Various Artists - Elvis: The Tribute, Pyramid Arena, Memphis, TN, 10-8-1994

Here's another interesting tribute concert, with loads of big stars. All of the songs performed were made famous by Elvis Presley. 

This concert seems to have mostly disappeared down the memory hole. An album of highlights from the concert was released, called "It's Now Or Never: The Tribute To Elvis." However, it's only 45 minutes long, containing just 15 songs. But the full two plus hour long concert was broadcast on TV at the time, so excellent sounding video footage of it exists.

This concert took place in 1994 despite the lack of any big anniversary or other important timely reason for it. Instead, the Elvis Presley estate decided that Presley's music was being forgotten by younger generations, so the concert was meant to help bring his music back into the spotlight.

As you can see from the album cover or the song list, a great many music stars performed in this concert. A few more - Jon Bon Jovi, Jeff Beck, and Cher, at least - backed out at the last minute. I found that mentioned in a newspaper article, though it didn't give a reason why. 

I used two versions of the video files of this concert, converted them to audio format, and broke them into mp3s. During that process, I cut out some material. There were several sections of a few minutes each that consisted of short films highlight different aspects of Presley's life. I removed all of those, plus their intros, since they were meant mainly to be seen, not heard. I also edited out some more talk by the announcers. However, I kept all the intros relevant to the songs. Plus, of course, I kept all the music.

The concert was mostly hosted by Karen Duffy, an MTV DJ, and singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson. But actor John Stamos introduced a few acts, and TV host Phil Donohue introduced one, and sometimes one act introduced the next one.

Occasionally, I had a little trouble with the edits at the starts and ends of songs. For instance, there were quick cuts to or away from TV commercials, as well as the short films I mentioned above. I tried my best to smooth things out, but occasionally the transitions between tracks is abrupt.

Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana, James Burton, and the Jordanaires didn't have any performances on their own. However, all of them were key backing musicians or singers for Presley. From time to time, they backed up some of the other music acts. 

All of the performances were live from the concert, with two exceptions. I think "Too Much" by NRBQ actually took place before the TV broadcast began. But I slotted it into a logical spot in the concert. And U2 didn't show up for the concert, but sent video footage of their performance to be broadcast instead.

By the way, if you want to know more about the concert, I found a New York Times article of it from the time. Here's the link (I think you have to click on Option 2 to see it):

RemovePaywall | Free online paywall remover 

This album is two hours and three minutes long.

01 talk (Karen Duffy)
02 Good Rockin' Tonight (Sammy Hagar)
03 Too Much (NRBQ)
04 Baby, Let's Play House (Michael Hutchence & NRBQ)
05 talk (Kris Kristofferson & Karen Duffy)
06 talk (Chet Atkins)
07 How's the World Treating You (Chet Atkins)
08 talk (Karen Duffy)
09 Mystery Train (Dwight Yoakam)
10 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
11 Don't Be Cruel (Marty Stuart with the Jordanaires)
12 talk (Marty Stuart)
13 All Shook Up (Cheap Trick)
14 talk (John Stamos)
15 That's Alright Mama (Kris Kristofferson)
16 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
17 One Night (Billy Ray Cyrus with the Jordanaires)
18 talk (Karen Duffy)
19 Lawdy Miss Claudy (Travis Tritt)
20 talk (Karen Duffy)
21 Blue Moon [Edit] (Chris Isaak with Scotty Moore & D.J. Fontana)
22 Love Me (Mavericks)
23 talk (John Stamos)
24 talk (Carl Perkins)
25 Blue Suede Shoes (Carl Perkins with Scotty Moore & D.J. Fontana)
26 talk (Carl Perkins)
27 Rip It Up (Iggy Pop)
28 Memories (Mac Davis)
29 talk (Mac Davis)
30 talk (Bryan Adams)
31 Hound Dog (Bryan Adams with Scotty Moore & D.J. Fontana)
32 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
33 Always on My Mind (Sam Moore)
34 talk (Karen Duffy)
35 Heartbreak Hotel (John Cale)
36 talk (Karen Duffy)
37 I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Ann Wilson)
38 talk (Karen Duffy)
39 Teddy Bear (Tanya Tucker)
40 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
41 Trouble (Paul Rodgers)
42 talk (Phil Donahue)
43 [Marie's the Name] His Latest Flame (Scorpions)
44 Can't Help Falling in Love (U2)
45 talk (Kris Kristofferson & Karen Duffy)
46 It's Now or Never (Wet Wet Wet)
47 talk (Mac Davis)
48 Love Me Tender (Tony Bennett)
49 talk (Mac Davis)
50 Young and Beautiful (Aaron Neville)
51 talk (Mac Davis)
52 Jailhouse Rock (Michael Bolton with Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana & Carl Perkins)
53 talk (Karen Duffy)
54 Tryin' to Get to You (Faith Hill)
55 talk (John Stamos)
56 See See Rider (Jerry Lee Lewis with James Burton & NRBQ)
57 Kentucky Rain - Suspicious Minds (Eddie Rabbitt & Mavis Staples)
58 talk (Karen Duffy)
59 Burning Love (Melissa Etheridge)
60 talk (John Stamos)
61 Amazing Grace (Billy Ray Cyrus & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GWnJSkKo

