Jimmy Buffett - Live at the Record Plant, Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 2-19-1974

Here's singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett performing for the "Live at the Record Plant" radio show. He did this in early 1974. He actually came back for a second and final appearance in late 1974. I plan on posting that eventually as well.

After decades in the music business, Jimmy Buffett became a kind of institution, almost a genre by himself, and earned hundreds of millions of dollars. But I'll bet at the time of this concert he had no clue he would ever reach that level of success, because he was still trying to make it.

In February 1974, the same month as this concert, he released his fourth album, "Living and Dying in 3/4 Time." But his first three albums were released to very little notice at the time. That fourth one was the first to crack the Top 200 in the U.S. album charts - not Top 100, but Top 200 - and just barely. The album did contain his first single, "Come Monday," which made the Top 40 in the U.S. singles chart. However, that success was still to come, since the single wouldn't even be released until April. I'm sure most listeners to this radio program at the time had never heard of him yet.

Given all that, his performance was extremely casual. He was in solo acoustic mode, apparently because he couldn't afford to tour with a band yet. His banter between songs make up 25 minutes of this recording, with the actual songs making up the other 35 minutes. I've posted over 3,000 albums at this blog, and believe me, that's a very unusually high amount of banter. It sounded almost like he was hanging out with a few friends, telling stories and shooting the shit, and occasionally remembering to sing another song.

The music here in unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is one hour long. 

01 talk by emcee (Jimmy Buffett)
02 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
03 Ringling, Ringling (Jimmy Buffett)
04 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
05 Come Monday (Jimmy Buffett)
06 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
07 Pencil Thin Mustache (Jimmy Buffett)
08 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
09 Peddler Not a Pusher (Jimmy Buffett)
10 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
11 Railroad Lady (Jimmy Buffett)
12 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
13 They Don't Dance like Carmen No More (Jimmy Buffett)
14 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
15 Migration (Jimmy Buffett)
16 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
17 God's Own Drunk (Jimmy Buffett)
18 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
19 Brahma Fear (Jimmy Buffett)
20 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
21 A Pirate Looks at Forty (Jimmy Buffett)
22 talk by emcee (Jimmy Buffett)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CsK9jieB

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/60fuiKtRvZ2L4tU/file 

I don't know anything about the cover image except that it's from 1974. It had a big watermark right over his face and neck, but I got rid of it using Photoshop, since there are almost no good color photos of him from this early in his career. 

Various Artists - Music for Montserrat, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 9-15-1997

Here's a really interesting benefit concert from 1997. Just look at the list of big stars involved: Carl Perkins, Midge Ure, Phil Collins, Jimmy Buffett, Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Sting, Elton John, and Paul McCartney. Most of them performed two or three songs together, and all the big names got together with McCartney to sing some of his songs for the finale. All that, and the sound quality is excellent.

Montserrat is a small island in the Caribbean Sea, and it's still a colony of Britain. In 1979, George Martin, best known as the producer for nearly all the Beatles records, financed the building of a recording studio there. From 1979 to 1989, about 70 albums were recorded there, because musicians enjoyed recording in a beautiful, exotic locale. Many of them were by very big stars, such as "Synchronicity" by the Police and "Brothers in Arms" by Dire Straits.   

Unfortunately, in 1989, the Category Four hurricane Hugo hit Montserrat. It destroyed 90 percent of all buildings on the island, including Martin's recording studio. The studio wasn't rebuilt. Then, in 1995, the main volcano on the island, Soufriere Hills volcano, erupted. The island was basically completely devastated again. Martin then led the effort to stage this benefit concert. All the musicians involved recorded albums on Montserrat. Ultimately, about a million and half British pounds were raised. Later, limited edition lithographs signed by McCartney and Martin raised another million and a half pounds. This money went to help people reconstruct their homes, as well as the building of a new cultural center for the island. 

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

Music for Montserrat - Wikipedia  

For this concert, Martin decided that less was more. He even mentioned in his banter during the concert that he turned down many musical acts who wanted to take part. The focus was just on the biggest stars. One exception was Arrow. He only had one minor hit in 1982, in Britain, "Hot Hot Hot." But he is Montserratian, so it made sense he would be involved. Also, "Hot Hot Hot" went on to be a bigger hit by Buster Poindexter in 1987. 

This concert has been released on DVD, but not in any audio format. So I started with the DVD, converting it to audio format then breaking it into mp3s. "Hot Hot Hot," plus "Volcano" by Jimmy Buffett and "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" by Midge Ure, were not on the DVD. But luckily I found out they were performed by reading the Wikipedia entry about the concert. Then I found YouTube videos of them. Those had very good sound quality, because they were broadcast on TV. 

