Joan Baez with Hoyt Axton - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 5-30-1975

Here's another episode of that excellent TV show, "Midnight Special." I previously posted a 1973 episode hosted by Joan Baez. She was back to host it again in this 1975 episode. I also included Hoyt Axton as a guest, since they sang a song together.

One couldn't be a host of this show unless one had a certain amount of commercial success. Earlier in 1975, Baez released "Diamonds and Rust," a song she wrote herself, as a single. It was a Top Forty hit in the U.S., and helped the album it came from, also called "Diamonds and Rust," go Gold. (That means sales of half a million in the U.S.)

Hoyt Axton didn't have big success as a performer (although he did have a couple of hits on the country charts in the 1970s). However, he had a lot more success as a songwriter. In fact, I've created a "Covered" album for him, which you can find here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/12/covered-hoyt-axton-1963-1977.html

Baez and Axton sang a duet on the song "Lion in the Winter." It was a song written by Axton. He did a duet version with Linda Ronstadt that came out in 1975 and was a minor country hit. Baez essentially sang Ronstadt's part. Axton also sang two songs on his own.

Baez had another musical collaboration in this episode. Hampton Hawes was a well known jazz pianist since the late 1940s. On Baez's "Diamonds and Rust" album, she wrote a jazzy song called "Children and All that Jazz," which featured a prominent piano part by Hawes. So the two of them performed it on this show, with Baez singing and Hawes playing the piano. Hawes died not long after that, in 1977. Hawes performed two other songs on his own in this episode, but I chose not to include them.

In case you're curious, the only other performer in this episode was Kool and the Gang. They played three songs.

Oftentimes, when I put these Midnight Special albums together, I bring in other songs from other episodes. But in this case, everything here is from this one episode. Baez would appear some more on the show in 1976 and 1977. She wasn't a host again, but she performed on enough songs that I'll probably be able to put together another album for her when those episodes are released on YouTube. 

This album is 40 minutes long. 

The music here is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent. 

01 talk (Wolfman Jack)
02 Fountain of Sorrow (Joan Baez)
03 talk (Joan Baez)
04 Diamonds and Rust (Joan Baez)
05 talk (Joan Baez)
06 Jesse (Joan Baez)
07 talk (Joan Baez)
08 Children and All that Jazz (Joan Baez & Hampton Hawes)
09 talk (Joan Baez)
10 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Hoyt Axton)
11 When the Morning Comes (Hoyt Axton)
12 talk (Joan Baez)
13 Lion in the Winter (Joan Baez & Hoyt Axton)
14 talk (Joan Baez)
15 Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer (Joan Baez)
16 talk (Joan Baez)
17 Winds of the Old Days (Joan Baez)
18 talk (Joan Baez)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Ju6hshd4

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/pGv3nDcqZ5tmgjb/file 

The cover image is a screenshot I took from this exact concert. It shows Baez with Axton.

Covered: Hoyt Axton: 1963-1977

Here's another edition of the "Covered" series, where I pay tribute to talented songwriters by collecting cover versions of their songs. This time, the focus is on Hoyt Axton.

Axton was born in a small town in Oklahoma in 1938. He came from a musical family. His mother, Mae Boren Axton, was a songwriter who co-wrote the Elvis Presley classic hit "Heartbreak Hotel" and many country songs, and one of his cousins was folk singer Arlo Guthrie. After going to college and serving a few years in the U.S. Navy, he began playing his songs in clubs. He released his first album in 1962, and released a couple dozen from that time until the end of the 1990s.

However, while Axton had some minor hits in the 1970s, especially on the U.S. country chart, he had much greater success by having others cover his songs. He also had a successful parallel career as an actor, especially playing colorful characters in supporting roles in dozens of TV shows and movies. 

His first success as a songwriter was "Greenback Dollar," which became kind of a folk music classic after it was covered by the Kingston Trio in 1963. He didn't have much more success with others covering his songs for the rest of the 1960s, although "The Pusher" became one of Steppenwolf's best known songs in 1968. However, everything changed for him in 1970, because Three Dog Night covered "Joy to the World." Not only was it a Number One hit in the U.S., it was the best selling song of the year! After that, he had quite a few more successes with other people covering his songs for the rest of the 1970s. For instance, Three Dog Night had a Top Five hit with "Never Been to Spain," and Ringo Starr had a Top Five hit with "No No Song."

I've tried to avoid including songs sung by Axton, since this is supposed to be a collection of other musical acts covering his songs. However, I've included two duets he was involved in. "When the Morning Comes," a duet with Linda Ronstadt, is particularly notable for being his biggest hit as a singer. It reached Number 10 in the U.S. country chart in 1974.

He kept putting out new music until the end of his life. He died in 1999 at the age of 61 due to a heart attack.

Axton's songs weren't often big hits, though occasionally they were. However, they usually were distinctive and interesting.   

