/RhHR0FUCJasCzLZ/file

I don't know the details of where or when the cover photo was from. However, it was in color, so I didn't need to change anything. 

Covered: Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham, Volume 2: 1968-2023

Here's the second and final album of the Covered series for the songwriting team of Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham.

In the first volume, I noted that Penn and Oldham had a lot of success writing hit songs from about 1966 to 1968, while based in Memphis, Tennessee. The first song here is from 1968. But after that, there was a sharp drop with their musical successes. Penn later claimed that there was a lot of fruitful collaboration between white songwriters like Spooner and him and the black singers they were mainly writing for during that time period, but that changed as the years went on. He saw the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 as a key moment. After that, race became more of an issue, and the expectation grew that soul music songs sung by black singers would be written by black songwriters too.

Due to this changed environment, Penn and Oldham split up. Oldham moved to Los Angeles, where he found a lot of success playing keyboards as a session musician. That continued for decades, with him playing on albums by the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Aretha Franklin, Jackson Browne, the Everly Brothers, J.J. Cale, Linda Ronstadt, and many, many more. 

Meanwhile, Penn moved to Nashville, the home of country music, and tried to find success writing country songs. However, although his style had always been an interesting combination of soul and country music, he didn't do well writing just  for country singers. In 1973, he finally released his first solo album, "Nobody's Fool." While it was critically acclaimed, it sold very little. He did have some success as a songwriter and/or producer, but in a low-key way.

In 1994, Penn and Oldham reunited for Penn's second solo album, "Do Right Man." This mostly consisted of Penn's versions of his biggest hits from the 1960s. It was critically acclaimed. And while it also wasn't a big seller, it generated enough interest for Penn and Oldham to essentially start a new career as duo, going on tour to promote the occasional new album by Penn. Since then, Penn has released three more studio albums. The two of them have built up a following. As I write this in 2025, they are still going on tour, despite the fact that they're both in their early eighties.

Penn continues to write new songs, though it seems not often with Oldham anymore. He's had the occasional successful late career song. For instance, "Don't Give Up on Me" was the title track to Solomon Burke's acclaimed 2002 album by that same name. And "Memphis Women and Chicken" from Penn's 1994 album is usually performed in the concerts by Penn and Oldham.

Most of the songs here were written by Penn with others instead of Oldham. However, "Lonely Women Make Good Lovers" was written by Oldham without Penn. Unlike the hit-filled Volume 1, there really aren't any big hits here, though arguably some could be considered classics, and the songwriting is still at a consistently high level. Some of the songs were written much earlier than when the versions here were recorded. For instance, "Keep On Talking," recorded by Texas in 2023, was first released by someone else in 1965. In cases like that, these are the versions I like best.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 I Met Her in Church (Box Tops)
02 A Woman Left Lonely (Janis Joplin)
03 Rainbow Road (Percy Sledge)
04 Lonely Women Make Good Lovers (Bob Luman)
05 Zero Willpower (Irma Thomas)
06 Like a Road Leading Home (Jerry Garcia Band)
07 Where There's a Will [There's a Way] (Dan Penn)
08 Time I Took a Holiday (Nick Lowe)
09 Don't Give Up on Me (Solomon Burke)
10 Memphis Women and Chicken (Gary Nicholson)
11 I Hate You (Nicki Bluhm)
12 Keep On Talking (Texas)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9MFesvnn

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ImNWdOz5yf5WAU7/file

I don't know what year the cover photo is from. But I did find this photo of the two of them together, probably in the 1990s. I used Photoshop to move them closer together.

Covered: Lee Hazlewood, Volume 2: 1968-2023

Here's Volume Two of my Covered Series albums highlighting the songs written by Lee Hazlewood.

A large percentage of the songs in Volume One were hits. That's much less the case here, since most of this deals with a far less portion of his career, basically from about 1970 onwards until his death (due to cancer) at the age of 78 in 2007.