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/cqa2ziePj3VTmo8/file 

The cover image is a pretty weird one for this concert, but bear with me for the explanation. It depicts Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley (the daughter of Elvis Presley). They had recently gotten married at the time of this concert. (Their marriage only lasted from 1994 to 1996). The weird thing is that neither of them performed at this concert. However, they did attend it. At one point near the end, you can hear the announcer mention their names, along with those of Janet Jackson (Michael Jackson's sister) and Priscilla Presley (Lisa Marie Presley's mother). All four of them briefly stood up and waved to the crowd. 

The main reason I chose them for the cover is because this was the only decent photo from the concert that I could find. The mere fact they were at the concert made news, especially due to the fact that they had just been recently married. I think the image shows the two of them backstage before or after the concert. Even this picture was rather low-res and rough, but I used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality. 

Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary - Madison Square Garden, New York City, 5-14-1988, Part 3: The MG’s, Carla Thomas, Paul Rodgers, Miki Howard, Paul Shaffer, Sam Moore, The Elwood Blues Review, Phil Collins, Bob Geldof, The Spinners, & Wilson Pickett

Here's the third part of six-hour long version of the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert. 

In the 1950s and 60s, Atlantic Records was mainly known as an R&B/ soul record label, though it broke out into other musical genres by the end of the decade. Most of this section served as a kind of concert within a concert that celebrated the 1960s soul music of the company. Atlantic Records distributed most of the music done by the Stax record label, so all of that was fair game here as well.

In the 1960s at Stax Records, the instrumental group the MG's backed up most of the other lead singers on the label, in addition to having some instrumental hits of their own. Later, key members of that band, like Steve Cropper and Donald 'Duck' Dunn, joined the Blue Brothers band in the late 1970s. Led by comedians/singers John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, they had a hit movie and some hit albums before Belushi died in the early 1980s. For most of this section of the concert, Cropper, Dunn, and other members of the MG's were the backing band. But for a portion of it, their name changed to the Elwood Blues Review, a sort of variant of the Blues Brothers because Aykroyd got involved in those songs too.

That backing band then supported some different lead singers. Carla Thomas was an original Stax star. Paul Rodgers, however, was a big star with Free and Bad Company (on Atlantic Records). Both both of those bands had ceased to exist by the time of this concert. So instead of singing any of his own hits, he sang "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" as a tribute to deceased Stax star Otis Redding. 1980s R&B star Miki Howard also sang a song associated with Redding, "Try a Little Tenderness."

Another big musical act for Stax was the soul duo Sam and Dave (Sam Moore and Dave Prater). Unfortunately, Dave Prater died several months prior to this concert (and the two of them had had a big falling out prior to that anyway). But Sam Moore was at this concert to represent Sam and Dave. Dave Prater was effectively replaced on some songs by Aykroyd, kind of bringing back the Blue Brothers, and was replaced by Phil Collins on two other songs. 

The only odd one out in this R&B section of the concert was Bob Geldof. I'm not sure why he was put where he was in the running order, if indeed this order is correct, but oh well. It was also a bit strange that instead of doing any of his own hits from his Boomtown Rats years, he did a cover of a relatively obscure song by Graham Parker.

The Spinners continued the R&B vibe of this portion of the show, even though they had much bigger success in the 1970s compared to the 1960s. I could only find one song they did. But they also played "Working My Way Back to You" and "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love."

Finally, Wilson Pickett was the star of the last couple of songs here. He was backed by the Elwood Blues Review. I looked at the video, and Dan Akroyd danced around on stage a lot and played some harmonica, but the lead vocals were basically all done by Pickett. Still, this must have kind of been a reunion for Pickett, because the Elwood Blues Review was basically the same as the MG's, and they were the backing band for most of Pickett's hits in the 1960s. Pickett even co-wrote one of the songs he performed here, "In the Midnight Hour," with the lead guitarist on stage, Steve Cropper.

