U2 - Pop - Alternate Version (1997)

Here's something that might be controversial, though I hope not. In short, I've made a lot of edits and changes to U2's "Pop" album. This is a pretty lengthy write-up explaining and justifying my changes. If you're interested in the details please read on, otherwise skip to the last two paragraphs.

I was a big U2 fan since their "War" album in 1983. I loved everything they did until their "Pop" album in 1997. That one left me feeling very disappointed. To this day, many U2 fans either love or hate "Pop." If you look at an average of fan ratings on rateyourmusic.com, it gets a much lower rating than all the band's earlier albums. Even the members of U2 had issues with it. They felt they had to rush finishing it in order to start a tour on time. Several years later, they redid a few of the songs to try to improve on them.

The band tried to be experimental with the album, while attempting to explore current electronic dance sounds.  But I don't think that's why I had such issues with the album. I liked all of their experimental stuff from earlier in the 1990s, including their often overlooked "Original Soundtracks 1" album from 1995. I wasn't prone to like their electronic dance style, but to be frank there isn't that much of that on the album, and what was there wasn't a problem for me.

Instead, I think the album suffers from several problems. One is that some of the songs just aren't up to U2's previously high standards. But two, that's compounded by the fact that many of the songs are overly long. The 1990s were a time of what I call "album bloat." Albums had been limited to about 50 minutes due to limitations of vinyl records. But when CDs became the dominant format, albums could be 70 or even 80 minutes long. In my opinion, bands stopped editing themselves as much as before, because they didn't have to. "Pop" suffers from that, with most of the songs four or five minutes long, when they didn't always merit that length. Finally, the songs didn't fully jell in the recording studio. Once the band went on tour for a couple of months, many of the arrangements of the songs were changed and improved. 

So this is my attempt to improve "Pop." On this blog, I've sometimes posted my improvements of other albums by removing some songs and adding others. I did that with "Cahoots" by the Band, for example. But for this album, I decided I wanted to improve it as much as possible without changing what songs were on it, or even the song order. Instead, I've made changes to every song but one, and I often made drastic changes.

In my opinion, my "secret weapon" for overhauling this album is a bootleg of the band playing a concert in Miami in late 1997. I listened to all the most popular soundboard bootlegs from the "Pop" tour, as well as the official (but somewhat obscure) live album "Hasta la Vista Baby! U2 Live from Mexico City." The problem with all of those for my purposes is that they contain lots of audience noise. But the Miami soundboard bootleg is different, with almost no audience noise at all. So I could use performances from that essentially as studio versions, better than the official album versions since the songs were honed from playing them at many live concerts.

Thus, I completely replaced the album versions with the live Miami versions for "Mofo," "Miami," "If You Wear that Velvet Dress," and part of "Wake Up, Dead Man." I carefully edited the songs to make sure no crowd noise could be heard. By the way, the Miami version of "If You Wear that Velvet Dress" is half as long as the album version, two-and-a-half minutes instead of five. I think the song is much improved in that shorter format.

I would have used the Miami bootleg version of "Do You Feel Loved" as well, except for the fact that the song was dropped from their set list by the time the tour reached Miami. So instead I used the same approach with a bootleg from a show in Las Vegas near the start of the tour. The sound quality isn't as excellent as the Miami one, but it was close. 

For another song, "Please," I was able to use the version from the "Please: PopMart Live" EP. That one was recorded at a concert in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The sound quality on that version is great, and had virtually no crowd noise until the song was over, allowing me to easily edit that out.2

As the tour went on, the band kept releasing singles from the album. Sometimes, they recorded the songs for the single versions, using the new, superior arrangements they had honed in concert. That's why I've used the single version of "Last Night on Earth." I also used the single version of "If God Will Send His Angels." In my opinion, that was one of the weaker songs on the album. But one remixed single version, called the "Grand Jury Mix," changed the song significantly by fixing the plodding pace with a more lively drumbeat. 

Of the redone versions the band did a couple of years later, for their best of collection released in 2000, I only used two, for "Discotheque" and "Gone." Those versions also were very influenced by the way the songs evolved in concert. So it would be much like using the versions from the Miami bootleg, except with even better sound quality.

That leaves just two songs, "The Playboy Mansion" and "Staring at the Sun." "The Playboy Mansion" was never played in concert, and I couldn't find any alternate versions of it anywhere, so I was stuck with the album version. 

"Staring at the Sun" though is a complicated case. When the band tried playing it in concert, they soon discovered that the album version didn't go over well. The resorted to playing a very different acoustic version, with just Bono singing and The Edge on guitar. I like this version much better. But the problem is that because it's quiet and acoustic, the crowd noises could often be heard during the song, even with the relatively pristine Miami bootleg version. I realized the best acoustic version comes from a 2011 concert where just Bono and The Edge played. Unlike most U2 concerts, which are played in vast stadiums, this one was done for a very small audience, so the audience noise wasn't much of a problem. Also, there were some string instruments backing them up. Normally, I'm weary of orchestral arrangements, but this was subtle and well done. I consider it the best version of the song by far, so I've used it, even though it comes from 2011 much later than the others.

So that explains the sourcing of all the songs. But wait, there's more! Because in some cases, I edited the songs down. As I'd mentioned, I think maybe the biggest problem with the original album was the bloat. I've cut the run time from 60 minutes to 48 minutes mostly by making edits here and there. One example is "Discotheque." The original album version, the redone version, and the live versions all have the song start with a slow build up that goes on for over a minute before the main riff comes in. I think the songs works much better with the riff right at the very start, so I cut all the slow build-up.

I made another drastic edit for "Wake Up Dead Man." The album version is five minutes long. But in concert, the band played a version that's only two minutes long. I like that version much better. Obviously, the band realized the five-minute version was bloated and problematic, or they wouldn't have drastically cut it down in concert. So I wanted to use the live version. But, like "Staring at the Sun," because it's a quiet acoustic song, even a little bit of crowd noise can mar the sound quality. So I used the first minute and a half of the album version. Then I switched to the Miami bootleg version for the last 30 seconds, where the song winds down instead of going into a more rocking section. Luckily, that section had almost no crowd noise, and it fits in well with the studio album section.

I made other edits here and there. For instance, I lopped off about a minute from "Do You Feel Loved" that was just repetition of the chorus chords near the end of the song. On "Gone," although I used the redone version from 2000, I liked how Bono said "Going, going, gone" near the beginning of the song in the live version from Miami. So I added that in. By contrast, for the song "Mofo," the Miami version had a couple gratuitous crowd-pleasing mentions of the word "Miami" in the song, so I carefully edited those out. There are some other edits here and there, most of them trying to cut out bloat.

The bottom line is that, after all these changes, I think this is a much stronger album. For one thing, it's stream-lined, with 12 minutes of bloat removed without losing anything important. For another, these versions generally are less electronic and experimental and more in line with the classic U2 rocking sound. That's what worked best in concert, because that's the band is best at.

I won't be surprised if some U2 fans complain that I butchered and mutilated the album. If you're very familiar with it, these changes could sound jarring. But I made these changes primarily for me, and they work for me. Hopefully, they'll work for you as well. I put a lot of time and effort into these changes, as you can probably guess from my comments here. I felt the album had a lot of good things going for it, but was flawed. I now feel I'm removed most of the flaws, and the revised version of the album can now hold its own with the high standards of their previous albums.

01 Discotheque (U2)
02 Do You Feel Loved (U2)
03 Mofo (U2)
04 If God Will Send His Angels (U2)
05 Staring at the Sun (U2)
06 Last Night on Earth (U2)
07 Gone (U2)
08 Miami (U2)
09 The Playboy Mansion (U2)
10 If You Wear that Velvet Dress (U2)
11 Please (U2)
12 Wake Up Dead Man (U2)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15256872/UTwo_1997_PopAlternte_atse.zip.html

For the album cover, I used the same cover as the official album, without any changes.

Morgan James - Acoustic Cover Songs, Volume 2, 2015-2016

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the first album of Morgan James performing acoustic cover songs. Here's the second, with lots more to come. Please check out the write-up for that first album for information about who she is and her background. But the bottom line is she's a fantastic singer with an unusual penchant for performing acoustic versions of songs.

As I mentioned in the write-up to that first album in this series, one thing I like about James's covers is that her taste in music is somewhat different from mine. That means she does covers of songs that I don't know or wouldn't pay much attention to. For instance, I haven't been following D'Angelo, Chris Stapleton, Sia, or Ariana Grande. If I did, I usually would have issues with the slick, modern pop or soul production. But thanks to Morgan James stripping those songs down to their simplest acoustic forms, I can appreciate them as good songs.

If you look at the below song list, she does some songs like that, but mixes them in with classic songs from previous decades too. I enjoy how she often puts her own spin on some of those songs. For instance, she plays "Roxanne" at a much slower pace than the Police original. And when she does "Melissa," she's backed only by a piano. That's different from even the acoustic versions the Allman Brothers Band have done on guitar.

So, bottom line, if you haven't given Morgan James a listen, you're missing out.

