Mark Knopfler - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Music Club, Simon Mayo Show, London, Britain, 10-5-2007

This is the fifth, and probably the last, album in my BBC series for Mark Knopfler. (I say "probably" because it's possible he'll recorded more for the BBC, who knows.) This is an unreleased concert. But it seems that instead of just having the BBC record one of his full concerts in some big arena, he did a truncated show for a small studio audience.

This concert was to promote his 2007 album "Kill to Get Crimson," which had just been released. But actually, only three songs here are from that: "True Love Will Never Fade," "The Fizzy and the Still," and "Let It All Go." The rest are from his earlier solo albums, plus three songs from his years with Dire Straits ("Going Home," "Brothers in Arms," and "So Far Away.")

The sound quality is excellent, as you'd expect. However, I suspect there was banter between songs that got removed. I base this on the fact that for many of the songs, though not all, the applause quickly faded out in an unnatural way. And Knopfler did make one brief comment near the end that seemed to be a follow up to an earlier comment that's missing. So if anyone has the complete version with the banter, let me know so I can use that.

I did my best to fix the edited applause. For those songs, I patched in more applause from other songs, so at least it should sound like there's a decent amount of applause after each song.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Donegan's Gone (Mark Knopfler)
02 Rudiger (Mark Knopfler)
03 True Love Will Never Fade (Mark Knopfler)
04 The Fizzy and the Still (Mark Knopfler)
05 Let It All Go [Electric Version] (Mark Knopfler)
06 Our Shangri-La (Mark Knopfler)
07 Going Home [Theme From 'Local Hero'] [Instrumental] (Mark Knopfler)
08 Postcards from Paraguay (Mark Knopfler)
09 Brothers in Arms (Mark Knopfler)
10 So Far Away (Mark Knopfler)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16177703/MRKKNPF2007_BBSessnsVlum5MscClbSmnMyoShwLndnBrtin__10-5-2007_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from a concert in Rome, Italy, on June 6, 2008.

The Allman Brothers Band - BBC In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 6-25-1991

It seems that just about anyone who is anyone in the music world performed for the BBC at least once (though sometimes the recordings didn't survive). A case in point is the Allman Brothers Band. They're so closely associated with the U.S., and especially the South, that it seems surprising they toured Europe at all. But here we are, with an unreleased BBC concert in London in 1991.

This happens to be a particularly good time for a BBC concert from them, in my opinion. Sure, their peak years were in the early 1970s, especially while Duane Allman was still alive. But they were still a solid band for decades after that. The 1980s were kind of a lost decade for them. But they reunited in the late 1980s and put out a good new album in 1990, "Seven Turns," and another one in 1991, "Shades of Two Worlds." Their creativity slowed way down after that, with only two more new studio albums for the remaining fifteen or so years the band stayed together. The band also lost a lot when Dickey Betts was kicked out in 2000, apparently after a few years of causing problems.

But in 1991, the band was still firing on all cylinders, and proud to play their new songs. Six of the 14 songs here are from their 1990 or 1991 albums, and they're all pretty good.

The sound quality is excellent, as you'd expect from the BBC. And while the BBC often edited concerts down to an hour or so, this time they didn't, since the concert is nearly two hours long.

This album is an hour and 56 minutes long.

01 Don't Want You No More - It's Not My Cross to Bear (Allman Brothers Band)
02 Statesboro Blues (Allman Brothers Band)
03 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
04 Blue Sky (Allman Brothers Band)
05 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
06 Low Down Dirty Mean (Allman Brothers Band)
07 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
08 End of the Line (Allman Brothers Band)
09 Loaded Dice (Allman Brothers Band)
10 Southbound (Allman Brothers Band)
11 Jessica [Instrumental] (Allman Brothers Band)
12 Good Clean Fun (Allman Brothers Band)
13 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
14 Gambler's Roll (Allman Brothers Band)
15 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
16 In Memory of Elizabeth Reed [Instrumental] (Allman Brothers Band)
17 One Way Out (Allman Brothers Band)
18 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
19 Kind of Bird [Instrumental] (Allman Brothers Band)
20 Whipping Post (Allman Brothers Band) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/v7de1yrm

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/vQsnmYkgKKj3Zwp/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/bCxS7

It's really hard to find a photo of all the key members of the Allman Brothers Band on stage, since they usually were spread apart from each other. It's even harder to find such a photo specifically from 1991. I did find one, taken at a rather unusual angle. Not the greatest, so let me know if you have something better. This was taken at a concert in Dinkelsbuhl, Germany, in June 1991.

Steve Winwood - Soulful Cover Songs, Volume 2: 2006-2021

Here's Volume 2 of Steve Winwood performing cover songs. Since most of them are soul songs, or at least sang with his usual soulfullness, I'm calling this series "Soulful Cover Songs." If you're a Winwood fan, you really need to hear these albums.

Five of the ten songs here have been officially released. "Ain't No Love" is from a Sam Moore album. "Love Will Keep Us Alive," a song written by Jim Capaldi, who was in Traffic with Winwood, was done for a tribute concert for Capaldi that later got released as an album. "Thirty Second Lover" is from a Steve Cropper album, "When the World Gets Small" is from a Gov't Mule album, and "Whiter Shade of Pale" is from a Santana album.

The other songs are from concert bootlegs. But those generally were soundboard recordings, so they sound excellent. A couple were from audience boots, but I edited them carefully until they sounded better. For instance, one thing I'm doing lately for albums like this that mix studio and live cuts is using the latest computer technology to get rid of the audience cheering on the live ones.

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 Ain't No Love (Sam Moore & Steve Winwood)
02 Love Will Keep Us Alive (Steve Winwood & Joe Walsh)
03 Right On (Steve Winwood & Santana)
04 Pretzel Logic (Steve Winwood & Steely Dan)
05 Thirty Second Lover (Steve Cropper & Steve Winwood)
06 The Weight (Steve Winwood)
07 When the World Gets Small (Gov't Mule & Steve Winwood)
08 Crossroads (Bonnie Raitt & Steve Winwood)
09 Everybody's Everything (Steve Winwood & Sheila E.)
10 Whiter Shade of Pale (Santana with Steve Winwood)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16174770/STVEWNWD20062021_SoullCovrSngsVlum2_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from a concert at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, California, in 2005.

The Cars - The Cap'n Swing Years (1974-1976)

This is basically a completely unreleased, and rarely bootlegged, studio album by the Cars. Not a great one, mind you, since the band was still finding its sound, but if you like the Cars you should like this.

Get comfortable, because in order to explain this album, I need some time to explain the basics about the pre-history of the Cars. The two lead singers in the band, Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr, were lifelong best friends (though they had some estranged years after the Cars broke up). They met way back in 1968, while they were both living in Cleveland, Ohio, as teenagers. They began collaborating musically, and were involved together in numerous bands that had little success. 

Their biggest success came in 1972, when the band they were in, "Milkwood," put out a studio album called "How's the Weather?" This album soon went out of print, and has stayed out of print. If you listen to it today, it's strange, because the voices are clearly recognizable as Ocasek and Orr, but the music is totally different. Blowing with the musical winds of the time, they sounded very much like a mellow Crosby, Stills and Nash, with lots of vocal harmonies and acoustic guitars. I considered putting a song or two from that album on this album, but it's average stuff and the style would be wildly out of place. However, note that one song here, "Dream Trader," was originally on the Milkwood album, but the version here is a 1976 remake with a drastically different, and more rocking, arrangement.

Milkwood, a trio, fell apart soon after their album failed to sell. Ocasek and Orr moved to Boston, and they continued trying to make it in the music business, but still without music success. The timing isn't clear, but sometime between 1973 and 1975, they were joined by Elliott Easton, who would stay as the lead guitarist for the Cars. 

The first three songs here come from 1974. I know very little about them. I don't even know what band name they were using at the time, although "Richard and the Rabbits" is a possibility, since that was used for a while in this time period. But presumably these three songs are originals by Ocasek, who wrote the vast majority of songs for the Cars, especially in the early years. The mellow Milkwood sound was gone and the Cars sound was starting to form.

Some time in early 1976, the band changed their name again, to "Cap'n Swing." By this time, Greg Hawkes had joined them. He'd been occasionally playing with Ocasek and Orr for a couple of years, but he'd had other musical commitments to fulfill for a while. He would become the permanent keyboard player for the Cars.

At first, the band was completed by a drummer named Glenn Evans and a bass player named Kevin Robichaud. Neither would last to the Cars. (Orr would eventually take the bass player spot while continuing to sing.)

