California Jam, Ontario Motor Speedway, Ontario, CA, 4-6-1974, Part 8: Emerson, Lake & Palmer

The eighth and final set from the 1974 California Jam festival features the prog rock act Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

I have good news and bad news about this set. The good news is that what exists from it here sounds excellent. Most of it was officially released on a DVD, as well as on the album "Then and Now." Two more songs, "Still ... You Turn Me On" and "Lucky Man," are unreleased but sound as good as the others.

The bad news is that the set is incomplete. It is known the band also played "Hoedown" and "Jerusalem" at the start, and "Tarkus" after "Toccatta." If anyone has any music that I missed from this act, or anything else from this festival, please let me know.

Prog rock reached a peak of popularity around this time, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer were one of the biggest prog rock acts. Their album "Brain Salad Surgery" was released in late 1973. It reached Number Two on the charts in Britain, and just barely missed the Top Ten in the US.

This album is 43 minutes long.

By the way, if you put all eight of these California Jam albums together, it totals six hours and ten minutes. I'm guessing there's at least another hour, maybe two, that was performed but isn't included here. 

Note that there was a second California Jam, in 1978. I'll probably try to post that in the future.

However, next up for me in terms of big festivals is the 1970 Isle of Wight festival. There were dozens of big festivals in the early 1970s, but most of them are fading from memory due to lack of quality recordings. The Isle of Wight festival, has great soundboard recordings for nearly all the major acts, making it special. But there are a few that I've heard exist but can't find. For instance, I've only found three songs performed by Kris Kristofferson, but I found someone who had his full set in great quality but no longer has it. It's a similar situation for Sly and the Family Stone, with only some of the set being easily found. If you have any of these hard-to-find recordings, please let me know soon so I can add them in.

77 Toccatta (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
78 Take a Pebble (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
79 Still ... You Turn Me On (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
80 Lucky Man (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
81 Piano Improvisations [Fugue & Little Rock Getaway] [Instrumental] (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
82 Karn Evil 9, 1st Impression, Part 2 (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
83 Karn Evil 9, 3rd Impression (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
84 Pictures at an Exhibition- Great Gates of Kiev (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15571929/CalifrniaJmOntrioMtorSpeedwyOntarioCA__4-6-1974_08_EmersnLkePalmr.zip.html

The cover photo, of Greg Lake, is from this exact concert.

California Jam, Ontario Motor Speedway, Ontario, CA, 4-6-1974, Part 7: Deep Purple

The seventh set from the 1974 California Jam featured Deep Purple. There are some interesting stories regarding this performance.

This is the only set from the festival that has been released in full, on the album "California Jamming." I've included it in order to present the entire festival.

Deep Purple was the biggest name out of all the artists for the festival. As such, they got to pick their time slot. They chose the second to last slot because they wanted to go on around sunset. Almost always, festival schedules ran far behind. But this one was unusual in that it actually ran ahead of schedule! This is due to a unique innovation: the entire stage was built on tracks. It could be moved out of place quickly. Meanwhile, the instruments on a second stage were prepared, and that stage was moved into position, with the two stages swapping back and forth. As a result, there were only a few minutes of down time between sets.

But this caused a problem, because Deep Purple really, really wanted sunset to happen during their set. So they waited at least an hour after the end of the Black Sabbath set, causing the audience to grow restless.

There were more problems too. Lead guitarist Ritchie Blackmore is a great guitarist, but he sounds like a prima donna type. The entire festival was being filmed by ABC-TV. During their set, camera people often got close to where Blackmore was standing, in order to get close-ups of his guitar playing. This annoyed him so much that at the end of the set, he attacked one of the TV cameras with his guitar, repeatedly smashing it.

But wait, there's more. It seems the main reason the band wanted to wait for sunset was because they had pyrotechnics they wanted to set off at the end of their set. They did so, but they used too much. It caused a massive explosion and fire on stage, as you can see from the cover photo. Fearing they were in trouble and could be arrested, the band left the festival as fast as they could.

It should also be noted that this concert was one of the first to feature the band's new line-up, with two new lead singers, David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes.

This album is an hour and 26 minutes long.

