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.

Texas International Pop Festival, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Lewisville, TX, 9-1-1969, Part 8: Sweetwater

Here's another album from the third day of the 1969 Texas International Pop Festival. It's the eighth set from that day, with two more to go. This one is a set by the band Sweetwater.

Sweetwater was a talented band with a lot of potential. They put out their debut album in 1968, simply called "Sweetwater." Their big break came when they performed at the Woodstock festival in August 1969. I've posted their performance there. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/12/sweetwater-woodstock-festival-max.html

Unfortunately, a couple of months after this concert, the band's lead singer, Nancy Nevins, was in a car crash. She was in a coma for ten days. She survived, but just barely. Her vocal chords were damaged, and her voice never fully recovered. That pretty much killed off the band's momentum. You can read more about it in the write-up I did for their Woodstock set.

Live recordings from this band are extremely rare. As far as I can tell, there's just this and the Woodstock one. Unfortunately, this one is quite short. But on the positive side, at least it's from a soundboard source. The last song was cut off, so I used a bit from the Woodstock performance to finish it off. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in the title.

I found a little bit about what happened during this set. The band delighted the crowd by throwing Frisbees and candy bars into the audience. Performing after dark, they asked the crowd to light matches or lighters and hold them up, which also had happened at Woodstock. Soon, the whole crowd was aglow.

On a different note, since I don't have a lot to say about this set, I want to mention something that happened at some point during this last day of the festival. 

The festival was so relatively problem-free that near the end of this day, both the Lewisville mayor and the police chief, Ralph Adams, went onstage and congratulated the audience on its good behavior. Adams gave a short speech which included this quote: "You are really teaching the older people here a lesson. Today, I can tell you that we have not made one arrest of anyone attending this festival simply because none of you has given us any reason to. Instead, our only trouble has come from the sightseers outside the festival grounds. People have asked me how I can manage to keep the peace at an event like this. I have told them the same thing that I told our police force - these people are human beings too and all you have to do is treat them that way." He even held up a peace sign, and added, "You are welcome back here anytime you want to. The town is yours."

After a standing ovation, one of the festival organizers took the microphone, and said, "There are a few bad cops in Dallas, like there are in every city. And some places like Chicago have pigs. But the Dallas police here are peace officers."

Given the culture clash between the festival crowd, largely made up of hippies, and the conservative opposition from rural Texas, it's nice to see that some people were able to rise above those differences. 

This album is 18 minutes long. 

01 What's Wrong (Sweetwater)
02 talk (Sweetwater)
03 Why Oh Why [Edit] (Sweetwater)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yaQr3JM8

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/n3f2l624OaR6z9y/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Nancy Nevins, the band's lead singer. For once for this festival, the original photo was actually in color. However, it was very blurry and low-res. I used the Krea AI program several times to sharpen it up and add detail. 

Sweetwater - Woodstock Festival, Max Yasgur's Farm, Bethel, NY, 8-15-1969

Last week, I posted a couple of performances from the famous 1969 Woodstock concert that otherwise are not widely available. I have a few more of those to post, and here's the next one.

Chances are you're never heard of Sweetwater. Here's their Wikipedia entry if you want to know more:

Sweetwater (band) - Wikipedia

Let me give you a quick summary. The band put out their debut album in 1968. They were led by female vocalist Nancy Nivens. Many people likened them to the Jefferson Airplane, with Nivens sounding a bit like Grace Slick. Wikipedia calls their style "psychedelic folk." 

Their appearance at Woodstock was their big break. They started to get some TV appearances, and it seemed like they were going to become a major band. But then, just a few months after Woodstock, Nivens was severely injured when a car that was hit by a drunk driver. She was in a coma for ten days and she almost died. Her vocal chords were damaged when she had a tracheotomy surgery to help save her life. Afterwards, she could still sing, but she lost much of her vocal range and things were never the same. She only sang a few songs on their next album. Without Nivens' vocals, the band struggled and broke up a couple of years later.

In my opinion, this tragic series of events explains why Sweetwater isn't better known. But they were a very good band, and luckily we have an excellent recording of them at their full power at Woodstock. So if you like the music of that era and want to try something new, given this a listen, or their debut album (which is simply called "Sweetwater").

Sweetwater was one of the first full band to play at Woodstock. (Richie Havens and a couple of folk musicians came before them.) As a result, although this is a soundboard recording, I think the recorders were still working some kinks out. I had to make some adjustments that I didn't have to make for other artists who appeared later in the festival. One thing is that the audience applause was very quiet. So I boosted that somewhat when I could.

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

01 talk (Sweetwater)
02 Motherless Child (Sweetwater)
03 talk (Sweetwater)
04 Look Out (Sweetwater)
05 talk (Sweetwater)
06 For Pete's Sake (Sweetwater)
07 talk (Sweetwater)
08 Day Song (Sweetwater)
09 talk (Sweetwater)
10 What's Wrong (Sweetwater)
11 talk (Sweetwater)
12 My Crystal Spider (Sweetwater)
13 Two Worlds (Sweetwater)
14 talk (Sweetwater)
15 Why Oh Why (Sweetwater)
16 Let the Sunshine In (Sweetwater)
17 Oh Happy Day (Sweetwater)
18 talk (Sweetwater)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15175659/Sweetwtr_1969_WoodstckFestivlMaxYasgursFarmBethlNY__8-15-1969_atse.zip.html

The album cover is another one I made before my recent computer troubles. The photo is less than ideal, but I used it because it's from their Woodstock performance. If anyone has a better one, please let me know. Nancy Nivens is the one female shown.