This five-member band began having lots of success in the Boston area. They recorded some demos and got an opportunity to take them to New York City, with hopes of getting a record contract. But this didn't go well. Easton later recalled, "We took [the tape of demos] back to Boston with our tails between our legs." It's likely that most of the songs here are from that demo tape. The first three songs are from 1974, as I mentioned previously, and "Lover and a Holiday" was recorded by Cap'n Swing in 1976, but at a different session. Versions of most of these songs appeared on the Internet, but only since around 2020 have most of them shown up with the excellent sound quality you hear here, after a band member leaked better versions to the public.

Listening to these songs, I can understand why the record companies rejected them. The band was getting better, but they still hadn't perfected their own style. On one hand, they were heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground and the similar sounding Modern Lovers. On the other hand, they were heavily influenced by Steely Dan. Apparently, some record executives specifically complained that many of their songs went on too long, with lots of jazzy keyboard noodling in a Steely Dan style that didn't suit the songs. 

Ocasek and Orr took this advice to heart. Back in Boston, they shortened their songs, cut out most of the jazzy noodling, and moved towards a more rocking direction. Unfortunately, we don't have any Cap'n Swing recordings from after they made that stylistic change. 

But they didn't stay as Cap'n Swing for long in any case. Around the start of 1977, they got a new drummer, David Robinson. This was a promising development, because he'd previously been the drummer for the Modern Lovers, which I mentioned already as one of their biggest influences. He would stay on as the permanent drummer for the Cars. He also disliked the band name, "Cap'n Swing," which is an objectively bad name. The way "Captain" gets shortened is strange, and having "Swing" in the name implied they played swing music from the 1940s, which they definitely did not. Robinson suggested "The Cars," and that name stuck. They began playing as the Cars in January 1977, and thereafter went from success to success, helped by the changes they'd made. In 1978, their debut album "The Cars" was released, and it went on to become one of the most critically and commercially successful debut albums of the era.   

So now you know all about Cap'n Swing. I'm calling this a "Cars" album because A) I think the name Cap'n Swing is awful, and B) they effectively were the Cars already, with only a change of drummers to come. (Besides, the first three songs are from before they used the Cap'n Swing name.)

Let me explain some more about the music here. I've included most of the songs from this time period I could find. However, I didn't include some songs, especially from the 1974 session, because I didn't think they were good enough. I also didn't include a few 1976 songs. I passed on "Bye Bye Love," because that was released on the debut album in a better version. Another song, "Twilight Superman," was so clearly "inspired" by "Sweet Jane" by the Velvet Underground that it's best forgotten. A couple more might have been worthy, but had poor sound quality.

Furthermore, after hearing all these songs, I had to agree with the record company execs who complained that their songs went on too long, with too much jazzy noodling. So to make this more palatable, I've made drastic cuts to six songs (the ones with "[Edit]" in their titles). In the most drastic example, "City Lights" originally was six and a half minutes long, but I've edited it down to three minutes. Trust me, you're not missing much with these cuts. For instance, a majority of the cuts got rid of repeated verses and/or choruses that just repeated what happened earlier in the songs. But if you want to hear the full versions, they all can be found on YouTube and other places. Oh, and also, I edited all the songs to boost the lead vocals in the mix. For many of the songs, the vocals were buried way down.

Interestingly, with the exception of "Bye Bye Love," virtually none of these songs would go on to become Cars songs. It is said Cap'n Swing played "You're All I've Got Tonight," from the Cars debut album, in concert, but apparently they never made a studio version of it. I've previously posted an album of Cars non-album tracks, which you can find here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-cars-take-me-now-various-songs-1977.html

Most of those are from 1977 and 1978, and were not released at the time, Yet all or most of all of those songs are different than the Cap'n Swing songs. So at least two albums worth of songs were left unreleased. I'm sure there are more songs from the early and mid-1970s that didn't get recorded, or the recordings didn't survive. I suppose one key reason the Cars' debut album is so good is because Ocasek and Orr had spent well over a decade working up to it, and they discarded many songs along the way.

By the way, note that most Cars songs are sung by Ocasek, though there are some key exceptions sung by Orr, such as "Just What I Needed," "Let's Go," and "Drive." Their voices are very similar, so it's often hard to tell. (They claimed this was because they sang together for so long, especially through their formative years.) But back in this time period, the vast majority of the songs were sung by Orr (who arguably had the better voice). I could be wrong, but I think the only song here sung by Ocasek is "City Lights," while "Dream Trader" has shared lead vocals between Ocasek and Orr.

All of this material remains unreleased because members of the Cars consider it "juvenile" material they would just as soon forget. For similar reasons, they've never allowed the Milkwood album to be released. But while I don't hear any lost classics here, I think this is a pretty decent bunch of songs (especially after the edits and remixing).

One song, "Will You Still Love Me Tonight," is a bonus track. I actually think it's one of the better songs, but it's downgraded due to sound quality. This is one of only three live Cap'n Swing songs I've found. (The others, "Strawberry Moonlight" and "Start It All Again," sound better in their studio versions.)

01 Harlequin (Cars)
02 I Need Spring (Cars)
03 Start It All Again (Cars)
04 Strawberry Moonlight (Cars)
05 Jezebel [Edit] (Cars)
06 Goes On Sleeping [Edit] (Cars)
07 You're Always Brighter [Edit] (Cars)
08 City Lights [Edit] (Cars)
09 Dream Trader (Cars)
10 You Can Have 'Em [Blue Moon Saloon] (Cars)
11 Come Back Down [Edit] (Cars)
12 Magic Pants [Crazy Rock and Roll] [Edit] (Cars)
13 Lover and a Holiday [See Through My Eyes] (Cars)

Will You Still Love Me Tonight (Cars) 

https://www.upload.ee/files/17362752/TCARZ1974-1976ThCapnSwngYers_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KBTRPBU8

The cover photo is a bit of a mystery. From right to left, it shows Ben Orr, Elliott Easton, Greg Hawkes, Ric Ocasek, and Danny Lewis. The first four would go on to be members of the Cars, but Lewis was the drummer briefly, before David Robinson became the drummer. So this probably is from late 1976, right before Cap'n Swing was renamed the Cars. It's the only photo of the band that I could find.

Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine - The Jon Brion Version (2005) (A Mike Solof Guest Post)

Mike Solof is back with another guest post. This time, it's an alternate version of Fiona Apple's 2005 album "Extraordinary Machine." The released version is excellent. However, there was a different, still entirely unreleased version all ready to go earlier in the year that was never released. Produced by Jon Brion, it was basically the same bunch of songs, but drastically different takes of nearly all the songs.

Wikipedia has a very good explanation:

Extraordinary Machine - Wikipedia

Furthermore, Mike has written up the whole story in his PDF notes, which I recommend you read. Everything else you need to know should be in those notes. 

Oh, one last thing I should mention: although this is a bootleg, the sound quality is just as good as an official album.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Not About Love (Fiona Apple)
02 Red Red Red (Fiona Apple)
03 Get Him Back (Fiona Apple)
04 Better Version of Me (Fiona Apple)
05 Oh Well (Fiona Apple)
06 O' Sailor (Fiona Apple)
07 Used to Love Him (Fiona Apple)
08 Window (Fiona Apple)
09 Waltz [Better than Fine] (Fiona Apple)
10 Extraordinary Machine (Fiona Apple)
11 Please Please Please (Fiona Apple)
12 Better Version of Me [Alternate Version] (Fiona Apple)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16163219/FIONAPL2005_ExtrrdinryMchnealt_atse.zip.html

The cover uses the same text and font as the original version, but the image is different. The official cover has some plant life on it, and there's a picture on the back of more plant life. This is just that back image moved to the cover.

Leonard Cohen - Songs from a Store Room - Alternate Song Versions (1967-1968) (NEW TO PUBLIC CIRCULATION)

I had been planning on posting this a couple of days ago, but I got knocked down pretty badly by the flu. I know some people are keen on hearing it, so I'll push through and post it now.

This is meant to be the companion piece to the alternate version of Cohen's 1967 album "Songs of Leonard Cohen," which I posted recently. That was Cohen's very first album, but he'd been building up to it for a long time, especially since he was 34 years old at the time, which was quite old for a first album in that era. As a result, he had lots of songs written, many more that could fit on a single album. So this contains the best versions of all the songs he recorded for his 1967 album but didn't get released on it.

Like my alternate version of "Songs of Leonard Cohen," the source for all of these is the official 1967 copyright extension release. I've explained some of this with other posts. But, in brief, in the European Union, for record companies to keep the legal rights to some performances, they need to be officially released within a 50-year time period. So this, it seems, was released in 2017. However, for some of these releases, they were only put on sale for an hour or two in the middle of the night on the Internet in some limited part of Europe. That's what happened here. Luckily, a few people grabbed it, but it never got publicly circulated beyond that. The same thing happened in 2020 with some Cohen 1970 music and in 2022 with some 1972 Cohen music. 