Here a list of the original artists for each song:

01 The Charade - D'Angelo
02 Roxanne - Police
03 Cecilia - Simon & Garfunkel
04 Jolene - Dolly Parton
05 Melissa - Allman Brothers Band
06 Dirty Diana - Michael Jackson
07 Alive - Sia
08 You're All I Need to Get By - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
09 Parachute - Chris Stapleton
10 If It's Magic - Stevie Wonder
11 Dangerous Woman - Ariana Grande
12 Shape of My Heart - Sting
13 Waiting on the World to Change - John Mayer

Here's the usual song list:

01 The Charade (Morgan James)
02 Roxanne (Morgan James)
03 Cecilia (Morgan James)
04 Jolene (Morgan James)
05 Melissa (Morgan James)
06 Dirty Diana (Morgan James)
07 Alive (Morgan James & Mykal Kilgore)
08 You're All I Need to Get By (Morgan James & Doug Wamble)
09 Parachute (Morgan James)
10 If It's Magic (Morgan James)
11 Dangerous Woman (Morgan James)
12 Shape of My Heart (Morgan James)
13 Waiting on the World to Change (Morgan James)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15266926/MorganJ_2015-2016_AcoustcCoverSongsVolume2_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is from 2015.

Elton John - Hits '70 - Non-Album Cover Versions (1970)

Lately, I've been going through an Elton John phase, so I'll be posting more from him. Here's a very strange album that needs some explanation.

In 1969, Elton John was already starting to make it in the music business. He put out a single in 1968, and two more singles and an album in 1969. But none of them made the charts anywhere, and he needed money to live on while he waited for more success. He'd also been writing songs for other artists, but hadn't had much success with that either. 

At the time, it was very rare for record companies to put out compilations featuring recent hits from different artists, due to the difficulty of securing to rights from other companies and then splitting the profits. So instead, it was common practice to make compilation albums filled with nearly exact copies of hits done by anonymous musicians. Elton John made some extra money playing keyboards on some of these songs, and sometimes singing lead vocals on them. He did most of these in early to mid-1970, at a time when he was already starting to break out as a star. I guess the royalty checks for his own songs hadn't started coming in yet.

It was only after he became a superstar that some listeners realized that some of these anonymous copycat versions of hits were actually sung by him. Over the years, there have been various collections of these performances. But this generally has remained little more than a curiosity for his die-hard fans.

I think these recordings deserve more attention. Yeah, many of them just aren't good. Often they sound like the anonymous copies that they are. But on some of the songs, Elton John's talent and individual style shines through. So I've cut these songs about in half to the ones I think are the best. They're presented in the order they were recorded. He did a couple of lead vocals in late 1969, but those didn't make the cut. 

Generally speaking, I picked the songs where his lead vocals are the most clear and distinctive. (On many of the songs I rejected, he shared lead vocals with others, or double tracked himself to make his voice sound more generic.) I also rejected a few songs that were just weird. For instance, he sang a version of "Young, Gifted, and Black," which is silly when you know he isn't black. Also, some of his performances were more like parodies, and I wanted to keep this serious. Furthermore, I tried to avoid the versions that were too slavishly similar to the original hit versions.

The quality of this album is greatly helped by the fact that he didn't just sing copies of hit songs. In mid-1970, he also was asked to make demos for a handful of songs from lesser known artists in hopes that other artists would hear them and be more inclined to cover them. (Those are tracks 7 through 13.) Luckily, four of the seven songs from this batch were Nick Drake compositions. At the time, Drake was totally obscure, but he has risen in stature to become a music legend. So, ironically, you may find some of the Nick Drake songs here more familiar than some of the hits. 

The other three songs from that bunch were from an obscure folk duo, John and Beverley Martyn. Although the duo wouldn't last the year as a musical entity, John Martyn would go on to have a long and critically acclaimed career as a singer-songwriter. So it was a lucky thing that Elton John was assigned to record those songs too.

It wouldn't have been a smart thing for Elton John to release an all-covers album in 1970, the year he was hitting it big as a performer of the songs he co-wrote with Bernie Taupin. But in hindsight, this is a perfectly good album. By cutting out the lesser copycat songs, I think this goes from a marginal curiosity to an album that holds its own in his discography.

The album is 50 minutes long. That was on the long side for an album in that era, but some albums were that long or longer.

Here is a list of the artists who had the original and/or hit versions for each song:

01 Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel
02 I Can't Tell the Bottom from the Top - Hollies
03 Question - Moody Blues
04 Yellow River - Christie
05 Lady D'Arbanville - Cat Stevens
06 Love of the Common People - Nicky Thomas
07 Saturday Sun - Nick Drake
08 Sweet Honesty - John and Beverley Martyn
09 Stormbringer - John and Beverley Martyn
10 Way to Blue - Nick Drake
11 Go Out and Get It - John and Beverley Martyn
12 Day Is Done - Nick Drake
13 Time Has Told Me - Nick Drake
14 Natural Sinner - Fair Weather
15 Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours - Stevie Wonder

Here's the usual song list:

01 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Elton John)
02 I Can't Tell the Bottom from the Top (Elton John)
03 Question (Elton John)
04 Yellow River (Elton John)
05 Lady D'Arbanville (Elton John)
06 Love of the Common People (Elton John)
07 Saturday Sun (Elton John)
08 Sweet Honesty (Elton John)
09 Stormbringer (Elton John)
10 Way to Blue (Elton John)
11 Go Out and Get It (Elton John)
12 Day Is Done (Elton John)
13 Time Has Told Me (Elton John)
14 Natural Sinner (Elton John)
15 Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours (Elton John) 

https://www.upload.ee/files/15905281/EltonJn_1970_Hits70VariousCoverSongs_atse.zip.html

While I was collecting songs and information to put this album together, I came across the cover art to the many cheapo cheapo hits collections that contained one or more of Elton John's vocals. I could have tried to make a serious and respectable album cover. But instead, I decided it would be more fun to lean into the cheesy fly-by-night nature of those albums by basing my cover on one of those. 

So that's what I did. The title "Hits '70" is unchanged. The left side of the original cover was a list of the songs it contained. I replaced that with a photo of Elton John in concert from that time period. The bottom left of the cover contained some more text and the record company logo. I replaced that with Elton John's name, done in the same font as the album title.

The Allman Brothers Band - Unplugged - Radio and Records Convention, Los Angeles, CA, 6-11-1992

In the early 1990s, MTV's "Unplugged" series was a popular musical trend, a reaction to the overproduction excesses of the 1980s. The Allman Brothers Band had never really played in the acoustic musical format before, at least not more than for a song here and there. But they jumped on the "Unplugged" train in 1992. This presents the best of their acoustic phase.

The Allman Brothers Band never actually played for the MTV Unplugged TV show, as far as I know. But they put out an album called "IRSA Acoustic Set" based on this concert. Unfortunately, it was only released on a limited basis for a limited time, with the benefits going to charity. As a result, most fans of the band have never heard it.

I've supplemented it with two extra songs at the end. "Pony Boy" was played occasionally in concert in 1992, during short acoustic sets in the middle of longer electric concerts. The last song, "Steady Rollin' Man," was done in 1998. However, you wouldn't know it was six years later, since the acoustic sound is the same as the others. Both of these extra songs come from bootlegs, but the sound is pretty close to the main concert.

That main concert sounds fantastic. However, it had one problem that annoyed me: the audience applause at the end of each song faded out after just a few seconds. The fade-outs were so obvious that they ruined the impression of hearing one continuous concert. So I did two things to fix this. One, I unfaded the fade-outs as best I could, meaning I steadily increased the volume as it was dropping, until there was nothing left to increase. This typically restored a couple of seconds at the end of each song. Sometimes even that wasn't enough for the audience reaction to sound like it came to a natural conclusion. So I patched in bits of the applause from other sounds to extend the crowd response a couple more seconds. The final result still isn't great, but I think it's better than the fast fade-outs.

As far as the music goes, I much prefer the early 1970s version of the band to their later versions, with markedly different personnel. But the 1992 version still had the essential members Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts on lead vocals. (Betts was with the band until 2000, while Allman stayed until the end in 2014.) This version also features the excellent Warren Haynes on lead guitar.

If you're a fan of the Allman Brothers Band at all, you should listen to this. Sure, they were great at rocking, but they were just as good at playing on a porch with acoustic instruments. There's even a decent amount of jamming here.

The album is 56 minutes long.

01 Come On in My Kitchen (Allman Brothers Band)
02 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
03 Seven Turns (Allman Brothers Band)
04 Midnight Rider (Allman Brothers Band)
05 Southbound (Allman Brothers Band)
06 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
07 In Memory of Elizabeth Reed [Instrumental] (Allman Brothers Band)
08 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
09 Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad (Allman Brothers Band)
10 Melissa (Allman Brothers Band)
11 Midnight Blues (Allman Brothers Band)
12 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
13 Pony Boy (Allman Brothers Band)
14 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
15 Steady Rollin' Man (Allman Brothers Band)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15288746/TAllmanBB_1992_UnpluggdRdioandRcordsConventionLsAngelesCA__6-11-1992_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo doesn't come from the exact concert in question. But it's close. It's from an acoustic performance on TV just one month later. There were multiple photos from the same appearance. The photo I chose was good except for the fact that Warren Haynes (third from the left) had his face bent down so it was blocked by a microphone. So I used a different photo to patch in a better version of him from the waist on up.

For the band name, I used the artwork from the 1979 album "Enlightened Rogues" (a surprisingly good album for the year, by the way). I rearranged the wording and then inverted the colors.

