Various Artists - Playboy After Dark (CBS Television City, Los Angeles, CA), Volume 6: October to November 1969

Here's the sixth volume of the episodes I compiled of the "Playboy After Dark" TV show. This also is the first album from the show's second (and final) season. Note the big time jump, between Volume 5 ending in January 1969 and this one starting in October 1969 - that's most of a year.

This show tended to have a lot of repeat guests. Consider the soul group Checkmates, Ltd. This already was their third episode. Many of the other guests on volume made or would make appearances on other volumes as well. I think it was especially common for a musical act to appear on an episode in the show's first season, and then another one in the second season.

There are more incidents of "[Edit]" - four - in this volume than in any previous ones. That's because there was more talking over the music in the second season. One particularly annoying aspect was that each episode of this season ended had a brief spoken advertisement for T.W.A. Airlines over the final song. In most cases, I was able to successfully wipe such talking while keeping the underlying music, thanks to the UVR5 audio editing program.

There's a surprising number of songs performed on this T.V. that were never officially released in any form. Consider the duet between Linda Ronstadt and Billy Eckstine. If you listen to the banter before the song started, it seems Ronstadt was very reluctant to sing it, and had to be coaxed into it. That could be prepared dialogue, but in the case, it seemed like a genuinely spontaneous performance to me. As far as I can tell, this was the one and only time Ronstadt performed that song in public.

The duet between Checkmates, Ltd. and Carla Thomas on "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" is similarly unique to this TV show. I also couldn't find any release of "Soul Man" by Bill Medley (who was one half of the Righteous Brothers). Similarly, "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" was never released by Sonny & Cher (or by solo Cher, for that matter). It also seems Carla Thomas never released any version of "Abraham, Martin and John." And it's a similar case with the other volumes.

If anyone knows the name of the instrumental performed by Canned Heat, please let me know so I can give it a proper name. 

This album is an hour and eight minutes long.

01 Walkin' Down the Line (Linda Ronstadt)
02 Living like a Fool (Linda Ronstadt)
03 Hitchcock Railway [Edit] (Joe Cocker)
04 Something (Joe Cocker)
05 God Bless the Child [Edit] (Linda Ronstadt & Billy Eckstine)
06 Soul Man (Bill Medley)
07 What's Wrong (Sweetwater)
08 For Once in My Life (Bill Medley)
09 Why Oh Why - Hey Jude (Sweetwater)
10 Sweet Caroline (Checkmates, Ltd.)
11 Where Do I Go (Carla Thomas)
12 The Japanese Transistor (Biff Rose)
13 Molly (Biff Rose)
14 Abraham, Martin and John (Carla Thomas)
15 Proud Mary (Checkmates, Ltd.)
16 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay [Edit] (Checkmates, Ltd. & Carla Thomas)
17 For Once in My Life [Edit] (Sonny & Cher)
18 Can't Take My Eyes Off You (Sonny & Cher)
19 Future Blues (Canned Heat)
20 My Time Ain't Long (Canned Heat)
21 Instrumental (Canned Heat)
22 Take Me for a Little While (Sonny & Cher)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/aKqnxAQ1

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/6VNID5vPpmlP32t/file

For this series, it was hard for me to pick the cover art, because I could take screenshots of any of the musical acts, and there are always a few good ones to choose from. I didn't choose Linda Ronstadt because she gets a cover later in this series. A key reason I decided on a picture of Cher is because the screenshot I took shows comedian Bill Cosby playing bass in the background. (One can see some of his faced, with sunglasses and cigar, and a little bit of his hands on an upright bass.) 

At the time, Cosby was a widely beloved star. But nowadays, he has been revealed to be a serial rapist. So his appearance on this show can be seen in a whole new light. And he didn't appear just on this episode, he appeared on a LOT of them. I'd guess about a dozen, probably more than any other famous guest. A lot of the time, as in the episode shown on the cover here, he wasn't doing a stand-up routine, but instead was just kind of lurking around. In hindsight, it's super creepy to imagine what Crosby might have been doing behind the scenes with all the beautiful women there. It's symbolic of how the whole carefully constructed image of Playboy has also been torn down, now that we know more. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention that.

