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.

Robyn Hitchcock - The Chapel, San Francisco, CA, 12-27-2018 (John Wesley Harding)

Robyn Hitchcock has written many hundreds of songs himself. But even so, he loves performing cover songs as well, so much that he sometimes performs entire classic albums by others from start to finish. I've already posted a bunch of those, and here's another. This time, he did "John Wesley Harding," the great 1967 album by Bob Dylan. 

Most of the cover albums I've posted by Hitchcock so far were performed at the Three Kings club in London, with a full band. But this one took place in San Francisco, and is in solo acoustic format. Dylan's original album was with a band, but the backing was pretty sparse, mostly just Dylan on acoustic guitar, harmonica, and/or piano, plus bass and drums. So Hitchcock, also on acoustic guitar, harmonica, and/or piano, wasn't that different.

The original Dylan album is only 38 minutes long. This concert, however, is almost two hours long. In addition to performing the entire album, he warmed up with three other Dylan covers. 

Strangely, he also did two more covers during the album, "Dear Prudence" by the Beatles and "Dear Doctor" by the Rolling Stones, after playing "Dear Landlord" by Dylan. (He thought the Beatles and Stones were inspired to write songs in the "Dear..." format. I don't know if that's true, but the timing lines up, since the other two were written within a year of the release of Dylan's song.)

Then, after the album finished, he did still more Dylan covers ("I Threw It All Away" and "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)"), but also songs by the Band ("Caledonia Mission") and John Lennon ("God"), plus two songs he'd recently written himself ("Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom" and "Those Guys Are All Dead Now"). On top of all that, there's plenty of banter between songs, in his usual entertaining stream-of-consciousness style.

This originally was an audience bootleg. It was a pretty good one though, helped by the fact that it's easier to record a solo acoustic show, especially with a small, polite audience. But I improved the sound of every single track, so much so that this sounds as good as a soundboard or FM radio broadcast. For all the talking tracks, I ran them through the Adobe speech enhancer, and improved the clarity a long. Then, for all the songs, I ran them through MVSEP's "Reverb Removal" filter. That made a big difference as well.

This sounds really excellent now, even though everything here is unreleased. These filters are steadily improving with updates. Writing this in August 2026, this wouldn't have sounded this good if I had done these same audio edits even two years ago.  

This album is an hour and 58 minutes long. 

01 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 Mr. Tambourine Man (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 Visions of Johanna (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 Clothes Line Saga (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 John Wesley Harding (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 As I Went Out One Morning (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 All Along the Watchtower (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
14 The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest (Robyn Hitchcock)
15 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
16 Drifter's Escape (Robyn Hitchcock)
17 Dear Landlord (Robyn Hitchcock)
18 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
19 Dear Prudence (Robyn Hitchcock)
20 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
21 Dear Doctor (Robyn Hitchcock)
22 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
23 I Am a Lonesome Hobo (Robyn Hitchcock)
24 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
25 I Pity the Poor Immigrant (Robyn Hitchcock)
26 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
27 Wicked Messenger (Robyn Hitchcock)
28 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
29 Down Along the Cove (Robyn Hitchcock)
30 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
31 I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (Robyn Hitchcock)
32 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
33 I Threw It All Away (Robyn Hitchcock)
34 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
35 Caledonia Mission (Robyn Hitchcock)
36 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
37 Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom (Robyn Hitchcock)
38 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
39 Senor [Tales of Yankee Power] (Robyn Hitchcock)
40 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
41 Those Guys Are All Dead Now (Robyn Hitchcock)
42 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
43 God (Robyn Hitchcock)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/3YkDVR5v

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/R7pn4yIaQZuE0nv/file

The cover image is a parody of the original cover for Dylan's "John Wesley Harding" album. I came across a version of this that was used to promote this concert. However, I redid the text and moved some of it around a bit.

Chick Corea & Return to Forever - Ebbetts Field, Denver, CO, 8-9-1974

Here's another Ebbets Field radio broadcast that isn't my cup of tea. As I mentioned for the Mahavishnu Orchestra one I posted a couple of days ago, I'm not into serious instrumental jazz. Not even jazz fusion like this one. But I want to post all the Ebbets Field concerts I can find, so here you go. It's Chick Corea leading his band at the time, Return to Forever.

Here's what Wikipedia's intro on Corea has to say about him:

"Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and occasional percussionist. His compositions 'Spain,' '500 Miles High,' 'La Fiesta,' 'Armando's Rhumba,' and 'Windows' are considered jazz standards. As a member of the Miles Davis band in the late 1960s, Corea participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, and Keith Jarrett, Corea is considered one of the foremost pianists of the post-John Coltrane era. Corea continued to collaborate frequently while exploring different musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He won 29 Grammy Awards and has been nominated for the award 79 times."

Here's the link to the rest of his Wikipedia entry:

Chick Corea - Wikipedia

The band Corea led in this concert, Return to Forever, is one of the best known and most pivotal of jazz fusion bands. Many band members later went on to become famous jazz names. Here's the Wikipedia intro about the band:

Return to Forever was an American jazz fusion band that was founded by pianist Chick Corea in 1972. The band has had many members, with the only consistent bandmate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report, the Headhunters, and Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever is often cited as one of the core groups of the jazz-fusion movement of the 1970s. Several musicians, including Clarke, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira and Al Di Meola, came to prominence through their performances on Return to Forever albums."

The band made albums from 1972 to 1977. After that, there were occasional reunions into the 2000s, but no more new studio albums.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry for the band:

Return to Forever - Wikipedia

Now, let me address this recording. All the songs sounded as good as you'd expect from an Ebbets Field radio broadcast. However, there were problems with "Vulcan Worlds." For one thing, I found about three or four small gaps in the song. These lasted only a second or so, and they were easily fixed. However, there was a longer gap near the end. I don't know how long it was, but based on other live versions I found from the same year, it was probably less than a minute. I found a different soundboard and patched in the last minute. I had to change the pitch, so that might be a little off. All of that is why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title.

This album has gotten an obscure official release, under the name "Alive in America." But this clearly was just the radio broadcast bootleg that was already on the Internet, with no effort to improve it. One can tell, because it also had that gap at the end of "Vulcan Worlds."

This album is an hour and 19 minutes long.

01 talk by emcee (Chick Corea & Return to Forever)
02 Return to the Seventh Galaxy [Instrumental] (Chick Corea & Return to Forever)
03 Vulcan Worlds [Instrumental] [Edit] (Chick Corea & Return to Forever)
04 talk (Chick Corea & Return to Forever)
05 The Shadow of Lo [Instrumental] (Chick Corea & Return to Forever)
06 talk (Chick Corea & Return to Forever)
07 Where Have I Known You Before [Instrumental] (Chick Corea & Return to Forever)
08 Al DiMeola Solo [Instrumental] (Chick Corea & Return to Forever)
09 Stanley Clarke Solo [Instrumental] (Chick Corea & Return to Forever)
10 Lenny White Solo [Instrumental] (Chick Corea & Return to Forever)
11 talk (Chick Corea & Return to Forever)
12 Song to the Pharoah Kings [Instrumental] (Chick Corea & Return to Forever)
13 talk (Chick Corea & Return to Forever)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FxAEqzUA

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/Y4CE97jXrMQOoLI/file

The cover image of Chick Corea comes from an unknown concert in 1974.

