Long John Baldry - BBC Sessions (1963-1968)

This is kind of a companion to the Steampacket BBC sessions album I already 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 about a year and a half while he focused on that group. Thus, this is divided into two parts. The first eight songs are from 1963 to early 1965, and the remaining songs are from late 1966 to 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 to 1965, only the first one, "My Babe," plus tracks 9 through 11, are from actual BBC sessions. He did more BBC sessions around that time, but they seem to have been lost or never recorded. That the first 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. The other three tracks survived because they date from the "Top of the Pops" radio show in early 1965, and pretty much all of those recordings have survived since about mid-1964.

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. (For tracks 9 through 11, he was backed by the Hoochie Coochie Men, although I didn't label those songs as such.) 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 1966 to 1968 songs, are all BBC recordings. Most of them come from four BBC sessions, but track 18, "Call It Stormy Monday," 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 excellent. My musical associate MZ improved the equalization for some of the songs here, as well as some on the Steampacket BBC session I posted.

This album is an hour and four minutes long.

UPDATE: On December 21, 2024, I massively updated the mp3 download file. I found a new source of material, and went from having 14 tracks to 24. Additionally, I improved the sound quality of some of the others.

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 [Edit] (Long John Baldry)
10 Men Speak Your Piece (Long John Baldry)
11 I’m On to You Baby (Long John Baldry)
12 Cuckoo (Long John Baldry)
13 Turn On Your Love Light (Long John Baldry)
14 Morning Dew [Edit] (Long John Baldry)
15 Let the Heartaches Begin (Long John Baldry)
16 Bad Luck Soul (Long John Baldry)
17 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] (Long John Baldry)
18 Call It Stormy Monday (Long John Baldry)
19 Mexico (Long John Baldry)
20 Morning of the Carnival [Edit] (Long John Baldry)
21 Janine [Edit] (Long John Baldry)
22 Better by Far [Edit] (Long John Baldry)
23 When the Sun Comes Shining Thru (Long John Baldry)
24 The Drifter (Long John Baldry)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SCAsZ9NQ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/i6IePocKHihHgic/file

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