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

043 talk (Dan Aykroyd)
044 Last Night [Instrumental] (MG's)
045 talk (Steve Cropper)
046 Gee Whiz (Carla Thomas & the MG's)
047 talk (Steve Cropper)
048 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay (Paul Rodgers & the MG's)
049 talk (Steve Cropper)
050 Try a Little Tenderness (Miki Howard & the MG's)
051 talk (Steve Cropper)
052 Tramp (Carla Thomas, Paul Shaffer & the MG's)
053 Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
054 talk (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
055 Soul Man (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
056 talk (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
057 I've Been Loving You Too Long (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
058 talk (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
059 You Don't Know like I Know (Phil Collins, Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
060 talk (Phil Collins, Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
061 Knock On Wood (Phil Collins, Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
062 talk (Roberta Flack)
063 talk (Bob Geldof)
064 You Can't Be Too Strong (Bob Geldof)
065 Mighty Love (Spinners)
066 In the Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett & the Elwood Blues Review)
067 talk (Wilson Pickett & the Elwood Blues Review)
068 Land of 1000 Dances (Wilson Pickett & the Elwood Blues Review)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zi3oxCsd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/UMkqqccXBZLa7Di/file

The cover photo of Wilson Pickett is from this exact concert.

Woodstock '94, Winston Farm, Saugerties, NY, 8-12-1994 to 8-14-1994 - Day 3, Part 6: Paul Rodgers

The fifth album from Day Three of the Woodstock ‘94 Festival is a set by Paul Rodgers, the former lead singer of the bands Free, Bad Company, and the Firm.

Rodgers got some help from some famous musical associates. Most prominently, he was joined for three of the last four songs in the set by Slash, The lead guitarist for the band Guns N’ Roses. That band is originally formed, was near its death throes. So while they were invited to play, they didn’t play.

He was also supported for the entire set by Neal Schon, The former lead guitarist for Santana and Journey. He also was supported by bassist Andy Fraser, Who was a key band mate in the band Free. Finally, the drummer was Jason Bonham, who is most famous for being the son of drummer John Bonham, of Led Zeppelin.

In 1993, Rodgers put out an EP of cover versions of Jimi Hendrix songs. He also put out an entire album that mostly consisted of covers of Muddy Waters songs. So in addition to performing songs made famous by Free and Bad Company, he performed songs here by Hendrix and Muddy Waters.

This album is an hour and nine minutes long.

01 talk (Paul Rodgers)
02 Rock and Roll Fantasy (Paul Rodgers)
03 Can't Get Enough (Paul Rodgers)
04 talk (Paul Rodgers)
05 Feel like Makin' Love (Paul Rodgers)
06 talk (Paul Rodgers)
07 Wishing Well (Paul Rodgers)
08 talk (Paul Rodgers)
09 Fire and Water (Paul Rodgers)
10 talk (Paul Rodgers)
11 Little Bit of Love (Paul Rodgers)
12 talk (Paul Rodgers)
13 Muddy Water Blues (Paul Rodgers)
14 talk (Paul Rodgers)
15 Rollin' Stone (Paul Rodgers)
16 talk (Paul Rodgers)
17 Standin' Round Cryin' (Paul Rodgers)
18 talk (Paul Rodgers)
19 I Don't Live Today (Paul Rodgers with Slash)
20 talk (Paul Rodgers with Slash)
21 The Hunter (Paul Rodgers with Slash)
22 talk (Paul Rodgers with Slash)
23 Bad Company (Paul Rodgers with Slash)
24 All Right Now (Paul Rodgers)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16770754/VA-WODSTCK94_8-14-1994_06PulRdgrs_atse.zip.html

Alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/A5k5PYjE

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Isle of Wight Festival, Afton Down, Isle of Wight, Britain, 8-27-1970 to 8-30-1970 - 8-30-1970: Part 1: Free

This album is the first of the last day of the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. As such, the track numbering starts at one again and the coloring of the text on the album cover is different (yellow for all the albums from this day).

The good news is that I have the entire set from the band Free here, in excellent sound. The band news is there were four acts that played before Free on this day, and I don't have any music from any of them at all. The four acts were :Good News, Kris Kristofferson, Ralph McTell, and Heaven. Don't feel bad if you never heard of Good News or Heaven, as they're both very obscure. 

