The Blues Project - The Matrix, San Francisco, CA, 9-1966

I previously posted a couple of albums featuring the Doors playing at the Matrix in San Francisco in 1967. That put me in the mood to post this, which also is a concert that took place at the Matrix. Like the Doors concerts, the sound quality is fantastic. Since it is known the owner of the Matrix recorded the Doors with professional equipment, I strongly suspect that's what happened here, a few months earlier.

Let me explain some about the Blues Project, if you're not familiar with them. Chances are you don't know much about them, because they had a lot of talent and potential, but broke up too soon. They were formed in 1965 and broke up in 1967. They had some reunions in the 1970s and after, but their moment was gone. 

Unfortunately, the band's name was misleading. While they did play blues, they also played folk, soul, jazz, rock, and pop, and mixed them together in different combinations. They had a lot of variety because they had several talented singer-songwriters. The best known is probably organist Al Kooper, who already had co-written the song "This Diamond Ring," which was a Number One hit in the US by Gary Lewis and the Playboys in 1965, and would go on to more success by founding Blood, Sweat and Tears. But the band's guitarists Steve Katz and Danny Kalb also wrote and sang for the band, and had later success as well. 

Having different talents like this in the band made it something special for a brief time, but it also caused the band to split up, in the same way that Crosby, Stills, Nash and sometimes Young always seemed to be squabbling, reuniting, and breaking up.

This concert recording happens to have taken place at an excellent time. At this point, the band was still united, and would put out their second album, "Projections," two months later. But in the spring of 1967, Kooper and Katz would leave, then more would follow, with the band ending in the summer of 1967, shortly after appearing at the Monterey Pop Festival.

This concert has been kind of released over the years. What I mean is, several versions have come out, but they appear to be "grey market" releases that aren't entirely legal, and no profits go to the artist. The sound quality is excellent, as I mentioned above. However, the vocals between songs were very low, to the point that one could barely hear them. I boosted those quite a lot. I had to boost them so much that that resulted in a lot of hiss for those bits. So I used some noise reduction on them. I'm very, very reluctant to use that on any actual music, but I figure it's far less of a problem using it only on the talking between songs.

This concert features two sets by the band on the same night. You can hear when they took a break. Fortunately, they only played one song in both sets, "Flute Thing," and that was an instrumental jam with lots of variation with each take. It's also not known which night this was exactly. As you can see from the cover art, the band played the Matrix for a week in September 1966, so it could have been recorded on any of those days.

If you like classic rock from the 1960s, I suggest you give this a listen. I'm sure this band would be much more famous today if they'd stayed together longer. And the bland name didn't help either. I'd argue this is probably their best recording, better than any of their official material.

This album is an hour and 37 minutes long.

UPDATE: On January 26, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. The song list is the same. However, I ran all of the songs through the MVSEP "denoise" filter, to get rid of hiss. I think they sound better now.

01 talk (Blues Project)
02 Louisiana Blues (Blues Project)
03 talk (Blues Project)
04 Steve's Song (Blues Project)
05 talk (Blues Project)
06 I Can't Keep from Cryin' Sometimes (Blues Project)
07 talk (Blues Project)
08 Caress Me Baby (Blues Project)
09 talk (Blues Project)
10 Flute Thing [Instrumental] (Blues Project)
11 talk (Blues Project)
12 Wake Me, Shake Me (Blues Project)
13 The Way My Baby Walks (Blues Project)
14 talk (Blues Project)
15 Love Will Endure (Blues Project)
16 Jelly, Jelly (Blues Project)
17 talk (Blues Project)
18 Cheryl's Going Home (Blues Project)
19 talk (Blues Project)
20 You Can't Catch Me (Blues Project)
21 talk (Blues Project)
22 Shake That Thing (Blues Project)
23 talk (Blues Project)
24 Catch the Wind (Blues Project)
25 talk (Blues Project)
26 You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover (Blues Project)
27 talk (Blues Project)
28 Flute Thing [Instrumental] (Blues Project)
29 talk (Blues Project)
30 Hoochie Coochie Man (Blues Project)
31 If You Don't Come Back (Blues Project)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/E711b9qt

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/q3roDRpQ57BmosQ/file

As mentioned above, the cover art is a poster for the week long set of shows the band played at the Matrix from which this concert comes. Since the original poster was rectangular, I squished it some vertically, and cropped out the top and bottom. I also removed a few small words, such as the club's street address, and added "1966."

The Doors - The Matrix, San Francisco, CA, 3-10-1967

There are two Doors concerts from the same venue, the Matrix, only three days apart. These concerts have excellent sound quality and performances. They're a unique view into the Doors playing a half-empty small club right before they hit it big a couple of months later. I just posted the first one, from March 7th, 1967, so I might as well post this one too. It's definitely worth getting both if you're a Doors fan, even though the set lists are similar.

I said most of what I want to say about this in my write up for the March 7th show. But I'll mention that much, though not all, of this was officially released on the 2008 official album "Live at the Matrix 1967." Unfortunately, that mixed both shows together with no apparent logic, and left out many songs. That album also used the same bootleg source I'm using here instead of the master tapes, which still exist. The master tape versions of some song from the March 7th show have been released, but none from the March 10th show have made it to the public yet. 

When I looked into this, I found a few comments that the March 10th show has a slightly better sound than the March 7th one. But it so, it's very, very close. Both are soundboards recorded with multiple microphones. These blow away all other of the very few recordings of the band from around that time period. 

Note that the March 9th Matrix concert was also recorded by the same person, who was the owner of the venue. But that was recorded over with the March 10th recording, unfortunately. The only thing that survived from March 9th were the last few minutes of "The End." I haven't included that, since it's incomplete.

This concert took place two months after the release of the band's debut album, "The Doors," but before the sales of that album took off. But it's notable how varied their song list already was. They played most of the songs from their debut album, but also most of the songs from their second album "Strange Days," which hadn't even been recorded yet. They also played more cover songs than they would later. Some of those here - "Money (That's What I Want)," "I'm a King Bee," "Gloria," "and "Summertime" - were not played in the March 7th show. That show appears to be complete, while this one is not, so some key songs are missing here, like "Light My Fire" and "The End." Both both are definitely worth hearing.

As I did with the March 7th show, I cut out a lot of dead air between songs. It seems the band did virtually no talking to the audience whatsoever, so you're not missing anything other than some guitar tuning and instrumental noodling. I also boosted the volume of the tepid applause from the small audience.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long.

01 My Eyes Have Seen You (Doors)
02 Soul Kitchen (Doors)
03 I Can't See Your Face in My Mind (Doors)
04 People Are Strange (Doors)
05 When the Music's Over (Doors)
06 Money [That's What I Want] (Doors)
07 Who Do You Love (Doors)
08 Moonlight Drive (Doors)
09 Summer's Almost Gone (Doors)
10 I'm a King Bee (Doors)
11 Gloria (Doors)
12 Break On Through [To the Other Side] (Doors)
13 Summertime [Instrumental] (Doors)
14 Back Door Man (Doors)
15 Alabama Song [Whisky Bar] (Doors)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15127452/TDoor_1967c_TheMatrxSnFranciscoCA__3-10-1967_atse.zip.html

I don't know when or where the cover photo of Doors lead singer Jim Morrison is from. But it looks like it was in a small venue during the band's early era. So I think it fits this pretty well.

The Doors - The Matrix, San Francisco, CA, 3-7-1967

I haven't posted much music by the Doors largely because so much has been officially released, including dozens of live albums. But I'm posting this one both because it's an extraordinary concert and because the official release has been badly botched.