Elton John - 11-17-70 (A&R Recording Studios, New York City, 11-17-1970) - Complete Version

There's surprisingly little officially released live music from Elton John's most acclaimed period, the early 1970s. The one that stands out as a classic, "11-17-70," is from very early in his music career, 1970. (It's named after the date it was recorded. In Britain, it's known as 17-11-70," because they have their dates and months backwards. ;) ) This album was released in early 1970, and was a critical and commercial success, helping to turn him into a superstar.

However, the original album is flawed. The concert, recorded in front of a crowd of only about 100 people in a New York City recording studio, was 80 minutes long. But the official record was only 48 minutes long, and the song order was jumbled. A more complete version was released for a limited time on Record Store Day in 2017. But this version was flawed too. While it had all the songs, the song order was still jumbled. So I set out to put them in the correct order.

I thought that would be an easy task, but boy, was I wrong. The record company doctored the recordings in order to make their jumbled song order not seem jumbled. They moved the between song banter around and manipulated the audience applause. For instance, they had the applause go over the start of a couple of songs when that hadn't happened in the actual concert.

I know this because the concert was broadcast live on the radio, and bootlegs of the full show in the correct order appeared almost immediately. But the sound quality on the 2017 official version was better than any of the bootlegs. So I kept that music, but used bits and pieces of the bootleg version to fix the banter and applause to how it actually sounded in the concert. The resulting combination is better than both versions, since there were some minor cuts and problems with the bootleg version too.

Here you can listen to the full concert, in the correct order, with the best sound. Elton John himself said this was the best concert he ever performed, so if you want a live album from him, it's hard to go wrong with this one. It's true that it doesn't have many of his huge hits, since most of them would come later. But I really like the sound. I'm not a fan of bombast and overproduction. Here, he keeps it simple, with just him on piano, plus a bassist and drummer. I much hearing him this way, when he was raw and hungry, than in later years when he sometimes played with a large band or even an orchestra.

01 talk (Elton John)
02 I Need You to Turn To (Elton John)
03 talk (Elton John)
04 Your Song (Elton John)
05 talk (Elton John)
06 Country Comfort (Elton John)
07 talk (Elton John)
08 Border Song (Elton John)
09 talk (Elton John)
10 Indian Sunset (Elton John)
11 Amoreena (Elton John)
12 Bad Side of the Moon (Elton John)
13 Take Me to the Pilot (Elton John)
14 Sixty Years On (Elton John)
15 Honky Tonk Women (Elton John)
16 Can I Put You On (Elton John)
17 Burn Down the Mission - My Baby Left Me - Get Back (Elton John)
18 talk (Elton John)
19 My Father's Gun (Elton John)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15835572/EltonJn_1970_111770_ARRecordngStudios__atse.zip.html

For the album cover, I considered just using the official cover. But I don't like that one. It's nearly entirely black, and not very fetching. Perhaps it was an attempt to look like the cheap bootlegs of that era. Instead, I went with a photo of Elton John playing on a German TV show in 1970. However, I took the exact same lettering from the official cover for his name and the album name.

Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - Under the Covers, Volume 3.5 (2013)

Note that this isn't exactly an entirely new album. Back in 2018, I posted a "1.5" album to complement "Under the Covers, Volume 1" by Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs, and a "2.5" album to complement their "Under the Covers, Volume 2." But although they released a "Volume 3" in 2013, I've have more trouble making a "3.5."

The problem was that Sweet and Hoffs obviously are big fans of 1960s and 1970s music, but much less so for 1980s music. Their "Volume 3" was all 1980s music, and while that album was fine, they didn't have that many extra 1980s covers, either as a duo or done solo. However, I realized I'd missed three bonus tracks to the "Volume 3." I also discovered a 2017 version of a 1980s Prince song done by Hoffs. Plus, two more songs actually squeak into the 1980s, being released in the year 1980: "Teacher, Teacher" and "The Tide Is High."

Still, that wasn't enough material for all 1980s covers material. In order to make up for that, I've moved a bunch of songs from my previous 2.5 album here with originals that date from the late 1970s. Specifically, I moved everything from 1977 or after to here. 1977 was a pivotal year, with punk and new wave becoming new musical trends, while disco became super dominant that year as well.

I bunched the late 1970s at the start, before the 1980s ones. However, I end this album with "Marquee Moon," a late 1970s song, since it's a ten-minute long guitar workout, and that seems like a fitting closing song to me.

01 Dreaming (Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs)
02 I Wanna Be Sedated (Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs)
03 You Say You Don't Love Me (Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs)
04 American Girl (Matthew Sweet)
05 Magnet and Steel (Matthew Sweet with Lindsey Buckingham)
06 Train in Vain [Stand by Me] (Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs)
07 The Tide Is High (Matthew Sweet)
08 Teacher, Teacher (Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs)
09 I Would Die 4 U (Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs)
10 You're My Favorite Waste of Time (Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs)
11 Take Me with U (Susanna Hoffs)
12 Marquee Moon (Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15263815/MattSwtSusH_2013_UndrCovrsVolme3.5_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo was taken backstage at a concert at the Roxy in Los Angeles in 2007. There were two photos, and one was good except Hoffs looked dead serious. In the other one, she was smiling. So I used Photoshop to add her smile to the other photo.

Emitt Rhodes - Just Me and You - Rarities, Volume 2: 1985-2015

I just posted an album of Emitt Rhodes rarities from the first half of his career. Here's the follow-up, rarities from the second half of his career.

As I mentioned in the write-up for that previous album, Rhodes had a strange career. He was very busy from the late 1960s until 1973. Then he didn't release another new album until 2015, 42 years later! During that time, he worked as a recording engineer and producer. From time to time, he made an occasional effort to record again, and very, very rarely made concert appearances. 

The first song is an extremely obscure unreleased version of the Beatles song "Things We Said Today" from the mid-1980s. (I'm guessing it's around 1985.) It definitely has the distinctive production of the era. The next five songs are from one of those very rare concert appearances, this one in 1997. Two of the songs are written and sung by Ray Paul, who put out a power pop album in 1980. A live acoustic medley from Rhodes in 2001 follows that.

Rhodes apparently completed a studio album in 2000, but nothing from it has ever come to light. He came close again in 2011, but ultimately only three songs were released on iTunes. Those three feature Vicki and Debbi Petersen from the Bangles on backing vocals, and Richard Thompson on lead guitar.

It seems very likely to me that there are a lot of Rhodes rarities still sitting in the vaults. Since he recorded all instruments by himself in his own studio, those recordings have generally stayed with him and haven't even been bootlegged. Hopefully those will be officially released someday. But in the meantime, these collections will have to suffice.

01 Things We Said Today (Emitt Rhodes)
02 Live Till You Die (Emitt Rhodes & Ray Paul)
03 Love Will Stone You (Emitt Rhodes & Ray Paul)
04 Some Sing, Some Dance (Ray Paul & Emitt Rhodes)
05 Really Wanted You (Emitt Rhodes & Ray Paul)
06 How Do You Know (Ray Paul & Emitt Rhodes)
07 No Time at All - Isn't It So - Good Enough (Emitt Rhodes)
08 Time Will Show the Wiser (Nick Vernier Band with Emitt Rhodes & Iain Matthews)
09 This Wall Between Us (Emitt Rhodes)
10 Just Me and You (Emitt Rhodes)
11 What's a Man to Do (Emitt Rhodes)
12 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart [Acoustic Version] (Emitt Rhodes)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15423580/EmittR_1985-2015_JstMeYouRaritiesVolum2_atse.zip.html

I'm not sure where or when the cover art photo is from, but judging by his appearance, it's a safe bet it's from around the time of his 2016 comeback album.

Emitt Rhodes - Tame the Lion - Rarities, Volume 1: 1970-1980

On July 19, 2020, Emitt Rhodes died in his sleep at the age of 70. If you don't know who he is, you should. He was the lead singer and songwriter for the band the Merry-Go-Round in the late 1960s, then had a series of excellent solo albums in the early 1970s. He then pretty much went musically silent from 1973 all the way until a comeback album in 2016. A documentary movie about him was titled "The One Man Beatles," and for good reason. He wrote and sang highly melodic songs that were often compared to Paul McCartney's, and generally played and recorded all the instruments himself.

To mark Rhodes' passing, I wanted to put together a rarities collection. But there's very little in terms of publicly available non-album material. It took me a while, but I've managed to scrape together two albums.

This album is essentially split into two parts. The first half is all live performances. Rhodes didn't like playing concerts, and did so only infrequently in his 1970 to 1973 prime. As far as I know, no concert bootlegs have ever emerged, and all the known live material from that time is here. It mostly consists of songs played on TV or radio shows. For a couple of them, he only sang live to a pre-recorded backing track. But if you listen closely, the backing track is slightly different than the studio version. The sound quality for these live versions is sometimes just okay, but we have to take what we can get given the limited amount of such recordings.

The second half consists of studio recordings. First, there's "Tame the Lion," which was only released as an A-side in 1973. In my opinion, this is one of his best songs, and one of the best anti-war songs of all time. Unfortunately, it was totally ignored when it came out.

The rest of the studio recordings are from a 1980 recording session. He attempted to complete an album, but apparently only got part of the way through it. The finished songs have remained unreleased, but bootlegged, except for "Isn't It So," which made it onto a best of collection.

01 Live Till You Die (Emitt Rhodes)
02 She's Such a Beauty (Emitt Rhodes)
03 Love Will Stone You (Emitt Rhodes)
04 Really Wanted You (Emitt Rhodes)
05 You Take the Dark Out of the Night (Emitt Rhodes)
06 Love Will Stone You (Emitt Rhodes)
07 Tame the Lion (Emitt Rhodes)
08 More than a Smile Will Do (Emitt Rhodes)
09 Isn't It So (Emitt Rhodes)
10 Good Enough (Emitt Rhodes)
11 Making Love (Emitt Rhodes)
12 I Can't Tell My Heart (Emitt Rhodes)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15423575/EmittR_1970-1980_TmetheLionRaritiesVolum1_atse.zip.html

The cover art is a screenshot taken from one of his rare TV appearances in the early 1970s.

U2 - Summer of Love (Acoustic Version) (Song Edit) (2018)

Here's a song edit I worked up today. I figure it's interesting and significant enough to merit a post on its own. I plan on putting this on a U2 album I'll post here eventually. But I'm slowly working my way through their career chronologically, so it'll be a while before I get to it. 

Some months ago, I came across a very nice acoustic version U2 did of their song "Summer of Love." It comes from a bootleg recording of their rehearsals for the 2018 tour. (I don't know the date or the location of the recording - if you do, please let me know.) 

Personally, I think this version is much better than the one that appeared on their 2017 album "Songs of Experience." I think this is an example of how the problems with U2's music in the last decade or so has more to do with production issues than a lack of quality material. If one strips a song all the way down to its acoustic base, there's no way to screw that up with bad production.

However, there was a very big problem with this recording that made it unusable for me. Because they were only rehearsing the song and didn't know it very well, some person shouted out the timing at key points in the song to make sure they'd stay on track. For instance, before each verse, a voice could be heard shouting, "Verse! Two, three, four." These instructions happened at other points in the song, including instrumental sections. The voice even counted out the ending. 

On top of that, the band screwed up at a couple of different points. For instance, they only played the main riff once in an instrumental section in the middle, and then lead singer Bono talked over more music, reminding the others that they should play that twice. Bono also flubbed the vocals at the beginning of the first verse, and had to try the first words a second time. These problems were too frequent and annoying for me to be able to enjoy the song. And there wasn't any clean material I could use to patch them over. 

Or so I thought. Today, I came across another acoustic version of the song on YouTube. This was played on someone's porch for a small audience in 2018. Unfortunately, it was recorded poorly, causing the vocals to be distorted, and one could hear people in the audience talking all through it. 

But I figured I could use little instrumental snippets of just three or four seconds each to patch over the problems with the rehearsal version. That's exactly what I did, and I think it worked out very well. I'll bet you won't be able to tell at which points the fixes were made. Once I had a better version without all the talking voices, I then was able to fix other problems with the instrumental sections and the intro, extending them as they intended. I even fixed some bum notes.

I dare say the end result is the best version of the song out there, in excellent sound quality. I hope you'll agree.

https://www.upload.ee/files/15239446/UTwo_SummrofLve_SongEdit.zip.html

Joni Mitchell - Looking Out for Love - On TV and Radio (1969)

Woo-hoo! Boy, am I excited! I just found out that Joni Mitchell is going to release a box set called "Archives, Volume 1: The Early Years, 1963-1967." It's coming out next month, and it consists ENTIRELY of previously unreleased material. I think this is going to be the best archival release by anyone in many years! Most of it has never even been bootlegged before. You can read more about it here:

https://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/joni-mitchell-archives-volume-1-the-early-years-1963-1967-box-set/

In celebration of that coming release, I want to post something else by her. I'd started out posting an "On TV and Radio" series of albums by her back in February 2020, but I got sidetracked and I haven't continued it. You can find the first volume of that here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/02/joni-mitchell-born-to-take-highway-on.html

The thinking of this series is that it gathers stray songs here and there from TV or radio performances that don't fit anywhere else and are significant in some way. By significant, I mean otherwise unreleased originals or covers, or duets, or live versions of her songs that haven't been recorded well on concert bootlegs. The sound quality is variable. But hopefully this will tie people over for another year or more, when the next volume in her "Archives" box set series will be released. I'm optimistic most of this material will be released on that - maybe not the exact same performances in every case, but at least the songs.

The only otherwise unreleased original here is "Looking Out for Love." It's really more of a song snippet, just a minute and a half long, but hey, it's a Joni original from her most popular time period. It also contains some rare cover versions: "I Still Miss Someone," "Long Black Veil," "I Shall Be Released," and "Let's Get Together." The first two of those are duets with Johnny Cash from his TV show. I have a couple more performances and some banter from her two appearances on that show.

The rest of the songs are live versions of songs that generally didn't make it on any of the concert bootlegs I've posted at this site.

I have a couple more albums in this series. I'll try to get to posting them sooner rather than later.

Oh, one more thing. Back in 2018, I posted an album containing other musicians performing Mitchell's songs that not only have never been officially released, but have never even appeared on publicly available bootlegs. They were able to do this due to a music book that contains the sheet music to some of her ultra rare songs. I found two more such songs, "Daisy Summer Piper" and "Cara's Castle," that emerged on YouTube earlier in 2020. "Cara's Castle" is going to appear on the new archival box set, but "Daisy Summer Piper" and most of the other songs on this collection still won't. Hopefully, they'll make it on the next box set in the series. If this sounds interesting to you, here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/05/various-artists-unreleased-and-unknown.html

01 talk (Joni Mitchell)
02 Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)
03 talk (Joni Mitchell)
04 I Still Miss Someone (Joni Mitchell & Johnny Cash)
05 I Shall Be Released (Joni Mitchell, Cass Elliott & Mary Travers)
06 Looking Out for Love (Joni Mitchell)
07 Let's Get Together (Joni Mitchell)
08 talk (Joni Mitchell)
09 Rainy Night House - Blue Boy (Joni Mitchell)
10 talk (Joni Mitchell)
11 I Think I Understand (Joni Mitchell)
12 talk (Joni Mitchell)
13 The Fiddle and the Drum (Joni Mitchell)
14 talk (Joni Mitchell & Johnny Cash)
15 The Gallery (Joni Mitchell)
16 talk (Joni Mitchell & Johnny Cash)
17 Long Black Veil (Joni Mitchell & Johnny Cash)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15256294/JoniMchl_1969_LookngOutforLve_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo comes from a TV show appearance she did in 1969. I believe it's the one where she played "I Shall Be Released."

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1966-1968

My first Lulu BBC album has been surprisingly well received, considering how "uncool" she is regarded these days. That's good, because there's a lot more where that came from. Here's the second volume out of many.

One of the people commenting on the first Lulu BBC album I posted called it "revelatory." I agree with that. What I said with that one I'll also say with this one: I prefer most of her BBC performances over her studio material. Like that one, about half of the songs here were never recorded by her for any official studio release. A lot of those are the best songs. Many are covers of the hits of the day, such as "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" by Jackie Wilson and "I Love My Dog" by Cat Stevens. These have well through out arrangements, which makes me wonder why the heck they only were ever done for the BBC.

Also like the previous album in this series, there was a problem with BBC DJs talking over the starts of some songs (the ones with "[Edit]" in their names). I fixed that using a sound editing program that wiped out the talking but kept the underlying music. 

Everything here remains officially unreleased, as far as I can tell. Usually though, the sound quality is excellent. Although the BBC foolishly didn't systematically preserve their master tapes, many pristine copies of the original BBC recordings, usually those sent overseas to radio shows across the British empire.

Unfortunately, this album also contains the start of Lulu's decline. In my opinion, she was at her best when she used her gruff voice to put a British spin on American soul music. But around 1968, she got her own BBC TV show, and the show positioned her as an all-around entertainer, capable of singing any song in any style. That watered down what made her most appealing to me, and she fell into more of a cheesy show-biz mode with each passing year. That was still good, but not as good, in my opinion. You start to see this with the last six songs on this album, which all come from her TV show.

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 You'll Never Leave Him [Edit] (Lulu)
02 Leave a Little Love (Lulu)
03 What a Wonderful Feeling (Lulu with Alan Price)
04 I Do [Edit] (Lulu)
05 Blowin' in the Wind (Lulu)
06 I Love My Dog (Lulu)
07 Dreary Days and Nights [Edit] (Lulu)
08 The Boat that I Row (Lulu)
09 A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You [Edit] (Lulu)
10 Let's Pretend (Lulu)
11 To Sir with Love [Edit] (Lulu)
12 Love Loves to Love, Love (Lulu)
13 [Your Love Keeps Lifting Me] Higher and Higher [Edit] (Lulu)
14 Can't Take My Eyes Off You (Lulu)
15 The Trolley Song (Lulu)
16 Put on a Happy Face (Lulu)
17 Running Wild (Lulu)
18 Suddenly (Lulu)
19 Morning Dew (Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/YYQykSeS

alternate:

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

The cover art uses a 1969 promotional photo of Lulu holding an umbrella with a British flag design.

Duffy - Cover Versions, Volume 2: 2009-2017

I just posted an album of Duffy's cover versions from 2004 to 2009. Here's the rest of her cover songs that are known so far, from 2009 to 2017.

Only four of the songs here have been officially released. Although that depends on what "officially released" means, because three more of the songs have been posted by Duffy on her Instagram Internet account ("Trust in Me," "Love Me Tender," and "What a Wonderful World"). Unfortunately, those three sound a little worse than the rest, especially "Trust in Me." Each of them appears to have been recorded solo in her house, and it seems they were done under less than ideal perfect conditions. They still sound pretty good though.

The other songs come from a variety of sources, including radio shows, TV shows, and concert bootlegs. The last song, "I Put a Spell on You," actually is a full song done for a TV commercial.

On a different note, Duffy is a very capable songwriter. It turns out she released an album's worth of non-album tracks in 2008, mostly B-sides. I'll post an album I've made of that at a later date.

By the way, there's one cover she's done that I can't find. She performed "No Frontiers" in 2014. If anyone has it, please let me know and I'll add it to this album.

If you're interested in Duffy's music at all, I suggest you give this and the other covers album a listen. In my opinion, both albums are better than her second album, "Endlessly," which was a disappointment.

Here's a list of the original artists that made each song famous:

01 Stay with Me - Lorraine Ellison
02 You Do Something to Me - Paul Weller
03 Band of Gold - Freda Payne
04 All I Want for Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
05 The Christmas Song - Mel Torme / Nat King Cole
06 When I Need You - Leo Sayer
07 Ar Lan Y Mor - traditional
08 Trust in Me - Mildred Bailey / Etta James
09 Hymn to Love [Hymnes a la Mome] - Edith Piaf
10 Love Me Tender - Elvis Presley
11 What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
12 Are You Sure - Timi Yuro
13 Make the World Go Away - Ray Price / Timi Yuro
14 I Put a Spell on You - Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Here's the usual song list:

01 Stay with Me (Duffy)
02 You Do Something to Me (Duffy)
03 Band of Gold (Duffy)
04 All I Want for Christmas Is You (Duffy)
05 The Christmas Song (Duffy)
06 When I Need You (Duffy)
07 Ar Lan Y Mor (Duffy)
08 Trust in Me (Duffy)
09 Hymn to Love [Hymnes a la Mome] (Duffy)
10 Love Me Tender (Duffy)
11 What a Wonderful World (Duffy)
12 Are You Sure (Duffy)
13 Make the World Go Away (Duffy)
14 I Put a Spell on You (Duffy)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15110831/Duff_2009-2017_CovrVersionsVolume2_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I used a promotional photo from 2011.

Duffy - Cover Versions, Volume 1: 2004-2009

A couple of days ago, I posted two albums of Adele rarities, most of them covers. Now I'm going to do exactly the same for Duffy, with two albums of rarities from her, except they're all covers.

The similarities between Adele and Duffy are many. They're both British female soul sing-songwriters who hit it big with debut albums in 2008. Neither of them have released much music since their debut albums, with Adele releasing two more studio albums since and Duffy only one. Both of them have put out almost no new music in the last five years in particular. 

But while Adele has gone on to sell over 100 million copies of her three albums, Duffy has pretty much disappeared. It seems that at some point in the early 2010s, Duffy was kidnapped and sexually abused for about a month, leaving her psychologically scarred. Yet it also seems both singers may be making comebacks soon. Adele apparently was going to release a new album in late 2020, but it's been pushed back to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. And Duffy has released two new original songs on-line in 2020, a promising sign that she may be close to restarting her music career.

All but two of the songs here are officially unreleased ("Please Stay" and "Live and Let Die"). But the sound quality is consistently high throughout. The first two songs are unreleased studio recordings from 2004, way before the rest. The other unreleased songs all come from radio or TV shows. Four of those were recorded in front of studio audiences, but the clapping noise is minimal.

Since Duffy is a soul singer, it makes sense that most of the songs she covers here are soul classics. But she has a few surprise choices as well. I particularly like her version of "Borderline," even though I'm not much of a fan of the original by Madonna.

Here's a list of the original artists for each song:

01 I Melt - Lucia Cordaro
02 I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again - Eva Cassidy
03 Cry to Me - Solomon Burke
04 The First Cut Is the Deepest - Cat Stevens / Rod Stewart
05 Bring It on Home to Me - Sam Cooke
06 Please Stay - Burt Bacharach / Drifters
07 These Arms of Mine - Otis Redding
08 Ready for the Floor - Hot Chip
09 Tainted Love - Gloria Jones / Soft Cell
10 Borderline - Madonna
11 Wonderwall - Oasis
12 Live and Let Die - Paul McCartney

Here's the usual song list:

01 I Melt (Duffy with the Invisible Wires)
02 I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again (Duffy with the Invisible Wires)
03 Cry to Me (Duffy)
04 The First Cut Is the Deepest (Duffy)
05 Bring It on Home to Me (Eddie Floyd & Duffy)
06 Please Stay (Duffy)
07 These Arms of Mine (Duffy)
08 Ready for the Floor (Duffy)
09 Tainted Love (Duffy)
10 Borderline (Duffy)
11 Wonderwall (Duffy)
12 Live and Let Die (Duffy)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15110777/Duff_2004-2009_CovrVersionsVolume1_atse.zip.html

I chose this 2008 photo of Duffy in concert for the cover art because I like the way a pink light frames her like a halo. I didn't alter that original in any way. Also, she's used the same cursive writing of her name on all her material, so I used that too.

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1964-1966

There are a few things I've tried to focus on when posting music at this blog: stray tracks collections, home concerts during the coronavirus pandemic, all-covers collections, and acoustic performances. But another one of my top priorities is BBC performances. Those are a musical treasure for hundreds of artists. 

I'm not a huge Lulu fan. I like her music on about a greatest hits double album level. But her BBC material is all currently unreleased, and it's some of her best stuff. I'd guess about half of the songs she did for the BBC were not officially released by her. It often contains her versions of big hits by other artists, so it's better than much of the material that filled her albums. I like her BBC performances so much that I've collected three albums of them. This is the first one.

Nowdays, Lulu is usually dismissed as a musical lightweight. I get that. A lot of her stuff is lightweight. I tend to dismiss everything she did from the early 1970s onwards, because she went full-on into cheesy show-biz mode. But in the 1960s, it was a different story. Her gruff singing style was very soulful compared to what the British public was used to at the time. This album in particular is very firmly in the pop-soul style.

Every performance on this album remains officially unreleased, and all of them are BBC performances. The sound quality is surprisingly good, considering this is all rare bootlegged material. Generally speaking, I don't know much about the recording details except for the dates. If you know more, please let me know so I can add that info to the mp3 tags.

You may notice that five of the songs below have "Edit" in their titles. Those are all cases where BBC DJs talked over the beginnings of the songs. I fixed that using a sound editing program that wiped out the talking but kept the underlying music.

This album is 45 minutes long. The other two in this series are about as long.

01 I Can't Hear You [No More] (Lulu)
02 Bread and Butter (Lulu)
03 Shout (Lulu)
04 It's Gonna Work Out Fine [Edit] (Lulu)
05 I'll Come Running (Lulu)
06 Surprise, Surprise (Lulu)
07 Mr. Moonlight (Lulu)
08 Satisfied (Lulu)
09 Leave a Little Love (Lulu)
10 Cry to Me [Edit] (Lulu)
11 I Can't Stand It [Edit] (Lulu)
12 Don't Play that Song [You Lied] (Lulu)
13 Try to Understand (Lulu)
14 [Love Is like A] Heat Wave [Edit] (Lulu)
15 I Saw Him Standing There [I Saw Her Standing There] (Lulu)
16 Tell Me like It Is (Lulu)
17 Tennessee Waltz (Lulu)
18 That Lucky Old Sun - It's a Good Day (Lulu)
19 Uptight [Everything's Alright] [Edit] (Lulu)
20 Call Me (Lulu & Georgie Fame)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oWYxv7sv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/LMesdjntb10XYjN/file

For the cover art, I found a photo of a TV appearance Lulu made in 1966. I added the British Union Jack to her name to give it some extra pizazz.

Adele - Rare Songs and Cover Versions, Volume 2 (2011-2017)

I just posted an album of Adele rarities, all from the year 2008. I made that together with this one, so I might as well post this too. If you like that one, you should like this one too.

The main difference between the previous album and this one is that that one was mostly covers (all but two songs), whereas this one is about half covers and half non-album Adele originals. Most of the originals are bonus tracks to her 2011 and 2015 albums. But there's also "Skyfall," her 2012 hit for the James Bond movie of the same name. Plus, there are two songs, "You'll Never See Me Again" and "Never Gonna Leave You" that are still officially unreleased. They were recorded for her 2011 album "21" but weren't included on it, then were somehow leaked onto the Internet in 2014.

Additionally, I stumbled upon a really interesting unreleased mix of "Rolling in the Deep." That's easily my favorite Adele song. I think it's one of the very best songs of the millennium (from 2000 onwards). This version is the same as the studio album version, but with all the instrumentation removed, leaving just Adele's lead vocals plus the backing vocals. It's not as good as the hit version, but I still think it's interesting and worth hearing.

Regarding the cover versions, a few of them are bonus tracks. The rest generally are from live performances. Generally speaking, the sound quality is high, even though three of them are from concert bootlegs.

This album is longer than the previous one. That one is 44 minutes long, and this one is an hour and one minute long. It's kind of an album and a half. The first 40 minutes are all from 2011, and are related to the "21" album released that year. If Adele comes out with a new album and has a bunch of non-album tracks that go with it, I may well move the post-2011 songs to that, if that makes for a sensible album length.

