Journey with Albert King and Friends - PBS Soundstage, Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL, 7-9-1978

When I think of Journey, I think of a lot of good hit songs, but I also think of slick "corporate rock," and I'm not a big fan of the latter. However, I've recently discovered that Journey was way more interesting than I'd thought in their early years, especially 1978. That's because 1978 was the year they did the "Super Jam II" concert consisting almost entirely of unexpected cover versions, and it was also the year they did this "PBS Soundstage" concert. Parts of it were typical of Journey concerts from that year. But they also had Albert King as their special guest on a few songs. I certainly never would have expected a Journey and Albert King collection! So kudos to them.

And they didn't just have Albert King as their special guest. He was the main guest star, and sang a couple of songs. However, some other great blues musicians were included as well: Pinetop Perkins, Luther Allison, and Jerry Portnoy. King and the others came on stage and jammed on several songs, mainly tracks six through eight here. So double kudos to Journey for shining the spotlight on all these blues musicians, most of them who made their mark in an earlier era. For instance, Pinetop Perkins, one of the greatest blues piano players ever, was born way back in 1913, so he was a senior citizen at the time of this concert.

As an aside, this was one of the last concerts the band played with Ashley Dunbar on drums. His leaving was part of the band's transition from progressive rock to more corporate rock.

The one disappointment I have with this recording is that the last song, "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town," is sung by Albert King, but it fades out after only a minute and a half. I looked at the video of this concert on YouTube, and there wasn't any more of it because the final credits from the TV were playing during that time. By the way, King sang "Sweet Little Angel" together with Journey lead vocalist Steve Perry. It seems this was the only time Journey ever played that song in concert.

This album is unreleased. There are videos of it for sale, but I suspect they're grey market releases.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Feeling That Way (Journey)
02 Anytime (Journey)
03 Winds of March (Journey)
04 Wheel in the Sky (Journey)
05 talk (Journey)
06 Overall Junction [Instrumental] (Journey with Albert King)
07 Sweet Little Angel (Journey with Albert King)
08 B Flat Blues Shuffle [Instrumental] (Journey with Albert King)
09 On a Saturday Night (Journey)
10 She Makes Me [Feel Alright] (Journey)
11 Lights (Journey)
12 I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town (Journey with Albert King)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/8feQK3dw

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/M0T7rZxySCUAw0X/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. It shows Albert King on the left and Journey lead guitarist Neal Schon on the right.