Mar Y Sol Pop Festival, Manati, Puerto Rico, 4-2-1972, Part 1: David Peel, Herbie Mann, J. Geils Band & More

Here is the first part of the second day of the 1972 Mar Y Sol Pop Festival. I'm doing this day by day, so this goes back to "Part 1" instead of "Part 4" of the entire festival. This is kind of a grab-bag for musical acts from the second day where I only have small portions of their sets.

Unfortunately, so much time has passed since this festival that a lot has been lost. I only was able to learn some basics about which acts performed on which day (though even that is sometimes questionable, especially since some of the acts performed more than once), and which ones were the headliners. Also, only bits and pieces of the music have survived. I've previously mentioned the official double album, "Mar y Sol: The First International Puerto Rico Pop Festival," long out of print. Some of the songs on this album come from that. (Specifically, tracks 1, 11, and 13.) But most of the songs come from an audience bootleg I mentioned in my previous write-ups. The good news is that the sound quality is surprisingly good for an audience bootleg. I didn't try any of my usual audio editing tricks on those songs, because they sounded like a soundboard already. But the bad news is how we often have only portions of many sets. For instance, I'm sure Dr. John played a lot more than just one song! I assume all the acts here performed more songs. But something is better than nothing.

The J. Geils Band set is the longest here, at 22 minutes. A New York Times review that was down on the festival in general liked that performance, at least, writing, "The J. Gells band finally played a set that deserved the accolades it has received in the past." Too bad there isn't more of it. 

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long.

01 Wang Dang Doodle (Dr. John)
02 All the Things You Are [Instrumental] (Dave Brubeck & Gerry Mulligan)
03 Take Five [Instrumental] (Dave Brubeck & Gerry Mulligan)
04 The Pope Smokes Dope (David Peel & the Lower East Side)
05 talk (David Peel & the Lower East Side)
06 Up Against the Wall (David Peel & the Lower East Side)
07 talk (David Peel & the Lower East Side)
08 New York City Hippie (David Peel & the Lower East Side)
09 Mother Where Is My Father (David Peel & the Lower East Side)
10 Memphis Underground [Instrumental] (Herbie Mann)
11 Respect Yourself [Instrumental] (Herbie Mann)
12 Never Can Say Goodbye [Instrumental] (Herbie Mann)
13 talk (J. Geils Band)
14 Looking for a Love (J. Geils Band)
15 talk (J. Geils Band)
16 Homework (J. Geils Band)
17 Crusin' for a Love (J. Geils Band)
18 Sno-Cone [Instrumental] (J. Geils Band)
19 Wait (J. Geils Band)
20 talk (J. Geils Band)
21 Whammer Jammer (J. Geils Band)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/77vXqgBR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/0qsJyXsMdlKWoD1/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Herbie Mann playing flute in front, with other band members. 

Randy Newman with Dr. John & Maria Muldaur: The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 9-27-1974

Here's another episode of the "Midnight Special" TV show. The host of this episode was singer-songwriter Randy Newman. He was one of the top vote getters in the poll I posted asking for most desired episodes from this show, getting the sixth most votes. But this show is shared with Maria Muldaur and Dr. John as well, with both of them getting nearly as much time as Newman.

This 1974 episode was nearly the only time Newman appeared live on the show. (He would perform one more song in 1978.) He was allowed to play eight songs, which is more than usual for this show, but then again, his songs tend to be rather short. Normally, with these shows, I just post the music from the host, plus sometimes one other guest, sometimes not, and ignore the rest. But for this one, I chose two include two guests. That's because Dr. John and Muldaur played a song together, "Three Dollar Bill," as can be seen on the cover image, and I thought their musical styles fit well with Newman's. 

All the songs come from this concert, except for two. It turns out the only other time Muldaur performed for the show was in the February 22, 1974 episode, when she played two songs, including her Number One hit "Midnight at the Oasis." So I slipped those two into the show near the end, tracks 20 and 21. Dr. John also performed two songs for the show in 1973, but I've included them on a Gladys Knight and the Pips album already. He would return to the show later as a guest in 1977 and 1979. Hopefully, I'll post those songs when they become available.

In case you're curious, the only other musical acts on this episode were Flo and Eddie of the Turtles, and Ry Cooder. Flo and Eddie performed four songs, but I didn't think they made a good fit with Newman and the others, so I didn't include them. Cooder only performed one song.   

