Def Leppard - BBC Radio 2 Live in the Park, Hylands Park, Chelmsford, Britain, 9-7-2025

Here's the last of the six albums that I'm posting from the 2025 BBC Radio 2 Live in the Park Festival. For the second and final night of the festival, the headliner was Def Leppard. As a result, their set was significantly longer than most of the other sets from the festival.

I already posted another Def Leppard concert, their VH-1 Storytellers performance in 1999, which you can find here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/09/def-leppard-vh-1-storytellers-vh-1.html

So I don't have a lot to say about them. Clearly, by 2025, their peak commercial era was far behind them. They haven't had a Gold studio album since 1999. But they've had the same line-up since 1992, and they show in this concert that they can still rock.

This music here is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 16 minutes. 

01 Rock, Rock [Till You Drop] (Def Leppard)
02 Rocket (Def Leppard)
03 talk (Def Leppard)
04 Let's Get Rocked (Def Leppard)
05 Foolin' (Def Leppard)
06 talk (Def Leppard)
07 Armageddon It (Def Leppard)
08 Animal (Def Leppard)
09 Love Bites (Def Leppard)
10 talk (Def Leppard)
11 Just like '73 (Def Leppard)
12 Bringin' on the Heartbreak (Def Leppard)
13 When Love and Hate Collide (Def Leppard)
14 talk (Def Leppard)
15 Rock of Ages (Def Leppard)
16 Photograph (Def Leppard)
17 Hysteria (Def Leppard)
18 Pour Some Sugar on Me (Def Leppard)
19 talk (Def Leppard) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zcJwPbMs

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/hr5uZI77jBuo08b/file

Frankly, by 2025, the band sounds a lot better than they look. So I figured this was a good occasion to show how large the crowd at the festival was. That's the band's lead singer Joe Elliott looking out over the crowd.

Suede - BBC Radio 2 Live in the Park, Hylands Park, Chelmsford, Britain, 9-7-2025

Here's another album from the 2025 BBC Radio 2 Live in the Park Festival. So far, I've posted four albums from September 6, 2025, the first day of the festival. I have two albums from the next day, and here's the first one, Suede.

Suede was one of the first and most important of the Britpop bands in the 1990s. They were considered one of the "big four" in that genre, along with Oasis, Blur, and Pulp. But for some reason, I've paid much attention to them until now. That's probably because I'm American, and they had less success in the U.S. than those other Britpop bands. For instance, they had three albums hit Number One in Britain, but none of their albums even made the Top 100 in the U.S.

Here's their Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more about them:

Suede (band) - Wikipedia 

As with all the albums from this festival, the music is unreleased and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 35 minutes long. 

01 Trash (Suede)
02 Dancing with the Europeans (Suede)
03 Animal Nitrate (Suede)
04 Trance State (Suede)
05 She Still Leads Me On (Suede)
06 talk (Suede)
07 Saturday Night (Suede)
08 Metal Mickey (Suede)
09 Beautiful Ones (Suede)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Fjxg7z4A

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Yqp3Dpr4X2Ciy3i/file

The cover photo of the band's lead singer Brett Anderson is from this exact concert. 

Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Bruce Springsteen, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-8-2013

A few days ago, I got a request to post the MusiCares tribute concert to Bruce Springsteen. I'm happy to do so, because I've been meaning to post more of these MusiCares concerts soon anyway. So here you are.

MusiCares has been holding annual tribute concerts since 1991. They cleverly have these concerts in Los Angeles, where the Grammy Awards take place, and hold them only a couple of days apart from the Grammies. That way, many musical stars are in town and able to participate. I've only posted one such album so far, the tribute to Brian Wilson in 2005. But I have seven more to post after this. Thus, today I've created a MusiCares Tribute label to help you find them all.

Bruce Springsteen is a very big name in music, and lots of other big names paid tribute to him here, including Elton John, Neil Young, and Sting. This was a particularly long concert as far as these MusiCares tributes go. It's easily the longest of all the ones I've found so far, which is fitting since Springsteen concerts are known for their length. Springsteen himself played five songs at the end, which again is more than usual. 

This comes from a DVD. It hasn't been released on any audio format. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is two hours and 16 minutes long. 

01 talk (Jon Stewart)
02 Adam Raised a Cain (Alabama Shakes)
03 Because the Night (Patti Smith)
04 Atlantic City (Natalie Maines, Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite)
05 American Land (Ken Casey)
06 talk (Jon Stewart)
07 My City of Ruins (Mavis Staples & Zac Brown)
08 talk (Jon Stewart)
09 I'm on Fire (Mumford & Sons)
10 American Skin [41 Shots] (Jackson Browne & Tom Morello)
11 My Hometown (Emmylou Harris)
12 One Step Up (Kenny Chesney)
13 talk (Jon Stewart)
14 Streets of Philadelphia (Elton John & Raphael Saadiq)
15 Hungry Heart (Juanes)
16 Tougher than the Rest (Tim McGraw & Faith Hill)
17 The Ghost of Tom Joad (Tom Morello & Jim James)
18 talk (Jon Stewart)
19 Dancing in the Dark (John Legend)
20 Lonesome Day (Sting)
21 Born in the U.S.A. (Neil Young)
22 talk (Jon Stewart & Bruce Springsteen)
23 We Take Care of Our Own (Bruce Springsteen)
24 Death to My Hometown (Bruce Springsteen)
25 Thunder Road (Bruce Springsteen)
26 Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen)
27 Glory Days (Bruce Springsteen)
28 talk (Bruce Springsteen)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fXM5GV8j

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/B96M5E8MDQxu5O4/file

For the cover, I wanted a photo of Springsteen from this exact concert. But of the photos I saw, he was generally alone or with just one other person nearby, so I went with a group photo from this concert instead. From right to left: Zac Brown, Emmylou Harris, Ben Harper, Jackson Browne and Patti Scialfa. There were some distracting things in the background, so I used Photoshop to remove them.

Bryan Adams - BBC Radio 2 Live in the Park, Hylands Park, Chelmsford, Britain, 9-6-2025

Here's another album from the 2025 BBC Radio 2 Live in the Park Festival that took place earlier this month. (I'm writing this in September 2025.) This is the set by Canadian rocker Bryan Adams.

The festival mainly took place on September 6th and 7th, 2026. I've previously posted three sets from the 6th. Adams was the headliner for that day, so his set was twice as long as the others I've posted. After this, I'll post the sets from the 7th.

Adams has been extremely successful for a very long time. He's sold close to 100 million records worldwide. He had many hit albums from the early 1980s until the late 2000s, though his sales have slowed a lot since then. His most recent album, "Roll with the Punches," was released just a week prior to this festival. He played three songs from it: "Roll with the Punches," "Make Up Your Mind," and "Never Ever Let You Go."

Other than those, he generally focused on his earlier hits. He kept banter between songs to a minimum, squeezing in a lot of songs for the time he was allotted. He's 65 years old at the time of this concert, but he still sounds energetic and good.

This album is an hour and 16 minutes.