Recently, I happened to find the 1970 release. I put out some feelers, and some kind strangers sent me the 1967 and 1972 releases. The entire 1967 release is seven hours long, and contains every take of all the songs Cohen recorded in 1967 except for the ones that made the official album (or at least all the ones that the record company wanted to maintain the rights to). I've selected just one take of each one. 

In selecting the takes, I largely went with the recommendations of 21st Century Schizoid Cat, who found a copy of this even before I did and was one of the people to send it to me. So, a big thanks to him (and the other person who sent me the files). 21st Century Schizoid Cat also came up with this album title. I like it, because it's a clever word play on the title of Cohen's second album, "Songs from a Room" as well as the title of one of the songs here, "Store Room." Plus, there's also the implied word play that these songs sat in a store room archive all these years.

Pretty much all the songs here would eventually be released on other albums, in different forms. The second and third tracks, "Store Room" and "Blessed Is the Memory," would eventually come out as bonus tracks for the "Songs of Leonard Cohen" album. Tracks four and five, "Tonight Will Be Fine" and "You Know Who I Am," would appear on his 1969 album "Songs from a Room." Tracks six through ten are all from his 1971 album "Songs of Love and Hate." Track 11, an early version of "Take This Longing," is from his 1975 album "New Skin for the Old Ceremony."

That leaves just two songs. The first one, "I've Been Through All Your Clothes," is an early version of "You Know Who I Am," but it's so different that it has all different lyrics and a different title. I put that first to give some space between that one and a more typical version of "You Know Who I Am" at track five, since their melodies are basically the same. 

And the last song, an early version of "Bird on a Wire," is an official bonus track to the "Songs from a Room" album. Although that album was released in 1969, this version dates from 1968, when David Crosby of the Byrds tried to produce the album. That didn't work out; all the songs were rerecorded later. (There also is a bonus track version of "You Know Who I Am," but I didn't include that since this already has two versions of that song.) 

I suspect that some of the other songs here could have been recorded in those 1968 Crosby-produced sessions, but I'm not sure. If anyone knows, please let us know. If some 1968 alternate takes were thrown in with the 1967 copyright release, that might explain why there was no similar 1968 or 1969 copyright release. It's also possible though that such a release did happen, and everyone missed it. Furthermore, it's known that one song included with the 1970 release, "Priests," was recorded by Cohen in 1967. (Judy Collins released a version of it in 1967, and Richie Havens released a version in 1968.) However, he may well have given it another try around 1970. I put that on a 1970 stray tracks album I made, which you can find here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/11/leonard-cohen-news-from-authorities-non.html

But if I ever confirm that version was actually recorded in 1967, I'll move it to this album.

Most of the alternate versions of "Songs of Leonard Cohen" were pretty close lyrically to the officially released versions on that album. But these often went through more tinkering before being released on later albums. So you'll find more differences both musically and lyrically. This is reflected by the different song titles, which were either used on the 1967 copyright release, or were the titles of songs mentioned in books about Cohen. For instance, one such book mentioned a song called "Jewels in Your Shoulder." I figured out that had to be an early version of "Take This Longing," since it had very different lyrics that included the phrase "jewels in your shoulder."

I made a couple of important edits. "I've Been Through All Your Clothes" only included the first verse, the first chorus, and then all of the second verse except for the last line. That was a very unsatisfying ending for me. So I finished off the second verse with just the instrumental part of the last line from the first verse, and then I repeated the first verse where the second verse would have gone. Also, there was only one take of "Store Room," and it ended about halfway through the song. I assume the bonus track version that eventually got released was the second take. So I finished off the incomplete part of the song with that version.

If you're a big Leonard Cohen fan, as I am, this is a really interesting album. I hope you enjoy it. For the really die-hard fans, starting today, I will also be sharing the entire seven hours of this 1967 copyright release via SoulseekQT. So look for that there. And I soon will be posting some of the 1972 copyright release here, and all of it via SoulSeekQT. That one consists of eleven similar 1972 concerts, but with all of the banter between songs removed.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 I've Been Through All Your Clothes [Early Version of You Know Who I Am] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
02 Store Room [Takes 1 & 2] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
03 Blessed Is the Memory [Take 2] (Leonard Cohen)
04 Tonight Will Be Fine (Leonard Cohen)
05 You Know Who I Am [Take 2] (Leonard Cohen)
06 Avalanche [Take 3] (Leonard Cohen)
07 Dress Rehearsal Rag (Leonard Cohen)
08 Nancy Where Have You Been Sleeping [Early Version of Diamonds in the Mine] (Leonard Cohen)
09 Love Calls You by Your Name [Take 17] (Leonard Cohen)
10 Anyone Can See [Early Version of Sing Another Song, Boys]  [Take 4] (Leonard Cohen)
11 Jewels in Your Shoulder [Early Version of Take This Longing] (Leonard Cohen)
12 Like a Bird [Early Version of Bird on the Wire] (Leonard Cohen)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/VBhRRFXZ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/WOtjwqnXlAr2MTc/file

The cover is the only color photo of Cohen that I know for sure was from 1967. There was another person's head blocking some of the top back part of his head, but I used some Photoshop tricks to get rid of that. In February 2025, I upgraded the image with the Krea AI program.

Steve Winwood - Soulful Cover Songs, Volume 1 (1989-2005)

I find it interesting that most of my Steve Winwood albums in my music collection are albums I've put together instead of the official studio albums. I tend to find his studio albums too slick and predictable for my tastes. I like it better when he goes off the beaten track.

This album is a good example of that. These are all non-album track cover songs, and since the vast majority are soul songs, I'm calling this "Soulful Cover Songs." There's enough music for two volumes; this is the first.

There are only three officially released songs here. "When Something Is Wrong with My Baby" is from a Ruby Turner album. "I'm Ready" is from a Jools Holland album. "It's All Right" is from a tribute album to Curtis Mayfield.

The rest are all from concert bootlegs. However, I've edited them to get rid of the crowd noise. Generally speaking, the sound quality is excellent, with the vast majority of these coming from soundboard boots. One exception is the first track. That's from an audience boot, and sounds rougher. It was a tough call, but I decided it just barely made the cut of not being a bonus track.

The vast majority of these songs are well-known classics. Winwood nails them with his extraordinary voice. It's a real shame he's never put out an all-covers studio album, because he was born to sing this kind of music.

This album is an hour long, not including the bonus track.

01 Night Time Is the Right Time (Otis Grand Band & Steve Winwood)
02 When Something Is Wrong with My Baby (Ruby Turner & Steve Winwood)
03 It's All Right (Steve Winwood)
04 Hound Dog (Steve Winwood)
05 I'm Ready (Steve Winwood with Jools Holland)
06 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] (Stevie Winwood & the Funk Brothers)
07 Shotgun (Stevie Winwood & the Funk Brothers)
08 What's Going On (Stevie Winwood & the Funk Brothers)
09 Why Can’t We Live Together (Steve Winwood & Santana)
10 Hey Joe (Steve Winwood with Slash)
11 Crossroads (Steve Winwood)
12 Cissy Strut [Instrumental] (Steve Winwood)

Function at the Junction (Stevie Winwood & the Funk Brothers)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16162341/STVEWNWD1989-2005_SoullCovrSngsVlum1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is a publicity photo from 1988.

Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen - Alternate Version (1967) (NEW TO PUBLIC CIRCULATION)

Two months ago (as I write this in January 2024), I posted three albums that came from a 1970 Leonard Cohen copyright extension release. In brief, that's an extremely limited official release record companies sometimes to do retain the legal rights to music, based on a law in the European Union. After discovering all that great 1970 music that had never been in public circulation before, I found out that there were 1967 and 1972 copyright extension releases as well. I'm very happy to say that some kind souls gave me copies. This is the first of several albums I'm making to get this material to a wider audience.

For starters, I'm focusing on the 1967 copyright extension release. 1967 was the year Leonard Cohen put out his first album, "Songs of Leonard Cohen," which came out just a few days before the end of the year. It's an undisputed classic. For instance, Rolling Stone Magazine has ranked it Number 195 in its 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Because this was Cohen's first album, and he was a total novice when it came to recording music, there were many takes done of nearly all the songs. Plus, he brought in many more songs than could fit on a single album. The 1967 copyright extension release apparently includes all the different takes of each song in the 1967 recording sessions, other than the final versions that made the album. There are so many takes, in fact, that it would get too repetitive for all but the most die-hard Cohen fan. For instance, in the most extreme case, there are 22 takes of the song "Love Calls You by Your Name."

