As I mentioned previously, I've gotten in trouble twice posting music from this artist. But I want to post this to complete the 1979 No Nukes recordings that I have. So I'm not going to say much. Note that I'm sharing this set via SoulseekQT as well.
https://pixeldrain.com/u/nPEzzmvU
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/hSqV2c1ayoc2I0P/file
The biggest star here undoubtedly has to be Paul Simon. He was a surprise, last-minute addition. I'm guessing he didn't have a band to play with at the time, since he didn't play any other concerts in 1979, so he just sang three songs while accompanying himself on acoustic guitar.
At the time of this concert, he hadn't released a studio album in a surprisingly long time. "Still Crazy After All These Years" came out in 1975. However, he did release a single in 1977, "Slip Slidin' Away," and it was a big hit. It's included here.
Another better known artist here is Stephen Bishop, who had a few hits in the 1970s and early 1980s. His biggest hit was "On and On" in 1977, and he played that here.
Here's his Wikipedia page:
Stephen Bishop (singer) - Wikipedia
Poco is another relatively well known band. They had many hits in the 1970s and 80s, though most of them only reached the lower portions of the charts. Their latest album at the time of this concert was "Legend," released in 1978. It contained probably the two biggest hits of their career, "Crazy Love" and "Heart of the Night." Both of those songs are included here.
Here's their Wikipedia page:
Raydio also had a couple of big hits in the 1970s: "Jack and Jill" and "You Can't Change That." Their song included here, "You Can't Change That," was in the U.S. Top Ten just a few months before this concert. Although Raydio isn't that well known today, their lead singer Ray Parker Jr. would go on to greater fame as the author and singer of the 1984 Number One hit "Ghostbusters," from the movie of the same name. (By the way, note "Ray" in the name "Raydio.")
Here's their Wikipedia page:
Holly Near is a singer-songwriter who is still going as I write this in 2024. She never came close to having a hit, but she found her niche as a folk singer who focused on political issues. Most notably, she publicly identified herself as lesbian in the mid-1970s, at a time when that was risky for music careers, and often tackled issues of feminism and gender identity in her songs.
Here's her Wikipedia page:
The duo of Joy Ryder and Avis Davis is so obscure that they don't have a Wikipedia page. That's not surprising, because they only ever released one single together, in 1979. As you can tell from the song title, the A-side, "No More Nukes," couldn't have been more appropriate to the No Nukes concerts. No doubt that's why they were included, despite their obscurity.
All of the songs here were performed on September 23, 1979. Most of them were from the evening show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. However, the songs by Holly Near and the duo of Joy Ryder and Avis Davis were performed at the much larger daytime concert at Battery Park, also in New York City.
There were two songs here that made the official No Nukes album: "Heart of the Night" by Poco and "You Can't Change That" by Raydio. I'm very grateful, because this is the only occasion in this series of albums where I took something from the official albums, since those two songs weren't available in worthy sound quality otherwise.
It's quite possible that some of these artists played more songs. For instance, I wouldn't have even known Raydio performed at all if their song hadn't been included on the official album, since they didn't show up on any bootleg recordings.
However, Poco is a unique case, because that's the only one where I had additional songs from an audience bootleg, in addition to the soundboard sourced songs I've put here. The other songs they played were: "A Right Along," "Twenty Years," "Legend," and "A Good Feelin' to Know." Probably those, plus the three here, made up their entire set. However, I didn't include those ones I just mentioned due to the poor sound quality of the audience boot. As mentioned above, "Heart of the Night" is from the official album, so it sounds the best.
But I did include two songs from the audience boot: "Crazy Love" and "Rose of Cimarron." That's because those two were acoustic or semi-acoustic in nature, so they sounded markedly better than the other full-band songs. So those two songs sound worse than all the other songs here. Even so, I felt they sounded good enough to merit inclusion.
This album is a pretty mixed bag, consisting of a few songs here and there from musical acts that had little to do with each other. But even if you don't like all of them, you can choose just to keep the ones you do like. I'd be surprised if most people wouldn't at least like the Paul Simon songs.
This album is 55 minutes long.
01 talk (Stephen Bishop)
02 On and On (Stephen Bishop)
03 talk (Stephen Bishop)
04 Somewhere in Between (Stephen Bishop)
05 Singing for Our Lives (Holly Near)
06 Crazy Love (Poco)
07 Rose of Cimarron (Poco)
08 Heart of the Night (Poco)
09 You Can't Change That (Raydio)
10 Valentine's Day (Joy Ryder & Avis Davis)
11 No More Nukes (Joy Ryder & Avis Davis)
12 talk (Paul Simon)
13 Slip Slidin' Away (Paul Simon)
14 The Sound of Silence (Paul Simon)
15 Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Paul Simon)
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/RnJ6HZ8K
I couldn't find any photos from the concerts of any of the musical acts here. I could have gone with a generic late 1970s Paul Simon photo, or something like that. But instead I decided to have a picture that mainly showed the crowd. There are three people on stage in silhouette. I believe they are, from left to right: Graham Nash, Jackson Browne, and Bonnie Raitt.
