B.B. King & Various Artists - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 8-30-1974

Here's another album from the "Midnight Special" TV show. It's a special one, because it's another musical themed episode. I believe this is the only show that exclusively focused on blues music, at least in the 1973 to 1975 time frame that I've investigated so far. The main host was blues legend B.B. King. However, there were a number of others blues figures too: Paul Butterfield, Jimmy Witherspoon, John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, Joe Williams, and Papa John Creach.

Normally, I edit these episodes down to just the music performed by the host, plus maybe one more musical act. But because this episode had a coherent theme, I included all the music. I did cut out some things, as I usually do, such as the theme song at the beginning, and announcements of commercial breaks, as well as announcements of who would be on the show in the next episode. The first track has "[Edit]" in the title, because I removed the usual theme song and replaced it with cheering in the background instead, using the MVSEP program to do so.

The sound quality is excellent throughout. The only problem was that the last song faded out before it really got going. So I don't even know what that song is. I just called it "Outro," since it had B.B. King giving some final words before the fade out started. I considered adding in some extra crowd cheering, but I decided to just keep it as it was, fading out into silence.

The music is excellent as well. I doubt there were many instances of the blues getting this kind of exposure on a national TV show, though admittedly one that was broadcast late at night. One special highlight is "Gettin' It Together," in which blues legends B.B. King and John Lee Hooker joined forces, assisted by violinist Papa John Creach. King and Hooker were actually long-time friends, with both of them starting their musical careers not far from each other, in the late 1940s. 

This album is an hour and four minutes long. 

01 talk [Edit] (B.B. King)
02 Why I Sing the Blues (B.B. King)
03 talk (B.B. King)
04 Meet in the Bottom (Paul Butterfield's Better Days)
05 talk (B.B. King)
06 Nothing's Changed (Jimmy Witherspoon)
07 talk (B.B. King)
08 Boogie with the Hook [Edit] (John Lee Hooker)
09 talk (B.B. King)
10 Ball and Chain (Big Mama Thornton)
11 talk (B.B. King)
12 Who She Do (Joe Williams)
13 I Like to Live the Love (B.B. King)
14 talk (B.B. King)
15 Goin' Down Slow (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
16 talk (B.B. King)
17 John's Other [Instrumental] (Papa John Creach)
18 talk (B.B. King)
19 Gettin' It Together (B.B. King, John Lee Hooker & Papa John Creach)
20 talk (Wolfman Jack & B.B. King)
21 The Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King)
22 Love Is a Five Letter Word (Jimmy Witherspoon)
23 Tell Me Where to Scratch (Joe Williams)
24 talk (Wolfman Jack & B.B. King)
25 I Got Some Help I Don't Need (B.B. King)
26 Outro (B.B. King)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/gLzcWuLc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/jkeglxL80nYZq0T/file

The cover photo is a screenshot taken from a video of this exact concert. From right to left: John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, & Papa John Creach.

B.B. King & Bobby 'Blue' Bland - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 3-17-1977

Here's another "PBS Soundstage" TV show episode. This time, it stars blues legends B.B. King and Bobby 'Blue' Bland.

Both King and Bland had successful music careers going back to the 1940s. While doing some Googling for this write-up, I was surprised to read that they actually were in an informal band together as far back as 1949, called the Beale Streeters. Starting in the mid-1970s, they often performed together. This resulted in the joint albums "Together for the First Time... Live" in 1974 and "Together Again... Live" in 1976. Apparently, they continued to sometimes tour together well into the 1980s, until Bland's health became poor. (However, he didn't die until 2013, while King died in 2015.)

That said, note that for most of this concert, King and Bland largely performed separately. King starts with two songs, then Bland does five, then King performs three more, before the finale, where they play two songs together.

This concert could well have been recorded in late 1976. (With these Soundstage shows, I often don't know if a date is the broadcast date or the actual recording date, and the broadcasts usually happened months after the recording.) However, the songs on this album and their 1976 live album are almost entirely different, with only "Let the Good Times Roll," "Call It Stormy Monday," and "The Thrill Is Gone" appearing on both.

In the mid-1970s, Bland had a commercial resurgence, with the R&B hits "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City" and "I Wouldn't Treat a Dog." Unfortunately, neither of those songs are here. Also unfortunately in my opinion, by this time, Bland developed an annoying vocal technique that he heavily leaned on for the rest of his music career. I found a review for the "Together for the First Time... Live" album that describes this better than I could:

"Bland's tremendously irritating later-period singing tic is in full flower: what I refer to as his 'Gollum' sound. That deep, guttural throat sound when he's particularly ripping into a lyric that's as if Bland has a goiter or is trying to hack up the world's largest fur ball. Gollum - I mean Bland - lets loose with this annoying sound with stunning frequency."

Luckily, for this concert, Bland went relatively light on his Gollum sound. I was pleasantly surprised. You'll hear it from time to time, but he certainly did it less than on either of the two live albums mentioned above.

The last song has "[Edit]" in the title due to announcer voiceover while the song was playing. As I usually do, I used the UVR5 program to get rid of that talking while keeping the underlying music, but there was some damage for about half a minute near the end of the song.

This album is 58 minutes long. It is unreleased. It also was very difficult for me to find in full, so I'm glad to make it easily available again.

01 Let the Good Times Roll (B.B. King)
02 How Blue Can You Get (B.B. King)
03 Ain't That Loving You (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
04 Today I Started Loving You Again (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
05 The Feeling Is Gone (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
06 Call It Stormy Monday (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
07 Drifting Blues (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
08 I Like to Live the Love (B.B. King)
09 I Got Some Outside Help [I Don't Really Need] (B.B. King)
10 Lie a Little (B.B. King)
11 The Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King & Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
12 It's My Own Fault [Edit] (B.B. King & Bobby 'Blue' Bland)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/t2rxBREC

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/JRM17UecqZnByNl/file

The cover image is from a screenshot I took of a video of this exact concert. The quality was low-res, so I used the Krea AI program to improve it.