Various Artists - Elvis: The Tribute, Pyramid Arena, Memphis, TN, 10-8-1994

Here's another interesting tribute concert, with loads of big stars. All of the songs performed were made famous by Elvis Presley. 

This concert seems to have mostly disappeared down the memory hole. An album of highlights from the concert was released, called "It's Now Or Never: The Tribute To Elvis." However, it's only 45 minutes long, containing just 15 songs. But the full two plus hour long concert was broadcast on TV at the time, so excellent sounding video footage of it exists.

This concert took place in 1994 despite the lack of any big anniversary or other important timely reason for it. Instead, the Elvis Presley estate decided that Presley's music was being forgotten by younger generations, so the concert was meant to help bring his music back into the spotlight.

As you can see from the album cover or the song list, a great many music stars performed in this concert. A few more - Jon Bon Jovi, Jeff Beck, and Cher, at least - backed out at the last minute. I found that mentioned in a newspaper article, though it didn't give a reason why. 

I used two versions of the video files of this concert, converted them to audio format, and broke them into mp3s. During that process, I cut out some material. There were several sections of a few minutes each that consisted of short films highlight different aspects of Presley's life. I removed all of those, plus their intros, since they were meant mainly to be seen, not heard. I also edited out some more talk by the announcers. However, I kept all the intros relevant to the songs. Plus, of course, I kept all the music.

The concert was mostly hosted by Karen Duffy, an MTV DJ, and singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson. But actor John Stamos introduced a few acts, and TV host Phil Donohue introduced one, and sometimes one act introduced the next one.

Occasionally, I had a little trouble with the edits at the starts and ends of songs. For instance, there were quick cuts to or away from TV commercials, as well as the short films I mentioned above. I tried my best to smooth things out, but occasionally the transitions between tracks is abrupt.

Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana, James Burton, and the Jordanaires didn't have any performances on their own. However, all of them were key backing musicians or singers for Presley. From time to time, they backed up some of the other music acts. 

All of the performances were live from the concert, with two exceptions. I think "Too Much" by NRBQ actually took place before the TV broadcast began. But I slotted it into a logical spot in the concert. And U2 didn't show up for the concert, but sent video footage of their performance to be broadcast instead.

By the way, if you want to know more about the concert, I found a New York Times article of it from the time. Here's the link (I think you have to click on Option 2 to see it):

RemovePaywall | Free online paywall remover 

This album is two hours and three minutes long.

01 talk (Karen Duffy)
02 Good Rockin' Tonight (Sammy Hagar)
03 Too Much (NRBQ)
04 Baby, Let's Play House (Michael Hutchence & NRBQ)
05 talk (Kris Kristofferson & Karen Duffy)
06 talk (Chet Atkins)
07 How's the World Treating You (Chet Atkins)
08 talk (Karen Duffy)
09 Mystery Train (Dwight Yoakam)
10 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
11 Don't Be Cruel (Marty Stuart with the Jordanaires)
12 talk (Marty Stuart)
13 All Shook Up (Cheap Trick)
14 talk (John Stamos)
15 That's Alright Mama (Kris Kristofferson)
16 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
17 One Night (Billy Ray Cyrus with the Jordanaires)
18 talk (Karen Duffy)
19 Lawdy Miss Claudy (Travis Tritt)
20 talk (Karen Duffy)
21 Blue Moon [Edit] (Chris Isaak with Scotty Moore & D.J. Fontana)
22 Love Me (Mavericks)
23 talk (John Stamos)
24 talk (Carl Perkins)
25 Blue Suede Shoes (Carl Perkins with Scotty Moore & D.J. Fontana)
26 talk (Carl Perkins)
27 Rip It Up (Iggy Pop)
28 Memories (Mac Davis)
29 talk (Mac Davis)
30 talk (Bryan Adams)
31 Hound Dog (Bryan Adams with Scotty Moore & D.J. Fontana)
32 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
33 Always on My Mind (Sam Moore)
34 talk (Karen Duffy)
35 Heartbreak Hotel (John Cale)
36 talk (Karen Duffy)
37 I Want You, I Need You, I Love You (Ann Wilson)
38 talk (Karen Duffy)
39 Teddy Bear (Tanya Tucker)
40 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
41 Trouble (Paul Rodgers)
42 talk (Phil Donahue)
43 [Marie's the Name] His Latest Flame (Scorpions)
44 Can't Help Falling in Love (U2)
45 talk (Kris Kristofferson & Karen Duffy)
46 It's Now or Never (Wet Wet Wet)
47 talk (Mac Davis)
48 Love Me Tender (Tony Bennett)
49 talk (Mac Davis)
50 Young and Beautiful (Aaron Neville)
51 talk (Mac Davis)
52 Jailhouse Rock (Michael Bolton with Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana & Carl Perkins)
53 talk (Karen Duffy)
54 Tryin' to Get to You (Faith Hill)
55 talk (John Stamos)
56 See See Rider (Jerry Lee Lewis with James Burton & NRBQ)
57 Kentucky Rain - Suspicious Minds (Eddie Rabbitt & Mavis Staples)
58 talk (Karen Duffy)
59 Burning Love (Melissa Etheridge)
60 talk (John Stamos)
61 Amazing Grace (Billy Ray Cyrus & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GWnJSkKo

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/cqa2ziePj3VTmo8/file 

The cover image is a pretty weird one for this concert, but bear with me for the explanation. It depicts Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley (the daughter of Elvis Presley). They had recently gotten married at the time of this concert. (Their marriage only lasted from 1994 to 1996). The weird thing is that neither of them performed at this concert. However, they did attend it. At one point near the end, you can hear the announcer mention their names, along with those of Janet Jackson (Michael Jackson's sister) and Priscilla Presley (Lisa Marie Presley's mother). All four of them briefly stood up and waved to the crowd. 

The main reason I chose them for the cover is because this was the only decent photo from the concert that I could find. The mere fact they were at the concert made news, especially due to the fact that they had just been recently married. I think the image shows the two of them backstage before or after the concert. Even this picture was rather low-res and rough, but I used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality. 

Susan Maughan - BBC Sessions (1964-1971)

I have to admit that, until I put this album together, I'd never even heard of British singer Susan Maughan. I can't say I'm a big fan of her music either. However, I have access to some really rare and unreleased recordings from the BBC radio show "Top of the Pops," and I'm trying to post albums by just about any reasonably good music acts who had an album's worth of such recordings, and Maughan qualifies. So here we are with her BBC album. 

All but three of the songs here are officially unreleased. Those three, tracks 10 through 12, come from a rare various artists compilation called "British Beat Girls Live on Air: 1965-1970." I believe everything else has been unbootlegged until now.

There were many British female singers on the pop charts in Britain in the early and mid-1960s, virtually all of them singing cover songs only. Most had one or two hits, if that, and then quickly faded away. The music blog https://albumsiwishexisted2.blogspot.com/ has put together compilations for many of them who weren't famous enough to have official greatest hits albums. Maughan never got to be an especially big star. She had one big hit in Britain, a cover of "Bobby's Girl," which went all the way to Number Three in the British charts in 1962. She had two smaller hits in 1963. That made up most of her chart success, although she continued to release singles and albums into the 1970s. However, unlike many other singers with a similar amount of success, she had enough BBC sessions survive to make an album. 

"Survive" is a key word in that previous sentence. The vast majority of "Top of the Pops" recordings that survive date from the middle of 1964 and after, because that's when the BBC started sending albums of the show to affiliate stations outside of Britain, and most of those survived in excellent condition. Maughan's commercial peak was from 1962 to 1963, so I'll bet more BBC sessions from those years took place but didn't survive. For instance, I couldn't find a worthy sounding version of her big hit "Bobby's Girl," although one or two rough TV broadcasts of it survive on YouTube.

That said, what is included here is interesting if you into 1960s pop music, like I am. All the Top of the Pops recordings date from 1964 and 1965, with one exception, which I will explain shortly. Those make up everything but the final two tracks. Since she didn't have many hits of her own, she sometimes did hits by others, such as "I'm into Something Good," "Downtown," "Yeh Yeh," "It's Not Unusual," and even "Blowin' in the Wind." As far as I can tell, she never released any versions of those songs I just mentioned on record, though I could have missed some things.