Joe Cocker - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Freilichtbuhne Loreley, St. Goarshausen, Germany, 8-20-1983

If you think I've posted a "BBC Sessions, Volume 3" from Joe Cocker before, you're not wrong. I previously posted a 1986 concert with that name. But I recently discovered this, so the 1986 one will get renamed "Volume 4."

Here's a link to that, if you want to get the updated cover art and mp3 tags and such:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/04/joe-cocker-bbc-sessions-volume-3-in.html

It was easy for this one to slip my notice, because this concert was actually part of a single-day rock festival broadcast in full by the German TV program "Rockpalast." But for some reason, the BBC weekly radio show "In Concert" had a special day where they also broadcast the festival in full, making it fair game for me. The other musical acts in the festival were U2, Dave Edmunds, Steve Miller, and the Stray Cats. I plan on posting all their sets here too, except for U2, which I'm leaving out because they played pretty much the exact same set they did for their "Under a Blood Red Sky..." live album and their 1982 BBC concert that I've posted already.

This concert came at a good time for Cocker, because his commercial fortunes were drastically improved in 1982, due to his duet with Jennifer Warnes on the song "Up Where We Belong." Not only was that a Number One hit in the U.S., it was one of a handful of the biggest singles of the year. Given the popularity of that song, I was very surprised that he didn't perform it in this concert. Perhaps that's because it was a duet and he didn't have a female like Warnes on hand to duet with. But I think it's more likely he simply didn't want to play it. He had a problem that that very poppy song (from a movie soundtrack) didn't fit with the kind of music he was putting out on his studio albums at the time. In fact, not long after it reached the top of the charts, he was dropped by his record label and had to find a new one! It seems he rarely played it in 1982 and 1983, though he played it more often in later years.

But while I was looking up information about that song, I was pleased to see how Jennifer Warnes came to choose Cocker to do the duet with. She happened to catch him perform a song on TV in 1982, and saw that he was musically revitalized after many years of struggle. She said, "I was so moved, I was hollering out loud with joy, jumping up and down ... After a difficult battle with drugs and alcohol, Joe was in total command once again. I knew at that moment that I would sing with Joe." So that's why I'm saying this was a good time for Cocker, musically.

Cocker's most recent album at the time was "Sheffield Steel," released in 1982. But he only played two songs from that, "Seven Days" (by Bob Dylan) and "Many Rivers to Cross" (by Jimmy Cliff).

This album is an hour and 11 minutes long.

01 A Girl like You (Joe Cocker)
02 Feelin' Alright (Joe Cocker)
03 A Whiter Shade of Pale (Joe Cocker)
04 Inner City Blues (Joe Cocker)
05 Don't Talk to Me (Joe Cocker)
06 Just like Always (Joe Cocker)
07 Many Rivers to Cross (Joe Cocker)
08 talk (Joe Cocker)
09 Threw It Away (Joe Cocker)
10 Seven Days (Joe Cocker)
11 Watching the River Flow (Joe Cocker)
12 With a Little Help from My Friends (Joe Cocker)
13 You Are So Beautiful (Joe Cocker)
14 The Letter (Joe Cocker)
15 The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (Joe Cocker)
16 I Heard It through the Grapevine (Joe Cocker)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/L14KuLyY

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/VDgzcAyCvt5IuWq/file

The cover photo is from the ARMS Benefit concert in Dallas in 1983. I've posted that concert at this blog.

Woodstock '94, Winston Farm, Saugerties, NY, 8-12-1994 to 8-14-1994 - Day 2, Part 8: Joe Cocker

The eighth album from Day Two of the Woodstock '94 Festival is a set performed by Joe Cocker.

Cocker is one of the few stars of the 1969 Woodstock Festival to still be a big enough star in 1994 to get a full set in the 1994 Woodstock. The other big stars to do so were Santana, the Band, and Crosby, Stills and Nash. John Sebastian and Country Joe McDonald had less prominent sets. Bob Weir showed up as part of a duo instead of with the Grateful Dead. Finally, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassady played in the original Woodstock as part of Jefferson Airplane, but played in Woodstock '94 as Hot Tuna while guesting during the Band set.

