Roberta Flack - BBC In Concert, City Hall, Sheffield, Britain, 10-22-1984

When it comes to soul music, I much prefer the music of the 1960s and 70s to that of the 1980s. Disco killed the career momentum of practically all the soul music acts I like, and then the rise of drum machines, synths, and overproduction ruined tons of 1980s soul records. Luckily, this 1984 Roberta Flack is largely free of those problems. Yeah, it can sound a little slick at times, but mostly it's strong songs sung with an excellent voice.

The sound quality is top notch, as you'd expect from a BBC concert. I didn't have to make any changes. Everything here is unreleased.

This seems to be kind of an odd time for a Robert Flack concert. She didn't put out a new studio album in 1984. Her most recent one at the time, in 1983, was a duet album with Peabo Bryson, which she supported by going on tour with him. She wouldn't put out another studio album until 1988. My guess is she did have a greatest hits album that came out in 1984, so maybe she was supporting that. Or maybe she was just touring without any new material. This didn't contain any songs from her album with Bryson, and only one song from the album before that.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 I Keep Forgettin' [Every Time You're Near] (Roberta Flack)
02 Killing Me Softly with His Song (Roberta Flack)
03 Feel like Makin' Love (Roberta Flack)
04 River (Roberta Flack)
05 Jesse (Roberta Flack)
06 The Closer I Get to You (Roberta Flack)
07 I'm the One (Roberta Flack)
08 Making Love (Roberta Flack)
09 talk (Roberta Flack)
10 Carousel (Roberta Flack)
11 The Water Is Wide (Roberta Flack)
12 The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Roberta Flack)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9o1kSmVX

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/6mj1OBljBqpIAq3/file

I don't know anything about the cover photo except it's probably from 1984.

BBC: What's Next?

With a new year about to begin, I thought this would be a good time for me to think a little bit about what music I want to post sooner rather than later. Specifically, I'm thinking about my big BBC project - my emphasis on posting BBC concerts and sessions. I've collected so many hundreds of BBC albums that I feel rather overwhelmed. And there certainly has to be a lot more out there that I haven't found yet.

I'm thinking it would probably be a popular move to post more from some of the famous artists that I have a lot of BBC material for. I just worked up a list of all the musical acts where I have at least four BBC albums collected already, and I haven't posted any of them yet. (Or, in a couple cases like Robert Plant, REM, and Elvis Costello, only posted an album or two so far.) Out of these, which ones would you like to see posted here sooner rather than later? Please only pic a few, or this survey won't help me much.

Caravan
Johnny Cash
Eric Clapton
Elvis Costello
Crowded House
Flaming Lips
Genesis
Emmylou Harris
Incredible String Band
Oasis
Robert Plant
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Police
Pretenders
Queen
R.E.M.
Stone the Crows
Supergrass
James Taylor
Texas
Thin Lizzy
Loudon Wainwright III
White Stripes
Amy Winehouse
XTC

Steve Winwood - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Maida Vale Studios, London, Britain, 6-10-2010

I thought I was done with Steve Winwood at the BBC after posting a BBC concert he did in 1997. But I recently came across this one. So I renamed that one to "Volume 1," and this naturally becomes "Volume 2." I wouldn't be surprised if others show up eventually, since Winwood seems to be the type of popular British performer the BBC loves to support.

This appears to be a special concert done just for a small audience in one of BBC's recording studios. Everything here is unreleased, but the sound quality is excellent. 

Winwood played two songs from his most recent studio album, 2008's "Nine Lives" - "Hungry Man" and "Dirty City." As I write this in 2024, that still is his most recent album. He didn't play many songs overall, but there's a lot of soloing. For instance, "Light Up or Leave Me Alone" is fifteen minutes long!

This album is an hour and six minutes long.

01 talk (Steve Winwood)
02 I'm a Man (Steve Winwood)
03 Hungry Man (Steve Winwood)
04 Dirty City (Steve Winwood)
05 Can't Find My Way Home (Steve Winwood)
06 Light Up or Leave Me Alone (Steve Winwood)
07 Higher Love (Steve Winwood)
08 Dear Mr. Fantasy (Steve Winwood)
09 talk (Steve Winwood)
10 Gimme Some Lovin' (Steve Winwood)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Eh3erAaz

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ivdn07Lt5IYPim0/file

The cover photo of Winwood was taken in Atlanta, Georgia, in July 2010.

Tim Rose - BBC Sessions (1967-1970)

Here's another album of BBC studio sessions by a rather obscure musical act. In this case, it's American singer-songwriter Tim Rose.

Although Rose was a talented songwriter, he's probably best known today for popularizing two songs he didn't write. "Hey Joe" was written by Billy Roberts, and in 1966 bands like the Leaves, the Byrds, and Love recorded fast-paced versions of the song. But also in 1966, Rose released a slow and angry version as a single. It wasn't a hit, but Jimi Hendrix heard it and closely copied the arrangement, giving Hendrix his first hit later that year.

"Morning Dew" was written by folk singer Bonnie Dobson and was done in a simple folk style. When Rose included it on his 1967 debut album, simply called "Tim Rose," he gave it a harder, rock feel. The Grateful Dead copied his arrangement and also put it on their 1967 self-titled debut album. It went on to become a rock standard.

Rose's solo career started with a lot of promise. He signed a multi-album record deal, and played on bills with lots of big names. Most of the sessions here were done for John Peel's BBC show, indicating he was considered cool at the time. But it's fitting that this album deals with the years 1967 to 1970, because his career petered out in the early 1970s - it seems drinking alcohol was a recurring problem for him. He eventually left the music industry altogether. He became a construction worker, then returned to college, got a history degree, and worked as a stockbroker and a teacher. 

In the 1990s, Rose's music began to be appreciated again, and he resumed playing concerts. He was supported by Nick Cave, who was influenced by Rose and covered his songs. His albums were re-released, and he began to play increasingly large concerts, including performing with Robert Plant, who also was influenced by him. But his revival was short-lived due to a heart attack that killed him in 2002 at the age of 62. 

Here's his Wikipedia page, if you want to know more:

Tim Rose - Wikipedia

All the performances here are officially unreleased. All but the last three are from John Peel's show, "Top Gear." Those last three are from a 1970 session hosted by DJ Bob Harris. For one session in 1968, Rose was backed by the band the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. Two of the three songs done there, "Cobwebs" and "It Serves Me Right to Suffer," appeared on one of that band's albums instead of one of Rose's.

The sound quality here is variable. I decided not to include a couple of songs due to poor sound quality. A couple others weren't included because they were repeats of songs. Four songs have "[Edit]" because John Peel spoke over parts of the song, something he didn't do that often. As I usually do, I used the UVR5 audio editing program to wipe out the talking while keeping the underlying music.

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 Hey Joe (Tim Rose)
02 Come Away Melinda [Edit] (Tim Rose)
03 You're Slipping Away from Me [Edit] (Tim Rose)
04 Morning Dew [Edit] (Tim Rose)
05 Fare Thee Well [Edit] (Tim Rose)
06 Cobwebs (Tim Rose & the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation)
07 It Serves Me Right to Suffer (Tim Rose & the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation)
08 Long Time Man (Tim Rose & the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation)
09 Roanoke (Tim Rose)
10 Foggy Mountain Breakdown on Rye with Mustard [Instrumental] (Tim Rose)
11 I Guess It's Over (Tim Rose)
12 Long Haired Boy (Tim Rose)
13 When I Was a Young Man (Tim Rose)
14 Angela (Tim Rose)
15 Kangaroo (Tim Rose)
16 I've Gotta Get a Message to You (Tim Rose)
17 You Can't Stop Yourself (Tim Rose)
18 Georgia by Morning (Tim Rose)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/w3HZvBeB

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/9Zm76nid7P0mNwi/file

I didn't find many good color photos of Tim Rose when he was young. So I resorted to using the photo of the cover of his second album, "Through Rose Colored Glasses," from 1969. However, there was a twist. That one was only of his head. I found a black and white version of the exact photo that also showed some of his upper torso. So I combined them, allowing me to show a little more than what was on the album cover. I also used the Krea AI program to clean things up and improve the detail.

Joni Mitchell - Hejira - Acoustic Version (1976) (A MIKE SOLOF GUEST POST)

I previously posted acoustic versions of Joni Mitchell's 1974 album "Court and Spark" and 1975 album "The Hissing of Summer Lawns." Here comes an acoustic version of her 1976 album "Hejira." This is a Mike Solof guest post.

As usual, Mike has included a PDF file in the download with his own thoughts. So I don't feel the need to say more much here, since he says a lot there. But if you love Mitchell's early music yet had trouble with her jazzier albums, this is a good opportunity to hear this excellent album done in her earlier acoustic style.

