Laughter, Love and Music, Bill Graham Memorial, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, 11-3-1991, Part 1: Bobby McFerrin, Jackson Browne, Journey, Tracy Chapman, and More

On October 25, 1991 rock concert promoter Bill Graham died. The helicopter he was riding in went down in heavy fog as he returned home from a Huey Lewis and the News concert in Concord, California. Also killed were his companion, Melissa Gold, and his pilot, Steve Kahn. Federal investigators later said that Kahn was warned by air traffic controllers not to fly because of inclement weather. Just six days after that, a memorial rock concert for him was held in Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco. About 300,000 fans attended. There's enough music from this concert for four albums. Here's the first one.

Graham could be called a music promoter, and that much is true, but he was a lot more than just that. Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir called him "the most important non-musician in music." 

He's best known for owning the Fillmore and Winterland concert venues, but that's just a small part of the picture. There's no other promoter who has even come close to having the impact on music that he had, and I believe he's the only promoter inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He helped start and nurture the San Francisco music scene in the late 1960s, and helped a great many musical acts get their big breaks and then stay famous. 

Rabbi Robert Kirschner said of him, "There was a lot more to Bill than the Fillmore and Winterland and associations with the whole pantheon of rock 'n' roll in that era. He was also a visionary. He basically invented the whole idea of 'rock theater,' where you went to a concert for an immersion experience." His concerts were always special. For instance, when went to concerts at the Fillmore in the late 1980s, everyone who went could take home a free concert poster, as well as eat a free apple or two if they wanted. Who else would go the extra mile to improve a concert experience like that?!

And although he could be a ruthless businessman, he also was at the forefront of using music to promote social causes, especially to help fund charities. Neil Young had some moving words to say about that during this concert. "Bill Graham made us all look good. Gave us a chance to show you that we could do something good instead of just going on with our careers. He kept pushing us to do things for other people and making a place available for us to do it, so that there was no way out. Thank you, Bill."

There's a lot more that could be said about Graham and his remarkable career, but I'll direct you to his Wikipedia page for that:

Bill Graham (promoter) - Wikipedia

Suffice to say that he was beloved by many rock musicians, so they showed up for this memorial concert despite having only a couple of days to prepare. I'm sure many, many more would have wanted to play, but there was limited time available. Generally speaking, only the big name acts closest to him were chosen. 

For this first volume out of four, I gathered together all the musical acts that only performed a couple of songs each. Generally speaking, they are in the correct chronological order. However, Robin Williams, Journey, and Tracy Chapman all appeared after the next act, Santana, instead of before it. 

Also, note that I believe I've included all the music from the concert. The concert lasted about five and a half hours. The four volumes I've put together total four hours and fifteen minutes. The difference is the time between the acts.

There was just one non-musical performer at the concert, comedian Robin Williams. Normally, I like to keep things to just the music, but I've made an exception in this case to include his stand-up routine. But I stuck it at the end of this album, making it easier for you to keep it, skip it, or delete it. In fact, he performed just before Journey.

I've leave it to you to find out more about the performers if you want. But I have one comment to make about Journey. From 1977 until 1987, Steve Perry was the lead vocalist of that band. But in 1987, he felt burned out and quit the band. For the next several years, he retreated from the public eye and just tried to live a normal life. But he came out of semi-retirement for this concert. This end up being the last time Perry played with Journey.

You can find an entire article about it here:

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/last-journey-show-steve-perry/ 

Also, here's a Los Angeles Times about this memorial concert, written right after it took place:

Bay Area Plays Tribute to Graham : Memorial: About 300,000 gather for free concert at Golden Gate Park honoring the rock promoter who died 10 days ago in a helicopter crash. - Los Angeles Times 

All the music here is unreleased, I believe. I'm pretty sure the entire concert was broadcast on a local radio station, which is why we have an excellent sounding recording of all of it. 