I previously posted a set by Graham Nash, from September 19, 1979. I'm not entirely sure, but I think what happened was that Nash performed solo sets for the first three nights, but then on the last night, he played as part of the CSN "supergroup" instead. This concert comes entirely from the Madison Square Garden show in New York City. CSN also played the Battery Park concert in New York City that day. But they seem to have only played four songs, and all of them were performed here as well, so I didn't see any reason to include them.
As a big CSN fan, I have long looked for a worthy concert recording from the 1977 tour, done in support of their 1977 album "CSN." However, I've only come across (very) partial soundboards. So this is probably the next best thing. Yes, it took place two years later, so the set list would have been pretty similar. Unfortunately though, they only played two songs from their "CSN" album ("Just a Song Before I Go" and "Cathedral"), leaning on earlier classics instead.
I ran into a problem with the song "Wooden Ships." By now, I must sound like a broken record, because the soundboard recording was missing a section. Something similar happened to probably a majority of the No Nukes albums I've posted. Anyway, like I usually did with these concerts, I patched in the missing bit with some of the audience bootleg. Luckily, in this case, the missing bit was just the first two minutes out of an eleven minute song, and all of that was before the lead vocals came in. The sound quality isn't terrible this time, probably helped by the fact that there were no vocals on that bit.
I'm pretty sure CSN's set was the last one of the night, based on the length as well as the fact that it ended with a cover of the John Hall song "Power." Like other final encores of this song in the concerts, they were joined by other stars who took turns singing some of the verses.
This album is an hour and 21 minutes long.
01 talk (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
02 Helplessly Hoping (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
03 Change Partners (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
04 You Don't Have to Cry (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
05 4 + 20 (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
06 Suite- Judy Blue Eyes (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
07 Our House (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
08 Pre-Road Downs (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
09 talk (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
10 Love the One You're With (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
11 talk (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
12 Just a Song Before I Go (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
13 Long Time Gone (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
14 Cathedral (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
14 Wooden Ships [Edit] (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
16 Carry On (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
17 Chicago (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
18 talk (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
19 Teach Your Children (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
20 talk (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
21 Power (Crosby, Stills & Nash with John Hall. Michael McDonald, James Taylor & Jackson Browne)
22 talk (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/T16yqGh8
The cover photo comes from this exact concert. From right to left, that's David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash. I improved it some with the Krea AI program.
---
Okay, with that out of the way, let's get to this album. This is the 13th 1979 No Nukes concert I've posted. Gil Scott-Heron is a bit different than most of the other No Nukes artists I've posted so far, who often were singer-songwriter types. You might call him a soul musician, but it's more accurate to say that he combined jazz, soul, and blues, and rapped as well as sung. As such, he's considered one of the founders of rap and hip hop. His songs were even more political and progressive than the others in the concerts so far. I really like his music. He died in 2011 at the age of 62 after having HIV for many years, which weakened his immune system.
Here's his Wikipedia page, if you want to know more:
This album derives from two concerts, one on September 22nd at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and the other one on September 23rd at Battery Park, also in New York City. It was a bit tricky combining them, because he played "South Carolina" by itself on the 22nd, and then again as a medley with "Winter in America" on the 23rd. I ended up using the medley version, but I also used the intro for it from the 22nd. As a result, tracks one through four and seven are from the 22nd, and tracks five, six, and eight are from the 23rd.
Scott-Heron was a particularly good fit for the No Nukes concerts, because two of the songs he played directly addressed the issues of the dangers of nuclear power: "We Almost Lost Detroit" and "South Carolina." His most recent album was "Secrets," released in 1978. But he didn't play any songs from it.
One song he did, "We Almost Lost Detroit," made it onto the official No Nukes album. The version here is probably the one on that album, since it seems he only played it on the 22nd. However, it's possible he did other sets that I'm not aware of. All the other songs are unreleased.
This album is 37 minutes long.
01 talk by Jackson Browne (Gil Scott-Heron)
02 talk (Gil Scott-Heron)
03 We Almost Lost Detroit (Gil Scott-Heron)
04 The Bottle (Gil Scott-Heron)
05 talk (Gil Scott-Heron)
06 Johannesburg (Gil Scott-Heron)
07 talk (Gil Scott-Heron)
08 South Carolina - Winter in America (Gil Scott-Heron)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/DCG9pBpc
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/bXCdkY1QnWZEg8E/file
The cover photo is a screenshot I took from the "No Nukes" movie.
Tosh is one of the legends of reggae music. He was a member of the Wailers with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer until 1973, when he went solo. He had a successful solo career internationally. However, he was killed in 1987 at the age of 42 when an armed gang robbed his house in Jamaica.
The only set I know that Tosh did was on September 22nd. So all the songs here are from that.
There was one problem though. As you may have noticed by now, many of these sets had a song or two that was only partially recorded. That's the case here with the song "African." Most of it is recorded with soundboard quality, like the rest of the set. However, there's a section near the front of the song that lasts about a minute that comes from an audience bootleg instead. The quality of this bit is much lower than the rest. Unfortunately, I'm sure you'll notice. So please just bear with that little bit. I wanted to include that section to make the set as complete and as accurate as possible.