So, to make this release more palatable for most listeners, I've broken it into two albums. The first one is this one here. With the assistance of another Cohen fan, 21st Century Schitzoid Cat, I've picked the most interesting version of each song that made it onto "Songs of Leonard Cohen." Then I put them in the exact same order as the released album, giving you an interesting alternate version of that album. I've also made another album that consists of the best of the 1967 recorded songs that didn't make that album. I'll be posting that album right after this one.

Next, I need to explain that the recording of this album was difficult and contentious. Initially, legendary producer John Hammond was supposed to produce the album. He had signed Cohen, and understood his music. But Hammond got sick and had to drop out. He was replaced by producer John Simon. Here's a quote from the Wikipedia entry about the album:

By all accounts, Simon and Cohen clashed over instrumentation and mixing; Cohen wanted the album to have a sparse sound, while Simon felt the songs could benefit from arrangements that included strings and horns. Writing for Mojo in 2012, Sylvie Simmons recalls, "When Leonard heard the result, he was not happy; the orchestration on 'Suzanne' was overblown, while everything about 'Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye' felt too soft. Several tracks had too much bottom, and there were even drums; Leonard had clearly stipulated no drums." The singer and producer also quarreled over a slight stop in the middle of "So Long, Marianne" – a device Cohen felt interrupted the song. According to biographer Ira Nadel, although Cohen was able to make changes to the mix, some of Simon's additions "couldn't be removed from the four-track master tape."

---

So, while the 1967 copyright release didn't come with any notes to explain things (as far as I know), it's pretty clear that many of the songs were often done in different styles that fit more with Simon's vision of what he thought would be commercially successful. 

Often, this meant more instrumentation, while Cohen wanted things more stripped back. Sometimes, the difference between these versions and the final released versions are dramatic. For instance, the version of "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" here has a fast drumbeat through the whole song, while the released version has no drums at all. But rather than spell everything out, I'll let you be surprised by discovering the differences yourself. 

Often times, the first take was the most different. Note that the first five songs are all the first takes. Many of the takes are incomplete, since something like a flubbed lyric would cause the song to stop before it was finished. In case you're curious, here are the numbers of takes for each song:

Suzanne: 4
Master Song: 1
Winter Lady: 3
The Stranger Song: 2
Sisters of Mercy: 4
Come On, Marianne: 6
Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye: 12
Stories of the Street: 9
Teachers: 3
One of Us Cannot Be Wrong: 12

I made significant edits to five of the songs. One of the most drastic was to "Suzanne." The first take is very different from all the other takes, and the album version, so I wanted to use that one. However, it ended after the second verse, missing all of the second chorus as well as the third verse and chorus (with each chorus having different lyrics). I repeated the first chorus after the second verse. Even though they don't match lyrically, I felt that was better than having no chorus at all there. 

"Come On, Marianne" (the early name for "So Long, Marianne") also got a drastic edit. For both Takes Two and Four, there were entire verses that were not used on the album version, but some of them made it to Take Two, and others made it to Take Four. Since the backing music was basically exactly the same for both takes, I merged them together so one got all the different verses from both takes, without any repeats. The result is two minutes longer than the album version.

The edits of the other three songs were more minor. In all three cases, the songs ended abruptly, only a couple of seconds after the last words. For "Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye," I used Take Four for nearly all of the song. But Take Two had an instrumental ending that went on for about 15 seconds. So I patched that ending onto Take Four. With "Winter Lady" and "Teachers," I just repeated some instrumental bits to make the songs last five or ten seconds longer, giving them a less abrupt ending.

This album is 45 minutes long. By contrast, the official album is 41 minutes long. Most of the difference in the times is due to the two extra minutes added to "Come On, Marianne/ So Long, Marianne."

Note that I plan on posting the other 1967 album here tomorrow or thereabouts. After I do that, I will share the full 1967 copyright release, including every single take, via SoulseekQT, for the really die-hard fans. (It's seven hours long!) Then I will get to the 1972 copyright extension release.

01 Suzanne [Take 1] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
02 Master Song [Take 1] (Leonard Cohen)
03 Winter Lady [Take 1] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
04 The Stranger Song [Take 1] (Leonard Cohen)
05 Sisters of Mercy [Take 1] (Leonard Cohen)
06 Come On, Marianne [Early Version of So Long, Marianne] [Takes 2 & 3] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
07 Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye [Take 4 plus Take 2] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
08 Stories of the Street [Take 5] (Leonard Cohen)
09 Teachers [Take 2] [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
10 One of Us Cannot Be Wrong [Take 8] (Leonard Cohen)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16141676/LENRDCHN1967_SngsfLnrdChnAltrnte_atse.zip.html

The cover is very closely based on the official cover. However, I added the words "alternate version" at the bottom, and I used a different picture in the middle. This picture is from an August 1967 photo shoot that probably was meant for the album cover. It was a black and white photo, but I tinted it the same way as the version on the official album.

The Shins - First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN, 11-14-2003

I'm sure I have a bias against music from the 2000s, because it isn't the music I grew up with. So maybe it's just my bias, but a lot of the songwriting from recent decades doesn't appeal to me as much as those from the 1960s through 1990s. There are exceptions though, and the Shins are one of them. The band's first two albums, "Oh, Inverted World" in 2001, and "Chutes Too Narrow" in 2003, are particularly good. If you look at the crowd-sourced ratings at rateyourmusic,com, those two get very high ratings, and each succeeding album gets lower numbers.

Given all that, it's particularly nice to have a Shins bootleg concert recording from 2003, after those two albums were released, which is exactly what this is. The band has only put out one official live album, "Live at Third Man Records," in 2013. But that's a flawed record. For one thing, it's short for a live album, less than 40 minutes long. And for another, it doesn't include many of the band's greatest songs, such as "New Slang," which is an undisputed classic, in my opinion.

This is much better. It includes all the best songs from the first two albums, and the sound quality is excellent. Since the band isn't that popular, bootlegs are few and far between. So it's very fortunate that this is a soundboard boot, with no sound issues. The band's drummer was sick during the concert, which is something that got talked about some between songs, but the band soldiered on and put on a good show despite that.

There was only one minor snag: the last song, "Know Your Onion," was cut off before it ended. Not much was missed, less than ten seconds, but still, that's not good. So I found a version the band did live for a TV show and used that to patch in the missing music. Then I used some applause after songs that took place earlier in the show to give a reasonable amount of applause after that last song. All of that is why that song has "[Edit]" in the title.

If you're not familiar with the Shins, this is a very good way to get started.

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

01 Pressed in a Book (Shins)
02 talk (Shins)
03 Kissing the Lipless (Shins)
04 When I Goose-Step (Shins)
05 talk (Shins)
06 One by One All Day (Shins)
07 talk (Shins)
08 Turn a Square (Shins)
09 talk (Shins)
10 Pink Bullets (Shins)
11 talk (Shins)
12 Mine's Not a High Horse (Shins)
13 talk (Shins)
14 Girl Inform Me (Shins)
15 Saint Simon (Shins)
16 talk (Shins)
17 Girl on the Wing (Shins)
18 talk (Shins)
19 Eating Styes from Elephants Eyes (Shins)
20 talk (Shins)
21 So Says I (Shins)
22 talk (Shins)
23 Young Pilgrims (Shins)
24 talk (Shins)
25 Gone for Good (Shins)
26 talk (Shins)
27 Caring Is Creepy (Shins)
28 talk (Shins)
29 The Celibate Life (Shins)
30 New Slang (Shins)
31 talk (Shins)
32 Know Your Onion [Edit] (Shins)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16146278/TSHNS2003_FrstAvnueMnnplisMN__11-14-2003_atse.zip.html

James Mercer is the leader and songwriter for the band. So since I couldn't find a good photo of the whole band, I decided to use a photo of him. This is from a concert at the Wiltern in Los Angeles in June 2004.

Steve Winwood - Rough Hill Festival, Gloucestershire, Britain, 8-19-1978

I'm posting this unreleased Steve Winwood concert because it's unique. It doesn't have fantastic sound, though it's definitely listenable, and the performance is a bit rough. But Winwood began his solo career in 1977 with the album simply titled "Steve Winwood," yet this was his only solo concert until 1983. 

I don't know much about this concert. But I think it was for a charity connected to Nicole Tacot, a woman he married later that same year. Given that personal connection, it's understandable that he made this one exception to otherwise not during this time period. The location was out in the countryside, only a few miles from Winwood's house. No doubt, that location made it even more difficult for him to not take part.