Unfortunately, as often happens with this show, the last song, "Louisiana 1927," was cut off due to the broadcast coming to an end. The cut off happened during the last chorus in the song. So I was able to patch in the rest of the chorus from earlier in the song. But still, the song needed a proper ending for its last few seconds. I resorted to using a few seconds from a Newman concert on the "Live at the Record Plant" radio show in 1974. (I plan on posting all of that radio show episode eventually.) So that's why this one song has "[Edit]" in its title. 

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. As usual with episodes from the TV show, I did a lot of editing by adding more applause to smooth the transitions between songs. 

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 Mama Told Me Not to Come (Randy Newman)
02 talk (Randy Newman)
03 Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (Randy Newman)
04 talk (Randy Newman)
05 Political Science (Randy Newman)
06 Davy and the Fat Boy (Randy Newman)
07 Sweetheart (Maria Muldaur)
08 talk (Randy Newman)
09 Let's Make a Better World (Dr. John)
10 talk (Dr. John)
11 Desitively Bonnaroo (Dr. John)
12 I Think It's Going to Rain Today (Randy Newman)
13 Three Dollar Bill (Dr. John & Maria Muldaur)
14 Lover Man [Oh, Where Can You Be] (Maria Muldaur)
15 Squeeze Me (Maria Muldaur)
16 Rolling (Randy Newman)
17 Mos' Scocious (Dr. John)
18 He Gives Us All His Love (Randy Newman)
19 Mama Don't Allow [Edit] (Dr. John)
20 Don't You Feel My Leg (Maria Muldaur)
21 Midnight at the Oasis (Maria Muldaur)
22 talk (Randy Newman)
23 Louisiana 1927 [Edit] (Randy Newman) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/4Ctrgf88

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/d7IVkVT0hXDttHL/file

For the cover image, I could have taken a screenshot of Randy Newman singing and playing the piano. But I figure there are plenty of those. Whereas there probably aren't any publicly available images of Maria Muldaur and Dr. John together. So I took a screenshot of that from this exact concert.

Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to James Taylor, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-6-2006

Here's another MusiCares tribute concert. I only have a couple more of these after this one, and I want to post them in the next days. This one honors James Taylor.

This concert followed the usual format for these kinds of things: a bonus of famous musical acts sang covers of his songs, then he accepted an award and gave a speech, and finally he played a couple of his songs. If you look at the song lists, a lot of big names showed up to perform his songs, including Bruce Springsteen. 

Another big name also played one of his songs at the concert: Paul Simon sung "Sweet Baby James." But unfortunately, this is sourced from a DVD, but that song wasn't included, and I couldn't find any version of it anywhere. If anyone has it, please let me know so I can add it in.

I know Simon played that song in this concert, because it's mentioned in this article, which is a good summary of the concert in general:

MusiCares Honors Singer James Taylor - CBS News 

Also, while trying to find a good photo for the cover art, I went through a stash of hundreds of photos from the concert, and noticed that other big names like Neil Young and Brian Wilson attended. But I doubt they performed, or they probably would have been mentioned in that news article I just linked to. 

As mentioned above, this is sourced from an official DVD, so the sound quality is excellent. No version is any audio format has been released. As I sometimes do, I converted the video to audio, then broke it into mp3s.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long. 

01 talk (Bill Clinton)
02 talk (emcee)
03 talk (Dixie Chicks)
04 Shower the People (Dixie Chicks)
05 talk (emcee)
06 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
07 Rainy Day Man (Bonnie Raitt)
08 talk (emcee)
09 talk (India.Arie)
10 Secret o' Life (India.Arie)
11 talk (emcee)
12 talk (Jackson Browne, David Crosby & Sheryl Crow)
13 Mexico (Jackson Browne, David Crosby & Sheryl Crow)
14 talk (emcee)
15 talk (Sting)
16 You Can Close Your Eyes (Sting)
17 talk (Dr. John & Taj Mahal)
18 Everybody Has the Blues (Dr. John & Taj Mahal)
19 talk (Alison Krauss & Jerry Douglas)
20 Carolina in My Mind (Alison Krauss & Jerry Douglas)
21 talk (emcee)
22 talk (Keith Urban)
23 Country Road (Keith Urban)
24 talk (emcee)
25 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
26 Millworker (Bruce Springsteen)
27 talk (Carole King)
28 You've Got a Friend (Carole King with James Taylor)
29 talk (Neil Portnow)
30 talk (James Taylor)
31 Shed a Little Light (James Taylor)
32 talk (James Taylor)
33 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] (James Taylor)
34 Fire and Rain (James Taylor)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/T6dgDM1s

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/5ezYaz8DOi7Zc9L/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Taylor receiving the award from Neil Portnow, the head of MusiCares at the time. 