At the time of this concert, he hadn't put out a new studio album since 1991. He would release one in 1994, "Have a Little Faith," but that wouldn't come out until a month after this concert. However, that was close enough for him to play one song from it, "Summer in the City," a cover of the 1960s Lovin' Spoonful classic.

There's not much else for me to say about the music here, so I'll point out a couple of basic facts about Woodstock '94. The maximum crowd estimated for the original Woodstock was around 450,000. For Woodstock '94, it was about 350,000, though some say more. This new Woodstock was definitely much more commercial. Tickets cost $135. However, only about 150,000 people paid to get it. The crowd swelled so much on the second day that people broke down the fences and streamed in. 

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

01 talk (Joe Cocker)
02 Feelin' Alright (Joe Cocker)
03 Hitchcock Railway (Joe Cocker)
04 You Can Leave Your Hat On (Joe Cocker)
05 When the Night Comes (Joe Cocker)
06 Summer in the City (Joe Cocker)
07 Up Where We Belong (Joe Cocker)
08 Shelter Me (Joe Cocker)
09 Unchain My Heart (Joe Cocker)
10 The Letter (Joe Cocker)
11 With a Little Help from My Friends (Joe Cocker)
12 talk (Joe Cocker)
13 Cry Me a River (Joe Cocker)
14 You Are So Beautiful (Joe Cocker)
15 High Time We Went (Joe Cocker)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/LrTVcgaz

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/dLQjHx4hXqWEuJI/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Various Artists - Prince's Trust Rock Gala, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 6-5-1988

The Prince's Trust is a charity founded by then Prince Charles, the British crown prince. (He is now King Charles III) as I write this in 2024.) There have been a bunch of benefit concerts for the charity, each with many stars participating. Here's another one.

These Prince's Trust concerts have happened in a very irregular pace. I've already posted benefit concerts from 1982, 1986, and 1987. This one is from 1988. There were more from 1989 and 1990, so it started to seem like an annual thing. However, I think the next one after that took place in 1996. There have been at least five more since then, although I may well be missing some.

This one was similar to the previous two in similar ways. The concert started with some newer acts, like T'Pau and Wet Wet Wet, and they played more songs than one might expect, given the stature of the other acts in the concert. Both T'Pau and Wet Wet Wet actually played four songs each, according to setlists, but I only have two from T'Pau and three from Wet Wet Wet. I can't say I'm lamenting the missing songs, since I don't think one could compare them with nearly all of the acts that came later. Rick Astley and Black were a couple other acts that appeared early, and played the one big hit each of them was known for.

After that, there were many of the same "usual suspects" who played in previous Prince's Trust concerts, such as Phil Collins, Elton John, Howard Jones, Mark Knoplfer, and Eric Clapton. But there were some first timers too, like Leonard Cohen, the Bee Gees, Peter Gabriel, and Joe Cocker. It's frustrating to me that you have someone like Peter Gabriel, whose most recent album at the time, "So," had sold five million copies in the U.S. alone, only getting to play one song. But it is what it is, I guess.

I don't know the exact details, but I believe that many of the big stars backed each other towards the end of the concert, as was the case in previous years. Because people pay extra close attention to Eric Clapton's guitar playing, I was able to find out that once he took the stage with track 26 ("Behind the Mask"), he stayed on stage for the rest of the concert, including playing guitar on songs sung by Knoplfer, John, and Cocker.

Similarly, I was able to determine that Brian May of Queen didn't sing lead vocals on any songs, but he played lead guitar on a bunch of them: tracks 6, 8, 10, 16, 19, 24, 26, and 35. John Deacon, the bassist for Queen, also apparently played on some songs.

Currently, I'm only able to find a few songs from the 1989 and 1990 concerts. If anyone has the full concerts, please let me know. I may try to post the 1996 concert, but I'm probably missing about half of that one.

This album is two hours and two minutes long.