The last two songs come from much later, 1971. After putting all her Top of the Pops sessions together, I checked to see if I could find any other BBC performances. I only found one, "You've Made Me So Very Happy," from a BBC TV show in 1971. The final track, "I Saw a Rainbow," is from a Top of the Pops session in 1971 as well. Maybe her career had a minor revival that year.

This album suffers somewhat from the usual problem of Top of the Pops recordings from the era: annoying BBC DJ Brian Matthew talking over the beginnings and ends of songs. Luckily for Maughan, only five of her songs here had that problem, which is a lower percentage than usual. Those are the ones with "[Edit]" in their names. I did my usual thing of using the UVR5 program to remove the DJ talking while keeping the music. 

Here's a Wikipedia link, if you want to know more about her:

Susan Maughan - Wikipedia 

This album is 43 minutes long. 

01 Little Things Mean a Lot (Susan Maughan)
02 I'm into Something Good (Susan Maughan)
03 That Other Place (Susan Maughan)
04 Make Him Mine (Susan Maughan)
05 Downtown [Edit] (Susan Maughan)
06 Yeh Yeh (Susan Maughan)
07 Don't Be Afraid [Edit] (Susan Maughan)
08 You Can Never Get Away from Me (Susan Maughan)
09 It's Not Unusual (Susan Maughan)
10 When She Walks Away (Susan Maughan)
11 Blowin' in the Wind [Edit] (Susan Maughan)
12 That Other Place (Susan Maughan)
13 Poor Boy (Susan Maughan)
14 Here It Comes Again (Susan Maughan)
15 Your Girl [Edit] (Susan Maughan)
16 You've Made Me So Very Happy (Susan Maughan)
17 I Saw a Rainbow [Edit] (Susan Maughan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/aWdPSgGE 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/lHLnk7g4oicgWcx/file

The cover photo was taken backstage at Earl's Court, in London, in January 1964.

Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman (of the Guess Who) - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 1977

If you're a fan of the Canadian band the Guess Who, this is a particularly interesting episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. It's a reunion of the two biggest names from the Guess Who, Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman.

Burton Cummings was the lead singer and a key songwriter for the Guess Who, from 1965 to 1975, when he broke up the band for the first time. (There would be later reunions.) But Randy Bachman was also a key member, being the lead guitarist and also another important songwriter. However, he left the band in 1970, right at the height of their success.

At the time of this concert, both Cummings and Bachman had a lot of success with their post-Guess Who careers. Cummings had just started his solo career, with one solo album in 1976. But that contained the single "Stand Tall," which was a very big hit, selling over a million copies in the U.S. alone. It would be the biggest hit of his solo career by far. However, Bachman was even more successful. From 1973 to 1977, he led the band Bachman-Turner Overdrive. They arguably were even more successful than the Guess Who. They had six hits in the U.S., including the big hits "Takin' Care of Business" and "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet." However, in March 1977, he quit Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and they didn't have much success without him.

Unfortunately, I don't know when in 1977 this concert took place. If anyone knows, please tell me so I can update the album title and such. But I'm guessing it took place after March 1977, when Bachman didn't really have a band to perform with anymore, at least for a little while. It seems Cummings and Bachman performed some concerts together in 1977, although they didn't release any music. In addition to this concert, they also did an hour-long TV special for Canadian TV (the CBC), which was broadcast in October 1977. 

After 1977, both Cummings and Bachman had less success with their solo careers. That led to the first big official Guess Who reunion in 1983. More reunions occasionally followed, and sometimes Cummings and Bachman recorded or toured together without the Guess Who name.

This concert has a little bit of everything. There are Guess Who songs (sung by Cummings), Bachman-Turner Overdrive songs (sung by Bachman), and solo songs. There's some acoustic music, and some with a full band. There are solo highlights for Cummings, and solo highlights for Bachman.

Unfortunately, a few of the songs got a little clipped at their starts or ends, due to quick cuts to commercials and that sort of thing. I tried to fix those a bit, which is why four songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. Also note that some of these songs are short versions because they were parts of medleys. For instance, "Laughing" is only about a minute long.

This album is 52 minutes long.

01 Your Backyard (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)
02 Never Had a Lady Before (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)
03 Laughing [Edit] (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)
04 These Eyes [Edit] (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)
05 Undun (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)
06 American Woman (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)
07 No Time (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)
08 Let It Ride - Lookin' Out for Number One - Hey You (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)
09 You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)
10 My Own Way to Rock (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)
11 Framed [Edit] (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)
12 Stand Tall (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)
13 Charlemagne (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)
14 Takin' Care of Business [Edit] (Burton Cummings & Randy Bachman)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/3ah2VV71

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/rafE5Cu48hgeeGa/file

A video of the full Soundstage show can be found on YouTube. Unfortunately, the image quality is poor. So, for the album cover here, I took a screenshot from their other 1977 special together, the CBC one I mentioned above. That's Bachman with his back turned and Cummings on keyboards. 

Various Artists - An All-Star Tribute to Joni Mitchell, Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, 4-6-2000

For a few years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the TNT TV network hosted a few annual "all-star tributes" to some music legends. I've already posted albums of such tribute shows to Johnny Cash, Brian Wilson, and Paul Simon. Here's another one, celebrating the music of Joni Mitchell.

This concert actually featured Joni Mitchell herself, but she had a relatively minor role. At the very end, she performed one song and gave a short speech. Instead, the bulk of the concert consisted of famous musical acts performing her songs. Just look at the cover or at the song list to see the names. There also were some famous non-musicians who talked a little bit between songs, such as actors Susan Sarandon and Laurence Fishburne, and the main host, Ashley Judd. Plus, I never thought my music blog would have a track by Hillary Clinton, but here we are.

If I recall correctly, there was some more stuff to this concert that I edited out, such as testimonials about Mitchell's life and career, narrated by the likes of Goldie Hawn and Rosie O'Donnell. I kept the focus on the songs, and introductions to the songs.

The Stone Temple Pilots were also due to perform at this concert. However, the band's lead singer, Scott Weiland, blew his voice out by performing three full concerts the day before. They were due to perform the song "Woodstock." At the last minute, Richard Thompson stepped up to perform that song instead. That's why he's the only performer here to do two songs, because he also had been scheduled to perform the song "Black Crow." 

Note that the final song, "The Circle Game," faded out before it ended. Probably that's when the TV broadcast came to an end. I extended it a bit by repeating a chorus from earlier in the song and then fading it out. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in its title.

There's an amazing official Joni Mitchell website, www.jonimitchell.com. It has a webpage just on this concert, with lots of pictures and dozens of newspaper articles about it. Here's a link:

Joni Mitchell - 2000.04.06 | An All-Star Tribute To Joni Mitchell Hammerstein Ballroom | New York 

This album remains officially unreleased as an audio album. However, a DVD of it has been released. But this is about ten minutes longer. The sound quality is excellent. 

This concert is an hour and 18 minutes long. 

01 Raised on Robbery (Wynonna Judd & Bryan Adams)
02 talk (Ashley Judd)
03 Carey (Cyndi Lauper)
04 talk (Ashley Judd)
05 Woodstock (Richard Thompson)
06 talk (Hillary Clinton)
07 Chelsea Morning (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
08 Big Yellow Taxi (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter with James Taylor)
09 talk (James Taylor)
10 River (James Taylor)
11 talk (Ashley Judd)
12 You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio (Wynonna Judd)
13 talk (Susan Sarandon)
14 Help Me (k.d. Lang)
15 talk (Laurence Fishburne)
16 The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines (Cassandra Wilson)
17 talk (Ashley Judd)
18 The Circle Game (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
19 talk (Ashley Judd)
20 talk (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
21 Amelia (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
22 talk (Ashley Judd)
23 Black Crow (Richard Thompson)
24 talk (Richard Thompson)
25 talk (Ashley Judd)
26 Free Man in Paris (Elton John)
27 talk (Elton John)
28 A Case of You (Diana Krall)
29 talk (Ashley Judd)
30 talk (Tony Bennett)
31 Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)
32 talk (Joni Mitchell)
33 The Circle Game [Reprise] [Edit] (Joni Mitchell & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/acNAjTY6

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/GVHWLt1ZTKXHMpu/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right, that's Joni Mitchell, James Taylor (in back), Cassandra Wilson, Shawn Colvin, and Elton John.