Ian Matthews - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 6-3-1976

Here's yet another Ebbets Field radio broadcast concert. This time, it stars singer-songwriter Ian Matthews.

Here's the Wikipedia entry intro for him: "He was an original member of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention from 1967 to 1969 before leaving to form his own band, Matthews Southern Comfort, which had a UK Number One in 1970 with their cover of Joni Mitchell's 'Woodstock.' In 1979, his recording of Terence Boylan's 'Shake It' reached No. 13 on the US charts." 

One other important fact about him is that in 1989, he changed the spelling of his first name from "Ian" to "Iain." I'm using "Ian" for this post though, because that was the name he was using in 1976.

Matthews had a lot of success in the early 1970s in a folk rock mode, including the British Number One single mentioned above. He led two bands in that era, Matthews Southern Comfort and Plainsong. However, he changed his musical style to pop rock with his 1976 album "Go for Broke." This concert took place about a month after the release of that album, so he was focused on that new style. His voice was well suited for that type of music. However, many of his fans were unhappy about the change, and his 1976 album didn't do as well as many of his previous ones. Despite this, he would stick with this different musical style through the rest of the 1970s.

As far as I can tell, this recording wasn't publicly available at all until earlier this year (writing this in July 2026). But this full concert was included on the new archival release "Rhythm of the West: The Columbia Years 1975-1977." A second Ebbets Field concert he did from 1977 was also included, and I plan on posting that soon as well. This seems to be the first newly officially released Ebbets Field concert by any musical act in many years, so let's hope others will follow. 

This album is an hour and 16 minutes long. 

01 Steamboat (Ian Matthews)
02 Hit and Run (Ian Matthews)
03 Rhythm of the West (Ian Matthews)
04 I Will Not Fade Away (Ian Matthews)
05 Payday (Ian Matthews)
06 Times (Ian Matthews)
07 Tigers Will Survive (Ian Matthews)
08 Shuffle (Ian Matthews)
09 Faith to Arise (Ian Matthews)
10 Nobody (Ian Matthews)
11 Truck Driving Man (Ian Matthews)
12 talk by emcee (Ian Matthews)
13 talk (Ian Matthews)
14 Brown Eyed Girl (Ian Matthews)
15 talk by emcee (Ian Matthews) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xXkP4xbr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/g7qEA2aY6fKShmv/file 

The cover image of Matthews is from an appearance on the Dutch TV show "Toppop" some unknown time in 1976.

The Mahavishnu Orchestra - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 4-3-1973

If you thought I was done posting concerts sourced from Ebbets Field radio broadcasts, I'm not. I've been distracted this last week working like a demon on the "Maximum Wall" Pink Floyd project, so I haven't been posting much. But I'm glad to say that's nearly finished. Now, I'm just waiting for feedback from a few people. I don't have many more of these Ebbets Field recordings, but I do have about ten more. 

Some of those are because I decided I wanted to be thorough and post all the ones I could find, even if they're of music I don't like much. This is one that doesn't really appeal to me. I'm not into serious instrumental jazz (although I do like vocal jazz). But hey, I'm sure there are some people out there will appreciate this, so this is for you. It's the Mahavishnu Orchestra, led by lead guitarist John McLaughlin.

Here's the Wikipedia intro about this band:

"The Mahavishnu Orchestra was a jazz fusion band formed in New York City in 1971, led by English guitarist John McLaughlin. The group underwent several line-up changes throughout its history across its two periods of activity, from 1971 to 1976 and from 1984 to 1987. With its first line-up consisting of McLaughlin, drummer Billy Cobham, keyboardist Jan Hammer, violinist Jerry Goodman, and bassist Rick Laird, the band received acclaim for its complex, intense music consisting of a blend of Indian classical music, jazz, and psychedelic rock as well as its dynamic live performances between 1971 and 1973. Many members of the band have gone on to acclaimed careers of their own in the jazz and jazz fusion genres."

Since this isn't really my cup of tea, I won't say much more. But here's the rest of the Wikipedia article:

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Wikipedia

I only had one problem when getting ready to post this album: the last song, "Dawn," got cut off before the end. About the last five minutes were missing. So I found another soundboard bootleg version, from Buffalo, New York in January 1973, and I used that to fill in the last few minutes. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title.

As far as I can tell, this recording is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.  

01 talk (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
02 Meeting of the Spirits [Instrumental] (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
03 Open Country Joy [Instrumental] (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
04 talk (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
05 The Dance of Maya [Instrumental] (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
06 talk (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
07 Dawn [Instrumental] [Edit] (Mahavishnu Orchestra)

This album is an hour and five minutes long. 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/qh28KWnr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/o1WSPhKhdYCDfwt/file

The cover image shows John McLaughlin in a Mahavishnu Orchestra concert, in Shibuya Kokaido Hall, , Tokyo, Japan, on September 19, 1973.

Covered: Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff, Volume 4: 1977-1992

Here is the fourth, and last, of "Covered" albums from the great songwriting duo of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, better known as "Gamble and Huff." 

Since about 1967 to 1977, these two had a seriously impressive run of hit singles, not only as songwriters (all the songs on the previous three volumes, and many more I didn't include), but also as producers and record company owners. But in the late 1970s, the hits started to trail off. Mind you, they still did have some big hits. For instance "Use to Be My Girl" and "Close the Door" both were Number One hits on the U.S. R&B chart in 1978. Many songwriters would have been overjoyed to have as much success as they during this time period. But compared to how they'd done earlier, it was a dramatic drop off.

The Wikipedia entry about the duo has this to say: " By the late 1970s, the popularity of the Philadelphia soul sound began to decline. Disco had suffered a backlash, R&B was going back toward the ballad, and rock had returned to the American charts." I don't know if that fully explains it, though. Gamble and Huff helped establish the disco sound, and disco ruled the charts all the way until 1980. Further, they were great with R&B ballads, so that trend shouldn't have been a problem either. 

I wonder if, instead, after so many dozens of hit songs, they simply started to run out of ideas and/or inspiration. I've noticed that for many professional songwriters I've profiled with "Covered" albums, having ten years of hit-making success is a pretty long time, and not many have managed to stay on top longer than that. Also, I found an article with a quote from music author John Jackson, who said, "There was a point where Kenny [Gamble] had some personal problems and was out of the studio for about a year." I don't know what that involved exactly, but it just goes to show that it's really hard to go full blast in the music business year after year after year.

