Elliott Smith & Heatmiser - Mic City Sons (Elliott Smith Edition) (1996)

I've been on another Elliott Smith kick lately, so here's something else from him. This is an officially released album, the last album of a band he was in early in his music career called Heatmiser. But that band had two singer-songwriters, and split their output roughly evenly. Due to some recently released bonus tracks, I was able to make an all-Elliott-Smith version. That original version is still out there for those who want it this way. But for those especially keen on Smith's songs, here's an option for you. I would argue that if this was actually one of Smith's solo albums, it would be considered one of his best.

Heatmiser was founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1991. The two main singer-songwriters were Smith and Neil Gust. The two of them were friends, as well as being roommates for several years. 1991 was the year that grunge started to make it big up the coast in Seattle. Thus, at the time, there was a lot of incentive to ride the popularity of the grunge sound, and that's what Heatmiser did. The band's first two albums in particular, "Dead Air" in 1993 and "Cop and Speeder" in 1994, really rock in a way that can sound shocking for those only familiar with Smith's later acoustic-based style. They were heavily influenced by bands like Husker Du and Fugazi.

Heatmiser found a lot of popularity in Portland, and performed there practically constantly. But their albums came out on an indie label and didn't make much impact elsewhere. At one point, they played a laudromat in Cleveland, and their entire "audience" left when that person's laundry was finished.

Smith later dismissed the band's music as "loud," and complained that being in Heatmiser changed the songs he was writing at the time into "loud rock songs with no dynamic." Furthermore, in a later interview, he said of his time in the band:

"I was being a total actor, acting out a role I didn't even like. I couldn't come out and show where I was coming from. I was always disguised in this loud rock band. [In the beginning] we all got together, everyone wanted to play in a band and it was fun, then after a couple of years we realized that none of us really liked this kind of music, and that we didn't have to play this way. You didn't have to turn all these songs you wrote into these loud... things. [...] It was kinda weird – people that came to our shows, a majority of them were people I couldn't relate to at all. Why aren't there more people like me coming to our shows? Well, it's because I'm not even playing the kind of music that I really like." 

In 1994, Smith released his first album, "Roman Candle," in a drastically different, semi-acoustic style. His solo career soon began to find a growing audience. Then in 1995, he released a second solo album in that style, "Elliott Smith," and his following continued to grow even more.

However, while that was going on, Heatmiser was working on their third album. The band's other main singer-songwriter, Neil Gust, was going through a similar musical transformation, moving away from a punk and/or grunge influenced rocking style to a more melodic one. Their 1996 album, "Mic City Sons," was a big musical leap forward, in my opinion, and many other people agree. 

For instance, here's part of the album's AllMusic.com review, by Michael Frey: "The quartet's finest and final album, 'Mic City Sons' features a decidedly more pop feel than its predecessors and marks Smith's maturation into the role of the band's visionary. From the opening notes of the swaggering, bass-heavy 'Get Lucky' to conclusion of the album with a soothingly soft hidden track ['Half Right'], 'Mic City Sons' is an outstanding collection of diverse and invigorating tracks. Songs like 'Plain Clothes Man' and 'You Gotta Move' exhibit the interplay of soulful, smooth vocals over gentle guitar strumming that has been so evident in Smith's solo work. The Gust-penned tunes, like 'Cruel Reminder' and 'Eagle Eye' are more rugged and aggressive, but complement Smith's songs brilliantly. ... Despite the success Heatmiser's members have achieved since their disbanding, it's unfortunate that this collective decided to split up just when they had reached such a creative peak."

As that review points out, Gust's songs are very good. One should hear the original version of this album, with an even number of Smith and Gust songs. But, in my opinion, it's also nice to listen to this Smith-centric version. The first seven songs here are from the original album. The remainder are from a deluxe edition released in 2025. That edition also contained two demos, but I didn't include them because they were full-band demos that didn't sound that different, and they were of songs from the original album. 