01 Heart and Soul (T'Pau)
02 China in Your Hand (T'Pau)
03 talk (Wet Wet Wet)
04 Wishing I Was Lucky (Wet Wet Wet)
05 Sweet Little Mystery - Twist and Shout (Wet Wet Wet)
06 Dancing with Tears in My Eyes (Midge Ure)
07 talk (Midge Ure & Rick Astley)
08 Never Gonna Give You Up (Rick Astley)
09 talk (Rick Astley & Black)
10 Wonderful Life (Black)
11 talk (Black & Leonard Cohen)
12 Tower of Song (Leonard Cohen)
13 talk (Phil Collins)
14 Doesn't Anyone Stay Together Anymore (Phil Collins)
15 talk (Phil Collins & the Bee Gees)
16 You Win Again (Bee Gees)
17 Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees)
18 talk (Bee Gees & Peter Gabriel)
19 Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel)
20 talk (Peter Gabriel & Howard Jones)
21 What Is Love (Howard Jones)
22 talk (Phil Collins)
23 I Missed Again (Phil Collins)
24 You Can't Hurry Love (Phil Collins)
25 talk (Phil Collins & Joe Cocker)
26 The Letter (Joe Cocker)
27 talk (Eric Clapton)
28 Behind the Mask (Eric Clapton)
29 Cocaine (Eric Clapton)
30 talk (Eric Clapton & Mark Knopfler)
31 Money for Nothing (Mark Knopfler)
32 talk (Elton John)
33 I Don't Wanna Go On with You like That (Elton John)
34 Layla (Eric Clapton)
35 With a Little Help from My Friends (Joe Cocker)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cbyrisBH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/jJV74b5uh8a36UP/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/gP7SW

Just like previous years, there was a group photo taken of the performers. Here are all their names.
Back row: Rick Astley, Howard Jones, Peter Gabriel, Joe Cocker, Phil Collins, Midge Ure
Middle row: Mark Knopfler, Brian May, Elton John, Eric Clapton
Front row: The Bee Gees, Robin, Barry and Maurice Gibb

Joe Cocker - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 4-27-1986

This is the fourth and probably final album of Joe Cocker performing for the BBC.

Cocker always had a talented, unique voice. But after the 1960s, he had a hard time getting the best out of his studio recordings. He often fell into the trap of using then current production techniques that didn't date well for his style later. That was definitely the case in 1986 when this album was recorded. He was promoting his album "Cocker." I read the reviews of this album at rateyourmusic.com, and people said it had some good songs, including the hit "You Can Leave Your Hat On," but it suffered badly from typical mid-1980s production excesses. The good news is, that material does much better in a live context, where meddling "hip" producers don't have a say.

The sound quality is very good. There were virtually no comments by Cocker between songs. I don't know if that's how it really was or if the BBC edited it down. There were a couple of times between songs when a DJ talked over the crowd noise, but I edited those out.

This concert is an hour and nine minutes long.

UPDATE: On January 21, 2022, I updated the mp3 download file because I renamed this from "Volume 3" to "Volume 4" after discovering another BBC concert he did in 1983. I changed the cover art and mp3 tags accordingly.

01 A Girl like You (Joe Cocker)
02 You Can Leave Your Hat On (Joe Cocker)
03 Don't Drink the Water (Joe Cocker)
04 Heart of the Matter (Joe Cocker)
05 Feelin' Alright (Joe Cocker)
06 Civilized Man (Joe Cocker)
07 Living without Your Love (Joe Cocker)
08 Heaven (Joe Cocker)
09 Shelter Me (Joe Cocker)
10 Watching the River Flow (Joe Cocker)
11 High Time We Went (Joe Cocker)
12 Seven Days (Joe Cocker)
13 With a Little Help from My Friends (Joe Cocker)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Va3Mun8A

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/coSNI0tFtNbraq0/file

The cover photo was taken at an unknown 1986 concert.

Joe Cocker - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1969-1971

I have to admit it's basically false advertising to call this some of Cocker's BBC sessions. There isn't a single song here that was actually done for the BBC! But, as I've said previously, I consider his career peak to be the years 1968 to 1971, and I wanted songs for the rest of that time, if I could find source material that was of equal sound quality to the BBC tracks that made up Volume 1. I feel I did that. 

The first five songs all come from concert performances. But these sound great, because they were taken from an official Joe Cocker box set called "The Long Voyage Home." The next three songs are unreleased, and come from French and German TV appearances, so they have excellent sound quality too. 