Tosh released the album "Mystic Man" in 1979, but I think that was after this concert, because he didn't play any of the songs from it. However, he did play two songs from his 1978 album, "Bush Doctor:" "Don't Look Back" and "Bush Doctor." On the record, "Don't Look Back" was a duet with Mick Jagger, and it was a hit in some countries. But the version here was sung by Tosh alone.
Note that the last song here, "Get Up, Stand Up," is known as a Bob Marley classic. But this song was actually co-written by Tosh and Marley, and they sang different verses on it as well. Additionally, "400 Years" was originally sung by Tosh when he was part of Bob Marley and the Wailers.
None of his songs made the official No Nukes album. Therefore, everything here is officially released.
This album is 34 minutes long.
01 talk (Peter Tosh)
02 400 Years (Peter Tosh)
03 Steppin' Razor (Peter Tosh)
04 African [Edit] (Peter Tosh)
05 Bush Doctor (Peter Tosh)
06 Don't Look Back (Peter Tosh)
07 Get Up, Stand Up (Peter Tosh)
https://www.upload.ee/files/17362821/VA-NONUKS1979MdisnSqurGrdnNwYrkC__9-22-1979PetrTshatse.zip.html
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/jbuQ6BkF
The cover photo comes from this exact No Nukes concert.
All the music here comes from the September 21st concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It's possible that Cooder did other sets on other nights, but I don't know one way or another.
Cooder plays many instruments, but he's best known for his slide guitar playing. He released many solo albums in the 1970s, mostly consisting of cover versions. His latest album had been released just a month before this concert, "Bop until You Drop." All the songs he performed in this set were from that album except for "Lookin' for a Love."
Two guest stars had prominent roles. Soul singer Bobby King helped sing "Lookin' for a Love." Then Chaka Khan helped sing "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing." She had helped sing that song on his "Bop until You Drop" album as well. As you can hear from Cooder's comments at the end, her set immediately followed his, so she probably stayed on stage.
The song "Little Sister" was included on the official "No Nukes" album. If Cooder only did this one set, then that must be the same version as this one. Everything else is unreleased.
This album is 27 minutes long.
01 talk by Jackson Browne (Ry Cooder)
02 Little Sister (Ry Cooder)
03 Go Home Girl (Ry Cooder)
04 The Very Thing That Makes Her Rich [Makes You Poor] (Ry Cooder)
05 talk (Ry Cooder)
06 Lookin' for a Love (Ry Cooder & Bobby King)
07 talk (Ry Cooder)
08 Don't Mess Up a Good Thing (Ry Cooder & Chaka Khan)
https://www.upload.ee/files/17318133/VA-NONUKS1979MdisnSqurGrdnNwYrkC__9-21-1979_RyCodratse.zip.html
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/tZ3ihSYR
I couldn't find a photo of Ry Cooder at the 1979 No Nukes concerts. This one is from a concert in Austria in 1979.
For most of the 1970s, Chaka Khan was the lead singer of the band Rufus. That band had some big hits, especially "Tell Me Something Good" and "Sweet Thing." In 1978, she put out her first solo album "Chaka," which contained the big hit "I'm Every Woman." She continued to be a member of Rufus for a couple more albums, but only because of record contract reasons. She went on to have a long and very successful solo career, which is still going as I write this in 2024.
Khan finished with his recent big hit, "I'm Every Woman." However, she didn't play any other songs from her "Chaka" solo album. She also didn't play the biggest Rufus hits. Instead, she played some lesser Rufus hits "Once You Get Started" and "Stop on By" and album cuts.
The only Khan set I know of is from September 21st at Madison Square Garden, so all the songs are from there. Her timing was unfortunate, because she went on at some point before Bruce Springsteen's set, and the crowd was chomping at the bit to hear Springsteen. You can hear on this recording that the crowd was chanting "Bruce!" during her set. She got upset, thinking they were booing her, and made some comments trying to calm the crowd down. Apparently, backstage, a couple of the other stars heard this. One said the crowd was saying "Bruce," not "boo." But the other one pointed out that didn't really make much difference, since either way the audience wanted her set to be over.
In retrospect, the crowd should have been more patient and respectful, because Khan put on a fine performance. And as an aside, they "Bruce"-d their way through other sets too. For instance, Jackson Browne had the same problem.
The song "Once You Get Started" appeared on the official "No Nukes" album. If this was Khan's only set, then this is that version. Everything else is unreleased.
This album is 25 minutes long.
01 talk (Chaka Khan)
02 Once You Get Started (Chaka Khan)
03 I'm a Woman [I'm a Backbone] (Chaka Khan)
04 In Love We Grow (Chaka Khan)
05 talk (Chaka Khan)
06 Stop on By (Chaka Khan)
07 talk (Chaka Khan)
08 I'm Every Woman (Chaka Khan)
https://www.upload.ee/files/17362819/VA-NONUKS1979MdisnSqurGrdnNwYrkC__9-21-1979ChkaKhnatse.zip.html
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/kacGHcgG
I couldn't find any photos of Khan from the No Nukes concert. This one is from a concert in Chicago in 1980.