In addition to adding some missing songs, I cut some things. Mostly, I cut some interviews that were interspersed between the songs in the DVD. Martin plus some of the big stars like McCartney and Sting were interviewed. It's interesting stuff, but it wasn't part of the concert, so it got the axe. If you want to see that, check out the DVD.

Probably the highlight of the concert was McCartney's set at the end. As he said in the interview which I cut out, he had met the other stars in this concert many times over the years. However, he rarely actually played music with any of them. For instance, he said the last time he played with Clapton was when Clapton guested on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on the White Album by the Beatles in 1968. But McCartney practiced with Phil Collins, Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, and Elton John, and really collaborated with tracks 42 to 46 at the end here.

One final note. This was the last major public appearance for Carl Perkins. He was in fine health at the time of this concert. But he died after a series of strokes in January 1998, at the age of 65. 

This album is two hours and 15 minutes long.

01 talk (George Martin)
02 talk (Carl Perkins)
03 Blue Suede Shoes (Carl Perkins)
04 talk (emcee)
05 talk (Midge Ure)
06 Dancing with Tears in My Eyes (Midge Ure)
07 Vienna (Midge Ure)
08 talk (George Martin)
09 talk (Phil Collins)
10 In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins)
11 Take Me Home (Phil Collins with Ray Cooper)
12 talk (Arrow)
13 Hot Hot Hot (Arrow)
14 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
15 Volcano (Jimmy Buffett)
16 talk (Phil Collins)
17 talk (Mark Knopfler)
18 Going Home [Theme from Local Hero] [Instrumental] (Mark Knopfler)
19 talk (Mark Knopfler)
20 Brothers in Arms (Mark Knopfler with Guy Fletcher)
21 talk (Mark Knopfler)
22 Money for Nothing (Mark Knopfler with Sting, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton & Ray Cooper)
23 talk (Phil Collins)
24 Message in a Bottle (Sting)
25 Fields of Gold (Sting)
26 Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (Sting)
27 talk (George Martin)
28 talk (Elton John)
29 Your Song (Elton John)
30 talk (Elton John)
31 Live like Horses (Elton John)
32 Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Elton John)
33 talk (Carl Perkins)
34 Broken Hearted (Eric Clapton)
35 Layla (Eric Clapton with Mark Knopfler)
36 talk (Eric Clapton)
37 Same Old Blues (Eric Clapton with Mark Knopfler & Phil Collins)
38 talk (George Martin)
39 talk (Paul McCartney)
40 Yesterday (Paul McCartney)
41 talk (Paul McCartney)
42 Golden Slumbers (Paul McCartney with Phil Collins, Mark Knopfler & Eric Clapton)
43 Carry That Weight - The End (Paul McCartney with Phil Collins, Mark Knopfler & Eric Clapton)
44 talk (George Martin)
45 Hey Jude (Paul McCartney, Elton John & Everybody)
46 Kansas City - Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey (Paul McCartney & Everybody)
47 talk (Paul McCartney & George Martin) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/WN5He6az 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/rtae3vnAgivMIJf/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right: Carl Perkins, Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, and Paul McCartney. Sting is right behind Perkins, but all you can really see of him is his hand on the neck of a bass guitar. In the original photo, the neck of Sting's bass guitar went right over Knopfler's face. In my opinion, it kind of ruined the photo. But there were several photos no doubt taken minutes apart from each other from the same spot. I found one where Knopfler's face was fully visible and the bass guitar neck was lower, and I patched in just that part of the image, using Photoshop. I also used the Krea AI program to flesh out some of the detail.

US Festival '82, Glen Helen Regional Park, San Bernardino, CA, 9-5-1982 - Day 3, Part 3: Jimmy Buffett

The third act presented here from Day Three of the 1982 US Festival is a set by Jimmy Buffett. 

Buffett's most recent album was "Somewhere over China," released in January 1982. But that wasn't why people came to see him, and in fact he didn't play any songs from that album at all. Instead, he was best known for a bunch of crowd-pleasing songs from the 1970s, like "Margaritaville," "Why Don't We Get Drunk," and "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes."

"Brown Eyed Girl," the classic Van Morrison hit, hadn't been released by Buffett at the time of this concert. But he would put it on his next album, in 1983.

Yet again, this is another audience bootleg. As I've said, that's all there is for the vast majority of this festival. But also yet again, I did my best to improve the sound quality using the UVR5 and MVSEP editing programs.