The first song here, "Some Velvet Morning," was a hit, and is one of his best known songs. What a fascinating song it is. In 2003, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph placed the single at the Number 1 spot on their 50 Best Duets Ever list. Here's a portion from the article about that list: "These two weirdly complementary sides of Hazlewood's persona unite on 'Some Velvet Morning,' a standout track from Nancy and Lee. On that track, Hazlewood and Sinatra sound like they don't inhabit the same universe, let alone the same song. ... 'Some Velvet Morning' sounds like two songs spliced together by a madman, or an avant-garde short film in song form." 

In the late 1960s, Hazlewood and Sinatra were keeping their successful hit formula going. "Lady Bird" was another big hit song as a duet sung by them, although just to vary things up a bit I've included a version by Virgil Warner & Suzi Jane Hokom instead. (Hokom was Hazlewood's girlfriend in the late 1960s and into the early 1970s.) However, his fortunes changed drastically around 1970, when he decided to move to the Sweden. He ended up living there for ten years. He later claimed that he went there for several reasons, including so his son could avoid getting drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, tax trouble, and bailing out on a failing record company he had tried to run for a few years. One song here, "No Train to Stockholm," details some of his feelings about making that move.

Unfortunately, back in that era, the world was less connected, and going to Sweden was almost suicide for his music career. For instance, his highly successful collaboration with Nancy Sinatra mostly had to come to an end. However, they did reunite occasionally, for instance with an album called "Nancy and Lee Again" in 1972. That contained a Number Two hit in Britain, "Did You Ever." But I didn't included that song here because Hazlewood wasn't involved in writing it.

For much of the 1970s and 80s, he was semi-retired from the music business, although he did release his own albums from time to time. But as more time passed, his music was discovered by younger generations, and his music increasingly achieved a kind of cult status. That led to tribute albums, collaborations, and so on. He also revived his own performing career, including another album with Sinatra in 2004, and a well-regarded final album "Cake or Death," released in 2006, just one year before he died. The song "Baghdad Knights" is from that album.

A lot of the choices here are highly idiosyncratic, meaning someone else putting this together almost certainly would have made many different selections. I tried including at least a little bit of some of his different styles, including three songs he released in his own name, since I couldn't find good cover versions for those. 

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 Some Velvet Morning (Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood)
02 You Turned My Head Around (Ann-Margret)
03 Sweet Ride (Dusty Springfield)
04 Lady Bird (Virgil Warner & Suzi Jane Hokom)
05 No Train to Stockholm (Lee Hazlewood)
06 For a Day like Today (Suzi Jane Hokom)
07 She Comes Running (Waylon Jennings)
08 Paris Summer (Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood)
09 Las Vegas (Lee Hazlewood)
10 Easy and Me (Kathryn Williams)
11 The Cheat (Jarvis Cocker & Richard Hawley)
12 It's Sunday Morning (Kid Loco with Tim Keegan)
13 Baghdad Knights (Lee Hazlewood)
14 The Night Before (Kristoffer & the Harbour Heads)
15 Your Sweet Love (Sungaze)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/15hZDJ7S

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/1jUKwWZhrurYWeZ/file

I don't know what year the cover photo is from. But I think it's from a little later than the cover photo for Volume 1, due to a little more grey in his hair.

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: Stevie Wonder, Volume 6: 1994-2005

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted the last volume of Stevie Wonder's "Covered" series. There are two left to go. So I'm posting both of them today to finish them off. Here's Volume 6.

The time period of this album is 1994 to 2005. But note that's the time frame for when cover versions were released, not necessarily when the originals were released. By this time, Wonder's songwriting had slowed down, so most of the songs here are from earlier, usually from the 1970s. 

Wonder was still writing songs for others during this time period. However, in my opinion, they weren't up to snuff compared to the other songs on this album, so I didn't include any of them here.

One song I feel needs a little explaining is "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio with L.V. This is based on Wonder's 1976 song "Pastime Paradise." But Coolio significantly changed it with rap lyrics added. Normally, I'm not a big fan of rap, and I'm especially not a fan of songs where rap lyrics are added over classic songs. But in this case, I think Coolio did a really good job, keeping the heart of the original while adding something worthwhile and new. The general public thought so too, since it was the best selling single of 1995. So I've included this version here, but also I also included a more standard version of "Pastime Paradise" in Volume 4 in this series.