I must admit I'm not much of a gospel music fan, so this isn't my cup of tea. But I want to include all the sets from the No Nukes concerts, even the ones I'm not that fond of. At least the songs here don't sound that overtly religious and sometimes have non-religious themes. At the time, the group was composed of four women, and sang acappella. (They later increased to five.) They also wrote most of their songs. They're still going as I write this in 2024, but they've gone through many personnel changes.
Here's their Wikipedia entry if you want to know more:
Sweet Honey in the Rock - Wikipedia
The first three tracks come from the September 21st concert at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. The remainder come from the September 23rd concert at Battery Park, also in New York City.
The song "A Woman" was included on the official No Nukes album. However, I know they played that song multiple times (including a set on September 20th that just repeats songs here), so I don't know if this version is the official one. Everything else is unreleased.
This album is 23 minutes long.
01 A Woman (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
02 talk (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
03 Echo (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
04 As Long as I Have Breath in My Body (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
05 talk (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
06 You Better Mind (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
07 Believe I'll Run On (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/4xVFbxAw
The cover photo is not the best, but it was really damn hard finding any photos of the group in concert from around this time period. I found this photo in the booklet that came with the official album. It was small and low-res, but I did my best to enlarge and sharpen it. If anyone who has the album can scan in a higher quality version, please let me know.
Months later, I sharpened the picture using the Krea AI program. It looks a lot better.
Young is most famous as the lead singer and main songwriter for the group the Youngbloods in the 1960s and early 1970s. He had a reasonably successful solo career for much of the 1970s, but his popularity declined towards the end of the decade. His most recent album before these concerts was "American Dreams" in 1978. It only reached the lower portion of the Top 200 album charts in the U.S. Still, Young was politically progressive and a natural fit for these kinds of benefit shows. His Youngbloods song "Let's Get Together" in particular was a sure crowd pleaser and also fit in with the themes of the concerts.
As is often the case with these albums, this was put together from more than one set. The first five tracks are from the September 21st concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The remainder are from the September 23rd concert at Battery Park, also in New York City.
Jackson Browne helped sing and play piano on "Chain Reaction." And I'm guessing he was joined by lots of other stars for "Let's Get Together," since one can see that happen in the "No Nukes" movie.
This album is 29 minutes long.
01 talk by Graham Nash (Jesse Colin Young)
02 Back to Rock and Roll (Jesse Colin Young)
03 talk (Jesse Colin Young)
04 American Dreams Suite- Sanctuary - What If We Stay (Jesse Colin Young)
05 talk (Jesse Colin Young)
06 Children of the Night (Jesse Colin Young)
07 talk (Jesse Colin Young)
08 Chain Reaction (Jesse Colin Young with Jackson Browne)
09 Let's Get Together (Jesse Colin Young)
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/ap3kgRMW
I found some photos of Young at the No Nukes concerts, but they were low res and poor quality. So instead I used a photo of him in concert in Berkeley, California, in September 1977.
As I explained previously, some of these albums consist of more than one set put together so they'll hopefully sound like one set. This is another one of those. The first four tracks come from the September 21st concert at Madison Square Garden, and the rest come from the September 23rd concert, also at Madison Square Garden.
Generally speaking, just about everything in all these No Nukes albums come from soundboard bootlegs. But the first four songs here, the ones from September 21st, are an exception. They're from an audience bootleg. I found some bootlegs with other songs, including additional Jackson Browne songs, but they didn't sound good enough to my ears for inclusion. However, these tracks did. I suppose that's probably due to the fact that these are semi-acoustic in nature. The full band songs on the audience boot generally sounded like a mess. But note those first four tracks still do sound rougher than the rest.
Browne had two special guests. Graham Nash helped sing harmonies on "The Crow on the Cradle." That wasn't so unusual, as Nash has sung with Browne many times. But the other guest was definitely more unusual. Floyd Westerman was a Native American musician, activist, and actor. (He died in 2007 at the age of 71.) Browne basically gave Westerman center stage and had him sing the lead vocals on one original song.
In case you're curious, here's the Wikipedia page about Westerman:
Browne was at or near his peak of popularity in the late 1970s. His 1977 album "Running on Empty" sold seven million copies in the U.S. alone. But these concerts took place nearly two years since he'd released any new music. He already had his mind on his next album. The song "Hold Out" here is from the album he would release in mid-1980, "Hold Out." Additionally, two songs I didn't include due to sound quality issues ("Disco Apocalypse" and "Hold On Hold Out") would also appear on that album.
Two of Browne's songs appeared on the official "No Nukes" album: "The Crow on the Cradle" and "Before the Deluge." However, as is often the case with these albums, those songs were played multiple nights, so I don't know if these are the exact same versions. Everything else is unreleased.
This album is 42 minutes long.