The track order is the same as on the official album, but Mike threw on a couple of extra songs, "Jericho" and "Help Me," at the end.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Coyote (Joni Mitchell)
02 Amelia (Joni Mitchell)
03 Furry Sings the Blues (Joni Mitchell)
04 A Strange Boy (Joni Mitchell)
05 Traveling [Hejira] (Joni Mitchell)
06 Song for Sharon (Joni Mitchell)
07 Black Crow (Joni Mitchell)
08 Blue Motel Room (Joni Mitchell)
09 Refuge of the Roads [Early Mix with Horns] (Joni Mitchell)
10 Jericho [Rehearsal Version] (Joni Mitchell)
11 Help Me [Rehearsal Version] (Joni Mitchell)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/sdJh1pg4

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/Eln5ixhya1FbRqa/file

Luckily for my purposes, there are some outtakes from the photo session for the cover of the "Hejira" album. I selected one of those, and replaced the image on the cover. I also made a slight change to the album title.

Roxy Music - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1972-1973

Here's a third album of Roxy Music performing for the BBC. This is an album of studio sessions.

The first two songs are from a July 1972 studio session. The first song, "Virginia Plain," made it onto a super deluxe edition of the band's debut album, "Roxy Music." But the second song, "If There Is Something," remains unreleased. It's quite a long song, about 12 and a half minutes long.

All the remaining songs are unreleased. "For Your Pleasure" is from the BBC TV show "Full House." The next three are from a March 1973 studio session. The final song, "In Every Dream Home a Heartache," was performed on the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show.

Unfortunately, it seems Roxy Music stopped doing BBC studio sessions or TV appearances after this. However, they still did some BBC concerts much later, which I plan on posting here.

This album is 36 minutes long.

01 Virginia Plain (Roxy Music)
02 If There Is Something (Roxy Music)
03 For Your Pleasure (Roxy Music)
04 Editions of You (Roxy Music)
05 Do the Strand (Roxy Music)
06 Pyjamarama (Roxy Music)
07 In Every Dream Home a Heartache (Roxy Music)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZUckLf5x

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/AaY1MSVof0easeX/file

The cover photo was taken in October 1973. From left to right: Paul Thompson, Bryan Ferry, Eddie Jobson, Andy Mackay, Sal Maida, and Phil Manzanera.

David Bowie - BBC Sessions, Volume 11: 1999-2000

I love David Bowie's music from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. I think his songwriting wasn't as strong after that. However, he still was an excellent performer. I have a bunch of his BBC albums still to post from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Generally speaking, most of the songs he did in these sessions are from earlier in his career anyway, so you should like these albums even if you're not such a big fan of his new material from those years.

This album is a case in point. It's a collection of BBC studio sessions for the most part, with just three songs that were relatively new at the time ("Survive," "Something in the Air," and "Repetition"). The first seven tracks are from an October 1999 session before a very small audience. Tracks 8 and 9 are from an appearance on the BBC TV show "Later... with Jools Holland." 

Finally, the last four tracks are from the 2000 Glastonbury Festival, which was broadcast on the BBC. Normally, I would have posted the entire Glastonbury performance, but that has been officially released as the live album "Glastonbury 2000." Also, I have other very similar performances of most of the songs from that, since the next album in this series is a full BBC concert that took place just two days after Glastonbury. So I only included four songs that he didn't play in that concert.

I used the MVSEP audio editing program to remove the crowd noise from the first seven tracks plus the last four, so everything here would sound like it was recorded in a studio. There wasn't much clapping with the first seven anyway, since it sounds like the audience was quite small. Everything here is unreleased except for the four Glastonbury tracks.

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 Survive (David Bowie)
02 Drive-In Saturday (David Bowie)
03 Something in the Air (David Bowie)
04 Can't Help Thinking about Me (David Bowie)
05 talk (David Bowie)
06 Repetition (David Bowie)
07 China Girl (David Bowie)
08 Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie)
09 Cracked Actor (David Bowie)
10 Changes (David Bowie)
11 Station to Station (David Bowie)
12 talk (David Bowie)
13 Golden Years (David Bowie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1cf31ogH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/zj9YKUraxwObErm/file

I'm not a fan of smoking cigarettes, so normally I wouldn't have chosen the cover photo I did for this album. However, this is the one and only photo I found of Bowie that actually comes from one of the BBC sessions included here, so I thought this was the most fitting photo. Specifically, this photo was taken during the October 25, 1999 BBC session in Maida Vale Studios in London. The first seven tracks here come from that session.

Elvis Costello and Friends - Village Music Birthday Party, The Sweetwater, Mill Valley, CA, 4-24-1989

This is a very special Elvis Costello bootleg concert, due to the "and Friends" part of the title, plus the sound quality. In short, after an opening acoustic set by Nick Lowe, then a longer acoustic set by Elvis Costello, other musicians from the audience came to the stage and took the spotlight, including Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir, also of the Grateful Dead, blues legend Charles Brown, Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Sammy Hagar of Van Halen, Commander Cody, James Burton (who was lead guitarist for Elvis Presley, Emmylou Harris, John Denver, and many more), and others. The concert went on and on, with lots of jamming and guest lead vocals. 

So that alone is pretty cool. But typically for this kind of thing, we're lucky to get only a bad audience bootleg, if there's any known recording at all. That's especially true in a venue like the Sweetwater where this took place, which only held a hundred or so people at the most. But somehow, for this concert, we have a perfect soundboard bootleg recording of the entire thing! There's also video of it all that you can find on YouTube.

From the 1940s until 2007, there was a very special record store in Mill Valley, California, north of San Francisco, called "Village Music." Wikipedia has an entry on it, which states, "It was nationally recognized for its extensive collection of old, rare and specialty records." Costello, in his liner notes for his album "Kojak Variety," called it "may be the greatest record collector store in the world." Right next door to this store was a small club called the Sweetwater, or the Sweetwater Saloon. Twice a year, John Goddard, the owner of Village Music, held private concerts at the Sweetwater. Famous musicians from the Bay Area and beyond attended, and the sort of guest star turns as happened in this concert was typical. But while bootleg recordings of most of those concerts aren't publicly available, somehow we got lucky with this one. (Note that although the Sweetwater closed in 2007, another one with the same name opened up nearby in 2012 and continues until today.)

Here's an interesting article about the club, with some photos from these private parties, including another one of Costello and Garcia from this concert:

'One of a Kind': Remembering Jeanie Patterson, Owner of Mill Valley's Sweetwater | KQED

Out of all the unusual guests in the concert, perhaps the most intriguing combination was several covers of country songs sung by Costello with Jerry Garcia assisting on lead guitar. It turns out both of them talked about this very concert in an interview with "Musician Magazine" about a year later. Here's the relevant section:

Costello: "Certainly a candidate for the world's greatest record store is Village Music, in Mill Valley. Every year John Goddard has a party for his friends and customers, and he always has a really good bill of people. So last year on the twenty-first anniversary, I did a show with Nick Lowe, and he invited James Burton and Jerry Scheff, who'd played with me on the road. I did my little set, Nick did his set, and then it was a free-for-all; Charles Brown did a piece, and people were getting summoned to the stage. I was standing in the corridor when I suddenly heard, 'Jerry Garcia to the stage!' And, emboldened by several margaritas, I decided to join him."

Garcia then explained: "Not only that, but it was one of those situations where I had the choice of playing either Elvis' guitar, which is low and it's stiff, and the strings are quite wide as well, and all this confusing script, or of playing Burton's guitar, which is strung with spider webs. I mean it's the absolutely lightest you can string a guitar and still get a sound out of it. I'd take Burton's and play a note on it and it goes "spack." So I opted to play Elvis' guitar as the lesser of two evils. [laughter] And I vowed I would never go to another one of those shows without my own."

Costello then continued: "It was a whole Three Stooges routine -- 'Here, you take my guitar,' 'No, I'll take your guitar.' I think I had Burton's old Telecaster for half a song, and James had my old Martin acoustic which wasn't cranked up so he couldn't solo - and Jerry's struggling with my guitar. But once everybody got settled, we managed to struggle through a couple of Hank Williams songs. Like any sort of jam thing it inevitably came to degenerate towards lots of blues. But we managed a few songs with changes."

Then Garcia concluded, "A pretty high level of jam-sessionry really, considering what it was. Really fun. And Elvis' solo set was phenomenal, I thought. That's one of those things that I can't do at all, just playing the guitar and singing. You're so solid with that, you don't miss a band. I always feel like I'm missing a band."