This album is 57 minutes long.

01 Maybe Your Baby (Prince)
02 Gangsta's Paradise (Coolio with L.V.)
03 You and I (Joe Cocker)
04 Knocks Me Off My Feet (Luther Vandross)
05 As (George Michael & Mary J.Blige)
06 I Wish (Lady Gaga)
07 Isn't She Lovely (Keb Mo)
08 I Ain't Gonna Stand for It (Eric Clapton)
09 Love's in Need of Love Today (Joan Osborne)
10 Too High (Michael McDonald)
11 Overjoyed (Mary J. Blige)
12 If It's Magic (Caetano Veloso)
13 Send One Your Love (Vanessa Williams)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oNS96AJx

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/5qkLrQoBsrCXuF2/file

The cover photo is from 1993.

Lyle Lovett with Randy Newman - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 12-18-2002

Here's another "PBS Soundstage" concert. I'm prioritizing posting the ones with key guest stars. This one is mainly a Lyle Lovett concert, but Randy Newman sings two songs with Lovett, and sings two more songs on his own.

Mark Isham is also a guest on two songs. He plays trumpet and keyboards, but he's mainly known for composing hundreds of movie and TV scores.

In February 2003, Lovett released an album called "Smile: Songs from the Movies." It was a compilation of songs he'd done for various movies in the previous ten years. This concert took place two months prior to the release of that album, but was timed to be broadcast on TV after the release. Lovett took the theme of the album seriously, because most of the songs he performed in this concert are from movie soundtracks.

Note by the way that "Mack the Knife" is a song originally written in German in 1928 by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, under the title "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer." It was later translated into English and became a huge hit for Bobby Darin in 1959. However, the translation was a loose one, shortening the song and taking out a lot of the gruesome violence. In 1976, a new translation was done that's much longer. This version is typically called "Moritat." That's the version Lovett did for a 1994 movie soundtrack, and performed in this concert. I've included both "Moritat" and "Mack the Knife" in the title.

By the way, Newman had his own Soundstage episode in 1974, but I can't find any recording of it. If anyone has it, please let me know. 

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

This album is an hour and 21 minutes long.

01 talk (Lyle Lovett)
02 Blue Skies (Lyle Lovett)
03 talk (Lyle Lovett)
04 Straighten Up and Fly Right (Lyle Lovett)
05 talk (Lyle Lovett)
06 Smile (Lyle Lovett)
07 Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You (Lyle Lovett)
08 talk (Lyle Lovett)
09 Summer Wind (Lyle Lovett)
10 talk (Lyle Lovett)
11 Mack the Knife [Moritat] (Lyle Lovett with Mark Isham)
12 talk (Lyle Lovett)
13 Walking Tall (Lyle Lovett)
14 talk (Lyle Lovett)
15 You've Got a Friend in Me (Lyle Lovett & Randy Newman)
16 talk (Lyle Lovett & Randy Newman)
17 Political Science (Lyle Lovett & Randy Newman)
18 talk (Lyle Lovett & Randy Newman)
19 I Think It's Going to Rain Today (Lyle Lovett & Randy Newman)
20 If I Had a Boat (Lyle Lovett)
21 talk (Lyle Lovett)
22 That's Right, You're Not from Texas (Lyle Lovett)
23 talk (Lyle Lovett)
24 Long Tall Texan (Lyle Lovett with Randy Newman)
25 talk (Lyle Lovett)
26 What Do You Do (Lyle Lovett with Francine Reed)
27 Church (Lyle Lovett)
28 talk (Lyle Lovett)
29 What'd I Say (Lyle Lovett)
30 talk (Lyle Lovett)
31 I'm a Soldier in the Army of the Lord (Lyle Lovett)
32 talk (Lyle Lovett)
33 I'm Gonna Wait (Lyle Lovett with Mark Isham)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/48GxFzYj

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/znJifglgHgeuWSQ/file

The cover is a screenshot from this exact concert, with Newman at the piano and Lovett singing into a microphone. Actually, it's three screenshots. The video I took this from was really low-res. So I took screenshots of different sections, for instance one of just Lovett's head. Then I resized them and used Photoshop to merge them into one. After that, I used Krea AI to improve the image quality overall.