01 Kick Ass (Bryan Adams)
02 Run to You (Bryan Adams)
03 Somebody (Bryan Adams)
04 Roll with the Punches (Bryan Adams)
05 talk (Bryan Adams)
06 18 til I Die (Bryan Adams)
07 talk (Bryan Adams)
08 Shine a Light (Bryan Adams)
09 Heaven (Bryan Adams)
10 talk (Bryan Adams)
11 Make Up Your Mind (Bryan Adams)
12 talk (Bryan Adams)
13 You Belong to Me [False Start] (Bryan Adams)
14 You Belong to Me - Blue Suede Shoes (Bryan Adams)
15 talk (Bryan Adams)
16 When You're Gone (Bryan Adams with Melanie C)
17 The Only Thing that Looks Good on Me Is You (Bryan Adams)
18 Never Ever Let You Go (Bryan Adams)
19 [Everything I Do] I Do It for You (Bryan Adams)
20 Back to You (Bryan Adams)
21 So Happy It Hurts (Bryan Adams)
22 Cuts like a Knife (Bryan Adams)
23 Summer of '69 (Bryan Adams)
24 talk (Bryan Adams)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GBa6n6Pj

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/0yLdirePNuDCVvr/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Stereophonics - BBC Radio 2 Live in the Park, Hylands Park, Chelmsford, Britain, 9-6-2025

Here's another album from the 2025 BBC Radio 2 Live in the Park Festival. This is the set by the British band Stereophonics.

I have to say Stereophonics haven't really been on my radar screen until now. Maybe that's because I'm an American, and they are very big in Britain but not the U.S. Nine of their albums have hit Number One in Britain, and they've had lots of hit singles there too, but not even a single hit single in the U.S. 

Listening to this album, I thought it was okay, but I wouldn't be posting this had it not been for them doing well in the poll I posted about this festival. Maybe I haven't listened to their music enough yet.

Note this album is pretty short. I think it's the shortest out of all the albums I'm posting from this festival. But it seems to be complete.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. This album is 33 minutes long. 

01 Vegas Two Times (Stereophonics)
02 I Wanna Get Lost with You (Stereophonics)
03 talk (Stereophonics)
04 Have a Nice Day (Stereophonics)
05 talk (Stereophonics)
06 There's Always Gonna Be Something (Stereophonics)
07 Maybe Tomorrow (Stereophonics)
08 Dakota (Stereophonics)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ADaxDCSy

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/TwRR6POO61O0Gq5/file

The cover photo the band's lead singer Kelly Jones is from this exact concert. 

Belinda Carlisle - BBC Radio 2 Live in the Park, Hylands Park, Chelmsford, Britain, 9-6-2025

Here's more from the poll results for the BBC Radio 2 Live in the Park Festival from earlier this month (writing this in September 2025). This is a set by Belinda Carlisle, former lead singer of the Go-Go's.

While I think Carlisle is a good singer and I like a lot of her songs, I'm bummed she didn't sing even one song by the Go-Go's. Not even "We Got the Beat?" Really? She had a lot of success with a solo career in the late 1980s and 1990s, and most of the songs come from that. Curiously, she released a new album just a couple of weeks prior to this concert, "Once Upon a Time in California," and she didn't play a single song from it. It's a covers albums of famous songs, so I think those songs would have gone over reasonably well with the crowd. Perhaps she felt limited by the time, since this concert is pretty short, due to there being lots of musical acts getting squeezed into the festival.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 43 minutes long. 

01 [We Want] The Same Thing (Belinda Carlisle)
02 talk (Belinda Carlisle)
03 Summer Rain (Belinda Carlisle)
04 talk (Belinda Carlisle)
05 Big, Big Love (Belinda Carlisle)
06 talk (Belinda Carlisle)
07 I Get Weak (Belinda Carlisle)
08 Circles in the Sand (Belinda Carlisle)
09 Big Scary Animal (Belinda Carlisle)
10 Live Your Life Be Free (Belinda Carlisle)
11 Leave a Light On (Belinda Carlisle)
12 Heaven Is a Place on Earth (Belinda Carlisle)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uVyb3KxB

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/R6pfRWgubak9to3/file 

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Maria Muldaur - King Biscuit Flower Hour, Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA, 12-22-1974

I have to admit I don't know much about Maria Muldaur and her music beyond her one hit, "Midnight at the Oasis," which reached the U.S. Top Ten in 1973. But I stumbled across this concert, and I thought it was intriguing because in 1974 she was performing mostly swing songs from decades earlier with a jazz band. I gave it a listen, and I liked it enough to post it. 

One album I really enjoy is "Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive," in which Joe Jackson did a kind of tribute album to jump blues from decades earlier. This is a similar sort of tribute to music that was way out of style in the early 1970s. What's even more interesting is that there isn't much overlap with her studio albums. I checked the two albums she released at the time of this concert. From her first album, "Maria Muldaur," released in 1973, she played two songs: "Any Old Time" and "Don't You Feel My Leg (Don't You Make Me High)." And from 1974's "Waitress in a Donut Shop," she played three songs: "Squeeze Me," "I'm a Woman," and "It Ain't the Meat (It's the Motion)." Also, there are no songs from the album she'd release in 1975. So about half of the songs here were not put on her albums.

It seems this concert  was not part of her usual tour at the time with her usual backing musicians. Instead, it was one of only a handful where she performed with the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars, which led to the different set list. Benny Carter had a very respected and long career as a composer, musician and bandleader. In fact, his career was so long that he first recorded in the 1920s, and ended up recording in eight different decades! (He died in 2003 at the age of 95.)

I don't know if or when I'm going to post more Maria Muldaur albums. "Midnight at the Oasis" wasn't included in this concert, though I don't know if this recording is incomplete or she just chose not to play it. But since I associate that song so strongly with her, and it was a hit the year before this concert, I stuck a live version of it at the end as a quasi bonus track. It's from a concert at Ebbets Field, Denver, Colorado, on January 30, 1974.

Everything here is unreleased, and sounds great, including the song at the end from the other source. 

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 talk (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
02 Squeeze Me (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
03 talk (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
04 Any Old Time (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
05 talk (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
06 Ain't I Good to You (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
07 talk (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
08 Sweetheart (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
09 talk (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
10 Doozy [Instrumental] (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
11 It Don't Mean a Thing [If It Ain't Got That Swing] (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
12 talk (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
13 Lover Man [Oh, Where Can You Be] (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
14 talk (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
15 Walking One and Only (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
16 talk (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
17 Don't You Get Me High [Don't You Feel My Leg] (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
18 talk (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
19 I'm a Woman (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
20 talk (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
21 It Ain't the Meat [It's the Motion] (Maria Muldaur & the Benny Carter Jazz All-Stars)
22 Midnight at the Oasis (Maria Muldaur)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Lh9xtDcC

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/6X1fS1wLxMgFHVy/file

The cover photo is from a concert in Montreux, Switzerland, on July 20, 1975. I used the Krea AI program to clean it up and sharpen it a bit.

James Taylor - Benefit for Gerry Studds, Cape Cod Coliseum, South Yarmouth, MA, 8-30-1975

Here's a great concert from James Taylor that seems to be surprisingly little known. What makes it stand out is that it was a solo acoustic concert in 1975, and he almost never performed in that mode after 1971, until decades later. It sounds much like Taylor playing to a small group of friends on his front porch (even though the venue actually held about 5,000 people).

This was a benefit concert for Gerry Studds, a Democrat, who was in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 to 1997. The concert took place a couple of months before the next election for Studds.