It would have been really interesting if Heatmiser could have kept going, along with Smith's solo career. But Smith's growing popularity basically made that impossible, especially due to some record company intrigue. For their third album ("Mic City Sons"), the band signed with a major label, Virgin Records, for the first time. Smith later explained what happened next:

"It was kind of ridiculous to carry it up to a certain point and then drop the ball or the bomb, like quitting the band right after we had signed to Virgin. I was the guy who made that gravy-train crash so to speak, and it was a gravy-train at the time. The breakup happened almost immediately after the contract was signed. I watched myself put my paw in the bear trap on that one because there was this clause about leaving members. In the event of the band dissolving, any members could be kept to that contract with or without their consent under the same terms. They didn't pick up Neil's option, only mine. It turned out to be a fucked-up situation because they said the reason they had signed Heatmiser was that they'd been hoping this [the breakup] would happen - or something to that effect. They said that right in front of Neil and I couldn't believe it."

Basically, the record company didn't want Heatmiser to succeed because they were only interested in Smith's solo career material. A 2018 article about the band by the Oregonian newspaper commented that "at some point in [late] 1996, the band fell apart. 'Mic City Sons' was released on a smaller Virgin sister label, Caroline, and slipped into the world quietly." In my opinion, the album really is a lost classic, be it the original version or this Smith-centric version.

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 Get Lucky (Heatmiser)
02 Plainclothes Man (Heatmiser)
03 The Fix Is In (Heatmiser)
04 You Gotta Move (Heatmiser)
05 Pop in G (Heatmiser)
06 See You Later (Heatmiser)
07 Half Right (Heatmiser)
08 I'm Over That Now (Heatmiser)
09 Burned Out, Still Glowing (Heatmiser)
10 Everybody Has It (Heatmiser)
11 Christian Brothers [Rock Version] (Heatmiser)
12 Untitled Instrumental (Heatmiser) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/gESih8e4

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/RdUa17d8B2tapaI/file

The cover image is almost identical as the original. However, I changed the text at the top from "Heatmiser" to "Elliott Smith & Heatmiser." 

Mar Y Sol Pop Festival, Manati, Puerto Rico, 4-2-1972, Part 3: Alice Cooper

Here is the third part of the second day of the 1972 Mar Y Sol Pop Festival. (I'm guessing the order based on the relative popularity of the musical acts at the time.) This one features the band Alice Cooper.

At the time of this concert, the band was on their way to the big time. The album "Killer" was released in late 1971, and it was their first big album success. It would eventually go Platinum in the U.S., which means sales of a million or more. The band also had a lot of success with the song "I'm Eighteen," which made the Top Twenty in the U.S. singles chart in early 1971. However, greater popularity was coming. The band's next album, "School's Out" would be an even bigger success in 1972, propelled by a single with the same name. That single would be released only a few weeks after this concert.

The band was making a big impression with audiences due to their theatrical stage performances. One fan who attended this concert later commented, "I was not a fan of Alice Cooper until I saw him in concert at Mar y Sol. I think I was more amazed at the crowd reaction then the actual show, but they could rock. I remember this chill going over me when Alice hung himself. He also did the throwing money bit into the crowd, and watching people scramble for it was pretty funny." 

For this set, it happens that the entire performance has been officially released. It came out on a deluxe edition of the "Killer" album. Most of that album was performed in the concert, as well as "Public Animal  the show previews "Public Animal #9" from the upcoming album. The band played most of "Killer" during the concert, plus three songs from their previous album "Love It to Death," including their sole hit at the time, "I'm Eighteen."

This album is an hour and five minutes long.

01 Be My Lover (Alice Cooper)
02 You Drive Me Nervous (Alice Cooper)
03 Yeah, Yeah, Yeah (Alice Cooper)
04 talk (Alice Cooper)
05 I'm Eighteen (Alice Cooper)
06 Halo of Flies (Alice Cooper)
07 Is It My Body (Alice Cooper)
08 Dead Babies (Alice Cooper)
09 Killer (Alice Cooper)
10 Long Way to Go (Alice Cooper)
11 Under My Wheels (Alice Cooper)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Cfbk6aJd

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/g4Qks4DitkRsWpD/file

I could be wrong, since it's been a long time since I make the cover art for this festival, but I'm pretty sure the cover image is from this exact concert. I found just two photos of him from it, this one, and one of him holding a skull in his hands.  