Warren Zevon - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 2000-2002

Back in 2022, I posted a Warren Zevon BBC concert from 1988. I'm pretty sure that's the only concert Zevon did for the BBC, judging by the many times they've rebroadcast it. However, I found some studio sessions to make up a Volume 2.

The bulk of this album is made up of a studio session Zevon did in 2000, hosted by BBC DJ Andy Kershaw. That makes up the first 12 tracks here. There were extensive interviews between Zevon and Kershaw, but I don't think those have much replay value, so I cut most of them out. I only kept some banter by Zevon that was directly related to the song he would play next.

After the Kershaw session, there are two songs performed on the BBC TV show "Later... with Jools Holland" in 2002. The banter prior to the first one, "Werewolves of London," is actually from the Kershaw session. Zevon talked some about that song, but didn't actually play it. So it fit nicely leading into the "Later..." session. It also helped that both sessions were done acoustic, making them sound like they were one larger session.

The album was still a little short, so I decided to add a non-BBC session at the end. Zevon wasn't on TV that much, but he did perform a three songs on the "Late Show with David Letterman" TV show in 2002, so I added those in. Unlike the rest, they were done with a full band. I removed the applause from the ends of the songs for TV shows that had applause, using the MVSEP program.

In 2002, Zevon was diagnosed with cancer, and told he didn't have long to live. He died in September 2003. He may not have known about his illness in 2000 when the Kershaw session happened, but death seemed to be on his mind. There was some banter about it, and it related to some of the songs he was writing at the time, like "Don't Let Us Get Sick." But he definitely knew about the diagnosis in 2002 when he did the Letterman show. 

Rather unusually, there's an entire Wikipedia entry about his appearance on that episode of the show. It makes for interesting reading:

Warren Zevon on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2002 - Wikipedia

Note that since I found this material for a "Volume 2," I added "Volume 1" to the title of the 1988 BBC concert that I'd previously posted. I also improved the cover art. You can get the updated version here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/11/warren-zevon-bbc-in-concert-hammersmith.html

This album is 41 minutes long.

01 talk (Warren Zevon)
02 I Was in the House When the House Burned Down (Warren Zevon)
03 For My Next Trick I'll Need a Volunteer
 (Warren Zevon)
04 talk (Warren Zevon)
05 Don't Let Us Get Sick (Warren Zevon)
06 talk (Warren Zevon)
07 Excitable Boy (Warren Zevon)
08 talk (Warren Zevon)
09 Seminole Bingo (Warren Zevon)
10 talk (Warren Zevon)
11 Lawyers, Guns and Money (Warren Zevon)
12 talk (Warren Zevon)
13 Werewolves of London (Warren Zevon)
14 My Shit's Fucked Up (Warren Zevon)
15 Mutineer (Warren Zevon)
16 Genius (Warren Zevon)
17 Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner (Warren Zevon)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/URbPhK1Q

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/rWtueyK7e1EEBDm/file

The cover photo comes from a concert at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, March 16, 2000.

David Bowie - BBC Sessions, Volume 14: In Concert, Maida Vale Studios, London, Britain, 9-18-2002

Here's yet another David Bowie BBC album. And even now, I'm still not done, with one more to go.

This album is about an hour long, and there are many cases when the BBC takes a longer concert and edits it down to fit an hour-long time slot. But this isn't such a case. I found a review of this concert that confirms this is the entire show. From that article, I also found out that the concert was done mainly for the BBC radio broadcast, with only about 100 people in the audience.

The concert took place three months after the release of Bowie's album "Heathen," so naturally he played some songs from it. But he also played a couple of rarities, along with the usual classic hits. Most interestingly, he performed "The Bewley Brothers." This song first appeared on his 1971 album "Hunky Dory." But apparently, he'd never performed it in concert before, due to lots of hard to remember lyrics. He did it here with a lyric sheet in hand. According to setlist.fm, this was the first time he'd played it in concert, and he only played it four more times after this. 