It's quite a challenge figuring out who was playing on what song, since there was an ever-changing line-up after the initial solo sets by Lowe and Costello. Luckily, there's the video footage of the entire concert which I mentioned above, and person named "grner1" went through the whole thing and carefully noted the exact musicians on each song. I've included the text file that person made if you want all the details. The song order is somewhat different in my song list since I put all the banter on individual tracks, but you can follow along by looking at the song titles. 

Because the bootleg already sounded excellent, I didn't have to do much. However, I did cut out some dead air between songs. I probably trimmed about ten minutes from the entire concert that way. And I boosted the vocals of some of the banter so it could be better heard. With my song list, I didn't attempt to list all the performers on each song, but just some of the more famous or prominent ones.

This album is two hours and 44 minutes long.

01 talk (Nick Lowe)
02 Without Love (Nick Lowe)
03 talk (Nick Lowe)
04 Refrigerator White (Nick Lowe)
05 Geisha Girl (Nick Lowe)
06 talk (Nick Lowe)
07 Rocky Road (Nick Lowe)
08 talk (Nick Lowe)
09 [I Wanna Build A] Jumbo Ark (Nick Lowe)
10 Bo Bo Skadiddle (Nick Lowe)
11 talk (Nick Lowe)
12 I Knew the Bride [When She Used to Rock and Roll] (Nick Lowe)
13 talk (Elvis Costello)
14 Accidents Will Happen (Elvis Costello)
15 Brilliant Mistake (Elvis Costello)
17 talk (Elvis Costello)
16 Deep Dark Truthful Mirror (Elvis Costello)
18 Mystery Dance (Elvis Costello)
19 talk (Elvis Costello)
20 Poisoned Rose (Elvis Costello)
21 God's Comic (Elvis Costello)
22 [The Angels Wanna Wear My] Red Shoes (Elvis Costello)
23 New Lace Sleeves (Elvis Costello)
24 Pads, Paws and Claws (Elvis Costello)
25 Radio Sweetheart (Elvis Costello)
27 talk (Elvis Costello)
26 Jackie Wilson Said [I'm in Heaven When You Smile] (Elvis Costello)
28 [What's So Funny 'Bout] Peace, Love and Understanding (Elvis Costello & Nick Lowe)
29 talk (Elvis Costello)
30 The Big Light (Elvis Costello with James Burton)
31 talk (Elvis Costello)
32 Pouring Water on a Drowning Man (Elvis Costello with James Burton)
33 talk (Elvis Costello)
34 Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line (Elvis Costello with James Burton)
35 talk (Elvis Costello)
36 Leave My Kitten Alone (Elvis Costello with James Burton)
37 talk (Elvis Costello & Charles Brown)
38 I Stepped in Quicksand (Charles Brown with Kim Wilson)
39 talk (Charles Brown)
40 Driftin' Blues (Charles Brown)
41 talk (Charles Brown)
42 All My Life (Charles Brown)
43 talk (Austin de Lone & Nick Lowe)
44 One's Too Many [And a Hundred Ain't Enough] (Kim Wilson & Nick Lowe with James Burton)
45 Real Gone Lover (Kim Wilson with James Burton)
46 talk (Austin de Lone)
47 You Win Again (Elvis Costello with Jerry Garcia & James Burton)
48 The Bottle Let Me Down (Elvis Costello with Jerry Garcia & James Burton)
49 Why Don't You Love Me (Elvis Costello with Jerry Garcia & James Burton)
50 talk (Austin de Lone & Commander Cody)
51 Riot in Cell Block No. 9 (Commander Cody with Sammy Hagar, Elvis Costello, Jerry Garcia & James Burton)
52 talk (Austin de Lone)
53 Going Down (Sammy Hagar with Jerry Garcia & James Burton)
54 talk (Austin de Lone)
55 C.C. Rider (Bob Weir with James Burton)
56 Turn On Your Lovelight (Bob Weir with Elvis Costello & James Burton)
57 talk (Austin de Lone)
58 Let the Good Times Roll (Elvis Costello with James Burton)
59 Loveable (Elvis Costello with James Burton)
60 talk (Elvis Costello)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GHKigDxL

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Y6iW7I2AIpEdyVA/file

The cover photo of Costello and Garcia is from this exact concert.

Ralph McTell - BBC Sessions, Old Grey Whistle Test, BBC TV Theatre, Shepherd's Bush, London, Britain, 11-9-1976

I have to admit I'm not very familiar with Ralph McTell or his music. Even his huge hit, "Streets of London," was a Number Two hit in Britain, and similarly big in some other countries, but it never was a hit at all in the U.S., so I was only barely familiar with it. But I found this unreleased solo acoustic BBC concert, and I gave it a listen and I liked it. So now I'm sharing it.

Ralph McTell, an English singer-songwriter, released his first solo album in 1968. His original song "Streets of London" was put on his second solo album in 1969. However, it wasn't released as a single until it was slightly redone in 1974. That's when it hit big and made him famous. But judging from the songs here, he's a lot more than just a one-hit wonder. On this album, he does a mix of originals and blues covers.

Here's his Wikipedia entry if you want to know more:

Ralph McTell - Wikipedia

This is the only material of McTell at the BBC that I could find. It's from an episode of the BBC TV show "The Old Grey Whistle Test" that mostly or entirely consisted of one of his concerts. I found a video file of this concert and converted it to mp3s.

This album is 40 minutes long.

01 talk (Ralph McTell)
02 Weather the Storm (Ralph McTell)
03 talk (Ralph McTell)
04 Dry Bone Rag [Instrumental] (Ralph McTell)
05 talk (Ralph McTell)
06 From Clare to Here (Ralph McTell)
07 talk (Ralph McTell)
08 Naomi (Ralph McTell)
09 talk (Ralph McTell)
10 Old Grey Rag [Instrumental] (Ralph McTell)
11 talk (Ralph McTell)
12 May You Never (Ralph McTell)
13 talk (Ralph McTell)
14 Big Tree (Ralph McTell)
15 talk (Ralph McTell)
16 Hesitation Blues (Ralph McTell)
17 Streets of London (Ralph McTell)
18 talk (Ralph McTell)
19 Winnie's Rag (Ralph McTell)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QAEgLS7A

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/n0TNstJiPBihi3X/file

The cover photo is a screenshot from this exact concert.

Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary - Madison Square Garden, New York City, 5-14-1988, Part 5: Yes, Rufus Thomas & Led Zeppelin

Here's the fifth and final part of a six-hour long version of the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert. 

Yes had big success in the 1980s, especially with their massive 1983 hit "Owner of a Lonely Heart," so they were given a 25-minute long time slot in this concert. According to some accounts, such as setlist.fm, they also did the song "Changes." But I've seen claims that isn't true. I suspect they didn't, because 25 minutes already made their set the second longest set of the night.

I find it very odd if it's true that Rufus Thomas performed the song "Walking the Dog" between big sets by Yes and Led Zeppelin. The acts tended to get more and more famous the longer the concert went on, but Thomas was nowhere near as popular as the acts around his performance. It could be that he actually sang that much earlier and it was only shown on TV during a break between sets. I know this rearranging did happen some with the HBO TV broadcast. But all the sources I've seen have his song here, and I haven't seen anything to contradict it, so I'm leaving it here (for now, at least).

The thing this concert is best remembered for, by far, is the 32-minute-long reunion of Led Zeppelin. The band broke up in 1980 after their drummer John Bonham died. They reunited to play three songs at the massive Live Aid benefit concert in 1985. But that was widely considered a fiasco. Lead guitarist Jimmy Page was in a bad way with drug addiction at the time. Also, Phil Collins tried to play drums, but he was just winging it and discovered the songs were more complicated than he'd realized.

The band's reunion for this concert has also been criticized. Later, lead guitarist Jimmy Page called it "one big disappointment," and lead vocalist Robert Plant later said "the gig was foul." But I disagree. The band certainly played better than at Live Aid. A key change was the drums. This time, deceased drummer John Bonham's son Jason Bonham was old enough to replace his father in the band, and he did a good job of it. I saw some article reviews of the concert just after it happened, and the Led Zeppelin performance was praised. I think in retrospect opinions soured a bit because the performance was badly mixed. For instance, the bass playing of John Paul Jones could barely be heard at all for the first song and half of the second song. There were some other problems too. I attempted to fix this with the editing program UVR5. I think I made some improvements. However, the bass was so low for "Kashmir" that I couldn't make a fix there.

Also, I think one reason Page and Plant have bad memories of the concert is due to bad vibes happening off stage. Apparently, Plant was really, really sick of the song "Stairway to Heaven" by 1988, and didn't want to play it at the concert. But Ahmet Ertegun, the founder and long-time president of Atlantic Records, heard about this in advance and talked him into playing it the night before. Then, hours before the concert began, Plant changed his mind again and had big arguments with Page about it. Ultimately, the song was played, and understandably so, since it's one of the best and most popular songs of all time, overplayed though it is. And if you look at the cover photo I've chosen for this album, Plant and Page seemed genuinely happy during the concert.