Here's a little history to put this in context. The Doors were formed in 1965. In 1966, they slowly grew in popularity in Los Angeles, but they remained unknown elsewhere. Their debut album, "The Doors," was released in January 1967, but to little notice at the time."Light My Fire" was released as a single in April 1967 and started to climb the charts, hitting Number One in the US a few months later. But this concert took place in San Francisco, before their big success. So even though the Matrix was a small club, it was half empty, and the audience generally didn't know their music.

There's very little in the way of live recordings of the band from this early in their career. But luckily, two nights out of several at the Matrix were recorded (by the club owner) as soundboards and survived. In my opinion, these are the most interesting live recordings by the band, back when they were hungry and full of fire. But also, the sound quality is probably the best of all their live recordings. Because the audience was so small and quiet, these are almost like studio recordings.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, the official release of this material has been botched so far. In 2008, there was the release "Live at the Matrix 1967." But instead of including the recordings of all of both nights that survived, this one and March 10th, only selected songs were included. Furthermore, instead of using the master tapes, which the owner still had, a copy of a bootleg was used. Then, in 2017, a 50th anniversary version of the debut album "The Doors" was released. This included a bonus disc that used the superior master tape versions. But only the versions of nine songs from the debut album were included, all from this show on March 7th.

So I've put together what I consider the best version of the March 7th show currently available to the public. I've used the 50th anniversary master tape versions wherever possible. I've used the widely available bootleg versions for the rest, which actually are a bit better than the "Live at the Matrix 1967" versions. To be honest, the bootleg version sounds so good that the master tape versions are only slightly better.

I also made some changes. It's apparent that, at this point in their career, lead singer Jim Morrison didn't want to say anything between songs. There was a lot of dead air, mostly filled with organ noodling and guitar tuning, but virtually no words whatsoever. (Morrison does say one sentence at one point, announcing the band is taking a short break.) So I cut that dead air way down. The other thing was I boosted what little audience applause there was. I didn't change that much, but I increased the volume enough to make the cheering more noticeable.

This is a must-have for any serious Doors fan. I think it's likely that, someday, the whole thing will be released properly, from the master tapes. But until then, this will have to do.

This album is an hour and 46 minutes long.

01 Back Door Man (Doors)
02 My Eyes Have Seen You (Doors)
03 Soul Kitchen (Doors)
04 Get Out of My Life, Woman (Doors)
05 When the Music's Over (Doors)
06 Close to You (Doors)
07 Crawling King Snake (Doors)
08 I Can't See Your Face in My Mind (Doors)
09 People Are Strange (Doors)
10 Who Do You Love (Doors)
11 Alabama Song [Whisky Bar] (Doors)
12 The Crystal Ship (Doors)
13 Twentieth Century Fox (Doors)
14 Moonlight Drive (Doors)
15 Summer's Almost Gone (Doors)
16 Unhappy Girl (Doors)
17 The Devil Is a Woman - Sittin' Around Thinkin' - Rock Me (Doors)
18 Break on Through [To the Other Side] (Doors)
19 Light My Fire (Doors)
20 The End (Doors) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ucWUCsKA

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/yxCWuXpk20enmQl/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/gbX4Y

The cover photo was actually taken at the Matrix. But they played there a bunch of nights in a row, and this photo is from March 3rd or 4th instead of the 7th. The original version I used, from the "Live at the Matrix 1967" artwork, was in black and white. But I used the program Palette to colorize it. I took the band name at the top from a concert poster advertising a show at a different San Francisco venue around this time period, the Avalon Ballroom.

Joe Cocker - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 4-27-1986

This is the fourth and probably final album of Joe Cocker performing for the BBC.

Cocker always had a talented, unique voice. But after the 1960s, he had a hard time getting the best out of his studio recordings. He often fell into the trap of using then current production techniques that didn't date well for his style later. That was definitely the case in 1986 when this album was recorded. He was promoting his album "Cocker." I read the reviews of this album at rateyourmusic.com, and people said it had some good songs, including the hit "You Can Leave Your Hat On," but it suffered badly from typical mid-1980s production excesses. The good news is, that material does much better in a live context, where meddling "hip" producers don't have a say.

The sound quality is very good. There were virtually no comments by Cocker between songs. I don't know if that's how it really was or if the BBC edited it down. There were a couple of times between songs when a DJ talked over the crowd noise, but I edited those out.

This concert is an hour and nine minutes long.

UPDATE: On January 21, 2022, I updated the mp3 download file because I renamed this from "Volume 3" to "Volume 4" after discovering another BBC concert he did in 1983. I changed the cover art and mp3 tags accordingly.

01 A Girl like You (Joe Cocker)
02 You Can Leave Your Hat On (Joe Cocker)
03 Don't Drink the Water (Joe Cocker)
04 Heart of the Matter (Joe Cocker)
05 Feelin' Alright (Joe Cocker)
06 Civilized Man (Joe Cocker)
07 Living without Your Love (Joe Cocker)
08 Heaven (Joe Cocker)
09 Shelter Me (Joe Cocker)
10 Watching the River Flow (Joe Cocker)
11 High Time We Went (Joe Cocker)
12 Seven Days (Joe Cocker)
13 With a Little Help from My Friends (Joe Cocker)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Va3Mun8A

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/coSNI0tFtNbraq0/file

The cover photo was taken at an unknown 1986 concert.

Belle & Sebastian - BBC Sessions, Volume 13: BBC Radio 6 Music Festival, O2 Academy Glasgow, Glasgow, 3-26-2017

I'm getting close to the end of the band Belle and Sebastian BBC albums I've made. There's just one more after this, until they perform more, hopefully. This is a full concert, about an hour and a half long.

This was kind of an odd time for a BBC concert, because the band hadn't released any new music in two years. They would release an album a year later, but this doesn't have any songs from it. Instead, this is a good overview of their entire career so far. Only four of the 17 songs come from their last album "Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance."

The sound quality is excellent. There were no problems to be fixed.

This concert is one hour and 27 minutes long.

01 Nobody's Empire (Belle & Sebastian)
02 I'm a Cuckoo (Belle & Sebastian)
03 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
04 The Party Line (Belle & Sebastian)
05 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
06 The State I Am In (Belle & Sebastian)
07 I Want the World to Stop (Belle & Sebastian)
08 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
09 Perfect Couples (Belle & Sebastian)
10 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
11 Sukie in the Graveyard (Belle & Sebastian)
12 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
13 The Fox in the Snow (Belle & Sebastian)
14 If You're Feeling Sinister (Belle & Sebastian)
15 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
16 The Power of Three (Belle & Sebastian)
17 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
18 Wrapped Up in Books (Belle & Sebastian)
19 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
20 Jonathan David (Belle & Sebastian)
21 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
22 Dog on Wheels (Belle & Sebastian)
23 The Boy with the Arab Strap (Belle & Sebastian)
24 I Didn't See It Coming (Belle & Sebastian)
25 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
26 Legal Man (Belle & Sebastian)
27 talk (Belle & Sebastian)
28 Judy and the Dream of Horses (Belle & Sebastian)
29 talk (Belle & Sebastian)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15124193/BellenS_2017_BBSessionsVolume13_Radio6MusicFestivlGlasgow__3-26-2017_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is a screenshot from this exact concert.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - BBC in Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-24-2022

Robert Plant has performed often for the BBC over the course of his long solo career. I plan on posting much of that material someday, in chronological order. But I'd like to start with this. I recently found this concert on video, and then converted it to individual mp3 tracks.