America with Christopher Cross - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 3-24-2005

Here's another episode of the great TV series "PBS Soundstage." This one features the band America.

Note that there's a guest star on this, like there are on many episodes of this show. This time, it's Christopher Cross. However, his role is relatively minor compared to other guest appearances on the show. He didn't sing any songs on his own. Instead, he helped sing two big America hits, "Lonely People" and "A Horse with No Name."

When the band was formed in 1970, it consisted of three singer-songwriters: Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek. But Peek left in 1977 never to return, concentrating on a career with Christian music instead. So by the time of this concert, the band was a duo of Beckley and Bunnell. By 2005, their hits were long behind them and they'd turned into a well-honed oldies act. They would have a comeback with a well-received new album in 2007, but that hadn't happened at the time of this concert.

So one gets all the expected hits from the band's heyday in the 1970s and 80s. Although this show is unreleased as an audio album, it has been released on DVD, which is why this episode is longer than the show's usual one hour time. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 16 minutes long. 

01 Riverside (America)
02 Ventura Highway (America)
03 You Can Do Magic (America)
04 talk (America)
05 Don't Cross the River (America)
06 Daisy Jane (America)
07 talk (America)
08 The Last Unicorn (America)
09 I Need You (America)
10 Head and Heart (America)
11 Till the Sun Comes Up Again (America)
12 Tin Man (America)
13 talk (America)
14 Muskrat Love (America)
15 talk (America)
16 The Border (America)
17 talk (America)
18 Woman Tonight (America)
19 Only in Your Heart (America)
20 talk (America)
21 California Dreamin' (America)
22 talk (America)
23 Lonely People (America with Christopher Cross)
24 Sandman (America)
25 Sister Golden Hair (America)
26 All My Life (America)
27 A Horse with No Name (America with Christopher Cross) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2xwcW7Gx

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/EeqBz8ePGjYm0CA/file 

The cover image is from this exact concert. 

Dr. Hook - Old Grey Whistle Test, BBC Television Theatre, Shepherd's Bush, London, Britain, 11-25-1975

I was all set to post a "PBS Soundstage" episode starring the American band Dr. Hook. But then I noticed I have a BBC concert by that band that I meant to post months ago, but forgot about. So I'm posting that here first. The Soundstage episode will be posted soon as well.

 First off, note that this band was called "Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show" from its start in the late 1960s until 1975. But by the time this concert took place, they had shortened their name to just "Dr. Hook," so that's the name I'm using here.

Dr. Hook had a lot of success, mostly in the 1970s. Between 1972 and 1982, they had nine Top Forty songs in the U.S. But they don't seem to be that well remembered today. Perhaps that's because they covered a lot of musical ground, from jokey songs (mostly written by Shel Silverstein) to weepy ballads. Or perhaps it's because they were known for a wild and amusing stage show, which is hard to capture for posterity unless you were actually there to remember it. But in any case, they were an interesting band that always knew how to capture people's attention.

At the time of this concert, the band was best known for three songs: "The Cover of 'Rolling Stone,'" "Silvia's Mother," and "Only Sixteen." All three were Top Ten hits in the U.S. But strangely, neither of the first two were included here. In banter between songs, they hinted that the BBC didn't like "The Cover of 'Rolling Stone'" because it mentioned a specific product, which was against BBC policy at the time. (In 1970, the Kinks even had to rerecord "Lola" just to change the words "Coca Cola" to "cherry Cola" so it could get played by the BBC.) But the failure to include "Silvia's Mother" is even stranger, since it was their one and only British hit at the time, and a big one too, reaching Number Two in Britain in 1972.

Normally, the BBC TV show The Old Grey Whistle Test had several different musical acts perform on each episode. But sometimes they had one episode featuring just one act, and this was one such case. This remains officially unreleased.

Note that Dr. Hook did another BBC concert in 1980. I've found most of the songs for it on YouTube, but without any of the banter between songs, and very little applause. Also, I don't know the song order. So I'm not willing to post that one just yet. I hope a better version will emerge. (If you have one, please share!) If and when I do post that, this one will get renamed to "BBC Sessions, Volume 1." 

This album is 39 minutes long. 

01 talk (Dr. Hook)
02 The Millionaire (Dr. Hook)
03 talk (Dr. Hook)
04 The Yodel Song (Dr. Hook)
05 talk (Dr. Hook)
06 Get My Rocks Off (Dr. Hook)
07 talk (Dr. Hook)
08 Only Sixteen (Dr. Hook)
09 talk (Dr. Hook)
10 Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms (Dr. Hook)
11 talk (Dr. Hook)
12 Everybody's Making It Big but Me (Dr. Hook)
13 Carry Me, Carrie (Dr. Hook)
14 Happy Trails (Dr. Hook)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/eH97jR4b 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/mhbzRLq9KHuGi8a/file

The cover photo is a screenshot from this exact concert. I used Krea AI to improve the picture quality. 

The Incredible String Band - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1970-1971

I'm still not into the Incredible String Band, but here's another BBC album from them, due to their high results in the BBC poll I did a while back. This is a third volume of BBC studio sessions.

There's an official album of BBC performances by this band, but it skips a lot of music. This album is a case in point. The first four songs are from that album, "Across the Airwaves," but everything else remains unreleased. Also, those first four songs are from two different BBC sessions in 1970, while tracks 5 to 8 are from one 1971 BBC session, and tracks 9 until the end are from another 1971 BBC session. 

In the time period here, the band was still a foursome, with Mike Heron, Robin Williamson, Licorice McKechnie, and Rose Simpson. But that would change around the end of 1971. During this time, the band released no less than four studio albums: "I Looked Up" and "U" in 1970, and "Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending" and "Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Air" in 1971. 

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 Everything's Fine Right Now (Incredible String Band)
02 Raga Puti (Incredible String Band)
03 Ring Dance (Incredible String Band)
04 Long, Long Road (Incredible String Band)
05 You Get Brighter (Incredible String Band)
06 Jigs [The Bird that Lives on Rain - Yellow Flames of Whin - Jenny in the Mosshouse - Drunk] (Incredible String Band)
07 How We Danced the Lord of Weir (Incredible String Band)
08 The Actor (Incredible String Band)
09 The Circle Is Unbroken (Incredible String Band)
10 Sailor and the Dancer (Incredible String Band)
11 Tree (Incredible String Band)
12 Living in the Shadows (Incredible String Band) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/xeM2CQYY 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/uwp1nSK4SfcXQKg/file 

The cover photo shows the band's two main singer-songwriters, from around this time: Robin Williamson with blonde hair and a beard and Mike Heron with dark brown hair. I believe I took this as a screenshot from a documentary about the band. 

Elkie Brooks - BBC Sessions, Volume 4- In Concert, NEC Arena, Birmingham, Britain, 8-9-1987

Here's the fourth and final BBC album I have for British singer Elkie Brooks. 

Brooks' singing career began back in the early 1960s, but she didn't start having hit songs (in Britain only) until 1977. Once she started though, she had a bunch of them with six Top Twenty hits between 1977 and 1987, and a bunch of lesser hits. Her last hit was "We've Got Tonite" in 1987 (which is performed here). So this concert came at an ideal time to wrap up the end of the hit-making phase of her music career.

All of her big hits were performed here. Plus, she did some nice lesser known covers, like "Ain't Misbehavin'," "Goin' Back," and "Maybe I'm Amazed." She didn't release her first official live album until ten years later, and then two more in the years after that. I prefer this one. 

This is unreleased, and I believe hadn't been widely bootlegged. But it was replayed by the BBC in 2025, so I was able to get an excellent sounding version.

This album is an hour and 20 minutes long. 

01 Fool [If You Think It's Over] (Elkie Brooks)
02 Goin' Back (Elkie Brooks)
03 Nights in White Satin (Elkie Brooks)
04 Hiding Inside Yourself (Elkie Brooks)
05 Only Women Bleed (Elkie Brooks)
06 Pearl's a Singer (Elkie Brooks)
07 What's a Matter Baby [Is It Hurting You] (Elkie Brooks)
08 Ain't Misbehavin' (Elkie Brooks)
09 No Secrets (Elkie Brooks)
10 If You Leave Me Now (Elkie Brooks)
11 Hold the Dream (Elkie Brooks)
12 Lilac Wine (Elkie Brooks)
13 All or Nothing (Elkie Brooks)
14 Don't Cry Out Loud (Elkie Brooks)
15 Gasoline Alley (Elkie Brooks)
16 No More the Fool (Elkie Brooks)
17 We've Got Tonite (Elkie Brooks)
18 Maybe I'm Amazed (Elkie Brooks) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/djNpMwWa

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/umcaxfa4G827Lr1/file 

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. 