The original idea was to have a final song with everyone from earlier in the concert brought on stage to perform together, which is the usual tradition for concerts like this. But ultimately it was decided that nothing could top the Led Zeppelin reunion, so there was no big finale after that. 

After this concert, Led Zeppelin reunited twice more. Once was for the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame reunion in 1995. The other was a full concert in 2007. Interestingly, that was for a tribute concert for Ahmet Ertegun. Note Ertegun was one of the people to introduce Led Zeppelin in this concert. The 1995 and 2007 reunions were considered much more musically successful than the 1985 and 1988 ones.

Oh, by the way, I didn't mark it as such, but I severely edited down the introduction to the Led Zeppelin set. The bootleg version I found had Robert Townsend, Phil Collins and Ahmet Ertegun talking for five minutes, mercilessly teasing the audience about who was going to be the final act of the concert, when everyone already knew it was Led Zeppelin. They dragged things out so long that it was downright painful to hear, so I cut the intro in half. Even then, it's probably still too long. I'm guessing that the band wasn't ready - maybe last minute arguing between Plant and Page? - so they were stalling for time to a ridiculous degree. 

This album is an hour and five minutes long.

088 Hold On (Yes)
089 Make It Easy (Yes)
090 Owner of a Lonely Heart (Yes)
091 I've Seen All Good People (Yes)
092 Roundabout (Yes)
093 talk (Paul Shaffer)
094 Walking the Dog (Rufus Thomas)
095 talk (Robert Townsend, Phil Collins & Ahmet Ertegun)
096 Kashmir (Led Zeppelin)
097 Heartbreaker (Led Zeppelin)
098 Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin)
099 talk (Led Zeppelin)
100 Misty Mountain Hop (Led Zeppelin)
101 talk (Led Zeppelin)
102 Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)
103 talk (Led Zeppelin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oWK5DxhD

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/3Qsjm78mYpHJKct/file

The cover photo of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin is from this exact concert.

Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary - Madison Square Garden, New York City, 5-14-1988, Part 4: The Manhattan Transfer, Genesis, Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Bee Gees, & The Rascals

Here's the fourth part of a six-hour long version of the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert. 

Atlantic Records put out a lot of records by jazz artists. But since jazz music isn't a big seller, most of those artists didn't get invited to this concert. Two who did, Herbie Mann and Bobby Short, got cut out of the TV broadcast versions, so I don't have their performances. That just leaves the Manhattan Transfer to represent jazz, since they had some hits and wider commercial success in the 1970s and 80s.

Genesis is a band was only intermittently together in the 1980s. Phil Collins split his time between being in Genesis and having a hugely popular solo career. Mike Rutherford also carved out a successful solo career as the leader of Mike + the Mechanics. Genesis had last put out an album in 1986, "Invisible Touch," then toured to support it into 1987. However, this was the only concert they reunited for in 1988. Their twenty-minute long set was essentially one gigantic medley, although I've broken it into four tracks so I could get all the song names in.

As I mentioned previously, Crosby Stills and Nash sang the song "Southern Cross" to start this concert, but I don't have that recording. Then they returned for their own twenty-minute-long set. Most bootlegs of this concert have "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" earlier in the show, because the song order was scrambled up a bit on some TV broadcasts. But you can tell they did it here with the songs "Wooden Ships" and "Teach Your Children" because actor Michael Douglas referred to all three songs when he introduced them.

The Bee Gees played a relatively short set. In addition to "Lonely Days" and "Jive Talkin'" presented here, they also performed "To Love Somebody." However, I couldn't find a recording on that one. I found mention of it being posted on YouTube and then taken down, so it must be out there. If anyone has it, please let me know. Personally, I think the Bee Gees deserved another song or two, since they've one of the best selling acts of all time, but probably in the late 1980s they were still suffering from the backlash of their disco era overexposure.

The final musical act in this part is the Rascals. They broke up in 1972. This concert was their first reunion since then, going back to the original line-up that ended in 1970. After this concert, they would go on a short tour for a few months. After that, there were further one-off reunions in 1997 and 2010, and another tour in 2012 and 2013.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long.

069 talk (Manhattan Transfer)
070 Mack the Knife (Manhattan Transfer)
071 Birdland (Manhattan Transfer)
072 Turn It On Again - Land of Confusion - Misunderstanding (Genesis)
073 Throwing It All Away (Genesis)
074 That's All - Tonight Tonight Tonight - Invisible Touch - Turn It On Again [Reprise] (Genesis)
075 You Can't Hurry Love - Shortcut to Somewhere - All I Need Is a Miracle (Genesis)
076 talk (Michael Douglas)
077 Wooden Ships (Crosby Stills & Nash)
078 talk (Crosby Stills & Nash)
079 Our House (Crosby Stills & Nash)
080 Suite- Judy Blue Eyes (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
081 talk (Bee Gees)
082 Lonely Days (Bee Gees)
083 Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees)
084 talk (Dan Aykroyd & Bill Murray)
085 Good Lovin' (Rascals)
086 Groovin' (Rascals)
087 People Got to Be Free (Rascals)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/t2DmMTS8

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/3pBToJ89aaas4tj/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Mike Rutherford on guitar and Phil Collins singing.

Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary - Madison Square Garden, New York City, 5-14-1988, Part 3: The MG’s, Carla Thomas, Paul Rodgers, Miki Howard, Paul Shaffer, Sam Moore, The Elwood Blues Review, Phil Collins, Bob Geldof, The Spinners, & Wilson Pickett

Here's the third part of six-hour long version of the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert. 

In the 1950s and 60s, Atlantic Records was mainly known as an R&B/ soul record label, though it broke out into other musical genres by the end of the decade. Most of this section served as a kind of concert within a concert that celebrated the 1960s soul music of the company. Atlantic Records distributed most of the music done by the Stax record label, so all of that was fair game here as well.

In the 1960s at Stax Records, the instrumental group the MG's backed up most of the other lead singers on the label, in addition to having some instrumental hits of their own. Later, key members of that band, like Steve Cropper and Donald 'Duck' Dunn, joined the Blue Brothers band in the late 1970s. Led by comedians/singers John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, they had a hit movie and some hit albums before Belushi died in the early 1980s. For most of this section of the concert, Cropper, Dunn, and other members of the MG's were the backing band. But for a portion of it, their name changed to the Elwood Blues Review, a sort of variant of the Blues Brothers because Aykroyd got involved in those songs too.

That backing band then supported some different lead singers. Carla Thomas was an original Stax star. Paul Rodgers, however, was a big star with Free and Bad Company (on Atlantic Records). Both both of those bands had ceased to exist by the time of this concert. So instead of singing any of his own hits, he sang "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" as a tribute to deceased Stax star Otis Redding. 1980s R&B star Miki Howard also sang a song associated with Redding, "Try a Little Tenderness."

Another big musical act for Stax was the soul duo Sam and Dave (Sam Moore and Dave Prater). Unfortunately, Dave Prater died several months prior to this concert (and the two of them had had a big falling out prior to that anyway). But Sam Moore was at this concert to represent Sam and Dave. Dave Prater was effectively replaced on some songs by Aykroyd, kind of bringing back the Blue Brothers, and was replaced by Phil Collins on two other songs. 

The only odd one out in this R&B section of the concert was Bob Geldof. I'm not sure why he was put where he was in the running order, if indeed this order is correct, but oh well. It was also a bit strange that instead of doing any of his own hits from his Boomtown Rats years, he did a cover of a relatively obscure song by Graham Parker.

The Spinners continued the R&B vibe of this portion of the show, even though they had much bigger success in the 1970s compared to the 1960s. I could only find one song they did. But they also played "Working My Way Back to You" and "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love."

Finally, Wilson Pickett was the star of the last couple of songs here. He was backed by the Elwood Blues Review. I looked at the video, and Dan Akroyd danced around on stage a lot and played some harmonica, but the lead vocals were basically all done by Pickett. Still, this must have kind of been a reunion for Pickett, because the Elwood Blues Review was basically the same as the MG's, and they were the backing band for most of Pickett's hits in the 1960s. Pickett even co-wrote one of the songs he performed here, "In the Midnight Hour," with the lead guitarist on stage, Steve Cropper.