Robert Plant has recorded two studio albums with bluegrass star Alison Krauss. This concert was in support of their 2021 album "Raise the Roof." Naturally, they mainly played songs from that, but also songs from their first album, and some Led Zeppelin classics.

It seems that just about everything from Britain's yearly Glastonbury Festivals gets played on the BBC at one time or another, although many of the recordings can't be found by me. This was a high quality webcast, so I took the audio from that. The sound quality is like an official album.

This concert is an hour and one minute long. It appears to be the full performance.

01 Rich Woman (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
02 talk (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
03 Quattro [World Drifts In] (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
04 Fortune Teller (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
05 The Price of Love (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
06 Rock and Roll (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
07 Please Read the Letter (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
08 Trouble with My Lover (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
09 High and Lonesome (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
10 It Don't Bother Me (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
11 talk (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
12 Gone, Gone, Gone (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
13 The Battle of Evermore (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
14 talk (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)
15 When the Levee Breaks (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15124154/RobertPnAK_2022_BBConcertGlastonburyFestivl__6-24-2022_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is taken from a screenshot from this exact concert. The two singers were more separated, but I used Photoshop to move them closer together.

Midnight Oil - Goat Island, Sydney, Australia, 1-13-1985

Once great thing about my big BBC project is that I've found, over and over, that BBC concert recordings either have the best sound quality or are at least right up there. But that's not always the case. When it comes to the Australian band Midnight Oil, I've found two BBC concerts done by them, one in 1985 and the other in 1993. In both cases, the sound quality is disappointing by BBC standards, and the concerts are rather short. For instance, the 1985 one is only 38 minutes long. So I've decided to post non-BBC concerts that are much better.

This concert represents the peak of the band's early years. They had growing success in Australia, particularly with their 1982 album "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1" and their 1984 album "Red Sails in the Sunset." But they weren't getting much traction outside of Australia. So they took a couple of years off and then came back in 1987 with their album "Diesel and Dust," which broke them in a big way in the US and Britain. This concert took place not long before their hiatus.

The concert was staged at a dramatic location overlooking Sydney harbor. The concert was put on by a Sydney radio station to celebrate the station's tenth anniversary. The audience was very small for the band at the time, a few hundred people, and all of them were winners in a radio station competition. The concert was professionally filmed and broadcast in Australia at the time. It was later released as part of the DVD "Best of Both Worlds," but it has never been released in audio format.

I figure nearly everything between the songs was edited out for the TV show. For instance, there would have to be some tuning of guitars eventually, but there's none of that here. And there's almost no between song banter. But that just means the band is firing on all cylinders all the way through.

This concert is an hour and 13 minutes long.

01 Best of Both Worlds (Midnight Oil)
02 When the Generals Talk (Midnight Oil)
03 Minutes to Midnight (Midnight Oil)
04 Sleep (Midnight Oil)
05 Only the Strong (Midnight Oil)
06 talk (Midnight Oil)
07 Short Memory (Midnight Oil)
08 Kosciuszko (Midnight Oil)
09 U.S. Forces (Midnight Oil)
10 Jimmy Sharman's Boxers (Midnight Oil)
11 Back on the Borderline (Midnight Oil)
12 Tin Legs and Tin Mines (Midnight Oil)
13 talk (Midnight Oil)
14 Don't Wanna Be the One (Midnight Oil)
15 Power and the Passion (Midnight Oil)
16 Read about It (Midnight Oil)
17 Harrisburg (Midnight Oil)
18 Stand in Line (Midnight Oil)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/o4xkuTHH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/z1qNgQ5dQ8kCfjd/file 

The cover photo is a bit low resolution. But I'm using it because it comes from this exact concert, and it shows Sydney harbor in the background. In 2025, I upgraded it a bit with the help of the Krea AI program.

Beck - Morning Becomes Eclectic, KCRW Studios, Santa Monica, CA, 2000-2001

Beck likes to play for the Los Angeles radio station KCRW. I'd guess he performs there an average of about once every two years. I posted an album-length 1998 performance there already. He returned in 2000 and 2001. Unfortunately for the purpose of this album, he did a lot of talking with the DJ and listened to some of his favorite records. But for both shows, he did play some songs in acoustic format. Gathering all of those from both shows, I have enough for a short album.

My goal was to make an album that I would want to listen to multiple times, and then hopefully other people would want to as well. In my opinion, interviews with radio DJs are good for one or two listens, but that's about it. So I cut out nearly all of that. But I did keep the bits where Beck was introducing the songs he was playing next.

Beck played a lot of interesting songs he otherwise rarely did, especially covers, like "Go Easy," "Some Things Last a Long Time," and "Win." One song, "Nobody's Fault but My Own," was played at both appearances. I've kept both versions. But if you only want one, you can just remove the last song.

This album is 38 minutes long.

01 talk (Beck)
02 [I Heard That] Lonesome Whistle (Beck)
03 talk (Beck)
04 We Live Again (Beck)
05 talk (Beck)
06 Go Easy (Beck)
07 talk (Beck)
08 Some Things Last a Long Time (Beck)
09 Nobody's Fault but My Own (Beck)
10 talk (Beck)
11 Win (Beck)
12 Dead Melodies (Beck)
13 talk (Beck)
14 Beautiful Way [Acoustic Version] (Beck)
15 The Golden Age (Beck)
16 talk (Beck)
17 Nobody's Fault but My Own (Beck)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15123261/BeckH_2000-2001_MornngBecomesEclecticKCRWStudios__2000-2001_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, in February 2001.

Shania Twain - BBC in Concert, Abbey Road Studios, London, Britain, 7-10-2003

Working on my big BBC project has taken me in some directions that I didn't expect. I'm trying to post the BBC performances of artists I at least respect musically, even if I don't always personally like their music. A case in point is the Canadian country singer Shania Twain. She's sold a bazillion records. For instance, her 1997 album "Come On Over" is the best selling album by a female in any genre, selling over 40 million records. It's true her music is very slick commercial pop. Normally, I'm not into that, but if you are, this is the peak of the genre, as those astounding sales prove. So I figure she's worth at least one BBC album. And it turns out she did just one BBC concert that I can find, so here it is.

Personally, I attribute much of her success to her super successful producer, Mutt Lange. Unlike most producers, he's gotten involved with songwriting for many of the big acts he's produced. That's especially true for him and Twain. He got so involved that he married her and stayed married from 1993 to 2010. He cowrote virtually every song on all her albums in that time period. Just compare the success of those albums with the ones before and after, and it's clear he added an extra "it" factor.

It so happens this album is ideally timed for the peak of her career. He last album produced by Lange was "Up!," released in 2002. Several years after that, she ran into medical problems that made it hard for her to sing, and her marriage to Lange fell apart, so it wouldn't be another 15 years till her next album. So this concert is basically the greatest hits from all the Lange era albums.

Speaking of "greatest hits," I would argue this is probably a better greatest hits collection for the casual fan than her 2004 album "Greatest Hits." It's shorter, and has all her biggest hits up until that point. The sound quality is excellent, even though it's a bootleg.

This album is 57 minutes long.