60 talk (Deep Purple)
61 Intro [Instrumental] (Deep Purple)
62 Burn (Deep Purple)
63 talk (Deep Purple)
64 Might Just Take Your Life (Deep Purple)
65 talk (Deep Purple)
66 Lay Down, Stay Down (Deep Purple)
67 talk (Deep Purple)
68 Mistreated (Deep Purple)
69 talk (Deep Purple)
70 Intro [Instrumental] (Deep Purple)
71 Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple)
72 talk (Deep Purple)
73 You Fool No One - Lazy - The Mule (Deep Purple)
74 talk (Deep Purple)
75 Space Truckin' - Mandrake Root (Deep Purple)
76 talk (Deep Purple)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15571990/CalifrniaJmOntrioMtorSpeedwyOntarioCA__4-6-1974_07DpPrple.zip.html

The cover is from this exact concert. I believe that's Glenn Hughes standing in front of the fire the band had caused.

California Jam, Ontario Motor Speedway, Ontario, CA, 4-6-1974, Part 6: Black Sabbath

Here's the next set from the 1974 California Jam. This time, it's the hard rockers Black Sabbath, with lead singer Ozzy Osbourne.

Unlike most of the previous sets from earlier in the day, this recording does not come from the TV and/or radio broadcast. Instead, it's a reel to reel recording that sounds excellent.

I must admit I'm not really a Black Sabbath fan. However, if you are, this was a good time for a live recording. The band released the album "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" in late 1973, and it's considered one of their best. Band member Bill Ward would later say of this time period, "The band were definitely in their heyday, in the sense that nobody had burnt out quite yet."

Due to this coming from a different source, it appears to be the full set, and not just the parts that made it to broadcast.

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long.

41 Tomorrow's Dream (Black Sabbath)
42 talk (Black Sabbath)
43 Sweet Leaf (Black Sabbath)
44 talk (Black Sabbath)
45 Killing Yourself to Live (Black Sabbath)
46 talk (Black Sabbath)
47 War Pigs (Black Sabbath)
48 talk (Black Sabbath)
49 Snowblind (Black Sabbath)
50 talk (Black Sabbath)
51 Sabbra Cadabra (Black Sabbath)
52 Supernaut (Black Sabbath)
53 Iron Man (Black Sabbath)
54 Orchid [Instrumental] (Black Sabbath)
55 Sabbra Cadabra (Black Sabbath)
56 talk (Black Sabbath)
57 Paranoid (Black Sabbath)
58 talk (Black Sabbath)
59 Children of the Grave (Black Sabbath)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15571710/CalifrniaJmOntrioMtorSpeedwyOntarioCA__4-6-1974_06BlckSabbth.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

California Jam, Ontario Motor Speedway, Ontario, CA, 4-6-1974, Part 5: Black Oak Arkansas

The fifth act at the California Jam was Black Oak Arkansas. The festival was split into a more poppy first half and a more rocking second half, and this is the beginning of the second half.

I don't know much about Black Oak Arkansas. They're considered a Southern rock band, but with more variety than the likes of the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd. They had one hit in 1973, "Jim Dandy," a cover of a hit from the 1950s. The female singer Ruby Starr appeared on that recording. She took part in this concert, though just on that one song. You can see her dressed in red on the album cover.

Unfortunately, it seems this set is incomplete. However, I don't know how much is missing or what other songs were played. But what is here sounds good. It was recorded from the TV and/or radio broadcasts, like most of the other sets from this festival. And like most of those others, I thought the lead vocals were rather low, so I boosted them using the UVR5 audio editing program.

This album is 23 minutes long.

34 Up (Black Oak Arkansas)
35 Mutants of the Monster (Black Oak Arkansas)
36 talk (Black Oak Arkansas)
37 Jim Dandy (Black Oak Arkansas with Ruby Starr)
38 talk (Black Oak Arkansas)
39 When Electricity Came to Arkansas (Black Oak Arkansas)
40 Dixie (Black Oak Arkansas)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15571594/CalifrniaJmOntrioMtorSpeedwyOntarioCA__4-6-1974_05BlckOakArknsas.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert. I had a choice of some others, but I thought it was nice to pick one that had Ruby Starr in it as well.