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

043 talk (Dan Aykroyd)
044 Last Night [Instrumental] (MG's)
045 talk (Steve Cropper)
046 Gee Whiz (Carla Thomas & the MG's)
047 talk (Steve Cropper)
048 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay (Paul Rodgers & the MG's)
049 talk (Steve Cropper)
050 Try a Little Tenderness (Miki Howard & the MG's)
051 talk (Steve Cropper)
052 Tramp (Carla Thomas, Paul Shaffer & the MG's)
053 Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
054 talk (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
055 Soul Man (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
056 talk (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
057 I've Been Loving You Too Long (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
058 talk (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
059 You Don't Know like I Know (Phil Collins, Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
060 talk (Phil Collins, Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
061 Knock On Wood (Phil Collins, Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
062 talk (Roberta Flack)
063 talk (Bob Geldof)
064 You Can't Be Too Strong (Bob Geldof)
065 Mighty Love (Spinners)
066 In the Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett & the Elwood Blues Review)
067 talk (Wilson Pickett & the Elwood Blues Review)
068 Land of 1000 Dances (Wilson Pickett & the Elwood Blues Review)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zi3oxCsd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/UMkqqccXBZLa7Di/file

The cover photo of Wilson Pickett is from this exact concert.

Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary - Madison Square Garden, New York City, 5-14-1988, Part 2: Ben E. King, Roberta Flack, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, the Average White Band, Ruth Brown, Debbie Gibson & Robert Plant

Here's the second part of a six-hour long version of the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert.

I explained the basics about the concert in my write-up for part one. So read that if you want to know about the concert in general.

Ben E. King was a big soul music star back in the 1950s and early 1960s, both with the Drifters and as a solo act. But in 1986, two years prior to this concert, a reissue of his song "Stand by Me" reached the Top Ten in the U.S. and Number One in Britain.

Technically, Emerson, Lake and Palmer didn't perform at this concert. Instead, for one album only in 1988, Greg Lake left the group and was replaced by Robert Berry. They released a studio album using the group name "3." Then Lake rejoined the band, replacing Berry in time for the next album. For this concert, they were introduced as "Emerson and Palmer," with Berry and the group name "3" being ignored. I'm calling the band "Emerson, Lake and Palmer" so their music can be easily found with site searches and labels and such.

In retrospect, I think Debbie Gibson got too much time in this concert. Her set was 15 minutes long, making it longer than a lot of other acts who made it into various halls of fame. For instance, she had a longer set than Ruth Brown, despite the fact that she was such a big star for Atlantic Records for the first ten years of the company's existence that its nickname was "The House that Ruth Built." (Even the Wikipedia entry about the record company mentions that nickname.) But the timing was just right for Gibson. She had a huge debut album in 1987, which sold three million copies in the U.S. Her second album in 1989 would also be a big seller. But after that her sales fell off a cliff and she largely disappeared as a big star. I give her kudos for writing all her own songs. But I wouldn't be surprised if some people skip or delete her set.

I know of some music from this part of the concert that I couldn't find. Ruth Brown sang a second song, "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean." Emerson, Lake and Palmer (or 3, or Emerson and Palmer) played one other song, "Fanfare for the Common Man." The Average White Band did two other songs, "I Got Work to Do" and "Person to Person." I don't know when it happened, but probably early in this concert, Herbie Mann played a set of the songs "Push Push," "Soul Serenade," and "Memphis Underground." Also at some point, Vanilla Fudge played two songs, "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and "Take Me for a Little While."

Robert Plant had lots of success as a solo artist in the 1980s. So he got a three song set in this portion of the show, while also singing lead with Led Zeppelin later in the show.

This album is an hour and 15 minutes long. 

By the way, note that the track numbering continues from the numbering of the previous part, in case you want to listen to all the concert as one huge album.

021 talk (Stephen Stills)
022 Spanish Harlem (Ben E. King)
023 talk (Ben E. King)
024 There Goes My Baby (Ben E. King)
025 Save the Last Dance for Me (Ben E. King)
026 Killing Me Softly with His Song (Roberta Flack)
027 The Closer I Get to You (Roberta Flack & Peabo Bryson)
028 America - Blue Rondo a la Turk [Instrumental] (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
029 Pick Up the Pieces [Instrumental] (Average White Band)
030 Teardrops from My Eyes (Ruth Brown)
031 talk (Lisa Bonet)
032 Staying Together (Debbie Gibson)
033 Foolish Beat (Debbie Gibson)
034 Out of the Blue - Shake Your Love - Only in My Dreams (Debbie Gibson)
035 talk (Debbie Gibson)
036 Happy Birthday (Debbie Gibson)
037 talk (Phil Collins)
038 Heaven Knows (Robert Plant)
039 talk (Robert Plant)
040 Ship of Fools (Robert Plant)
041 talk (Robert Plant)
042 Tall Cool One (Robert Plant)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FWMHka7W

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/njDAQ0s6ftPW7fx/file

The cover photo of Ben E. King is from this exact concert.

Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary - Madison Square Garden, New York City, 5-14-1988, Part 1: Nu Shooz, Stacey Q, The Coasters, Phil Collins, LaVern Baker, Foreigner, Iron Butterfly, & Laura Branigan

Here's another big benefit concert. As I've mentioned before, I think these tend to get overlooked, except for the portions performed by really famous musical acts. In this case, the concert is best known for the second Led Zeppelin 1980s reunion, after they reunited for Live Aid in 1985. But there's so much more to this, including other interesting reunions. 

The entire concert was about 12 hours long. I didn't find all of it, but I found the vast majority of it. Presumably, a big chunk of those 12 hours was dead time between acts. I was able to find six hours of music. I've broken that up into five albums.

This was a rather unusual concert, in that it celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Atlantic Records record company. I'd be hard pressed to think of any other records companies celebrated like this, other than Motown Records. And it's odd that it was a 40th anniversary concert with no similar one for the 25th anniversary, or 30th, or 50th, etc... But it was probably lucky that it happened when it did, before some of the older acts retired or passed on. Atlantic Records had an interesting history in that it started out in the 1950s as the most important record company for R&B music before branching out into all musical genres. So a lot of the 1950s and 1960s stars that made the record company successful were able to perform at this concert.

I found a newspaper article that explains a little bit about how this concert came to be. When the show was first planned, the idea was to have a smaller auditorium and invite just a couple thousand people, mainly Atlantic Records employees and special guests. Ken Ehrlich, who produced the show, explained, "When it first started, it was to be a two-hour black-tie event at Radio City Music Hall. But I said to [Atlantic Records founder and president] Ahmet [Ertegun]: 'You've made music for kids, now you want to invite your friends to a party. You have to do it at [Madison Square] Garden. You want kids to scream and yell.' Eventually, the size dictated that we do it at the Garden. We wanted to reflect 40 years and reach a new audience. I want 15-year-old kids to see Ruth Brown and the Coasters."

The concert was a curious mix of self-promotion and charity. The self-promotion was first that the record company was patting itself on its back while also using the concert to promote some of their young and up and coming acts. But at the same time, the concert was expected to make at least 10 million dollars in profits due to selling TV broadcast and radio broadcast rights, and all of that money was to go to charity. Furthermore, most of the charity money was sent to the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, a charity created by the record company to basically give their legacy acts the profits they deserved but had been screwed out of back in the 1950s and 60s.

Before I say more, I want to point out that while many big names did perform at this concert, many other long-time Atlantic Records artists did not. The ones who didn't perform included Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Cream, the Allman Brothers Band, the Rolling Stones, INXS, King Crimson, Dusty Springfield, Hall and Oates, Peter Gabriel, and Chic. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Probably the biggest miss was the Rolling Stones. But they'd had a big falling out in the early 1980s and wouldn't reunite until a year later.

As far as I know, a couple of hours of highlights from this concert has been officially released on DVD, but nothing has appeared on album. So I've had to rely on bootlegs. The most easily accessible version of the concert is a portion that was broadcast on the HBO cable network. But that was less than half. Parts of it were also broadcast on ABC TV. Furthermore, other parts were broadcast on other networks. I found some bits from a German broadcast, for instance. Apparently, the entire show was broadcast on BBC, in one-hour weekly segments. But I haven't been able to find that anywhere. If anyone has any parts that I've missed, please let me know so I can add those bits in.

I've done my best to put this together as it really happened, but it's hard because I haven't been able to get a definitive list of the order of the performers. Still, the different versions did have a lot in common, and I've found clues from newspaper articles, so I've made best guesses. 

Let me mention some of the bits that I think are still missing from this portion of the show. Apparently, Crosby, Stills and Nash performed the song "Southern Cross" to open the show, and then returned for a longer set near the end of the show. LeVert did the song "Casanova." Bobby Short played two songs: "Hop Scotch Blues" and "Black and Blue." Rachelle Cappelli sang "The Truth'll Set You Free" plus an Aretha Franklin cover. LaVern Baker also did the song "Tweedle Dee." 