Then, after about 1980, the hit singles they wrote became even rarer. Yet it's important to keep in mind that's in a relative sense, compared to most of the 1970s when it seemed like they were writing an endless stream of hits. As examples of late successes of new songs, "If Only You Knew" hit Number One on the U.S. R&B chart in 1983, and "Lovin' You" did the same in 1987. 

Still, their Wikipedia entry says this: "In 1982, Philadelphia International's biggest star, former Blue Notes singer Teddy Pendergrass, became paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident, and the future of the label came to be in doubt. That year, Philadelphia broke its ties with CBS and made a new deal with EMI. Although the hits had by now dried up, Gamble and Huff continued to write and produce for the label's artists."

What's nice to see is that I've noticed the golden era of many songwriting teams ended when the songwriting partnerships broke up, Gamble and Huff never had a falling out. I found an article from 2014 that says their business partnership never faltered, and they remain close friends with each other over fifty years after first meeting. They were still writing songs that made the charts into the early 1990s. After that, they had many more hits, sometimes massive hits, but those were new versions of songs originally written in the 1960s and 70s. In putting together these volumes, I almost always was able to use the original hit versions.

Also, here's an article from 2021 that shows they were still working together then. It contains many good quotes from the two of them, as well as musical collaborators like Patti LaBelle, John Oates (of Hall and Oates), and Thom Bell. I recommend you read it if you're interested in their career, especially since their Wikipedia isn't that great (as I write this in July 2026).

https://www.phillymag.com/news/2021/04/10/the-sound-of-philadelphia-history/

I wish I would have come across that article before writing the write-ups to the three previous volumes. Amongst other things, it revealed the exact nature of how they wrote songs together. Here's a quote from Huff: "I knew I could play piano. And I could write a song. And I could produce a record. But Gamble - Gamble could just spit out words spontaneously. He was a poet. I would throw in a word every now and then. But really, I was focused solely on the music, and Gamble was the lyric writer, the storyteller."

As I write this in 2026, both Gamble and Huff are still alive. Both of them are over 80 years old. 

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 I Don't Love You Anymore (Teddy Pendergrass)
02 Goin' Places (Jackson 5 [Jacksons])
03 Now that We've Found Love (Third World)
04 Use ta Be My Girl (O'Jays)
05 Close the Door (Teddy Pendergrass)
06 You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else (Jones Girls)
07 Together (Tierra)
08 You're My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration (Teddy Pendergrass)
09 If Only You Knew (Patti LaBelle)
10 Living All Alone (Phyllis Hyman)
11 Lovin' You (O'Jays)
12 Don't Let It Go to Your Head (Brand New Heavies)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/bCpFTjqH 

alternate:

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

I moved the two people closer using Photoshop. That's Huff on the left and Gamble on the right.

Covered: Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff, Volume 3: 1974-1977

Here's the third volume out of four celebrating the songs written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff - the songwriting duo better known just as "Gamble and Huff."

As the 1970s went on, the hits for their record company, Philadelphia International, just kept coming in a seemingly endless flood. Their Wikipedia entry says this: "By 1975, Philadelphia International and the Philadelphia soul genre it helped define had largely eclipsed Motown and the Motown Sound in popularity, and Gamble and Huff were the premier producers of soul." Keep in mind these volumes only include songs written by them. They produced many more hits too.

During this time period, their biggest hits were "When Will I See You Again" and "Don't Leave Me This Way," both of which hit Number One on the pop singles chart, and "You'll Never Find Another Love like Mine," which just missed at Number Two.

Note that while most of their songs were about romance in various forms, they sometimes had progressive political themes to their songs. For instance, "Love Train" is such a fun, dancable song that one can forget it carries a serious message as well. On this volume, "For the Love of Money," "Give the People What They Want," "Message in Our Music," and "Let's Clean Up the Ghetto" are examples of songs with serious messages.

By the way, speaking of "Let's Clean Up the Ghetto," that song featured most of the big acts on their Philadelphia International record label at the time, including Lou Rawls, Billy Paul, Teddy Pendergrass, Archie Bell, the O'Jays, and Dee Dee Sharp Gamble.

The songwriting partnership between Gamble and Huff stayed sharp throughout this time period. Nearly all the songs were written by the two of them and nobody else, though occasionally they were joined by a third songwriter. 

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 For the Love of Money (O'Jays)
02 When Will I See You Again (Three Degrees)
03 Satisfaction Guaranteed [Or Take Your Love Back] (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes)
04 Give the People What They Want (O'Jays)
05 Do It Any Way You Wanna (People's Choice)
06 Wake Up Everybody, Part 1 (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes)
07 Take Good Care of Yourself (Three Degrees)
08 I Love Music (O'Jays)
09 Bad Luck, Part 1 (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes)
10 Enjoy Yourself (Jackson 5 [Jacksons])
11 Don't Leave Me This Way (Thelma Houston)
12 Message in Our Music (O'Jays)
13 You'll Never Find Another Love like Mine (Lou Rawls)
14 Show You the Way to Go (Jackson 5 [Jacksons])
15 Let's Clean Up the Ghetto (Philadelphia International All Stars)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JKPq5xib

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/hcMsqhXFatvy99U/file

The cover is from 1978. I moved the two people closer using Photoshop. Also, the original picture was in black and white. But I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. That's Gamble on the right and Huff on the left.

Covered: Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff, Volume 2: 1970-1973

I haven't posted much at this blog in recent days, but for a very good reason: I've been fully focused on finishing the "Maximum Wall" version of Pink Floyd's "The Wall." It's still some days away from completion, but the end is very much in sight. Fabio from Rio has helped greatly in adding a visual aspect to an accompanying booklet that has now grown to over 150 pages! I'm hoping the final product will blow your socks off.

Luckily, I had a bunch of albums mostly ready to be posted in preparation for my vacation, and I still have some of those to post. So here's another one. Let's continue with the "Covered" albums by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, usually just called "Gamble and Huff." Here's the second volume out of four.

By 1970, Gamble and Huff had enough of a track record of writing and producing soul music hits that they were ready to start their own record company. So they created Philadelphia International. It was backed by CBS Records, and distributed by them. This new company was up and running by 1971. Soon, they were having even more hits, and bigger hits too.

At the same time Gamble and Huff and Philadelphia International were on the rise, Motown Records was self destructing. I've described this in other write-ups. But, in short, it seems label owner Berry Gordy grew tired of the music business and wanted to become a multimedia company, with much more focus on T.V. and movies. So he moved the company from Detroit to Los Angeles, and lost most of the musical talent along the way. (And yet, for all that, Motown only had a couple of movie successes.) Thus, Philadelphia was able to largely replace Detroit as the place to be for soul music in the early 1970s.

Furthermore, as time went on, Gamble and Huff began to develop an increasingly distinctive style.  Here's how it is described in their Wikipedia entry: "Gamble and Huff's Philadelphia soul sound evolved from the simpler arrangements of the late-1960s into a style featuring lush strings, thumping basslines, and sliding hi-hat rhythms - elements that soon became the distinguishing characteristics of a new style of music called disco."