Don McLean - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Don McLean and Friends, Pebble Mill Studios, Birmingham, Britain, 12-26-1978

Here's another BBC album by singer-songwriter Don McLean. This one is the music from a 1978 TV special called "Don McLean and Friends." The friends are Elkie Brooks and the vocal harmony band the Jordanaires.

When I started looking for McLean's BBC material some weeks back, I was surprised how much came up. I'm particularly surprised the BBC gave him this special in 1978. Although he put out an album that year that reached the Top Twenty in Britain ("Chain Lightning"), he didn't have any hit singles that year, or any other year since 1973. He would have a big comeback in 1980 with his cover of "Crying," which would hit Number One in Britain, but of course that wasn't known yet in 1978. Anyway, kudos to the BBC for giving him this special. 

McLean had two guests. Elkie Brooks became a big star in 1977, and was arguably more commercially successful than McLean at the time of this special. She sang two of her recent hits, "Don't Cry Out Loud" and "Lilac Wine." The Jordanaires were a vocal quartet formed in 1948. They put out a lot of their own music, especially gospel albums. However, they were better known for being backup singers, especially for Elvis Presley. They backed him extensively in recordings, concerts, and films from the 1950s to the 1970s. So it's fitting that they sang a medley of Presley classics here, as well as backing McLean on some of his songs.

One slightly frustrating thing about this concert is that while McLean is best known for his classic hit "American Pie," it seems he'd grown tired of it by the time of this concert. He only performed a short version of it, which lasts less than three minutes, instead of the well-known seven minute version.

This album was very hard for me to find. I don't think it has existed as an audio bootleg. I found a YouTube video of it, and concerted that to audio format, then broke it into mp3s. The sound quality is very good. 

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 American Pie [Short Version] (Don McLean)
02 And I Love You So (Don McLean)
03 talk (Don McLean)
04 Lotta Lovin' (Don McLean)
05 talk (Don McLean)
06 Blue Suede Shoes - All Shook Up - Loving You - Don't Be Cruel - Hound Dog (Jordanaires)
07 talk (Don McLean)
08 Genesis (Don McLean)
09 Crying (Don McLean)
10 Don't Cry Out Loud (Elkie Brooks)
11 Lilac Wine (Elkie Brooks)
12 talk (Don McLean)
13 Words and Music (Don McLean)
14 Chain Lightning (Don McLean)
15 It's Just the Sun (Don McLean)
16 Vincent (Don McLean)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uBpiHs7d

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/XYY0Z9lM8WSNAHj/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from this exact concert. 

I'm Back, plus Glastonbury 2025 Poll

I'm finally back from my two and a half week long vacation to French Polynesia. I had a great time! Thanks for your patience. I plan on posting some more soon, once I recover a bit. I also will try to respond to the comments I'd missed.

While I was gone, the 2025 version of the annual Glastonbury Festival happened in Britain. This is the first festival to take place while I'm closely paying attention. (Sadly, there won't be another one next year, as the festival skips a year every now and then.) Most of the sets from the three day festival were made available in full by the BBC (although sadly I can't find any recording from the acoustic stage, which included sets by Ani DiFranco, Nick Lowe, and Roy Harper). Since I just got back home, I haven't listened to any of the music yet, but I can see which sets are available for download. There's about 90 acts, which is far too much for me to post here, unless I were to stop posting everything else for quite a while. But I figure I can post the most popular sets. So here's a list of everything I found. Let me know which ones you'd like me to post (and please only select a handful). I'll do all the ones that get a reasonable number of votes.

The 1975
AJ Tracey
Alanis Morissette
Amyl & the Sniffers
Anohni & the Johnsons
Badbadnotgood
Beth Gibbons
Biffy Clyro
Black Country New Road
Black Uhuru
Blossoms
Brandi Carlile
Brian Jonestown Massacre
Busta Rhymes
CMAT
Caribou
Celeste
Charli XCX
Cymande
Denzel Curry
DJO
En Vogue
English Teacher
Ezra Collective
FCUKERS
Fat Dog
Father John Misty
Faye Webster
Floating Points
Four Tet
Franz Ferdinand
Future Islands
Glass Beams
Gracie Abrams
Greentea Peng
Inhaler
JADE
Jalen Ngonda
Japanese Breakfast
John Fogerty
Joy Crookes
Katy J. Pearson
Lewis Capaldi
Libertines
Lola Young
Lorde
Loyle Carner
Lucy Dacus
Maccabees
Maribou State
Myles Smith
Neil Young
Nile Rodgers & Chic
Noah Kahan
Nova Twins
Olivia Rodrigo
Osees
Overmono
Pa Salieu
Parcels
Pink Panteress
Prodigy
Pulp
Raye
Rod Stewart
Royel Otis
Scissor Sisters
Script
Self Esteem
Shamboozey
Shed Seven
Skepta
Sprints
St. Vincent
Supergrass
Tom Odell
Tunstile
Weezer
Wet Leg
Wolf Alice
Wunderhorse

I have to admit I haven't kept up that much with currently popular music, so I don't recognize many of these names. But hopefully there are some that will get a good number of votes and prove to be worthy, in addition to some of the older and better known names.

The Beatles - The Beatles Uncovered, Volume 14: Mike's Mixes (1964-2007) (A MIKE SOLOF GUEST POST)

I didn't know if I would have time to post this before leaving for my vacation, but I managed to get the packing done in time. So here's another guest post by Mike Solof, another one of his great Beatles remix albums.

The last volume in this series was a bit weird, kind of Mike's B-team choices to go with unlucky Volume 13. But for this volume, he's back to his usual. 

And speaking of usual, Mike has included a PDF with detailed notes on all the songs and their edits, as he usually does. So please give that a read for more information on this album. 

This album is 59 minutes long. 

01 I'm Losing You [Mike's Mix 2025] (John Lennon with Cheap Trick)
02 And I Love Her [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
03 Sour Milk Sea [Mashup Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (George Harrison, the Beatles & Eric Clapton)
04 Here Comes the Sun [Mike's Mix 2025, Version 2] (Beatles)
05 You've Really Got a Hold on Me [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
06 What You're Doing [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
07 Got to Get You into My Life [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
08 Rain [Take 5, Actual Speed] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
09 This Song Is about You [Mike's Mix 2025] (Ringo Starr & the Roundheads)
10 I Should Have Known Better [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
11 Any Time at All [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
12 It s All Too Much [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
13 Yellow Submarine [Mostly Song Writing Demo] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
14 I'm Only Sleeping [Edit of Takes 1 & 2] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
15 I Want You [She's So Heavy] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
16 Love You To [Take 7, Rehearsal and Commercial Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Beatles)
17 Band on the Run [One Hand Clapping Version] [Mike's Mix 2025] (Paul McCartney & Wings) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fKuWH4uz

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/5KP7ajM4CZ69ThF/file

The cover photo is something Mike found on the Internet, another AI-generated "what if" picture of John and Paul. 

Another Vacation

It being summer and all, I'm off for another vacation. This time, I have the good fortune of spending the next two and a half weeks in French Polynesia. There will be no posting while I'm gone. I've heard that the Internet is spotty over there. However, I may be able to check in and respond to comments here from time to time, or at least read them. But I look forward to making up for lost time when I get back.

Until then, take care. 

Texas International Pop Festival, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Lewisville, TX, 9-1-1969, Part 10: Sly & the Family Stone

Finally, we come to the tenth and last album from the third and last day of the 1969 Texas International Pop Festival. The closing act was Sly and the Family Stone.

Like fellow festival stars Janis Joplin and Johnny Winter, Sly Stone was born in Texas. In fact, he was born quite close to the festival, on the outskirts of Dallas, just as the festival was on the outskirts of the city. However, the media didn't notice this. That's probably because he moved with his family to the San Francisco Bay area by the time he was a teenager. 

In 1969,  Sly and the Family Stone hit it big, with multiple hits that year. Even as the festival was going on, one of their songs, "Hot Fun in the Summertime," was Number Two in the U.S. charts. That was fitting, since the festival took place at the tail end of summer, and it was very hot for all three days.