Note also that I have some introduction of acts, but I'm probably missing about half of those. In some cases, famous people who didn't perform themselves did the introductions, while in other cases performers from other parts of the show did the introductions. So, for instance in this part, Marv Albert, a sports broadcaster, introduced the Coasters. But Foreigner was introduced by Roberta Flack, who sang later in the show.

One notable event from this part of the show was the reunion of the Coasters. They were one of the biggest acts on the Atlantic label in the 1950s and early 1960s. But this was the first time the original members performed together in about twenty years.

Here's a Wikipedia article about the concert. But note that it doesn't say much, and its list of performers is incomplete and mostly follows the HBO broadcast:

Atlantic Records 40th anniversary - Wikipedia

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long.

001 talk (Robert Townshend)
002 Should I Say Yes - I Can't Wait (Nu Shooz)
003 Two of Hearts (Stacey Q)
004 talk (Marv Albert)
005 That Is Rock and Roll (Coasters)
006 Youngblood (Coasters)
007 Charlie Brown (Coasters)
008 I'm a Hog for You (Coasters)
009 In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins)
010 talk (Phil Collins)
011 Jim Dandy (LaVern Baker)
012 Saved (LaVern Baker)
013 talk (Roberta Flack)
014 Hot Blooded (Foreigner)
015 Urgent (Foreigner)
016 talk (Foreigner)
017 I Want to Know What Love Is (Foreigner)
018 Juke Box Hero (Foreigner)
019 In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Iron Butterfly)
020 Gloria (Laura Branigan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/kCLD3BmR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ksQX0KcmnRSwASW/file

The cover photo of the Coasters is from this exact concert.

Paul Weller - BBC Sessions, Volume 8: 2000-2005

It's time for me to post more of Paul Weller at the BBC. It's been six months since I last remembered to post more of this series. This time, the album consists of BBC studio sessions.

A huge box set called "At the BBC" consists of BBC performances from 1992 to 2008. However, Weller has performed at the BBC so often that even that big box set missed quite a lot. The first eight songs here are all unreleased, despite being BBC studio sessions with excellent sound quality. The last six songs do come from the box set.

For the most part, Weller played with a full band here, though there are a few acoustic performances.

This album is 52 minutes long. 

Oh, by the way, if you're a stickler for such things, at the same time I posted this, I posted minor changes to the titles for Volumes 1 and 7 in this series.

01 He's the Keeper (Paul Weller)
02 Picking Up Sticks (Paul Weller)
03 A Whales Tale (Paul Weller)
04 Dust and Rocks (Paul Weller)
05 Bag Man (Paul Weller)
06 Bullets for Everyone (Paul Weller)
07 In the Crowd (Paul Weller)
08 I Forgot to Be Your Lover (Paul Weller)
09 Wishing on a Star (Paul Weller)
10 Thinking of You (Paul Weller)
11 Corrina, Corrina (Paul Weller)
12 talk (Paul Weller)
13 Early Morning Rain (Paul Weller)
14 talk (Paul Weller)
15 To the Start of Forever (Paul Weller)
16 Paper Smile (Paul Weller)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9d4jwdD1

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/WJ6MMcElMqmo8PM/file

The cover photo is from a concert in Belgium in July 2000.

Van Morrison - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: In Concert, Rainbow Theatre, London, Britain, 7-24-1973

It's high time I start posting the music Van Morrison has performed for the BBC over his long solo career. 

As far as I can tell, Morrison performed surprisingly rarely for the BBC in 1970s and 80s. I'm only aware of two BBC concerts in those decades, and no studio sessions. This first one comes arguably at the peak of his live performances, during the concerts recorded for his acclaimed double live album "It's Too Late to Stop Now." The songs on that album were taken from seven concerts in the summer of 1973, including two at the Rainbow Theatre in London, on July 23rd and 24th.

The Wikipedia entry for the "It's Too Late to Stop Now" album has something to say about those two concerts at the Rainbow: "The London concerts were the first time he had appeared in that city since performing with Them, six years earlier. The two concerts at the Rainbow Theatre in London were referred to as 'the rock event of the year' by critics, according to Ritchie Yorke in his biography. The 24 July 1973 London Rainbow concert was the first BBC simulcast broadcast simultaneously on BBC 2 television and Radio 2 stereo so that viewers with strategically sited loudspeakers could enjoy 'stereo TV.'"

In 2016, a super deluxe edition of "It's Too Late to Stop Now" was released, called "It's Too Late To Stop Now Volumes II, III, IV." That included a full CD of the Rainbow Theatre concerts. However, that one mixed the July 23rd and 24th shows together without specifying which songs were from which. I listened, and it seems to me the vast majority of the songs were from the 23rd show, because I hear little overlap with this. So some of the songs here may be on the original "It's Too Late to Stop Now" and/or some may be from the super deluxe edition, but I'm betting most are still unreleased.

This comes from a bootleg of the original BBC broadcast. The sound quality generally is excellent. Unfortunately though, the quality dips some for the last three songs, which was the show's encore. In particular, during the last song, "Gloria," a BBC DJ spoke over a short section in the middle of the song to make an announcement about the concert soon coming to an end. I had to remove that section entirely and patch it in instead with a chunk of the same song from "It's Too Late to Stop Now." That's only for about ten to fifteen seconds, but it's pretty noticeable as the sound quality briefly gets better. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in the title.

This album is an hour and 19 minutes long.

01 Warm Love (Van Morrison)
02 Take Your Hand Out of My Pocket (Van Morrison)
03 Here Comes the Night (Van Morrison)
04 I Just Want to Make Love to You (Van Morrison)
05 Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison)
06 Moonshine Whiskey (Van Morrison)
07 Moondance (Van Morrison)
08 Help Me (Van Morrison)
09 Domino (Van Morrison)
10 Caravan (Van Morrison)
11 Cyprus Avenue (Van Morrison)
12 Wild Night (Van Morrison)
13 I Paid the Price (Van Morrison)
14 Saint Dominic's Preview (Van Morrison)
15 Gloria [Edit] (Van Morrison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GFp6uGSV

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/c9OgThy2PmQVsYv/file

The cover photo might or might not be from this concert. It was taken at the Rainbow Theatre in London in July 1973. But he played two concerts there that month, so the odds are probably 50-50.

Changing Download Links

In recent weeks, I've been posting all new albums using the Pixeldrain and Bestfile download links. Nearly everybody seems to be using them just fine. Plus, I figure if I post both links for each new album, if one doesn't work, the other one should. 

As a result, I'm no longer making new links with upload.ee. When I started using that, there wasn't a problem with spam or viruses. But those things showed up and seemed to never go away. Of course, I'll keep existing upload.ee links, which is a majority of all the old links. But if and when any of those die or need to be changed, I'll be replacing them with Pixeldrain and Bestfile links.

Today, I also finished replacing all Imagenetz links, so I can stop using that service too. At first, I'd made a lot of those links, but I found they died mysteriously and at random, despite promises to be permanent. After a while, the only Imagenetz links I kept going were for albums over 200 MB in size, which is about an hour and a half of music, because upload.ee didn't allow files larger than 200 MB. But Pixeldrain and Bestfile don't have any such limitation. So I just added those two to the 200 or so albums I'd used Imagenetz with. However, I'll keep the Imagenetz links going in most cases until they die off on their own.

I don't know how long I'll be able to keep using Pixeldrain for new links, since they claim to have a "one and done" policy when it comes to copyright violations. So that's one key reason I'm making Bestfile links for all new albums too. But I'll keep going with Pixeldrain for as long as they let me.

Roxy Music - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Paris Theatre, London, Britain, 8-3-1972

Here's the second album of Roxy Music performing for the BBC. This time, it's a concert.

This concert, recorded for BBC radio, took place a couple of months after the release of the band's first album, "Roxy Music." It also took place just after the release of the band's first hit single, "Virginia Plain," which was not included on the album. The songs are mostly from the first album, plus the single. However, they also played a song introduced as "The Bogus Man, Part 2." In fact, the song was an early version of "Grey Lagoons," which would appear on the band's 1973 album "For Your Pleasure."

Most of the songs here were officially released as part of the "super deluxe edition" of the "Roxy Music" album. However, the song "The Bogus Man, Part 2" was not included, probably because it was significantly different from the final version. Furthermore, none of the BBC DJ chatter between songs were included. But I wanted to include that, because it was actually part of the concert, with the DJ talking on stage as it happened. In this case, the DJ was Bob Harris, known for his quiet voice. Luckily, I was able to find a bootleg version with the extra song and all the banter.

The last song here, "Ladytron," was not part of the concert. Instead, it was from an appearance on the BBC TV show "The Old Grey Whistle Test" in June 1972. I've included it here because there was another version of that song in Volume 1 and the song wasn't performed in the concert here.

This album is 41 minutes long.