Some hits here were massive. For instance, "Me and Mrs. Jones," "Love Train," and "TSOP [The Sound of Philadelphia]" weren't just Number Ones on the U.S. soul singles charts, they were Number Ones on the U.S pop charts as well! Furthermore, they had many more hits than this. I just selected the cream of the crop, so these albums would have wider appeal.

All through this time period, the Gamble and Huff songwriting partnership was going strong. The vast majority of the songs here were written by the two of them, and with nobody else. However, occasionally there were additional songwriters. For instance, "Drowning in the Sea of Love" was also written by Joe Simon, and a songwriter named Cary Gilbert helped write "Me and Mrs. Jones." 

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Get Me Back on Time, Engine Number 9, Part 1 (Wilson Pickett)
02 Drowning in the Sea of Love (Joe Simon)
03 I'll Do Anything [He Wants Me To] (Doris Troy)
04 Back Stabbers (O'Jays)
05 Me and Mrs. Jones (Billy Paul)
06 One Night Affair (Jerry Butler)
07 When the World's at Peace (O'Jays)
08 If You Don't Know Me by Now (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes)
09 Power of Love (Joe Simon)
10 Love Train (O'Jays)
11 Am I Black Enough for You (Billy Paul)
12 I'll Always Love My Mama (Intruders)
13 Break Up to Make Up (Stylistics)
14 The Love I Lost, Part 1 (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes)
15 Put Your Hands Together (O'Jays)
16 TSOP [The Sound of Philadelphia] (MFSB with the Three Degrees)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/EjhUcS2T

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/qf93VFHAlUX1weE/file

The cover image is from 1973. I moved the two people closer using Photoshop. Also, the original picture was in black and white. But I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. That's Huff on the left and Gamble on the right.

Covered: Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff, Volume 1: 1964-1970

It's time for another songwriting team in the "Covered" series. Here, I'm looking at the soul music giants Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. I have enough of the songs they wrote for four albums. Here's the first one.

You may not know Gamble and Huff by name, but I'll bet you know their songs. In the 1960s, soul music was dominated by the Motown sound coming out of Detroit. But in the 1970s, soul music was dominated by the Philly sound, which came out of Philadelphia. In 1991, the group Boyz II Men had a big hit with the song "Motownphilly." The title says it all, showing nostalgia for the two main soul music trends of earlier decades.

Motown Records had lots of great songwriters, with the Holland-Dozier-Holland team being the most prominent. It was a similar situation with the Philly sound, except the Gamble and Huff team was even more prominent. That's especially if you take into account all of their roles. They co-owned the main record label for the Philly sound, Philadelphia International. When they weren't writing hit songs, they were signing new acts and/or producing hits. Between writing and producing they were involved in a truly stunning 175 gold or platinum records!

So hopefully that's enough of an intro to entice you, if you weren't familiar with their names. Now, here's more about how the music on this first volume came to be.

Kenny Gamble was born in Philadelphia in 1943, and Leon Huff was born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1942. Gamble was discovered by Jerry Ross when he was 17 years old, in 1963. At that time, Ross was an established record company owner, producer, and songwriter. Gamble and Ross wrote some songs together before the Gamble and Huff collaboration really took off. Their biggest success was "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me," which was a hit for multiple artists. (I've included the original version, by Dee Dee Warwick in 1966, but it was a much bigger hit later for the Supremes and Temptations.) Through working with Ross, Gamble learned much about the music business, including how to run a record label.

The collaboration between Gamble and Huff began in the 1950s. They were members of a harmony group called the Romeos. That group didn't have much success. But another member of the Romeos was Thom Bell, who also would later have a key role in the Philly sound. (He'll be the subject of a separate "Covered" album.) They even occasionally wrote songs together as far back as the 1950s, such as "Lost," which was a minor hit for Jerry Butler in 1959.

The Gamble and Huff collaboration intensified with the very first song here, "The 81" by Candy and the Kisses, in 1964. Although the song was written by Gamble and Ross, Huff played keyboards on the song, and he helped produce it with Gamble. Huff also got to co-write the B-side. Bit by bit, they began writing more songs together. The first really big Gamble and Huff written song was "Expressway to Your Heart," which made the Top Five in both the pop and soul charts in the U.S. in 1967. Their songwriting grew more frequent and successful in 1968, with three big hits they wrote together: "Hey Western Union Man," "Cowboys to Girls," and "I Can't Stop Dancing." From that point on, they became a hit-making force, usually writing at least a handful of hits each year, for many years to come.

That takes us to the end of this volume. I'll continue with their story in the next one. But in the meantime, here's their Wikipedia link if you want to know more. And yes, I said "link," not "links" - the two of them are so closely associated with each other that there's only a "Gamble and Huff" Wikipedia page, not pages for each of them:

Gamble and Huff - Wikipedia 

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 The 81 (Candy & the Kisses)
02 Who Do You Love (Sapphires)
03 I Really Love You (Dee Dee Sharp)
04 I'm Gonna Make You Love Me (Dee Dee Warwick)
05 Girl Don't Make Me Wait (Bunny Sigler)
06 Expressway to Your Heart (Soul Survivors)
07 Together (Intruders)
08 I Can't Stop Dancing (Archie Bell & the Drells)
09 At the Top of the Stairs (Formations)
10 'Cause You're Mine (Vibrations)
11 Hey Western Union Man (Jerry Butler)
12 Cowboys to Girls (Intruders)
13 Love in Them There Hills (Vibrations)
14 [There's Gonna Be] A Showdown (Archie Bell & the Drells)
15 Moody Woman (Jerry Butler)
16 It's Been a Long Time (Betty Everett)
17 Only the Strong Survive (Jerry Butler)
18 A Brand New Me (Dusty Springfield)
19 What's the Use of Breaking Up (Jerry Butler)
20 Here I Go Again (Archie Bell & the Drells)
21 Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You (Wilson Pickett)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/T4D57AYn 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/LZ96W3r5vnKxxBk/file

The cover image is from 1968. I moved the two people closer using Photoshop. Also, the original picture was in black and white. But I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. That's Huff on the left (wearing a hat) and Gamble on the right.

Willie Nelson - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 9-2-1975

I'm back home after vacationing for a month in Europe. I had a great time and no problems. But it's also nice to be back after being gone that long. 

I had wanted to post this album of Willie Nelson performing for an Ebbets Field radio broadcast last week. But I had made a typo in the cover art and I couldn't fix it while on the road. Now that I'm back home, the typo has been fixed, and here it is.