01 talk (Jackson Browne)
02 The Pretender (Jackson Browne)
03 Hold Out (Jackson Browne)
04 talk (Jackson Browne)
05 The Crow on the Cradle (Jackson Browne with Graham Nash)
06 talk (Jackson Browne)
07 Running on Empty (Jackson Browne)
08 talk (Jackson Browne)
09 talk (Floyd Westerman)
10 How Long Have You Been Blind (Floyd Westerman with Jackson Browne)
11 Before the Deluge (Jackson Browne)
12 talk (Jackson Browne)
13 The Road and the Sky (Jackson Browne)
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/QRQtsaKj
The cover photo comes from one of the No Nukes concerts. However, as usual, I don't know which one exactly. I sharpened it some with the Krea AI program.
Springsteen and his E Street Band played two sets in these concerts, one on September 21st and the other on September 22nd. He was a really big star back then, so he was allowed to play for over an hour both times. I considered posting one or both of his two sets, but I decided to go in a different direction. I looked at what got included on the "The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts" album, and realized that it was about half of everything he played. He largely played the same songs both nights, with some exceptions, and the official album didn't have two versions of any one song.
So I put together an album of all the songs NOT on the official album. After doing that, I realized it made a very nice album, all by itself. He really was on fire with these two shows, so even the "outtakes" were still pretty great. I'm sure that when it came to picking which versions to use for the official album, it was usually a case of flipping a coin, because both versions were excellent.
Thus, this is meant to be a companion to the "The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts" album. Between that and this, you'll have every performance Springsteen and the E Street Band did those two nights. Tracks one through 11 are from the September 21st show, and the rest are from the September 22nd show.
Note that Jackson Browne was regularly playing the classic soul song "Stay" in his concerts, as part of a medley. So when Springsteen played that song, he brought Browne out to help him sing it. Tom Petty actually was on stage for that song too, but it seems all he did was strum his guitar some, so I didn't include his name in the song credits.
This album is an hour and 13 minutes long. By comparison, the official album is an hour and a half long. It has a few songs that were only played once over both shows, like "Detroit Medley," "Quarter to Three," and "Rave On."
01 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
02 Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen)
03 Badlands (Bruce Springsteen)
04 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
05 The Promised Land (Bruce Springsteen)
06 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
07 The River (Bruce Springsteen)
08 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
09 Sherry Darling (Bruce Springsteen)
10 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
11 Stay (Bruce Springsteen with Jackson Browne)
12 Thunder Road (Bruce Springsteen)
13 Jungleland (Bruce Springsteen)
14 Rosalita [Come Out Tonight] (Bruce Springsteen)
15 Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen)
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/UpmMZ3rU
The cover photo is from one of Springsteen's two No Nukes concerts, but I don't know which one.
I happy to say this album is a rare case of being an entire set, from September 20th in Madison Square Garden. The entire Doobie Brothers set from September 19th was available too, but it's shorter and with fewer songs (and no different songs), so I just used this one.
As with all the No Nukes albums I'm posting, these come from soundboard bootlegs, so the sound quality is excellent. However, there were a couple of problems with this one. For one thing, the vocals were down in the mix compared to the instruments. So I used the UVR5 program to boost the vocals. The other problem was with the song "Takin' It to the Streets." A chunk of that was missing. But since there's that September 19th concert, I was able to patch in the missing part from that. Hopefully, the transitions are unnoticeable.
The Doobie Brothers were drastically changed in the late 1970s due to a new lead singer, Michael McDonald. They hit a peak of popularity with the album "Minute by Minute," released in late 1978. Five songs here come from that: "Here to Love You," "Dependin' on You," "Minute by Minute," "Sweet Feelin," and "What a Fool Believes." That last song hit Number One in the U.S.
There were some guests to this set. Nicolette Larson had only one hit in her music career. Her cover of Neil Young's "Lotta Love" made the Top Ten in the U.S. in 1978. That same year, she sang co-lead on the Doobie Brothers song "Sweet Feelin'" for their "Minute by Minute" album. So it made sense for her to guest on the songs "Sweet Feelin'" and "Lotta Love" during this set. But I'm guessing she wasn't a big enough of a star to have a set of her own during these concerts.
Perhaps more surprising is that James Taylor joined the Doobie Brothers for their performance of "Takin' It to the Streets," and sang lead vocals through one verse and one chorus. Also, it's likely that the Doobie Brothers were the final act on September 20th, because their set ended with "Power," which usually was the finale in these concerts. I have Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, James Taylor and John Hall listed in the credits for that song, but that's just because I ran out of room. Jesse Colin Young, Phoebe Snow, Carly Simon, and many more were on stage for that one too.
Two songs were included on the official "No Nukes" album: "Lotta Love" and "Takin' It to the Streets." But, as usual, I don't know if they were from this night or September 20th. (And I don't even know if the band played on other nights.) Everything else is unreleased.
This album is 52 minutes long.
