Saturday, July 15, 2023

Concert for Human Rights Now, Estadio River Plate, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 10-15-1988, Part 2 - Tracy Chapman

This album continues right where the previous one left off. That's because these are different sets from a benefit concert that was five and a half hours long. The first set mainly featured Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour. This one is Tracy Chapman's set. The next three are the sets of Peter Gabriel, Sting, and Bruce Springsteen.

I explained the basics about this concert in Part 1, the Youssou N'Dour set. Read that if you want to know more, including a Wikipedia link about the tour. But the gist is that these artists got together for a short world tour to promote the work of the non-profit Amnesty International and its campaigns against human rights abuses.

Chapman was a natural fit for such a concert, since she's often sung about political and social issues. But note that this concert came very early in her career. Her debut album "Tracy Chapman" was released in April 1988. It would go on to sell about 20 million copies! This concert only took place about six months after that album's release.

One interesting thing about this concert is that there doesn't seem to have been an emcee. Instead, each artist was introduced by the previous one. So the first track here is the introduction by Youssou N'Dour.

As I mentioned in my Part 1 write-up, there has been an official album of this concert, but it's only a double album, so it merely contains highlights from the full show, which is over five and a half hours long. Luckily, a soundboard bootleg of the entire thing exists, and the sound quality here is excellent.

This album is 33 minutes long. For whatever reason, Chapman's set is the shortest. All of the songs are from her debut album except "Freedom Now," which would go on her second album. She mostly played solo acoustic, even doing one song acappella. However, Branford Marsalis contributed a saxophone solo on one song.

Since I consider this to be a part of the entire concert, I've had the track number start with 14, so you can put all the parts together in one folder and have them be in the proper order.

14 talk by Youssou N'Dour (Tracy Chapman)
15 Across the Lines (Tracy Chapman)
16 Why (Tracy Chapman)
17 Baby Can I Hold You (Tracy Chapman)
18 Behind the Wall (Tracy Chapman)
19 Fast Car (Tracy Chapman)
20 talk (Tracy Chapman)
21 Freedom Now (Tracy Chapman)
22 Mountain O' Things (Tracy Chapman)
23 Talkin' Bout a Revolution (Tracy Chapman)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15451322/ConcrtfrHumnRightsNw__10-15-1988__Part2-_TrcyChapmn.zip.html

The cover photo comes from this exact concert. The graphic in the upper left corner was the logo for this tour. I also used the same font that was featured on the promotional material for the tour.

No comments:

Post a Comment