This album took place in 1975, and that was the year Nelson became a big country star. Prior to that year, he'd had a long music career already, with his first single being released back in 1957. But while he'd had great success as a songwriter, writing classic hits for others such as "Crazy," "Night Life," Hello Walls," and "Funny How Time Slips Away," his own singles and albums had just had moderate success. But that changed with his album "Red Headed Stranger," released in May 1975. It was his first album to go Gold, meaning sales of at least half a million, and it eventually sold over two million copies. It contained his first Number One hit on the U.S. country singles chart, "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" (which was a cover). It was also very critically acclaimed. For instance, it made Rolling Stone magazine's list of the top 500 albums of all time.

 

This concert only contains a few songs from the "Red Headed Stranger" album, most notably "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" and "The Red Headed Stranger." But even though Nelson was just starting to get widespread success, he had a deep catalog of other songs to draw from, especially due to the many hit songs he'd written for other. Probably his other biggest hit under his own name prior to 1975 was "Bloody Mary Morning," which he also played here. He also played a bunch of cover songs, including ending the concert with the classics "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" and "Amazing Grace." That last song was cut off before it finished. I found another live version from around this time period to give it a proper ending. That's why it has "[Edit]" in its title.

 

This concert is unreleased, as far as I know. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 14 minutes long.

01 Whiskey River (Willie Nelson)
02 Stay a Little Longer (Willie Nelson)
03 Funny How Time Slips Away (Willie Nelson)
04 Crazy (Willie Nelson)
05 Night Life (Willie Nelson)
06 Bloody Mary Morning (Willie Nelson)
07 talk (Willie Nelson)
08 Pinetop's Boogie Woogie [Instrumental] (Willie Nelson)
09 Phases and Stages (Willie Nelson)
10 I Still Can't Believe You're Gone (Willie Nelson)
11 talk (Willie Nelson)
12 One Day at a Time (Willie Nelson)
13 talk (Willie Nelson)
14 Good Hearted Woman (Willie Nelson)
15 Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (Willie Nelson)
16 Under the Double Eagle [Instrumental] (Willie Nelson)
17 Denver (Willie Nelson)
18 Over the Waves [Instrumental] (Willie Nelson)
19 Down Yonder [Instrumental] (Willie Nelson)
20 Can I Sleep in Your Arms [Edit] (Willie Nelson)
21 talk (Willie Nelson)
22 The Red Headed Stranger (Willie Nelson)
23 talk (Willie Nelson)
24 I Gotta Get Drunk (Willie Nelson)
25 talk (Willie Nelson)
26 Shotgun Willie (Willie Nelson)
27 talk (Willie Nelson)
28 Touch Me (Willie Nelson)
29 One in a Row (Willie Nelson)
30 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (Willie Nelson)
31 Amazing Grace [Edit] (Willie Nelson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/qnHGE7Lh

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/IOsXHxZ2jRjR2yZ/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took of a video of the "Midnight Special" TV show, aired on July 9, 1976.

Steely Dan - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 9-21-2014

Here is yet another mono soundboard concert that was made public due to a leak of dozens of concerts from the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, in April 2026. This one features the band Steely Dan.

The band consisted of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. In 2017, Becker died of cancer. Fagen carried on without him touring a few more years. But as I write this in 2026 it seems Steely Dan has been retired. So this was one of the last tours of the band with both key members. The last Steely Dan studio album was in 2003. So by the time of this concert, they were mainly playing their best known songs, generally from the 1970s.

By the way, I write this from an airport terminal in London. I am flying back to the US in a couple of hours. Once I am back home and settled in, my posting habits should return to normal. But I think I did a pretty good job of posting about one album a day for the duration of my vacation.

The album is two hours and four minutes long.

01 Cubano Chant [Instrumental] (Steely Dan)
02 Black Cow (Steely Dan)
03 Aja (Steely Dan)
04 Hey Nineteen (Steely Dan)
05 talk (Steely Dan)
06 Black Friday (Steely Dan)
07 Rikki Don't Lose That Number (Steely Dan)
08 Show Biz Kids (Steely Dan)
09 Time Out of Mind (Steely Dan)
10 talk (Steely Dan)
11 Two Against Nature (Steely Dan)
12 talk (Steely Dan)
13 Razor Boy (Steely Dan)
14 Bodhisattva (Steely Dan)
15 talk (Steely Dan)
16 Daddy Don't Live in That New York City No More (Steely Dan)
17 Babylon Sisters (Steely Dan)
18 I Want To [Do Everything for You] (Steely Dan)
19 Josie (Steely Dan)
20 Peg (Steely Dan)
21 My Old School (Steely Dan)
22 Reelin' in the Years (Steely Dan)
23 talk (Steely Dan)
24 Kid Charlemagne (Steely Dan)
25 The Untouchables (Steely Dan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ThFHP51A

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/KF0ryiJctX8vEV1/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took of a YouTube video from this exact concert.

Tommy Bolin - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 5-13-1976

Here is another concert thanks to the surviving Ebbets Field radio broadcasts. This one stars Tommy Bolin.

When it comes to concert recordings from this venue, I have posted more that involve Bolin than anyone else, and it's not even close. There are two reasons for this. One is that Bolin is a much beloved lead guitarist, and there have been dozens of albums released by him since his early death in late 1976. The other is that he lived in the Boulder/Denver area for most of his life, and frequently played there.

At the time of this concert, his career was in transition. He had been a member of Deep Purple, but only long enough to record one studio album with that band. Despite his great guitar playing skill, he wasn't a good fit with that band at that time, due to heavy drug use as well as audience expectations for him to sound more like the band's previous lead guitarist. He would officially leave the band in July 1976. But by the time of this concert, the writing was probably already on the wall. In June, just a few weeks after this concert, he recorded his second solo album, "Private Eyes." That album would be released in September. During the tour to support it, he died of a drug overdose in December 1976. He was only 25 years old.

Even though he recorded a bunch of songs, he wrote for his second album just a month after this concert, none of those were played in this concert. Instead, a lot of of them come from his first solo album, "Teaser," released in 1975.

This concert was officially released in the 1990s under the name "Live at Ebbets Field 1976." But I am posting it here anyway because it's a rather obscure release, and I want to post everything I can from the Ebbets Field radio broadcasts, since the vast majority of those are unreleased.

This album is an hour and eight minutes long.

01 talk by emcee (Tommy Bolin)
02 Teaser (Tommy Bolin)
03 People, People (Tommy Bolin)
04 The Grind (Tommy Bolin)
05 Wild Dogs (Tommy Bolin)
06 Delightful (Tommy Bolin)
07 I Fell in Love (Tommy Bolin)
08 talk (Tommy Bolin)
09 Marching Powder (Tommy Bolin)
10 Lotus (Tommy Bolin)
11 talk (Tommy Bolin)
12 Homeward Strut [Instrumental] (Tommy Bolin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AvfixfPz

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/nxtMJlMUXcpC67N/file

The cover image is from Ebbets Field in 1976. However, it's unknown if it's from this concert or a concert on some other date.