Sly Stone was notorious for going on stage late, if he managed to make it at all, often due to heavy drug use. That was a problem with this festival too. The band's set started well after midnight, and over an hour after the previous musical act left the stage. But once the band started playing music, they put on an excellent performance. The next day, the Dallas Morning News reported that "because of the later hour, they could not perform nearly as long as the audience wanted them to." However, "Although the crowd was long on its feet, the mood continued to soar," with the song "Higher" being a highlight, as it usually was. 

Note also that the band the Nazz performed at the festival, and a little bit of their music has survived. However, I haven't included it for a couple of reasons. For one, the bootleg of it is an audience boot, and it sounds worse than the other audience boot sections of the festival. But also, the main singer and songwriter in the band was Todd Rundgren, and he'd left the band by the time this festival happened. But if you want to hear what they did, you can find 18 minutes of their set on YouTube. 

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 M'Lady [Edit] (Sly & the Family Stone)
02 Sing a Simple Song [Edit] (Sly & the Family Stone)
03 You Can Make It If You Try [Edit] (Sly & the Family Stone)
04 Stand - Love City (Sly & the Family Stone)
05 talk (Sly & the Family Stone)
06 Everyday People [Edit] (Sly & the Family Stone)
07 Dance to the Music - Music Lover [Edit] (Sly & the Family Stone)
08 Higher - I Wanna Take You Higher [Edit] (Sly & the Family Stone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/E4b5oEgb

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/qiYBztR8McLSotF/file 

The cover photo of Sly Stone is from this exact concert.

Texas International Pop Festival, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Lewisville, TX, 9-1-1969, Part 9: Johnny Winter

Here's the ninth out of ten albums for the third day of the 1969 Texas International Pop Festival. It features blues guitarist Johnny Winter.

Johnny Winter's music career began back around 1960, when he released his first single. But he became a star in 1969, when he was signed to a major record label and released two albums that went into the charts. He also performed at the Woodstock festival prior to this festival.

However, he was not happy to perform at this festival. Like Janis Joplin, who also performed at the festival, he was born and raised in Texas. But he wasn't keen on going back. He later was quoted in a book, "Neither me nor Janis Joplin wanted to go back to Texas, man. That place was a thing of our past." There was some hoopla in the media about the festival being a "homecoming" for him and Joplin, but he called that "a bunch of crap the promoters rigged up." Furthermore, he didn't like the heavy drug use in the audience, saying that by the time he went on stage, it "seemed like everyone was blown away on acid." He personally vowed to stay clear of any drugs. But some time before going onstage, a pretty young woman run up to him and gave him a deep kiss, slipping some tabs of acid down his throat. He was not pleased by this, to say the least. "I was blown away for two days. I didn't even know my name. People like that girl thought she was doin' me a favor."

Despite all that, he played an excellent set. Even he personally declared the music of festival "unbelievable." The next day, a review in the Dallas Morning News commented, "Although its his voice that he is primarily noted for, he is a guitarist par excellence."

This recording came from a soundboard source, I think. However, there were issues. Three of the songs had missing parts. Since that includes the end of the last one, it's possible there was more music after that. I found other live recordings he did from 1969, and used them to fill in the missing sections. That's why those three songs have "[Edit]" in their names. Also, the lead vocals were low in the mix, so I boosted them using the MVSEP program. That makes me wonder if it might be an audience bootleg instead. But either way, the sound quality is pretty good, but not great.

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

01 talk (Johnny Winter)
02 Mean Town Blues (Johnny Winter)
03 Black Cat Bone (Johnny Winter)
04 Mean Mistreater (Johnny Winter)
05 Mama, Talk to Your Daughter [Edit] (Johnny Winter)
06 talk (Johnny Winter)
07 Leland Mississippi Blues (Johnny Winter)
08 talk (Johnny Winter)
09 I'm Not Sure (Johnny Winter)
10 You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now [Edit] (Johnny Winter)
11 Johnny B. Goode [Edit] (Johnny Winter)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/rt6Lnk4E

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ae1dKPM4dkOB2ni/file 

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

The Carpenters - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, New London Theatre, London, Britain, 11-28-1976

Back in 2022, I posted an album of the Carpenters performing for the BBC in concert in 1971. I thought that was all they did for the BBC (being an American band and all). However, I have found a second BBC concert, from 1976. Here it is.

Note that, since I found this one, I naturally wanted to change the name of the first one to "Volume 1." You can find the renamed version here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-carpenters-with-tony-joe-white-bbc.html

The Carpenters had a great run of singles in the early and mid-1970s. But in the late 1970s, things took a darker turn due to self-inflicted health problems, with eating disorder issues for Karen Carpenter and drug problems for Richard Carpenter. Those problems didn't improve, and Karen died in 1983. So I'd say 1976 was near the end of their peak era. Thus, this was a good time for a BBC concert, as it allowed them to include nearly all of their most popular songs.

I normally try not to do this, but I deliberately took out of a couple of songs. One of them was a kind of comedy thing by Richard Carpenter, which apparently was a sort of homage to comedic musician Spike Jones. I found it pretty unlistenable, so it got the axe. Another was a long classical number by Richard, which was okay, but I thought it really bogged down the momentum of the concert. So that got the axe too. Sorry, but sometimes less is more. Plus, when I listen to the Carpenters, I want to hear Karen Carpenter singing, since she had one of the most interesting vocals in pop music history. If you want the whole thing, you can find the video of this on YouTube. If you watch that, you'll see the drum solo at the end of "Strike Up the Band" was performed by Karen. Her vocals were so exceptional that people tended to forget she was the drummer in the band as well, and a very good one at that. 

This album remains unreleased. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, many of the band's hits were performed in medley format. And curiously, one of their biggest original hits, "Yesterday Once More," wasn't sung at all. (There was an instrumental version performed at the end during the display of the credits in the video that I also cut out, because it was very short and then faded out.)

This album is 36 minutes long.

01 Only Yesterday [Instrumental Version] (Carpenters)
02 There's a Kind of Hush (Carpenters)
03 I Need to Be in Love (Carpenters)
04 talk (Carpenters)
05 Strike Up the Band - Drums (Carpenters)
06 talk (Carpenters)
07 From This Moment On (Carpenters)
08 talk (Carpenters)
09 [They Long to Be] Close to You - For All We Know - Top of the World - Ticket to Ride (Carpenters)
10 I Won't Last a Day without You - Hurting Each Other (Carpenters)
11 Superstar [Groupie] (Carpenters)
12 Rainy Days and Mondays (Carpenters)
13 Goodbye to Love (Carpenters)
14 We've Only Just Begun (Carpenters) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mWPPHu8D

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/2DhViTT5GGIPOvv/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this concert. As with many such videos, the image quality was low-res. So I used the Krea AI program to improve the quality. 

Don McLean - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 10-15-1973

Here's another album of singer-songwriter Don McLean performing for the BBC. This time, it's another acoustic concert, just like "Volume 2" was.

If you look at the BBC website, there's a page for this concert that shows a 45 minute concert. This is not that. Unfortunately, that link is dead and probably has been for years. However, I was able to cobble together enough for an album from other sources. No doubt there's a lot of overlap with that BBC broadcast, but it's possible some songs here are from the part of a longer concert that didn't make the 45 minute broadcast version.

Beware, because the sound quality varies a lot, due to different sourcing. The best sounding songs are tracks 6, 7, and 8. These are the only officially released ones, from the archival collection "Favorites and Rarities." Of the rest, a couple of the songs came from YouTube. Those have the poorest quality. But most of the rest came from a Don McLean super fan, who sent me some mp3 files downloaded off McLean's official website years ago. They have since been taken down, so that was a really fortunate save.

The same month this concert took place, McLean released the studio album "Playin' Favorites." Up until that point, his albums consisted of original songs, but this album was entirely made up of cover versions. One of them is included here, "Mountains O' Mourne." But he also played a couple of covers he didn't put on album at the time, "And Her Mother Came Too" and "Yonkers Girl."

Hopefully someday the BBC will rebroadcast this show, as they sometimes do and/or someone else will step forward who recorded it. In the meantime, this version will have to suffice. I have no idea about the song order, since this came from different sources and I couldn't find a definitive set list. So I just made up an order. 