01 talk (Doobie Brothers)
02 Here to Love You (Doobie Brothers)
03 Take Me in Your Arms [Rock Me a Little While] (Doobie Brothers)
04 Dependin' on You (Doobie Brothers)
05 talk (Doobie Brothers)
06 Minute by Minute (Doobie Brothers)
07 Black Water (Doobie Brothers)
08 talk (Doobie Brothers)
09 Sweet Feelin' (Doobie Brothers & Nicolette Larson)
10 Lotta Love (Doobie Brothers & Nicolette Larson)
11 talk (Doobie Brothers)
12 What a Fool Believes (Doobie Brothers)
13 Long Train Runnin' - I Cheat the Hangman (Doobie Brothers)
14 China Grove (Doobie Brothers)
15 Takin' It to the Streets [Edit] (Doobie Brothers with James Taylor)
16 Power (Doobie Brothers with Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, James Taylor & John Hall)
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/X4vbycEs
The cover photo features just lead singer Michael McDonald. It's from one of the No Nukes concerts, but I don't know which one. I sharpened the pic some with the Krea AI program.
James Taylor was a big star at the time of this concert. He had hits all the way through the 1970s, including one earlier in 1979, "Up on the Roof." This concert was with a full band, and he rocked more than I expected on a couple of the songs.
This album is put together from multiple concerts, like some of the others from No Nukes. The first ten tracks are from the September 20th concert in Madison Square Garden. The remainder are from the September 23rd concert, also in Madison Square Garden. Note that I found an audience bootleg with some other songs ("Up on the Roof" and "Carolina in My Mind") but the sound quality was too poor to merit their inclusion.
Two of the songs here had serious problems. I fixed one of them quite well, I think. The bootleg I used was missing a big chunk at the start of "Your Smiling Face." However, I found the rest of it from the 1980 "No Nukes" movie, and I patched that in. A big portion of "Sweet Baby James" was missing too. Unfortunately, the only fix I could find came from a rough audience bootleg. I used all the audio editing tricks I could, but the first two minutes still sounds noticeably worse than the rest. Luckily, that song was done in a solo acoustic format, so the audience boot part doesn't sound as bad as it did on full band songs.
Carly Simon was married to Taylor from 1972 until 1983. However, Taylor enjoyed going on tour frequently, and Simon hated to perform concerts at all, and did so very rarely. This was one major reason why they got divorced. In keeping with that difference, Taylor seems to have played sets each of the four nights of the No Nukes concerts, while Simon didn't do any set of her own, despite also being a big star. However, she did sing two songs at the ends of Taylor's sets, both cover versions, and also took part in helping to sing the concert finales each night. One of the songs Taylor and Simon sang together, "Mockingbird," was a bit hit for them as a duet in 1974.
Taylor released the album "Flag" in May 1979. Two of the songs here, "Brother Trucker" and "Millworker," first appeared on that album.
There were a surprisingly big number of Taylor songs on the official "No Nukes" album compared to other performers: "Captain Jim's Drunken Dream," "Honey Don't Leave L.A.," "The Times They Are A-Changin'," and "Mockingbird." But as I mentioned with previous albums from these concerts, he performed these on multiple nights, so I don't know if these versions are exactly the same as the officially released ones or not. Everything else is unreleased.
This album is 52 minutes long.
01 Your Smiling Face [Edit] (James Taylor)
02 talk (James Taylor)
03 Stand and Fight (James Taylor)
04 Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight (James Taylor)
05 talk (James Taylor)
06 Brother Trucker (James Taylor)
07 talk (James Taylor)
08 Mexico (James Taylor)
09 talk (James Taylor)
10 Honey Don't Leave L.A. (James Taylor)
11 talk (James Taylor) (James Taylor)
02 Sweet Baby James [Edit] (James Taylor)
13 talk (James Taylor)
14 Long Ago and Far Away (James Taylor)
15 Millworker (James Taylor)
16 Captain Jim's Drunken Dream (James Taylor)
17 Lo and Behold (James Taylor)
18 The Times They Are A-Changin' (James Taylor & Carly Simon with John Hall & Graham Nash)
19 Mockingbird (James Taylor & Carly Simon)
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/YRjYanae
I could have used just a photo of Taylor for the album cover, but I didn't have any really good ones from the No Nukes concerts. I found a decent one of him and Simon from the concerts though, and decided to use that.
As I mentioned previously, I'm not numbering these per se. But I'm posting them in order of the first date mentioned in the title. The two previously posted ones contained music from September 19, 1979 (and sometimes after). This one is from September 20th, and after. Specifically, tracks one to five are from the September 19th concert in Madison Square Garden. Tracks six through ten are from the September 23rd concert at Battery Park. (That was a free concert with a much larger crowd.) Tracks 11 and 12 are from the September 23rd concert in Madison Square Garden.
Bonnie Raitt was one of the main movers and shakers behind the No Nukes concerts. She co-founded the non-profit for the concerts, MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) along with Jackson Browne, John Hall, and Graham Nash. She actually has been very politically active for her entire music career, performing at countless benefit concerts. But she's not well known as some others for being an activist because she almost never puts political songs on her studio albums. However, she made a partial exception here. She rewrote a generic blues song with anti-nuclear power lyrics for the song "No Nuke Blues." Unfortunately though, she never officially released it.
At the time of these concerts, Raitt had only had one hit, "Runaway," in 1977. So it's fitting that's the last song here. The same month as these concerts, Raitt released a studio album, "The Glow." Two of the songs she performed were from that: "Standin' by the Same Old Love" and "I Thank You."
