Various Artists - Playboy After Dark (CBS Television City, Los Angeles, CA), Volume 8: December 1969 to February 1970

Here's the seventh volume of the episodes I compiled of the "Playboy After Dark" TV show. It's the third volume of the show's second season.

I'll only mention some things about a couple of the performances. The rest should be evident just by listening. 

This episode features a previously unknown chapter of Lesley Gore's music career. She'd had a string of hits from 1963 to 1967, but her music went out of style. She continued to release some singles, but they all flopped. In 1972, she put out an album for the first time since 1967, "Someplace Else Now," that recast her in a singer-songwriter mode, similar to Carole King and her seminal 1971 album "Tapestry." In her Playboy TV appearance, she sang two songs that were moving into that mode. Neither of them were officially released by her anywhere, as far as I could tell. One of them, "Didn't We," is a Jimmy Webb song that was covered by many musical artists in this time period. 

Another bit of lost history are the two songs by Joanne Vent and Muscatel. Vent was an attractive White woman with a soulful, bluesy voice, who seemed to have potential for a big music career, a la Janis Joplin. She put out a solo album in 1969, called, "The Black and White of It Is Blues." Unfortunately, as one review I read put it, "Great voice, but not such a great album." At the time of this show, she was getting ready to release a second album with a new backing band, called Muscatel. I found a web link of someone selling a test pressing of it on eBay. But somehow that album never came out. The two songs she sang here suggest what her second album could have sounded like. She also was part of a duet in Volume 5, and shows up again in Volumes 10 and 11.

It's great that Fleetwood Mac is included here. But unfortunately, their performance was badly edited down. Their one song, "Rattlesnake Shake," is only two and a half minutes long. It's clear the performance was longer, since the song both fades in and fades out. They also did a second song, "Coming Your Way," but it only showed up for half a minute at the very end of that particular episode, under an overdubbed advertisement for T.W.A. Airlines. So I didn't bother to include that.

I've mentioned that each episode ended with talking over the music. But, by chance, that only impacted one song in this volume,  "The Category Stomp by John Hartford. That's why that one has "[Edit]" in its title.

This album is an hour and eight minutes long. 

01 Something (Dolores Hall)
02 Just Because of You (Dolores Hall)
03 A Simple Thing as Love (John Hartford)
04 Natural to Be Gone (John Hartford)
05 The Category Stomp [Edit] (John Hartford)
06 Let's Get Together (Jack Jones)
07 If You Want Me To (Chambers Brothers)
08 Love, Love, Love (Chambers Brothers)
09 Georgia on My Mind (James Brown)
10 Yesterday (Vicki Anderson)
11 By the Time I Get to Phoenix (James Brown)
12 God Bless the Child (Jack Jones)
13 The More I See You (Jack Jones)
14 Rattlesnake Shake (Fleetwood Mac)
15 Hello Young Lovers (Lesley Gore)
16 Didn't We (Lesley Gore)
17 High Sheriff of Calhoun Parrish (Tony Joe White)
18 Groupy Girl (Tony Joe White)
19 Slow Train (Joanne Vent & Muscatel)
20 Long Walk to D.C. (Joanne Vent & Muscatel)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JdGHbzj8

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/HAcJNqwRYyI9p09/file

The cover image shows Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac. It's a screenshot I took from one of these episodes.

Tony Joe White - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, American Music Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, London, Britain, 7-2-1992

I recently posted two Tony Joe White BBC albums from the 1970s. This one is from much later, 1992, when he had a career revival.

White had a lot of commercial and critical success in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But he didn't have much success in the late 1970s and through most of the 1980s. Things started to turn around for him in 1989, due to his songwriting. Four of his songs were chosen for Tina Turner's 1989 album "Foreign Affair." Two of those were hits, "Steamy Windows" and "Undercover Agent for the Blues." (Both of those songs are performed here.) That gave his own music career a new lease on life, resulting in a new record contract. His 1991 album "Closer to the Truth" was mostly ignored in the U.S., but it sold pretty well in Europe and Australia. All the songs here are from that album, except for "Polk Salad Annie," which was a big hit for him in 1969.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 29 minutes long. 

01 talk (Tony Joe White)
02 Undercover Agent for the Blues (Tony Joe White)
03 Tunica Motel (Tony Joe White)
04 Bi-Yo Rhythm (Tony Joe White)
05 [You're Gonna Look] Good in Blues (Tony Joe White)
06 Polk Salad Annie (Tony Joe White)
07 Steamy Windows (Tony Joe White)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SRWG57A3

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/user/files/T03k8COYKPK3JVY/file

The cover photo is from a concert in Hamburg, Germany, in February 1992. 