Dr. John and Friends - New Orleans Swamp, PBS Soundstage, Park West, Chicago, IL, 10-30-1974

Here's a special episode of "PBS Soundstage." It was one of very few that got a special name - "New Orleans Swamp" - because it was a collection of musical acts instead of just one. The main star here was Dr. John. But he was joined by other pivotal musical acts from New Orleans: Professor Longhair, Earl King, and the Meters. All of these were key to the New Orleans sound. Due to the passage of time, there's no doubt a collection of talent like this will never be seen on stage together.

I've already post music by Dr. John, and he's a famous figure anyway. But here are Wikipedia links to the others, in case you want to know more:

Professor Longhair - Wikipedia 

Earl King - Wikipedia 

The Meters - Wikipedia

Dr. John served as the emcee. First, Professor Longhair played a short set, then Earl King did, then the Meters did. Dr. John stayed on stage the entire time, usually playing keyboards. Then Dr. John did an extra long set. Everyone was on stage for the finale, "Big Chief," an Earl King song.

To be honest, many times with these PBS Soundstage shows, I'm not entirely sure where they took place. I try to find out, but when I can't find any definitive information, I assume it took place in Chicago. (As usual, I'm open to corrections.) In this case, I thought the odds were pretty good the show took place in New Orleans, since it was such a gathering of talent all from that city. But I actually found a social media thread on it by other people who had been wondering the same thing, and I was able to find some definitive information about the location and date.

The music here remains unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. If you want authentic New Orleans music, don't miss this! 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 talk (Dr. John)
02 She Walks Right In - Shake, Rattle and Roll (Dr. John with Professor Longhair)
03 Tipitina (Dr. John with Professor Longhair)
04 Whole Lotta Lovin' (Dr. John with Professor Longhair)
05 Everyday I Have the Blues (Dr. John with Professor Longhair)
06 talk (Dr. John)
07 Mama and Papa (Dr. John with Earl King)
08 Those Lonely, Lonely Nights (Dr. John with Earl King)
09 talk (Dr. John)
10 Looka Py Py [Instrumental] (Dr. John with Meters)
11 Jungle Man (Dr. John with Meters)
12 Call a Doctor (Dr. John)
13 Qualified (Dr. John)
14 talk (Dr. John)
15 Quitters Never Win (Dr. John)
16 Such a Night (Dr. John)
17 Right Place, Wrong Time (Dr. John)
18 Big Chief (Dr. John & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ta2ATSJt

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/4LcpIp1VB0T15Ud/file

The cover photo of Dr. John is from this exact concert.

Muddy Waters & Friends - Blues Summit, PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 7-18-1974

Pretty much since I started this blog in 2018, I've wanted to post an album by blues legend Muddy Waters, but I couldn't find anything worthy. Now I have. This was the very first episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show (after they changed their name from "Made in Chicago" and became a national program, that is), and no doubt they wanted this to be first so they could start with a bang. The episode was titled "Blues Summit," and for good reason. Waters led the show and sang most of the song, but good portion of the biggest names in blues music still alive and active at that time joined him on stage: Junior Wells, Johnny Winter, Dr. John, Willie Dixon, Koko Taylor, Pinetop Perkins, Mike Bloomfield, Buddy Miles, and Nick Gravenites. Wow, what a collection of talent!

This is a must-have for any serious blues fan. It's a great performance with excellent sound quality. So I was surprised how hard it is to find. It had eluded all my previous searches for this sort of thing until a couple of days ago, when I started to hone in on finding Soundstage episodes. I discovered that it was released on DVD (but not on CD) in 2015. However, I had great trouble finding this. For instance, it wasn't on YouTube, other than a lower quality version recorded off the TV that was missing the last two and a half songs. I couldn't even find it on SoulseekQT, and they generally immediately have what I want 99 percent of the time, or, very rarely, it isn't there at all. But luckily, after a couple of days, I finally got a Soulseek hit on someone who had the DVD. I promptly converted that to mp3s, and here you are.