This album is 37 minutes long. 

01 Winterwood (Don McLean)
02 Great Big Man (Don McLean)
03 Respectable (Don McLean)
04 Over the Waterfall - Babylon (Don McLean)
05 talk (Don McLean)
06 Mountains O' Mourne (Don McLean)
07 And Her Mother Came Too (Don McLean)
08 Yonkers Girl (Don McLean)
09 American Pie (Don McLean)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/cVPzm19P

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/atmgXGg9uwYdHdU/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Elkie Brooks - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1977-1987

Here's a third volume (out of four) of British singer Elkie Brooks performing for the BBC. In this case, every song comes from appearances on BBC TV shows.

The first album in this series consisted of BBC studio sessions. It ended in 1977, which was the year Brooks had her first big hits. The second one was a full concert from 1977. In Volume 1, I only had two of her hits, "Pearl's a Singer" and "Lilac Wine." But from 1977 until 1987, she had lots of hits in Britain (while she never had any hits in the U.S.). So I tried to put this collection together to deal with that period. 

Everything here is unreleased. I often had to dig deep to find the material. For instance, I found she did some appearances on the BBC TV show "The Two Ronnies" in 1980, but none of them were on YouTube. So I downloaded all the episodes of that show that year from SoulseekQT and went through them, found the songs she did, and turned them into mp3s. Those are tracks 4, 5, and 6.

As for the other tracks, the first three plus tracks 9 and 13 are from the "Top of the Pops" BBC TV show (not to be confused with the BBC radio show of the same name). I rarely use that as a source for my BBC projects, because the vast majority of performers on it lip-synced when on the show. However, Brooks usually did not. In ease case, I carefully compared those versions with the album versions to make sure. They're from 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982, and 1987 respectively.

Tracks 7 and 8 are from the TV show "Parkinson" in 1982. Tracks 10 and 11 are from a 1983 TV show hosted by singer Leo Sayer. Track 12 is from a TV show called "Wogan" in 1987. Generally speaking, I used the MVSEP program to get rid of crowd noise on the songs where there was crowd noise.

I searched for more BBC TV appearances after 1987, but I couldn't find any good ones until way later, and those were mostly repeats of earlier hits. That makes sense, because she didn't have any significant appearances after that year. Between this volume and "Volume 1" in this series, you'd have a pretty good "greatest hits" collection for her entire career, with only a couple of key songs missing.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Sunshine After the Rain (Elkie Brooks)
02 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Elkie Brooks)
03 The Runaway (Elkie Brooks)
04 Don't Cry Out Loud (Elkie Brooks)
05 Paint Your Pretty Picture (Elkie Brooks)
06 Dance Away (Elkie Brooks)
07 Fool [If You Think It's Over] (Elkie Brooks)
08 Superstar [Groupie] (Elkie Brooks)
09 Nights in White Satin (Elkie Brooks)
10 Gasoline Alley (Elkie Brooks)
11 Giving You Hope (Elkie Brooks)
12 We've Got Tonite (Elkie Brooks)
13 No More the Fool (Elkie Brooks) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/me7Fh3Yn

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/V2ubR7qCxIoT7jV/file

The cover photo was taken circa 1980. I don't know more details.

Steve Winwood - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 8-27-2004

Here's another episode from that great TV show, "PBS Soundstage." This time, it stars Steve Winwood.

In 2003, Winwood released the studio album "About Time." Despite this concert taking place about a year after the release, he was still touring to support that album. So four of the songs performed come from that album: "Different Light," "Bully," "Walking On," and "Why Can't We Live Together." None of the songs from that album were a hit, so it's possible you might not know them. However, "Why Can't We Live Together" is a cover of a soul hit in the 1970s by Timmy Thomas. 

Otherwise, he played some songs from his time with Blind Faith and Traffic in the 1960s and 70s, plus only one of his big solo hits from the 1980s ("Back in the High Life Again").

Typical episodes of this show were an hour long. However, this episode is close to an hour and a half long. That's because a DVD was released from it later, and the audio here comes from the DVD. Thus, the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 22 minutes long.

01 Can't Find My Way Home (Steve Winwood)
02 Different Light (Steve Winwood)
03 Empty Pages (Steve Winwood)
04 Bully (Steve Winwood)
05 Glad [Instrumental] (Steve Winwood)
06 Freedom Rider (Steve Winwood)
07 Back in the High Life Again (Steve Winwood)
08 Dear Mr. Fantasy (Steve Winwood)
09 Walking On (Steve Winwood)
10 talk (Steve Winwood)
11 Rainmaker (Steve Winwood)
12 Why Can't We Live Together (Steve Winwood)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KwycBTh7

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/vYZ9ZUPiWQpc7m9/file

The cover is from this exact concert. I took a screenshot from a video. Then I used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality a bit.

Texas International Pop Festival, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Lewisville, TX, 9-1-1969, Part 8: Sweetwater

Here's another album from the third day of the 1969 Texas International Pop Festival. It's the eighth set from that day, with two more to go. This one is a set by the band Sweetwater.

Sweetwater was a talented band with a lot of potential. They put out their debut album in 1968, simply called "Sweetwater." Their big break came when they performed at the Woodstock festival in August 1969. I've posted their performance there. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/12/sweetwater-woodstock-festival-max.html

Unfortunately, a couple of months after this concert, the band's lead singer, Nancy Nevins, was in a car crash. She was in a coma for ten days. She survived, but just barely. Her vocal chords were damaged, and her voice never fully recovered. That pretty much killed off the band's momentum. You can read more about it in the write-up I did for their Woodstock set.

Live recordings from this band are extremely rare. As far as I can tell, there's just this and the Woodstock one. Unfortunately, this one is quite short. But on the positive side, at least it's from a soundboard source. The last song was cut off, so I used a bit from the Woodstock performance to finish it off. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in the title.

I found a little bit about what happened during this set. The band delighted the crowd by throwing Frisbees and candy bars into the audience. Performing after dark, they asked the crowd to light matches or lighters and hold them up, which also had happened at Woodstock. Soon, the whole crowd was aglow.

On a different note, since I don't have a lot to say about this set, I want to mention something that happened at some point during this last day of the festival. 

The festival was so relatively problem-free that near the end of this day, both the Lewisville mayor and the police chief, Ralph Adams, went onstage and congratulated the audience on its good behavior. Adams gave a short speech which included this quote: "You are really teaching the older people here a lesson. Today, I can tell you that we have not made one arrest of anyone attending this festival simply because none of you has given us any reason to. Instead, our only trouble has come from the sightseers outside the festival grounds. People have asked me how I can manage to keep the peace at an event like this. I have told them the same thing that I told our police force - these people are human beings too and all you have to do is treat them that way." He even held up a peace sign, and added, "You are welcome back here anytime you want to. The town is yours."

After a standing ovation, one of the festival organizers took the microphone, and said, "There are a few bad cops in Dallas, like there are in every city. And some places like Chicago have pigs. But the Dallas police here are peace officers."

Given the culture clash between the festival crowd, largely made up of hippies, and the conservative opposition from rural Texas, it's nice to see that some people were able to rise above those differences. 

This album is 18 minutes long. 

01 What's Wrong (Sweetwater)
02 talk (Sweetwater)
03 Why Oh Why [Edit] (Sweetwater)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yaQr3JM8

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/n3f2l624OaR6z9y/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Nancy Nevins, the band's lead singer. For once for this festival, the original photo was actually in color. However, it was very blurry and low-res. I used the Krea AI program several times to sharpen it up and add detail. 

Texas International Pop Festival, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Lewisville, TX, 9-1-1969, Part 7: Spirit

Here's another album from the third day of the 1969 Texas International Pop Festival. This is a set by the band Spirit.

It so happens that there are very few live recordings of Spirit in their late 1960s prime, considering how popular they were at the time. This is one of three with excellent sound quality. I've already posted the other two on this blog (Boston Tea Party in 1969 and Fillmore West in 1970). Actually, I had posted this one already as well. But I deleted it months ago, knowing that I would repost it with different artwork and such as part of this festival. So here it finally is again.

Happily, this bootleg comes from a soundboard source. I made some edits to improve the sound. The biggest was boosting the lead vocals relative to the instruments. I think this now sounds better than the version I posted before.