Mar Y Sol Pop Festival, Manati, Puerto Rico, 4-2-1972, Part 2: Billy Joel

Here is the second part of the second day of the 1972 Mar Y Sol Pop Festival. (Although note that the set order is mostly guesswork.) This album stars Billy Joel. This is a real treat for Joel fans, because this was one of the most important concerts of his entire career, arguably THE most important. 

It's important to remember that while Billy Joel is a superstar today, and has been one for decades, in 1972, he was basically a nobody. He released his debut album, "Cold Spring Harbor," in 1971. But it came out on a small label and got little notice. Furthermore, the recording was released at the wrong speed, and Joel soon got in conflict with the label, leaving him without promotional support. Joel wasn't even supposed to perform at the festival. But after some other acts dropped out at the last minute (due to reasons I've mentioned in the write-up to the first album from this festival), he was brought in to fill up time. 

This turned out to be the biggest break for his career. His career was basically dead in the water. But some important people from Columbia Records were at the festival, and were impressed by his performance. In fact, they were so impressed that eventually they bought out the rest of his original contract. Going with a major label restarted his career and gave him the support eventually become a star.

Since this concert was so pivotal for Joel's career, I was able to find some interesting quotes about it. Here's one from "Billy Joel: The Life and Times of an Angry Young Man," a book by Hank Bordowitz: "Before Mar Y Sol, nobody had ever heard of Billy Joel, outside of the New York area, and even there, nobody cared about Billy Joel. But as the sun broke through the clouds at Mar y Sol, Billy Joel had the place reeling and rolling."

And here's Irwin Mazur, Billy's first manager, quoted in that same book: "It was a moment I'll never forget. He had the crowd in the palm of his hands. He had never had that kind of command of an audience before. That was the first moment that he took command of the stage."

Here's a lengthier explanation from Larry Russell, who was the bassist in Joel's band at the time: 

"Well, we were slightly unsure what [the crowd would] think, really. Up until that point, we were a very folky, intimate, cerebrally provoking act. Nothing too fancy, very simple four piece band, Thinking back on it now, I think we should have had one more band member to fill things out and make the sound match the 'Cold Spring Harbor' record, but that would have complicated the expenses for the record/management companies. We knew when we saw that crowd we had to toughen our set, but we were not prepared to do that with songs like 'Travelin’ Prayer,' etc. But, somehow, whatever we played that day, they loved. Everything worked. And even though we sounded nothing like the bands that were scheduled to perform. somehow that in itself, set us apart from the others. Song after song, our momentum built, and by the time we were at our last song, the crowd was ready for more.

"The last song that day and everyday was ‘Tomorrow Is Today’, which on that day was really outstanding. But when we finished that song, they didn’t want us to leave, and so we had to resort to a harder styled cover song with Billy doing a fine impersonation of Joe Cocker, singing ‘The Letter’ with piano chops and Cockers' gyrations as well! After that, I ran off the stage to smoke a joint and our manager told me we had another encore... and then [he went] into the best version I have ever heard of 'Jumpin' Jack Flash.' His vocal range was unbelievable, truly amazing. But then again, he was only 22 at the time."

Here's a link to the whole interview with Russell, if you want even more details:

https://web.archive.org/web/20201204084216/http://marysol-festival.com/interviews/interview-with-larry-russell-billy-joel

As Russell, explains, the band had only been in existence for three or four months prior to this concert, mostly performing in small venues on the East Coast. So to go from that to performing before an audience of tens of thousands must have been a really big deal for Joel. 

In 1999, Joel returned to perform a concert in Puerto Rico for the first time since this 1972 festival. Between songs, he shared some memories with his banter. One person who attended that 1999 concert summarized his comments like this:

"He explained he had been here in the island previously for a festival called 'Mar y Sol,' asking if anybody remembered that. A few screams and claps came from the crowd, to which he replied, 'Oh, so you were there too?!' He said he was glad some people remembered... He admitted that in those days he and his band were just simple amateurs, guys looking for an opening to go forward and get noticed. He was happy that he'd developed his career to get to where he could now thank Puerto Rico for being a kind of 'starting point,' maybe not recognized that much, which helped with the record company’s support from that time forward."