The last three songs don't sound quite as good as the rest, because they're from a concert bootleg, and probably an audience recording instead of a soundboard. But I think they're worthy of inclusion here, due to their unusual nature. After Cocker's notoriously wild "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" concert tour, which ended in early 1970, it seems he was mentally and physically exhausted. He didn't tour or release any new music (except for one single) until early 1972, so he kept a low profile for most of two years. One exception to that is he made a guest appearance at a Rita Coolidge concert, playing the three songs here. None of the songs were ever officially recorded and released by him. So they're worthy for that, plus their sound quality is still pretty good, though not great.

The song "Cry Me a River" had a major problem in that a TV announcer spoke over the soloing section in the middle of the song. Previously, I had cut this section out rather than have the announcer talking. But I used new sound editing program X-Minus to simply erase the talking, and keep the soloing.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 Let It Be (Joe Cocker)
02 Feelin' Alright (Joe Cocker)
03 I Shall Be Released (Joe Cocker)
04 Something's Coming On (Joe Cocker)
05 Something (Joe Cocker)
06 The Letter (Joe Cocker)
07 Dear Landlord (Joe Cocker)
08 Cry Me a River [Edit] (Joe Cocker)
09 Horizontal Blues (Joe Cocker)
10 When This Battle Is Over (Joe Cocker & Rita Coolidge)
11 The Devastating Things Love Can Do to You (Joe Cocker)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Va3Mun8A

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ybCWqKWP7mlGNhz/file

The album cover photo was taken at a concert at the Fillmore East in New York City, in March 1971. I later improved the quality with the Krea AI program.

Joe Cocker - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1968-1969

So many BBC sessions. I wonder if I'll ever post all of the ones I like that are worthy of posting. Joe Cocker is another musician who hasn't had any of his BBC performances officially released. As I mentioned in previous postings about him, I think his peak musical years were 1968 to 1971. It so happens that's exactly when he did his BBC sessions. I've found enough for two volumes. Here's the first one.

Truth be told, Cocker's actual BBC sessions only happened in 1968 and 1969. Like many artists, once he got really famous, he left the BBC behind. Volume 2 will mostly contain performances from other TV shows and such. But this volume is 100 percent BBC radio performances. 

He did pretty much all of his most popular songs from that time period. But he also did some interesting rarities.  "Mr. Bus Driver," "Run Shaker Life," and "Can't Be So Bad" in particular have never been officially released by him in any form.

The sound quality is generally very good, though some songs sound better than others. And for some weird reason, while most BBC recordings from this time period are marred by BBC DJs talking over the starts and ends of songs, that doesn't seem to be the case for any of the songs here.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Mr. Bus Driver (Joe Cocker)
02 Run Shaker Life (Joe Cocker)
03 With a Little Help from My Friends (Joe Cocker)
04 Can't Be So Bad (Joe Cocker)
05 Marjorine (Joe Cocker)
06 Change in Louise (Joe Cocker)
07 Let's Get Stoned (Joe Cocker)
08 That's Your Business Now (Joe Cocker)
09 Hitchcock Railway (Joe Cocker)
10 Lawdy Miss Clawdy (Joe Cocker)
11 Darling Be Home Soon (Joe Cocker)
12 Hello Little Friend (Joe Cocker)
13 Delta Lady (Joe Cocker)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693350/JOCCKR1968-1969_BBSssonsVlum1_atse.zip.html

Boy, do I regret picking this photo for the cover art. The photo was taken backstage at a concert in the Fillmore East in 1969. I picked it because it looked to be the best color photo from 1968 or 1969 clearly showing his face. The problem was his eyes were looking down and to the left. I thought I could fix that in Photoshop, as I've done with other photos with similar problems from time to time. But his eyes were so weirdly stoned that I had a really hard time of it. Hopefully, the final result more or less looks like he's looking at the camera (even though he still looks totally wasted!).

Joe Cocker - Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 10-19-1969

As I mentioned in a previous post, in my opinion, the peak years in Joe Cocker's long career was from about 1968 to 1971. There's only two really good live recordings from this time period that are widely available. One is his 1969 Woodstock appearance. That's great, but it's a relatively short concert, since there were lots of other big acts on the bill. The other is the official "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" album documenting his 1970 tour. But that was with a new band and many new songs compared to what he'd done in 1968 and 1969. I wanted a good live album from him with the band he got famous with, the Grease Band.