This album is an hour and ten minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Dirty Dozen Brass Band)
02 talk (Dirty Dozen Brass Band)
03 My Feet Can't Fail Me Now (Dirty Dozen Brass Band)
04 talk by emcee (Bobby McFerrin)
05 talk (Bobby McFerrin)
06 Did I Hear You Say You Love Me (Bobby McFerrin)
07 talk (Bobby McFerrin)
08 The Star Spangled Banner (Bobby McFerrin)
09 talk by emcee (Jackson Browne)
10 For a Dancer (Jackson Browne)
11 talk (Jackson Browne)
12 World in Motion (Jackson Browne)
13 talk by emcee (Jackson Browne)
14 talk by emcee (Joe Satriani)
15 Always with Me, Always with You [Instrumental] (Joe Satriani)
16 talk (Joe Satriani)
17 The Crush of Love [Instrumental] (Joe Satriani)
18 talk by emcee (Joe Satriani)
19 talk by emcee (Aaron Neville)
20 Ave Maria (Aaron Neville)
21 talk by emcee (Aaron Neville)
22 talk by emcee (Journey)
23 talk (Journey)
24 Faithfully (Journey)
25 Lonely Road without You (Journey)
26 Lights (Journey)
27 talk by emcee (Tracy Chapman)
28 All That You Have Is Your Soul (Tracy Chapman)
29 Where the Soul Never Dies (Tracy Chapman)
30 talk by emcee (Tracy Chapman)
31 talk by emcee (Robin Williams)
32 Stand-Up Comedy Routine (Robin Williams)
33 talk by emcee (Robin Williams)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/BGA5GZ1u

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/XgCnvfog3Ukj8Gr/file

The cover image shows Steve Perry and Neal Schon of Journey at this exact concert. Perry is holding a microphone at the edge of the stage, and Schon is playing guitar. Oh, and I took the "Laughter, Love and Music" logo from a promotional poster for the event.

Journey with Albert King and Friends - PBS Soundstage, Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL, 7-9-1978

When I think of Journey, I think of a lot of good hit songs, but I also think of slick "corporate rock," and I'm not a big fan of the latter. However, I've recently discovered that Journey was way more interesting than I'd thought in their early years, especially 1978. That's because 1978 was the year they did the "Super Jam II" concert consisting almost entirely of unexpected cover versions, and it was also the year they did this "PBS Soundstage" concert. Parts of it were typical of Journey concerts from that year. But they also had Albert King as their special guest on a few songs. I certainly never would have expected a Journey and Albert King collection! So kudos to them.

And they didn't just have Albert King as their special guest. He was the main guest star, and sang a couple of songs. However, some other great blues musicians were included as well: Pinetop Perkins, Luther Allison, and Jerry Portnoy. King and the others came on stage and jammed on several songs, mainly tracks six through eight here. So double kudos to Journey for shining the spotlight on all these blues musicians, most of them who made their mark in an earlier era. For instance, Pinetop Perkins, one of the greatest blues piano players ever, was born way back in 1913, so he was a senior citizen at the time of this concert.

As an aside, this was one of the last concerts the band played with Aynsley Dunbar on drums. His leaving was part of the band's transition from progressive rock to more corporate rock.

The one disappointment I have with this recording is that the last song, "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town," is sung by Albert King, but it fades out after only a minute and a half. I looked at the video of this concert on YouTube, and there wasn't any more of it because the final credits from the TV were playing during that time. By the way, King sang "Sweet Little Angel" together with Journey lead vocalist Steve Perry. It seems this was the only time Journey ever played that song in concert.

This album is unreleased. There are videos of it for sale, but I suspect they're grey market releases.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Feeling That Way (Journey)
02 Anytime (Journey)
03 Winds of March (Journey)
04 Wheel in the Sky (Journey)
05 talk (Journey)
06 Overall Junction [Instrumental] (Journey with Albert King)
07 Sweet Little Angel (Journey with Albert King)
08 B Flat Blues Shuffle [Instrumental] (Journey with Albert King)
09 On a Saturday Night (Journey)
10 She Makes Me [Feel Alright] (Journey)
11 Lights (Journey)
12 I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town (Journey with Albert King)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/8feQK3dw

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/M0T7rZxySCUAw0X/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. It shows Albert King on the left and Journey lead guitarist Neal Schon on the right.

Journey and Friends - Super Jam II, The Automatt Studio, San Francisco, CA, 10-1-1978

I'm kind of surprised that I'm posting a Journey album, because I'm not much of a Journey fan. I sing along to their hits when I hear them on the radio, but that's about it. But I stumbled across this bootleg the other day, and I was pleasantly surprised. The interesting thing about it is that it mostly consists of covers of classic soul and rock songs. The first two songs are Journey originals, and the last two are as well, but in between are no less than eight cover songs in a row. I never thought I'd hear Journey do songs like "Hold On, I'm Coming," "Crossroads," and "Born Under a Bad Sign," much less more obscure ones like "Show Me" by Joe Tex.