Tony Joe White - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, London, Britain, 5-8-1974

Here's another short BBC concert by singer-songwriter Tony Joe White.

On the same day I'm posting this, I'm posting a BBC concert he did in 1970. Both of them were done for the "In Concert" TV show. I originally had posted that 1970 with this 1974 date, because that was how the bootleg was labelled. But musical friend Progsprog has sent me a lot of rare BBC material lately, and one thing he sent me was this 1974 show. When I got this, I realized I must have had the wrong date for the other show. It was pretty easy to figure out, because all the songs on that one were from 1970 or earlier, while this one has some songs he released in 1973 or 1974. For instance, "Sign of a Lion" was a song that only came out on a single that was released in 1974.

It seems White actually had two episodes of "In Concert" in 1974. They were taken from the same concert, and shown on TV a couple of months apart. If that's true, I'm guessing this is the first part, since it seems unlikely he would end with an obscure song like "Sign of a Lion," and this recording more fades out than comes to a clear end. If and when anyone can send the second part to me, I'll update this with that portion as well.

White had his biggest successes in the early 1970s, and then his commercial prospects declined as the decade went on. But he came back in the 1980s and 90s as a successful songwriter. That led to another BBC concert, which I plan on posting here as well.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.  

This album is 31 minutes long. 

01 I've Got a Thing about You Baby (Tony Joe White)
02 Willie and Laura Mae Jones (Tony Joe White)
03 talk (Tony Joe White)
04 Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll (Tony Joe White)
05 talk (Tony Joe White)
06 Polk Salad Annie (Tony Joe White)
07 Caress Me Babe (Tony Joe White)
08 talk (Tony Joe White)
09 That Loving Feeling (Tony Joe White)
10 Sign of the Lion (Tony Joe White)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ydGx4PEp

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/nqJWIOQfsc9AdKr/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the Crystal Palace Garden Party, in London, on September 15, 1973. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.

Tony Joe White - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: In Concert, London, Britain, 11-23-1970

At the end of 2024, I posted a short BBC concert by singer-songwriter Tony Joe White. I thought it was from 1974, because that's how it was labeled, but it turns out that was wrong. It actually was from 1970. The problem was that he appeared on the same BBC TV show, "In Concert," twice, in 1970 and 1974. So it was easy to mistake one for another. Now, at the end of 2025, I figured out the mistake because I found a copy of the 1974 concert. 

So I've completely deleted the old version I posted last year and I'm replacing it with this. It's actually the same music as before, but with changed title, cover art, and mp3 tags. I'll follow this by posting the 1974 concert.

White is probably best known for the song "Polk Salad Annie," which he wrote and which was a Top Ten hit in the U.S. in 1969. He also wrote "Rainy Night in Georgia," which was a Top Ten hit for Brook Benton in 1970, and was included in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the top 500 songs of all time. White's career faded into obscurity in the late 1970s, done in by disco like so many others at the time. But he had a revival in the 1990s, including writing some hits for Tina Turner.

Here's his Wikipedia entry if you want to know more:

Tony Joe White - Wikipedia

The date I'm using here is the broadcast date. If anyone knows the recording date please let me know, so I can use that instead. The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 30 minutes long.

01 Polk Salad Annie (Tony Joe White)
02 talk (Tony Joe White)
03 Rainy Night in Georgia (Tony Joe White)
04 talk (Tony Joe White)
05 Willie and Laura Mae Jones (Tony Joe White)
06 talk (Tony Joe White)
07 Groupy Girl (Tony Joe White)
08 talk (Tony Joe White)
09 The Migrant (Tony Joe White)
10 talk (Tony Joe White)
11 Roosevelt and Ira Lee [Night of the Moccasin] (Tony Joe White)
12 talk (Tony Joe White)
13 Save Your Sugar for Me (Tony Joe White)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CUa8eUGz

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/eYf9ImF35xlgvCs/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Toronto Rock and Roll Revival, Varsity Stadium, Toronto, Canada, 9-13-1969, Part 2: Bo Diddley - Tony Joe White - Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys

This second album from the 1969 Toronto Rock and Roll Revival Festival is kind of a catch-all, consisting of the scraps I could find, of partial sets. I was only able to find one song by Bo Diddley, two songs by Tony Joe White, and three songs by Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys.

Bo Diddley is one of the founders of rock and roll, known especially for the "Bo Diddley beat" used in countless songs. He had a lot of hits between 1955 and 1962. 