I also am not totally sure, but I believe the concert was broadcast on the radio. That's why it sounds better than a typical audience bootleg. However, the sound quality could be better. I think I helped a bit by boosting the lead vocals on the songs where they were low in the mix.

Winwood played five out of the six songs on his 1977 album. Of those, "Let Me Make Something in Your Life," "Midland Maniac," and "Time Is Running Out" was only ever played in public in this concert. "Hold On" was only ever played one other time, and "Vacant Chair" was only additionally played a handful of times on his 1983 tour. Additionally, "Two-Way Stretch" is a Winwood original that only ever showed up as a B-side in 1981, and this was the only public performance of it. Plus, he ended the concert with a cover of the 1950s classic "Hound Dog," the only time he did that in concert. Also, he sang "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" in some other contexts, but this was the only time he did it in one of his solo concerts. Finally, remember Nicole Tacot, who I said he married later that year? She sang lead vocals on another cover, "Then He Kissed Me." Winwood never did that one in concert again either. She also sang backing vocals on the other songs.

So, like I said, this was a very unique concert. As if that isn't enough, some of the songs were done very differently than their studio versions, especially "Hold On" and "Vacant Chair."

This album is an hour and 28 minutes long.

01 I'm a Man (Steve Winwood)
02 Midland Maniac (Steve Winwood)
03 Hold On (Steve Winwood)
04 The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (Steve Winwood)
05 Walking in the Wind (Steve Winwood)
06 Let Me Make Something in Your Life (Steve Winwood)
07 Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out (Steve Winwood)
08 talk (Steve Winwood)
09 Then He Kissed Me (Steve Winwood & Nicole Tacot)
10 Two-Way Stretch (Steve Winwood)
11 Vacant Chair (Steve Winwood)
12 Time Is Running Out (Steve Winwood)
13 Gimme Some Lovin' (Steve Winwood)
14 talk (Steve Winwood)
15 Hound Dog (Steve Winwood)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16134994/STVEWNWD1978_RughHllFstivlGlcstrshreBitin__8-19-1978_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any photos from this concert, at least not any good ones. The cover photo shows Winwood in May 1977.

T. Rex - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1968-1969

I have a lot to post when it comes to T. Rex and the BBC - six albums in all. So it's time for another.

During the time period of this album, 1968 and 1969, T. Rex was actually known as Tyrannosaurus Rex. But I'm just using "T. Rex" to keep it consistent across all the albums. Also for this time period, the band was a duo consisting of Marc Bolan (who sang and wrote all the songs) and Steve Peregrin Took. 

Like the previous volume, everything here is sourced from the official box set "Marc Bolan at the BBC." Also like that volume, I sometimes edited the songs to remove BBC DJs talking over the music. However, for this album I seem to have not kept track of which songs those were.

Note that tracks 15, 16, and 17 are actually poems spoken by Bolan.

For this album, Bolan was still pursuing the same musical style as on Volume 1. That had a more limited appeal compared to his glam rock style that begins with Volume 3.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 Salamanda Palaganda (T. Rex)
02 Eastern Spell (T. Rex)
03 Wind Quartets (T. Rex)
04 The Friends (T. Rex)
05 Conesuala (T. Rex)
06 The Seal of Seasons (T. Rex)
07 Evenings of Damask (T. Rex)
08 The Travelling Tragition (T. Rex)
09 Pewter Suitor (T. Rex)
10 Chariots of Silk (T. Rex)
11 Once upon the Seas of Abyssinia (T. Rex)
12 Nijinsky Hind (T. Rex)
13 The Misty Coast of Albany (T. Rex)
14 Iscariot (T. Rex)
15 A Star of Youth [Poem] (T. Rex)
16 A Ship of Rhythm [Poem] (T. Rex)
17 The Winged Man with Eyes Downcast to the Moon [Poem] (T. Rex)
18 Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart (T. Rex)
19 Pavilions of Sun (T. Rex)
20 A Day Laye (T. Rex)
21 By the Light of the Magical Moon (T. Rex)
22 Wind Cheetah (T. Rex)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16129951/TREEX1968-1969_BBSessonsVlum2_atse.zip.html

The cover photo shows Bolan and Took. I'm not sure of the details of when and where it was taken.

Uht-oh! More Tom Petty Trouble

I'm worried something serious is happening to my blog today regarding copyright violations. Twice today, I received a copyright violation notice. I was puzzled at first, because I couldn't figure out what I did wrong. Then I realized the offending posts were Tom Petty albums where I had already removed the download links! It seems the Tom Petty legal people are really hardcore about their copyright issues.

So, just to be on the safe side, I had reverted ALL my Tom Petty albums to draft status, meaning they no longer are visible. I hope this takes care of the issue before I get into more trouble.

Could these takedown notices lead to the deletion of my blog as a whole?! I sure hope not. But I've made a back-up of all the content today, just to be sure. If this blog disappears, I'll recreate it elsewhere. Remember that I now have a YouTube channel as well:

(430) Paul ATSE (Albums That Should Exist) - YouTube

So if this blog does go poof, please check there to see what I'll be doing next. And at least some material will still be there on YouTube, knock on wood, and I'm adding more all the time. 

The Allman Brothers Band - Loan Me a Dime - Non-Album Tracks (1992-2000)

In recent days, I've been posting a bunch of Allman Brothers Band albums at my YouTube page (search for Albums That Should Exist there to find it), and that reminded me that I have more from that band to post here too. In particular, I've been posting a series of stray tracks albums that move forward chronologically through the band's entire history. Previously, I'd made it to the late 1980s. This album deals with the entire 1990s.

The Allman Brothers Band put out three studio albums in the 1990s, but I don't believe any of those have bonus tracks or the like. So most of the songs here were performed live. However, "Call It Stormy Monday" is from an unreleased in-person radio station performance. "No Life at All" is from a Floyd Miles album. And "Willie and Poor Boy" is from a solo album by band member Dickey Betts.

This band has released a lot of live albums, and it was bootlegged frequently. So I made sure everything has soundboard level quality, even if it's from a boot. The four unreleased songs are "Steady Rollin' Man," "Call It Stormy Monday," "Goin' Back to Daytona," and "Rave On."

Speaking of Dickey Betts, he was a key member of the band, singing and writing many of their best known songs. However, near the end of 2000, Betts was kicked out of the group due to personality clashes. So I made sure to end this right at that time. All the songs here contain Betts. But I plan on posting two more stray tracks albums from the years after Betts was gone.

The songs are mostly blues covers. "Loan Me a Dime" is a particularly inspired choice, because original band member Duane Allman played an epic guitar solo on a version of that song done for a Boz Scaggs album in 1969. All these years later, the rest of the Allman Brothers Band finally did a version, clearly inspired by the Boz Scaggs / Duane Allman version.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 Steady Rollin' Man (Allman Brothers Band)
02 Midnight Blues (Allman Brothers Band)
03 Call It Stormy Monday (Allman Brothers Band)
04 No Life at All (Allman Brothers Band & Floyd Miles)
05 The Same Thing (Allman Brothers Band)
06 Goin' Back to Daytona (Gregg Allman)
07 I'm Not Crying (Allman Brothers Band)
08 Willie and Poor Boy [Instrumental] (Dickey Betts)
09 Loan Me a Dime (Allman Brothers Band)
10 Rave On [Instrumental] (Allman Brothers Band)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16122736/TALLMNBB1992-2000_LonMeaDme_atse.zip.html

The cover photo was taken in Dinkelsbuhl, Germany, in June 1991. The line-up from left to right is: Marc Quinones, Jaimoe, Dicky Betts, Butch Trucks, Warren Haynes, Gregg Allman, and Allen Woody.

Chris Isaak - Beyond the Sun - Alternate Version (2011)

It seems that singer Chris Isaak was born in the wrong era. He managed to be a pretty big star in the 1990s, but due to his musical style, I'm sure he would have been a much bigger star if he'd been of the right age in the 1950s and 60s. In 2011, he finally did the obvious thing and released an album consisting entirely of cover versions of 1950s and 60s songs, called "Beyond the Sun." But while this album is pretty good, I'd like to think that I made it even better simply by making it shorter.

Let me explain a bit more. "Beyond the Sun" was first released as a relatively short album, just 35 minutes long. But later, a deluxe edition was released that more than doubled the album length. If you consider all the songs from this version, about half are covers of classic hits and the others are covers of lesser known songs. (There's even one original on the deluxe edition only, "My Baby Don't Love Me No More," that fits the style of the others.) In my opinion, most of those classic hits have been overplayed already. The world doesn't really need more versions of "Can't Help Falling in Love," "It's Now or Never," "I Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire," and the like. So I removed all the really well known songs, and it left me with an album's worth of songs. I think this is a more interesting listen for people like me who know those other songs backwards and forwards.