This actually consisted of two concerts. First, Taylor performed for about an hour, with a break halfway through. Then Studds gave a speech. Then Taylor performed for another hour, with another halfway break. I assume there were different crowds for the two sets, because Taylor played almost the exact same songs in the same order for both. This recording is based on the late show. There were only two songs exclusively performed in the early show: "Walking Man" and "Rainy Day Man." I put those at the start. Then the late show follows, in full. However, he sometimes made comments between songs in the early show that were different from comments he made in the late show. So I added those in as well. That means this is kind of a mix of both shows, due to some early show banter sprinkled in to the late show. But hopefully from a listener's point of view, it should sound like one seamless show.

The concert took place a few months after the release of Taylor's hit album "Gorilla." He played a couple of songs from the album, "Gorilla" and "Lighthouse," as a well as a B-side, "I Can Dream of You," written by his brother Livingston Taylor. But surprisingly, he didn't play either of the two big hits from the album, "Mexico" and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)." I strongly suspect that for some songs here, this is the only recording of them being performed in solo acoustic mode, but I don't know for sure. 

This concert is unreleased. There were no sound problems. However, I used some noise reduction on the banter to remove some hiss and background noise. But I didn't use any of that for the actual music. 

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long. 

01 talk (James Taylor)
02 Walking Man (James Taylor)
03 Rainy Day Man (James Taylor)
04 You Can Close Your Eyes (James Taylor)
05 talk (James Taylor)
06 Sunny Skies (James Taylor)
07 talk (James Taylor)
08 One Man Parade (James Taylor)
09 Brighten Your Night with My Day (James Taylor)
10 talk (James Taylor)
11 Things Go Better with Coke (James Taylor)
12 talk (James Taylor)
13 I Can Dream of You (James Taylor)
14 talk (James Taylor)
15 Anywhere like Heaven (James Taylor)
16 talk (James Taylor)
17 Mud Slide Slim (James Taylor)
18 talk (James Taylor)
19 Baby, It's Cold Outside (James Taylor)
20 talk (James Taylor)
21 talk (James Taylor)
22 Hello Old Friend (James Taylor)
23 talk (James Taylor)
24 Riding on a Railroad (James Taylor)
25 talk (James Taylor)
26 Blossom (James Taylor)
27 Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight (James Taylor)
28 Gorilla (James Taylor)
29 Circle Round the Sun (James Taylor)
30 Lighthouse (James Taylor)
31 talk (James Taylor)
32 Migration (James Taylor)
33 Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
34 talk (James Taylor)
35 Steamroller (James Taylor)
36 talk (James Taylor)
37 Sweet Baby James (James Taylor) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/pXmTf5wb 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/Aqi04KxiJDsvnLZ/file

Listening to the banter between songs, I heard Taylor complain about the great heat. So that means this concert must have taken place in the middle of the day. Based on that, I wanted to use a photo of him outside. I couldn't find any photos of him in concert outside in the mid-1970s. I ended up using a screenshot taken from a movie he starred in in 1971 called "Two Lane Blacktop." The hair blowing in the wind on the right side was cropped off in the original photo, but I used the AI powers of Photoshop to extend the image on that side.

Kid Creole & the Coconuts - BBC Radio 2 Live in the Park, Hylands Park, Chelmsford, Britain, 9-6-2025

I promised that I would post the musical acts that got the most votes in a poll for the BBC Radio in the Park Festival, which was held on September 6th and 7th, 2025. Here's the first result. I'm starting by posting the set from my favorite musical act from the festival, Kid Creole and the Coconuts.

The band's peak years were in the 1980s, which was a long time ago. But listening to this, you'd never know that so many years have passed. It was a solid show, but a short one. That's because most musical acts in the festival had sets under 40 minutes, except for the big headliners.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 35 minutes long. 

01 Caroline Was a Drop-Out (Kid Creole & the Coconuts)
02 I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby (Kid Creole & the Coconuts)
03 Stool Pigeon (Kid Creole & the Coconuts)
04 Trombone - Stool Pigeon (Kid Creole & the Coconuts)
05 talk (Kid Creole & the Coconuts)
06 Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy (Kid Creole & the Coconuts)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/DNnWs6iM

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Of8DKuXj5SlLcTo/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It show's the band's lead singer August Darnell with the three women making up the Coconuts.

James Brown - Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA, 9-16-1966

Here's a James Brown concert from 1966.

I usually don't post much live music from Brown, because there's been a large number of official live albums released already. However, it's very rare to have a recording from this far back with this pristine sound quality, even though it's a bootleg. Also, I don't think there have been any official live releases from 1966. And this recording seems to have stayed surprisingly obscure, so hopefully this post will help spread it around.

At the time of this release, Brown's most recent single hit was "Money Won't Change You." That's probably why it was emphasized, getting played once at the start and then again at the end. " It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World" was also emphasized, making up most of a 14-minute-long medley, as that was a big hit earlier in the year.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 talk by emcee (James Brown)
02 The King [Instrumental] (James Brown)
03 Money Won't Change You (James Brown)
04 Try Me (James Brown)
05 Papa's Got a Brand New Bag (James Brown)
06 Prisoner of Love (James Brown)
07 Maybe the Last Time (James Brown)
08 I Got You [I Feel Good] (James Brown)
09 talk (James Brown)
10 It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World - Lost Someone (James Brown)
11 When a Man Loves a Woman - It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World [Reprise] (James Brown)
12 Please, Please, Please (James Brown)
13 Money Won't Change You [Reprise] (James Brown)
14 talk by emcee (James Brown)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oR9hd5be

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/9aejtTgDWUBJ6mu/file

The cover photo shows Brown on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1966. I used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality. For the name at the top, I used a concert poster from the 1960s.

Blondie - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 12-10-2015

I just posted a Blondie concert album yesterday, but I'm going to post this one here already before I forget about it. This was Blondie's turn on the excellent TV show "PBS Soundstage."

It's rather unfortunate it took so long before Blondie appeared on this show, especially since the show first began the same year the band was formed, way back in 1974. But at least the band has stayed pretty active coming up with new material. They released three new studio albums in the 2010s. The second one, "Ghosts of Download," was released a year prior to this concert. Although it was a sign of their declining sales that they felt the need to bundle it with a greatest his collection.

This album is a mix of old and new. I count seven songs from their recent albums, compared to seven of their classic hits.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long. 

01 Dreaming (Blondie)
02 One Way or Another (Blondie)
03 Rave (Blondie)
04 Hanging on the Telephone (Blondie)
05 talk (Blondie)
06 Gravity (Blondie)
07 talk (Blondie)
08 Mile High (Blondie)
09 Call Me (Blondie)
10 Mother (Blondie)
11 Euphoria (Blondie)
12 A Rose by Any Name (Blondie)
13 talk (Blondie)
14 My Monster (Blondie)
15 Rapture (Blondie)
16 The Tide Is High - Groove Is in the Heart (Blondie)
17 talk (Blondie)
18 Heart of Glass (Blondie) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/F5FkPyze

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/wlsGDqIuQb5HhA1/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Various Artists - A Grammy Salute to the Beach Boys, Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, CA, 2-8-2023

A few days ago, a commenter suggested I should post this concert. It so happened that I already had it all ready to go (except for making the cover), which is the case for countless hundreds, if not thousands of albums. But since it was requested, I put it at the top of the pile, and here it is. It's a Grammy salute to the Beach Boys from 2023.

