Monday, June 9, 2025

Don McLean - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Hard Rock Club, Manchester, Britain, 7-26-1975

I got a request today to post more of Don McLean's BBC stuff. I had one ready to go, so here it is. It's a short concert from 1975.

1975 was kind of an odd time for the BBC to want to broadcast a Don McLean concert. He'd had two huge hits in 1972 ("American Pie" and "Vincent") and two smaller ones in 1973 ("Dreidel" and "If We Try"), but then no more through the time of this concert. In fact, he didn't even release a new album in 1975. His previous album was "Homeless Brother" in 1974. He did have one very minor hit with the song "Wonderful Baby" from that album, but that isn't included here. However, some of the other songs are from that album, like "La La Love You," "Homeless Brother," and "The Legend of Andrew McGrew."

This is a solo acoustic concert, just McLean and his guitar. It also is fully unreleased.

This album is 48 minutes long.

UPDATE: On June 14, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file for this album. For one thing, I changed the name of the album from "Volume 2" to "Volume 4" after discovering two more BBC concerts I'd previously missed. I also added three songs I'd missed, "Banjo Instrumental," "Over the Mountains," and "Masters of War." 

01 talk (Don McLean)
02 Bronco Bill's Lament (Don McLean)
03 Empty Chairs (Don McLean)
04 La La Love You (Don McLean)
05 American Pie (Don McLean)
06 talk (Don McLean)
07 Homeless Brother (Don McLean)
08 Respectable (Don McLean)
09 Over the Waterfall - Arkansas Traveller [Instrumental] (Don McLean)
10 Over the Mountains (Don McLean)
11 Masters of War (Don McLean)
12 talk (Don McLean)
13 The Legend of Andrew McGrew (Don McLean)
14 Babylon (Don McLean)
15 This Little Light of Mine (Don McLean)
16 Vincent (Don McLean)

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

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/rlAsPaYpjsvqSSz/file

The cover photo shows Don McLean at the Grand Gala in Amsterdam, Netherlands on February 15, 1974.

8 comments:

  1. By the way, if anyone is interested in helping, I couldn't find that Sounds for Saturday show by Don McLean anywhere. But I see one spot where it's for sale for only about five dollars, here:
    https://westcoastburiedtreasure.com/products/don-mclean-on-sounds-for-saturday-1972?srsltid=AfmBOoo5Fs0AuSxrxiHDPPppaBCKjVt-aHtVo0v1uCW-537DAAewfZ-g
    If I were to get that, I would have no way to covert it. But maybe someone else can. I hear there also is a longer version, but that seems even harder to find.

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    1. I only know that the short concert exist on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XuKBDluP60

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  2. Hi Paul,

    My apologies as the past few weeks have been hectic. I’m not super familiar with this platform, but if there is some way to send me a private message, I can provide you with the 35-minute Sounds for Saturday show.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. The first song is called Bronco Bill's Lament.

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    1. Good point. Hopefully someone will send me the material for Sounds for Saturday show soon. At that point, I'll rename this one, and rename this song you mentioned too.

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  4. Ok, so I am a bit of a Don fan. Thank you for all of this prime live stuff. I met him about 15 years ago, oh my he is a bitter old fart. Still amazing on stage though.

    The banjo piece is Over the Waterfall-Arkansas Traveller. There is a version of it on his live record Solo.

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