In late 1968, the band released "I've Got a Line on You" as a single. It was their biggest hit, reaching Number 25 on the U.S. singles chart. So it's not surprising that was performed here, near the end of their set. In August 1969, the band released their third studio album, "Clear." Five of the songs here come from that album.

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 Trancas Fog-Out [Instrumental] (Spirit)
02 I'm Truckin' (Spirit)
03 Fresh Garbage (Spirit)
04 Poor Richard (Spirit)
05 Caught [Instrumental] (Spirit)
06 Ground Hog (Spirit)
07 Policeman's Ball (Spirit)
08 Drum Solo - Mechanical World (Spirit)
09 I've Got a Line on You (Spirit)
10 Aren't You Glad (Spirit)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1BAgCe8K

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ARVP7R4JKBw3StY/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Jay Ferguson, one of the band's two lead vocalists. I could only find two photos of the band from this concert. The other one showed band members Mark Andes on bass and John Locke on keyboards. Both photos were in black and white. I chose this one mainly because it was a lot easier to colorize (which I did using the Kolorize program).

Texas International Pop Festival, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Lewisville, TX, 9-1-1969, Part 6: Freddie King

I'm back with more from the third day of the 1969 Texas International Pop Festival. Here's a set by blues legend Freddie King.

Freddie King was a key blues singer and guitarist, starting in the 1950s. However, he died young, in 1976, at the age of 42 years old, from a combination of stomach ulcers and acute pancreatitis. Due to his untimely death, there aren't that many concert bootlegs from him (though there are a good number of official live albums).

Most of the surviving recordings from this festival are soundboard bootlegs, but in this case, it's an audience bootleg. It's one that was only made public in the early 2020s, and it hasn't been widely shared until now. The sound quality is pretty good for an audience boot. I tried to help by doing my usual tricks, using MVSEP to reduce the crowd noise during the songs, and using UVR5 to boost the lead vocals relative to the instruments. (I don't know why so many boots have the lead vocals low in the mix, but it's a surprisingly common problem.) 

King was known for his lead guitar playing as much or more as his vocals. So three of the six songs here are instrumentals, including "Hideaway," which became a surprise pop hit in 1960.

Since this album is relatively short compared to others from the festival, I think the odds are good that there's more that didn't get recorded. The odds of that are greater because there were chunks missing from the last two songs, suggesting the taper stopped at least once. I used other live recordings from 1969 to fill in missing bits there, which is why those two have "[Edit]" in their titles. At least we do get a DJ announcing the end of the set at the end of the last song, though there could have been an encore after that. 

Many acts at the festival performed on more than one day, but this was King's only performance in the festival. 

This album is 32 minutes long.

01 San Ho Zay [Instrumental] (Freddie King)
02 I'm Tore Down (Freddie King)
03 You Got to Love Her with a Feeling (Freddie King)
04 Hideaway [Instrumental] (Freddie King)
05 Play It Cool [Edit] (Freddie King)
06 Sen Say Shun [Instrumental] [Edit] (Freddie King)

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

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/WM7UyxpTCTi8vlU/file

The cover is from this exact concert. It's kind of amazing to me how often I was able to find one, but just one, photo of each musical act from this festival. This is another case of that. The original of this photo was in black and white, but I used the program Kolorize to colorize it. 

The Police - Unsynced- An Alternate Version of Synchronicity (1983) (A MIKE SOLOF GUEST POST)

Here's an alternate version of the blockbuster 1983 album by the Police, "Syncronicity." This was one of the best selling albums of the era. It also wound up fairly high on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the top 500 albums of all time.

Guest poster Mike Solof recently got himself the 6 CD super deluxe edition of the album, which was released in 2024. It has some less interesting stuff on it, as well as a full concert from that time period. Mike boiled down the best studio outtakes to one album, which he presents here. Please read his PDF included in the download zip for more information, plus lots of photos.

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

01 Synchronicity I [Demo] (Police)
02 Walking in Your Footsteps [Alternate Version] (Police)
03 O My God [Demo] (Police)
04 Mother [Alternate Version] (Police)
05 Miss Gradenko [Alternate Mix] (Police)
06 King of Pain [Demo] (Police)
06 Synchronicity II [Demo] (Police)
07 Every Breath You Take [Demo] (Police)
09 Wrapped Around Your Finger [Demo] (Police)
10 Tea in the Sahara [Alternate Mix] (Police)
11 Murder by Numbers [Demo] (Police)
12 I'm Blind [Demo] (Police)
13 Three Steps to Heaven (Police)
14 Truth Hits Everybody [Remix Outtake] (Police)
15 I Burn for You (Police)
16 Every Bomb You Make (Police)
17 King of Pain [Alternate Version] (Police)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iEKQLPpA

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/BkbDYtOOdXlH9tk/file

The cover image was found by Mike. It's from some photo shoot the Police did around the time of the release of the Syncronicity album. A couple of the photos made it onto the artwork for singles related to the album.

Texas International Pop Festival, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Lewisville, TX, 9-1-1969, Part 5: Ten Years After

The fifth album from the third day of the 1969 Texas International Pop Festival is a set by the British blues band Ten Years After.

Like the two musical acts I just posted from this festival, Ten Years After was a band on the rise at this time in 1969. They were formed in 1967, and put out their first album that year, which didn't make the charts anywhere. They put out their second album in early 1969. It made the Top Ten in Britain, but didn't dent the U.S. charts at all. Then, in August 1969, they performed a well-received set at the Woodstock festival. That was a big breakthrough for them in the U.S., especially once the Woodstock movie and album were released. 

However, at this point, I imagine they still were largely unknown by the audience at this festival, though some may have heard of the buzz from the Woodstock performance. Just like at Woodstock, the audience loved their energetic jamming. When they finished, they got one of the longest standing ovations from the festival.

The recording is another "good news, bad news" situation. The good news is, this is either all of their set, or at least nearly all of it. The recording ran out partway through the last song here, so it could be they played a song or two after that. But at over an hour, they played longer than most acts, so there probably wasn't much more. The bad news though is that this comes from an audience bootleg, not a soundboard one. That means lower sound quality. And that's especially the case because their style of loud and electrified music demands good sound quality. (Acoustic recordings, for instance, are much more forgiving.) I did my best, using the MVSEP program to reduce the crowd noise during the songs, and using the UVR5 program to boost the lead vocals relative to the instruments. But still, one can tell this doesn't sound as good as the soundboards from the festival.

Also, I found a different live recording from 1969 for their last song, "Help Me," and used that to patch in the missing section. And I did more extensive editing work on the songs than usual, for instance sometimes boosting specific lines in songs when they were extra quiet. But still, I could only do so much. So beware this doesn't sound fantastic.

This album is an hour and nine minutes long. 

01 Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl (Ten Years After)
02 talk (Ten Years After)
03 I Can't Keep from Cryin' Sometimes (Ten Years After)
04 talk (Ten Years After)
05 Hobbit [Instrumental] (Ten Years After)
06 Spoonful (Ten Years After)
07 I'm Goin' Home (Ten Years After)
08 Help Me [Edit] (Ten Years After)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/XhZtux42 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/VaLh49Fd1WqHrZ1/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows lead guitarist and vocalist Alvin Lee. The original was in black and white. I used the Kolorize program to colorize it.

Texas International Pop Festival, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Lewisville, TX, 9-1-1969, Part 4: Tony Joe White

Here's the fourth album (out of ten) from the third day of the 1969 Texas International Pop Festival. This one is a set by singer-songwriter Tony Joe White.

Just like the previous act I posted, Delaney and Bonnie, Tony Joe White was suddenly "hot" by the time of this concert. He started his recording career by releasing five singles in 1967 and 1968, but none of them made the charts. However, the last one, "Polk Salad Annie," was a slow grower. Over half a year after its release, it entered the charts in July 1969, thanks to a D.J. in Los Angeles who started frequently playing it. Right at the time of this concert, it peaked it the charts, reaching Number Eight in the U.S. It would be the biggest hit of his career, by far. But that hit had a big impact, because it caused people to look at his other songs, revealing that he was a very talented songwriter. People started covering his songs. For instance, Brook Benton released a single of his "Rainy Night in Georgia" at the end of 1969, and it almost went to the top of the charts in the U.S.