I've already posted a No Nukes album by John Hall. In addition to singing and writing songs for his band Orleans, he's written songs for others. "Good Enough" here was written by him and his wife Johanna Hall. Raitt did a version of it for her 1975 album "Home Plate." So it was nice they did a version here as a duet.
One song Raitt did, "Runaway," was included on the official "No Nukes" album. But she played multiple concerts and probably did that one each time, so I don't know if this version is the same as the released one. Everything else here is unreleased.
This album is 40 minutes long.
01 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
02 Good Enough (Bonnie Raitt & John Hall)
03 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
04 Standin' by the Same Old Love (Bonnie Raitt)
05 Under the Falling Sky (Bonnie Raitt)
06 No Nuke Blues (Bonnie Raitt)
07 I Thank You (Bonnie Raitt)
08 Angel from Montgomery (Bonnie Raitt)
09 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
10 Give It Up or Let Me Go (Bonnie Raitt)
11 About to Make Me Leave Home (Bonnie Raitt)
12 Runaway (Bonnie Raitt)
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/tMVLgw2q
The cover photo comes from one of the No Nukes concerts. I don't know which one. Also, I found this as a black and white photo. I used the program Palette to help me colorize it.
Note that although this is the second album I'm posting from the concerts, I'm not calling this "Part 2" or anything like that. That's because A) I don't know the order of performers each night from the four nights of concerts, and B) the albums are often compiled from sets that took place on different nights. So order them however you like. This, though, is a rare case of having the entire set from just one night, on September 19, 1979.
This concert is special in my opinion, because although Nash performed in zillions of concerts as part of CSN, he very rarely performed solo concerts until 2013. CSN was starting to break apart then, and he's become a solo performer after CSN broke up for good in 2015. But prior to that, he only did short tours in 1979-1980, 1986, and 2002. I suppose that, even though he wrote most of CSN's chart hits, he wasn't considered as "serious" or "heavy" as Crosby or Stills, so he wasn't considered as much of a concert draw. I could be wrong, but I think this is the only full set of him as a solo performer from the 1970s with soundboard-level sound quality.
At the time of this concert, Nash was working on a solo album called "Earth and Sky." However, it wouldn't be released until early 1980. Even so, the songs "Out on the Island," "Barrel of Pain," and "In the 80's" were from that future album. The other songs were generally CSN hits he wrote, although "Wild Tales" is from a 1973 solo album.
There's only one sonic flaw here, but it's a very noticeable. For whatever reason, the bootleg I found only had the first minute of the song "Chicago." But I did find an audience bootleg of this same set. That allowed me to fill in the rest of the song. It also confirmed that there were no entirely missing songs. But unfortunately, the sound quality of the audience boot is much worse. You will definitely hear the difference. If it bothers you too much, then just delete it. There's a CSN set coming later in this No Nukes series, and it includes a CSN version of "Chicago," so you won't be missing much. But still, I thought I should include it for the completist types out there.
The song "Cathedral" was released on the official "No Nukes" album. I don't know if Nash did other solo sets or not, so I don't know if that version is exactly the same as this one. Otherwise, everything else here is unreleased.
This album is 37 minutes long.
01 Wild Tales (Graham Nash)
02 talk (Graham Nash)
03 Pre-Road Downs (Graham Nash)
04 talk (Graham Nash)
05 Out on the Island (Graham Nash)
06 Cathedral (Graham Nash)
07 talk (Graham Nash)
08 Our House (Graham Nash)
09 talk (Graham Nash)
10 Barrel of Pain (Graham Nash)
11 talk (Graham Nash)
12 Chicago [Edit] (Graham Nash)
13 talk (Graham Nash)
14 In the 80's (Graham Nash)
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/rzWjf1ba
The cover photo is taken from one of the No Nukes concerts. However, I had a hard time finding many photos from any of these concerts, and I didn't find any from his solo set (or sets). This photo was taken from one of those big finales where he was on stage with other stars, but he happened to be standing apart from the others.
In March 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster happened near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. That same month, shortly before the disaster, the Hollywood movie "The China Syndrome" came out, warning of the dangers of nuclear power. An anti-nuclear movement had already been growing, and some charity concerts had taken place prior to that. But the movement was super-charged by the disaster and the movie. That resulted in a series of "No Nukes" concerts that took place over four nights in New York City, from September 19th to September 23td. Lots of big name musicians took part, and the concerts were a big success, raising money and awareness.
The biggest outcome of the anti-nuclear movement was that construction of new nuclear power plants came to a total halt for a long time. According to Wikipedia, "More than 100 orders for nuclear power reactors, many already under construction, were canceled in the 1970s and 1980s, bankrupting some companies." Then the Chernobyl nuclear accident happened in 1986, reinforcing the trend away from new nuclear power plants, which was worldwide (though to a lesser degree). It wasn't until 2023 when a new nuclear power plant went on-line in the U.S. However, that has been more the exception to the rule. Only one other nuclear plant is currently under construction in the U.S. as I write this in 2024, while 39 others have been shut down, while many more are expected to be shut down in the next few years, since most have already far exceeded their expected lifespans.