California Jam, Ontario Motor Speedway, Ontario, CA, 4-6-1974, Part 4: Seals & Crofts

Posting big various artists festivals like this one forces me to post some musical acts I probably otherwise would never have posted. Seals & Crofts is a case in point.

This soft rock duo is best known for their hits "Summer Breeze," "Diamond Girl," and "Get Closer." "Get Closer" wouldn't be released until 1976. "Diamond Girl" is here, but "Summer Breeze" surprisingly is not. They only ever released one live album, in 1976, but it was an album of all new material. So this set is probably the closest thing you'll find to a live album by them, since I'm not aware of other bootlegs.

At first glance, Seals & Crofts seems like an odd choice for inclusion at a rock festival that had headlining acts like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. However, this may be due to a slight of hand. By 1974, rock festivals had gotten a bad name, and local officials rarely approved permits for them. So the organizers of this festival at first portrayed it as a pop festival with the likes of the Osmonds and Jackson Five. Once they got the approvals, they slipped in the more controversial hard rock acts, claiming they were the only big names they could find. 

You can read more about that here:

California Screaming: How the California Jam banished Altamont's demons | Louder (loudersound.com)

Anyway, this appears to be the complete Seals and Crofts set. The last song may have actually been played first (according to setlist.fm), but I kept it this way because that's how it was on the bootleg I found, with the songs flowing into each other. It's likely it was rearranged this way for the TV and/or radio broadcast.

This album is 43 minutes long.

21 talk (Seals & Crofts)
22 Windflowers (Seals & Crofts)
23 Diamond Girl (Seals & Crofts)
24 King of Nothing (Seals & Crofts)
25 talk (Seals & Crofts)
26 Ruby Jean and Billy Lee (Seals & Crofts)
27 Hummingbird (Seals & Crofts)
28 Unborn Child (Seals & Crofts)
29 The Gate [Instrumental] (Seals & Crofts)
30 High on the Mountain (Seals & Crofts)
31 Ridin' Thumb (Seals & Crofts)
32 Standing on a Mountain Top (Seals & Crofts)
33 The Fiddle Song [Instrumental] (Seals & Crofts)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15574913/CalifrniaJmOntrioMtorSpeedwyOntarioCA__4-6-1974_04SealsCrfts.zip.html

This cover photo comes from this exact concert.

California Jam, Ontario Motor Speedway, Ontario, CA, 4-6-1974, Part 3: The Eagles

The third act at the 1974 California Jam was the Eagles. (And yes, I know that, technically, their name is just "Eagles.")

Unfortunately, this is a short set, consisting of just five concise songs. I assumed there was a lot more that didn't get recorded, but I found a setlist that shows they only played one more song as an encore, "Tequila Sunrise." One has to keep in mind that although the Eagles would be massively popular later, they still weren't that big at the time of this concert. In fact, their first huge hit, "The Best of My Love," came out on album one month before this concert. But it wasn't released as a single until late 1974 and wouldn't become a Number One hit until 1975. This concert was key to exposing the band to a larger audience, especially through the TV broadcast.

One interesting thing about the Eagles set is that Jackson Browne performed as a de facto member of the band for the whole set. This is because band member Don Felder had to miss the concert due to the birth of a son around the same time. Browne was already a friend of the band, and co-wrote their hit song "Take It Easy." He alternated between keyboards and guitar, and sang backing vocals.

The sound quality of this set was the roughest of all the music I found from this festival. The bass and drums were way too loud. So I used the audio editing program UVR5 to lower the bass and drums way down in the mix. It sounds a lot better now. However, I think it's likely there was so banter between songs that got edited out of the version I found.

This album is only 18 minutes long, the shortest set by far from this festival. Note that the track numbering continues from the numbering of the previous set, in case you want to put all the tracks in one folder to be heard as one massive listen.

16 James Dean (Eagles)
17 Blackberry Blossom [Instrumental] (Eagles)
18 Midnight Flyer (Eagles)
19 Already Gone (Eagles)
20 Take It Easy (Eagles)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15571497/CalifrniaJmOntrioMtorSpeedwyOntarioCA__4-6-1974_03Egles.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert. I believe that's Jackson Browne in the blue shirt on the far right of the image.