This tribute was shown on prime time television, so that meant it was faced paced, and with lots of guest stars. Famous actor Tom Hanks started things off with a spoken tribute, and actors John Stamos and Drew Carey also had turns to speak. 

I found a video of this concert, converted it to audio, and then broke it into mp3s. So I don't think it's circulated as an audio bootleg before. The music is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent.

This album is an hour and eleven minutes long. 

01 talk (Tom Hanks)
02 Help Me Rhonda (Little Big Town)
03 talk (John Stamos)
04 California Girls (Weezer)
05 talk (Jimmy Jam)
06 Sail On, Sailor (John Legend)
07 Barbara Ann (Hanson)
08 In My Room (Brandi Carlile)
09 Wouldn't It Be Nice (Charlie Puth)
10 Don't Worry Baby (Michael McDonald & Take 6)
11 talk (John Legend)
12 The Warmth of the Sun (Norah Jones)
13 Do It Again (Foster the People)
14 Surfer Girl (Lady A)
15 talk (Drew Carey)
16 Do You Wanna Dance (Fall Out Boy)
17 talk (emcee)
18 Sloop John B (Beck)
19 Caroline, No (LeAnn Rimes)
20 talk (Mumford & Sons)
21 I Know There's an Answer (Mumford & Sons)
22 Darlin' (Andy Grammer)
23 talk (Norah Jones)
24 You Still Believe in Me (St. Vincent)
25 I Get Around (My Morning Jacket)
26 talk (LeAnn Rimes)
27 Heroes and Villains (Pentatonix)
28 talk (John Stamos)
29 Surfin' U.S.A. - Fun, Fun, Fun (Luke Spiller & Taylor Momsen)
30 Good Vibrations (Beck & Jim James)
31 talk (Brandi Carlile & John Legend)
32 God Only Knows (Brandi Carlile & John Legend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/BvP9j4sK

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/I8sT7w5JNg2CT8v/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. It shows Brandi Carlile singing to John Legend, who has his back to the camera.

Poll Results

A few days ago, I made a poll that asked you which musical acts you'd like to see me post from the BBC Radio 2 in the Park Festival that took place on September 6th and 7th, 2025. I'm closing that poll now. Here are the results: 

Bryan Adams                            XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Stereophonics                           XXXXXXXXXXX
Kid Creole and the Coconuts   XXXXXXXXXXX
Belinda Carlisle                        XXXXXXXXXX
Def Leppard                              XXXXXXXXX
Suede                                        XXXXXXXX
David Gray                               XXXX
Sophie Ellis‐Bextor                  XXX    
Ella Henderson                         XX
Jessie J                                      XX
Marti Pellow                             X
Ronan Keating                          X
Louise                                       X
Anastacia                                  X
Soul II Soul                
Olly Murs                
Gary Davies                

I see a clear demand for the first six acts, so those are the ones I'll post. I already have most of those ready, so look forward to those in the next few days. Thanks for participating. 

Marvin Gaye - The Midnight Special, Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta, GA, 9-6-1974

Here's an unreleased concert from the soul great Marvin Gaye, from 1974.

In 1974, Gaye went on tour for the first time since 1968. That resulted in the live album "Marvin Gaye Live!" which was released shortly before this concert. This comes from "The Midnight Special" TV show. An entire episode was devoted just to this concert, without any other acts, which was unusual for the show. Even so, I think only parts of this were shown, and the full version has only emerged as a bootleg in recent years. 

The original file was well over an hour long, but I cut it down. The reason for the cutting is that there were some extra parts added that weren't from the concert. The main ones were interview segments between Gaye and his parents. I separated those bits out and strung them together as the bonus track. It makes strange listening to hear Gaye talk with his father for some of it, in light of the fact that his father would end up murdering him in 1984 after Gaye tried to intervene in a fight between his parents. (His father's first degree murder change was later reduced to manslaughter after it emerged he had a brain tumor that may have affected his behavior.)

The set list between this concert and the one for "Marvin Gaye Live!" is very similar. Gaye, unfortunately, didn't change his set list very much. Even the new few tours would largely have the same set list as this one. But this has two extra songs not on the official live album: "Come Get to This" and "Keep Gettin' It On." And even removing those two songs from the count, the rest of the album is still several minutes longer than the official album, because some of these versions are longer. Also, the song order is somewhat different. 

By the way, "Keep Gettin' It On" has "[Edit]" because some of the interview talk overlapped some of the song. I got rid of the overlap with the use of the MVSEP audio editing program.

Tracks 8 through 11 are a medley of older hits. On the official live album, it's called the "Fossils Medley."

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is pretty good, but not great.

This album is 54 minutes long, not including the interview bonus track. 

01 Introduction (Marvin Gaye)
02 Overture [Instrumental] (Marvin Gaye)
03 Trouble Man (Marvin Gaye)
04 Inner City Blues [Make Me Wanna Holler] (Marvin Gaye)
05 talk (Marvin Gaye)
06 Come Get to This (Marvin Gaye)
07 Keep Gettin' It On [Edit] (Marvin Gaye)
08 I'll Be Doggone - Try It Baby (Marvin Gaye)
09 Can I Get a Witness - You're a Wonderful One (Marvin Gaye)
10 Stubborn Kind of Fellow (Marvin Gaye)
11 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] (Marvin Gaye)
12 Distant Lover (Marvin Gaye)
13 talk (Marvin Gaye)
14 Let's Get It On (Marvin Gaye)
15 Jan (Marvin Gaye)
16 What's Going On (Marvin Gaye)

interview (Marvin Gaye) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Fma563hs

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/E1rvpafH4PI5Rse/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Melissa Manchester - Live at the Record Plant, Record Plant, Sausalito, CA, 2-26-1975

Here's a concert by singer-songwriter Melissa Manchester. She had quite a few hits in the 1970s and 80s. But this concert was recorded in 1975, after she had released just two studio albums and hadn't had any hits yet. I'm not a big fan of her music, but I've noticed there are almost no concert recordings from her, so this will hopefully fix that a little bit.

I just posted that I'm making a new concerted effort to post more albums from the WLIR Ultrasonic concert series. As if I don't have enough on my plate in terms of good music to post at this blog already, I've decided to make another concerted effort to post more albums from this radio show as well, called "Live at the Record Plant." It was a frequent concert series done by the San Francisco Bay Area radio station KSAN, and went from 1973 to 1978. It turns out I've posted two albums from it already, one by Bonnie Raitt in 1973 and one by Fleetwood Mac in 1974. I've made a new label called "Record Plant" to help you find others in this series. So far, this is only the third album from the series, but I've discovered about 60 more! So it'll be a long time before I manage to post all of those.

Getting back to Manchester, this concert caught her right at the brink of stardom. She had co-written most of her songs on her early albums with Carole Bayer Sager, who was a talented hit-making songwriter. One song they wrote together, "Midnight Blue," was performed in this concert. When it would be released as a single a couple of months later, it would reach Number Six on the U.S. singles chart. 

Note that one song here, "Newton's Ego," is an instrumental mainly performed by James Newton Howard, a member of Manchester's band at the time. He was just a lowly session musician then, but he would go on to compose scores for over a 100 movies, earning a Grammy Award and Emmy Award along the way.