Here is a list of the original artists that made the songs famous:

01 Need You Now - Lady Antebellum
02 I Found a Boy - Adele
03 If It Hadn't Been for Love - Darryl Worley
04 Hiding My Heart - Tim Hanseroth
05 Lovesong - Cure
06 You'll Never See Me Again - Adele
07 Never Gonna Leave You - Adele
08 Promise This - Cheryl Cole
09 [You Make Me Feel like A] Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin
10 I Can't Make You Love Me - Bonnie Raitt
11 Rolling in the Deep [Acappella Version] - Adele
12 Skyfall - Adele
13 Can't Let Go - Adele
14 Lay Me Down - Adele
15 Why Do You Love Me - Adele
16 Fastlove - George Michael
 
Here's the usual song list:

01 Need You Now (Adele with Darius Rucker)
02 I Found a Boy (Adele)
03 If It Hadn't Been for Love (Adele)
04 Hiding My Heart (Adele)
05 Lovesong (Adele)
06 You'll Never See Me Again (Adele)
07 Never Gonna Leave You (Adele)
08 Promise This (Adele)
09 [You Make Me Feel like A] Natural Woman (Adele)
10 I Can't Make You Love Me (Adele)
11 Rolling in the Deep [Acappella Version] (Adele)
12 Skyfall (Adele)
13 Can't Let Go (Adele)
14 Lay Me Down (Adele)
15 Why Do You Love Me (Adele)
16 Fastlove (Adele)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mjvCkWn3

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Zy85JumDWcL9Hds/file

The photo for the cover comes from Adele's appearance at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards.

Adele - Rare Songs and Cover Versions, Volume 1 (2008)

I have mixed feelings about Adele. I think she has an incredible voice. She's a talented songwriter, and sometimes she hits it out of the park. "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone like You" (both of which she co-wrote) are fantastic songs. But I feel she often squanders her talent with too many mid-tempo heartbreak ballads. If only she did more uptempo songs like "Rolling in the Deep!"

Adele put out her first album in 2008, but she's only had three studio albums in total so far, and one live album that pretty much repeats the songs from her studio albums. She's sold an ungodly number of albums, at least 120 million! But I feel all three of her albums are hit and miss.

So I've attempted to make a couple more albums for her. I found enough non-album material for two albums. Frankly, I like these albums better than her studio albums because while she has written or co-written some great songs, those albums have too many of those samey heartbreak ballads. By contrast, these albums mostly consist of covers of classic songs. So the songwriting is solid. It's great to hear Adele apply her remarkable voice to these songs. At times, she's like the second coming of Aretha Franklin or Etta James.

All but five of the songs here are officially unreleased. The sound quality on the unreleased ones are very good to excellent. Generally speaking, most of these come from BBC TV or radio shows, or other radio shows, which means excellent sound quality. Probably the roughest is a version of "Steady, as She Goes," which she apparently did off the cuff while backstage at one of those BBC performances. It's a remarkable performance considering you can see from video footage of it that she's reading the lyrics to the song off her cell phone as she sings!

At first, I was only going to make this a collection of her cover songs. But between this and the next album, I discovered that she has some rare original songs that are pretty good, often as good or better than some of the songs on her studio albums. There are two such songs here, and more on the other album in this series. Both the originals here were released as B-sides.

Adele has almost never included cover songs on her studio albums. One rare exception is "Make You Feel My Love" by Bob Dylan. I've included that here, but I was careful to use a different version than the well-known studio album one.

The song "God Put a Smile upon Your Face" has been edited. That's because the performance she did of it was very short, only a minute and a half long. (It was the first part of a medley, with the other parts of different songs sung by different singers.) It's just one verse and one chorus. I ended it a little bit by repeating the chorus. Even so, that only extended it by another half a minute.

The last two songs, "You Do Something to Me" and "Need Your Love So Bad" were already included on a Paul Weller stray tracks album I made. But since they're duets between Adele and Weller, they fit just as much here, so I put them on this album too.

One thing I like about this album is that it has much greater variety than Adele's studio albums. She does more upbeat material, including versions of some modern rock songs. If you enjoy her voice but aren't so keen on her usual style, you might want to give this a try.

Unfortunately, one of those versions of modern rock songs could only be included as a bonus track. That's "Dreaming of You" by the Coral. It's a great song, and she does a very nice version. But the recording is from an audience bootleg, with some audience noise throughout, so it didn't meet the standard as the other songs here.

This album is 44 minutes long.

Here are the original artists that made the songs famous:

01 That's It, I Quit, I'm Moving On - Sam Cooke
02 Last Nite - Strokes
03 God Put a Smile upon Your Face [Edit] - Coldplay
04 Many Shades of Black - Raconteurs
05 Now and Then - Adele
06 Steady, as She Goes - Raconteurs
07 Black and Gold - Sam Sparro
08 Baby, It's You - Burt Bacharach / Shirelles
09 Painting Pictures - Adele
10 I Just Want to Make Love to You - Willie Dixon / Muddy Waters
11 Make You Feel My Love - Bob Dylan
12 Fool that I Am - Etta James
13 You Do Something to Me - Paul Weller
14 Need Your Love So Bad - Little Willie John

Dreaming of You - Coral

Here's the usual song list:

01 That's It, I Quit, I'm Moving On (Adele)
02 Last Nite (Adele)
03 God Put a Smile upon Your Face [Edit] (Adele)
04 Many Shades of Black (Adele)
05 Now and Then (Adele)
06 Steady, as She Goes (Adele)
07 Black and Gold (Adele)
08 Baby, It's You (Adele with Burt Bacharach)
09 Painting Pictures (Adele)
10 I Just Want to Make Love to You (Adele)
11 Make You Feel My Love (Adele)
12 Fool that I Am (Adele)
13 You Do Something to Me (Paul Weller & Adele)
14 Need Your Love So Bad (Paul Weller & Adele)

Dreaming of You (Adele)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15123356/Adel_2008_RareSongsandCoverVersionsVolume_1_atse.zip.html

The cover art uses a promotional photo of Adele from 2008.

The Pretenders - In the Still of the Night - Non-Album Tracks (2003-2004)

Here's the next in a long series of stray tracks albums from the Pretenders. 

However, I should note this is really more of a Chrissie Hynde album. By this time the Pretenders had basically become Hynde plus a revolving group of supporting musicians. All but one of the songs here are credited to "Chrissie Hynde" with or without others instead of the "Pretenders" anyway. But I'll call this a Pretenders album to keep it consistent with all the other stray tracks album in this series.

The songs here are good, but stylistically, they're all over the map, from a cover of a 1930s ballad to a techno hit. By the way, speaking of that techno hit, "Straight Ahead," I'm not a big fan of it (or that style), but it was a hit and Hynde did sing parts of it, so I've included it. It's at the very end, so it's easy to leave off if you want to do that. I found an interesting acappella version that apparently was created by someone isolating just Hynde's vocal track, so I've included that as kind of an intro, or alternate.

During this time period, it seems Hynde took a prolonged break from the Pretenders. From early 2004 until early 2006, the Pretenders basically didn't play any concerts, and didn't release any new music. Instead, Hynde got very interested in Brazil and its music. She actually lived there for much of 2004. You can see this musical influence with some songs in the middle of this album, especially the two she did with Moreno Veloso (who is the son of the great Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso).

In terms of sound quality, five of the songs come from concert bootlegs. The sound quality of those isn't great, but it's plenty good. The rest are all officially released, from a wide variety of sources.

01 Something to Believe In (Pretenders)
02 Big Bad Cat (Bruce Willis & Chrissie Hynde)
03 In the Bleak Midwinter (Chrissie Hynde & the Blind Boys of Alabama)
04 Never Be Alone Again (Russell Crowe & the 30 Odd Foot of Grunts with Chrissie Hynde)
05 As Time Goes By (Rod Stewart & Chrissie Hynde)
06 Don't Let Me Down (Chrissie Hynde)
07 The Empty Boat (Chrissie Hynde)
08 Nenhuma (Chrissie Hynde & Moreno Veloso)
09 I Get Along without You Very Well (Chrissie Hynde & Moreno Veloso)
10 Cry [If You Don't Mind] (Jarabe De Palo with Chrissie Hynde)
11 In the Still of the Night (Chrissie Hynde)
12 Straight Ahead [Acapella Version] (Chrissie Hynde)
13 Straight Ahead (Tube & Berger with Chrissie Hynde)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700861/TPRETNDRS2003-2004_InStllofNght_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo comes from a Pretenders concert in Dublin, Ireland, in 2003.

Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren - Sunday Mornings with Elle and Toni, Volume 5: 2018

I just posted an album of Morgan James doing all acoustic cover versions. That reminds me of Elle Cordova and Toni Lindgren, so here's another album of them doing all acoustic cover versions too.

If you've listened to the previous four covers albums of theirs that I've posted, this is more of the same good stuff. (And I have lots more to post.) But this album stands out for the number of lesser known songs, at least for me. I've previously mentioned that one thing I appreciate about this duo's covers are that they have a knack of picking excellent obscure songs and mixing them in with classics. About half of the songs here are like that. 

As an extreme example, note the song "High Five" by the band Sigrid. I highly doubt anyone here has heard of her, unless maybe if they live in Norway. She's a Norwegian singer who was so new at the time of this album that she hadn't even released her debut album yet. But Elle Cordova and Toni Lindgren heard this song while they were on tour in Norway, and liked it so much that they decided to perform their own version of it.