This album is 37 minutes long.

01 Dixie Fried (Chris Isaak)
02 How's the World Treating You (Chris Isaak)
03 Miss Pearl (Chris Isaak)
04 Live It Up (Chris Isaak)
05 So Long I'm Gone (Chris Isaak)
06 My Happiness (Chris Isaak)
07 Doin' the Best I Can (Chris Isaak)
08 Your True Love (Chris Isaak)
09 Lovely Loretta (Chris Isaak)
10 Everybody's in the Mood (Chris Isaak)
11 I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry [Over You] (Chris Isaak)
12 Doncha' Think It's Time (Chris Isaak)
13 My Baby Don't Love Me No More (Chris Isaak)
14 Bonnie B (Chris Isaak)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16122617/CHRSISK2011_ByndthSunAltrntVrsin_atse.zip.html

I got lucky with the cover art. Searching the Internet for the artist name and album name, I stumbled across this art done as a pretend poster, in the style of many 1950s posters. I had to crop some things to get the rectangular poster to fit into a square space, but every bit of this, including all the text, was in the original. I tried to figure out who did it, to give credit, but the website is originated from appeared to be defunct.

Bob Dylan - Rolling Thunder Rarities, Part 2 (1976)

Bob Dylan put on the celebrated "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour with some other famous musicians in two parts. The first part was mostly in November 1975. Then there was an extensive break and the second part took place in April and May 1976. So I used that clear division to make two albums of Dylan's Rolling Thunder rarities. The first part had all 1975 rarities and this one has all 1976 rarities.

Like Part 1, I've collected all the unusual songs here. Note that I did not include exceptionally good performances of frequently performed songs. Instead, I only included rare cover versions or originals where the arrangement and/or lyrics were dramatically changed. Part 1 mostly consists of covers, but this part mostly consists of drastically changed originals. Note that Dylan radically changed the lyrics to "If You See Her, Say Hello" for the version I posted in Part 1, and then radically changed them again for the version here.

Also like Part 1, this includes both studio outtakes (mostly from tour rehearsals) and live performances. It so happens that most of these songs are studio outtakes, except for the last four. They generally come from another set of rehearsals to get ready for the second leg of the tour.

The 1975 portion of this tour has been well represented on official albums, thanks to the album "The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue" and "Bob Dylan – The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings." The latter release consists of 14 CDs! By contrast, the only official release for the 1976 portion is the live album "Hard Rain." But all of that is taken from a single concert, and nothing here is from that. 

As a result, everything here is officially unreleased. However, the sound quality is generally very good to excellent, since most of this is from studio outtakes, plus soundboard concert bootlegs. Note that a bunch of songs have "[Edit]" in their titles, because I made big edits to those. In cases, like "Tangled Up in Blue," the rehearsal versions stopped and started again, and I merged the parts together to create one coherent version. In other cases, I boosted low vocals or edited out rambling bits that started or ended songs.

This album is an album and five minutes long.

01 The Water Is Wide (Bob Dylan with Eric Clapton & the Band)
02 The Ballad of Hollis Brown (Bob Dylan)
03 You Angel You [Edit] (Bob Dylan)
04 Isis (Bob Dylan)
05 Seven Days [Edit] (Bob Dylan)
06 Going Going Gone [Edit] (Bob Dylan)
07 I Threw It All Away (Bob Dylan)
08 Rita May [Edit] (Bob Dylan)
09 Tangled Up in Blue [Edit] (Bob Dylan)
10 If You See Her, Say Hello [1976 Lyrics Version] (Bob Dylan)
11 Railroad Boy (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
12 Deportee [Plane Wreck at Los Gatos] (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
13 Gotta Travel On [Edit] (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Roger McGuinn & Joan Baez)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16119714/BOBDYL1975_RllingThndrRritisPrt2_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is based on a concert poster from this tour. I made this one almost the same as the cover for Part 1, except the album title is different and the background color behind Dylan's head is different.

Lucinda Williams - Got No Home - Non-Album Tracks (2016-2017)

I continue to slowly move forward chronologically with stray tracks albums for Lucinda Williams. This one gets a little closer to the present day, but I currently have two more after this (as I write this at the start of 2024).

By chance, all the songs here are covers of classic songs. I think that makes this a particularly strong album.

Only four of the nine songs are officially released, and only two songs total were done in the studio. I hesitated to post this for a while (my last stray tracks album posting for her was six months ago) because I worried that the sound quality of some of the songs were subpar. But I also had the feeling that they could be improved with some effort, given all the recent advances in audio editing programs. 

So I finally got around to working on this, and I'm pretty pleased with the final results. In particular, some of the unreleased live songs had some annoying crowd noise, like people shouting "woo hoo" in the middle of songs, because these are generally sourced from audience bootlegs. But I was able to wipe most of that out. Now, in my opinion, these sound pretty close to soundboard level of quality.

Regarding the officially released songs, those are tracks 1, 2, 5, and 9. "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" and "Nobody's Fault but Mine" are from tribute albums. "Hickory Wind" is from an Emmylou Harris box set. "Masters of War" was released as the A-side to a single.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad (Lucinda Williams)
02 Hickory Wind (Lucinda Williams)
03 A Change Is Gonna Come (Lucinda Williams)
04 I Ain't Got No Home [Trump Version] (Lucinda Williams)
05 Nobody's Fault but Mine (Lucinda Williams)
06 Life during Wartime (Lucinda Williams)
07 Rebel Rebel (Lucinda Williams)
08 Southern Accents (Lucinda Williams)
09 Masters of War (Charles Lloyd & the Marvels with Lucinda Williams)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16113417/LCNDAWLLMS2016-2017_GtNoHme_atse.zip.html

I was getting a little tired of the same ol' same ol' picture of Lucinda Williams for the album cover. So I used a concert poster instead. As usual, I had to crop the rectangular shape to fit the square space. Otherwise, the only change I made was adding the album title at the bottom.

Joe Jackson - Radio Clyde, The Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, Britain, 8-8-1982

I'm still smarting over the fact that my post of Joe Jackson's "BBC Sessions, Volume 2" got banned here due to a copyright issue. There is a workaround if you look at that post, but still, it's not an ideal situation.

Then I stumbled across this 1982 bootleg. I've decided to post it as an alternate, since it's from the same tour. Actually, it's superior in the sense that the sound quality is just as good, but it's an hour and 34 minutes long, compared to 55 minutes for the BBC concert.

The reason this sounds as good is because it's also a radio broadcast. But instead of the BBC, it was broadcast on a Scottish station called Radio Clyde. That's fitting, since this was recorded in the Scottish city of Glasgow. I believe absolutely nothing from this concert has been officially released, so I assume the copyright police won't try to block it, like the other one.

There were only a couple of problems. At the end of the song "Cancer," a radio DJ spoke over the music for about ten seconds. In a way that was lucky, because it allowed me to identify the radio station source, since the bootleg didn't mention it. But I used the UVR5 audio editing program to wipe the DJ talking and keep the music. Also, the first second or two of "Breaking Us in Two" was missing. I used a bit of the BBC concert to patch that in. So that's why those two songs have "[Edit]" in their names.

By the way, the only song on "BBC Sessions, Volume 3" that isn't here is "Tuxedo Junction."

01 One to One (Joe Jackson)
02 On Your Radio (Joe Jackson)
03 Sunday Papers (Joe Jackson)
04 Look Sharp (Joe Jackson)
05 talk (Joe Jackson)
06 Cancer [Edit] (Joe Jackson)
07 talk (Joe Jackson)
08 Real Men (Joe Jackson)
09 talk (Joe Jackson)
10 Is She Really Going Out with Him (Joe Jackson)
11 Friday (Joe Jackson)
12 Breaking Us in Two [Edit] (Joe Jackson)
13 Fools in Love (Joe Jackson)
14 Another World (Joe Jackson)
15 Target (Joe Jackson)
16 T.V. Age (Joe Jackson)
17 It's Different for Girls (Joe Jackson)
18 Steppin' Out (Joe Jackson)
19 Beat Crazy (Joe Jackson)
20 One More Time (Joe Jackson)
21 A Slow Song (Joe Jackson)

https://www.imagenetz.de/fTeD4

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7dU9f4JP

second alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/NveD3lsNLZaGBi2/file 

This photo shows Jackson at a concert in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on October 1, 1982.