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 Greenback Dollar (Kingston Trio)
02 The Pusher (Steppenwolf)
03 Willie Jean (Sunshine Company)
04 Joy to the World (Three Dog Night)
05 Snowblind Friend (Steppenwolf)
06 Ease Your Pain (Jackie DeShannon)
07 Never Been to Spain (Three Dog Night)
08 Sweet Fantasy (Glen Campbell)
09 When the Morning Comes (Hoyt Axton & Linda Ronstadt)
10 No No Song (Ringo Starr)
11 Sweet Misery (Martha Reeves)
12 Southbound (Three Dog Night)
13 Boney Fingers (Hoyt Axton & Rene Armand)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/V6H6sG3w

alternate:

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

I don't know where or when the cover photo is from. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program. 

Arlo Guthrie with Steve Goodman & Hoyt Axton - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 11-11-1974

Today, a commenter noted that there are very few live recordings of folk singer Arlo Guthrie in his 1960s and 1970s prime. I thought, yes, that's true, but maybe I can find some more. To my very pleasant surprise, I found this concert on YouTube. It seems nobody has ever converted it from video to audio, so it hasn't gotten much attention as a musical bootleg. Hopefully that can change now, because it's a delightful concert, featuring not only Arlo Guthrie, but also the talented singer-songwriters Steve Goodman and Hoyt Axton.

This concert is an episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. It ran, intermittently, and occasionally using other names, from 1972 to 2018. I've previously posted two episode from the show, a 1982 concert starring Etta James, Dr. John, and Allen Toussaint, and a 2007 concert starring John Fogerty. But I've realized this show is a treasure trove that is often overlooked, so I plan on posting a lot more from it. Occasionally, the show encouraged collaboration, like this episode and 1982 one I've posted. In my opinion, those are the most interesting ones of all.

Note that I just redid the covers of the other two Soundstage concerts I've posted, so the text can have a consistent look. I plan to post a lot more of these, so I've just created a Soundstage side label too. Here are the links to the other two, if you want the updated artwork and mp3 tags. Etta James, Dr. John, and Allen Toussaint:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/03/etta-james-dr-john-allen-toussaint.html

And John Fogerty:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/10/john-fogerty-pbs-soundstage-chicago-il.html

Arlo Guthrie only ever had one big hit, "City of New Orleans," in 1972. It was written by Steve Goodman. His music career was just starting, and Guthrie's cover helped establish his career, as well as giving him enough royalties to go into music full time. Unfortunately, despite being in his early 20s, he already had been diagnosed with leukemia. He managed to have a successful music career for many years, but succumbed to the disease in 1984, at the age of 36. Here's the Wikipedia page for Goodman, if you want to know more:

Steve Goodman - Wikipedia 

Hoyt Axton began as a folksinger in the early 1960s, releasing his first album in 1962. He didn't find much success in his own name until the mid-1970s, when he started to have a string of minor country hits. But he had a lot more success as a songwriter for others. His biggest success, by far, was the song "Joy to the World." The band Three Dog Night had a Number One hit with it in 1971. In fact, it was the biggest selling song of that year. He also had a reasonably successful career as an actor. Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Hoyt Axton - Wikipedia

At first, this album might have seemed a random collection of three folky singer-songwriters. But after Guthrie had a hit with Goodman's "City of New Orleans," their paths crossed often and they became good friends. Furthermore, it turns out Axton was a cousin to Guthrie, so they were linked as well. I was surprised to discover that while writing these notes. I was also surprised to learn that Axton's mother, Mae Boren Axton, was a songwriter too, and co-wrote "Heartbreak Hotel," the Elvis Presley classic.

Anyway, in this concert, Guthrie started out playing a few songs. Then Goodman played a few, then Axton. All three came together to sing the last three, but Guthrie generally took the lead on those. Since this was professionally recorded for TV, the sound quality is excellent.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
02 Take Me Back (Arlo Guthrie)
03 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
04 Son of Week on the Rag [Instrumental] (Arlo Guthrie)
05 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
06 Presidential Rag (Arlo Guthrie)
07 City of New Orleans (Arlo Guthrie)
08 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
09 Boomer's Story (Steve Goodman & Arlo Guthrie)
10 talk (Steve Goodman)
11 It's a Sin to Tell a Lie (Steve Goodman)
12 talk (Steve Goodman)
13 Door Number Three (Steve Goodman)
14 Do You Want to Learn to Dance (Steve Goodman)
15 talk (Steve Goodman)
16 Bone Fingers (Hoyt Axton, Arlo Guthrie & Steve Goodman)
17 talk (Hoyt Axton)
18 Sweet Misery (Hoyt Axton)
19 talk (Hoyt Axton)
20 Less than a Song (Hoyt Axton)
21 talk (Arlo Guthrie, Steve Goodman & Hoyt Axton)
22 Walkin' Down the Line (Arlo Guthrie, Steve Goodman & Hoyt Axton)
23 talk (Arlo Guthrie, Steve Goodman & Hoyt Axton)
24 The Story of Reuben Clamzo and His Strange Daughter in the Key of A (Arlo Guthrie, Steve Goodman & Hoyt Axton)
25 talk (Arlo Guthrie, Steve Goodman & Hoyt Axton)
26 Goodnight Irene (Arlo Guthrie, Steve Goodman & Hoyt Axton)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mB3aeTwc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/hpcbe6lUoJd4PQ7/file

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from the YouTube video of this concert. It was rather low-res, but I improved it somewhat with the Krea AI program.