This album is 46 minutes long.

Here are the original artists for each song:

01 Post War - M. Ward
02 Sugar, We're Goin Down - Fall Out Boy
03 High Five - Sigrid
04 Bells of Harlem - Dave Rawlings Machine
05 Butter and Eggs [Instrumental] - Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge
06 Stuck in the Middle with You - Stealers Wheel
07 Silver Lining - Rilo Kiley
08 Make You Feel My Love - Bob Dylan
09 Rocky Top - Osborne Brothers
10 Sister Golden Hair - America
11 Don't Know Why - Norah Jones
12 Hold You in My Arms - Ray LaMontagne
13 Ellie's Song [Through the Valley] - Shawn James & the Shapeshifters

Here's the usual song list:

01 Post War (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
02 Sugar, We're Goin Down (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
03 High Five (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
04 Bells of Harlem (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
05 Butter and Eggs [Instrumental] (Toni Lindgren & Josh Turner)
06 Stuck in the Middle with You (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren with Josh Turner & Carson McKee)
07 Silver Lining (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
08 Make You Feel My Love (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
09 Rocky Top (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
10 Sister Golden Hair (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
11 Don't Know Why (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
12 Hold You in My Arms (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
13 Ellie's Song [Through the Valley] (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17363668/ELLECRDVATNILINDRN2018SndyMrnngswthEllTniVlum5_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FGvn6XEx

This duo likes to record their Sunday Mornings videos in interesting locations if they have the opportunity. This is a screenshot from a video recorded overlooking the Mississippi River as it passes through Minnesota in 2018.

Morgan James - Acoustic Cover Songs, Volume 1, 2014-2015

Here's a new artist for this blog, Morgan James. She's new in the sense that I've never posted any music from her before. But she's also new in that I only discovered her recently. I was searching for something on YouTube when I got a suggestion to listen to her performance of the Beatles' "White Album." She sang and played the entire thing straight through (including "Revolution 9") and did a great job of it. But I was even more impressed with her cover of "Dream On" by Aerosmith. You really should check out this YouTube video of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq4KA0mUnC8

It has 20 millions views and counting, and deservedly so. What a voice!

So I started checking out more of her stuff. Yes, she has the face of a fashion model, and she's used that to her advantage getting some work as an actress. But she's much more than just another pretty voice. She trained at Julliard, the top music school in the country, and has sung in many Broadway shows and even operas. She's a talented songwriter too, and has been releasing albums of original material since 2014. I'm surprised she isn't a lot more famous. She's probably best known for her occasional role in Postmodern Jukebox, where famous modern songs are performed in old-fashioned musical styles.

Anyway, what interests me most about James is that she does a LOT of cover versions performed in just an acoustic format. Her long-time husband Doug Wamble is an excellent guitar player. The two of them have been posting acoustic covers since 2014, and probably have done over 200 by now. I plan on posting all of them, one album of about 45 minutes of music at a time. Here's the first one.

One thing I like about James' covers is that she has somewhat different musical tastes than I do. In particular, I've noticed she's more into popular songs from the past couple of decades. That's great, because my main beef with most of those songs is the bad production. When they're stripped down and sung by James, they're often revealed to be very good songs. She's also more into vocal jazz than I am, so I've been able to discover some new songs of that type through her as well.

Some of the songs have some drums on them, but are minimalistic enough for me to still consider them acoustic. She has occasionally done some covers in full band format. I plan on posting them separately eventually. 

The songs are generally in the order they were posted on YouTube. I changed the order slightly though to start things off with a bang with her cover of Aretha Franklin's "Baby, I Love You."

Here are the original artists for each song:

01 Baby, I Love You - Aretha Franklin
02 I'm Not the Only One - Sam Smith
03 Fantasy - Genius of Love - Mariah Carey
04 Fooled Around and Fell in Love - Elvin Bishop
05 Ain't It Fun - Paramore
06 Dancing in the Dark - Bruce Springsteen
07 Come Together - Beatles
08 Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel
09 Rather Be - Clean Bandit
10 What Christmas Means to Me - Stevie Wonder
11 Really Love - D'Angelo
12 Sugar Daddy - D'Angelo

And here's the usual song list:

01 Baby, I Love You (Morgan James)
02 I'm Not the Only One (Morgan James)
03 Fantasy - Genius of Love (Morgan James)
04 Fooled Around and Fell in Love (Morgan James)
05 Ain't It Fun (Morgan James)
06 Dancing in the Dark (Morgan James)
07 Come Together (Morgan James)
08 Sledgehammer (Morgan James)
09 Rather Be (Morgan James)
10 What Christmas Means to Me (Morgan James)
11 Really Love (Morgan James)
12 Sugar Daddy (Morgan James)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15266886/MorganJ_2014-2015_AcoustcCoverSongsVolume1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from a 2014 visit to a radio station.

Various Artists - A Song for Joe - Celebrating the Life of Joe Strummer, 8-21-2020

The coronavirus pandemic has been with us for half a year, and yet the home concerts continue. Musicians generally are having a hard time of it, since holding a concert is one of the most difficult things to do while maintaining social distancing. So this is a benefit concert for "Save Our Stages," which is a charity trying to prevent independent concert venues from closing permanently. 

I'm posting this because I like the musical theme. The concert pays tribute to Joe Strummer, the lead singer and co-songwriter for the Clash. All the songs here were written by Strummer, some from his time in the Clash and some from his solo career after that. In particular, it was timed to take place on Strummer's birthday. (He died of a heart defect in 2002 at the age of 50.) If you want to hear Clash songs done in a different way, this is a great way to do that.

Due to the pandemic, the concert doesn't have a location per se. Every artist recorded their songs in their own homes or recordings studios, then sent them in to be played in a concert format. As a result of that and the social distancing problem, many of the songs are done in an acoustic format. But many are done with a full band too, which is fitting since Strummer's songs usually rocked.

I've cut this down a lot from the original broadcast. That is an hour and 53 minutes long, whereas this is only an hour and eight minutes long. The main reason for the difference is I cut out nearly all the verbal tributes to Stummer. There were so many that there sometimes was more than one between songs. There were a lot of famous people who recorded their thoughts on Strummer. I deleted 22 of those! The only one I kept was from Bruce Springsteen. For one thing, he's the great Bruce Springsteen, but also his comments were very short. (Note that there is NO music by Springsteen here.) If you want to hear the others, I suggest you go to YouTube and listen to the whole concert there. There are some particularly entertaining stories by Steve Buscemi and Bob Weir.

As far as the music goes, I included everything but two songs. The first one I cut was a performance by Joe Strummer of "Police on My Back" from 2001. While very nice, I thought it didn't fit the format of people giving tribute to Strummer. The other song I cut was "Raw Grace in Your Face" by Eugene Hutz. That's an original song by Hutz about Strummer. While nice, I also felt that didn't fit the format. Again, if you want to catch those, check out the YouTube video. The Strummer song is at the front and features rare video footage of him playing on stage.

Pretty much all the performances here are good. They pretty much have to be, because they're Joe Strummer songs. ;) I especially like "Death or Glory" by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, and "Straight to Hell"  by Lucinda Williams. Note that a few of the songs actually weren't written by Strummer (and/or his Clash mate Mick Jones), but are covers that are closely associated with him. "I Fought the Law" and "Police and Thieves" are examples of those. All the songs are done only once, except for "Death or Glory," done once by Jeff Tweedy near the start, and then by Jesse Malin with Bob Weir (of the Grateful Dead) near the end.

01 Get Down Moses (Interrupters)
02 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
03 Death or Glory (Jeff Tweedy)
04 Bankrobber (Tom Morello)
05 Johnny Appleseed (Jesse Malin)
06 Spanish Bombs (Hinds)
07 Washington Bullets (Hold Steady)
08 Janie Jones (Jesse Dayton)
09 I Fought the Law (Joe Ely)
10 Long Shadow (Brian Fallon)
11 Charlie Don't Surf (Cherry Glazerr)
12 Tommy Gun (Dropkick Murphys)
13 Police and Thieves (Nikolai Fraiture)
14 London Calling (Butch Walker)
15 Train in Vain (Josh Homme & Troy Van Leeuwen)
16 [White Man] in Hammersmith Palais (Frank Turner)
17 Rudy Can't Fail (Josh Klinghoffer)
18 Silver and Gold (Lyza Jane & C.C. Adcock)
19 Straight to Hell (Lucinda Williams)
20 Coma Girl (Dave Hause)
21 Death or Glory (Jesse Malin with Bob Weir)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376835/VA-ASngfrJoeCelebrtingLifeJoStrmmer__8-21-2020_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I used a promotional poster for the concert. I had to redo the list of performers, because I cut out all the people (except Bruce Springsteen) who gave verbal tributes only. I also made a couple more minor changes, adding and removing some text. But it basically looks the same as the original.

The Rolling Stones - West Australian Cricket Ground, Perth, Australia, 2-24-1973

A couple of days ago, the Rolling Stones released a deluxe edition of their 1973 album "Goat's Head Soup." I haven't posted a stray tracks album of that era yet, because I've been waiting for some songs from this new release. I'll get to that eventually. But in the meantime, to celebrate this release, here's something else from the band from 1973.

