Newport Folk Festival, Festival Field, Newport, RI, 7-25-1968 to 7-28-1968, Part 9 - Janis Ian & Tim Buckley

This is the ninth of ten albums of the 1968 Newport Folk Festival. This was part of the festival's last day, July 28, 1968. There are two sets here, one from singer-songwriter Janis Ian and the other from singer-songwriter Tim Buckley.

Ian was quite young at the time of this concert, just seventeen years old. She'd had a surprise hit the year before with the song, "Society's Child (Baby, I've Been Thinking)," which dealt with interracial romance. The same month as this concert she released her third album, "The Secret Life of J. Eddy Fink." It was a bad time in her life. She was doing a lot of drugs to cope with her fame, and even attempted suicide. You wouldn't know that from her performance here though, which was fine.

Tim Buckley has become something of a music legend, in part due to dying young (in 1975) as well as having a famous musical son, Jeff Buckley, who also died young. As a result, there's a demand for his live recordings. So this is a very welcome addition to his discography. The sound quality is excellent, like everything from this festival. And it took place at an interesting time, when he was moving from folky material to more experimental and jazzy material. 

His first song, "Buzzin' Fly," wouldn't be released until a year later, on his album "Happy Sad." The next two songs were covers. He played them a lot in concert, but he didn't put them on any albums at the time. "The Dolphins" would be released on a studio album, but not until 1973. His final song, "Morning Glory," was from his most recent album at the time, "Goodbye and Hello."

This album is 45 minutes long. The Janis Ian set is 23 minutes long, and the Tim Buckley set is 22 minutes long.

116 talk by George Wein (Janis Ian)
117 Janeys Blues (Janis Ian)
118 Pro-Girl (Janis Ian)
119 Society's Child [Baby, I've Been Thinking] (Janis Ian)
120 New Christ Cardiac Hero (Janis Ian)
121 My Land (Janis Ian)
122 talk by Oscar Brand (Tim Buckley)
123 Buzzin' Fly (Tim Buckley)
124 Wayfaring Stranger (Tim Buckley)
125 talk (Tim Buckley)
126 The Dolphins (Tim Buckley)
127 talk (Tim Buckley)
128 Morning Glory (Tim Buckley)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17205348/VA-NEWPRTFLKFESTIVL196809JnisIan_TimBuckly.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/TPusZM62

The cover art shows Janis Ian on the left and Tim Buckley on the right. Both are from this exact concert. It's a shame I had to edit them down to get both to fit. If anyone wants me to post the full versions, or of any of the others from the concert that I had to split in two, let me know and I'll post them here too. 

UPDATE: On October 5, 2024, I upgraded the photo with the use of the Krea AI program.

Tim Buckley - BBC Sessions (1967-1974)

First off, I have to say it's a bit of a stretch to call this album "BBC Sessions." Only eight of the 15 songs were actually done for the BBC. But the rest are from other TV or radio shows, so it all fits that general theme. And all the songs sound great, with most of them done in recording studios or at least sounding like it.

These days, I suppose that the main reason people have heard of Tim Buckley is because they know he's the father of Jeff Buckley, the singer who burned brightly in the 1990s but died after only releasing one album in his lifetime. That's too bad, because Tim Buckley's music is very critically acclaimed, though it has only sold a tiny fraction of what Jeff Buckley's music has sold.

Tim Buckley was an American singer-songwriter who released about an album a year from 1966 to 1974, then died of a drug overdose in 1975. In all that time, he only did two proper BBC studio sessions, in 1968. The songs from the first session are tracks two through six here. They're the only officially released performances on this album, coming out on an EP called "The Peel Sessions." Tracks 7 and 8 are from another BBC studio session. Apparently, at least one other song was performed, "The Fly," but no recording of that one has emerged.

Also, "Happy Time" is from an appearance on a 1968 BBC TV show, and the last two songs are from an appearance on another BBC TV show, in 1974.

The rest of the songs are generally TV appearances that I found through the 2007 movie documentary about him called "My Fleeting House." Thankfully, that documentary has talking between songs, but no talking over the songs. That documentary rounded up pretty much all the TV footage of him known to exist, in excellent sound quality. So I converted the movie file into mp3s of the songs that I didn't have here already. (There were only one or two song with multiple versions that I didn't use.)

"Song to the Siren" is of particular interest. This version was recorded in 1967 for the last episode of the US TV show "The Monkees." Buckley wouldn't put the song on album until 1970. This version is significantly different from the album version, especially because it consists of just him and his acoustic guitar instead of a full band.

If you're not familiar with Buckley's music, this is a good place to start. It contains versions of his most famous songs. And being an hour and six minutes long, it's not an overwhelming amount of music. Note though that he has a kind of jazzy improv style that's rare for most singer songwriters. Some people love it, but other people can't get into it. 

By the way, I believe all the songs are written or co-written by Buckley except for "Sally Go Round the Roses" and "The Dolphins." 

This album is an hour and 14 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On December 4, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. I added two songs I'd missed, "Love from Room 109 at the Islander (On Pacific Coast Highway)" and "The Train." As mentioned above, they're the only two survivors from a 1968 Top Gear radio session.  

01 Song to the Siren (Tim Buckley)
02 Morning Glory (Tim Buckley)
03 Coming Home to You [Happy Time] (Tim Buckley)
04 Sing a Song for You (Tim Buckley)
05 Hallucinations - Troubadour (Tim Buckley)
06 Once I Was (Tim Buckley)
07 Love from Room 109 at the Islander [On Pacific Coast Highway] (Tim Buckley)
08 The Train (Tim Buckley)
09 Happy Time (Tim Buckley)
10 Come Here Woman (Tim Buckley)
11 I Woke Up (Tim Buckley)
12 Blue Melody (Tim Buckley)
13 Venice Beach [Music Boats by the Bay] (Tim Buckley)
14 Pleasant Street (Tim Buckley)
15 Sally Go Round the Roses (Tim Buckley)
16 Honey Man (Tim Buckley)
17 The Dolphins (Tim Buckley) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6o82jmST

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/QVzzpi3t35zLXH8/file 

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from an appearance he did on a TV show called "The Show" in 1970.