Adding to the interest, there are some special guests singing on some songs. I suppose I should first explain what exactly this is. Apparently, in 1978, the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show got the idea of doing special shows featuring different musical acts performing with each other. The first one of these was called "Super Jam," and consisted of the surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd playing with some other Southern rock stars. (Some band members had died in a plane crash in 1977). 

This was the second one, Super Jam II. Journey was the main band for all the songs. However, they were joined on some songs by the Tower of Power horn section for songs that needed horns, like "Hold On, I'm Coming" and "Road Runner." Two singers from the band Stoneground also took part, Annie Sampson and Jo Baker. Sampson sang lead vocals on "Road Runner" (originally by Junior Walker and the All-Stars), and Baker sang lead on "Love Hurts." They stuck around and sang on most of the other songs as well. For instance, on the song "People Get Ready" Journey's main vocalist Steve Perry sang lead on the first verse, Sampson took the second verse, and Baker did the third verse.

They were also joined by Tom Johnston of the Doobie Brothers. He was the lead vocalist and lead guitarist in the band's early years, writing and singing many of their biggest hits. But he left the group in 1977, about a year prior to this performance. He pursued a solo career for a few years, but didn't have much success, and rejoined the Doobie Brothers in the late 1980s. Johnston joined this concert from "Hold On, I'm Coming" onwards. At first, he just played lead guitar, along with Journey's lead guitarist Neal Schon, trading solos. But he sang lead vocals on "Show Me" and "Crossroads."

Surprisingly, Journey started out as kind of a prog rock band, as well as a splinter band from Santana. The original lead vocalist, Gregg Rolie, was the lead vocalist for Santana's first four albums. Journey's lead guitarist Neal Schon had played in Santana with Rolie. But while Rolie was the lead vocalist for Journey's first couple of albums, they didn't find much success. In 1978, Steve Perry joined, and he took over singing most of the songs. The band also switched to a more commercial sound, and soon gained massive popularity. 

This concert took place at a transitional time, with Perry being in the band less than a year. Two of the songs were actually mainly sung by Rolie: "Anytime" and "Born Under a Bad Sign." He stayed with the band until 1980. They he amicably quit, saying he wanted to start a family and explore a solo career. So while there are a couple of famous Journey originals here ("Lights" and "Wheel in the Sky"), overall, this is pretty different from how they would sound a few years later.

This performance took place in a recording studio, with no audience present. It was supposed to be broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show, but apparently that never happened, due to legal problems getting permission for all the special guest participation. But it leaked out as a bootleg that sounds as good as a commercial release. The only song to be officially released from this is "Good Times" (a Sam Cooke cover), which appeared on a Journey box set.

There's some banter between songs, all spoken by Perry, but it sounds like this was overdubbed afterwards. On the version I found, there often was some music playing in the background at a low level while he was talking. I found this pointless and distracting, so I used the UVR5 audio editing program to get rid of most of it. However, on track 3, there's the voice of someone faintly singing while he's talking, and I couldn't manage to get rid of that.

By the way, if there was a "Super Jam III" or beyond, I haven't heard of it.

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 Feeling That Way (Journey & Friends)
02 Anytime (Journey & Friends)
03 talk (Journey & Friends)
04 Road Runner (Journey & Friends)
05 talk (Journey & Friends)
06 Love Hurts (Journey & Friends)
07 talk (Journey & Friends)
08 Hold On, I'm Coming (Journey & Friends)
09 talk (Journey & Friends)
10 People Get Ready (Journey & Friends)
11 talk (Journey & Friends)
12 Show Me (Journey & Friends)
13 Crossroads (Journey & Friends)
14 Born Under a Bad Sign (Journey & Friends)
15 talk (Journey & Friends)
16 Good Times (Journey & Friends)
17 Lights (Journey & Friends)
18 talk (Journey & Friends)
19 Wheel in the Sky (Journey & Friends)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17258187/JORNY1978SuprJmIIThAutmttStdoSnFrncscoCA__10-1-1978_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Bq5hLjEN

I used a photo of the band from 1979, since they had a different drummer for almost all of 1978. This is from an appearance on "The Midnight Special" TV show.