In my opinion, the Rolling Stones in concert were at their peak in the early 1970s, while Mick Taylor was the band's lead guitarist. He left the band in 1974, so arguably 1973 is the peak of the Taylor years, since the band had the biggest repertoire of songs to draw from shortly before he left. (They toured in 1973, but not in 1974.) The most famous concert recording of the band from that year is called "The Brussels Affair." It was a very popular bootleg for decades, then was officially released in 2011. It's been included in the "Goat's Head Soup" deluxe edition as well.

That's a great concert. But I think this bootleg from Perth, Australia, is just as good. The set list is very similar, and both recordings are soundboards. But one sonic advantage this one has is that very little of the crowd can be heard. It's nice to hear some crowd response at the end of each song. But sometimes it's nice to have the clarity of the music and the banter between songs without the crowd noise.

The one flaw with this recording that probably stopped it from being more popular is that the last two songs were not included. The recording actually ends right as the third to last song, "Rip This Joint," finishes. All of that song is included, but nothing immediately afterwards. However, I've added the missing last two songs. Unfortunately, I didn't keep track of where they came from. (If anyone can figure it out, please let me know.) But I'm sure it was from another 1973 concert, probably from that same Australian leg of the tour.

01 Brown Sugar (Rolling Stones)
02 talk (Rolling Stones)
03 Bitch (Rolling Stones)
04 Rocks Off (Rolling Stones)
05 talk (Rolling Stones)
06 Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones)
07 talk (Rolling Stones)
08 Happy (Rolling Stones)
09 talk (Rolling Stones)
10 Tumbling Dice (Rolling Stones)
11 talk (Rolling Stones)
12 Love in Vain (Rolling Stones)
13 talk (Rolling Stones)
14 Sweet Virginia (Rolling Stones)
15 talk (Rolling Stones)
16 You Can't Always Get What You Want (Rolling Stones)
17 Honky Tonk Woman (Rolling Stones)
18 All Down the Line (Rolling Stones)
19 talk (Rolling Stones)
20 Midnight Rambler (Rolling Stones)
21 talk - Happy Birthday (Rolling Stones)
22 Little Queenie (Rolling Stones)
23 talk (Rolling Stones)
24 Rip This Joint (Rolling Stones)
25 Jumpin' Jack Flash (Rolling Stones)
26 Street Fighting Man (Rolling Stones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701041/TROLLNGSTNES1973_WstAustrlinCricktGrundPrthAustrlia__2-24-1973_atse.zip.html

For the album cover art, I used a poster for the band's Australian leg of their 1973 tour. I thought it was more interesting than a photo of the band on stage. The poster was rectangular, as most posters are. I had to crop it pretty dramatically to get it into a square shape. In order to get all the most interesting parts to fit, I moved the text of the band's name down some. I also added the text at the bottom.

Grace Potter - Twilight Hour, Volume 3 - Home Concert, Topanga, CA, 5-18-2020

I've posted two home concerts from Grace Potter, so far. If you haven't heard them yet, you've been missing out, and this is a good opportunity to give her a try. She has a remarkable voice, is a talented songwriter, and is good on the keyboards and guitar to boot.

She did a home concert a week for several months. That's come to an end recently, because she's resumed doing live concerts. (In order for people to watch them while social distancing for the coronavius, they're being held at drive-in movie theaters, and people stay in their own cars!) The last album I posted here compiled two home concerts together, but this is just one concert that lasted 50 minutes.

This is roughly an even mix of covers and originals. The covers are "Dead Flowers" (the Rolling Stones), "Someday We'll Be Together" (the Supremes), "No Expectations" (the Rolling Stones), "Son of a Preacher Man" (Dusty Springfield), "I'll Take You There" (the Staple Singers), and "Cortez the Killer" (Neil Young). "Someday We'll Be Together" is actually a duet with Michael McDonald, former lead vocalist of the Doobie Brothers. Due to the virus, McDonald's vocals were done remotely and added to Potter's recording.

Don't be put off by all the originals. They're pretty good. Her albums have often had production issues, in my opinion, but the songs shine better in this live format. Most of the songs here are done with a band, but a very minimalist one, usually just Potter on guitar or keyboards, plus a drummer and lead guitarist. 

Often during these shows, Potter is winging it. I haven't included her failed experiments, where she starts a song and gives up on it after only singing a verse or so. (I also didn't include any of the extensive talking between songs.) But I did include one very rough take, "Son of a Preacher Man." She stops it before finishing, admitting that she'd never played it before. But I thought it was cooking before the end, so I kept it. By contrast, "Cortez the Killer" is a song she's done a lot in concert, and it's a definite highlight.

By the way, one of her originals, "Please," has a very strange ending. She'd done a duet with Michael McDonald the song before that, and she still had McDonald's gruff singing style on her mind. She jokingly ended the song singing a parody of his style. I thought it was fun, so I kept it in.

01 Tiny Light (Grace Potter)
02 Eachother (Grace Potter)
03 Dead Flowers (Grace Potter)
04 Someday We'll Be Together (Grace Potter with Michael McDonald)
05 Please (Grace Potter)
06 Daylight (Grace Potter)
07 2.22 (Grace Potter)
09 No Expectations (Grace Potter)
10 Son of a Preacher Man (Grace Potter)
11 I'll Take You There (Grace Potter)
12 Shout It Out (Grace Potter)
13 Cortez the Killer (Grace Potter)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15835981/GraceP_2020_TwilghtHourVolme3HmeConcrtTopangaCA__5-18-2020_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo comes from her Instagram account, and was taken during one of her home concerts.

The Pretty Things - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: 1971-1975

It's been a while since I posted anything from the Pretty Things, but I'm still at it. I've posted four stray tracks collections, one alternate version of an album ("Emotions"), and then two collections of BBC performances. Here's the third BBC collection.

This is also the last BBC album from the band that I'm planning on posting. In opinion, their best years were the 1960s into the early 1970s. Around 1972 or 1973, with drastic changes in the music world, they switched to more of a hard rock style. In my opinion, they did some good things in this new style, but were much more hit or miss. Then in the mid-1970s, the band fell apart for a few years, only to reunite again in the late 1970s, after changing styles again. So I'm only including some songs here, the ones I like. Also, the band's appearances at the BBC petered out after 1975, so this is the last of the BBC stuff I plan on posting from them.

Now, let me get to the music. As I said above, the band still had plenty of good new songs in this time period. Oftentimes in these years, the band had trouble with the production of its studio albums. In my opinion, the BBC performances are better, since its closer to the band in their natural element, performing live on stage. Most of the songs are from their new albums at the time, but they also played the classic "Route 66" and one of their earliest hits, "Rosalyn."

All but one of the songs here have been officially released. That one song is the first one.

01 In the Square - The Letter - Rain (Pretty Things)
02 Stone-Hearted Mama [Edit] (Pretty Things)
03 Cold Stone (Pretty Things)
04 Summertime (Pretty Things)
05 All Night Sailor (Pretty Things)
06 Rosalyn (Pretty Things)
07 [Get Your Kicks On] Route 66 (Pretty Things)
08 Religion's Dead (Pretty Things)
09 Havana Bound (Pretty Things)
10 Old Man Going (Pretty Things)
11 Bridge of God (Pretty Things)
12 Dream-Joey (Pretty Things)
13 Not Only but Also [Instrumental] (Pretty Things)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700886/TPRETTYTHGS1971-1975_BBSessonsVolum4_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is of the band playing in concert in 1974 in London. I cut off the organ player because he was way off to the side, and I would have had to make everything else much smaller to include him.

Norah Jones - Everybody Knows - Non-Album Tracks (2014-2016)

Norah Jones continues to be very busy with her home concerts, playing a mini-concert of four songs once a week pretty much without fail. I still have lots more of that to post. But I've been so busy posting home concerts that I've fallen behind with posting stray tracks collections from her. So here's the next one of those.

I think all the songs here are covers. This time around, she does a lot of famous songs by famous artists. For instance, she does two songs by George Harrison of the Beatles ("Behind that Locked Door" and "Something"), one song by Neil Young ("Down by the River"), a song by the Beach Boys ("God Only Knows"), a song by the Grateful Dead ("It Must Have Been the Roses"), and a song by Leonard Cohen ("Everybody Knows").

The sound quality is mostly excellent, but a couple are a bit rougher. Most of the songs are officially released and come from various artists compilations, or appearances on other artists' albums. But five of the songs are unreleased, and four of those come from concert bootlegs. It's a couple of the concert performances that are a bit rougher, especially "God Only Knows" and "Everybody Knows." But those are such great songs, and great performances, that I had to include them.

This album is 41 minutes long.

01 Behind that Locked Door (Norah Jones)
02 Down by the River (Puss N Boots featuring Norah Jones)
03 Something (Norah Jones)
04 La La Lu (Norah Jones)
05 Illusion (Keith Richards with Norah Jones)
06 Mean Ol' Moon (Norah Jones)
07 Don't Misunderstand (Norah Jones & Harold Mabern)
08 Fools Rush In (Norah Jones & Harold Mabern)
09 God Only Knows (Norah Jones)
10 It Must Have Been the Roses (Norah Jones)
11 Everybody Knows (Norah Jones)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16696747/NORHJNS2014-2016_EverybodyKnws_atse.zip.html

The album cover photo is of Jones playing at the City Winery in New York City in 2015.