01 The Bob [Medley] (Roxy Music)
02 talk (Roxy Music)
03 The Bogus Man, Part 2 [Early Version of Grey Lagoons] (Roxy Music)
04 talk (Roxy Music)
05 Sea Breezes (Roxy Music)
06 talk (Roxy Music)
07 Virginia Plain (Roxy Music)
08 talk (Roxy Music)
09 Chance Meeting (Roxy Music)
10 talk (Roxy Music)
11 Re-Make-Re-Model (Roxy Music)
12 Ladytron (Roxy Music)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Z87TQESb

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/rj8DdSlvUfnJ0dY/file

The cover photo was taken on the set of the BBC TV show "Full House" in November 1972.

Ronnie Lane - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, London, Britain, 4-23-1974

About six months ago, I posted the first volume of Ronnie Lane performing for the BBC. I kinda lost track of this series for a bit, but I'm back with Volume 2. The first volume was all studio sessions, whereas this is all live material, most of it coming from one concert. Two more volumes are planned.

The first twelve tracks all come from one concert, which took place in London on April 23, 1974. It's from "BBC In Concert," which is probably the early 1970s TV show of that name that I've posted a bunch of albums from. These tracks all were released as part of the album "You Never Can Tell."

But there are a few tracks after that. "What Went Down (That Night with You)," is unreleased, and comes from the British TV show "Rock On with Kid Jensen" in late 1974. 

The remaining tracks, 14 through 19, all come from the same concert, which took place in Victoria Palace in London on March 16, 1975. However, different tracks come from different albums: "Just a Moment," "How Come," and "Kuschty Rye: The Singles." I'm guessing somewhere in the record company vaults a full concert recording exists, but only bits and pieces are being released from time to time.

By the way, note that for track 10, "I Believe in You," Lane basically let another musical act, Gallagher and Lyle, take over for one song. At the time, they were mainly known as a songwriting duo, but they would have some hits of their own in 1976.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Last Orders Please (Ronnie Lane)
02 talk (Ronnie Lane)
03 Done This One Before (Ronnie Lane)
04 talk (Ronnie Lane)
05 Flags and Banners (Ronnie Lane)
06 Tell Everyone (Ronnie Lane)
07 talk (Ronnie Lane)
08 How Come (Ronnie Lane)
09 talk (Ronnie Lane)
10 I Believe in You (Gallagher & Lyle with Ronnie Lane)
11 Debris (Ronnie Lane)
12 Ooh La La (Ronnie Lane)
13 What Went Down [That Night with You] (Ronnie Lane)
14 talk (Ronnie Lane)
15 From the Late to the Early - How Come (Ronnie Lane)
16 Sweet Virginia (Ronnie Lane)
17 talk (Ronnie Lane)
18 You're So Rude (Ronnie Lane)
19 Stone [Evolution] (Ronnie Lane) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/pqLZQAp7

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/UetsdDEVRXXXtf8/file

The cover photo comes from an appearance on a BBC TV show from around this time, but I didn't keep the details.

Long John Baldry Redo

Normally, I don't make an announcement when I make some kind of alteration to an album I've already posted. In the vast majority of those cases, they're pretty minor changes. But I want to announce an update this time, because I've made a big change. I posted an album of BBC sessions by British blues singer Long John Baldry back in 2022. But I recently found a whole bunch of additional sessions by him, enough to increase the number of songs on the album from 14 to 24. I also improved the sound quality on some of the others.

So if you downloaded the album before, you definitely need this version instead. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/02/long-john-baldry-bbc-sessions-1963-1968.html

Foghat and Friends - New York Library Benefit Concert, The Palladium, New York City, 9-30-1977

Here's a very unique concert. It has less to do with Foghat and more their special guests, who were blues and R&B legends like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Johnny Winter, and Otis Blackwell.

Foghat is a rock band best known for their 1970s hits "Slow Ride" and "I Just Want to Make Love to You." But the band members were students of the blues. So when the band put together this benefit concert to be broadcast on national TV, they used it as kind of a way to educate the public about blues music. Only the first two songs were performed just by Foghat. After that, the guest stars generally took over, with Foghat only being the backing band. 

All we have of this concert is what made it onto the hour-long TV broadcast. That included some short voice-overs that introduced the guest stars. I just wanted to hear the concert with that, so I cut those bits out whenever possible. When the voice-overs went over the music, I used the UVR5 audio editing program to remove the talking while keeping the underlying music. That's why a few songs have "[Edit]" in their titles.

As the show went on, some of the guests stayed on stage. By the last song, "I Just Want to Make Love to You," pretty much everyone was on stage. The song was originally performed by Muddy Waters, and he dominated the performance. But John Lee Hooker, Foghat, and some others had turns singing some of the lead vocals.

I believe everything from this concert remains officially unreleased. But if you want to see it was well as heard it, you should be able to find the video of it on YouTube.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Sweet Home Chicago (Foghat)
02 talk (Foghat)
03 It Hurts Me Too (Foghat)
04 My Baby's Gone [Edit] (Foghat & David 'Honeyboy' Edwards)
05 talk (Foghat)
06 Done Somebody Wrong [Edit] (Foghat & Eddie Kirkland)
07 Love Light [Instrumental] (Foghat & Eddie Kirkland)
08 talk (Foghat)
09 Shake Your Money Maker [Edit] (Foghat & Paul Butterfield)
10 Crawling King Snake (Foghat & John Lee Hooker)
11 talk (Foghat)
12 All Shook Up [Edit] (Foghat & Otis Blackwell)
13 talk (Foghat & Otis Blackwell)
14 Don't Be Cruel (Foghat & Otis Blackwell)
15 talk (Foghat & Johnny Winter)
16 Last Night (Foghat & Johnny Winter)
17 talk (Foghat & Muddy Waters)
18 Hoochie Coochie Man (Foghat & Muddy Waters)
19 I Just Want to Make Love to You (Foghat, Muddy Waters & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/etpduLpH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/5biynw2DBpUZmMR/file

The cover comes from this exact concert. I believe that's Dave Peverett, lead vocalist of Foghat, with Muddy Waters looking at him.

Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns - Acoustic Version (1975)

Some months ago, I posted an acoustic version of Joni Mitchell's 1974 album "Court and Spark." Basically, that was the album when Mitchell switched from recording solo acoustic to recording with a band, so that version imagined that she just kept going with her original acoustic style. Recently, guest poster Mike Solof expressed interest in posting an acoustic version of her 1976 album "Hejira," which he likes quite a lot. Before, I post that, I thought it would make sense to create and post an acoustic version of her album after "Court and Spark" but before "Hejira," which is "The Hissing of Summer Lawns." So here it is.

For decades, there was a widely available bootleg called "Demos of Summer Lawns." It consisted of acoustic demos of most of the songs that would go on "The Hissing of Summer Lawns," though not all of them. Then, in 2023, the box set "Archives, Volume 3" was released. It contained most of the demos from the bootleg, though not all of them, and had previously unknown one.

I've put this together mostly using the demos from the box set. I rearranged them into the exact same order as the original studio album. However, I had trouble with a couple of songs. I couldn't find any alternate version of the song "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" anywhere. So I took the album version and edited it with the MVSEP program to remove the drums. That's why that's the sole song with "[Edit]" in the title. The demo of "Sweet Bird" wasn't included in the box set, but I was able to use the one from the Demos bootleg. For "Shadows and Light," I used a live bootleg version taken from the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. 

Finally, there's a bonus track of sorts. "Dreamland" was not actually included on "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" album. It wouldn't appear on one of her albums until "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" in 1977. However, a stripped down version was recorded in the spring of 1975, at the same time as most of the other demo versions here. So I included that one here as well. It has some drums on it, but it's still mostly acoustic.

In my opinion, "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" is an underrated album. If you don't like the increasingly jazzy style Mitchell was evolving into at this time, perhaps you'll like this acoustic version instead.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 In France They Kiss on Main Street (Joni Mitchell)
02 The Jungle Line (Joni Mitchell)
03 Edith and the Kingpin (Joni Mitchell)
04 Don't Interrupt the Sorrow (Joni Mitchell)
05 Shades of Scarlet Conquering (Joni Mitchell)
06 The Hissing of Summer Lawns [Edit] (Joni Mitchell)
07 The Boho Dance (Joni Mitchell)
08 Harry's House (Joni Mitchell)
09 Sweet Bird (Joni Mitchell)
10 Shadows and Light (Joni Mitchell)
11 Dreamland (Joni Mitchell)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/aX8N9FYX

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/HMnoSnKqYxygRR8/file

For the cover art, I wanted to find something similar to the official cover, yet slightly different. I Googled the name of the album, and found an advertisement for it in a magazine. Indeed, it was similar but different. Note for instance the church on the far left in the line of buildings, which isn't in the official cover. There's also a line of text quoting a song lyric near the people carrying the snake. The ad was black and white, but I colorized it a bit to better match the official album, and I added the text at the top. 