I only had a couple of issues with the recording. There was a voiceover on an instrumental section of the first song, "Blow Wind Blow." That's why that song has "[Edit]" in its title, because I removed that talking while keeping the underlying music, thanks to the UVR5 program. The next track was several minutes of people milling backstage and talking to each other. It's a lot more interesting to see the video of blues legends interacting than what can be heard here, so I deleted that track. If interested, check out the YouTube video of it.

The list of artist names per song is woefully incomplete. It would have taken me a long time to figure out exactly who played on what, and then I would have had some very long file names. So instead of that, I generally stuck to mentioning Muddy Waters (since he stayed on stage the entire concert), plus whoever happened to sing lead vocals on any given song, if it was someone instead of, or in addition to, him. That leaves a lot of people unmentioned. For instance, Buddy Miles, a star in his own right, played drums for most of the show, but he isn't mentioned in any of the song credits because he didn't sing lead vocals. 

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Blow Wind Blow [Edit] (Muddy Waters)
02 talk (Muddy Waters)
03 Long Distance Call (Muddy Waters)
04 talk (Muddy Waters)
05 Messin' with the Kid (Muddy Waters with Junior Wells & Nick Gravenites)
06 talk (Muddy Waters)
07 Stop Breaking Down (Muddy Waters with Junior Wells)
08 talk (Muddy Waters)
09 Mannish Boy (Muddy Waters)
10 talk (Muddy Waters)
11 Wang Dang Doodle (Muddy Waters with Willie Dixon & Koko Taylor)
12 talk (Muddy Waters with Johnny Winter)
13 Walking through the Park (Muddy Waters with Johnny Winter)
14 Hoochie Coochie Man (Muddy Waters with Willie Dixon)
15 talk (Muddy Waters)
16 Sugar Sweet (Muddy Waters with Dr. John)
17 I Got My Mojo Working (Muddy Waters)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/U8RWbQui

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/bPTOCcglRs8dIOc/file

As I watched the video of this concert, I kept an eye out for a spot where I could take a good screenshot for the cover image. But the quality was low-res, and it was rare to get more than one person on screen at the same time, since long distance shots were ruined by the low picture quality. Luckily, I found an image of the DVD cover. That had pictures of four of the stars, taken from the concert, so I used those. That's Muddy Waters at the top left, Johnny Winter at the top right, Dr. John at the bottom left, and Junior Wells at the bottom right. I was able to improve the image quality somewhat with the Krea AI program.

Cat Stevens with Dr. John and Linda Ronstadt - Moon and Star: ABC In Concert, Aquarius Theater, Hollywood, CA, 11-9-1973

Here's a really nice Cat Stevens concert bootleg. I've known about it for a long time, but I avoided posting it because the sound quality was just okay. However, I found a better version, good enough to share.

Stevens did very little touring or promotion in 1972 or 1973 after doing a lot in 1970 and 1971. That was so much the case that there was a rumor he'd been stricken with tuberculosis again, like he'd been back in 1969. That wasn't the case. He probably was just tired of the star making merry-go-round. 

But in late 1973, he put out a new studio album, "Foreigner," with a single song, "Foreigner Suite," that was 18 minutes long and took up half of the album. That was new musical territory for him, and he wanted people to hear it. He basically put all of his promotional eggs in this one basket. ABC already had a music show called "In Concert" that was an hour long, and usually featured different hit performers. But this was an hour and a half long special episode that was devoted just to Stevens. Well, almost, probably to broaden the appeal, Dr. John sang one song and Linda Ronstadt sang two. But in a nice twist, the songs they sang were written by Stevens and had never been recorded by them before (or since). 

This episode was called "Moon and Star," not "Moon and Stars." (I found some ads for the show, so I'm sure.) That no doubt named after his song, "The Boy with the Moon and Star on His Head."

I've read a review or two of this concert, thanks to a Cat Stevens fan site. Clearly, there were bits that are missing from this recording, because there's no banter at all between songs. However, there was very little of that. The reviews noted that Stevens basically did no talking. In the 1970s, it was very popular of TV shows like this to have a monologue with jokes, or skirts, etc... It's very cheesy in retrospect. But Stevens avoided all that and just played his songs. It was basically a normal concert in a normal club in the Los Angeles area, but with a film crew there.