01 talk (Shania Twain)
02 Man, I Feel like a Woman (Shania Twain)
03 Up (Shania Twain)
04 talk (Shania Twain)
05 Forever and for Always (Shania Twain)
06 Ka-Ching (Shania Twain)
07 Don't Be Stupid [You Know I Love You] (Shania Twain)
08 That Don't Impress Me Much (Shania Twain)
09 Thank You Baby [For Makin' Someday Come So Soon] (Shania Twain)
10 When You Kiss Me (Shania Twain)
11 I'm Gonna Getcha Good (Shania Twain)
12 Nah (Shania Twain)
13 You're Still the One (Shania Twain)
14 Rock This Country (Shania Twain)
15 talk (Shania Twain)
16 [If You're Not in It for Love] I'm Outta Here (Shania Twain)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15118886/ShaniaTwin_2003_BBinConcertAbbeyRoadStudos__7-10-2003_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from a concert in 2003, but I don't know which one.

Paul Weller - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: In Concert, Town and Country Club, London, Britain, 12-5-1990

I recently posted lots of BBC albums from the first two phases of Paul Weller's long music career: his time with the Jam and then his time with the Style Council. Now, I turn my attention to Weller's history with the BBC as a solo artist. 

Paul Weller has smartly used BBC promotion to his advantage for his entire career. He's played a full concert for the BBC once every year or two, and done many, many studio sessions on top of that. I plan on posting all the studio session stuff. But there are so many full concerts that I'm only going to post some of them. Here's the first one.

This concert took place at a critical time in Weller's career. His band the Style Council had petered out towards the end of the 1980s, then broke up when their record company wouldn't even release their last album. After that, the music industry people considered him washed up, and wouldn't give him a new record contract as a solo artist. This hurt his confidence, and he had trouble writing new songs. But he decided to go on tour in 1990 without having any new record to promote, although he did have some new songs. The positive crowd reaction gave him a shot in the arm, and after more touring and recording he was able to restart his career with his first solo album, "Paul Weller," in 1992.

In retrospect, it's strange the record companies ever doubted his musical talent, and his ability to sell records. He had many hits with the Jam and the Style Council, for instance. But, restarting his career at this point, he didn't want to lean on his old material too much and be seen as an "oldies" act. He only had a few new songs he played at this point: "Round and Round," "Kosmos," and "The Strange Museum." So he largely relied on Style Council songs, plus the cover "Work to Do." He only did two songs from his days with the Jam, and relatively obscure ones: "Precious" and "Pity Poor Alfie."

This concert has been officially released on his box set "Weller at the BBC." However, I noticed that there was virtually banter between songs. I noticed there was a bootleg of his exact same concert. I discovered it has the same excellent sound quality, but it did include all the talking. So I've used that version. With more applause too, there are a few more minutes than the official version. 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 My Ever Changing Moods (Paul Weller)
02 A Man of Great Promise (Paul Weller)
03 Round and Round (Paul Weller)
04 talk (Paul Weller)
05 Kosmos (Paul Weller)
06 Homebreakers (Paul Weller)
07 talk (Paul Weller)
08 The Strange Museum (Paul Weller)
09 The Whole Point II (Paul Weller)
10 Speak like a Child (Paul Weller)
11 Just like Yesterday (Paul Weller)
12 talk (Paul Weller)
13 Precious (Paul Weller)
14 talk (Paul Weller)
15 Headstart for Happiness (Paul Weller)
16 Work to Do (Paul Weller)
17 Pity Poor Alfie (Paul Weller)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xwq3UEbW

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/KuAEBYgce44YqbB/file

The cover photo was taken at an unknown club in 1990.

Sheryl Crow - Real Gone - Non-Album Tracks (2006-2008)

Here's the next in my long series of stray tracks albums for Sheryl Crow.

All but one of the songs here have been officially released. The exception is "Mexico," but that one comes from a TV show and has excellent sound quality. Three others are from movie soundtracks, and still more are from various artists compilations. An additional three - "Not Fade Away," "Love Will Remain," and "So Glad We Made It" - were A-sides, though none of them were hits. About half of the songs are covers of classic songs, such as "Here Comes the Sun" and "Tulsa Time."

Speaking of covers of classics, that's what all three of the bonus tracks are. Unfortunately though, all of those come from audience bootlegs and their sound quality doesn't compare with the others.

This album is 39 minutes long, not including the bonus tracks.

01 You Can Close Your Eyes (Sheryl Crow)
02 Real Gone (Sheryl Crow)
03 Mexico (Sheryl Crow with Jackson Browne & David Crosby)
04 Here Comes the Sun (Sheryl Crow)
05 If I Were a Carpenter (Willie Nelson & Sheryl Crow)
06 Flying Machine [Edit] (Sheryl Crow, Dan Zanes & Father Goose)
07 Not Fade Away (Sheryl Crow)
08 Try Not to Remember (Sheryl Crow)
09 Juanita (Emmylou Harris & Sheryl Crow)
10 Tulsa Time (Sheryl Crow with Eric Clapton)
11 Love Will Remain (Sheryl Crow)
12 So Glad We Made It (Sheryl Crow)

Jet Airliner (Sheryl Crow with John Mayer)
Take It to the Limit (Sheryl Crow)
We Can Work It Out (Sheryl Crow & Tim Smith)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15110080/SherylC_2006-2008_RealGne_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is a publicity photo dating to 2006. Everything above the forehead wasn't included in the original. So I decided to go for a zoomed in cropping to justify the lack of having her entire head shown.

Belinda Carlisle - Belinda Live, Tower Theatre, Upper Darby, PA, 5-25-1988

Belinda Carlisle was the main lead singer of the Go-Go's. (And she sometimes still is, with reunions.) She was even more successful with a solo career. I'm not as much of a fan of that, as she went in more of a slick, middle of the road direction that didn't suit her as well, in my opinion. Still, she did have some good solo hits.

I wouldn't be posting this except for the fact that I stumbled across a video while looking for Go-Go's stuff. It's a DVD that was released as part of a 2009 special edition of her 1987 album "Heaven on Earth." I didn't see it existing in audio format anywhere, so I converted it to mp3s and broke it up into song tracks.

This is a good time for a Belinda Carlisle concert, in my opinion. She arguably reached her commercial peak with the "Heaven on Earth" album, and its Number One hit "Heaven Is a Place on Earth." But she still wasn't that far removed from her time with the Go-Go's (they broke up in 1984). So this is a good mix of solo and Go-Go's songs. 

Since making this, I noticed that a live album from her 1988 tour was released for Record Store Day in 2022. However, that one doesn't have a single Go-Go's song on it, probably for contractual reasons. So I prefer this, even though it's shorter overall.

This album is just one second longer than exactly one hour.

01 I Feel Free (Belinda Carlisle)
02 Mad about You (Belinda Carlisle)
03 Lust to Love (Belinda Carlisle)
04 I Get Weak (Belinda Carlisle)
05 Fool for Love (Belinda Carlisle)
06 Circle in the Sand (Belinda Carlisle)
07 World without You (Belinda Carlisle)
08 Nobody Owns Me (Belinda Carlisle)
09 Our Lips Are Sealed (Belinda Carlisle)
10 Vacation (Belinda Carlisle)
11 Heaven Is a Place on Earth (Belinda Carlisle)
12 Love Never Dies (Belinda Carlisle)
13 Head Over Heels (Belinda Carlisle)
14 We Got the Beat (Belinda Carlisle)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15109415/BelindaC_1988_TowrTheatreUpperDarbyPA__5-25-1988_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken at the San Remo Festival in Italy in 1988.

The Everly Brothers - Sveriges Radio, Karlaplan Studios, Stockholm, Sweden, 4-22-1965

In my search for BBC recordings for the Everly Brothers, I came across this. I posted their 1960s BBC sessions a while back, but I forgot to post this one. Happily, I noticed that it hadn't been posted while fixing broken links recently.

