Long John Baldry - BBC Sessions (1963-1968)

This is kind of a companion to the Steampacket BBC sessions album I just posted. Long John Baldy was a key member of the Steampacket, which existed from 1965 to 1966. So his solo career essentially was put on hold for those two years while he focused on that group. Thus, this is divided into two parts. The first eight songs are from 1963 and 1964, and the remaining seven songs are from 1967 and 1968.

As an American, I hadn't heard much about Long John Baldry prior to putting this album together. But he's better known in Britain, mainly for his 1967 song "Let the Heartaches Begin," which was a number one hit there. That song is a ballad, but he's also known as being an early leading light in Britain for promoting the blues and R&B. 

For the first section of songs from 1963 and 1964, only the first one, "My Babe," is from an actual BBC session. He did more BBC sessions around that time, but they seem to have been lost or never recorded. That one song survived because it was part of a BBC special heavily featuring the Beatles called "Pop Go the Beatles," so it probably survived because of Beatles fans recording it.

Most of the rest of the early songs here come from appearances on the British TV show "Hullabaloo." It seems the band Cyril Davies R&B All-Stars played one song per week for one season. Cyril Davies was another British leading light for the blues, but he died due to health issues (endocarditis) at the age of 31 in 1964, and there is very little recorded by him before his death. He was mainly a harmonica player, so Baldry joined his band as a lead vocalist. After Davies died, Baldry basically took over his band and renamed them the Hoochie Coochie Men. After some more personnel changes, they morphed into the Steampacket.

I included as many of these early Hullabaloo performances I could find, but there are more that either weren't recorded or I can't find. British folk guitarist Davy Graham was on many of the same shows, and in one case here Baldy sang while Graham played the acoustic guitar.

The second half, the 1967 and 1968 songs, are all BBC recordings. Most of them come from two BBC sessions in 1967, but the last one is from an unknown BBC TV show. There is at least one more BBC session from around this time that doesn't seem to have survived.

All the songs here are officially unreleased. The sound quality is generally very good. My musical associate MZ improved the equalization for some of the songs here, as well as some on the Steampacket BBC session I just posted.

This album is 40 minutes long.

01 My Babe (Long John Baldry)
02 Movin' On (Cyril Davies R&B All-Stars with Long John Baldry)
03 Bo Diddley (Cyril Davies R&B All-Stars with Long John Baldry)
04 Careless Love (Long John Baldry & Davy Graham)
05 Hallelujah All My Blues Have Gone (Cyril Davies R&B All-Stars with Long John Baldry)
06 Leave My Woman Alone (Cyril Davies R&B All-Stars with Long John Baldry)
07 The Night Time Is the Right Time (Cyril Davies R&B All-Stars with Long John Baldry)
08 The 2.19 (Long John Baldry)
09 Turn on Your Love Light (Long John Baldry)
10 Cuckoo (Long John Baldry)
11 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] (Long John Baldry)
12 Let the Heartaches Begin (Long John Baldry)
13 Bad Luck Soul (Long John Baldry)
14 Morning Dew (Long John Baldry)
15 Call It Stormy Monday (Long John Baldry)

https://www.imagenetz.de/h22B7

The cover photo of Baldry dates to 1967, but I don't know any other details.