I believe everything here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 talk by Jonathan Ross (David Bowie)
02 Sunday (David Bowie)
03 talk (David Bowie)
04 Look Back in Anger (David Bowie)
05 talk (David Bowie)
06 Cactus (David Bowie)
07 talk (David Bowie)
08 Survive (David Bowie)
09 talk (David Bowie)
10 5.15 The Angels Have Gone (David Bowie)
11 talk (David Bowie)
12 Alabama Song [Whisky Bar] (David Bowie)
13 talk (David Bowie)
14 Everyone Says 'Hi' (David Bowie)
15 talk (David Bowie)
16 Rebel Rebel (David Bowie)
17 talk (David Bowie)
18 The Bewlay Brothers (David Bowie)
19 talk (David Bowie)
20 Heathen [The Rays] (David Bowie)
21 talk (David Bowie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vQnSgxWH

alternate:

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

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

Bob Dylan - Philips Arena, Atlanta, GA, 2-9-2002

When it comes to posting music by Bob Dylan, I have been working my way chronologically through his career. As I write this in January 2025, I've only made it to the late 1970s, so I have a long way to go. But I'm posting this concert from 2002 way out of chronological order because I only recently discovered it, and I think it's fantastic.

From the late 1980s onward, Dylan has toured a remarkable degree, and he's still going today as I write this. But since the late 1990s, there have been almost no soundboard bootlegs, no FM radio concert broadcasts, and no official live albums that weren't archival from previous decades. So, if you've wanted to hear his concerts from at least 2000 onwards, you've had to cope with audience bootlegs that sometimes sound good, but never great.

However, this concert is a staggering exception. It's one of only two soundboard bootlegs from him after 2000 that I know of. The sound quality and performance is so good that there's even a Rolling Stone Magazine article about it, written in 2021. The title of the article is "Hear a Pristine Recording of a Stunning 2002 Bob Dylan Concert," and it's basically a plea to listen to this show.

Here's some excerpts from that article:

[This bootleg] was reportedly sourced to an Assisted Listening Device connected straight to the soundboard, which explains why the sound quality is absolutely perfect. Simply put, it sounds just about as good as any official live album. The show also captured Dylan during a peak era of the Never Ending Tour. This was just five months after "Love and Theft" hit stores, and the new songs infused the show with incredible energy and purpose. Charlie Sexton and Larry Campbell are two of the best guitarists he’s ever played with, and he gave them a lot of freedom to stretch out and even harmonize with him on the vocals.

The song selection is excellent, mixing the Love and Theft tunes with hits like "All Along the Watchtower" and "Like a Rolling Stone," deeper cuts like "Drifter’s Escape" and "My Back Pages," and traditional folk covers like "Searching for a Soldier’s Grave" and set opener "I Am the Man, Thomas." And while his vocals are no match for the heights he reached back in 1966, 1975, or 1980, they’re crisp, clear, and haunting. 

Hear a Pristine Recording of a Stunning 2002 Bob Dylan Concert

I agree with all that. But there was one big problem with the recording, which I have now fixed. Namely, the recording caught what happened on stage perfectly, but at the cost of virtually no audience noise whatsoever. When each song ended, you basically just heard silence, which is weird for a concert. Thankfully, now there are many ways to edit audio files. First, I split each song into crowd noise and everything else using the MVSEP program. The crowd noise part was basically a flat line when I looked at it in Audacity. For some songs, I literally would have to zoom in to see anything there at all. But I tried increasing the volume of the cheering after each song, by ten or twenty times or more. For normal recordings, this wouldn't work, because one would get an overwhelming amount of hiss. But this recording was so pristine that it actually worked really well. After I joined the crowd noise back with the music, the result has the crowd cheering a normal level after every song. And it's exactly what was really there, just buried, as opposed to many times where I've had to paste in cheering from the ends of other songs and things like that.

So even if you have a recording of this concert already, I highly suggest you get this one. And if you're a fan of Dylan's live performances at all, this is a "must have," for all the reasons mentioned in the Rolling Stone article.

This album is two hours and 20 minutes long.