Kris Kristofferson played earlier in the festival, but his set was badly received, in part due to problems with the sound system. So he was given another chance on this day. His music was much better received this time. Folk-rocker Ralph McTell also went over well, according to the press accounts.

That takes us to Free. They had just released the album "Fire and Water," containing their biggest hit, "All Right Now." The popularity surged. The album reached Number Two in the British charts, when their last two albums hadn't charted at all. The crowd was still near its maximum size of 600,000 to 700,000 people, so it was the biggest moment of Free's career so far.

Murray Lerner, the director of "Message to Love," the music documentary of the festival, later said about Free, "To me they were a revelation. I had never heard them before. I thought they were fantastic – their energy, their sensibility. And 'All Right Now' to me was really a thrilling song."

The sound quality is excellent, because the whole set was officially released as the album "Live at the Isle of Wight 1970."

This album is 49 minutes long.

001 talk (Free)
002 Ride on a Pony (Free)
003 talk (Free)
004 Woman (Free)
005 talk (Free)
006 The Stealer (Free)
007 talk (Free)
008 Be My Friend (Free)
009 Mr. Big (Free)
010 talk (Free)
011 Fire and Water (Free)
012 I'm a Mover (Free)
013 The Hunter (Free)
014 All Right Now (Free)
015 talk (Free)
016 Crossroads (Free)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15596235/IsleofWghtFestivlAftnDwnIsleofWghtBrtain__8-30-1970_Pt1Free.zip.html

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Paul Rodgers - Night of 100 Guitars, Wembley Arena, London, Britain, 6-26-1994

In 1994, the Gibson guitar company had their 100th anniversary as a business. To celebrate this, they staged a concert that brought together several famous lead guitarists. Headlining the show, however, was a singer, Paul Rodgers, formerly of Free and Bad Company. Here is a bootleg of that show.

In 1982, Bad Company broke up. After that, Rodgers was in some other bands, such as the Firm. He released his second true solo album in 1993, "Muddy Waters Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters." He brought in a whole bunch of famous lead guitarists to play on different songs. So it wasn't a stretch for him to play with some of them for this concert: Brian May of Queen, Slash of Guns N' Roses, and Neal Schon of both Santana and Journey. Schon was part of Rodgers' band for the whole concert, while the others only joined in for certain songs. Additionally, bassist Andy Fraser was featured on some songs. He had a critical role in Free with Rodgers back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, writing or co-writing many of the band's songs. He'd kept a low musical profile since then, suffering from both HIV and cancer since the early 1980s. So this concert was a bit of a Free reunion as well.

Most of the songs were classics originally by either Free or Bad Company. Only two songs, "Muddy Water Blues" and "Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl," were from his recent Muddy Waters tribute album.

This concert is an hour and four minutes long.

01 talk (Paul Rodgers)
02 Travellin' Man (Paul Rodgers)
03 talk (Paul Rodgers)
04 Wishing Well (Paul Rodgers)
05 talk (Paul Rodgers)
06 Fire and Water (Paul Rodgers)
07 talk (Paul Rodgers)
08 Muddy Water Blues (Paul Rodgers)
09 talk (Paul Rodgers)
10 Feel like Making Love (Paul Rodgers)
11 talk (Paul Rodgers)
12 Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl (Paul Rodgers with Brian May)
13 A Little Bit of Love (Paul Rodgers with Brian May & Andy Fraser)
14 talk (Paul Rodgers)
15 Mr. Big (Paul Rodgers with Andy Fraser)
16 talk (Paul Rodgers)
17 Let Me Love You (Paul Rodgers with Slash)
18 talk (Paul Rodgers)
19 The Hunter (Paul Rodgers with Slash)
20 Bad Company (Paul Rodgers with Slash)
21 All Right Now (Paul Rodgers with Andy Fraser, Brian May & Slash)
22 talk (Paul Rodgers)
23 Crossroads (Paul Rodgers with Andy Fraser, Brian May, Slash & Zakk Wylde)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15136495/PaulRdg_1994_Nghtof100GuitrsWmbleyArena__6-26-1994_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of Rodgers comes from this exact concert. I would have liked to have one or more of the lead guitarists in the photo too, but I couldn't find any good ones like that. The writing at the top comes from the promotional material for the show, including the font type and color. So I replicated that design for the writing at the bottom.

Bad Company - Acoustic, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, OH, 7-21-1999

The British band Free did a ton of stuff for the BBC during their short time as a band in the late 1960s and early 1970s. So I expected to find BBC performances by lead singer Paul Rodgers' successor band Bad Company. However, it seems Bad Company didn't play for the BBC until long after their 1970s heyday. But while looking for something from them, I stumbled upon this interesting acoustic concert from 1999. 