Listening to this recording, I have to admit that it's good, but it didn't really knock my socks off. But I think that's because I'm looking at it from the perspective of Joel being a big star for decades already, with all the crowd-pleasing skills of a big star. In hindsight, this concert was the moment Joel showed he could be charismatic and take control of a crowd, a talent he hadn't shown in public before. I'm sure a lot of that was visual, such as the Joe Cocker-styled gyrations mentioned above. 

This recording is entirely unreleased. (Joel wanted to one of his songs to appear on the official album from the festival, which no doubt would have helped his career a lot, but it wasn't possible due to conflicts between two record companies.) Supposedly, this is from a soundboard source. I don't know if that's true, or if it's from the same audience bootleg as most of the rest of the festival. But it doesn't matter since the sound quality of the audience boot is basically at a soundboard level anyway. Also, we know this is the full performance.  

This album is 35 minutes long. 

01 Travelin' Prayer (Billy Joel)
02 talk (Billy Joel)
03 Josephine (Billy Joel)
04 The Ballad of Billy the Kid (Billy Joel)
05 talk (Billy Joel)
06 Captain Jack (Billy Joel)
07 talk (Billy Joel)
08 Tomorrow Is Today (Billy Joel)
09 talk (Billy Joel)
10 The Letter (Billy Joel)
11 talk (Billy Joel)
12 Jumpin' Jack Flash (Billy Joel)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/LYxyV5Uk

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/2RF9fUzhcYJXQx9/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. 

Mar Y Sol Pop Festival, Manati, Puerto Rico, 4-2-1972, Part 1: David Peel, Herbie Mann, J. Geils Band & More

Here is the first part of the second day of the 1972 Mar Y Sol Pop Festival. I'm doing this day by day, so this goes back to "Part 1" instead of "Part 4" of the entire festival. This is kind of a grab-bag for musical acts from the second day where I only have small portions of their sets.

Unfortunately, so much time has passed since this festival that a lot has been lost. I only was able to learn some basics about which acts performed on which day (though even that is sometimes questionable, especially since some of the acts performed more than once), and which ones were the headliners. Also, only bits and pieces of the music have survived. I've previously mentioned the official double album, "Mar y Sol: The First International Puerto Rico Pop Festival," long out of print. Some of the songs on this album come from that. (Specifically, tracks 1, 11, and 13.) But most of the songs come from an audience bootleg I mentioned in my previous write-ups. The good news is that the sound quality is surprisingly good for an audience bootleg. I didn't try any of my usual audio editing tricks on those songs, because they sounded like a soundboard already. But the bad news is how we often have only portions of many sets. For instance, I'm sure Dr. John played a lot more than just one song! I assume all the acts here performed more songs. But something is better than nothing.

The J. Geils Band set is the longest here, at 22 minutes. A New York Times review that was down on the festival in general liked that performance, at least, writing, "The J. Gells band finally played a set that deserved the accolades it has received in the past." Too bad there isn't more of it. 

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long.

01 Wang Dang Doodle (Dr. John)
02 All the Things You Are [Instrumental] (Dave Brubeck & Gerry Mulligan)
03 Take Five [Instrumental] (Dave Brubeck & Gerry Mulligan)
04 The Pope Smokes Dope (David Peel & the Lower East Side)
05 talk (David Peel & the Lower East Side)
06 Up Against the Wall (David Peel & the Lower East Side)
07 talk (David Peel & the Lower East Side)
08 New York City Hippie (David Peel & the Lower East Side)
09 Mother Where Is My Father (David Peel & the Lower East Side)
10 Memphis Underground [Instrumental] (Herbie Mann)
11 Respect Yourself [Instrumental] (Herbie Mann)
12 Never Can Say Goodbye [Instrumental] (Herbie Mann)
13 talk (J. Geils Band)
14 Looking for a Love (J. Geils Band)
15 talk (J. Geils Band)
16 Homework (J. Geils Band)
17 Crusin' for a Love (J. Geils Band)
18 Sno-Cone [Instrumental] (J. Geils Band)
19 Wait (J. Geils Band)
20 talk (J. Geils Band)
21 Whammer Jammer (J. Geils Band)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/77vXqgBR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/0qsJyXsMdlKWoD1/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Herbie Mann playing flute in front, with other band members. 