Luckily, I've been able to find one excellent sounding bootleg from that time. On top of that, there are a few live songs from that time that have come out here and there on official archival releases. So I've used the bootleg (from the Fillmore West) as the basis of this album, then I've added in the other songs at the end. All together, this makes for an hour and 48 minutes of music, which is enough for what would have been a full concert back in those days, even though this one does come from multiple sources. (Note that I didn't use any of the exact performances from the Woodstock show, since that's a fine show all by itself.)

When I first posted this album in 2021, I didn't include the first two songs: "Do I Still Figure in Your Life," "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window." That's because they sounded much worse than the others, especially with very low vocals. But I later discovered versions of those songs where someone else patched in vocals from a different 1969 performance. That sounds exactly like something I'd do, but it wasn't me this time, but someone named Mr. Sifter. Anyway, they've been added in, and that's why those two have "[Edit]" in their titles. 

It's likely there was more at the start of the concert, since there's no proper into to it, but I don't know how many other songs might be missing. Similarly, the end of the concert was cut off, and we don't know what songs were played there either, though I would bet that "With a Little Help from My Friends" was one of them.

"I Don't Need No Doctor" and "Hitchcock Railway" were also recorded at the Fillmore West, and in the same month. But I don't know the exact date, and he played several nights of shows there, so I don't know if those are from the exact same concert or not. "Dear Landlord" comes from an archival release with poor documentation, so I only know they come from a concert in Detroit in 1969. 

Finally, how could I post a Joe Cocker concert from 1969 without including "With a Little Help from My Friends?" But the different sources I used didn't have that, strangely enough. To include a fitting version of that, I had to go back a little further in time, to a concert played in France in December 1968 and broadcast on French TV at the time. You can find video of it on YouTube. It's interesting, because it must have been recorded before he hit it big, since it shows him playing in a small club of only a hundred people or so.

There's only one sonic snag that bugs me with this concert, and that's that for many of the songs, the audience applause gets cut off quickly and/or isn't very loud. That's probably a consequence of these being soundboard recordings designed to capture the band on stage and not the audience. Happily though, it seems most or all of Cocker's banter between songs was captured, though I sometimes had to raise the volume of those a lot, resulting in some static for those bits.

Personally, I like this concert recording better than the famous "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" one. That album features a cast of thousands, almost literally. It was a huge band, with dozens of members, resulting in a full sound. Plus, many of the songs had other people guesting on lead vocals. This is just Cocker and a relatively small band, and I like hearing him better this way. 

UPDATE: On January 24, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. I added two songs at the beginning, "Do I Still Figure in Your Life" and "She Came in through the Bathroom Window," as I explained above. And I removed a different version of "Do I Still Figure in Your Life" from later in the album, since that one wasn't from this exact concert.

01 talk (Joe Cocker)
02 Do I Still Figure in Your Life [Edit] (Joe Cocker)
03 She Came in through the Bathroom Window [Edit] (Joe Cocker)
04 talk (Joe Cocker)
05 Let It Be (Joe Cocker)
06 talk (Joe Cocker)
07 The Letter (Joe Cocker)
08 talk (Joe Cocker)
09 Something (Joe Cocker)
10 talk (Joe Cocker)
11 Feelin' Alright (Joe Cocker)
12 Something to Say (Joe Cocker)
13 talk (Joe Cocker)
14 Something's Coming On (Joe Cocker)
15 talk (Joe Cocker)
16 Bye Bye Blackbird (Joe Cocker)
17 talk (Joe Cocker)
18 Let's Go Get Stoned - Slow Down - Let's Go Get Stoned (Joe Cocker)
19 I Shall Be Released (Joe Cocker)
20 I Don't Need No Doctor (Joe Cocker)
21 talk (Joe Cocker)
22 Hitchcock Railway (Joe Cocker)
23 talk (Joe Cocker)
24 Dear Landlord (Joe Cocker)
25 With a Little Help from My Friends (Joe Cocker)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fYmdMFu5

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/EjoQTDnGZj2PPAD/file

The cover art photo comes from a 1969 concert, but I don't know which one.