In short, Bad Company put out their first album in 1974, and immediately found success. They had lots of hits through the rest of the 1970s. But in the early 1980s, Rodgers left the band, and their popularity declined. After nearly two decades with two other lead singers, the original four band members, including Rodgers, reunited in 1999. So while this isn't from their heyday, it does feature that line-up. (This line-up would break up by the end of 1999, and never reunite again, due to one of the band members, bassist Boz Burrell, dying in 2006.)

There are two other aspects of this concert that make it a must-have for any fan of the band. One is that the sound quality is fantastic. Although it's a bootleg, you'd never know, since it was professionally recorded for a radio station broadcast. Even better, it was recorded for a small club audience, so you don't get that cavernous large arena sound. The second factor is that it's a genuinely acoustic show (with minimal drums). Apparently, it's the only time this hard rocking band played a concert that way. Rodgers makes some comments between songs about how he's looking forward to coming back with all their instruments. But I think it's very interesting to hear the songs in this different way.

This took place at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. It seems they had some kind of effort to put on acoustic concerts there, because I've posted another acoustic concert that took place there from Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, and I know of another one by the Allman Brothers Band. If anyone know of other great sounding acoustic concerts from this venue, let me know so I can post those too. 

One downside is that the concert is rather short, at only 42 minutes long. I trimmed a little bit of dead time between songs. I also cut out a long intro by a DJ. They didn't necessarily play all of their biggest hits, focusing instead on the songs they felt worked for the acoustic format.

01 talk (Bad Company)
02 Feel like Makin' Love (Bad Company)
03 talk (Bad Company)
04 Shooting Star (Bad Company)
05 talk (Bad Company)
06 Soul of Love (Bad Company)
07 talk (Bad Company)
08 Seagull (Bad Company)
09 talk (Bad Company)
10 Tracking Down a Runaway (Bad Company)
11 talk (Bad Company)
12 Youngblood (Bad Company)
13 talk (Bad Company)
14 Silver, Blue and Gold (Bad Company)
15 talk (Bad Company)
16 Bad Company (Bad Company)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15900469/BadComp_1999_AcoustcRockandRollHllofFame__7-21-1999_atse.zip.html

The cover photo features only Paul Rodgers, at a concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in 1999. The band name text was taken from one of their album covers. I duplicated the font and color for the text at the bottom.

Free - BBC Sessions, Volume 3 (1970-1972)

Here's the third and final album of Free at the BBC. This one was trickier to put together than the other two.

Free didn't last that long, compared to other bands like them. Formed in mid-1968, the band made it big in 1970 with their classic hit "All Right Now." But then they broke up in 1971, due to personality conflicts. However, they reunited in 1972 and put out more music, only to break up for good in 1973. A key figure during these troubled years was lead guitarist Paul Kossoff. He had a growing drug addiction problem, and the band's condition rose and fell with his successes and failures with beating that addiction. Eventually, drugs got the best of him, and he died in 1976 at only the age of 25.

The band continued to put out quality albums during this time, with a live album in 1971, then studio albums in 1972 and 1973. But on stage they were hit or miss, with Kossoff often unable to perform well, or sometimes failing to show up at all. Perhaps because of that, the band only had two BBC sessions in 1971, and none after that. So their last two years as a band aren't as well represented in this series.

That's not to say that aren't represented at all. During the band's first break-up in mid-1971, lead vocalist Paul Rodgers formed a new band called Peace. This band played a few concerts, but didn't last long, since Free reunited in early 1972. However, during Peace's brief existence, they did play one BBC session. It's never been officially released, but it exists with good sound quality on bootleg. Two of the three new songs they did, "Heartbreaker" and "Seven Angels," would be put on a Free album in very similar versions, though they would go on their 1973 album instead of their 1972 one. "Like Water" would be done by Rodgers next band, Bad Company, in 1977.

There are two famous songs the band did towards the end of their career: "Heartbreaker" and "Wishing Well." I wanted to include both, so this BBC series could also serve as a "best of" for the band. For "Heartbreaker" there was no problem because it was done during that Peace BBC session. But I couldn't find any instance of "Wishing Well" played on TV or radio shows. So instead I found the best sounding concert bootleg I could find with that song on it, from late 1972, and used that version. I stripped out the audience noise at the end so it would fit in with the sound of the other songs here.