This album is 56 minutes long.

035 Boat Drinks (Jimmy Buffett)
036 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
037 Coconut Telegraph (Jimmy Buffett)
038 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
039 I Don't Know [Spicoli's Theme] (Jimmy Buffett)
040 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
041 Come Monday (Jimmy Buffett)
042 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
043 Cheeseburger in Paradise (Jimmy Buffett)
044 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
045 Volcano (Jimmy Buffett)
046 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
047 Why Don't We Get Drunk (Jimmy Buffett)
048 Fins (Jimmy Buffett)
049 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
050 A Pirate Looks at Forty (Jimmy Buffett)
051 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
052 Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes (Jimmy Buffett)
053 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
054 Brown Eyed Girl (Jimmy Buffett)
055 Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffett)
056 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
057 Dixie Diner [Instrumental] (Jimmy Buffett)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17509636/VA-1982USFstvlDay0303JmmyBfftt_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/c9UFeXm5

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/AIrHj4P7am1IEGX/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Concert for Walden Woods, Foxboro Stadium, Foxborough, MA, 9-6-1993, Part 5: Don Henley with Jimmy Buffett

This is the fifth and last part of the 1993 Concert for Walden Woods. Don Henley, the most famous lead singer of the Eagles, founded the charity organization behind the concert, and this has been the charity cause he's most involved with over the years. Plus, he was massively popular at the time. So it made sense that he would be the headline, final act. However, he also got a significant assist from Jimmy Buffett on two songs.

I've explained more about the cause for this concert in my Part 1 write-up. So please refer to that to learn more. Henley also talked about it some in his lengthy banter before the song "Hotel California." But note that I edit the banter in that spot down considerably, probably cutting it in half. That's why it has "[Edit]" in the title. I cut off stuff I wouldn't want to hear every time I played this album. Most of it was a list of thanks, including a bunch of corporate sponsors supporting the concert.

Generally speaking, this concert was much like a typical full Don Henley concert from that era, including versions of many songs he'd done with the Eagles. However, one interesting twist is that Jimmy Buffett joined the stage about halfway through the set, and sang lead on two of his songs, including his classic "Margaritaville." The other song he chose, "Volcano," was less well known, but it had an environmental theme that fit with the charity cause of the concert. Furthermore, Henley sang lead on part of that song, and it seems some of the lyrics were tailored just for this concert. After that, Buffett left the stage and it continued like a typical Henley solo concert.

This album is an hour and 21 minutes long.

01 The Boys of Summer (Don Henley)
02 The End of the Innocence (Don Henley)
03 One of These Nights (Don Henley)
04 talk (Don Henley)
05 The Last Resort (Don Henley)
06 talk (Don Henley)
07 Well (Don Henley)
08 talk (Jimmy Buffett & Don Henley)
09 Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffett & Don Henley)
10 talk (Jimmy Buffett & Don Henley)
11 Volcano (Jimmy Buffett & Don Henley)
12 talk [Edit] (Don Henley)
13 Hotel California (Don Henley)
14 Life in the Fast Lane (Don Henley)
15 The Heart of the Matter (Don Henley)
16 Sunset Grill (Don Henley)
17 Dirty Laundry (Don Henley)
18 All She Wants to Do Is Dance (Don Henley)
19 Desperado (Don Henley)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16221517/VA1993_CncrtfrWldnWdsFxbroStdmFxbrghMA__9-6-1993_05DnHnlywthJmmyBfftt.zip.html

The cover is just like the cover for Part 1 of this concert, with only some of the text changed. Read my Part 1 write-up for more of an explanation.

Jimmy Buffett - Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA, 6-3-1978

Jimmy Buffett died yesterday as I write this on September 2, 2023. He was 78 years old, and died of complications related to skin cancer.

I hate that so many famous musicians keep dying these days, but when they do I usually feel obliged to mark their musical legacies by posting something from them. So here we go again. I'm not a big fan of his music, so I had to do some research to determine what best to post, and then go find something worthy. 

I decided that I was most interested in hearing a concert from the late 1970s. By that time, he'd written and released most of his famous songs. But in the 1980s, the popular and critical acclaim of his albums went down, even as he increasingly became a cultural institution. Being a savvy businessman, he was able to parlay his image of island escapism into a cottage industry of restaurants, bars, licensed hotels, casinos, cruise experiences, packaged foods, beverages, spirits, outdoor furniture, home goods, appliances, clothes, and more! By the time of his death, he was estimated to be worth as much as a billion dollars! That makes him the second wealthiest musician from his era, behind only Paul McCartney. (Not bad for a guy who only had one Top Ten hit!) Additionally, he was a best selling author in both fiction and non-fiction, and acted in many TV shows and movies.