This is very similar to a BBC studio session, except it was done for a Swedish radio station in 1965. The Everly Brothers played a short concert set list without an audience. However, there was a twist: after the recording was done, Don Everly went back and recorded some comments between the songs and sometimes over the songs. I left all of those in. (I don't have the same dislike for talking over the music if it's done by the actual artist and not a DJ.) I don't know why the comments are only from Don and not his brother Phil too, but it is what it is.

The good news is the sound quality is excellent. I've noticed a bunch of Swedish radio shows that were recorded and preserved with great sound quality, and this fits right into that.

The one downside is this is rather short, at only 30 minutes. But I figured I should present it exactly as it is, with no additions or edits, since it's all linked together by Don Everly's comments.

01 Lucille (Everly Brothers)
02 Susie Q (Everly Brothers)
03 talk (Everly Brothers)
04 Raunchy [Instrumental] (Everly Brothers)
05 talk (Everly Brothers)
06 Walk Right Back (Everly Brothers)
07 talk (Everly Brothers)
08 Bye Bye Love (Everly Brothers)
09 Gone, Gone, Gone (Everly Brothers)
10 talk (Everly Brothers)
11 Untitled Instrumental (Everly Brothers)
12 talk (Everly Brothers)
13 I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town (Everly Brothers)
14 talk (Everly Brothers)
15 Bird Dog (Everly Brothers)
16 talk (Everly Brothers)
17 So Sad [To Watch Good Love Go Bad] (Everly Brothers)
18 Lucille (Everly Brothers)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15107890/TEverlyB_1965_SverigeRadioKarlaplanStudiosStockholmSweden__4-22-1965.zip.html

The cover photo is from an appearance on the "Thank You Lucky Stars" TV show in 1965.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Winterland, San Francisco, CA, 4-27-1975

For a larger, rocking band like Lynyrd Skynrd, it's especially critical to have excellent sound quality for any live recording. Otherwise, one can't make out the details in the music, such as the interplay between their three lead guitarists. Unfortunately, it seems they were unlucky when it comes to having really great bootleg recordings from their heyday, so I didn't post anything from them. But I finally came across something that's worthy.

This concert was videotaped with multiple camera angles. VHS and DVD versions have existed for many years. However, the sound quality was merely okay. But recently (as I write this in 2023), much better audio has emerged. I took this from a high quality video and converted it to mp3s. In my opinion, this sounds as good or better than most of their official live albums.

There were no problems needing fixing. This is the complete show at an hour and eleven minutes.

01 Whiskey Rock 'n' Roller (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
02 I Ain't the One (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
03 The Needle and the Spoon (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
04 talk (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
05 I'm a Country Boy (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
06 talk (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
07 Gimme Three Steps (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
08 Don't Ask Me No Questions (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
09 talk (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
10 Saturday Night Special (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
11 talk (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
12 Railroad Song (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
13 talk (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
14 Call Me the Breeze (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
15 talk (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
16 Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
17 talk (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
18 On the Hunt (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
19 talk (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
20 Freebird (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15104184/LynyrdSkd_1975_WinterlndSanFranciscoCA__4-27-1975_atse.zip.html

I could have used a screenshot from the video of this exact concert. But that has low resolution and is in black and white. Instead, I opted for a nice color photo of a different 1975 concert, at the Omni Coliseum on July 5, 1975 in Atlanta, Georgia. The band name font comes from one of their albums.

Rosanne Cash - Slim's, San Francisco, CA, 12-15-1990

My favorite Rosanne Cash album is her 1990 album "Interiors." In my opinion, it's a five star album, with deeply personal and emotional lyrics. Yet it was largely overlooked at the time, I think because Cash was a country music star, and the album was more in a singer-songwriter mode that didn't fit the country radio format. But given how much I like that album, and how much I like acoustic music, this concert is a no-brainer for me. It's an acoustic concert supporting the album.

This is an excellent sounding soundboard bootleg. Cash naturally played most of the songs from "Interiors," as well as hits from her earlier country star phase. One interesting twist is that she played the unreleased song "Road Widow." It probably was unreleased because it was so harsh about her husband at the time, country star Rodney Crowell. But then immediately after the song was over, Crowell came out on stage and sang some songs with her! She even complimented him for being a good sport in taking the criticism. However, it seems their problems couldn't be fixed, because they divorced in 1992.

This album is an hour and eight minutes long.

01 What We Really Want (Rosanne Cash)
02 talk (Rosanne Cash)
03 Looking for a Corner (Rosanne Cash)
04 talk (Rosanne Cash)
05 Dance with the Tiger (Rosanne Cash)
06 talk (Rosanne Cash)
07 Second to No One (Rosanne Cash)
08 talk (Rosanne Cash)
09 On the Inside (Rosanne Cash)
10 talk (Rosanne Cash)
11 A Lover Is Forever (Rosanne Cash)
12 talk (Rosanne Cash)
13 This World (Rosanne Cash)
14 talk (Rosanne Cash)
15 Road Widow (Rosanne Cash)
16 talk (Rosanne Cash & Rodney Crowell)
17 On the Surface (Rosanne Cash & Rodney Crowell)
18 talk (Rosanne Cash & Rodney Crowell)
19 If I Ever Break Your Heart (Rosanne Cash & Rodney Crowell)
20 talk (Rosanne Cash)
21 Hold On (Rosanne Cash)
22 talk (Rosanne Cash)
23 Seven Year Ache (Rosanne Cash)
24 talk (Rosanne Cash)
25 Sleeping in Paris (Rosanne Cash)
26 I Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me (Rosanne Cash & Rodney Crowell)
27 No Memories Hanging Around (Rosanne Cash & Rodney Crowell)
28 talk (Rosanne Cash)
29 It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (Rosanne Cash)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15106805/RosanneC_1990_SlimsSanFranciscoCA__12-15-1990_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken at the Town and Country Club in London in May, 1990.

The Eagles with Linda Ronstadt & Jackson Browne - Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, Beacon Theater, New York City, 7-19-1974

In the 1970s, there was a U.S. music TV show called "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert." In 1974, that show had an episode focusing on the Eagles, with guests Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne. The three artists were musically linked. The Eagles started out as Ronstadt's backing band in 1971. Browne helped the Eagles get a record contract, and his song "Take It Easy" was co-written by Eagles band member Glenn Fry (who also lived in the same apartment building as he did for a time). Most of the songs here were performed by the Eagles, but Ronstadt got to sing lead on three songs, and Browne on two.

This TV show looms larger in retrospect. By 1974, the Eagles, Ronstadt, and Browne were all successful, to be sure. But as the 1970s went on, they would become much more successful, each of them becoming musical superstars for a time. So this was a very inspired gathering of talent.

The sound quality is very good. I'm guessing that all of the songs appear here, but some of the talking between songs has been lost. I'm basing that on the fact that Ronstadt got introduced but Browne did not. Surely he deserved an introduction too. Anyway, the main thing is that the music survives.

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

01 talk (Eagles)
02 Peaceful Easy Feeling (Eagles)
03 Already Gone (Eagles)
04 Good Day in Hell (Eagles)
05 Silver Threads and Golden Needles (Eagles & Linda Ronstadt)
06 Desperado (Eagles & Linda Ronstadt)
07 It Doesn't Matter Anymore (Eagles, Linda Ronstadt & Bernie Leadon)
08 Midnight Flyer (Eagles)
09 Twenty One (Eagles)
10 Ol' 55 (Eagles)
11 Your Bright Baby Blues (Eagles & Jackson Browne)
12 Looking into You (Eagles, Jackson Browne & David Lindley)
13 James Dean (Eagles)
14 Doolin' Dalton - Desperado [Reprise] (Eagles)
15 Take It Easy (Eagles, Jackson Browne & Linda Ronstadt)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/YqL5aoxV

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/PC2FHy9GLjdUDbd/file

The cover photo comes from this exact concert. I'm guessing it's from the last song, "Take It Easy," when the Eagles, Browne, and Ronstadt all played on stage together. In February 2025, I improved the image thanks to the Krea AI program.