So yeah, this volume was a little more tricky to put together. This time, only five of the 11 performances have been officially released (tracks 2 through 6). I also wanted to include "The Stealer," another key song for the band. They never did it in the studio for the BBC (though there's a live version on Volume 2), but I found an unreleased version from another TV show appearance. And "My Brother Jake" was done for the BBC, but for some reason wasn't included on the official album.

By the way, for the songs "Be My Friend" and "Ride on a Pony," the official album included several takes. They did the song a few times before they felt they got it right. I found these extra versions unnecessary, especially since most of them were incomplete. So I only picked what I considered the best take of each one. For "Be My Friend" that was take 2, and for "Ride on a Pony" that was take 5.

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 The Stealer (Free)
02 All Right Now (Free)
03 Fire and Water (Free)
04 Be My Friend (Free)
05 Ride on a Pony (Free)
06 Get Where I Belong (Free)
07 My Brother Jake (Free)
08 Heartbreaker (Peace [Free])
09 Like Water (Peace [Free])
10 Seven Angels (Peace [Free])
11 Wishing Well (Free)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15116150/Freee_1970-1972_BBSessionsVolume3_atse.zip.html

The cover photo shows the band hanging out backstage in 1972.

Free - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert (1970)

Here's the second of three volumes of Free at the BBC. The first and third ones are studio sessions. This second one consists entirely of songs done live before an audience.

I didn't put a date in the title, because the material here is from two BBC concerts, not one. The first four songs were done for "John Peel's Sunday Concert" in January 1970. This totals 22 minutes. The remaining seven songs are also for "John Peel's Sunday Concert," but in July 1970. This totals 35 minutes. Luckily, there are no duplicates in the two shows.

All the performances have been officially released on the album "Live at the BBC," so the sound quality is excellent. However, there are a couple of problems. One is that there is no banter between songs. I'm sure there was originally, probably BBC DJ serving as emcee. I don't know if the recordings of those weren't saved, or if there was an editorial decision not to include them on the official release. If anyone has more, let me know, and I'll add it in.

The second problem is one that I was able to fix:

 two of the songs faded out a little early, and one song had no applause at the end. For the fading out, I'm pretty sure it was only the very tail ends of the songs. I did some editing to give them satisfying sounding endings, and added applause for them. I also added applause for the song that was missing it. These three songs are the ones with "[Edit]" in their names. 

The two shows up total total 57 minutes.

01 The Hunter (Free)
02 Woman (Free)
03 Free Me (Free)
04 Remember [Edit] (Free)
05 Fire and Water (Free)
06 Be My Friend (Free)
07 Ride on a Pony (Free)
08 Mr. Big (Free)
09 Don't Say You Love Me [Edit] (Free)
10 Woman (Free)
11 All Right Now [Edit] (Free)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15116151/Freee_1970_BBSessionsVolume2InConcrt_atse.zip.html

The photo shows lead singer Paul Rodgers in front of a crowd at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970.

Free - BBC Sessions, Volume 1 (1968-1970)

Next up for the BBC is the British band Free. The band's lead singer was Paul Rodgers, who went on to bigger things later, especially with the band Bad Company. Nowadays, Free isn't that well known, other than their classic hit "All Right Now." But they were a major British blue rock band, and got a lot of critical praise. 

In terms of BBC recordings, it turns out they did some studio sessions and some live sessions. They played many of the same songs live that they did in the studio. So I've created two volumes of their studio sessions and one of their live sessions. This is the first album of studio sessions.

All but two of the songs here come from an official album, called "Live at the BBC." The two exceptions are the last two songs. Those come from the German TV show "Beat Club," and are still unreleased. I've included those because a few key songs didn't happen to be done in the studio for the BBC.

All but the last two songs were recorded in 1968 or 1969, before the band hit it big with songs like "All Right Now" and "Fire and Water." At this point, the band's music was more steeped in the blues. Although their first two albums (both released in 1969) weren't as commercially successful as their later albums, they're their most critically acclaimed ones.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Waiting on You (Free)
02 Sugar for Mr. Morrison (Free)
03 I'm a Mover (Free)
04 Over the Green Hills (Free)
05 Songs of Yesterday (Free)
06 Broad Daylight (Free)
07 Woman (Free)
08 I'll Be Creepin' (Free)
09 Trouble on Double Time (Free)
10 Mouthful of Grass (Free)
11 Free Me (Free)
12 Mr. Big (Free)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15116097/Freee_1968-1970_BBSessionsVolume1_atse.zip.html

I don't know when or where the cover photo comes from. If anyone knows, please tell us.

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.