So by any measure, these concerts were part of a remarkably successful popular movement - and one I heartily agree with. Nuclear power is more dangerous than most people realize. There have been other big nuclear accidents, besides Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, that have been covered up or ignored. For instance, the Kyshtym disaster in Russia in 1957 is ranked the third worst disaster of all time, and probably killed tens of thousands of people, but it was hidden from the outside world due to Russia's totalitarian dictatorship. As another example, I saw on a BBC documentary that the Chernobyl disaster came close to being much, much worse. The melting core almost reached a body of water. Had that happened, all four reactors would have exploded, killing two to three hundred million people, and rendering most of Europe uninhabitable. We've been very lucky.
In case you're curious, here's an article about that:
Given all that, it's strange that these No Nukes concerts, and the anti-nuclear movement they were a part of, seem to have been mostly forgotten today. The concerts didn't turn into big cultural touchstones, like Woodstock or Live Aid. In fact, the main thing the No Nukes concerts are remembered for today are the two electrifying concert performances by Bruce Springsteen. An album of his best songs from these concerts was finally released in 2021, entitled "The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts."
Whatever you think of the cause, a lot of great music was performed during these concerts. This is the first of over a dozen albums which consist of different sets from the No Nukes concerts. At the end of 1979, a triple album of highlights was released, called "No Nukes: The Muse Concerts for a Non-Nuclear Future." But this album didn't do so well, and is mainly remembered for one Bruce Springsteen song medley, called "Detroit Medley," which got a lot of radio play. A movie of the same name was also released in 1980, but it too didn't do that well, and was largely forgotten afterwards.
It so happens that some soundboard recordings exist from the four No Nukes concerts. They're very obscure, except for the Springsteen sets, but I found them. They only consist of some sets here and there out of the four concerts, much less than half of all the music performed. But luckily, there's just enough recorded music to present albums from all the major artists that took part. And the sound quality is excellent for all the recordings that do survive.
What I've done in some cases is cobble together performances from different nights, in order to get enough for an album. This John Hall album is a case in point.
If the name John Hall doesn't ring a bell, I'm not surprised, since he hasn't done much musically using his own name. But he was the main singer and songwriter behind the 1970s band Orleans, which had the big hits "Dance with Me" and "Still the One." However, Hall left the band in 1977. shortly after those hits happened. He was a solo musician at the time of these concerts. But a few years later, he became a politician. He was successful with that, his political career peaked when he served as a U.S. Congressperson for the Democratic Party from 2007 to 2011. He also continued to be very involved with environmental causes, especially anti-nuclear ones.
So it's fitting to start this series of No Nukes albums with Hall, because he was one of the main movers and shakers behind the No Nukes concerts, along with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Graham Nash. As part of that, he wrote the song "Power," included here, which became the theme song for the concerts. It was performed by different musicians each night, probably as the finale each time.
This album hopefully sounds like one performance, but it actually is three different ones put together. The first five tracks come from a September 19th concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Tracks six through eleven come from a different concert on September 23rd, at Battery Park, also in New York City. The remaining songs, tracks 12 to 15, come from yet another concert, also on September 23rd, but held in Madison Square Garden. (There were concerts all four nights in Madison Square Garden, but only on the 23rd there was an additional concert at Battery Park.)
The last song here, "Shakey Ground," is a cover of a 1975 hit by the Temptations. It was part of Hall's set, and he sang and performed on it, but the vocals were more dominated by gospel singer Phoebe Snow. She was a minor star in her own right, since she had a Top Five hit in the U.S. in 1975 with "Poetry Man." But apparently she didn't get a set of her own during the No Nukes concerts, or at least I don't have any recording of such a set.
The version of "Power" here was probably the last song of the night. Hall shared the lead vocals with Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, Carly Simon, and Jackson Browne. But I'm almost certain there were many more stars on stage at the time, as is usually the case for final encores during concerts like these.
I made a major edit with the song "Trust Yourself." The recording ended probably half a minute to a minute before the song finished. I had to get creative and make up an ending by patching in some music from earlier in the song. I also added in some applause after that, to help it fit in with the other songs.
One song written and sang by Hall, "Plutonium Is Forever," made the officially released "No Nukes" album. However, I think he performed a set every night, and I don't know if this version is from the same night as the album one. Everything else here is unreleased.
This album is 44 minutes long.
01 talk (John Hall)
02 Messin' Round with the Wrong Woman (John Hall)
03 Let the the Good Times Roll (John Hall)
04 Good Enough (John Hall)
05 Trust Yourself [Edit] (John Hall)
06 Run Away with Me (John Hall)
07 Plutonium Is Forever (John Hall)
08 talk (John Hall)
09 Reach (John Hall)
10 talk (John Hall)
11 Power (John Hall with Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, Carly Simon & Jackson Browne)
12 talk (John Hall)
13 Dance with Me (John Hall)
14 talk (John Hall)
15 Shakey Ground (John Hall & Phoebe Snow)
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/UREET3Mm
The cover photo of Hall comes from one of the No Nukes concerts, but I don't know which one. I sharpened it some with the Krea AI program.