Tori Amos - BBC in Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-27-1998

I have to admit that prior to putting this album, I wasn't very familiar with the music of singer-songwriter Tori Amos. But I knew of a few songs, such as "Cornflake Girl" and "God," and really liked them. So when I saw she did a concert for the BBC, I thought she'd worthy of being included in my big BBC project.

It turns out she's actually played the annual Glastonbury Festival twice, in 1998 and 2005. I couldn't find any trace of the 2005 concert. An excellent recording of the 1998 one exists though. Apparently that is due to Jools Holland devoting an entire episode of his BBC TV show to her Glastonbury performance. That has a downside though, because virtually no banter between songs was included, and only some of the applause after the songs made it. So I did my best, using what little applause there was, to pad out some more cheering.

Other than that, though, it sounds excellent. And the timing of the concert is excellent as well, since this concert took place after the release of her fourth album, "From the Choirgirl Hotel." Her first four albums are her most critically acclaimed, and also her best selling. Yet there's no official live album from this time period.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 Precious Things (Tori Amos)
02 Cornflake Girl (Tori Amos)
03 Raspberry Swirl - Professional Widow (Tori Amos)
04 talk (Tori Amos)
05 God (Tori Amos)
06 Crucify (Tori Amos)
07 Cruel (Tori Amos)
08 Tear in Your Hand (Tori Amos)
09 The Waitress (Tori Amos)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15266776/ToriA_1998_BBC_in_Concert__Glastonbury_Festival__Worthy_Farm__Pilton__Britain__6-27-1998_atse.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert. The quality is rather low-res, but it was the best one I could find.

Robyn Hitchcock - Naff Hits of the 1970s - Three Kings, Clerkenwell, London, Britain, 4-20-2003

First off, what does the word "naff" mean? I'd never heard of the word prior to finding this concert. According to the dictionary, it's British slang for "lacking style or good taste, vulgar, or unfashionable." In 2003, the U.S. and Britain invaded Iraq. The war appeared to be over quickly by the time of this concert, though that turned out only to be a lull, and the war would go on for years. Robyn Hitchcock performed this concert for a non-profit to help victims of the war. It must have raised a pretty small amount of money, considering the venue could only less than a 100 people. But Hitchcock liked the idea and repeated the benefit concert at that venue about once a year until 2011.

Each of these concerts would focus on doing cover songs of a certain type. For this one, he explicitly used the word "naff," and targets 1970s hits. However, not all of the songs were naff, although most were. He slipped in some songs by "cool" artists like Wire, David Bowie and Lou Reed.

Hitchcock and his band clearly had a fun time with this concept. He was backed by Kimberley Rew and Morris Windsor, who, fittingly, were in the Soft Boys with him in the 1970s. From the song "Vicious" until the end, they were also joined by Jon Brion and Mark Ellen.

This sounds like an audience bootleg. However, it's very good as audience bootlegs go, almost rising to the sound quality of soundboards. But still, the sound quality isn't perfect.

This album is an hour and 28 minutes long.

Here's a list of the original artists for each song (skipping some numbers because of the talking tracks):

02 Together We Are Beautiful - Fern Kinney
03 I Am the Fly - Wire
05 Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
07 Come Up and See Me [Make Me Smile] - Steve Harley
08 Love Don't Live Here Anymore - Rose Royce
10 Golden Years - David Bowie
12 Dancing Queen - ABBA
14 Ring My Bell - Anita Ward
16 All the Young Dudes - Mott the Hoople
18 Spacer - Sheila and B. Devotion
20 Stuck in the Middle with You - Stealers Wheel
22 Another Girl, Another Planet - Only Ones
24 Rebel Rebel - [I Can't Get No] Satisfaction - David Bowie - Rolling Sontes
25 Vicious - Lou Reed
27 A Walking Miracle - Limmie & the Family Cookin'
29 Sound and Vision - Rock Your Baby - When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman - David Bowie - George McCrae - Dr. Hook
31 Kung Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas
33 D.I.S.C.O. - Ottawan

And here's the usual song list:

01 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 Together We Are Beautiful (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 I Am the Fly (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 Funkytown (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 Come Up and See Me [Make Me Smile] (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 Love Don't Live Here Anymore (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Golden Years (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 Dancing Queen (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
14 Ring My Bell (Robyn Hitchcock)
15 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
16 All the Young Dudes (Robyn Hitchcock)
17 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
18 Spacer (Robyn Hitchcock)
19 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
20 Stuck in the Middle with You (Robyn Hitchcock)
21 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
22 Another Girl, Another Planet (Robyn Hitchcock)
23 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
24 Rebel Rebel - [I Can't Get No] Satisfaction (Robyn Hitchcock)
25 Vicious (Robyn Hitchcock)
26 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
27 A Walking Miracle (Robyn Hitchcock)
28 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
29 Sound and Vision - Rock Your Baby - When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman (Robyn Hitchcock)
30 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
31 Kung Fu Fighting (Robyn Hitchcock)
32 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
33 D.I.S.C.O. (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15821099/RobynH_2003_Naff70sHitsThreeKingsClerkenwell__4-20-2003_atse.zip.html

I must say, out of the 2,000 or so album covers I've made for this blog, I think this one is my favorite. I found a picture of a "naff" guy wearing a 1970s leisure suit. I then pasted the head of Robyn Hitchcock over that using Photoshop. But I kept the sunglasses and mustache of the original guy. Then I found a "naff" background image of disco dancers and included that. I also chose a very 1970s font, and font colors, for the text.

More Links Fixed

I've replaced a lot more ZippyShare links with Mega ones. All the links where the artist names begin with A or B have been replaced. But since then, I've only been replacing the albums that contain all or mostly unreleased material. I've done that for C, D, E, and most of F as I write this.

For the other albums that contain a lot of released material, I'm going to go with a different file sharing service, since I've heard Mega can be harsh with copyright violators. Three strikes in a six month window and all your links die. If nothing else, it makes sense that I don't put all my eggs in one basket, so if something like that happens, I'll only lose a portion of the links.

The problem is, I still haven't decided what the other file sharing service should be. For them to be lax on the copyright issue is key. I'd also like one where inactive links last longer than 30 days. Another problem I had with ZippyShare is that links would sometimes die for no reason, once that definitely weren't inactive for 30 days, and I wouldn't know why or be able to see which ones died like that, so I wouldn't know to fix them. I was going to go with Workupload, since inactive links last 90 days, but I've been told they have links randomly die for no reason too. I'd also like something that's free, or at least I don't have to pay too much. I'll be paying some for Mega already, since their free service isn't nearly enough space for me. As a bonus, it would be nice if I could be told how many people are downloading each file. (Mega doesn't do that, as far as I can tell.)

So if anyone has advice on what I should do, please tell me, so I can fill in the other links. The copyright issue especially isn't something you learn from official policies, but is more of a word of mouth thing. Ditto with links mysteriously dying.

I don't trust Google drive, plus, this blog is run by Google, and I shouldn't put all my eggs in one basket that way either. Sendspace, Wetransfer, Filefactory, and katfile links die after 30 inactive days or less. Mediafire apparently is harsh on the copyright issue. Krakenfiles has files randomly disappear. Turbobit and Rapidgator have captcha and timers that annoy downloaders.

In addition to Workupload, these ones are still in the running: uloz.to (I can't figure out their inactive links policy), megaup.net (inactive files last 60 days), Dropbox (they say files die, but I can't find the details), upload.ee (inactive files last 120 days if you're registered), bayfiles (inactive links don't die), openload.cc (inactive links don't die), Imagenetz (inactive files last 500 days), Nitroflare (inactive files last 90 days). If anyone has any further advice, please let me know ASAP!

Belle & Sebastian - BBC Sessions, Volume 12: 2015-2017

Here's Belle and Sebastian at the BBC yet again... kind of. I say "kind of" because I included a lot of non-BBC stuff. Only the last four songs actually come from BBC performances. But the others are from other radio appearances with excellent sound quality and no audience noise, so just imagine those are BBC performances too. :)

Belle and Sebastian were on recording hiatus for about five years, until the 2015 album "Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance." So there are some songs from that album, but lots of older songs too. Everything here is unreleased. The first eight songs are from an appearance on the "Morning Becomes Eclectic" radio show. The next three are from a Minnesota Public Radio appearance. The last four are from two different BBC appearances.

I have two more BBC volumes planned that more or less get us to the present day of 2023.

This album is an hour and five minutes long.

01 The Party Line (Belle & Sebastian)
02 Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie (Belle & Sebastian)
03 The Power of Three (Belle & Sebastian)
04 My Wandering Days Are Over (Belle & Sebastian)
05 Perfect Couples (Belle & Sebastian)
06 The Fox in the Snow (Belle & Sebastian)
07 Nobody's Empire (Belle & Sebastian)
08 Sleep the Clock Around (Belle & Sebastian)
09 Sukie in the Graveyard (Belle & Sebastian)
10 I'm a Cuckoo (Belle & Sebastian)
11 Like Dylan in the Movies (Belle & Sebastian)
12 We Were Beautiful (Belle & Sebastian)
13 I'll Be Your Pilot (Belle & Sebastian)
14 The Boy Done Wrong Again (Belle & Sebastian)
15 Frosty the Snowman (Belle & Sebastian)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15901542/BellenS_2015-2017_BBSessionsVolume12_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken at an album signing at Amoeba Music on January 20, 2015, in Hollywood, California.

Leonard Cohen - Montreux Jazz Festival, Casino de Montreux, Montreux, Switzerland, 6-25-1976

Here's another album I got ready to post, and then promptly forgot about.

If I had to recommend just one Leonard Cohen concert recording, it would probably be this one. Although it's a bootleg, it's a soundboard with excellent sound quality. Also, there aren't many good sounding or complete concert recordings from before this, so it really stands out for the time period.

Another thing is has going for it is that it's unusually long, just over two hours. He played some rare songs, such as "Store Room," which would only eventually be released as a bonus track to his first album, "Songs of Leonard Cohen." Another rare one is "Do I Have to Dance All Night," which remains unreleased on album, but was released as an obscure single in 1976.

Cohen put out a lot of excellent albums. My favorite is "The Future," from 1992. But in my opinion, his peak time period is his first four albums, which are all solid through and through. And that's the exact time period for this concert.

This album is 2 hours and four minutes long.

01 Bird on the Wire - Vivre Tout Seul (Leonard Cohen)
02 So Long, Marianne (Leonard Cohen)
03 talk (Leonard Cohen)
04 Who by Fire (Leonard Cohen)
05 talk (Leonard Cohen)
06 Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye (Leonard Cohen)
07 talk (Leonard Cohen)
08 Store Room (Leonard Cohen)
09 One of Us Cannot Be Wrong (Leonard Cohen)
10 Lady Midnight (Leonard Cohen)
11 There Is a War (Leonard Cohen)
12 talk (Leonard Cohen)
13 I Tried to Leave You (Leonard Cohen)
14 Diamonds in the Mine (Leonard Cohen)
15 talk (Leonard Cohen)
16 Chelsea Hotel No. 2 (Leonard Cohen)
17 The Stranger Song (Leonard Cohen)
18 You Know Who I Am (Leonard Cohen)
19 The Partisan [La Complainte du Partisan] (Leonard Cohen)
20 talk (Leonard Cohen)
21 Story of Isaac (Leonard Cohen)
22 Famous Blue Raincoat (Leonard Cohen)
23 talk (Leonard Cohen)
24 Lover, Lover, Lover (Leonard Cohen)
25 Sisters of Mercy (Leonard Cohen)
26 talk (Leonard Cohen)
27 Is This What You Wanted (Leonard Cohen)
28 Suzanne (Leonard Cohen)
29 talk (Leonard Cohen)
30 The Butcher (Leonard Cohen)
31 Bird on the Wire (Leonard Cohen)
32 Tonight Will Be Fine (Leonard Cohen)
33 Joan of Arc (Leonard Cohen)
34 talk (Leonard Cohen)
35 Do I Have to Dance All Night (Leonard Cohen)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/bjiSjpdv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/QPinTcofW0qUjkX/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/bbFiW

I don't know much about the cover photos, only that it's from "circa 1975."

Crosby, Nash & Young - United Farm Workers Benefit, Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, CA, 8-12-1977

Note that this is an unreleased acoustic concert of David Crosby, Graham Nash, and Neil Young of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY), but Stephen Stills was not there.

In 1977, Neil Young was not on particularly good terms with Crosby, Stills, and Nash. There had been an attempt to record a CSNY studio album in 1976, but it had ended acrimoniously when Stills and Young wiped the harmony vocals of Crosby and Nash and released their songs as the Stills and Young album "Long May You Run." Stills then reunited with Crosby and Nash and put out the very commercially successful Crosby, Stills and Nash album "CSN" in 1977. Young went to the studio with CSN and listened to an early copy of the album, and complimented the album and generally had a good time with them, according to an article I once read. But around the same time, he wrote the song "Thrasher" in which he harshly criticized CSN saying, "So I got bored and left them there, they were just dead weight to me." (Although he didn't mention CSN by name in the song, in a later interview, he said, "'Thrasher' was pretty much me writing about my experiences with Crosby, Stills and Nash in the mid-1970s.")

So yeah, it was complicated. Clearly, there was a love/hate thing going on. A big factor that hurt Young's relationship with the others was their excessive drug use, especially Crosby's cocaine addition, which would later turn into a crack addition before he cleaned up later in the 1980s. That too was referenced in "Thrasher" where he complained they were "lost in crystal canyons." Young would barely perform with the others until after Crosby got clean around 1986.

But this show is a rare exception. It was originally billed as a benefit show headlined by David Crosby only, co-headlined with the David Grisman Quartet. The first six songs do feature only Crosby. But Graham Nash publicly promised to be there, and he did show up. The show turned into a de facto Crosby-Nash concert for the next five songs.  But for all of the summer of 1977, Young lived in Santa Cruz and played many unannounced concerts at small clubs with his short-lived band the Ducks. So he was on good enough terms to join the concert for the last eight songs, including doing four written by him.

By the way, I found a mention that Stills also wanted to join the show, but he was playing a concert overseas. He tried to get back in time, but didn't make it.

Regarding this recording, it's only an audience bootleg. However, it's an unusually good one, which is why I'm posting it. It almost rises to soundboard quality level, but you do get some more crowd noise. It helps that it was an acoustic concert - a good recording becomes increasingly important with more instruments involved.