The recording of this concert I found did have a few words of a DJ talking. But I cut that out since it was literally only a few words at the tail end of sentence. Getting the songs to flow was a problem, because typically one track would end with lots of applause suddenly cut off, and then the next track would begin with relative silence. So I usually patched in more applause from elsewhere in the concert, then had that trail off or fade out, so it would fit with how the next song started. Hopefully, the concert show flow well now.

This concert is an hour and ten minutes long. The only twenty minutes for the hour and a half show were for brief introductions plus commercials.

01 Father and Son (Cat Stevens)
02 Wild World (Cat Stevens)
03 Morning Has Broken (Cat Stevens)
04 18th Avenue (Cat Stevens)
05 talk - Moonshadow Prologue (Cat Stevens)
06 Moonshadow (Cat Stevens)
07 talk - Moonshadow Epilogue (Cat Stevens)
08 Pop Star (Dr. John)
09 King of Trees (Cat Stevens)
10 A Bad Penny (Cat Stevens)
11 Fill My Eyes (Linda Ronstadt)
12 The First Cut Is the Deepest (Linda Ronstadt)
13 The Boy with the Moon and Star on His Head (Cat Stevens)
14 The Hurt (Cat Stevens)
15 Foreigner Suite (Cat Stevens)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15998470/CatSvns_1973_MoonnStarABCInConcrtAquariusTheatrHllywoodCA__11-9-1973_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

Etta James, Dr. John & Allen Toussaint - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 6-29-1982

"PBS Soundstage" was a hour-long concert TV show created by the Chicago PBS TV station WTTW. It ran from 1974 to 1985, then again from 2003 to 2018. It was picked up and shown around the US mainly by PBS, but some other stations too. Whoever picked the artists for this show must have known and loved music, because they made some interesting choices. Occasionally, they had artists join together, such as this show, which has the inspired union of Etta James, Dr. John, and Allen Toussaint.

It you want to know more about them, I've posted individual albums by all three of them. (For Allen Toussaint, he was featured as part of my Covered series.) In short, Etta James was an acclaimed soul and blues singer, while Dr. John and Allen Toussaint were both closely associated with the music of New Orleans.

For this show, the three of them appeared on stage in various combinations, with a band backing them. For the song titles, I've only included those who could be heard singing. But it was often the case that Dr. John or Allen Toussaint were still on stage helping out by playing piano. And on some songs Dr. John played guitar instead, which was unusual for him at this point in his career. I know this because one can watch the video of the whole show on YouTube.

I did a little bit of editing and cutting. For instance, there were some short interview segments crammed in between some of the songs that clearly were filmed at a different place and time. I cut all those out. I'm sure there was more to this concert than what we have here. The makers had to fit it into an hour slot. So, for instance, it seems some of the banter before songs were cut. Even some of the songs were cut, especially the last one, "What I'd Say," which fades out after only a minute. But I figure having some of the concert is better than having none of it.

This album is 52 minutes long.

UPDATE: On March 17, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is the same. However, I figured out the exact date of the concert, so I changed the title. I also improved the cover art.

01 Groove Me (Etta James, Dr. John & Allen Toussaint)
02 Such a Night (Dr. John)
03 Right Place, Wrong Time (Dr. John)
04 Something's Got a Hold on Me (Etta James)
05 talk (Etta James)
06 Tell Mama (Etta James)
07 talk (Etta James)
08 Sugar on the Floor (Etta James)
09 I'd Rather Go Blind (Etta James & Dr. John)
10 What Do You Want the Girl to Do (Allen Toussaint)
11 With You in Mind (Allen Toussaint)
12 Life (Dr. John & Allen Toussaint)
13 Amazing Grace (Etta James, Dr. John & Allen Toussaint)
14 What'd I Say (Etta James, Dr. John & Allen Toussaint)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/eGXtY8Vk

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/YsnE5MhNKXFQQgQ/file

For the cover, I took a screenshot from the YouTube video. From right to left, that's James singing, Toussaint on piano, and John on guitar. In March 2025, I updated the image with the use of the Krea AI program.