This bootleg recording is very rare. I streamed it through my computer and then broke it up into mp3 files. 

This album is 56 minutes long.

01 Bright Eyes (Melissa Manchester)
02 Midnight Blue (Melissa Manchester)
03 Party Music (Melissa Manchester)
04 talk (Melissa Manchester)
05 This Lady's Not Home Today (Melissa Manchester)
06 talk (Melissa Manchester)
07 Stevie's Wonder (Melissa Manchester)
08 talk (Melissa Manchester)
09 Newton's Ego [Instrumental] (James Newton Howard with Melissa Manchester)
10 We've Got Time (Melissa Manchester)
11 Easy (Melissa Manchester)
12 Just Too Many People (Melissa Manchester)
13 talk (Melissa Manchester)
14 Love Havin' You Around (Melissa Manchester)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/8B2ZYUda

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/9e1ZBYzG4Q8o6JF/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It was blurry and low-res. I used the Krea AI program to improve it, but it's still rather blurry.

Bonnie Raitt & John Hammond Jr. with Lowell George - WLIR Ultrasonic Concert Series, Ultrasonic Recording Studios, Hempstead, NY, 10-17-1972

Here's a very good acoustic concert split between sets performed by Bonnie Raitt and John Hammond Jr., in 1972. But also, Lowell George, the lead guitarist for Little Feat, played on most of Raitt's songs and a couple of those by Hammond Jr., and even sang one song of his own.

This concert was part of a series of concerts hosted by the radio station WLIR on Long Island, in New York. From 1971 to 1975, they usually broadcast a live show from their Ultrasonic Recording Studios every Tuesday night. They had a really great selection of musical acts. And while these concerts took place in front of a studio audience, it was very small. I came across an article saying that no more than 60 people could fit in the small venue. So these concerts stand out because while there was an audience, the fact that it was a small one, and it was being professionally recorded by a radio station meant the sound quality was excellent.

I already have way too many albums I want to post at this blog. That said, I've decided to make a more concerted effort to post more of these WLIR Ultrasonic concerts. It turns out I've already posted five of them, concerts by: Fleetwood Mac, Lou Reed, Jonathan Edwards, the Doobie Brothers, and Dr. John. If you want to find them, I've made a new label called "WLIR Ultrasonic Concert Series," so look for that at the side bar on any webpage at my blog. I just redid the album covers of all five of those albums I've posted already, so they all can share the same font type and color. In case you're curious, I've found 30 more concerts recorded for that radio show, and there's probably still more out there.

Anyway, getting back to this specific concert, Raitt's long music career had just begun at the time. It took place a month after she released her second studio album, "Give It Up." John Hammond Jr. is the son of John Hammond, a legendary record producer, who helped start the music careers of Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and many, many more. John Hammond Jr. has spent most of his music career playing the blues, especially by singing and playing the harmonica and slide guitar. At the time of this concert, he was already a music veteran having released about a dozen albums since 1963.

Fun fact about Hammond Jr.: in 1966, Jimi Hendrix was the lead guitarist in his band, for about a week, just before Hendrix left to try to make it big in England. Then, in 1967, after making it big there, Hendrix was back in the U.S. where he was still relatively unknown, and had some time off. So he sat in with Hammond Jr.'s band again for another week, and at the same time, Eric Clapton sat in with the band as well! Too bad nobody made any recordings of that. Here's the source of that story:

Tangled up in blues | AudioFile | Colorado Springs Independent 

For this concert, Raitt performed in acoustic mode for the first half. She was backed just by Freebo, a bassist, on all her songs. Plus, for all but two of her songs, she was also backed by Lowell George on lead guitar. Then George sang one of the songs he wrote for his band Little Feat, "Apolitical Blues." Hammond Jr. also played on two of Raitt's songs. At that point, Hammond Jr. took over for the second half of the concert. He played five songs by himself. Then, for the last two songs, he was joined by Raitt and George. The changing musicians are a bit confusing, so look to the names mentioned in the song list.

The music here remains unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 19 minutes long. 

01 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
02 Love Me like a Man (Bonnie Raitt with Lowell George)
03 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
04 Under the Falling Sky (Bonnie Raitt)
05 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
06 Love Has No Pride (Bonnie Raitt)
07 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
08 Going Down to Louisiana - Rollin' and Tumblin' (Bonnie Raitt with Lowell George)
09 talk (Bonnie Raitt with Lowell George)
10 Can't Find My Way Home (Bonnie Raitt with Lowell George)
11 tuning (Bonnie Raitt with Lowell George)
12 Big Road (Bonnie Raitt with Lowell George & John Hammond Jr.)
13 You Got to Know How (Bonnie Raitt with Lowell George)
14 talk (Bonnie Raitt with Lowell George)
15 Apolitical Blues (Lowell George with Bonnie Raitt & John Hammond Jr.)
16 talk (John Hammond Jr. & Bonnie Raitt)
17 Riding in the Moonlight (John Hammond Jr.)
18 talk (John Hammond Jr.)
19 As the Years Go Passing By (John Hammond Jr.)
20 All Night Long (John Hammond Jr.)
21 talk (John Hammond Jr.)
22 I Can't Be Satisfied (John Hammond Jr.)
23 The Sky Is Crying (John Hammond Jr.)
24 talk (John Hammond Jr.)
25 Honest I Do (John Hammond Jr. with Bonnie Raitt & Lowell George)
26 talk (John Hammond Jr. with Bonnie Raitt & Lowell George)
27 It's Too Late (John Hammond Jr. with Bonnie Raitt & Lowell George)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RVd7h517

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/sq7mBENPRmetmhj/file

I found a photo of everyone involved here taken backstage at this exact concert. However, I decided not to use it for the album cover, for a couple of reasons. One is that the picture is in black and white, and is low-res. It would be hard to make it look good, and to colorize it. But the other problem is there are a bunch of people in the photo who I'd rather not be there. Still, it's an interesting photo, especially in showing Bonnie Raitt sitting in the lap of John Hammond Jr. Here it is, if you're curious.

As for the actual cover photo used, I wanted to find a photo of Raitt and Hammond together, but I couldn't find a good one. So I went with a photo of just Raitt in concert, in 1971. It was black and white, so I colorized it using the Kolorize program. (It's way easier to colorize a photo with just one person in it.)  

Various Artists - Gershwin Prize for Popular Song Honoring Billy Joel, D.A.R. Constitution Hall, Washington, DC, 11-19-2014

Here's another "Gershwin Prize for Popular Song" award concert. This one from 2014 honors Billy Joel.

This follows the usual format of these concerts. First, some guest stars performed cover versions of songs by the honoree. Then there was an award presentation, and a speech by the honoree. Finally, the honoree performed a couple of songs to end the concert. There were a couple of twists this time, however. One is that the person to give a speech leading to Joel's speech was none other than Sonia Sotomayor, one of the justices of the U.S. supreme court. That's pretty unusual behavior for a supreme court justice, but I guess she must be a really big Billy Joel fan. The other twist is that Joel played five of his own songs, instead of the usual two or three.

It's unfortunate that the emcee for the concert was Kevin Spacey, due to his sex scandals that pretty much destroyed his career. But those scandals weren't reported on until 2017, three years after this concert. Another disappointment is that Paul McCartney didn't actually perform a song. Instead, he just sent a video message praising Joel. I noticed he would do the exact same thing for the Gershwin Prize concert for Elton John and Bernie Taupin in 2024.

Sadly, this may be the last of these Gershwin concerts I post until I can find more of them. I have most of the concert honoring Burt Bacharach, but I'm missing a couple of songs, so I'm still waiting on posting that. Otherwise, if anyone has any of the others, please let me know so I can share them. That especially goes for the two (Carole King and Smokey Robinson) that seem to only be available to people who pay for a PBS pass that's only available in you live in Wisconsin.

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 talk (Kevin Spacey)
02 The Longest Time (Boyz II Men)
03 Lullaby [Goodnight, My Angel] (LeAnn Rimes)
04 It's Still Rock and Roll to Me (Gavin DeGraw)
05 talk (emcee)
06 She's Always a Woman (Josh Groban with Sharon Isbin)
07 talk (Michael Feinstein)
08 She's Got a Way (Natalie Maines)
09 talk (John Mellencamp)
10 Allentown (John Mellencamp)
11 talk (Paul McCartney)
12 talk (emcee)
13 New York State of Mind (Tony Bennett)
14 talk (Sonia Sotomayor)
15 talk (Billy Joel)
16 Movin' Out [Anthony's Song] (Billy Joel)
17 Vienna (Billy Joel)
18 talk (Billy Joel)
19 Miami 2017 [I've Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway] (Billy Joel)
20 You May Be Right (Billy Joel)
21 talk (Kevin Spacey)
22 Piano Man (Billy Joel & Everyone [Edit])

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zGtLvUp6

alternate:

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

The cover photo is from this exact concert. I'm not sure who the two men behind him are. If anyone knows, let me know so I can add that information.

Blondie - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-25-1999

I was all set to post a "PBS Soundstage" concert by Blondie today. But when I looked in my Blondie music folder, I noticed that I'd never posted this BBC concert, even though I was sure I had. So I'm posting this first. The Soundstage one will come soon. 

As an aside, note that I previously posted another Blondie BBC concert, from 1979. Since this is the second one I've found, today I renamed that other one "Volume 1." Here's a link to the updated version of that one if you want to redownload it:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/07/blondie-bbc-in-concert-apollo-theatre.html

Anyway, this concert is from 1999. The band Blondie was together from 1974 to 1982. They broke up for nearly two decades, but finally reunited in 1997, and put out a new studio album in 1999, called "No Exit." Usually when it comes to reunions like this, the new music doesn't sell very well. But Blondie found great success with their single "Maria," which reached Number One in Britain in 1999. So that made this a good time for another BBC concert. 

Naturally, they performed the song "Maria" here. But they only performed two other songs from their new album, "Screaming Skin" and "Nothing Is Real but the Girl." Otherwise, the album consists of their best known songs from the 1970s and 80s. One exception is "Shayla," a deep cut from their 1979 album "Eat to the Beat."

The sound quality is excellent. The music here remains unreleased.

This album is an hour and eight minutes long. 

01 Call Me (Blondie)
02 Hanging on the Telephone (Blondie)
03 Screaming Skin (Blondie)
04 Atomic (Blondie)
05 Shayla (Blondie)
06 Union City Blue (Blondie)
07 Denis (Blondie)
08 The Tide Is High (Blondie)
09 Sunday Girl (Blondie)
10 Maria (Blondie)
11 One Way or Another (Blondie)
12 talk (Blondie)
13 Nothing Is Real but the Girl (Blondie)
14 Rapture (Blondie)
15 Heart of Glass (Blondie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/t5nGFyef

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/GkOTF0gtR3szYep/file

The cover photo of lead singer Deborah Harry is from this exact concert.

Sheryl Crow - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 8-5-2003

Here's another episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. This one stars Sheryl Crow, in 2003.

Normally with this show, I only know the broadcast date, and not the actual performance date. But in this case, I'm pretty sure this is the performance date. The episode wasn't broadcast until June 2004. Crow didn't release a new studio album in 2003 (or 2004 either). But she did release a best of album, "The Very Best of Sheryl Crow." That contained a cover version of "The First Cut Is the Deepest" by Cat Stevens, which she performed here. Her version was a hit, and she hasn't had a bigger hit since then.

Generally speaking, the set list mostly consists of her best known songs. One surprise though is a cover of "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," written by Nick Lowe. She has yet to release that on album.

These episodes are typically an hour long. This is longer though. That's because her full concert was released on DVD in 2008, so I used that. It has yet to be released in any audio format, however. 

This album is an hour and 31 minutes long.

01 My Favorite Mistake (Sheryl Crow)
02 talk (Sheryl Crow)
03 You're an Original (Sheryl Crow)
04 The First Cut Is the Deepest (Sheryl Crow)
05 talk (Sheryl Crow)
06 Leaving Las Vegas (Sheryl Crow)
07 Strong Enough (Sheryl Crow)
08 Redemption Day (Sheryl Crow)
09 talk (Sheryl Crow)
10 Sweet Rosalyn (Sheryl Crow)
11 talk (Sheryl Crow)
12 If It Makes You Happy (Sheryl Crow)
13 Home (Sheryl Crow)
14 All I Wanna Do (Sheryl Crow)
15 Soak Up the Sun (Sheryl Crow)
16 Everyday Is a Winding Road (Sheryl Crow)
17 talk (Sheryl Crow)
18 [What's So Funny 'Bout] Peace, Love and Understanding (Sheryl Crow)
19 talk (Sheryl Crow)
20 Let's Get Free (Sheryl Crow)
21 Safe and Sound (Sheryl Crow)
22 I Shall Believe (Sheryl Crow)
23 talk (Sheryl Crow)
24 Steve McQueen (Sheryl Crow)
25 talk (Sheryl Crow) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vGoPQRhE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/4qtt9QmrJjvQKko/file

The cover image is from this exact concert.

Moby Grape - Rai Congrescentrum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2-12-1969

Here's a really nice sounding short live radio show by the American band Moby Grape, from 1969.

I recently posted the most complete version available of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. That contains a short set by the band Moby Grape. Hearing that made me want to hear more of them in concert in their 1960s prime. But then I remembered I'd gone down that road before, and the problem is there just isn't that much live stuff with worthy sound quality. I did previously find some bits and pieces, which I put together as the album "Live 1967." You can find that here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/05/moby-grape-live-1967.html

But I took a deeper dive to see if there was anything else I'd missed, and found this concert. The problem was the band didn't stay together for long. It was a gathering of five talented singer-songwriters, which meant five creative types all with their own agendas, so perhaps it wasn't surprising it didn't last. Skip Spence was the first to go after having a mental breakdown in 1968. Then, after the band did a short tour of Britain and the Netherlands in February 1969, bassist Bob Mosley shocked the rest of the band by quitting and joining the U.S. Marines. That left just three band members. They put out one album later in 1969, and then broke up. There were the almost inevitable later reunions, but I wanted a live album of them in their 1960s heyday.

Luckily for us, there's this recording, from that tour that took place just before Mosley left the band. It was recorded by a Dutch radio station, so the sound quality is generally much better than bootlegs of the band from that era. As I mentioned above, I've found bits and pieces, a couple of songs here and there, but this is the closest thing to a full concert from the band in the 1960s I could find, even though this also is relatively short. 

The sound quality was already pretty good. But I noticed the vocals were relatively low in the mix, so I fixed that with the help of the MVSEP audio editing program. For a couple of the songs, the vocals volume bounced around between loud and quiet somewhat, so I fixed that line by line. I believe this now sounds much better.

Strangely, two songs were performed twice, "Murder in My Heart for the Judge" and "Omaha." Also, there's no banter between songs at all. I'm guessing these are highlights chosen by the radio station from a longer concert. If they did an early and late show, which was common in that era, that could explain the repeats. 

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 I Am Not Willing (Moby Grape)
02 Trucking Man (Moby Grape)
03 Sitting by the Window (Moby Grape)
04 Fall on You (Moby Grape)
05 Murder in My Heart for the Judge (Moby Grape)
06 Miller's Blues (Moby Grape)
07 Omaha (Moby Grape)
08 Murder in My Heart for the Judge [Second Version] (Moby Grape)
09 If You Can't Learn from My Mistakes (Moby Grape)
10 Omaha [Second Version] (Moby Grape)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ktCpK8ch

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/FSEgk1RFFxNrjD8/file

I couldn't find any good photos of the band in 1969. However, I found an interesting looking concert poster headlining the band from that year, specifically at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco in March. I did some cleaning up, especially at the bottom, cropping it there and adding some text.

Blood, Sweat & Tears - Psychedelic Supermarket, Boston, MA, 2-23-1968

Here's a very unusual and interesting concert recording. When Blood, Sweat and Tears released their debut album "Child Is Father to the Man" in early 1968, they were practically a different band compared to when they released their next album, "Blood, Sweat and Tears." The main difference was they lost their band leader and main lead vocalist, Al Kooper, and gained a new lead vocalist, David Clayton-Thomas. For decades, it was thought there were no live recordings of this original, Al Kooper-led version of the band. But in 2006, this bootleg emerged. It's been widely shared since then, but I've made some changes to make it sound better than ever before.

Blood, Sweat and Tears started out of the ruins of the Blues Project, which broke up in mid-1967. (As an aside, I recently posted one of their last performances as part of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.) Both Al Kooper and Steve Katz left the Blues Project and became the two main leaders of the new Blood, Sweat and Tears. Both of them wrote songs and sang lead vocals, though Kooper sang more of the songs. The new band started playing concerts in late 1967, but they'd only played a dozen or so concerts until performing the concert presented here. It took place only about four days after the release of their album "Child Is Father to the Man."

This version of the band didn't last long. Their album got very good reviews and limited but promising sales for a new band. (It reached Number 47 on the U.S. album chart.) However, some other band members, especially Katz and drummer Bobby Colomby, thought the band could do much better if they had a stronger lead vocalist. So they kicked Kooper out of the band in April 1968, at the end of their short tour to promote their debut album. This was a pretty shocking move, because Kooper was the de facto leader of the band. In addition to singing and writing songs, he was largely responsible for picking the many cover songs the band did, and coming up with arrangements in the band's unusual horn section-heavy style. Keep in mind this was about a year before other rock bands with horn sections like Chicago and the Ides of March had a lot of success.

What makes this album even more interesting is that only three of the songs performed were from the debut album that had just been released ("I Love You More than You'll Ever Know," "Morning Glory," and "Somethin' Goin' On"). They played three songs that would be on their very successful next album ("More and More," "You've Made Me So Very Happy" and "Smiling Phases.") All three of them were already arranged by Kooper, and the versions on their next album would closely follow his arrangments. But on that album they would be sung by Clayton-Thomas, whereas this gives one a chance to hear how Kooper sang them. Furthermore, there's the song "Camille." Kooper announced during the concert this would probably be the band's next single. In fact, that wouldn't be the case, because he wrote it and he would be kicked out of the band. So it showed up on his solo album released in early 1969, "I Stand Alone."

Okay, so that's some history of the band and this concert. Now, let me explain this recording. I've included the text file from an earlier version (posted by someone named Knees) because it contains a lot of interesting information in greater detail than what I'm writing here. To make a long story short, around 2005, a rock journalist decided to go looking through some old cassettes to find an interview that person had done with Jimi Hendrix. They found the Hendrix interview, but let the tape keep playing and discovered this forgotten concert recording on it as well. They sent the Hendrix interview to the Hendrix estate, and asked them to make a digital transfer of this concert as well, which they did. Even Al Kooper was pleasantly shocked when he learned about it and heard it, because he thought nobody had ever bothered to record any live performances of the original Blood, Sweat and Tears.

This recording is just an audience bootleg. The person mentioned above named Knees made many audio edits to improve the sound quality. It sounds very good for an audience boot. However, one problem I noticed was that the lead vocals were way down in the mix. I was able to fix this with help from the MVSEP program. Now, one could easily believe this was a soundboard boot instead.

I don't know the real name of the original recorder. They may have purposely left their name out of this, since they were a rock journalist. And strong evidence that they were comes in the form of the bonus track. This is a twenty-minute long interview with Jim Fielder, the bassist of the band. The band was opening for Big Brother and the Holding Company, starring Janis Joplin. The interview took place shortly after their set finished. One can tell because one can hear Joplin faintly singing in the background during the interview.

This album is 47 minutes long, not including the bonus track.

01 More and More (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
02 You've Made Me So Very Happy (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
03 I Love You More than You'll Ever Know (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
04 talk (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
05 Morning Glory (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
06 talk (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
07 Camille (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
08 talk (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
09 Smiling Phases (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
10 Somethin' Goin' On (Blood, Sweat & Tears)

Jim Fielder Interview (Blood, Sweat & Tears)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QpUKe5Dj

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/s1XnN8VvPQ0i8Ga/file

The cover shows, from left to right, horn players Dick Halligan, Jerry Weiss, and Randy Brecker, and then Al Kooper on keyboards. It was taken at one of the band's very first concerts, at The Scene, in New York City, on November 25, 1967. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Canva program, plus some touch-ups with Photoshop.

The Turtles - ChicagoFest, Soldier Field, Chicago, IL, 8-19-1983

The Turtles had two main singers, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan. As I write this in September 2025, Volman died several days ago. Specifically, he died on September 6, 2025, at the age of 78. His passing made me think of posting something from the Turtles. But I didn't have anything worth posting. However, in the wake of his passing, I came across this Turtles concert from 1983.

I get the impression that the Turtles didn't tour much in their 1960s heyday. At least, I've never come across any live recordings from them back then, other than some videos of them performing a few songs on TV shows. That probably related to the terrible record company they signed with, White Whale Records. As just one example of their awfulness, in the middle of their big success in the 60s, the company tried to get Volman and Kaylan to fire all the other band members and just replace them with studio musicians, to save money. They refused. The Turtles was the company's only big act. Not long after that band broke up at the end of the 60s, the company went bankrupt.

The contract Volman and Kaylan signed was so bad that the two of them were not allowed to record under their own legal, personal names without giving the company a cut of the profits. So in the early 1970s, they reemerged as the duo Flo and Eddie. This bizarre situation continued for many years, long after the company went bankrupt. It was only in 1983 that they were legally allowed to tour and record under the name the Turtles again. They celebrated with a tour that includes this concert.

In addition to performing their hits as the Turtles and Flo and Eddie, they were known for playing unusual covers in concerts. That's the case here. They did parody imitations of Bruce Springsteen and the Doors, as well as "The Pied Piper," which was a hit by Crispian St. Peters in 1966. A couple of other covers here, "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Eve of Destruction," were put on albums by the Turtles in the 1960s, though they didn't have hits with them.

Everything here is unreleased. It's from an FM broadcast or soundboard, so the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 You Baby (Turtles)
02 talk (Turtles)
03 Like a Rolling Stone (Turtles)
04 Keep It Warm (Turtles)
05 talk (Turtles)
06 Nikki Hoi - Limbo Rock (Turtles)
07 talk (Turtles)
08 You Might Need Somebody (Turtles)
09 Let Me Be (Turtles)
10 Eve of Destruction (Turtles)
11 She's My Girl (Turtles)
12 The Pied Piper - Jungleland (Turtles)
13 talk (Turtles)
15 You Showed Me - Light My Fire (Turtles)
16 Eleanor (Turtles)
17 Happy Together Intro (Turtles)
18 Happy Together (Turtles)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yp8L3UBS 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/0XcyiYtyXYfgMwo/file

The cover photo is from a Turtles concert in Chicago in 1983, remarkably enough, but it's not this one. Instead, it's from the Park West in May 1983. The photo shows Mark Volman on the left and Howard Kaylan on the right (with the beard). In the original photo they were farther apart, but I used Photoshop to move Kaylan closer so they could both appear larger in the cropped image.

Donald Byrd - A New Perspective (On a New Perspective) (1964) (A Mike Solof guest post)

I'm not that into serious jazz, and that's still the case. But this is a guest post by Mike Solof, so here's a rare jazz album for this blog.

Donald Byrd released the album "A New Perspective" in 1964. As I write this in September 2025, it's one of about four of the best rated albums he did, according to the crowd-sourced reviews on rateyourmusic.com. However, it's also a controversial album. If you read some of those reviews, people tend to love it or hate it. That's because Byrd had the idea of overdubbing wordless gospel-styled vocals over the band's jazz improvisations. It's those vocals that divide people on the album. It so happens Mike just wanted to hear the instrumentation without those vocals, and he realized the technology now exists to wipe them away. So that's just what he did.

If it so happens you prefer the album with the vocals, no problem, just listen to the official version instead. 

There's more information in the PDF he's included in the download file, including profiles of the other jazz musicians who played on this. 

By the way, just to be clear, the real album title is just "A New Perspective," but Mike added the "On a New Perspective" part. 

This album is 39 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On January 27, 2026, the mp3 download file was updated. For some reason, six minutes of the song "The Black Disciple" was cut off. So that got fixed.

01 Elijah (Donald Byrd)
02 Beast of Burden (Donald Byrd)
03 Cristo Redentor (Donald Byrd)
04 The Black Disciple (Donald Byrd)
05 Chant (Donald Byrd)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GTRUJzSR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/9DMp5Dlara8mJip/file

The cover photo is the same as the original, with a couple of key changes. One, Mike asked me to add the word "no" before "voices," so I did, squeezing the other words a bit to make room. And the original was mostly in black and white (everything but the lettering), but Mike wanted it colorized, so I did that too, using the Kolorize program. 

Various Artists - Gershwin Prize for Popular Song Honoring Elton John and Bernie Taupin, D.A.R. Constitution Hall, Washington, DC, 3-20-2024

Here's yet another concert celebrating another winner of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. This time, it's actually two winners, because it celebrates the songwriting team of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. 

As I write this in September 2025, this is the most recent award concert in the series. I figure there won't be one in 2025, because they've always taken place earlier in the year than that. And while this award is given most every year, some years are skipped (though I don't know why).

In my opinion, this concert was treated as more of a big deal than many of the others for the award, due to the music of John and Taupin being so beloved. Once can see this by the caliber of the stars who sang the songs here, and compare that to who showed up for some of the other awards concerts. 

Unfortunately, however, note that Paul McCartney only sent some complimentary commentary via video, and didn't perform any songs. On the plus side, I'm impressed Joni Mitchell showed up. She hardly ever attends these sorts of things, especially in recent years with her considerable health problems.

Typically for these concerts, Elton John showed up and sang a couple of songs at the end of the concert. There's no evidence of the lyric writer Bernie Taupin being there if you just listen to this recording. But he shows up in numerous photos, including the one I used for the cover. So his role probably just got edited out. Not by me, though.

As is usual with these award concerts, the music here is unreleased. But the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 32 minutes long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 talk (Billy Porter)
03 Border Song (Annie Lennox)
04 Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word (Garth Brooks)
05 talk (Brandi Carlile)
06 Madman Across the Water (Brandi Carlile)
07 talk (Paul McCartney)
08 talk (Billy Porter)
09 Bennie and the Jets (Jacob Lusk)
10 I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues (Maren Morris)
11 The Bitch Is Back (Billy Porter)
12 talk (Charlie Puth)
13 Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Charlie Puth)
14 talk (Stevie Wonder)
15 talk (Billy Porter)
16 Funeral for a Friend - Love Lies Bleeding (Metallica)
17 Skyline Pigeon (Brandi Carlile)
18 Daniel (Garth Brooks)
19 talk (Brandi Carlile)
20 I'm Still Standing (Joni Mitchell with Annie Lennox & Brandi Carlile)
21 talk (Carla Hayden)
22 Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters (Elton John)
23 talk (Elton John)
24 Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting (Elton John)
25 talk (Carla Hayden)
26 talk (Elton John)
27 talk (Bernie Taupin)
28 talk (Elton John)
29 talk (Carla Hayden)
30 Your Song (Elton John)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/EyMoGH37

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/B4Rvyfn0wAHe7K2/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Elton John playing the piano while Bernie Taupin looks on. I moved Taupin closer to John so both of them could show up larger. He actually was resting on the piano, but much further down it.

Covered: Hank Williams, Volume 2: 1995-2017

Here's the second part to the "Covered" series about country music legend Hank Williams.

As I said in my write-up for Volume 1, I wanted to make these albums accessible to more than just country music fans. So that's why I mostly chose covers from recent decades, and by the likes of Beck, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Norah Jones, and so on. 

The vast majority of these were hits when Williams did them before his death in 1953. While there were a lot of hit cover versions of his songs, these generally were not hits. As I just mentioned, I was striving to get away from country versions, and those were most of the hit versions.

As always with these "Covered" albums, the songs are in loose chronological order, based on the year of release. And, as always, check the mp3 tags for the details. 

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 I'm a Long Gone Daddy (The The)
02 I Can't Help It [If I'm Still in Love with You] (Cat Power)
03 [I Heard That] Lonesome Whistle (Beck)
04 I Can't Get You Off of My Mind (Bob Dylan)
05 Alone and Forsaken (Emmylou Harris & Mark Knopfler)
06 You're Gonna Change [Or I'm Gonna Leave] (Tom Petty)
07 Cold, Cold Heart (Norah Jones)
08 Lost Highway (Lee Rocker)
09 Ramblin' Woman (Cat Power)
10 Take These Chains from My Heart (Rosanne Cash)
11 A House of Gold (Patty Griffin)
12 How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart (Norah Jones)
13 Mansion on the Hill (Willie Nelson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/pJcuyMJv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/RhHR0FUCJasCzLZ/file

I don't know the details of where or when the cover photo was from. However, it was in color, so I didn't need to change anything.