There's a reason why only one song from Diddley's set is included here. D.A. Pennebaker, who had already made two successful music documentaries, wanted to make a documentary out of the festival. But financial negotiations were still going on when the festival started. Pennebaker was a big fan of 1950s rock and roll, and mainly wanted to film the 1950s stars. So he was taken aback when Diddley appeared on stage as one of the first acts, before a final contract about the documentary was signed between Pennebaker and the festival's promoters. He quickly scrambled to get a camera and start filming, but initially the camera didn't have sound. But then some of his assistants joined in and started filming too. However, they only really got everything together in time for Diddley's final encore, which is the song here. I only have the recording of it because it was included in Pennebaker's documentary.

When I first posted these albums from the festival, I had an entire album of Diddley's music, taken from a bootleg. But after just a couple of hours, an alert commenter wrote to me that most of the album was fake: someone took studio versions of a bunch of his songs, slathered audience cheering over them, and presented them as his performance from this festival! I was snookered. But I double checked, and sure enough, that bootleg was bonus. That's why you'll only see one song here, even though you can find a bootleg with a lot more. 

Tony Joe White was a fairly big star at the time. He'd had a hit that summer with "Polk Salad Annie," which made the Top Ten in the U.S. singles chart. So I'm sure he performed many more songs, including that hit. But for whatever reason, only these two songs seem to be publicly available. Apparently for this concert he was backed by Booker T. and the MG's.

Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys were similarly popular, though their popularity didn't endure as well as White's. They also had a hit in the summer of 1969, with "Good Old Rock 'n' Roll." It reached Number 21 on the U.S. singles chart, and almost made the Top Ten in Canada. They also had the very rare privilege of having their debut album produced by none other than Jimi Hendrix. Their hit single was a tribute to 1950s rock and roll, so that made them a good fit for the theme of this festival. Unfortunately, we only get three songs from their set, and that doesn't include their hit. What we do have include a couple of 1950s cover songs, so that was a good fit for the festival a well.

I've already posted music by Tony Joe White at this blog, so I don't feel the need to say much more about him. Here's the Wikipedia entry for Cat Mother, if you want to know more about that band:

Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys - Wikipedia 

Everything here is unreleased. The Bo Diddley song, the two White songs, and the first two Cat Mother songs sound excellent. However, the sound quality for the last Cat Mother song is pretty dire. I've only included it because I'm trying to include everything from the festival I can find. That's why it's a bonus track here. You might want to delete that one altogether. 

The vocals for most of the songs here were low in the mix. I boosted them using the UVR5 audio editing program. 

It's too bad we don't have more of White's set, because it sounds like it was a very good one. Producer Kim Fowley was hired to be the emcee for the festival. Later, when asked what he thought the best musical act of the festival was, he replied, "It was Tony Joe White backed by Booker T. and the MG's at that stadium... They blew everybody off. Seeing Tony Joe White with that Stax band was like if Elvis (Presley) had stayed at Sun Records in 1969 and had a better version of Credence Clearwater Revival behind him. With keyboard." 

Note that I don't know the exact order of when these three acts went on stage; I only know the order of most of the big name acts. They certainly didn't go on back to back, since I know Bo Diddley was one of the first acts, White went on some time later, and Cat Mother went on still later, after Chuck Berry. But I put these three acts together since I only have a small amount of music from each one.  

This album is 23 minutes long, not including the bonus track.

01 talk (Bo Diddley)
02 Bo Diddley (Bo Diddley)
03 Hard to Handle (Tony Joe White)
04 Jammin' (Tony Joe White)
05 Along Came Jones (Cat Mother & the All Night News Boys)
06 Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu (Cat Mother & the All Night News Boys)

Wherever There's a Party (Cat Mother & the All Night News Boys)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1ULSK2ZZ

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/A0OriTFhD8E977c/file

The cover photo of Bo Diddley is from this exact concert. It's a screenshot I took from one of the two documentaries about this festival. (It's rather fortunate these three acts were packaged together here, because I couldn't find any photos of Tony Joe White or Cat Mother from the festival.)

Texas International Pop Festival, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Lewisville, TX, 9-1-1969, Part 4: Tony Joe White

Here's the fourth album (out of ten) from the third day of the 1969 Texas International Pop Festival. This one is a set by singer-songwriter Tony Joe White.

Just like the previous act I posted, Delaney and Bonnie, Tony Joe White was suddenly "hot" by the time of this concert. He started his recording career by releasing five singles in 1967 and 1968, but none of them made the charts. However, the last one, "Polk Salad Annie," was a slow grower. Over half a year after its release, it entered the charts in July 1969, thanks to a D.J. in Los Angeles who started frequently playing it. Right at the time of this concert, it peaked it the charts, reaching Number Eight in the U.S. It would be the biggest hit of his career, by far. But that hit had a big impact, because it caused people to look at his other songs, revealing that he was a very talented songwriter. People started covering his songs. For instance, Brook Benton released a single of his "Rainy Night in Georgia" at the end of 1969, and it almost went to the top of the charts in the U.S.