Joe Cocker - Something's Coming On - Non-Album Tracks (1963-1969)

In 1968, Joe Cocker seemingly came out of nowhere with his version of the Beatles song "With a Little Help from My Friends." It went to number one in Britain and some other countries. But in fact, his musical career had started years before; it's just that he'd had very little success up until that point. He's a stray tracks collection dealing with his early years.

Joe Cocker was his real name. But around 1960, he started a musical career using the name Vance Arnold. For simplicity's sake, I'm using his real name for all the songs here. The first eight songs date to 1963 and 1964, during his "Vance Arnold" phase. In my opinion, his voice doesn't have his distinctive gruffness. These are generally basic R&B covers, nothing to get that excited about. His one chance for an early break was with a cover of the Beatles song "I'll Cry Instead." It was released as an A-side in 1964, and his record company heavily promoted it. But it didn't even make the charts, and the record company dropped him.

Cocker took at least a year off from his music career around 1966. When he came back, he started using his real name and had a new band. The next two songs here, "I've Been Trying" and "Saved," are extremely rare. I could barely find any versions on the Internet, and the one I did find was filled with pops and scratches. Luckily, my musical friend MZ sent me a very good sounding copy without those problems. They're live tracks from an obscure EP featuring multiple artists called "Rag Goes Mad at the Mojo."

The rest of the songs here are from the beginning of Cocker being famous. You could start to hear the voice he became known for with the 1967 EP songs, but the rest definitely sound like the Cocker you'd expect. Three songs are B-sides to his singles in 1968 and 1969. The last two come from an archival box set and date to 1969.

All or nearly all of the songs here are covers. As I said above, the songs from 1963 and 1964 aren't that great, but they have their moments. The rest though, are definitely prime Joe Cocker. I'm not a fan of much of his long career (he died in 2014 at the age of 70), but I really like what he did from around 1968 to 1971, when he was most heavily influenced by R&B music. I plan on posting a couple more albums from him that all focus on this period (BBC sessions and live stuff). I don't plan on posting any more stray tracks albums dealing with the early 1970s onwards though, especially since I didn't see much of note that didn't get on his studio albums in those years.

That's not to say the rest of his career is without merit, because he had a decent share of good songs. I've already posted a 1983 benefit concert featuring lots of big names, that includes about half an hour of Cocker singing while backed on lead guitar by Eric Clapton. So if you're a fan of his stuff, you should check that out here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/01/various-artists-arms-benefit-concert_11.html

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 Sixteen Tons (Joe Cocker)
02 Money [That's What I Want] (Joe Cocker)
03 Georgia on My Mind (Joe Cocker)
04 Ride On Josephine (Joe Cocker)
05 You Better Move On (Joe Cocker)
06 You Win Again (Joe Cocker)
07 I'll Cry Instead (Joe Cocker)
08 Those Precious Little Words (Joe Cocker)
09 I've Been Trying (Joe Cocker)
10 Saved (Joe Cocker)
11 The New Age of Lily (Joe Cocker)
12 Something's Coming On (Joe Cocker)
13 She's Good to Me (Joe Cocker)
14 Wake Up Little Susie (Joe Cocker)
15 The Weight (Joe Cocker)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yaYkNJ7a

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/WJ19iKlpvSJm9hq/file

I don't know what year the cover art photo dates from, or any other details about it. But based on his looks, haircut, and clothes, I would guess it's from around 1968. In 1969, his hair got a lot longer and he began wearing hippie-styled clothes. I added the record company logo because at least some versions of his first couple of albums in the late 1960s had that logo on it.

Oh, I forgot to mention this photo was originally in black and white, but I colorized it. I also later improved it with the Krea AI program.

Various Artists - ARMS Benefit Concert, Reunion Arena, Dallas, TX, 11-28-1983

This looks a heck of a lot like my last post, and for good reason. But there enough differences that it's worth listening to both.