The B-52's - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 2-27-2016

Here is another concert coming from the April 2026 leak of dozens of mono, soundboard bootleg recordings from the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. This time, it is the B-52's in 2016.

I've posted some things from the B-52's already, so I don't think I have to say much this time. In my opinion, they had their best years from the late 1970s until the early 1990s. In fact, after 1992 they didn't release another studio album until "Funplex" in 2008, and this concert took place eight years after that. So they basically just did their greatest hits instead of promoting any kind of new material. But that's OK because their best songs are pretty great.

This album is an hour and 27 minutes long.

01 Pump (B-52's)
02 talk (B-52's)
03 Mesopotamia (B-52's)
04 talk (B-52's)
05 Private Idaho (B-52's)
06 talk (B-52's)
07 Lava (B-52's)
08 talk (B-52's)
09 Dance This Mess Around (B-52's)
10 Revolution Earth (B-52's)
11 talk (B-52's)
12 Roam (B-52's)
13 talk (B-52's)
14 52 Girls (B-52's)
15 talk (B-52's)
16 Party Out of Bounds (B-52's)
17 talk (B-52's)
18 Love in the Year 3000 (B-52's)
19 talk (B-52's)
20 Is That You, Mo-Dean (B-52's)
21 talk (B-52's)
22 Strobe Light (B-52's)
23 talk (B-52's)
24 Whammy Kiss (B-52's)
25 talk (B-52's)
26 Love Shack (B-52's)
27 talk (B-52's)
28 Planet Claire (B-52's)
29 talk (B-52's)
30 Rock Lobster (B-52's)
31 talk (B-52's)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vJSPLqDJ 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/lw3pi7cPbiMl1fV/file

The cover image is from a concert at the Tanglewood venue, in Lenox, Massachusetts, on September 2, 2016.

Pink Floyd Again

My, how time flies. A few years ago, I posted at this blog that I was coming close to posting an expanded version of "The Wall" album by Pink Floyd. My idea was to expand it as much as reasonably possible, using extended versions and extra songs and so forth. There's a surprising amount of such material, enough to double the total length of the album, which already was a double album. I came very close to finishing that project. But then I got a list of sound edits from a diehard Pink Floyd fan, and I lost my momentum to finish the project. It was good enough for me to listen to, and frankly, that's the main reason I make these albums, because I enjoy listening to the music.

So I was just sitting on that project for a long time without doing the last small amount of work to finish it and post it. Guest poster Mike Solof has copy of the version I made and has been privately prodding me to post it, easily at least a hundred times, but I never got off my lazy butt to finish it. Recently, though, another guest poster, Fabio from Rio, made some pretty interesting artwork for his theme albums about vegetables (with the help of an AI program). That gave me the idea to ask him to make artwork for my "Wall" project, which I'm calling "The Maximum Wall." While I have been traveling around in Europe, this last month, Fabio made dozens of really great pictures to illustrate a lyrics and notes book that is part of this project, basically one picture per song. So we are very close to finishing this project, and I think it's going to be even better than before, thanks to this new artwork. I just need to do some more work on it when I get back from vacation to finish some loose ends.

However, there is one more thing I would like to see to improve the art for this project even more. If you are a big fan of the album, you probably know that an artist named Gerald Scarfe made all of the artwork for the album. We have found some appropriate pictures made by Scarfe that we are using. But when Fabio tried to make more pictures in Scarfe's distinctive style, his AI program wouldn't allow it, due to copyright issues. So I'm wondering if anyone would be able to help with this. We already have all the pictures we want. But it would be great to convert some of them to more of a Scarfe style, to have a more consistent overall style to the artwork. If you think you have the artistic and or AI picture making skills to help with this, please let us know in the comments.

Otherwise, this project is very close to completion, and I am aiming to post it in the next few weeks, knock on wood.

J. D. Souther - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 2-7-1976

Here is yet another Ebbets Field radio broadcast. This one stars singer-songwriter J.D. Souther.

Here is the intro to the Wikipedia entry about Souther:

"He was an American singer, songwriter, an actor. He was a principal architect of the southern California sound in a major influence on a generation of songwriters. Souther wrote, and cowrote songs recorded by Linda Ronstadt and some of the Eagles biggest including "Best of My Love," "Victim of Love," "Heartache Tonight," and "New Kid in Town." "How Long," Which appeared on the Eagles' "Long Road Out of Eden," came Souther's first solo album. He recorded to hit songs in his solo career: "You're Only Lonely" (1979) and "Her Town Too" (1981), a duet with James Taylor."

Here is the link to the rest of his Wikipedia entry:

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

At the time of this concert, he had released only two solo albums, "John David Souther" in 1972 and "Black Rose" in 1976. But he also released two more albums as part of the Souther-Hillman-Furay trio in 1974 and 1975 with Chris Hillman and Richie Furay.

As far as I know, all the music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent.

This album is 43 minutes long. 

01 Kite Woman (J. D. Souther)
02 talk (J. D. Souther)
03 Run like a Thief (J. D. Souther)
04 Faithless Love (J. D. Souther)
05 talk (J. D. Souther)
06 Mexico (J. D. Souther)
07 Simple Man, Simple Dream (J. D. Souther)
08 talk (J. D. Souther)
09 Silver Blue (J. D. Souther)
10 Your Turn Now (J. D. Souther)
11 talk (J. D. Souther)
12 Banging My Head Against the Moon (J. D. Souther)
13 talk by emcee (J. D. Souther)
14 Prisoner in Disguise (J. D. Souther)
15 talk by emcee (J. D. Souther)
16 Baby Come Home (J. D. Souther)
17 talk by emcee (J. D. Souther)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/kShTbbTz

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/rcWUYdHrif0uELd/file

The cover image is from Anaheim Stadium, in Anaheim, California, on September 28, 1975. I darkened the background in Photoshop.

The Grateful Dead, Santana, and More - Aztec Bowl, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, 5-11-1969

Here is a rather unusual concert. I am interested whenever possible to post full concerts from the 1960s or early 1970s, because there aren't a lot of those. When I say "full concerts," I mean the headliner act and all of the opening acts. This is a kind of unusual case because we have most everything BUT the headliner act. The headliners were Canned Heat. Unfortunately, I could only find one song from their set. If anyone else has more, please let me know and I'll add it in. But the opening acts are very interesting: Tarantula, Lee Michaels, Santana, and the Grateful Dead. Furthermore, it's especially interesting how Santana and the Grateful Dead jammed together on a few songs at the end of the Dead's set.

This recording is from a local radio broadcast. It was extremely unusual to have full concerts on the radio in 1969, and even more unusual to have concerts with all of the opening acts. So I consider this important in terms of the recorded legacy of concerts from that era. The Grateful Dead portion of this concert has gotten around quite a lot, Since Deadheads obsessively collect so much of their live music. The rest seems to have been much more obscure. I found it on the Internet, but not on any of the usual bootleg sharing sites.