As expected, White played "Polk Salad Annie" in his set. Sadly, "Rainy Night in Georgia" wasn't included, nor was his "Willie and Laura Mae Jones," which was a minor hit for Dusty Springfield in 1969. But chances are very strong that this isn't the full set, since it's quite short, so we have no idea what other songs he performed. In any case, his set was very well received by the crowd. A review in "The Dallas Morning News" newspaper the next day remarked that White "put forth that down-home sound which is rapidly gaining momentum," and "the crowd ate it up."

Although this set is short, it's all from a soundboard bootleg source, so at least the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 23 minutes long.

01 Polk Salad Annie (Tony Joe White)
02 Aspen, Colorado (Tony Joe White)
03 Can You See the Lightning (Tony Joe White)
04 talk (Tony Joe White)
05 Roosevelt and Ira Lee (Tony Joe White)
06 Hard to Handle (Tony Joe White)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JtxsXKPR 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/2d1atZ8V6Wm8FIm/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. For once, the original was in color and I didn't have to do any editing on it.

Texas International Pop Festival, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Lewisville, TX, 9-1-1969, Part 3: Delaney & Bonnie

This is the third album from the third day of the 1969 Texas International Pop Festival. It features the duo Delaney and Bonnie. (Technically, they were billed, as usual, as "Delaney and Bonnie and Friends.")

The good news is, this recording is a soundboard bootleg. The bad news is, it's only 20 minutes long. I'm sure they played more than that. This wasn't the kind of concert, like Live Aid, where music acts had to be kept to short sets due to time concerns. But as we've seen with some other music acts already, for whatever reason, we often only get parts of sets. Grand Funk Railroad is a case in point, where only one song has emerged in soundboard quality. And while I was able to find more songs from an audience bootleg for that band, there is all I could find here.

At the time of this concert, Delaney and Bonnie hadn't had much success yet. They had just released their second album a couple of months earlier, but it only reached the lower rungs of the album charts. However, their albums were critically praised, and they were clearly a band on the rise. They toured the U.S. extensively in the months prior to this concert, opening for big name bands like Blind Faith (Eric Clapton's band at the time) and Led Zeppelin. To show just how hot they were, later in the year, both Clapton and George Harrison of the Beatles went on tour with them, playing lead guitar in their band! 

Here's a Wikipedia article about them: 

Delaney & Bonnie - Wikipedia 

This album is 20 minutes long. Had it been any shorter, I would have paired it with another short set.

01 We Got to Get Ourselves Together (Delaney & Bonnie)
02 The Ghetto (Delaney & Bonnie)
03 When the Battle Is Over (Delaney & Bonnie)
04 Things Get Better (Delaney & Bonnie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mip1LpCm

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/EB3SsN6tzl49ngG/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. There are some home videos and news reports from this festival, and in one of them I was able to find a short clip of Delaney and Bonnie. I took a screenshot from that, which means this is in color. I then used the Krea AI to improve the image detail.

Texas International Pop Festival, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Lewisville, TX, 9-1-1969, Part 2: B. B. King

Here's the second act from the third day of the 1969 Texas International Pop Festival: blues legend B.B. King. (Unfortunately, I'm mostly just guessing on the performance order for this and most albums on this day.)

1969 was a pivotal year for B.B. King. He'd been releasing albums since 1956. However, they pretty much had only appealed to fans of blues music. But in the late 1960s, electric blues got to be very popular, thanks mostly to British bands like Cream and Fleetwood Mac. So King's popularity rose. He released two albums in 1969, and both of them rose higher on the pop charts (about Top Forty) and R&B charts (about the Top Ten) than any of his previous albums.

One of those albums, "Completely Well," contained the song "The Thrill Is Gone." That would become his biggest hit and his signature song. Unfortunately, that song wasn't released a single until December, a few months after this. So it's not performed here.

A bunch of acts performed twice over the course of the three days of the festival. Few performed three times, but King was one of them. Apparently, his set caused some amusement, because he didn't realize that most of the audience stayed for all three sets, and he played the same songs with most of the same banter between songs. But despite that glitch, his music went over very well. A review in the "Times Herald" newspaper said that King "seemed to improve with each performance, flawless, hitting those low blues-filled notes and proving his birthright to the title of King of the Blues." 

King also was more savvy than most blues musicians of his generation by playing festivals full of hippies like this. In between songs, he King told the audience, "Now you can go let everyone know that we can get together outside of Woodstock and have a good time." 

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 talk (B. B. King)
02 Sweet Sixteen (B. B. King)
03 Please Accept My Love (B. B. King)
04 talk (B. B. King)
05 Everybody Wants to Know Why I Sing the Blues (B. B. King)
06 Don't Want a Soul Hanging Around (B. B. King)
07 What's Wrong Little Mama (B. B. King)
08 How Blue Can You Get (B. B. King)
09 Whole Lot of Lovin' (B. B. King)
10 Everyday I Have the Blues (B. B. King) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/R9fc7uBt

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/DhmPBDoFFQauK9K/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. The original was in black and white, and quite blurry in places. I used Kolorize to colorize. I tried to use Krea AI to reduce the blurriness, but you still see that with his hand and guitar.

Texas International Pop Festival, Dallas International Motor Speedway, Lewisville, TX, 9-1-1969, Part 1: Grand Funk Railroad

It's time for more music for the 1969 Texas International Pop Festival. With this album, I'm starting to post albums from the third and final day of the festival, September 1, 1969. So we're back to "Part 1" again. This time, it's Grand Funk Railroad.

Grand Funk Railroad were one of the best-selling music acts in the early 1970s. In fact, although their debut album "On Time" had been released two months earlier, they were pretty much complete unknowns. In fact, the band had only been together for a few months already. They did play the Atlanta International Pop Festival about a month earlier, and got a good response to that. But still, they weren't well known enough to be invited to perform at the festival. 

However, they agreed to play for free, and even covered their own expenses. The first day of the festival began relatively late, at 4 P.M. So they warmed up the crowd for about an hour prior to the official start time. That performance went over so well that they were asked to be the opening act for the remaining two days of the festival. They ended up performing all three days. They went over well with the crowd all three times, which gave the band a lot of positive buzz, making this a pivotal moment in their music career. 

As it so happens, even though they performed three times during the festival (like many other acts that performed multiple times during it), we only have recordings from this day (or mainly from this day - see below). I often don't know the exact order of the acts on each day. But in this case I do, since all accounts say Grand Funk Railroad was the first act of the day. 

One twist though was that the concert started earlier than expected. The two previous days, the concert began at 4 P.M. But one of the promoters was quoted in a newspaper saying they changed it to 11 A.M. on this day because "We just didn't want another ending as late as we got Saturday." Unfortunately, word of the change didn't get out to everyone. So Grand Funk Railroad played to probably the smallest crowd of the entire festival.

This recording has two sources. The intro talk plus the first song, "Are You Ready," is from a soundboard bootleg. One can also find a video of that song's performance on YouTube. I'm not entirely sure which day that is from. Everything else is from an audience bootleg, which is labeled as being from this date, September 1st. Thus, the sound quality for that part is poorer. To help out, I used my usual editing tricks for this kind of circumstance. I used MVSEP to lower the amount of crowd noise during songs, and I used UVR5 to boost the lead vocals in the mix. Overall, it's a good audience bootleg as far as such things go, but it's still an audience bootleg, so beware.

Note also that the first part of the first song and last part of the last song of the audience tape were both cut off. So clearly this is only part of their set. We don't know how many more songs they played. I found other live versions from 1970 and used those to fill in the missing parts of those songs. That's why those two have "[Edit]" in their titles.

By the way, I'm pretty sure this is the only known bootleg recording of the band from 1969. 

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 talk (Grand Funk Railroad)
02 Are You Ready (Grand Funk Railroad)
03 In Need [Edit] (Grand Funk Railroad)
04 talk (Grand Funk Railroad)
05 Heartbreaker (Grand Funk Railroad)
06 talk (Grand Funk Railroad)
07 Inside Looking Out (Grand Funk Railroad)
08 Ups and Downs (Grand Funk Railroad)
09 Into the Sun [Edit] (Grand Funk Railroad)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KAx3LXPv

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/2OporCnq1NASJp8/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. It shows lead guitarist Mark Farner. This was the only decent photo I could find of the band from the concert. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it using the Kolorize program, as well as some tinkering in Photoshop.