So good for him. He clearly was a multi-talented individual. But I fear all those other interests increasingly cut into his actual music career. However, back in the 1970s, he was still a singer-songwriter first and foremost. The name "parrothead" to describe his fans hadn't even been invented yet.

Thus, I looked around for full concerts with soundboard quality from that time, and came up with several. But this one had the best sound without any flaws, such as cut or missing songs.

However, there were a couple of problems that almost caused me to pick a different concert. One is that it has many similarities to his official live album from 1978, "You Had to Be There." That was recorded at a bunch of different venues in August 1978, and this is from June 1978, only two months earlier. Both have 19 songs and are about the same length. However, I decided both are different, and I prefer having a complete concert instead of songs picked from many concerts (which in this case also were not put in the usual order they were played). 

One key difference is this has a bunch of songs not only the official album, most especially one of his most famous songs "Cheeseburger in Paradise." According to the Wikipedia entry on the live album, it is speculated that wasn't included because it was a hit in 1978, and the record company didn't want to have two different versions potentially played on the radio. Other songs here not on the official album include: "Banana Republics," "The Coast of Marseilles," "Manana," "The Last Line," and "Livingston Saturday Night."

The bottom line is, if I just want one live album by Buffett, it would be this one and not "You Had to Be There." It also serves as a de facto best of collection, featuring all of his best known songs, with the exception of "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," which came way later, in 2003. 

The other reason I hesitated to pick this album is that while the recording is a soundboard, and the songs sound excellent, the banter between songs was strangely murky. Perhaps he used a lot of reverb and didn't turn it off between songs. Murkiness isn't something I can fix with the UVR5 programs or other AI programs like it, at least as far as I know. 

However, I decided to try something new to fix it. I searched the Internet, and found there's a different kind of AI program that focuses on improving the clarity of vocals. The best one seems to be something called "Enhanced Speech" by Adobe. So I tried that out on some of the banter here, and wow! It made a big difference. I liked it so much that I used it on all the "talk" tracks between songs in this concert. Additionally, I used UVR5 to boost the lead vocals relative to the instruments on all the actual songs.

As an aside, this "Enhanced Speech" could open up more possibilities for sound editing. It seems aimed more to help with speech as opposed to singing, but I'm going to test it out some more to see what it can do. If you can think of any recordings that generally sound great except are marred by muddy vocals, please let me know.

Anyway, although I was familiar with Buffett's best known songs, I'd never heard a full concert from him before. I was generally impressed. Eventually, he turned into more of a caricature and a brand than a musician, but back in 1978 he'd written or covered many good songs, and put on a good show. May he rest in peace.

This album is an hour and 33 minutes long.

01 Son of a Son of a Sailor (Jimmy Buffett)
02 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
03 Pencil Thin Moustache (Jimmy Buffett)
04 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
05 Wonder Why We Ever Go Home (Jimmy Buffett)
06 Landfall (Jimmy Buffett)
07 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
08 Manana (Jimmy Buffett)
09 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
10 Livingston Saturday Night (Jimmy Buffett)
11 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
12 Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffett)
13 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
14 Grapefruit - Juicy Fruit (Jimmy Buffett)
15 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
16 Banana Republics (Jimmy Buffett)
17 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
18 God's Own Drunk (Jimmy Buffett)
19 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
20 Why Don't We Get Drunk (Jimmy Buffett)
21 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
22 The Coast of Marseilles (Jimmy Buffett)
23 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
24 Cheeseburger in Paradise (Jimmy Buffett)
25 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
26 Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes (Jimmy Buffett)
27 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
28 A Pirate Looks at Forty (Jimmy Buffett)
29 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
30 Come Monday (Jimmy Buffett)
31 Tampico Trauma (Jimmy Buffett)
32 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
33 Morris' Nightmare (Jimmy Buffett)
34 Dixie Diner [Instrumental] (Jimmy Buffett)
35 talk (Jimmy Buffett)
36 The Last Line (Jimmy Buffett)

https://www.imagenetz.de/iJ2ww

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/gyXynBMb

second alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/4dareKMa9cxk6W4/file 

The cover photo is from an appearance on the Saturday Night Live TV show in May 1978. I found the fancy lettering of his name on the Internet and squished it to fit the available space.