As I mentioned above, Canned Heat was the headliner and final act. But since I only have the first song of their set, I moved that song to just before the Grateful Dead set. So for this recording, the Dead play the role of the headliner. 

The concert started with just one full song by Tarantula. I think it's a good guess that they played more songs, but this is all that managed to be recorded and survived. If you have never heard of them, don't feel bad. They are so obscure that they don't even have a Wikipedia page as I write this in 2026. However, they do have a page at the rateyourmusic site. That shows that they only released one album in 1969, which was self titled, before they broke up. Here is a link to their rateyourmusic webpage:

https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/tarantula

The next musical act was Lee Michaels. He is reasonably well known today, because he had a Top Ten hit in the U.S. in 1971 with the song "Do You Know What I Mean." But that was two years after from this concert. He was relatively unknown in 1969, though he was slowly building up a following. He released his third solo album that year, and it almost made the Top Forty albums chart. He had an unusual sound because he played Hammond organ and sang lead vocals, but he often was only backed by a drummer. One can hear that that was the case in this concert.

Here is his Wikipedia entry if you want to know more:

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

I don't have to say much about the next act, Santana, because I've posted several different concerts by them already. But note that while Santana became very famous later on, at the time of this concert, they were not well known. Their big break would come a few months later, at the famous Woodstock concert in August. At this point, they had been playing a lot in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1968, but their first album hadn't been released yet.

As I mentioned above, I could only find one song from the Canned Heat set, and I moved it to after the Santana set.

That just leaves the Grateful Dead set. At this point, they weren't very well known either. Like Santana, they had built up a Bay Area following due to playing a lot of concerts there. But this concert was in San Diego, so I'm guessing they weren't as well known there. But at least they had already released two studio albums. They would release a third album, "Aoxomoxoa," just one month after this concert, but none of the songs from that album were performed here.

There were a lot of issues with this recording. Even though it was a radio broadcast, it probably got passed through different tape recordings along the way, and some sound quality was lost, and some bits and pieces of music were lost. Three songs have "[Edit]" in their titles, because I had to make some significant edits on those. I believe there might have been a couple of other songs that I didn't include because there were only small parts that remained.

Another issue is that, for whatever reason, very, very little of the audience applause has made it onto this recording. Usually, I try to fix that by patching in bits of the applause that did survive to parts lacking applause. But in this case, there was so very little that I didn't have enough to work with. So I just left the applause as is. The music sounds pretty good, considering the era, and there even is some occasional banter. But don't expect applause between songs.

As I mentioned above, I am especially interested in posting concert recordings from this era that include the opening acts. If you know of other recordings like that with worthy sound quality, please let me know, and I will make an effort to try to post those as well.

This album is two hours and 38 minutes long.

01 talk (Tarantula)
02 You - Drum Solo (Tarantula)
03 talk by emcee (Tarantula)
04 My Friends - Drum Solo (Lee Michaels)
05 Heighty Hi (Lee Michaels)
06 Hello (Lee Michaels)
07 Call It Stormy Monday (Lee Michaels)
08 The War [Edit] (Lee Michaels)
09 Evil Ways [Edit] (Santana)
10 Fried Neck Bones and Some Home Fries (Santana)
11 Persuasion (Santana)
12 Savor [Instrumental] (Santana)
13 Soul Sacrifice [Instrumental] [Edit] (Santana)
14 talk (Canned Heat)
15 I'm Her Man (Canned Heat)
16 talk by emcee (Grateful Dead)
17 Morning Dew (Grateful Dead)
18 Cryptical Envelopment (Grateful Dead)
19 Drums [Instrumental] (Grateful Dead)
20 That's It for the Other One (Grateful Dead)
21 Cryptical Envelopment (Grateful Dead)
22 Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl (Grateful Dead)
23 Me and My Uncle (Grateful Dead)
24 Alligator (Grateful Dead)
25 Drums [Instrumental] (Grateful Dead & Santana)
26 Jam [Instrumental] (Grateful Dead & Santana)
27 Drums [Instrumental] (Grateful Dead & Santana)
28 Turn On Your Lovelight (Grateful Dead & Santana)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/XPxe7STV

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/b8MFZPEBoFFw4hk/file

The cover image is the poster used to promote this exact concert. However, that poster, like most posters, is rectangular. I made big edits in Photoshop to move all the parts I wanted to keep to a square shape instead. 

Dr. Hook - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 1-13-1976

The steady flow of Ebbets Field radio broadcast posts continues with Dr. Hook. I have been posting mostly chronologically for a while now and we finally get to 1976, the last year. I have any material to post. (The venue closed down in 1977.)

The band had some hits in 1972 and 1973. But then they had a rough patch. They were spending more money than they were bringing in things to a wild party lifestyle. This is reflected in the names of albums released in 1973, "Belly Up," and in 1975, "Bankrupt." They actually declared bankruptcy in 1974.

Their fortunes turned around in early 1976 with another big hit, a cover of "Only Sixteen," which was originally done by Sam Cooke. But it was released in December 1975, so it probably was still working its way up the chart when this concert happened in early January 1976. That would explain why they were playing a small club that only held a maximum of 250 people.

By the way, the Ebbets Field concerts I've been posting Will soon come to an end. I believe I only have six more after this one.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 talk (Dr. Hook)
02 The Yodel Song (Dr. Hook)
03 talk (Dr. Hook)
04 Queen of the Silver Dollar (Dr. Hook)
05 talk (Dr. Hook)
06 Everybody's Makin' It Big but Me (Dr. Hook)
07 talk (Dr. Hook)
08 I Ain't Got No Home (Dr. Hook)
09 Acapulco Goldie (Dr. Hook)
10 talk (Dr. Hook)
11 Only Sixteen (Dr. Hook)
12 talk (Dr. Hook)
13 Earth Angel - For Your Love - Daddy's Coming Home - Donna - What's Your Name (Dr. Hook)
14 talk (Dr. Hook)
15 Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms (Dr. Hook)
16 talk (Dr. Hook)
17 Carry Me, Carrie (Dr. Hook)
18 talk (Dr. Hook)
19 The Cover of the Rolling Stone (Dr. Hook)
20 Happy Trails (Dr. Hook)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/v3cotDoj

alternate:

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

The cover image was taken in London at some point in 1974.

Joe Walsh - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 10-8-2015

Here is another concert from the April 2026 Capitol Theater mono soundboard leak. This time, it's a concert by Joe Walsh.

Walsh had his commercial and critical heyday in the 1970s and 80s. But he has remained a strong performer long after that. This concert effectively served as a kind of greatest hits, with songs going back to his time in the James Gang, though not a lot from his time in the Eagles, just the songs "In the City" and "Pretty Maids All in a Row."

Nobody else seemed to be processing this one. So I made some audio adjustments to it and chopped it up into mp3's.

This album is an hour and 34 minutes long.