Mar Y Sol Pop Festival, Manati, Puerto Rico, 4-1-1972, Part 3: The Allman Brothers Band

Here's the third out of three albums I made from the first day of the 1972 Mar Y Sol Pop Festival. This one features of the headliners from the festival, the Allman Brothers Band.

On October 29, 1971, Duane Allman, one of the key members of this band, died in a motorcycle accident. But the band carried on. In February 1972, they released the double album "Eat a Peach," which was their biggest success so far at that point in their music career. While Duane Allman isn't on this recording, bassist Berry Oakley is. He also would die in a motorcycle accident later in 1972.

Only one song from this set has been officially released. "Ain't Wastin' Time No More" appeared on the album "Mar y Sol: The First International Puerto Rico Pop Festival." The rest comes from bootlegs. Luckily, they sound very good, so much so that you probably won't notice the difference between the officially released track and the rest.

It seems that while most of the set is presented here, it may not be all of it. Two of the songs were incomplete, "Statesboro Blues" and "You Don't Love Me." I used a bootleg of a concert from Jackson, Alabama, on March 23, 1972, to fill in the rest of those two songs. For "Statesboro Blues," I didn't have to fill in much. But for "You Don't Love Me," most of it actually comes from the other concert.

One interesting fact is that Gregg Allman always played a Hammond organ in concert. But for this show, the organ promised by promoters didn't show up in time. It is rumored that he asked to borrow Keith Emerson's organ, but was denied. Thus, he played most of the set with an electric piano instead. Only near the end of the set was that replaced by a Hammond organ, due it finally showing up. 

This album is an hour and three minutes long. 

01 Done Somebody Wrong (Allman Brothers Band)
02 talk (Allman Brothers Band)
03 Ain't Wastin' Time No More (Allman Brothers Band)
04 One Way Out (Allman Brothers Band)
05 Stormy Monday (Allman Brothers Band)
06 Statesboro Blues [Edit] (Allman Brothers Band)
07 You Don't Love Me [Edit] (Allman Brothers Band)
08 Whipping Post (Allman Brothers Band) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/5ivtZ4ia

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Oe8WE71z2sYTAOg/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. It would have been nice to find a photo of the entire band. But I've only seen a small number of good photos from the festival, and I was lucky to find anything that fits here at all. The photo shows Dickey Betts, of the band's two main singers and lead guitarists. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.

Mar Y Sol Pop Festival, Manati, Puerto Rico, 4-1-1972, Part 2: B. B. King

Here's the second album from the first day of the Mar Y Sol Pop Festival. There are three albums from this day in total. This one consists only of a set by blues legend B. B. King.

As I explained in the first album from this festival, the festival was a bit of a fiasco overall. But there still was a lot of good music, and most accounts said that King's set was one of the highlights. Unfortunately, we only have some of the set. Just one song, "Why I Sing the Blues," made it onto the official album from the festival, "Mar y Sol: The First International Puerto Rico Pop Festival." So I used that version for that song. For the rest, I relied on a surprisingly good sounding audience bootleg that I mentioned in the write-up for the first album. 

But as I mentioned, that bootleg only has portions of the festival (or at least that's all that's been made public. This definitely wasn't King's full set. In fact, one of the songs, "Hummingbird," wasn't even complete. I found a different live recording of that from this era and used it to finish it off. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in its title.

Now, I want to say a little more about the festival that has nothing to do with B. B. King per se, but I didn't want to write too much in the write-up for the first album. I want to mention the musical acts that were supposed to attend the festival but didn't perform for some reason.