This is an excellent show in my opinion. It helps that it was a bit longer than typical concerts at the time, at an hour and 45 minutes long. It's heavier on Crosby material since he played the whole show, and lighter on Young's material in particular since he only was there for the final third. But it's great they patched things up enough to play together. I could be wrong, but I think the next time Young appeared on stage with them was at Live Aid in 1985.

01 The Lee Shore (David Crosby)
02 Page 43 (David Crosby)
03 talk (David Crosby)
04 Triad (David Crosby)
05 talk (David Crosby)
06 Homeward through the Haze (David Crosby)
07 talk (David Crosby)
08 Naked in the Rain (David Crosby)
09 talk (David Crosby)
10 Laughing (David Crosby)
11 talk (Crosby & Nash)
12 Southbound Train (Crosby & Nash)
13 talk (Crosby & Nash)
14 Guinnevere (Crosby & Nash)
15 talk (Crosby & Nash)
16 Cathedral (Crosby & Nash)
17 talk (Crosby & Nash)
18 Carry Me (Crosby & Nash)
19 talk (Crosby & Nash)
20 Low Down Payment (Crosby & Nash)
21 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
22 Human Highway (Crosby, Nash & Young)
23 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
24 New Mama (Crosby, Nash & Young)
25 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
26 Deja Vu (Crosby, Nash & Young)
27 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
28 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Crosby, Nash & Young)
29 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
30 Our House (Crosby, Nash & Young)
31 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
32 Wooden Ships (Crosby, Nash & Young)
33 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
34 Teach Your Children (Crosby, Nash & Young)
35 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)
36 Sugar Mountain (Crosby, Nash & Young)
37 talk (Crosby, Nash & Young)

https://www.imagenetz.de/auLZn

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UByb694s

second alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/QTFcbARE53e402b/file 

I'm very happy to say the cover photo was taken at this exact concert.

Various Artists - Gershwin Prize for Popular Song Honors Joni Mitchell, D.A.R. Constitution Hall, Washington DC, 3-1-2023

Last month as I write this, in March 2023, Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell was awarded the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. A TV show of this event was filmed and broadcast a few days ago. That's why there now is an audio recording of it in excellent quality.

Mitchell is 79 years old as I write this, and she isn't in the best of health. In 2013, she had a brain aneurysm and nearly died. She had to relearn how to sing and play guitar from scratch. The good news is that she had made a remarkable recovery. She played a set at the Newport Folk Festival in 2022, and she's scheduled to perform a full concert in June 2023. However, for this show, she only sang for two songs at the end. The rest features other musical artists performing some of her best known songs.

I edited this down a bit. I kept all the music, but I cut out some extraneous material between songs. For instance, there were some extra testimonials about Mitchell by people who didn't actually perform any songs. Garth Brooks was one of them. As another example, there was a brief interview with Mitchell filmed at another time in which she was asked her opinion of jazz musician Wayne Shorter, who had died recently. There also were speeches and introductions by various people, including a bunch of US senators and other politicians. I cut all that out, and only kept comments by artists that were relevant to the songs they were about to play. I also included Mitchell's acceptance speech, which appears to be surprisingly brief, less than a minute long.

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

UPDATE: On August 24, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is the same. However, I changed the title slightly and used a new cover image. This is so the album look could fit in with other albums in the Gershwin Prize series.

01 talk (Marcus Mumford)
02 Carey (Marcus Mumford with Brandi Carlile & Lucius)
03 talk (Brandi Carlile)
04 Both Sides Now (Annie Lennox with Brandi Carlile & Lucius)
05 Help Me (Angelique Kidjo)
06 talk (James Taylor)
07 California (James Taylor)
08 talk (Brandi Carlile)
09 Shine (Brandi Carlile with Lucius & Celisse)
10 talk (Ledisi)
11 Big Yellow Taxi (Brandi Carlile, Angelique Kidjo, Cyndi Lauper, Annie Lennox, Ledisi & Lucius)
12 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
13 Blue (Cyndi Lauper)
14 A Case of You (Graham Nash)
15 talk (Herbie Hancock)
16 River (Herbie Hancock & Ledisi)
17 talk (Diana Krall)
18 For the Roses (Diana Krall)
19 talk (Joni Mitchell)
20 Summertime (Joni Mitchell with Brandi Carlile, Lucius & Celisse)
21 The Circle Game (Joni Mitchell & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/woAWCFJo

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/l2HX4nYfqsqWpla/file

The cover is a photo from the TV show.

Finished with B, but There's a Problem

Phew! Yesterday, I uploaded about 150 albums, as I replace the ZippyShare links. Today, in the same amount of time, only about 50 albums were uploaded. I have no idea why, but that does not bode well for me replacing all the links quickly.

The good news is I've finished all the artists with names starting with B (including last names, like David Bowie). That may be the letter with the most albums, or at least it's close. So hopefully the others won't take so long.

The bad new is that someone informed me that the file sharing platform I've started to use, Mega, is vigilant about taking down any copyright violators. And while the vast majority of the material I post here is officially unreleased, I do have a lot of released stuff scattered in there too. I certainly don't want to have to go through the ordeal of replacing all the download links again.

So what I think I'm going to do going forward is use Mega for all the albums that are mostly or entirely unreleased material. Mega links have the advantage of not dying after 30 days of inactivity, unlike most other similar file sharing platforms. But for albums that are mostly or all released material, I will try to use something else. I'll probably go with Workupload. I see they wait 90 days of inactivity before deleting a link, so at least that's somewhat better.

But if anyone has suggestions on what I should do, opinions about Workupload, Mega, etc..., please let me know ASAP. Thanks.

Oh, and also, if you see any A or B links that are still broken or go to the wrong album, please let me know. I almost certainly am making some mistakes.

The Jeff Beck Group - BBC In Concert, Paris Theatre, London, Britain, 6-29-1972

In 1967, lead guitarist Jeff Beck formed the Jeff Beck Group, with Rod Stewart as lead vocalist. This band was critically and commercially successful, putting out two albums. But the band broke up in mid-1969. Shortly after that, Beck was in a car accident and had to recouperate for about a year. When he finished, he created a new Jeff Beck Group with entirely different personnel. The new lead vocalist was Bobby Tench.

That is the version of the band on this album. It's lucky the band played this concert for the BBC, because they didn't leave much behind in the way of excellent sounding live recordings. But this one does sound excellent. 

The Jeff Beck Group broke up for good in July 1972, just one month after this concert. After that, Beck lost the "Group" and performed under his own name.

Strangely, although Beck was active at the BBC in the 1960s with the Yardbirds and then the first Jeff Beck Group, he seems to have done very little with the BBC after this. I found a mention of a Beck concert for the BBC in 1980. A recording of it must exist, because it's mentioned at the discogs.com database. But I've never come across it. If you know of it, or other BBC recordings from him, please let me know.

This album is 60 minutes long.

01 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
02 Ice Cream Cakes (Jeff Beck Group)
03 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
04 Morning Dew (Jeff Beck Group)
05 Going Down (Jeff Beck Group)
06 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
07 Definitely Maybe [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck Group)
08 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
09 Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You (Jeff Beck Group)
10 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
11 New Was - Plynth [Water Down the Drain] - Train Train (Jeff Beck Group)
12 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
13 Ain't No Sunshine (Jeff Beck Group)
14 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
15 Got the Feeling (Jeff Beck Group)
16 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
17 Let Me Love You (Jeff Beck Group)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15275986/JeffB_1972_BBConcertParisTheatre__6-29-1972_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken at the Crystal Palace in London in 1972.