In short, in September 1983, some big-name musicians led a concert to benefit ARMS, a charity helping to find a cure for multiple sclerosis. The main stars were Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page (all lead guitarists for the Yardbirds in the 1960s), plus Steve Winwood. At first, the concert was meant to be a one-night only, in London. But it was such a success that it was decided to continue with a short US tour later that year. I believe nine more concerts were played.

Most of the same musicians appeared for the US shows, including Clapton, Beck, and Page. But Winwood couldn't make it, due to other commitments. So he was replaced by Joe Cocker. Also, Winwood sang the songs with vocals in Page's set. He was replaced by Paul Rodgers, former lead vocalist for Bad Company.

These personnel changes mean many of the songs were different. Most noticeably, one-fourth of the concert are Joe Cocker songs, in which Clapton plays all the lead guitar. He also sings "With a Little Help from My Friends" as one of the encores. I don't know if there's been any other time when Clapton played so many songs with Cocker.

The involvement of Paul Rodgers is even more interesting in terms of musical history. Page had pretty much been at loose ends since Led Zeppelin came to an end in 1981. Similarly, Rodgers had been looking for something new after Bad Company ended in 1982. Their collaboration for these ARMS concerts led to them forming the band The Firm, which was fairly successful, with two albums released in 1984 and 1985. The last song in their set, "Midnight Moonlight," appeared on the first Firm album, but originally started as an unreleased Led Zeppelin song.

Clapton's set, while nice, has almost the exact same setlist as the London show. The only major difference is the addition of "Sad Sad Day." For Beck's set, half of the songs are different. For the concert as a whole, I'd say about half of the songs are different from the London show. It's fairly different from after the Clapton set.

In terms of sound quality, I chose the Dallas show out of the nine US dates because it has the best sound. It sounds professionally recorded. I think it was played on the radio at the time. Unlike the London show, I didn't have any problems finding missing songs from different sources.

01 talk (Eric Clapton)
02 Everybody Oughta Make a Change (Eric Clapton)
03 Lay Down Sally (Eric Clapton)
04 Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton)
05 Rita Mae (Eric Clapton)
06 Sad Sad Day (Eric Clapton)
07 Have You Ever Loved a Woman - Ramblin' on My Mind (Eric Clapton)
08 Cocaine (Eric Clapton)
09 Don't Talk to Me (Joe Cocker with Eric Clapton)
10 Watching the River Flow (Joe Cocker with Eric Clapton)
11 Worried Life Blues (Joe Cocker with Eric Clapton)
12 You Are So Beautiful (Joe Cocker with Eric Clapton)
13 Seven Days (Joe Cocker with Eric Clapton)
14 Feelin' Alright (Joe Cocker with Eric Clapton)
15 talk (Eric Clapton)
16 Star Cycle [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck)
17 The Pump [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck)
18 Definitely Maybe [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck)
19 Blue Wind [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck)
20 People Get Ready (Andy Fairweather Low with Jeff Beck)
21 Going Down (Andy Fairweather Low with Jeff Beck)
22 talk (Jimmy Page)
23 Prelude [Instrumental] (Jimmy Page)
24 talk (Jimmy Page)
25 Who's to Blame (Paul Rodgers with Jimmy Page)
26 City Sirens (Paul Rodgers with Jimmy Page)
27 talk (Paul Rodgers with Jimmy Page)
28 Boogie Mama (Paul Rodgers with Jimmy Page)
29 talk (Paul Rodgers with Jimmy Page)
30 Midnight Moonlight (Paul Rodgers with Jimmy Page)
31 talk (Jimmy Page)
32 Stairway to Heaven [Instrumental] (Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck & Jimmy Page)
33 Layla (Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck & Jimmy Page)
34 With a Little Help from My Friends (Joe Cocker with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck & Jimmy Page)
35 talk (Ronnie Lane with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck & Jimmy Page)
36 Goodnight Irene (Ronnie Lane with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck & Jimmy Page)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Rxyys7a2

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/bVfiMx1F2qWJN9u/file

I deliberately made the cover similar to the cover for the London ARMS concert, since I consider the two of them closely related. The photo only shows some of the musicians involved, but it gets most of the big names. From left to right: Kenny Jones, Joe Cocker, Chris Stainton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Ronnie Lane, Eric Clapton, and Bill Wyman.