Dionne Warwick bootlegs are few and far between. She has a few live albums, but they're not that essential, because her live shows were carefully crafted without much spontaneity. But here's a concert that's worth hearing. It's from very early in her long music career. Her first single was released in late 1962, and this concert took place just two years later, on the last day of 1964. But she already had a bunch of classic songs she was associated with, thanks to her association with the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
The only other live recording I know from around this time is her first official live album, "In Paris." That was recorded and released in 1966. But that's significantly different, with only three of the same songs - "A House Is Not a Home," "Walk On By," and "What'd I Say."
This was recorded for a TV show in Belgium (which you can find on YouTube, as I did). It was recorded in a very small club of less than a 100 people. If you watch the video, it looks as if there's no backing band. But an astute viewer noted in YouTube commented that if you watch closely, at one point part of someone playing guitar can be seen off stage. So it's likely that the rest of the band was hidden off stage too, so the TV show could concentrate entirely on Warwick and the crowd reactions.
Warwick barely said anything between songs, other than a few "thank you" comments. But even though the performances are close to the record versions, this shows she could "bring it" in live shows, without the benefit of overdubs or retakes, which was common for official live albums in those days.
The sound quality is very good for a bootleg of this early era, since it was professionally recorded for a TV show and a good version still exists. The one bummer about the recording though is that it's fairly short, at just 28 minutes.
01 Don't Make Me Over (Dionne Warwick)
02 This Empty Place (Dionne Warwick)
03 People (Dionne Warwick)
04 A House Is Not a Home (Dionne Warwick)
05 Any Old Time of Day (Dionne Warwick)
06 Anyone Who Had a Heart (Dionne Warwick)
07 Walk On By (Dionne Warwick)
08 What'd I Say (Dionne Warwick)
https://www.upload.ee/files/15274855/DionnW_1964_27ClbKnokkeBlgium__12-31-1964_atse.zip.html
For the cover photo, I took a screenshot of the exact concert in question. It was in black and white, so I jazzed it up by adding some color. I chose a shot where you can see some of the audience in the background, to show how small the club was, and how close she was to the audience. Also, if you look closely, in the upper right of the cover you can see a TV camera on a tripod. There were several of those in the room.
Nice find. Thank you.
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