As expected, White played "Polk Salad Annie" in his set. Sadly, "Rainy Night in Georgia" wasn't included, nor was his "Willie and Laura Mae Jones," which was a minor hit for Dusty Springfield in 1969. But chances are very strong that this isn't the full set, since it's quite short, so we have no idea what other songs he performed. In any case, his set was very well received by the crowd. A review in "The Dallas Morning News" newspaper the next day remarked that White "put forth that down-home sound which is rapidly gaining momentum," and "the crowd ate it up."

Although this set is short, it's all from a soundboard bootleg source, so at least the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 23 minutes long.

01 Polk Salad Annie (Tony Joe White)
02 Aspen, Colorado (Tony Joe White)
03 Can You See the Lightning (Tony Joe White)
04 talk (Tony Joe White)
05 Roosevelt and Ira Lee (Tony Joe White)
06 Hard to Handle (Tony Joe White)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JtxsXKPR 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/2d1atZ8V6Wm8FIm/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. For once, the original was in color and I didn't have to do any editing on it.

Isle of Wight Festival, Afton Down, Isle of Wight, Britain, 8-27-1970 to 8-30-1970 - 8-28-1970: Part 2: Tony Joe White

Next up from the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival is a set by Tony Joe White. This one is straightforward, as it just features his set and nothing else.

White is best known for his song "Polk Salad Annie," which was a Top Ten hit in the US in 1969. But he was a talented singer-songwriter who wrote hits for others, including "Rainy Night in Georgia" by Brook Benton and "Steamy Windows" by Tina Turner. He died in 2018.

This is his complete set. It was officially released in 2006, but only as part of a box set.

This album is 32 minutes long.

Note that I'm starting the track numbering here with 18 instead of 1. That's so you can put all the songs from the August 28, 1970 sets into one folder to make one continuous listen, if you so desire. I'll be doing the same with the August 29th and 30th sets, starting back with track 1 for each new day.

18 Boom Boom (Tony Joe White)
19 talk (Tony Joe White)
20 Roosevelt and Ira Lee [Night of the Mossacin] (Tony Joe White)
21 talk (Tony Joe White)
22 I Want You (Tony Joe White)
23 talk (Tony Joe White)
24 Groupy Girl (Tony Joe White)
25 Stud Spider (Tony Joe White)
26 talk (Tony Joe White)
27 Polk Salad Annie (Tony Joe White)
28 talk (Tony Joe White)
29 Save Your Sugar for Me (Tony Joe White)
30 talk (Tony Joe White)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15584603/IsleofWghtFestivlAftnDwnIsleofWghtBrtain__8-28-1970_Pt2TnyJoeWhte.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

The Carpenters (with Tony Joe White) - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: In Concert, London, Britain, 9-25-1971

Back in 2018, I jumped deep into the depths of the uncool pool by posting an album by the Carpenters. (Technically, their name is just "Carpenters," but nobody calls them that.) Now I'm jumping back into that pool by posting another album by them. Yes, their music is super sappy and cheesy, but damn, Karen Carpenter had one of the most amazing voices ever. I swear I can hear her smiling most of the time when she's singing.

This concert was done for the BBC's "In Concert" TV series. You can find the video of it on YouTube. But there are a couple of odd aspects about it. One is that singer-songwriter Tony Joe White sang two of his songs in between Carpenters songs. The other is that two of the songs shown on the TV show were actually the studio versions ("Help" and a Burt Bacharach medley), so I didn't include those. 

I must say I'm really impressed with Karen Carpenter in this unreleased show. Not only does her voice sound flawless, but she played the drums the entire time, as you can see on the video. That must have been really hard to do.

This concert is 39 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On June 25, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is the same, but I changed the album title to "Volume 1" after finding material for a "Volume 2".

01 Love Is Surrender (Carpenters)
02 Superstar [Groupie] (Carpenters)
03 talk (Carpenters)
04 And When He Smiles (Carpenters)
05 Rainy Days and Mondays (Carpenters)
06 talk (Carpenters)
07 That on the Road Look (Tony Joe White)
08 I Fell in Love with You (Carpenters & Doug Strawn)
09 For All We Know (Carpenters)
10 Lust for Earl and the Married Woman (Tony Joe White)
11 Sometimes (Carpenters)
12 [They Long to Be] Close to You (Carpenters)
13 talk (Carpenters)
14 We've Only Just Begun (Carpenters)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QJWBjz9W

alternate:

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

For the cover photo, I took a screenshot of the exact concert featured here. Since I was so impressed with Karen Carpenter's drumming, I selected one of her drumming and singing. I used the Krea AI program to upgrade the image.