Mark Knopfler - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: 2004-2018

This is the next volume of Mark Knopfler performing for the BBC. This time, it consists of studio sessions.

Everything on this album is unreleased. But it's all top notch in terms of sound quality. Only one song, "Haul Away," was played in front of an audience. 

The first three songs are from a 2004 radio session. The next two are from a 2007 session, and then one song is from a 2009 session. The song after that, "Haul Away," is the one live one I just mentioned, from a BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards ceremony in 2016. The remaining songs are from three different sessions in 2018.

This album deals with a pretty large period in time - fourteen years. I must say I'm surprised Knopfler didn't do more BBC performances in those years, since it seems like an ideal way for him to promote his music. However, he did do one much longer session in 2007. That's not here because it's enough for an album of its own, which will be Volume 5. If anyone knows of anything I missed, please let me know.

This album is 52 minutes long.

01 Everybody Pays (Mark Knopfler)
02 Boom like That (Mark Knopfler)
03 Song for Sonny Liston (Mark Knopfler)
04 Let It All Go [Acoustic Version] (Mark Knopfler)
05 Secondary Waltz (Mark Knopfler)
06 Get Lucky (Mark Knopfler)
07 Haul Away (Mark Knopfler)
08 Waterbound (Mark Knopfler)
09 Romeo and Juliet (Mark Knopfler)
10 Good on You Son (Mark Knopfler)
11 The Boxer (Mark Knopfler)
12 Going Home [Theme From 'Local Hero'] [Instrumental] (Mark Knopfler)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16116458/MRKKNPF2004-2018_BBSessonsVlum4_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is a promo photo taken at Knopfler's house in London in January 2004.

Leonard Cohen - Columbia Records Radio Hour, The Complex, Los Angeles, CA, 4-18-1993

I have some interesting Leonard Cohen rarities I'll be posting in the very near future. But first, I'm posting this because I recently posted a Rosanne Cash concert recorded for the Columbia Records Radio Hour, and that reminded me that I also have this one. It definitely needs posting, because he was supporting one of his best albums, 1993's "The Future," and the sound quality is fantastic.

The reason this sounds so good is because it was professionally recorded and released... but only to radio stations. This was his first concert of his 1993 tour (and his first concert since 1988). So the idea was that radio stations could play select songs from it to drum up interest in the tour. The whole thing was also broadcast to over 100 radio stations, but having a record of it meant the sound quality was a little better than just recording it off the radio.

Also, since this concert predated all the others on the tour by about a week, Cohen was still rehearsing for the tour, so some of these songs have different arrangements than on the other dates from this tour. And while he didn't have any banter per se between songs, for multiple songs, he spoke some of the songs' lyrics before the music kicked in.

The recording from this concert is only 49 minutes long. But I found three more songs he did in Paris on that tour that have nearly as good sound quality, so I added them in as quasi-bonus tracks for the last three songs. I also patched in some applause after each of those songs from earlier songs so the applause better matched.

This album is an hour and seven minutes long. But, as mentioned above, the main concert in Los Angeles is only 49 minutes long.

01 talk (Leonard Cohen)
02 First We Take Manhattan (Leonard Cohen)
03 Ain't No Cure for Love (Leonard Cohen)
04 Coming Back to You (Leonard Cohen)
05 Dance Me to the End of Love (Leonard Cohen)
06 Democracy (Leonard Cohen)
07 Waiting for the Miracle (Leonard Cohen)
08 The Future (Leonard Cohen)
09 I'm You Man (Leonard Cohen)
10 Closing Time (Leonard Cohen)
11 I Can't Forget (Leonard Cohen)
12 Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16116246/LENRDCHN1993_ClumbiRecrdsRdioHurThCmplxLsAnglesCA__4-18-1993_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is most likely from the exact concert. I say "most likely" because the caption said it was recorded in Los Angeles in April 1993, and I believe this was the only concert he did in that city in that month.

Bob Dylan - Rolling Thunder Rarities, Part 1 (1975)

If you've followed by blog for a long time, you may have noticed that I've posted a ton of Bob Dylan albums from the start of his music career in the early 1960s until about 1975, and then there are only a couple of albums after that. That's not because I don't think he did good stuff after 1975; he has a lot of great music. The problem was there was a bunch of music I wanted to post from the later half of the 1970s, but I wasn't entirely sure how to do it. Part of the issue is that he did a lot of rare songs in concert, but there are almost no concert recordings from his 1978 tour with soundboard-level sound quality. But I've finally figured out what I want to do. So this is the first of several Dylan albums I plan to post relatively quickly (knock on wood).

One issue I struggled with is that there were lots of interesting songs Dylan did for his Rolling Thunder tours in 1975 and 1976, and they deserved more attention than the extensive official albums dealing with this, but they didn't exactly fit on the usual "stray tracks" albums I made. So I decided to make two albums just of Rolling Thunder rarities, one for the 1975 leg of the tour and the other for the 1976 leg. Needless to say, this is the first part. For both albums, I draw from the rehearsals for the tour as well as recordings of the concerts.

For this album, the vast majority of the songs come from the official album "The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings." The only exceptions are tracks 1, 9, and 17. 

The first track, "Abandoned Love," actually predates the Rolling Thunder tour by a little bit. It was the first and only time Dylan performed this song in concert, and it's an amazing version, especially since most of the lyrics are different than the studio version that was eventually released on the "Biograph" box set. Ramblin' Jack Elliott was playing a small club in New York City and Dylan joined him on stage, singing backing vocals on a couple of songs. But he also played this original song, which he probably wrote just days earlier. It's baffling to me that this live version has never been officially released. But I managed to improve the sound quality, mostly by using audio editing programs to wipe out the crowd noise that popped up from time to time during the song.

Speaking of alternate lyrics, Dylan made drastic changes to a bunch of his songs in the mid-1970s. There are three more examples here: "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You," "If You See Her, Say Hello," and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." In the case of "If You See Her, Say Hello," he made big changes even though the song had only been released earlier that same year.

Nine of the songs here are from rehearsals for the tour, and the other eight are concert recordings. Aside from the alternate lyrics versions I mentioned, the other songs are cover versions.

This album is 51 minutes long.

Note that while I was putting this together, I realized that three songs fit better on the stray tracks album I made for this time period, which I've called "Abandoned Love." For instance, the song "Gwenevere" came from the same tour rehearsals as many of the songs here, but it's actually a little-known Dylan original, so I figured it belonged there instead. You can find the link to that album here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/05/bob-dylan-abandoned-love-various-songs.html

The link to this album is further down below.

01 Abandoned Love [Live Alternate Lyrics Version] [Edit] (Bob Dylan)
02 Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You [1975 Lyrics Version] (Bob Dylan)
03 People Get Ready [Edit] (Bob Dylan)
04 Rake and Ramblin' Boy (Bob Dylan)
05 This Land Is Your Land (Bob Dylan)
06 If You See Her, Say Hello [1975 Lyrics Version] (Bob Dylan)
07 Easy and Slow (Bob Dylan)
08 Knockin' on Heaven's Door [1975 Lyrics Version] (Bob Dylan & Roger McGuinn)
09 The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Bob Dylan)
10 Wild Mountain Thyme (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
11 Dark as a Dungeon (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
12 The Water Is Wide (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)
13 Your Cheatin' Heart (Bob Dylan)
14 The Tracks of My Tears (Bob Dylan)
15 Jesse James (Bob Dylan)
16 Never Let Me Go (Bob Dylan & Joan Baez)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16116305/BOBDYL1975_RllingThndrRritisPrt1_atse.zip.html

The cover art comes from a Rolling Thunder tour concert poster. I made a lot of changes in Photoshop. For instance, I kept the same font style, but changed the wording.

Squeeze - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: Rock Hour, Oxford Polytechnic, Oxford, Britain, 5-15-1981

This is the third Squeeze BBC album. It's another concert, which was televised at the time. All the performances from it are officially unreleased.

To be honest, I wasn't going to post this at first. It turns out that the date for this is the exact same date Squeeze released their great album "East Side Story." However, there are only three songs here from that album: "Is That Love," "Heaven," and "Messed Around." Most of the best songs weren't included, such as their big hit "Tempted." I'm guessing that's because the band mostly wanted to play songs the audience was familiar with. "Is That Love" had been released as a single a couple of weeks prior to the release of the album, and it was a hit, so at least they might have known that one.

Volume 4 in this series is a 1982 concert with more of the "East Side Story" songs, so I figure this one isn't that necessary. That's why I wasn't going to post it. However, there was an annoying hum all through the concert and I was able to get rid of it using the Izotope 10 audio editing program. So I figured I'll post this anyway because it sounds much better than previous versions found on the Internet.