01 I Am the Man, Thomas (Bob Dylan)
02 My Back Pages (Bob Dylan)
03 It's Alright Ma [I'm Only Bleeding] (Bob Dylan)
04 Searching for a Soldier's Grave (Bob Dylan)
05 Lonesome Day Blues (Bob Dylan)
06 Lay Lady Lay (Bob Dylan)
07 Floater (Bob Dylan)
08 High Water [For Charley Patton] (Bob Dylan)
09 It Ain't Me, Babe (Bob Dylan)
10 Masters of War (Bob Dylan)
11 Tangled Up in Blue (Bob Dylan)
12 Summer Days (Bob Dylan)
13 Sugar Baby (Bob Dylan)
14 Drifter's Escape (Bob Dylan)
15 Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35 (Bob Dylan)
16 Things Have Changed (Bob Dylan)
17 Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan)
18 Forever Young (Bob Dylan)
19 Honest with Me (Bob Dylan)
20 Blowin' in the Wind (Bob Dylan)
21 All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UpMdJ2zL

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/eFnEN5WXekqSuBm/file

The cover photo is from a concert in Bournemouth, Britain, on May 5, 2002.

Paul Weller - BBC Sessions, Volume 10: In Concert, Braehead Arena, Glasgow, Britain, 10-16-2002

Here's yet another Paul Weller album for the BBC. This time, it's a full band concert from 2002.

Weller is someone who knows the value of getting promoted by the BBC. I've already posted seven BBC albums he did with the Jam, three more with the Style Council, and this is the tenth for him as a solo artist. Plus, I recently found another Style Council one (which I plan on posting soon), and I have another ten solo ones planned (at least). When all is said and done, I'll probably post more BBC albums by him than any other musical act.

And there's even more that I could post, but I won't. In particular, the official box set "At the BBC" has some incomplete concerts with all the banter removed. I'm generally avoiding those if I can find others from the same general era that are full concerts. 

That's what I've done here. This is within the time period of the box set, but it wasn't included on it. So everything here is officially unreleased. It's a full concert, with banter, that was nonetheless broadcast by the BBC. I posted one from just the year before. But that was a solo acoustic concert, whereas this is with a full band.

A month prior to this concert, Weller had released the studio album "Illumination," so naturally there are some songs here from that. But he also played songs from the Jam and the Style Council as well as from earlier in his solo career.

The album is two hours and eight minutes long.

01 talk (Paul Weller)
02 A Bullet for Everyone (Paul Weller)
03 Into Tomorrow (Paul Weller)
04 Bull Rush (Paul Weller)
05 It's Written in the Stars (Paul Weller)
06 talk (Paul Weller)
07 Going Places (Paul Weller)
08 talk (Paul Weller)
09 Friday Street (Paul Weller)
10 talk (Paul Weller)
11 Man in the Cornershop (Paul Weller)
12 talk (Paul Weller)
13 Now the Night Is Here (Paul Weller)
14 Leafy Mysteries (Paul Weller)
15 talk (Paul Weller)
16 One X One (Paul Weller)
17 talk (Paul Weller)
18 Hung Up (Paul Weller)
19 Sunflower (Paul Weller)
20 talk (Paul Weller)
21 In the Crowd (Paul Weller)
22 Broken Stones (Paul Weller)
23 talk (Paul Weller)
24 Picking Up Sticks (Paul Weller)
25 talk (Paul Weller)
26 Bag Man (Paul Weller)
27 talk (Paul Weller)
28 Who Brings Joy (Paul Weller)
29 talk (Paul Weller)
30 Down in the Seine (Paul Weller)
31 talk (Paul Weller)
32 A Man of Great Promise (Paul Weller)
33 Brand New Start (Paul Weller)
34 talk (Paul Weller)
35 All Good Books (Paul Weller)
36 talk (Paul Weller)
37 Can You Heal Us [Holy Man] (Paul Weller)
38 talk (Paul Weller)
39 Porcelain Gods (Paul Weller)
40 talk (Paul Weller)
41 Pretty Green (Paul Weller)
42 Whirlpool's End (Paul Weller)
43 talk (Paul Weller)
44 The Changingman (Paul Weller)
45 talk (Paul Weller)
46 Peacock Suit (Paul Weller)
47 Town Called Malice (Paul Weller)
48 talk (Paul Weller)
49 Standing Out in the Universe (Paul Weller)
50 talk (Paul Weller)
51 Wild Wood (Paul Weller)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2Yv9g4Ch

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Mp7NCv3QFbzZ17a/file

The cover photo comes from a concert in Hyde Park, London, in July 2002.