01 talk (Joe Walsh)
02 Walk Away (Joe Walsh)
03 talk (Joe Walsh)
04 A Life of Illusion (Joe Walsh)
05 talk (Joe Walsh)
06 Over and Over (Joe Walsh)
07 talk (Joe Walsh)
08 Analog Man (Joe Walsh)
09 talk (Joe Walsh)
10 In the City (Joe Walsh)
11 Pretty Maids All in a Row (Joe Walsh)
12 talk (Joe Walsh)
13 Mother Says (Joe Walsh)
14 Turn to Stone (Joe Walsh)
15 talk (Joe Walsh)
16 The Bomber- Closet Queen - Bolero - Cast Your Fate to the Wind (Joe Walsh)
17 talk (Joe Walsh)
18 Funk No. 49 (Joe Walsh)
19 talk (Joe Walsh)
20 Life's Been Good (Joe Walsh)
21 talk (Joe Walsh)
22 Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/3VmuX16F

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/t2EqcKMsukJ33cp/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. 

Jimmie Spheeris - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 9-22-1975, Late Show

I recently posted an early show of singer-songwriter Jimmie Spheeris performing at the Ebbets Field venue in Denver. This is the late show from the same night. Just like the early show, this comes from a radio broadcast, so the sound quality is excellent.

For both the early show and the late show, I had to do some guess work. Both of these come from an official record, which I think is now out of print, called "Alive in America."  I looked at the liner notes, and there was no mention with whatsoever about the date of the concert or even the year. Also, it just had roll the music from the early show and the late show. After I listened to it, I decided there was a pretty clear break between the early show and the late show, and it was standard procedure at the venue to have early and late shows most nights, so I broke it into an early show album and a late show album.

The left the problem of figuring out the date and year. Luckily, at one point, there a series of official releases of some songs from Ebbets Field. Four albums came out, with one song per performer. These releases are extremely hard to find, as they are also out of print, but I managed to track down copies of all of the songs. There was one song from Spheeris, "The Original Tap Dancing Kid." I compared it with the versions of that song from the early show and the late show - it was almost the only one he played in both shows - And I determined that it was the  exact same performance as this one in the late show. The official album gave the exact date of that performance. So I assume that since that song is from this date, the rest of the early show and the late show are also from the same date. Further supporting that idea, some of the songs are from his 1975 album "The Dragon Is Dancing," such as "Tequila Moonlight" and "In the Misty Woods" from this late show, so 1975 makes sense for the year.

This album is 37 minutes long.

01 I Get Burned [And Walk Away] (Jimmie Spheeris)
02 Tequila Moonlite (Jimmie Spheeris)
03 In the Misty Woods (Jimmie Spheeris)
04 Love Potion No. 9 (Jimmie Spheeris)
05 Since I Fell for You (Jimmie Spheeris)
06 The Original Tap Dancing Kid (Jimmie Spheeris)
07 talk (Jimmie Spheeris)
08 The Nest (Jimmie Spheeris)
09 talk by emcee (Jimmie Spheeris)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NHRBsUnw

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/0u6l2hQgkxGs8a0/file

The cover image is from some point in the 1970s. I don't know any details beyond that. However, it's from the same show as the image I selected for the early show. 

The Rascals - Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY, 12-15-2012

Here is another concert that became available thanks to the leak of dozens of mono soundboard concerts from the c

Capitol Theatre in Port Chester New York. This one features the Rascals.

The Rascals had their heyday in the 1960s. Around 1970 they started losing key members and had declining sales. The band broke up in 1972. After that, there were only very occasional reunions. The four original members – Felix Cavaliere, Eddie Brighton, Gene Cornish, and Dino Danelli - only got together for one off reunions in 1988, 1997, and 2010. The 1997 reunion was their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

However, the band finally had a much more significant reunion in 2012. Rock musician Steven Van Zant, a.k.a. Little Steven, is a huge Rascals fan. He and his wife wrote and produced a special kind of concert for the band's reunion tour in 2012, titled "Once upon a Dream." It was a unusual combination of a rock concert and a Broadway type theater event. The vast majority of a consisted of the Rascals playing best known songs. But the songs were tied together into a narrative of the bands history, With lots of narration between songs, archival footage, and other video aspects.

It's just so happens that the very first performances of their 2012 reunion tour were in Port Chester, New York. They performed their six nights in a row in order to hold their performance. The soundboard leak of concerts from this venue actually included two Rascals shows. But since they are nearly identical in terms of their song lists, I chose to only work on and post this one, which was the second of the two in terms of chronological order.

After their Port Chester concerts, the band performed on Broadway in New York City for 15 nights in early 2013. That was very successfully received. So the band followed that with a nine month tour all across the United States. When that tour ended in late 2013, the full reunion ended as well. There were some other reunions after that, but none of them had all four original members.

Musical associate Lil Panda helped with the conversion and splitting of the tracks. I did further splitting to have all the talking bits in their own tracks, as I usually do.

If you like the music of the Rascals, you should definitely give this a listen. The sound quality is excellent. And even though it came decades after their musical heyday. They still were in top form. Plus, the way the music was interweave with the history of the band was entertaining as well.

This concert is two hours and one minute long. 

01 talk (Rascals)

02 It's Wonderful (Rascals)
03 I've Been Lonely Too Long (Rascals)
04 What's the Reason (Rascals)
05 talk (Rascals)
06 You Better Run (Rascals)
07 talk (Rascals)
08 Carry Me Back (Rascals)
09 talk (Rascals)
10 Slow Down (Rascals)
11 talk (Rascals)
12 Mickey's Monkey (Rascals)
13 talk (Rascals)
14 Turn On Your Lovelight (Rascals)
15 talk (Rascals)
16 Come On Up (Rascals)
17 talk (Rascals)
18 Baby Let's Wait (Rascals)
19 talk (Rascals)
20 Too Many Fish in the Sea (Rascals)
21 talk (Rascals)
22 If You Knew (Rascals)
23 talk (Rascals)
24 Hold On (Rascals)
25 I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore (Rascals)
26 talk (Rascals)
27 Good Lovin' (Rascals)
28 talk (Rascals)
29 Love Is a Beautiful Thing (Rascals)
30 Groovin' (Rascals)
31 Do You Feel It (Rascals)
32 talk (Rascals)
33 Away Away (Rascals)
34 It's a Beautiful Morning (Rascals)
35 Sueno (Rascals)
36 Find Somebody (Rascals)
37 A Girl like You (Rascals)
38 talk (Rascals)
39 It's Love (Rascals)
40 How Can I Be Sure (Rascals)
41 talk (Rascals)
42 People Got to Be Free (Rascals)
43 talk (Rascals)
44 Heaven (Rascals)
45 talk (Rascals)
46 A Ray of Hope (Rascals)
47 talk (Rascals)
48 People Got to Be Free [Reprise] (Rascals)
49 talk (Rascals)
50 See (Rascals)

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

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ixINNbH6fm9gOSs/file

The cover image is from this exact concert.