California Jam, Ontario Motor Speedway, Ontario, CA, 4-6-1974, Part 2: Earth, Wind & Fire

This is the second set from the 1974 California Jam festival. If you want to know more about the festival as a whole, read my write-up to the first set, by Rare Earth.

Earth, Wind & Fire were a somewhat unusual choice for inclusion in this festival. In later years, they would have lots of hits all over the world. In fact, just one year after this concert they would have a Number One hit in the US with the song "Shining Star." But in 1974, they were mainly known to black audiences, with a few minor hits on the soul charts. Whereas the California Jam audience was mostly white, largely consisting of hard rock fans wanting to hear the likes of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Still, the TV broadcast of the concert, helped expose Earth, Wind and Fire to a larger audience.

It appears the recording of their set is complete. However, their song selection was rather unusual, since they didn't play their two recent soul hits, "Mighty Mighty" and "Kalimba Story." Their one other soul hit so far was "Evil," which they did play.

This set remains officially unreleased. The bootleg I used as a source sounded very good, but the vocals were a bit low in the mix, so I fixed that using the UVR5 audio editing program.

This album is 42 minutes long.

Also, note that I start the track listing with 05 instead of 01. That's so you can drop all the different sets from this festival into one folder to make it one continuous listening.

05 Energy [Instrumental] (Earth, Wind & Fire)
06 People (Earth, Wind & Fire)
07 talk (Earth, Wind & Fire)
08 Time Is on Your Side (Earth, Wind & Fire)
09 talk (Earth, Wind & Fire)
10 Bass Solo [Instrumental] (Earth, Wind & Fire)
11 talk (Earth, Wind & Fire)
12 Evil (Earth, Wind & Fire)
13 talk (Earth, Wind & Fire)
14 C'mon Children (Earth, Wind & Fire)
15 talk (Earth, Wind & Fire)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15571521/CalifrniaJmOntrioMtorSpeedwyOntarioCA__4-6-1974_02EarthWndFre.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

California Jam, Ontario Motor Speedway, Ontario, CA, 4-6-1974, Part 1: Rare Earth

I mentioned recently that I plan on putting more effort into posting big festival concerts, because those often seem to slip through the cracks and get forgotten. This is a good example. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the 1974 California Jam:

"The California Jam attracted 250,000 paying music fans. The festival set what were then records for the loudest amplification system ever installed, the highest paid attendance, and highest gross in history. It was one of the last of the original wave of rock festivals, as well as one of the most well-executed and financially successful, and presaged the era of media consolidation and the corporatization of the rock music industry."

There's a Wikipedia page on the concert, if you want to know more:

California Jam - Wikipedia

In short, from what I understand, ABC TV had a show called "In Concert." The makers of that show came up with the idea of putting on a rock festival, then dedicated four episodes of their show broadcasting the highlights from it, with some portions also broadcast on radio. But that was only part of the all-day concert. All of the Deep Purple and part of the Emerson, Lake and Palmer sets have been officially released, but none of the rest has. I was able to find most of the concert in good sound quality, but some bits are still missing.

This first set, by Rare Earth is a case in point. I found four songs in soundboard worthy quality. But it appears a fifth song, "Get Ready," was played as an encore. That probably wasn't included in the TV and/or radio broadcasts, so it seems to have disappeared. The vocals were low in the mix, so I adjusted that using the UVR5 audio editing program.

Rare Earth was best known for their hits in 1970 and 1971, "[I Know] I'm Losing You," "I Just Want to Celebrate," and "Get Ready." Their star was fading by 1974, but they still had this one big last hurrah, which was the biggest concert they ever played.

Eight musical acts performed at the California Jam. I'm posting each of their sets as separate albums, in chronological order, starting with this one. Some of the sets from the biggest acts are easy to find, but other sets are very rare. I haven't seen all of the festival put together in one place before this effort here.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Hey Big Brother (Rare Earth)
02 Big John Is My Name (Rare Earth)
03 [I Know] I'm Losing You (Rare Earth)
04 I Just Want to Celebrate (Rare Earth)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15571530/CalifrniaJmOntrioMtorSpeedwyOntarioCA__4-6-1974_01RreEarth.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert. For the text at the top, I used the same colors and font as text on a concert poster promoting the festival.