The biggest miss, by far, was John Lennon. He was very interested in performing at the festival, and that would have been a massively big deal, since he only performed a couple of full concerts after leaving the Beatles. Around 1972, he got to be friends with musician John Peel, who did perform at the festival, and he knew some other people who were going. So he wanted to be a part of it as well. Unfortunately, he was having legal problems with the U.S. government over his visa, and leaving the U.S. to go to Puerto Rico apparently would have added to those problems, despite the fact that Puerto Rico was and still is a U.S. territory. So instead, he and Yoko Ono sent a message of support. You can hear that here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSGbEVUbZoY

There were other big misses. Black Sabbath made it to Puerto Rico, and were supposed to perform on the third and last night. But while other bands were flown by helicopter from a hotel in the main city of San Juan to the festival site, no helicopters were available for the band. It was also determined that the roads were clogged, due to the festival, so they couldn't make it that way either. In the end, they simply stayed in their hotel. They didn't mind that much, since they'd already been paid.

Bloodrock, Flash Cadillac, Fleetwood Mac, and Malo also didn't perform for various reasons. Probably a lot of it had to do with the uncertainty surrounding the festival, since it almost didn't happen due to legal issues. A bunch of other musical acts were scheduled to perform, but it's unknown if they did or not: Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, Savoy Brown, Roberta Flack, Al Kooper, Loggins & Messina, Poco,
Billy Preston, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels. If anyone reading this attended the festival and can shed some light on this, that would be great.

This album is 25 minutes long.

01 Everyday I Have the Blues (B.B. King)
02 Hummingbird [Edit] (B.B. King)
03 How Blue Can You Get (B.B. King)
04 Guess Who (B.B. King)
05 Why I Sing the Blues (B.B. King)
06 The Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/HWrLrgKc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Oeez4DxyNBChLXg/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It's one of the few color photos I could find. The top of his head was missing, but I used AI features in Photoshop to fill out the missing part.
 

Mar Y Sol Pop Festival, Manati, Puerto Rico, 4-1-1972, Part 1: Nitzinger - Brownsville Station

It's time for me to post another big rock festival. This is an interesting one, but not very well known: the Mar Y Sol Pop Festival, in Manati, Puerto Rico, in 1972. Unfortunately, only bits and pieces of recordings of this three-day-long festival survive and have made it into the public domain, most of them unreleased. But it's all very good to excellent sound quality, and there were a lot of musical acts performing, so it adds up. In total, I have enough material to post nine albums, containing over eight hours of music.

Before I get to describing the musical acts and songs on this particular album, let me discuss the festival in general. It has a rather strange history, probably mostly due to its unusual location, in Puerto Rico. It was the only big rock festival in that country in that time period. There are some reasons for that, as we shall see.

After the massive success of the Woodstock Festival in 1969, many promoters decided to try to organize their own big rock festivals and possibly make a lot of money. There wasn't enough of a local audience to justify a rock festival with famous names, so the idea was to hold a festival during a time people from the U.S. could come during a vacation. The appeal of beach, tropical jungle, and sunny weather could be combined with rock music to hopefully have a successful, well-attended festival. 

The original plan was for the festival to take place during Thanksgiving break in 1971. Artists like Santana, Jose Feliciano, Ray Charles, the Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Ten Years After, Richie Havens, and the Chamber Brothers were booked to perform. But the planners ran into financial troubles, and the festival was postponed, or possibly cancelled altogether. Then Alex Cooley agreed to take over the management. He had already successfully organized two Atlanta International Pop Festivals and the Texas International Pop Festival. So his involvement added credibility, allowing the festival to be rescheduled for April 1st to 3rd, 1972.

Unfortunately, Cooley and others managing the festival didn't understand local culture. Those dates meant the festival would take place during Holy Week, and Easter. That was a good vacation time to get Americans to fly there. But Puerto Rico was heavily Catholic, and many people there didn't like how this created a conflict with religious activities. Cooley also relied on a friend of a friend who was a high ranking official in the military there, and promised to take care of all the necessary permits and such. