Various Artists - P. F. Sloan & Steve Barri, Volume 2: 1967-2006

Here's the second and last volume celebrating the music of the songwriting team of P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri. However, as I discussed in my write-up for "Volume 1," it seemed a pretty lopsided partnership, with Sloan being the songwriting genius and Barri doing more of the arranging and production. So, in my write-up here, I'm going to mostly concentrate on the story of Sloan's life.

At the end of my write-up for "Volume 1," Sloan was facing an increasingly bad situation. He had been pressured by record company executives who behaved more like Mafia crime bosses - and the evidence suggests there actually was a connection there. By the end of 1967, he broke up his songwriting partnership with Barri, and fled his hometown of Los Angeles, fearing for his life.

Sloan settled in New York City. In 1968, he signed a record contract with a different label, and released his third solo album, "Measure of Pleasure." This was an interesting album that was keeping up with rapidly changing music trends. However, he didn't tour or otherwise promote it, so it attracted little notice. The problem was his life was coming apart. Falling into depression over losing his songwriting royalties (and even future royalties for the next ten years!) to his old record company, he discovered heroin and began using it. Also, he was beset by a series of medical troubles, both mental and physical. 

By 1969, his songwriting, and his music career in general, essentially came to a stop. He released another album in 1972, but his heart wasn't in it, and that one also quickly disappeared. Then, he simply disappeared for a long, long time, spending much of that in psychiatric hospitals. In a 2006 interview, he said, "I was ill I guess for a good 20, maybe 25 years. ... Catatonia for a long time." 

Even by 1968, practically all the people who had known him well in Los Angeles lost all contact with him. Once such person he'd known was another up-and-coming songwriter, Jimmy Webb, wrote a song about his mysterious disappearance, called "P. F. Sloan." It starts with these lyrics: 

"I have been seeking P. F. Sloan, but no one knows where he has gone
No one ever heard the song that boy set winging"

I haven't included it here, since neither Sloan nor Barri helped write it. But there are nice versions by Webb, the Association, Rumer, and others. Weirdly, for many years, Webb claimed it wasn't actually about Sloan, despite his name literally being the title! However, he eventually admitted that it was about him. 

Stranger still, Sloan totally disappeared for so many years, yet wasn't reported dead, that a person decided to falsely claim they were him. Eugene Landy was a very controversial psychologist who was in charge of the mental health of musical genius Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. In the 1980s, Landy mysteriously began appearing as a co-writer of many new Wilson songs, despite apparently having no previously known songwriting or musical skills whatsoever. When people questioned him on this, Landy claimed that he actually was a talented songwriter because he used to be known as P. F. Sloan! In 1991, this caused the real Sloan to write a letter that debunked that outrageously false claim. (Shortly thereafter, in 1992, Landy lost his psychology license and was barred from further contact with Wilson.)

Anyway, in the late 1980s, Sloan went on a religious pilgrimage to India. This got him interested in Indian religion and philosophy, and started him on a path to getting his life back together. But still, it was a slow road to a full recovery. In 1993, he gave a well-received concert at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. The opening acts, Johnny Rivers, the Turtles, and Jan Berry of Jan and Dean, all benefited greatly from his songwriting. He released another album in 1994, but he was a relatively forgotten figure by this time, and it only came out in Japan. Then, he disappeared again, spending more time in psychiatric hospitals.

Finally, in 2006, he released an album that got at least some attention in the U.S. and Britain, "Sailover." It had some well known guest stars on it, like Lucinda Williams, Frank Black, Buddy Miller, and Felix Cavaliere. Here's an except from the AllMusic.com review: "P.F. Sloan is still writing worthwhile pop songs with smart, impressionistic, and somewhat off-kilter lyrics, and 'Sailover' confirms time has been quite kind to his muse since he last entered a recording studio." He finally did some touring to support it. Other stars like Susanna Hoffs and Rumer sang with him in concert. 

Then, in 2014, he released a well-received autobiography. He also released another new album, a concept album called "My Beethoven" about the life of the classical composer Beethoven. But he died of cancer in 2015, at the age of 70.

Meanwhile, what happened to Steve Barri? He went on to have a fairly successful career in music, but as a producer and then a record company executive. He produced many hits in the 1970s, including "Dizzy" by  Tommy Roe, "Don't Pull Your Love" by Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds, "Theme from S.W.A.T." by Rhythm Heritage, and "Undercover Angel" by Alan O'Day. He also produced several albums for the Grass Roots, the Four Tops, and Bobby 'Blue' Bland. But as a songwriter, there's very little after he stopped writing with Sloan back around 1966. I've included three songs here that Barri co-wrote with others in the 1970s: "I Wouldn't Treat a Dog (The Way You Treated Me)" and "Who's Foolin' Who" by Bland and "Love Pains" by  the Pet Shop Boys & Liza Minnelli. If you look at his songwriting at secondhandsong.com, that's really about it for him without Sloan. That reaffirms the evidence that Sloan was the key partner in their songwriting partnership.

After that, Barri worked his way up the ranks in various record companies, eventually becoming a senior vice president for Gold Circle Entertainment/Samson Records. He is still alive and 84 years old as I write this in 2026. 

Now, fiiiiinally, let me discuss the music here. The first ten songs here were written by Sloan, probably around 1966 to 1969, and all released in those years. He continued to write some hits after ending his partnership with Barri in that era, though none of them were really big hits. "Turn on the Light" is from his 1972 album, and "Violence" is from his 2006, and both of those were performed by him. I would have liked to include more of his own recordings, to show his songwriting was still strong in his later years, but the point of these "Covered" albums is to collect covers. However, I couldn't resist bending my self-imposed rules to include at least those two.

As I mentioned in my write-up to "Volume 1," "Where Were You When I Needed You" is the only song here that's "out of order," meaning this came a lot later than when it was first released. The Grass Roots had a hit with it in 1966, but I prefer the version by the Bangles, which was done by them in 1984. 

One last thing. If you want to know more about Sloan's life, here's a good interview he did in 2014:

https://www.rebeatmag.com/whats-exactly-the-matter-with-p-f-sloan/ 

And here's another one from that same time period: 

https://www.goldminemag.com/articles/perception-reality-singer-songwriter-p-f-sloan/

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 Things I Should Have Said (Grass Roots)
02 On a Quiet Night (Association)
03 A Melody for You (Grass Roots)
04 Another Day, Another Heartache (5th Dimension)
05 Bella Linda (Grass Roots)
06 I Get Out of Breath (Turtles)
07 Look Out Girl (Tommy Roe)
08 Baby, You Do It Well (Grass Roots)
09 New Design (Kenny Rogers & the First Edition)
10 I Can't Help but Wonder, Elizabeth (Grass Roots)
11 Turn on the Light (P. F. Sloan)
12 Who's Foolin' Who (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
13 Glory Bound (Grass Roots)
14 I Wouldn't Treat a Dog [The Way You Treated Me] (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
15 Where Were You When I Needed You (Bangles)
16 Love Pains (Pet Shop Boys & Liza Minnelli)
17 Violence (P. F. Sloan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/tDiLRAc3

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/Abtx5RNkFo31Pri/file

The cover art was made from separate photos of Sloan and Barri. I don't know when either was taken, but I would guess (based on deleted backgrounds and such) the Sloan picture was taken in 1966 or 1967, while the Barri image was taken in the early 1970s. Both photos were originally in black and white. I colorized them, then put them together in Photoshop.

Various Artists - The Best of the Rest, Volume 2, Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 1974-1975

And so we come to almost the last album of live music from Ebbets Field radio broadcasts. (I say almost because there's at least one exception coming up, hopefully, but more about that later.) As I explained with "The Best of the Rest, Volume 1," there are four obscure and now out of print official albums collecting songs from many different Ebbets Field concerts. I've removed the ones that ended up on full concerts I've posted here, and sorted what remained in chronological order. So here's the second volume of that. 

"Volume 1" dealt with songs from 1973 and 1974 concerts. This continues with 1974 and 1975 ones. The Ebbets Field venue didn't close until mid-1977, but this doesn't have anything from 1976 or 1977 on it.  

Once again, this album contains many musical acts that weren't that popular at the time, because they were only performing at a venue that held a maximum of 250 people. Yet many other musical acts from this era have been forgotten, while most of these still have loyal fan bases. The management of the venue really had a knack for booking quality acts, and quality tends to be remembered. 

Anyway, I mentioned there's one more album coming. That's because a commenter recently told me he has the full Wendy Waldman concert from this venue. So hopefully I'll be able to post that soon. Once again, if anyone else has recordings from this venue, please do share! In my search for recordings from this venue, I came across a mention that at one point a couple of decades ago in the pre-Internet era, there was a (now defunct) music store in the Denver area that somehow got access to the entire trove of radio broadcasts from this venue and was selling them as bootlegs. So I'm fairly certain a lot more of these recordings ARE "out there" but maybe have never been converted to digital format. (That's the case with the Waldman one.) Please help bring them into public circulation!

I'd especially love to have the full broadcasts of the musical acts on these "Best of the Rest" volumes, because they're often the types of acts that have only been rarely bootlegged with worthy sound quality. Actually, sometimes never bootlegged at all. They're also the kinds of acts that often don't have official live albums either.

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 Grits Ain't Groceries - Soul Jones (Wet Willie)
02 Playing My Music (Papa John Creach)
03 Mas Zacate (El Chicano)
04 Thirsty Boots (Eric Andersen)
05 No Regrets (Tom Rush)
06 Lovin' You (Minnie Riperton)
07 Down So Low (Tracy Nelson)
08 Mercedes Benz (Goose Creek Symphony)
09 You Can Only Say So Much (Michael Murphey)
10 You Tell Me Why (Beau Brummels)
11 Ninety Miles an Hour [Down a Dead End Street] (Katy Moffatt)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2wQqPamk

alternate: 

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

Like "The Best of the Rest, Volume 1," I wanted to do something different for the cover art. As I mentioned for that album, there are very, very few photos that can be found on the Internet showing the inside of the Ebbets Field venue. But I found this one from a Runaways concert in 1976 that shows much of the stage, and more. Once again, one can see some of the bleacher seats with orange shag carpeting. And you can see some of the area above the stage. If you look closely, some of the amplifiers have the words "ListenUp" on them, since that was the company providing the professional recording for these radio broadcasts.

Unfortunately, I don't have any audio recording from any Runaways concert here, just this photo. 

Blue Mink - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1968-1970

I'm trying to prioritize posting BBC recordings from the 1960s and early 1970s that remain unreleased. Here's another collection of that. I've found enough for two volumes of BBC recordings by the band Blue Mink. Here's the first one.

If you've never heard of this band, here's their Wikipedia entry intro: "Blue Mink were a British six-piece pop group that existed from 1969 to 1977. Over that period they had six top 20 hit singles on the U.K. Singles Chart, and released five studio based albums. According to AllMusic: 'they have been immortalized on a string of compilation albums, each recounting the string of effervescent hits that established them among Britain's best-loved pop groups of the early 1970s.'" 

They're much better known in Britain than the U.S., because they had a bunch of hits in Britain, as mentioned above, but no hits at all in the U.S. They had two lead singers, Roger Cook and Madeline Bell. Both of them have appeared elsewhere in this music blog. Cook was one half of a songwriting team with Roger Greenaway. I've profiled their songwriting in the "Covered" series, as you can see here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/02/covered-roger-cook-roger-greenaway.html

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/02/covered-roger-cook-roger-greenaway_14.html

Cook and Greenaway generally wrote most of the songs for Blue Mink. But while Cook was a good lead vocalist, Madeline Bell sang just as much or more than he did. She was a Black American who had lived in Britain since the early 1960s. She was able to bring authentic American soul music vocals into the band's sound. So the hit songwriting of Cook and Greenaway plus the vocals of Bell was a powerful combination that separated this band from most other similar pop bands in Britain at the time.

Most of the songs here come from excellent sounding BBC studio session recordings given to me by a musical associate. I don't think these have been widely publicly available until now. One problem though was that BBC DJs in this time period often talked over the starts and ends of songs. In fact, of all the BBC studio session songs here, EVERY SINGLE ONE had BBC DJ talking over it! But I was able to get rid of that talking in the usual way, with the use of the MVSEP audio editing program. That's why all but the first two songs have "[Edit]" in their titles.

The first two songs are not from the BBC. In fact, they are from Blue Mink even formed as a group. But Madeline Bell had a solo career going on before, during, and after her time in Blue Mink. These two songs are from an obscure U.S. T.V. show in 1968 called "Live at the Bitter End." It showed live performances at the Bitter End venue in New York City. These two songs only featured Bell singing live lead vocals over recorded instrumentation, but I thought they were worth including anyway. 

Also, later in the album, there was one BBC session of three songs featuring Bell from her solo career. So I included them here as well.

In case you're not familiar with Blue Mink's music, the two big hits they had in Britain during the time span on this volume were "Melting Pot" and "Good Morning Freedom." Both of those are included here.

This album is 41 minutes long. 

01 I'm Gonna Make You Love Me [Live Lead Vocals Only] (Madeline Bell)
02 Picture Me Gone [Live Lead Vocals Only] (Madeline Bell)
03 Melting Pot [Edit] (Blue Mink)
04 Gimme Reggae [Edit] (Blue Mink)
05 The Onion Song [Edit] (Blue Mink)
06 Mary Jane [Edit] (Blue Mink)
07 Good Morning Freedom [Edit] (Blue Mink)
08 Morning Dew [Edit] (Blue Mink)
09 Proud Mary [Edit] (Blue Mink)
10 Country Chick [Edit] (Blue Mink)
11 How Much Do I Love You [Edit] (Madeline Bell)
12 You're Messing Up My Mind [Edit] (Madeline Bell)
13 We're So Much in Love [Edit] (Madeline Bell)
14 Jubilation [Edit] (Blue Mink)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/RJEnuDXi 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/0GNgfn7HtOOWiHy/file

The cover image shows Blue Mink in 1970. I don't know who all the band members are. But in front is Roger Cook (with the beard) and Madeline Bell (with the Coca Cola T-shirt). 

Various Artists - The Best of the Rest, Volume 1, Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 1973-1974

I previously said I was almost done with posting music from Ebbets Field radio broadcasts, but I'm not quite done. I've made two compilations of all the songs that are available with excellent sound quality, from a variety of musical acts. Here's the first of those compilations.

The reason we have these songs is because in the 2000s, KCUV-FM, a Colorado radio station, released four albums containing songs from Ebbets Field concerts. The first one was called "Live From Ebbets Field Vol. 2: 1973-1976," and the others just changed volume numbers. These were obscure, local releases to begin with, and then soon went out of print, so now they're almost impossible to find as albums. But luckily, someone put all the songs on the Internet, so I was able to get them. I went through all the albums, and removed the songs that I included on full concert albums. Then I sorted the remainder chronologically.

It's remarkable to think that all of these concerts were broadcast in full on Colorado radio stations in the 1970s, yet those concert recordings now seem to be lost. Then there's an equal number on "The Best of the Rest, Volume 2," plus still more radio broadcasts that weren't even selected for these compilations. In fact, it's known that about 300 such concerts from that venue were broadcast in the 1970s! I've posted 70 concerts from there. This volume and the following one contain songs from another couple dozen. So that leaves recordings for another 200 concerts that must exist somewhere, in excellent sound quality. The fact that two previously unknown Ian Matthews concerts came out on an archival box set this year (2026) is an encouraging sign that somebody out there still has at least some of them and could release them if someone pays the licensing fees. Let's hope more get to the public somehow.

By the way, if any of you have any recordings from this venue that I've missed, please step forward with them, so I can post them! A commenter recently said they have a full Wendy Waldman concert and offered to share it with me, but since then I never heard back from that person. (If you're out there, please do share, it's never too late.) 

If you want the dates of the concerts for these songs, please check the mp3 tags. All that information is there. The only thing I want to say about the below songs is that although I've posted a Peter Frampton concert from Ebbets Field, the Frampton song here is not from that. The one I posted is a 1975 concert, but the song here is from a 1974 concert. 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 A Whiter Shade of Pale (New York Rock Ensemble)
02 The Lodger (Peter Frampton)
03 Hello, Hello (Sopwith Camel)
04 Steppin' Out (Joan Armatrading)
05 Ridgetop (Jesse Colin Young)
06 Wild Thing (Chip Taylor)
07 Carolina Day (Livingston Taylor)
08 Wabash Cannonball (Doc & Merle Watson)
09 Blackbird (Kenny Rankin)
10 The Ballad of Curtis Loew (Al Kooper)
11 Fare Forward Voyagers (John Fahey)
12 Down Drinking at the Bar (Loudon Wainwright III)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uF3yCdFz

alternate:

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

Since this is a "various artists" album, I wanted to do something different for the cover art. I was able to find very, very few photos from inside the Ebbets Field venue. Here is one. Instead of looking at the stage, it shows the audience in their bleacher seats covered with the venue's notorious orange shag carpet. I'm not sure which concert this is from exactly, but I think it's from one by the Ramones in early 1977.

Unfortunately, I don't have any audio recording from any Ramones concert held here, just this photo.  

Various Artists - P. F. Sloan & Steve Barri, Volume 1: 1964-1967

Here's another songwriting team chosen for the seemingly neverending "Covered" series. This time, it's P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. I've found enough music for two volumes.

First off, I want to point out that this seems to have been a lopsided partnership. I've read a bunch of articles and interviews about these guys, and I've come to the conclusion that Sloan did most of the songwriting and Barri mostly helped with production and fleshing things out. This can be seen in the way Sloan continued to write and release lots of songs after their partnership finished, while Barri moved into production and other record industry roles, only occasionally co-writing songs for musical acts he produced. Heck, even Barri later admitted that Sloan was the key to their success, saying of him, "He was a major, major talent. God, he was good."

So this write-up is mostly about Sloan, and what a weird life story he had. (He died in 2015 at the age of 70.) 

Sloan showed musical talent at a young age. He started playing guitar at the age of 13, but just one year later he released an obscure single. Two years after that, around 1961, he got a songwriting job in Los Angeles with Screen Gems, the largest music publishing company on the West Coast. Even though he was only 16 years old, with virtually no musical experience, apparently he was hired mainly because the publishing company wanted a teenager on staff to help them make money off teenagers buying rock and roll records. 

Soon, Sloan began working with Barri, who was three years older than him. They began writing songs together at a frantic pace. They also produced and played the instruments on their songs, and many more. But that wasn't all. They pretended to be entire bands, and released many singles and even albums under a variety of different names, such as the Rally-Packs, the Wildcats, the Street Cleaners, Themes Inc., the Fantastic Baggys, the Lifeguards, and many more. The first song here, "Meet Me Tonight Little Girl," was actually written and recorded by Sloan and Barri in 1964, though they used yet another different name based on their first names, "Philip and Stephan."

In 1963, producer Lou Adler recognized their talent and was able to get them to switch to working for his record company, Dunhill Records, by doubling their salaries. Once there, Sloan worked a lot with Jan Berry, the real musical force of the duo Jan and Dean. Sloan sang uncredited lead vocals on the Jan and Dean hit "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena," and most other Jan and Dean hits for the next couple of years. He also came up with the intro guitar riff for the massive hit "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas and the Papas. Sloan in particular had a knack for writing songs in the popular styles of the day. He wrote entire albums of surf music, songs in the style of the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and more.

Their first, and probably biggest hit, was "Eve of Destruction," in 1965. This was an extremely unlikely hit. Nowadays, it's hard to see how controversial its critical social commentary lyrics were. But the singer of the song, Barry McGuire, didn't like it, and only sang it to fill out an album. The record company certainly didn't like it, and had no intention of releasing it as a single. Even Barri didn't like it, and apparently had no role in writing or producing it (although he was given a co-write credit, since he and Sloan shared writing credits on all the songs either one of them wrote at this time). But someone (Sloan, perhaps?) leaked a copy of the song to a Los Angeles radio station. The public response was so overwhelming that the record company was forced to release it as a single. Once released, hundreds of radio stations banned it for its controversial lyrics. But despite such widespread banning, it made it all the way to Number One in the U.S. singles chart in 1965! 

After such a massive success, it would have been a no-brainer to let the key songwriter of the song - Sloan - to pursue a solo career. And indeed, Sloan released solo albums in 1965 and 1966. However, they went nowhere. It seems pretty obvious that his record company, Dunhill Records, sabotaged his solo career as much as possible. This is because Sloan was writing many, many songs for the other acts on that record label, AND producing, AND playing the instruments, while getting paid very little for it, relatively speaking. If Sloan became a big star and just focused on his own career, they probably would have lost a lot of money on all their other acts. 

Some of the Top Forty hits they wrote in 1964 to 1966 include "A Must to Avoid" by Herman's Hermits, "Let Me Be" by the Turtles, "You Baby" by the Turtles, "Where Were You When I Needed You" by the Grass Roots, and "Secret Agent Man" by Johnny Rivers. But they really should have had many more hits, except Dunhill Records didn't have much distribution or promotion muscle. This can be seen by the fact that they had several more Top Ten hits in Canada. For instance, "Unless You Care" was a Number Two hit in that country in 1964. 

In fact, speaking of the Grass Roots, for that band's first album, Sloan and Barri basically were the band. This was yet another in a long series of fake bands fronted by them. They wrote, produced, and performed nearly all of the songs on the band's first album, released in 1966. But the song "Where Were You When I Needed You" had such success that a real band was hired to tour. Then that band actually performed on their next album. That was a success in 1967, mainly due to "Let's Live for Today," a song that was chosen and produced by Sloan and Barri, although they didn't write it.

However, the good times didn't last. Around the end of 1966, Sloan and Barri had a falling out, and their songwriting partnership (lopsided though it was) came to an end. The heads of Dunhill Records, especially an executive named Jay Lasker, really, really screwed Sloan over. In the 1960s, organized crime had a role in many record companies. Consider what happened to Jackie Wilson, who at one point was hung upside down out a window of a tall building until he agreed to sign a terrible record contract for a Mafia-controlled record label. Or consider Roulette Records. Even their Wikipedia entry states they "had known ties to New York City mobsters." Members of their biggest act, Tommy James and the Shondells, have said the company was a front for the notorious Genovese crime family, and the record company stole millions from them.

A similar thing happened to Sloan. Lasker, a rough guy from the New York City Mafia, repeatedly threatened to hurt or even kill him if he didn't do exactly what Dunhill Records told him to do. At one point, he forced him to sign away all his royalties, including everything he would earn for the next ten years, in return for letting him live. This is what caused the split between Sloan and Barri, because Barri sided with Dunhill Records. He continued working for them, and made lots of money from his continued royalties. 

But Lasker pushed too hard, and essentially killed the golden goose that was the reason for most of the record company's success. At some point in late 1967, Sloan couldn't take it anymore. He fled Los Angeles for the East Coast. There, his life slowly spiraled down into even worse circumstances. But that will be explained in the second and last volume in this series, since this volume only goes until 1967. 

Normally, in the "Covered" albums, I try not to have the songwriters also appear as performers. But I made a couple of exceptions here, because there are a couple of excellent songs in this time period that were best performed by Sloan: "Here's Where You Belong" and "Karma (Study of Divinations)." Also keep in mind that's him singing on the first song, as mentioned above.

Although I mentioned "Where Were You When I Needed You" as a hit in this time period, I haven't included it here. That's because I've chosen a later version by the Bangles that will appear in Volume 2.

Here's the Wikipedia link for Sloan:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._F._Sloan

And here's the one for Barri:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Barri 

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 Meet Me Tonight Little Girl (Philip & Stephan)
02 Unless You Care (Terry Black)
03 Eve of Destruction (Barry McGuire)
04 A Must to Avoid (Herman's Hermits)
05 Let Me Be (Turtles)
06 Sh-Down Down Song [You Better Leave Him Alone] (Ginger-Snaps with Dandee Dawson)
07 Little Liar (Terry Black)
08 You Never Had It So Good [Lollipop Train] (Barry McGuire)
09 Take Me for What I'm Worth (Searchers)
10 Here's Where You Belong (P. F. Sloan)
11 Sins of a Family (Ivans Meads)
12 What Am I Doing Here with You (Johnny Rivers)
13 You Baby (Turtles)
14 Tip of My Tongue (Grass Roots)
15 Bittersweet (Robbs)
16 From a Distance (Odin's People)
17 Can I Get to Know You Better (Turtles)
18 Secret Agent Man (Johnny Rivers)
19 Hold On (Herman's Hermits)
20 Is It Any Wonder (Turtles)
21 Karma [Study of Divinations] (P. F. Sloan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ckJi9NQv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xqtxOpGTnH6ML1P/file

The cover image is taken from an album by a band called "The Fantastic Baggys," supposedly consisting of four members. In fact, though, it was just Sloan and Barri, which is why there was a photo of just the two of them in the album art. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it. I also moved their heads closer together.

The Jeff Beck Group - Marquee Club, London, Britain, 9-26-1967

There are surprisingly few decent sounding concert bootlegs by the early Jeff Beck Group, when Jeff Beck joined forces with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood for three years in the late 1960s. This one has been shared as a bootleg for ages, but the sound quality was just okay, in my opinion. However, in 2023, a person named Goody made a bunch of sonic fixes to it. Goody always does good work, and indeed the Goody version sounds much better. However, there still were some issues. I made some more audio edits, so it sounds better still.

The Jeff Beck Group was formed in early 1967. Soon, the band recorded two singles, which were hits in Britain: "Hi Ho Silver Lining" and "Tallyman." However, these were songs imposed on them by pop producer Mickie Most, and the band didn't really like them much. You can actually hear Stewart mocking them a bit in banter between songs here, by asking the audience if the band should play "Hi Ho Silver Lining" or "Tallyman," and then playing neither of them. Despite the two hits, the band was still relatively unknown at the time of this concert. Stewart, especially, would go on to become a rock superstar later, but at this time he was an unknown. That's why the poster for this concert only mentioned "Jeff Beck," without even adding the "Group" part. Beck, at least, had developed an impressive reputation as a lead guitarist in the Yardbirds.

The band's first album, "Truth," wouldn't be released until July 1968. At this point, they were touring to improve their musical chemistry and boost their reputation. So it's interesting to have a concert recording of this band at this relatively early stage. Only three of the songs performed here, "Let Me Love You," "I Ain't Superstitious," and "Rock My Plimsoul," would make it onto "Truth."

Regarding the additional audio edits I made, as mentioned above, the big problem as I saw is was that the vocals were way too low in the mix. Goody has a different approach than I do, fixing problems like adjusting the azimuth, pitch, and phase, but not making drastic changes. Whereas I'm all in favor of drastic changes if I think it improves the recording. So I greatly boosted the vocals relative to the instruments. I think it sounds much better now, though note this is still an audience bootleg, not something of pristine soundboard quality.

The last song, "I Can't Hold Out," is the second time that song was performed in this concert. I'm guessing the band played two sets, but for some reason only a bit of one of the sets was recorded. One can hear right at the end of that song Stewart announcing "Let Me Love You" as the next song, which was exactly the same earlier in the album. Also, the first half a minute or so of that song was missing. It was a lucky thing we have the other version, because I was able to use that to patch in the missing part. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in its title. 

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Stone Cold Crazy (Jeff Beck Group)
02 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
03 I Can't Hold Out (Jeff Beck Group)
04 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
05 Let Me Love You (Jeff Beck Group)
06 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
07 I Ain't Superstitious (Jeff Beck Group)
08 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
09 I Think I'll Be Leaving This Morning (Jeff Beck Group)
10 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
11 Rock My Plimsoul (Jeff Beck Group)
12 Jeff's Boogie [Instrumental] (Jeff Beck Group)
13 Wee Wee Baby (Jeff Beck Group)
14 [I Know] I'm Losing You (Jeff Beck Group)
15 talk (Jeff Beck Group)
16 Oh Pretty Woman (Jeff Beck Group)
17 I Can't Hold Out [Second Version] [Edit] (Jeff Beck Group)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/TqU95Trd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/nps6CGHlyytFYfD/file

The cover art is rather strange this time. That's because I found the poster from a concert by this band that took place just three nights later. I liked it and decided to use it. 

If the style looks familiar to you, that's because it was made by Martin Sharp, the same person who made the cover art for the Cream albums "Disraeli Gears" and "Wheels of Fire." (He also wrote the lyrics of the Cream songs "Tales of Brave Ulysses and "Anyone for Tennis".) I had to make some adjustments to get the rectangular poster fit into a square space. The main thing I did was remove the venue name (UFO Roundhouse) and replace that with "Jeff Beck" from lower in the poster. Then I added some more text at the bottom. I've included the entire poster here, since it's so interesting.

The Steve Miller Band with Paul Butterfield - Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, 12-29-1968

I recently came across this Steve Miller Band concert bootleg that seemed relatively unknown on popular bootleg sites. The sound quality was excellent except for one major problem, but I was able to fix that problem, so here it is.

The problem I just mentioned is that the vocals were very low in the mix. Nowdays, that's usually an easy fix, thanks to programs like MVSEP. So I boosted the vocals volume relative to the instruments on all songs.

This concert took place at a time when the Steve Miller Band lost band member Boz Scaggs, so they were reduced to a trio for a while. But this was somewhat compensated by the fact that Paul Butterfield guested on harmonica for three songs.

This also was a time when the Steve Miller Band was much more into the blues than the later, much more famous, 1970s version of that band. Nearly all the songs are quite bluesy, with a mix of originals and covers. 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Stepping Stone (Steve Miller Band)
02 Mercury Blues (Steve Miller Band)
03 Blues with a Feeling (Steve Miller Band with Paul Butterfield)
04 Butterfield Blues [Instrumental] (Steve Miller Band with Paul Butterfield)
05 Song for Our Ancestors [Instrumental] (Steve Miller Band with Paul Butterfield)
06 Roll with It [Instrumental] (Steve Miller Band)
07 Your Old Lady (Steve Miller Band)
08 Drivin' Wheel (Steve Miller Band)
09 Bad Little Woman (Steve Miller Band) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cmbvFQFd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/N3N72j22hv3Mkwj/file

The cover art may seem odd at first, until I explain that the image comes from the concert poster for this exact concert. I had to make some adjustments to get the rectangular poster to fit into a square space. But most of that was trimming a lot of text that didn't really belong anyway. Instead, I added in my own text at the bottom, but I used the exact same font as on the original poster. 

A slightly new look! And a big project coming soon

Fabio from Rio has been increasingly helpful with this blog. Lately, he's been encouraging me to change the background image of various album covers. He thought that instead of random officially released albums, it should consist of covers I've made for this blog. I had to agree with him. So he helped me make that change. I selected some covers more or less at random. The only logic was that I tried to include the most popular musical acts on this blog.

So that's one change. Another is that Fabio designed a new header for this blog page. He came up with the vinyl record logo on the left, using AI. On the right, he and I agreed we could have what looked like part of a shelf of CDs. At this point, they're all albums that have been posted here, randomly selected. But we may change what albums are there. We'll see. We're open to suggestions.

One more thing. If you look closely at both the background image and the stack of CDs, one album that can be seen is "The Maximum Wall" by Pink Floyd. I've been talking about posting that for... well, let's just say a very long time now. But it's close. It's all finished, and I'm just waiting for a little feedback from a few people. So expect that in the next few days, knock on wood. In the stack of CDs it's very thick, because it's actually a quadruple album!

To whet your appetite for this album, here's a couple of images we made from the 180 page booklet that goes with the album. The booklet includes imagery for every song, plus descriptions of the editing changes, if any, and quotes from band members about the song, again if any. 

Our priority was always to use art created by Gerald Scarfe, who did all the art for the 1979 album. But in a majority of cases, we couldn't find a fitting image for a particular song, so Fabio made one, again using AI. Or, sometimes, we were able to find other art, such as screenshots from the Wall movie. 

The above image was made by Scarfe. Here on the right is a second image, made by Fabio's AI. 

Anyway, I hope you like the new background and header. And look forward to the "Maximum Wall" appearing here very soon.
 

Suzanne Vega - Cover Versions, Volume 2: 1997-2022

Here's the second and final volume of cover versions performed by Suzanne Vega. As I mentioned in my write-up for Volume 1, she's very rarely put any covers on her studio albums, but she's done some in concerts and in non-album projects. This completes all the ones I could find.

Most of the songs here are officially released. But there are four unreleased ones: "Blowin' in the Wind," "The Man Who Sold the World," "Femme Fatale," and "Dreaming." All of those come from concert bootlegs.

As for the officially released ones, three of them - "Behind Blue Eyes," "Solitaire," and "Have You Met Miss Jones" - are from a DVD called "Live at Montreux 2004." Three more are from a rarities album simply called "Rarities." That leaves three songs, which are from different "various artists" compilations.

By the way, in late 2025, Vega released a new studio album, "Flying with Angels." I think it's very good. If you haven't given it a listen yet, you should. I've been wanting to post a concert of her performing songs from that album, but I haven't come across anything with worthy sound quality yet. 

This album is 42 minutes long. 

01 Coventry Carol (Suzanne Vega)
02 Erie Canal (Suzanne Vega with Dan Zanes)
03 Behind Blue Eyes (Suzanne Vega)
04 Solitaire (Suzanne Vega)
05 Have You Met Miss Jones (Suzanne Vega)
06 Blowin' in the Wind (Vanessa Paradis & Suzanne Vega)
07 The Man Who Played God (Sparklehorse with Suzanne Vega)
08 Streets of Laredo (Suzanne Vega)
09 Femme Fatale (Suzanne Vega)
10 Walk on the Wild Side (Suzanne Vega)
11 Dopamine (Mitchell Froom with Suzanne Vega)
12 The Man Who Sold the World (Suzanne Vega)
13 Dreaming (Suzanne Vega)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6tJ2iy66 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/vkIJ2fVYijhItZ7/file

The cover image is from 1997. I don't know anything beyond that. The background was plain white. I didn't like that, so I pasted in the same background that appeared in the cover for Volume 1. 

Robyn Hitchcock - The Basement, Sydney, Australia, 5-23-2014 (The Basement Tapes)

"The Basement Tapes" were a collaborative music project between Bob Dylan and the Band in the summer of 1967. Over 100 songs were written and performed, the vast majority of them by Dylan. When a double album of the best songs from these sessions were released in 1975, it became a classic. In 2014, Robyn Hitchcock was living in Australia for a few months, and performed a lot there. One place he played in Sydney is called the Basement. I'm guessing that gave him the idea to perform all the songs from "The Basement Tapes" there, since he's a massive Dylan fan.

Actually, I should clarify he didn't perform all the songs from that double album. For one thing, he skipped the eight songs that primarily featured the Band, and honed in on just the Dylan songs. He also skipped a couple of the Dylan ones: "Apple Suckling Tree" and "Odds and Ends." But on the plus side, he did play a couple of Dylan songs that were recorded at that time and arguably should have been released on the double album: "I Shall Be Released" and "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)." He also ended the concert with a later Dylan classic, "Not Dark Yet."

Robyn was mostly in solo acoustic mode for this concert. However, he did have some backing on some of the songs in the second half of the concert, with Jenny Shimmin on banjo, Brendan Gallagher on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, and Emma Swift on acoustic guitar and vocals. (In addition to being a talented musician, Swift has been Hitchcock's romantic partner from some time prior to this concert through today in 2026.)

I've had this bootleg in my music collection for years, but I'd never considered posting it here due to sound quality issues. It was only an audience boot, with a lot of reverb/ echo. But audio editing technology has improved drastically in recent years, so I attempted to fix it. I ran every song through the MVSEP program, using their de-reverb filter. The banter between songs then got extra treatment. I ran all of those tracks through the Adobe speech enhancer. In my opinion, this recording now sounds much better. Almost as good as typical soundboard. Not quite, but close.  

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long. 

01 This Wheel's on Fire (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 Lo and Behold (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 Quinn the Eskimo [The Mighty Quinn] (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 Million Dollar Bash (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 Too Much of Nothing (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 Tears of Rage (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 Crash on the Levee [Down in the Flood] (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
14 Please, Mrs. Henry (Robyn Hitchcock)
15 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
16 Nothing Was Delivered (Robyn Hitchcock)
17 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
18 Yea, Heavy and a Bottle of Bread - Tiny Montgomery (Robyn Hitchcock)
19 I Shall Be Released (Robyn Hitchcock)
20 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
21 Open the Door, Homer (Robyn Hitchcock)
22 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
23 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Robyn Hitchcock)
24 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
25 Clothes Line Saga (Robyn Hitchcock)
26 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
27 Not Dark Yet (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/bUZD6pgk

alternate:  

https://bestfile.io/en/zWq4QA5nQ41ifHx/file

I was stumped for what to do with the cover art here, since I wanted something that showed both Robyn Hitchcock and something about the Basement Tapes. So, first, I found a photo of Hitchcock from 2014 (specifically, from the City Winery in Nashville, Tennessee, September 18, 2014). Then I found a black and white photo of the Band performing in a basement in 1969. Note I said "a basement," not THE basement of the Basement Tapes. This picture was taken in the basement of the house of Band member Rick Danko, not the basement of the Big Pink house where the Basement Tapes were recorded in 1967. But it was in the same small town of Woodstock, New York, and the Band did practice there a lot, so I'm sure it had a very similar vibe. (Unfortunately, Band member Levon Helm was in the middle of the image, so he is blocked by Hitchcock's body.)

Anyway, I colorized that image. Then I used Photoshop to put Hitchcock in front. It's not a perfect merger by any means, but it works for me. 

Maria Muldaur - The Bottom Line, New York City, 3-23-1976

Up until about a year ago (as I write this in August 2026), I only knew of Maria Muldaur from her hit single "Midnight at the Oasis." But in the process of posting material for this music blog, I discovered there was a lot more to her music career than just being a one-hit wonder. (Although she actually had a second Top Forty hit in the U.S. with "I'm a Woman, but I digress.) Take for instance the Great American Music Band concert I posted a few days ago, where she played in a band with Jerry Garcia, Taj Mahal, David Grisman, and others. So, now that I'm turned on to her music, when I found a very rare concert recording by her, it went straight to the top of my "albums to be posted" pile. Here it is.

Oh, and as a bonus surprise, on one songs here, Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band played lead guitar, and Mike Finnegan sang lead vocals.

At the time of this concert, Muldaur had recently released her album "Sweet Harmony." So naturally there are a lot of songs from that. I'm surprised though that this doesn't include her biggest hit, "Midnight at the Oasis."

The music here is unreleased. And, as I mentioned above, this seems to be a rare bootleg. I didn't find it on any of the bootleg sharing sites and services I use. However, the sound quality is excellent. It must either be a soundboard or an FM radio broadcast.

This album is an hour and three minutes long. 

01 I'm a Woman (Maria Muldaur)
02 talk (Maria Muldaur)
03 Sweet Harmony (Maria Muldaur)
04 talk (Maria Muldaur)
05 Sisters and Brothers (Maria Muldaur)
06 talk (Maria Muldaur)
07 Sad Eyes (Maria Muldaur)
08 talk (Maria Muldaur)
09 My Tennessee Mountain Home (Maria Muldaur)
10 talk (Maria Muldaur)
11 Back by Fall (Maria Muldaur)
12 talk (Maria Muldaur)
13 We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye (Maria Muldaur)
14 talk (Maria Muldaur)
15 Rockin' Chair (Maria Muldaur)
16 talk (Maria Muldaur)
17 Part Time Love (Maria Muldaur with Mike Finnegan & Dickey Betts)
18 My Blues Man (Maria Muldaur)
19 I Can't Stand It (Maria Muldaur)
20 talk (Maria Muldaur)
21 As an Eagle Stireth in Her Nest (Maria Muldaur)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AGXE9PP9 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/KVijVCV8hpGXOkD/file

The cover image is from a concert at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, California, on November 19, 1975. 

Suzanne Vega - Cover Versions, Volume 1: 1986-1997

Generally speaking, Suzanne Vega has filled her albums with originals, and almost no cover versions. But that doesn't mean she's never performed covers, it's just that she's usually done them in concert or for non-album projects. She has an appealing, unique voice, and great taste in covers, so I've collected all the cover songs I could find (with worthy sound quality, that is). I was able to find enough for two albums. Here's the first one.

The first song here, "In a Lonely Place," needs an explanation. It was written by the Smithereens, and appears on the 1986 Smithereens album "Especially for You." The vocals were mainly sung by the band's lead singer Pat DiNizio, but Vega added prominent backing vocals. Musical associate Lil Panda is a big Suzanne Vega fan, and wanted to hear a version with just Vega singing. Using the latest audio editing technology, he somehow managed to nearly completely remove DiNizio's vocals. The other version is perfectly fine, but it's interesting to hear it done this way too. So that's why this song has "[LilPanda Vega Mix]" in the title.

The other songs here generally come from tribute albums, or appearances on albums by other musical acts. (And they're presented in chronological order by year, as I usually do for albums like this one - see the mp3 tags for year and source details.) But there are a couple of exceptions, which are unreleased live versions. For "Chinese Bones," Vega had the honor of being a guest vocalist at a Grateful Dead concert. She chose to sing this Robyn Hitchcock song. And "Beyond Belief," maybe my favorite Elvis Costello song, comes from one of her own concerts.

This album is 43 minutes long. 

01 In a Lonely Place [LilPanda Vega Mix] (Smithereens & Suzanne Vega)
02 Stay Awake (Suzanne Vega)
03 Chinese Bones (Grateful Dead with Suzanne Vega)
04 Beyond Belief (Suzanne Vega)
05 China Doll (Suzanne Vega)
06 Cassidy (Suzanne Vega)
07 The Long Voyage (Hector Zazou with Suzanne Vega & John Cale)
08 Story of Isaac (Suzanne Vega)
09 Angel (Joe Jackson with Dawn Upshaw & Suzanne Vega)
10 Buy and Sell (Suzanne Vega) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1r77vBDH

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/CL2MWskBQNXJRTG/file

The cover image is from 1990. That's all I know about it. 

Blondie - Paradise Ballroom, Boston, MA, 11-4-1978

Here's an excellent concert by Blondie. I've posted a couple of Blondie concerts, but I've been wanting to post another from earlier in their career. (The earliest one I've posted is from late 1979.) 

This is arguably when they were at their peak. Their most acclaimed album is "Parallel Lines," released in September 1978. So this was part of the tour to promote that album. "Parallel Lines" has been widely acclaimed as one of the best albums of all time. For instance, Rolling Stone has put it in their list of the top 500 albums of all time, at No. 146 in their most recent list (as of 2020). NME magazine has gone even higher, putting it at 45 on their list of the top 500 albums of all time.

I believe this comes from an FM radio broadcast, so the sound quality is excellent. One problem though was that the lead vocals were too low in the mix. So I fixed that with the use of the MVSEP audio editing program.

This concert is unreleased.  

This album is an hour and three minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Blondie)
02 In the Sun (Blondie)
03 talk (Blondie)
04 X Offender (Blondie)
05 Hanging on the Telephone (Blondie)
06 Detroit 442 (Blondie)
07 talk (Blondie)
08 Fan Mail (Blondie)
09 Picture this (Blondie)
10 11-59 (Blondie)
11 talk (Blondie)
12 Pretty Baby (Blondie)
13 [I'm Always Touched by Your] Presence Dear (Blondie)
14 Sunday Girl (Blondie)
15 Denis (Blondie)
16 I'm on E (Blondie)
17 talk (Blondie)
18 Will Anything Happen (Blondie)
19 Fade Away and Radiate (Blondie)
20 One Way or Another (Blondie)
21 Youth Nabbed as Sniper (Blondie)
22 Heart of Glass (Blondie)
23 Bang a Gong [Get It On] (Blondie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Mt5DT2Zj

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ar8JfnqyIlfQqxy/file 

The cover image of Debbie Harry is from this exact venue, in this year. Unfortunately, the date is wrong, as it's from a concert there in May. But still, I wanted to choose it due to it at least being the right venue, despite the fact you can't see anything distinctive in the background. 

The Great American Music Band with Maria Muldaur - Pilgrimage Theater, Hollywood, CA, 4-20-1974

Back in May 2026, I posted a concert by the Great American Music Band. Here's how I described it in my write-up back then: "This band was a collaboration between David Grisman, Jerry Garcia, Taj Mahal, and others. It was a mostly instrumental and acoustic band that combined folk, bluegrass, and jazz. It was a loose association, with people coming and going." 

Unfortunately, for the Ebbets Field concert I posted then, Jerry Garcia didn't take part in that particular concert. His involvement in this music project was one of the most interesting things about it, so I was interested to find a concert where he did take part. Nothing from this band has ever been officially released. But I did find this concert with great soundboard sound quality, and it does have Garcia playing on all the songs. 

Plus, this concert has a guest vocalist: Maria Muldaur sang lead or backing vocals on many songs. Interestingly, this came right around the time her song "Midnight at the Oasis" reached the Top Ten in the U.S. singles chart. (It was released as a single in November 1973, made a slow climb, peaking in June 1974.) 

It seems this band was basically a bunch of musical friends experimenting with musical collaboration on stage. Perhaps that's why nothing from the band has ever been released. For instance, Garcia played banjo instead of guitar on all the songs, and he rarely played banjo, relatively speaking. He also didn't sing at all, and kept a low profile. Taj Mahal played stand-up bass, an instrument he also rarely played. However, he did sing some, although about half of the songs are instrumentals.

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Great American Music Band)
02 talk (Great American Music Band)
03 Limehouse Blues [Instrumental] (Great American Music Band)
04 talk (Great American Music Band)
05 Dawg's Bull [Instrumental] (Great American Music Band)
06 talk (Great American Music Band)
07 My Plastic Banana Isn't Stupid [Instrumental] (Great American Music Band)
08 talk (Great American Music Band)
09 Swing '42 [Instrumental] (Great American Music Band)
10 talk (Great American Music Band)
11 Coloured Aristocracy [Instrumental] (Great American Music Band)
12 talk (Great American Music Band)
13 Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms (Great American Music Band)
14 talk (Great American Music Band)
15 Dawg's Rag [Instrumental] (Great American Music Band)
16 talk (Great American Music Band)
17 I'll Be a Gambler If You Deal the Cards (Great American Music Band)
18 talk (Great American Music Band)
19 Midnight at the Oasis (Great American Music Band)
20 talk (Great American Music Band)
21 Sweet Georgia Brown (Great American Music Band)
22 talk by emcee (Great American Music Band)
23 talk (Great American Music Band)
24 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Great American Music Band)
25 talk by emcee (Great American Music Band)

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

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/x6UZLnVagHrp0F5/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right: David Grisman, Jerry Garcia, Maria Muldaur, Taj Mahal and David Nichtern. As an aside, Nichtern is the person who wrote "Midnight at the Oasis." Another band member, Richard Greene, is not shown. Bob Gurland guested on trumpet on some songs in this concert, and he also isn't shown.

Ian Matthews - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 5-1977

I am sad to announce that I have nearly come to an end of radio broadcast concerts to post from Ebbets Field, Denver. I've posted 70 Ebbets Field albums prior to this one. This is the only concert I could find from 1977, the last year the venue held concerts. (In the middle of that year, the owner switched to running a larger concert venue in Denver.) 

I only have two more Ebbets Field albums to post, and they're somewhat different. They're compilations of all the songs I could find that were recorded at this venue in the cases where only single songs have been made public instead of full shows. So this is the last proper concert. If you know of any concerts from this venue that I've missed, PLEASE let me know! I want this to be the best spot on the Internet for finding this material.

Anyway, let's get to the details of this particular concert. It's the second one from Ian Matthews, a singer-songwriter who was an original member of the band Fairport Convention. (He later changed his name to Iain Matthews.) The first one I posted was from 1976. Like that one, we have this one because it was released earlier in 2026 on the archival collection "Rhythm of the West: The Columbia Years 1975-1977." 

With his 1976 album "Go for Broke," he switched styles from folky to pop rock. He continued that trend with his 1977 album "Hit and Run." A lot of the songs here are from that album, as well as the previous one. Also, in the 1976 concert I posted, he hardly ever spoke between songs. But there's a lot of banter in this recording.

This album is an hour and one minute long. 

01 talk by emcee (Ian Matthews)
02 Just One Look (Ian Matthews)
03 Times (Ian Matthews)
04 talk (Ian Matthews)
05 Rhythm of the West (Ian Matthews)
06 talk (Ian Matthews)
07 Tigers Will Survive (Ian Matthews)
08 talk (Ian Matthews)
09 Help to Guide Me (Ian Matthews)
10 Brown Eyed Girl (Ian Matthews)
11 talk (Ian Matthews)
12 I Will Not Fade Away (Ian Matthews)
13 talk (Ian Matthews)
14 Shuffle (Ian Matthews)
15 Hit and Run (Ian Matthews)
16 talk by emcee (Ian Matthews)
17 Lonely Hunter (Ian Matthews)
18 talk by emcee (Ian Matthews)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/nkohH3D2

alternate:

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

The cover image is from 1978, but I don't know more details. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it. 

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - Fireman's Memorial Park, Hempstead, NY, 8-15-1981

I recently saw a TV show about the Runaways, a pioneering 1970s all-female band. That got to interested in taking another look at Joan Jett's solo career, since she had been a key member of the Runaways. That led me to finding this bootleg. It has excellent sound quality from a live radio broadcast.

At the time of this concert, Jett was just starting to turn into a star. After the Runaways broke up in 1978, she had a very hard time getting her solo career started. Record companies at that time weren't interested in female rock and rollers. There had only been a few prominent examples prior to that (Fanny from the early 1970s comes to mind), but it wasn't seen as commercially viable. For her 1980 debut album, "Bad Reputation," over 20 record companies rejected it. She ultimately released it independently. Those sales were so strong that a record company finally picked it up and paid for her to record a second album.

This concert took place while she and her band was recording that second album, "I Love Rock n' Roll." She later said of this time period (June through September 1981): "During the weekdays we'd be in the studio, and during the weekends we'd travel around the New York area, the Northeast, doing gigs. So we were doing both without really stopping. Which was good, I thought, it really kept us together, it kept us sharp." When that album came out in November, it slowly grew and grew into a big hit, thanks mostly to the song "I Love Rock 'n Roll." Not only did that song reach Number One on the U.S. singles chart, it stayed there for seven weeks and became one of the biggest hits of the decade. 

In this concert, I imagine most of the audience didn't know that song, or other songs she would release on that album. ("I Love Rock 'n Roll" wouldn't be released as a single until January 1982.) Furthermore, some cover songs she performed here wouldn't end up being released on any of her studio albums in that time period, such as "Summertime Blues," "Star Star," and "Rebel Rebel." She also did three songs from when she was in the Runaways: "Wait for Me," "You're Too Possessive," and "I Love Playin' with Fire."

Here's her Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Jett 

The bootleg I found of this concert had one problem: the lead vocals were rather low in the mix. So I fixed that using the MVSEP audio editing program. 

This album is an hour and 11 minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
02 Bad Reputation (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
03 Be Straight (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
04 talk (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
05 You Don't Know What You've Got (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
06 Bits and Pieces (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
07 talk (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
08 Wait for Me (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
09 talk (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
10 Summertime Blues (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
11 talk (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
12 Victim of Circumstance (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
13 talk (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
14 I Love Rock 'n Roll (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
15 talk (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
16 Nag (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
17 Crimson and Clover (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
18 You're Too Possessive (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
19 talk (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
20 Love Is Pain (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
21 talk (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
22 Black Leather (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
23 Do You Wanna Touch Me [Oh Yeah] (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
24 Star Star (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
25 talk (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
26 Shout (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
27 talk (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
28 I Love Playin' with Fire (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
29 Wooly Bully (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
30 talk (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
31 talk by emcee (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
32 Rebel Rebel (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
33 talk by emcee (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zLBbi46s

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/9qgZIbsmw32tpV4/file

The cover image shows Jett in concert in 1981, details unknown. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it.

Various Artists - The Legendary Ladies of Rock and Roll, Latin Quarter, New York City, 2-19-1987

In the late 1980s, the cable TV network Cinemax arranged a series of about five concerts that brought together many musical legends. Each one was organized around a theme. The theme for this one is obvious in the title: "The Legendary Ladies of Rock and Roll." And that wasn't just hype. For only one concert, a truly impressive collection of famous female singers came together for just this one time: Lesley Gore, Freda Payne, Shirley Alston Reeves, Mary Wells, Ronnie Spector, Brenda Lee, and Martha Reeves. They were joined by Grace Slick and Belinda Carlisle, who didn't do much singing themselves (at least in the edit of the concert we have, that got broadcast on Cinemax), but served as co-hosts.

The only name I didn't recognize at first is Shirley Alston Reeves. That's because she was the lead singer for the Shirelles in the early 1960s, under the name Shirley Owens. By the time of this concert, she'd married for a second time, and changed her name. Also, if you don't know Ronnie Spector, she was the lead singer for the Ronettes, also in the 1960s.

Weirdly for a concert celebrating famous female singers, this begins with two songs sung by men. That's because they were opportunities to give the backing band a chance to warm up with their own spotlight. The band was led by Jimmy Vivino, and prominently featured Clarence Clemons of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band on saxophone. They played on all the songs even though though they only both get credited on the first one. I'm not sure how Chubby Checker (famous for "The Twist" and other early 1960s hits) got involved, but he sang the second track here, a medley of three rock classics.

Apparently, those first two songs didn't make the TV special, but somehow were saved at the same quality for the audio bootleg. Thus, the show really began with the third track, where the two hosts, Grace Slick (of Jefferson Airplane/ Jefferson Starship) and Belinda Carlisle (of the Go-Go's) began introducing the other acts. Then, typically, each singer sang two songs. However, Freda Payne only got to sing one, her biggest hit "Band of Gold," and she did it with Carlisle, who released a cover of it in 1986. For "Soldier Boy" in the middle of the concert, all the other singers came on stage to help with the backing vocals. Then they came out again for the last couple of songs. 

This concert is unreleased in any audio format, as far as I know. However, it was released on video. One can find a copy of that on YouTube as I write this in August 2026, but with only middling quality. Luckily, I found a different source, so the sound quality is excellent. 

01 Shotgun (Jimmy Vivino with Clarence Clemons)
02 Good Golly, Miss Molly - Hound Dog - I Saw Her Standing There (Chubby Checker with Clarence Clemons)
03 talk (Grace Slick & Belinda Carlisle)
04 [Love Is like A] Heat Wave (Martha Reeves)
05 I'm Ready for Love (Martha Reeves)
06 talk (Belinda Carlisle & Lesley Gore)
07 It's My Party (Lesley Gore)
08 You Don't Own Me (Lesley Gore)
09 talk (Grace Slick)
10 My Guy (Mary Wells)
11 talk (Mary Wells)
12 You Beat Me to the Punch (Mary Wells)
13 talk (Belinda Carlisle & Shirley Alston Reeves)
14 Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Shirley Alston Reeves)
15 Tonight's the Night (Shirley Alston Reeves)
16 Soldier Boy (Shirley Alston Reeves with Everyone)
17 talk (Belinda Carlisle)
18 Band of Gold (Freda Payne & Belinda Carlisle)
19 talk (Grace Slick)
20 I'm Sorry (Brenda Lee)
21 talk (Brenda Lee)
22 That's All You Gotta Do (Brenda Lee)
23 talk (Belinda Carlisle)
24 I Can Hear Music (Ronnie Spector)
25 talk (Ronnie Spector with Belinda Carlisle & Grace Slick)
26 Be My Baby (Ronnie Spector with Belinda Carlisle & Grace Slick)
27 talk (Grace Slick)
28 Da Doo Ron Ron (Ronnie Spector with Everyone)
29 Dancing in the Street (Martha Reeves with Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/VwHeN1Rb

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/lcAOdJky9fTo1Be/file

The cover is a photo showing all the stars of this concert, presumably taken just before or after the show. Here are their names from left to right, by row. Top row: Lesley Gore, Freda Payne, Shirley Alston, Mary Wells, and Ronnie Spector. Middle row: Grace Slick and Belinda Carlisle. Bottom row: Brenda Lee and Martha Reeves.

I'm pleased how I managed to make cover, as I learned a new technique along the way. I found a color version of this, but it was very low-res. I also found a black and white one with much better resolution. I was able to use Photoshop to get the color while keeping the resolution of the black and white version.  

Parliament-Funkadelic - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 11-1976

One thing I've been enjoying about the Ebbets Field radio broadcasts I've been posting is the wide variety of music that was performed in this small Denver venue (which only held a maximum of 250 people). It didn't matter what kind of music was on offer there, so long as it was good. Even so, I'm pleasantly surprised that the funk band Parliament-Funkadelic played there in late 1976. I would have thought they would have been too popular at that time to play such a small venue, but I could imagine that the Denver area wasn't a hotbed of funk back then.

Here's the Wikipedia entry intro:

"Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, both active since the 1960s. With an eclectic style drawing on psychedelia, outlandish fashion, and surreal humor, they have released albums such as 'Maggot Brain' (1971), 'Mothership Connection' (1975), and 'One Nation Under a Groove' (1978) to critical praise, and scored charting hits with singles such as 'Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)' (1975) and 'Flash Light' (1978). Overall, the collective achieved thirteen top ten hits in the American R&B music charts between 1967 and 1983, including six number one hits. Their work has had an influential effect on subsequent funk, post-punk, hip-hop, and techno artists of the 1980s and 1990s, while their collective mythology has helped pioneer Afrofuturism."

Also, if you're curious about the band's name - is it two bands or one? - here's the explanation from Wikipedia as well:

"By the late 1960s, [George] Clinton had gained experience as a producer-writer for Motown Records and, inspired by artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, and Frank Zappa, he relocated to Detroit and enlisted musicians from his New Jersey days in his own two sister bands Parliament and Funkadelic; the first would go on to develop a commercially successful style of science-fiction-inspired funk, while the second pursued a heavier sound which blended funk with psychedelic rock. The name 'Parliament-Funkadelic' became the catch-all term for the dozens of related musicians recording and touring different projects in Clinton's orbit. ... [By 1974,] the two bands began to tour together under the collective name 'Parliament-Funkadelic.'"

Here's the link for the entire entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament-Funkadelic

In July 1976, Parliament released the album "The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein." They also had a hit single in 1976 with "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)." Although that came off their previous album, released in 1975, it didn't reach Gold status until October 1976, just a month prior to this concert. Meanwhile, Funkadelic released the album "Tales of Kidd Funkadelic" in September 1976. So the combined bands had a lot of new music to perform in this concert.

As far as I know, this concert recording remains unreleased. 

This album is an hour and 17 minutes long. 

01 Children of Production (Parliament-Funkadelic)
02 Mothership Connection (Parliament-Funkadelic)
03 Swing Down, Sweet Chariot (Parliament-Funkadelic)
04 Dr. Funkenstein (Parliament-Funkadelic)
05 Coming Round the Mountain (Parliament-Funkadelic)
06 Give Up the Funk [Tear the Roof Off the Sucker] (Parliament-Funkadelic)
07 Cosmic Slop (Parliament-Funkadelic)
08 Red Hot Momma (Parliament-Funkadelic)
09 Let's Take It to the Stage (Parliament-Funkadelic)
10 Do That Stuff (Parliament-Funkadelic)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ih8qEUgD

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/VlrsM4Pir7CjTod/file

The cover image of band leader George Clinton is from a concert in Los Angeles, California, on June 4, 1977.

Various Artists - Sing for Freedom: Festival of Negro Folk Music and Freedom Songs, Old Campus, Atlanta, GA, 5-9-1964

Here's a really rare and unusual concert bootleg, from way back in 1964. It features four short acoustic sets by folk singers Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Len Chandler, and Theodore Bikel. This is historical, when folk music was helping to power the civil rights movement.

This concert took place a pivotal time, a month before "Freedom Summer." The civil rights movement was growing in power, and challenging racist segregation in the South. The plan was that civil rights activists from all over the U.S. would converge on Mississippi from June until August, and help Black people there register to vote, despite restrictive Jim Crow laws. Here's a Wikipedia entry about Freedom Summer:

Freedom Summer - Wikipedia

This concert was part of three days of workshops and concerts. All these events were arranged by the Highlander Center, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). These organizations and participants, especially the SNCC, were also very involved in Freedom Summer. 

I found a Folkways album that has some songs from this very concert, so I was able to learn some about it. These concerts and workshops were designed to help civil rights activists get on the same page musically, because protest songs were a big part of motivating people in the movement. Basically, there was an older group of people, mostly Black, who were raised on spirituals, many of them addressing the issue of slavery. But there also was a younger generation, many of them white, who were most interested in recently written folk music, best exemplified by the songs of Bob Dylan. So the concerts allowed different crowds to learn key folk songs, many of which would be sung during Freedom Summer events. In fact, a booklet was later made and distributed containing the lyrics to about 50 songs performed during these events, so people would be better able to sing them together that summer.

I have to admit that, being a non-religious person, I wasn't interested in the gospel groups singing almost entirely gospel songs in this concert. And there were a handful of those groups. So I focused on the sets by the younger generation, consisting of singer-songwriters and their new songs. Phil Ochs and Tom Paxton are pretty well known, and I've posted albums by both of them, so I won't say more about them here. 

Len Chandler was an interesting figure. He was a rare example of a Black man in the highly influential folk music scene in Greenwich Village in New York City in the early 1960s. He didn't release his first solo album until 1966. But the songs he wrote were influential before then. For instance, he sang with Bob Dylan and Joan Baez in the famous 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I have a dream" speech. King also quoted Chandler's lyrics to his song "Keep On Keepin' On" in a different speech. (That song is included here.) The Serendipity Singers had a Top 40 hit in the U.S. with his song "Beans in My Ears."

Dylan fans will be interested to learn that Chandler was very influential on Dylan, practically from the moment Dylan arrived in New York City for the first time. Dylan later wrote this about him in "Chronicles: Volume One," his 2004 memoir: "One thing about Chandler was that he was fearless. He didn’t suffer fools and no one could get in his way. He was powerfully built … brilliant and full of good will, one of those guys who believed that all of society could be affected by one solitary life."

Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Len Chandler - Wikipedia

But this is a better link, in my opinion, an obituary for him in the Guardian, after he died in 2023: 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/oct/22/len-chandler-obituary

The final main performer featured here is Theodore Bikel. He too had a prominent role in the music of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. But, born in 1924, he had a long career as an entertainer before that movement even began. He began a very successful career as an actor in the early 1940s. He appeared in hundreds of movies and TV shows, often in minor character actor roles, but sometimes in major roles. Then, in 1955, he released the first of a couple dozen studio albums. He could sing in over 20 different languages, and had a role in popularizing songs from different parts of the world. 

Bikel also had an influential role in Dylan's life. He was the first person besides Dylan to sing "Blowin' in the Wind" in public, and he generally championed his music when few did. In 1963, he convinced Dylan to accompany him to a civil rights rally in Greenwood, Mississippi. This trip helped inspire Dylan to write some of his most strident political songs from that era. Also, in 1965, when Dylan famously "went electric" at the Newport Folk Festival, Bikel was the one to calm Pete Seeger down and prevent him from rushing the stage to try to stop the performance. He reportedly told Seeger, "Peter, this band, these rebels - they are us. They are what we were 20 years ago. Remember?" Apparently, that was enough to cause Seeger to pause and rethink.

That just scratches the surface of Bikel's long and varied career. Here's his Wikipedia page if you want to know more:

Theodore Bikel - Wikipedia 

I had to guess about the order of the performers. It's obvious that Bikel was the last one (as you can hear if you listen to the last song especially). I had to guess on the others. The Tom Paxton set included one song by the Georgia Sea Island Singers. I'm not sure, but it's possible that Paxton played guitar on that song. I didn't include their set, because it was almost entirely gospel songs that I don't enjoy. But I decided to keep this one, since it was more of an overt civil rights song.

I mentioned above that there's an official Folkways album about the three days of music that this concert was a part of. It's called "Sing for Freedom: Lest We Forget, Vol. 3." Only one of the songs performed here made it on that album, "Do What I Have to Do," by Phil Ochs. The rest generally are the gospel-type songs I'm not so keen on. 

I found this bootleg on a pretty obscure corner of the Internet. I had to split the audio streams into mp3s. I don't think any music from this concert has been shared in the usual bootleg sharing sites until now. 

This album is an hour and seven minutes long. 

01 talk by emcee (Phil Ochs)
02 talk (Phil Ochs)
03 Do What I Have to Do [False Start] (Phil Ochs)
04 Do What I Have to Do (Phil Ochs)
05 talk (Phil Ochs)
06 Talking Birmingham Jam (Phil Ochs)
07 talk (Phil Ochs)
08 Links on a Chain (Phil Ochs)
09 Keep On Keepin' On (Len Chandler)
10 talk (Len Chandler)
11 Oklahoma Talking Blues (Len Chandler)
12 talk (Len Chandler)
13 Time of the Tiger (Len Chandler)
14 talk (Len Chandler)
15 I'm Going to Get My Baby Out of Jail (Len Chandler)
16 talk by emcee (Tom Paxton)
17 talk (Tom Paxton)
18 A Rumblin' in the Land (Tom Paxton)
19 talk (Tom Paxton)
20 The Dogs of Alabama (Tom Paxton)
21 talk (Tom Paxton)
22 Bottle of Wine (Tom Paxton)
23 talk (Tom Paxton)
24 This Land Is Your Land (Tom Paxton)
25 talk by emcee (Georgia Sea Island Singers)
26 Which Side Are You On (Georgia Sea Island Singers)
27 talk by emcee (Theodore Bikel)
28 talk (Theodore Bikel)
29 Mangwane Mpulele (Theodore Bikel)
30 talk (Theodore Bikel)
31 Michael, Row the Boat Ashore (Theodore Bikel)
32 talk (Theodore Bikel)
33 Come Away Melinda (Theodore Bikel)
34 talk (Theodore Bikel)
35 We Shall Overcome (Theodore Bikel)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/eG9zMfaN

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/bCkS4Tr2iBtQVPt/file

The cover image shows Tom Paxton (in a checkered shirt) with Phil Ochs. Since I couldn't find any photo from this exact concert, I went looking for photos of the main performers here. I found this one, with Paxton, Ochs, and Eric Andersen at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964. Andersen was sitting down. I removed him, using Photoshop, then moved Paxton and Ochs closer together. Also, the original was in black and white, but I colorized it.