The Neville Brothers - Municipal Auditorium, New Orleans, LA, 10-31-1991

I'm a fan of the Neville Brothers. Since I'm focusing on posting BBC material lately, I wanted to see if they did anything for the BBC. They did. There's an hour-long concert from 1989. However, the ideal year for a concert, in my opinion, would be 1991, because my favorite album of theirs is "My Brother's Keeper" released in 1991. I didn't find any great bootlegs from that year. However, I found an excellent video of a 1991 concert on YouTube. So I've converted it to mp3 tracks and I'm sharing it here.

This concert has a lot of advantages over the 1989 BBC concert. For one thing, it's significantly longer. I also prefer the song selection. Plus, Dr. John shows up and sings one of his best songs, "Right Place, Wrong Time."

The band released a live album in 1994 called "Live on Planet Earth." That's a good one, but I think this concert is at least its equal. Despite coming from a YouTube video, the sound quality is excellent.

This album is an hour and 30 minutes long.

01 Hey Pocky Way - Walk on Gilded Splinters (Neville Brothers)
02 talk (Neville Brothers)
03 Voodoo (Neville Brothers)
04 Mojo Hannah (Neville Brothers)
05 talk (Neville Brothers)
06 My Brother's Keeper (Neville Brothers)
07 talk (Neville Brothers)
08 Sitting in Limbo (Neville Brothers)
09 My Blood (Neville Brothers)
10 It Feels like Rain (Neville Brothers)
11 Everybody Plays the Fool (Neville Brothers)
12 talk (Neville Brothers)
13 Love the One You're With - You Can't Always Get What You Want (Neville Brothers)
14 talk (Neville Brothers)
15 Ju Ju Sax [Instrumental] (Neville Brothers)
16 Sister Rosa (Neville Brothers)
17 talk (Neville Brothers)
18 Yellow Moon (Neville Brothers)
19 talk (Neville Brothers)
20 Brother Jake (Neville Brothers)
21 When You Go to New Orleans (Neville Brothers)
22 Right Place, Wrong Time (Neville Brothers & Dr. John)
23 Amazing Grace (Neville Brothers)
24 talk (Neville Brothers)
25 Rivers of Babylon (Neville Brothers)
26 Down by the Riverside (Neville Brothers)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15598570/TNevilleB_1991_MuniciplAditoriumNwOrleans__LA__10-31-1991_atse.zip.html

The cover is a screenshot I took from the YouTube video of this exact concert.

B. B. King and Friends - A Night of Blistering Blues, Ebony Showcase Theater, Los Angeles, CA, 4-15-1987

Hopefully, if you're a fan of the blues, you'll take a look at the list of artists mentioned on the cover art, say, "Wow!" and download this immediately. This concert mainly features B. B. King, who does all the talking, but his special guests are: Paul Butterfield, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Dr. John, Etta James, Albert King, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Billy Ocean, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Why did all of these big names of soul and blues get together for this concert? I don't know if there was some special occasion or anniversary, but this show was filmed for a TV special shown on Cinemax, alternately called "A Night of Blistering Blues" or "A Blues Night." I've gone with the former name because it's more interesting.

Generally speaking, King did the lion's share of lead vocals. But he shared vocals with Albert King, Etta James, Billy Ocean, Gladys Knight, and Chaka Khan. I believe Phil Collins played drums on all the songs, along with another drummer. Paul Butterfield did all the harmonica playing. Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan played lead guitar, and on more songs than just the ones they're credited on below. B. B. King and Albert King played lots of lead guitar as well.

This really was a once in a lifetime gathering of musical greats, and they rose to the occasion. I don't know why this has never been officially released as an album. The only flaw is that the last song was a blues jam with all the lead guitarists: B. B. King, Albert King, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. But unfortunately, it fades out after only a minute of guitar soloing from B. B. King. If you watch the video of this on YouTube, you'll see the credits are rolling and the recording ends when the show finishes.