Chris Farlowe - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1965-1966

British singer Chris Farlowe is a pretty obscure musical act for me, an American. But he's much better known in Britain, where he had a handful of hits, including "Out of Time," which reached Number One in the British singles charts in 1966. So here's the first of three BBC albums I have for him. This one consists entirely of BBC studio sessions.

Around 1964 and 1965, the British public was discovering soul music for the first time. Prior to then, most soul hits in the U.S. didn't get distributed in Europe. Suddenly, there was a big demand in Britain, for singers would could sing truly soulfully, but talented singers in that style such as Steve Winwood were few and far between. But Chris Farlowe could do soul convincingly. As a result, in early 1965, he was signed to Immediate Records, which was mainly steered by Andrew Loog Oldham, the producer and manager of the Rolling Stones at the time. Over the next couple of years, Farlowe was given some songs written by the Rolling Stones that they felt didn't fit their rocking style. That included "Out of Time," which Mick Jagger and Keith Richards specifically wrote for Farlowe.

Farlowe's popularity declined around 1967, when the British public's fascination with soul music was largely replaced by psychedelic music. However, Farlowe kept reinventing himself. Although he didn't write many songs, his soulful voice remained in demand. He was the lead singer of the jazz rock band Colosseum in 1970 and 1971. Then he was the lead singer of the rock band Atomic Rooster in 1972 and 1973. Since then, he's alternated between a solo career and Colosseum reunions.

Here's his Wikipedia page:

Chris Farlowe - Wikipedia

All the songs here are officially released on the album "Live at the BBC." However, I've made changes, to focus on the music. I removed the many short interview tracks from that album. I also removed all the instances of BBC DJs talking over the music, of which there were many. Those are all the songs with "[Edit]" in their titles.

On this album, Farlowe largely performed soul songs, including daring to sing songs associated with Otis Redding and James Brown. However, he also did three songs written by the Rolling Stones: "Think," "Out of Time," and "Ride On Baby."

This album is 36 minutes long.

01 Watcha Gonna Do Baby [Edit] (Chris Farlowe)
02 The Fool (Chris Farlowe)
03 Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu [Edit] (Chris Farlowe)
04 Think (Chris Farlowe)
05 Don't Just Look at Me [Edit] (Chris Farlowe)
06 Mr. Pitiful (Chris Farlowe)
07 Out of Time [Edit] (Chris Farlowe)
08 It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World [Edit] (Chris Farlowe)
09 I Got You [I Feel Good] (Chris Farlowe)
10 We're Doing Fine (Chris Farlowe)
11 Ride On Baby (Chris Farlowe)
12 Headlines (Chris Farlowe)
13 Bread [Edit] (Chris Farlowe)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oqXF2mvY

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/0IHIGhsoVx78BHN/file

The cover photo is probably from 1965 or 1966.

Roxy Music - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1972

I have so many hundreds of albums I want to post that it can feel overwhelming. For instance, I have five BBC albums by Roxy Music and another three by their lead singer Bryan Ferry. I just need time to make the cover art and write the write-up. Anyway, I've been sitting on this for ages; it's about time I post it. This is an album of BBC studio sessions by Roxy Music from their first year of success, 1972.

This album consists of two studio sessions, both hosted by BBC DJ John Peel. The first one, consisting of the first five songs here, took place in January 1972. The second one, consisting of the last four songs, took place in May 1972. All but the last song was officially released as part of the "super deluxe edition" of the band's debut album, "Roxy Music."

These sessions came very early in the band's career. Their first public concerts took place in December 1971, yet they were playing for the BBC less than a month later! Even the second session here took place a month before the band released their debut album in June 1972. Not surprisingly, the songs mostly come from that album.

The band's line-up was somewhat in flux during this time. For instance, guitarist David O'List played on the January 1972 BBC session here, but was replaced by Phil Manzanera a month later. Brian Eno was the synth player for all of this, even though he wouldn't stay in the band for long.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 If There Is Something (Roxy Music)
02 The Bob [Medley] (Roxy Music)
03 Would You Believe (Roxy Music)
04 Sea Breezes (Roxy Music)
05 Re-Make-Re-Model (Roxy Music)
06 2HB (Roxy Music)
07 Ladytron (Roxy Music)
08 Chance Meeting (Roxy Music)
09 Bitter End (Roxy Music)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ud5GxWcP

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/l65PoCNLsqSN8Jm/file

The cover photo appears to be from a photo shoot done in a recording studio in 1972.

The Ivy League - BBC Sessions (1965-1967)

I recently dug a little deeper and found more 1960s BBC sessions by lesser known musical acts. Even though they're lesser known, I figure this is unreleased material with great sound quality, and nobody else seems to be putting it out there for public consumption, so I should. Besides, there's something about the vibe of 1960s music that appeals to me even if it's a notch or two below the quality of the likes of the Beatles or Bob Dylan.

So here's an album of BBC studio sessions by the Ivy League. You may not have heard of this band, especially if you're American. They only had two Top Ten hits in Britain ("Funny How Love Can Be" and "Tossing and Turning"), and didn't come close to a hit in the U.S. They weren't together very long either. 

But there's more to this band than meets the eye. They were the first success for the songwriting duo of John Carter and Ken Lewis, who would go on to write many hits in the 1960s and 1970s. They generally wrote most of the Ivy League material, including their hits. Also, adding in the third band member, Perry Ford, they really honed their vocal harmony skills. They were in high demand as studio musicians for their backing vocals, singing on dozens of hits in Britain, starting with "I Can't Explain" by the Who.

I have no doubt they would have had much greater success, except Carter and Lewis quickly lost interest in being in a band, and soon devoted most of their attention to producing and songwriting for others, starting with the big 1967 hits "Let's Go to San Francisco" by the Flower Pot Men and "Winchester Cathedral" by the New Vaudeville Band. Carter left in 1966 and Lewis left in 1967. However, Carter and Lewis continued to write songs and produce well into 1967. Ford continued with new members, but to little attention, finally disbanding the band in 1975. 

Here's their Wikipedia page if you want to know more:

The Ivy League (band) - Wikipedia

The music here generally has the typical "British Invasion" sound of the times, but with a heavy emphasis on their three-part harmonies. There also is an obvious Beach Boys influence, so it's fitting that this starts with a Beach Boys cover. I'd guess close to the songs here are covers. It's strange to me that they didn't do more of their own songs that they wrote for others, since Carter and Lewis wrote many hits for others during this time, such as "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat" by the Herman's Hermits and "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James" by Manfred Mann. But I plan on posting a Carter and Lewis album in my Covered songwriting series that will include all of those and more. At least they did include their own version of "My World Fell Down," which was a hit by the band Sagittarius.

All the performances here are officially unreleased. As you'd expect from the time period, many of the songs had BBC DJs talking over the music. I used the UVR5 program to wipe out that talking while keeping the underlying music. Those are the songs with "[Edit]" in their titles. I also didn't include a few songs that they performed twice for the BBC, but I think there were only three of those.

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 Don't Worry Baby [Edit] (Ivy League)
02 When Day Is Done (Ivy League)
03 The 'In' Crowd [Edit] (Ivy League)
04 Funny How Love Can Be (Ivy League)
05 Almost Grown [Edit] (Ivy League)
06 Do Ya Wanna Dance [Edit] (Ivy League)
07 Havin' a Party [Edit] (Ivy League)
08 That's Why I'm Crying (Ivy League)
09 Graduation Day (Ivy League)
10 Tossing and Turning (Ivy League)
11 Lonely Room (Ivy League)
12 I Could Make You Fall in Love [Edit] (Ivy League)
13 Our Love Is Slipping Away (Ivy League)
14 One Day [Edit] (Ivy League)
15 The Glory of Love (Ivy League)
16 Wait a Minute [Edit] (Ivy League)
17 I'm In Love Again (Ivy League)
18 Running Round in Circles (Ivy League)
19 Arriverderci Baby [Edit] (Ivy League)
20 You Are My Sunshine (Ivy League)
21 Rain, Rain Go Away (Ivy League)
22 Get Out of My Life Woman [Edit] (Ivy League)
23 Barbara Ann [Edit] (Ivy League)
24 Willow Tree (Ivy League)
25 My World Fell Down (Ivy League)
26 Four and Twenty Hours (Ivy League)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PHg155T4 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/w4I8xYBQd5AKGeL/file

The cover photo is just about the only good color photo I've found of the Ivy League. Even then, it had a kind of murky or hazy problem that I couldn't fix in Photoshop. I ran it through the Krea AI program and the result looks much better.