David Bowie - BBC Sessions, Volume 13: 2002-2003

Here's yet another album of David Bowie performing for the BBC. Unlike most others from around this time period, this one is a collection of BBC studio sessions. It so happens all of them were broadcast on TV instead of on the radio.

Everything here is officially unreleased, at least as far as I can tell. The first three songs are from the popular "Top of the Pops" TV show. Most appearances on that show are lip-synced, but these versions are included because they were actually done live. The next four songs are from another BBC TV show, "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross."

The eighth song is from the BBC TV show "Parkinson." The next three, tracks 9 to 11, are from yet another BBC TV show, "Later... with Jools Holland."

Everything I've mentioned so far is from 2002. But the last two tracks are from 2003, a second appearance on the TV show "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross."

Generally speaking, the songs sound really good. But there was a lot of cheering on most of them. So I ran all the songs through the MVSEP audio editing program and removed the crowd noise.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Slow Burn (David Bowie)
02 Fame (David Bowie)
03 I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship (David Bowie)
04 Everyone Says Hi (David Bowie)
05 Fashion (David Bowie)
06 Slip Away (David Bowie)
07 Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie)
08 Life on Mars (David Bowie)
09 Rebel Rebel (David Bowie)
10 5.15 The Angels Have Gone (David Bowie)
11 Heathen [The Rays] (David Bowie)
12 Modern Love (David Bowie)
13 New Killer Star (David Bowie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/8fTrzEZY

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/d68cHTrIuHTKqkw/file

The cover photo was taken backstage at a concert for the BBC in September 2002.

David Byrne - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: BBC Four Sessions, Union Chapel, London, Britain, 7-2002

Here's the second of two BBC concerts by David Byrne that I could find. If you know of any others, please let me know.

This is from a TV program, called "BBC Four Sessions," that ran for a few years and generally was edited down to hour-long episodes. But this is a full concert this time, judging by the length, because it was released on DVD only in 1994.

The sound quality is excellent.. And if you want, you can find the DVD video of the full concert on YouTube. (Last I checked, anyway.) 

I've already posted a Byrne concert from 2001, which is only a year earlier. But this one is pretty different, mainly due to the fact that he was backed by a full orchestra for the concert. So he picked songs that worked well for that, including some from his Talking Heads years.

This album is an hour and 21 minutes long.

UPDATE: On January 6, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same, but I renamed the album after finding an earlier BBC concert he performed. I also found out the concert took place in July 2002, not November as I'd thought. So that changed in the title as well. (I'm sure the November month was wrong because it was broadcast on the BBC for the first time in September 2002.)

01 talk (David Byrne)
02 [Nothing But] Flowers (David Byrne)
03 talk (David Byrne)
04 And She Was (David Byrne)
05 Once in a Lifetime (David Byrne)
06 talk (David Byrne)
07 God's Child (David Byrne)
08 The Great Intoxication (David Byrne)
09 talk (David Byrne)
10 Un Di Felice (David Byrne)
11 The Revolution (David Byrne)
12 talk (David Byrne)
13 Sax and Violins (David Byrne)
14 This Must Be the Place [Naive Melody] (David Byrne)
15 What a Day That Was (David Byrne)
16 Like Humans Do (David Byrne)
17 talk (David Byrne)
18 U.B. Jesus (David Byrne)
19 talk (David Byrne)
20 Life during Wartime (David Byrne)
21 Lazy (David Byrne)
22 I Wanna Dance with Somebody [Who Loves Me] (David Byrne)
23 talk (David Byrne)
24 Ausencia (David Byrne)
25 The Accident (David Byrne)
26 Road to Nowhere (David Byrne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/pMWFwP7X

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/pf5DWhIrWsWRA56/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.