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 Why I Sing the Blues (B. B. King, Albert King, Etta James, Billy Ocean, Gladys Knight & Chaka Khan)
02 talk (B. B. King)
03 Please Send Me Someone to Love (B. B. King & Gladys Knight)
04 talk (B. B. King)
05 The Thrill Is Gone (B. B. King with Eric Clapton & Phil Collins)
06 talk (B. B. King)
07 I'd Rather Go Blind (B. B. King, Dr. John & Etta James)
08 talk (B. B. King)
09 When Something Is Wrong with My Baby (B. B. King, Chaka Khan & Billy Ocean)
10 talk (B. B. King)
11 The Sky Is Crying (B. B. King, Paul Butterfield, Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan)
12 talk (B. B. King)
13 Something's Got a Hold on Me (B. B. King & Etta James)
14 talk (B. B. King)
15 In the Midnight Hour (B. B. King & Billy Ocean with Paul Butterfield & Stevie Ray Vaughan)
16 talk (B. B. King)
17 Ain't Nobody's Business (B. B. King, Etta James, Chaka Khan & Gladys Knight)
18 talk (B. B. King)
19 Let the Good Times Roll (B. B. King, Albert King & Etta James)
20 Take My Hand, Precious Lord (B. B. King, Etta James, Chaka Khan & Gladys Knight)
21 talk (B. B. King)
22 Blues Jam [Instrumental] (B. B. King)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16687605/BBKNG1987_NghtofBlistrinBlusEbnyShwcseThetr__4-15-1987_atse.zip.html

I haven't seen any good photos from this concert. So I took a screenshot from the YouTube video. The quality is rather low-res, but this is all there is. From right to left, you can see: Stevie Ray Vaughan, B. B. King, Albert King, Eric Clapton, and Etta James.

Dr. John - WLIR Tuesday Night Ultrasonic Concert Series, Ultrasonic Recording Studios, Hempstead, NY, 11-6-1973

Dr. John passed away earlier this month at 77 years old (as I write this in June 2019). To mark the occasion, and celebrate his considerable musical legacy, I'm posting this album. I think if you want just one Dr. John live album, it should be this one.

Dr. John's was first put on the musical map in 1968 with the release of his first solo album, after having a minor role for many years prior to that. But he didn't really hit it big until 1973, when he had his two and only hit singles, "Right Place, Wrong Time" and "Such a Night." Unfortunately, he got addicted to heroin and went into a musical decline for much of the rest of the 1970s. He eventually kicked his addiction and became a long-standing New Orleans musical institution.

Luckily, this album captures him at his peak, near the end of the year he had his most commercial success. Furthermore, it's an excellent sounding recording. The New York radio station WLIR had weekly live concerts in the early 1970s, and this is a part of that. It was recorded in a studio, but it's in front of a small audience. So as far as ideal recording circumstances for a live album, it doesn't get much better than that.

This has never been released, and in fact there isn't any live recordings I know of from Dr. John's peak years in the late 1960s and early 1970s. (There is a album from 1975, not much later, but he already was a mess by then, and it shows.) This performance has been available as a grey market release for a long time. But for some reason that version doesn't include the last two songs, and has other issues, such as getting some of the song titles wrong.

The song list is very good as well, with Dr. John doing a mix of the songs he's known best for as well as some choice rarities, such as the sappy Jackie DeShannon hit "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" done New Orleans style. All in all, it's nearly an hour and a half of music.

UPDATE: On September 12, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same. But I changed the title and the cover art to be consistent with other albums from this same Ultrasonic radio show.

01 Loop Garoo (Dr. John)
02 Walk On Gilded Splinters (Dr. John)
03 Danse Kalinda da Boom (Dr. John)
04 Stag-O-Lee (Dr. John)
05 Travelin' Mood (Dr. John)
06 Junco Partner (Dr. John)
07 Life (Dr. John)
08 Put a Little Love in Your Heart (Dr. John)
09 Tipitina (Dr. John)
10 Mess Around (Dr. John)
11 I've Been Hoodooed (Dr. John)
12 Such a Night (Dr. John)
13 Right Place, Wrong Time (Dr. John)
14 Let the Good Times Roll (Dr. John)
15 Wang Dang Doodle (Dr. John)
16 Mama Roux (Dr. John)
17 Qualified (Dr. John)
18 Little Liza Jane (Dr. John)
19 Mama Don't Allow No Dr John in Here (Dr. John)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/hnxNpTua 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/VhhPX6LJK3MSSyE/file

For the cover, I found a photo of Dr. John performing in Montreux, Switzerland, in July 1973, a few months before this concert. I think Elton John would be envious of his outfit! ;)