Squeeze had a limited time slow for the TV broadcast of this concert. So it seems they were careful to make the most of their time, saying only a few words at most before each song, and usually going straight into the next song. 

This album is 52 minutes long.

01 talk (Squeeze)
02 Take Me, I'm Yours (Squeeze)
03 Another Nail in My Heart (Squeeze)
04 Separate Beds (Squeeze)
05 talk (Squeeze)
06 Slightly Drunk (Squeeze)
07 Out of Touch (Squeeze)
08 I Think I'm Go Go (Squeeze)
09 Is That Love (Squeeze)
10 Heaven (Squeeze)
11 Pulling Mussels [From a Shell] (Squeeze)
12 Yap Yap Yap (Squeeze)
13 Slap and Tickle (Squeeze)
14 Cool for Cats (Squeeze)
15 Up the Junction (Squeeze)
16 Messed Around (Squeeze)
17 Goodbye Girl (Squeeze)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16116241/SQUZE1981_BBSessonsVlum3RckHourOxfrdPlytchncOxfrdBrtain__5-15-1981_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any good photos of the band in concert in 1981. So I made one by taking a screenshot of the official video for their song "Tempted."

Paul Weller - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: 1995-1996

Here's more of Paul Weller at the BBC. This time, it's an album of BBC studio sessions.

Virtually all the performances here were released on the box set "At the BBC." The only exception is "It’s a New Day Baby," which is unreleased. I'm not sure why that one was overlooked, because it definitely was done for a BBC radio show. The sound quality on that one is as good as the rest.

There are two versions of "Broken Stones" here. I've included two because the first one was done with a full band and the second one was done in acoustic style, so I figured they were both worthy. Generally speaking, most of the songs were done with a band, but there are some other acoustic versions as well.

This album is 51 minutes long.

UPDATE: On January 31, 2024, I updated the download file. The music stayed the same. But I noticed I had "Volume 2" instead of "Volume 5" on the cover. That's fixed now.

01 Broken Stones (Paul Weller)
02 Woodcutter's Son (Paul Weller)
03 My Whole World Is Falling Down (Paul Weller)
04 Time Passes (Paul Weller)
05 The Changingman (Paul Weller)
06 I Walk on Gilded Splinters (Paul Weller)
07 Reason to Believe (Paul Weller)
08 Broken Stones [Acoustic Version] (Paul Weller)
09 You Do Something to Me (Paul Weller)
10 It’s a New Day Baby (Paul Weller)
11 Porcelain Gods (Paul Weller)
12 Peacock Suit (Paul Weller)
13 All the Pictures on the Wall (Paul Weller)
14 Foot of the Mountain (Paul Weller)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16224805/PALWLLR1995-1996_BBSessonsVlum5_atse.zip.html

I don't know anything about the cover art except that it's "circa 1995."

Luka Bloom, David Byrne, Rosanne Cash & Lou Reed - In Their Own Words, The Bottom Line, New York City, 2-19-1993, Late Show

Happy new year, everyone. At first glance, this may look exactly like the last album I posted, but don't be deceived. Yes, the cover is almost exactly the same, but the photo is slightly different. And the title is almost exactly the same, but this is the late show and the other post is the early show. 

What's important is that the performance is totally different. Although the format and the artists are the same, the vast majority of the songs performed are different from the early show. Plus, there's a considerable amount of talking between songs, and all of that is different as well. 

I believe these are the songs that were played in both the early and late shows: "Tentative Decisions," "Ready for This World," "Busload of Faith," "The Wheel," and "I Need Love."

Like the early show, this is an unreleased concert. Also like the early show, it's either a soundboard or an audience boot that sounds better than most soundboards. I'm guessing it's an audience boot due to the fact that the audience noise was much louder than the music or talking on stage, which is typical of audience boots. But seriously, it sounds fantastic. And I fixed all the songs so the music and talking is much louder and the cheering is much quieter. 

Also, there were a few snags with the recording of the early show, such as sections that were missing and had to be filled in from a different source. But there were no such problems with the late show.  The recording was basically flawless.

The one slight disappointment with this concert is that it's shorter than the early show. This is two hours and 14 minutes long. By contrast, the early show is two hours and 47 minutes long. But a lot of that time difference is due to more talking in the early show. The music only is an hour and 16 minutes here, just ten minutes less than the early show.

Like I did with the early show, since there's so much talking - about an hour - I've made two versions of this album, one with the talking and one without. I think the interview sections are quite good and worth listening to at least once. But the music only version has more repeat listening value.

Here's the version with the music and the talking:

01 talk (Vin Scelsa)
02 talk - Luka Bloom Introduction (Vin Scelsa)
03 Mary Watches Everything (Luka Bloom)
04 talk - David Byrne Introduction (Vin Scelsa)
05 Tentative Decisions (David Byrne)
06 talk - Rosanne Cash Introduction (Vin Scelsa)
07 Seven Year Ache (Rosanne Cash)
08 talk - Lou Reed Introduction (Vin Scelsa)
09 I'm Waiting for the Man (Lou Reed)
10 talk - Luka Bloom Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Luka Bloom)
11 The Man Is Alive (Luka Bloom)
12 talk - David Byrne Q and A (Vin Scelsa & David Byrne)
13 Ready for This World (David Byrne)
14 talk - Rosanne Cash Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Rosanne Cash)
15 The Wheel (Rosanne Cash)
16 talk - Lou Reed Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
17 Smalltown (Lou Reed)
18 talk - Lou Reed Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
19 Images (Lou Reed)
20 talk - Luka Bloom Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Luka Bloom)
21 Fertile Rock (Luka Bloom)
22 talk - David Byrne Q and A (Vin Scelsa & David Byrne)
23 Something Ain’t Right (David Byrne)
24 talk - Rosanne Cash Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Rosanne Cash)
25 This World (Rosanne Cash)
26 talk - Lou Reed Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
27 Dirty Boulevard (Lou Reed)
28 talk - Luka Bloom Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Luka Bloom)
29 Bridge of Sorrow (Luka Bloom)
30 talk - David Byrne Q and A (Vin Scelsa & David Byrne)
31 [Nothing But] Flowers (David Byrne)
32 talk - Rosanne Cash Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Rosanne Cash)
33 Roses in the Fire (Rosanne Cash)
34 talk - Lou Reed Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
35 Busload of Faith (Lou Reed)
36 talk (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
37 I’ll Be Your Mirror (Lou Reed)
38 talk (Vin Scelsa & Luka Bloom)
39 I Need Love (Luka Bloom)
40 talk (Vin Scelsa & David Byrne)
41 Gypsy Woman [She’s Homeless] (David Byrne)
42 talk (Vin Scelsa & Rosanne Cash)
43 Wouldn't It Be Loverly (Rosanne Cash)
44 talk (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
45 The Tracks of My Tears (Lou Reed)
46 talk (Vin Scelsa)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1w4EEKvu

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/wQUFt8L1wTPgFb6/file

And here's the version with just the music:

01 Mary Watches Everything (Luka Bloom)
02 Tentative Decisions (David Byrne)
03 Seven Year Ache (Rosanne Cash)
04 I'm Waiting for the Man (Lou Reed)
05 The Man Is Alive (Luka Bloom)
06 Ready for This World (David Byrne)
07 The Wheel (Rosanne Cash)
08 Smalltown (Lou Reed)
09 Images (Lou Reed)
10 Fertile Rock (Luka Bloom)
11 Something Ain’t Right (David Byrne)
12 This World (Rosanne Cash)
13 Dirty Boulevard (Lou Reed)
14 Bridge of Sorrow (Luka Bloom)
15 [Nothing But] Flowers (David Byrne)
16 Roses in the Fire (Rosanne Cash)
17 Busload of Faith (Lou Reed)
18 I’ll Be Your Mirror (Lou Reed)
19 I Need Love (Luka Bloom)
20 Gypsy Woman [She’s Homeless] (David Byrne)
21 Wouldn't It Be Loverly (Rosanne Cash)
22 The Tracks of My Tears (Lou Reed)
23 talk (Vin Scelsa)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6dFe3eJV

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/fJkPOkFsozu9Yoa/file

As I mentioned above, the cover photo is almost the same, but different. Clearly, it was taken at almost the exact same time as the other photo. However, there are some differences, such as the way Luka Bloom's head is turned on the far right, or how David Byrne's head is turned on the far left. The other one is in color and this one was only in black and white. But I used the Palette program to colorize it. Then I did some further work in Photoshop to make sure the colors matched those of the other photo.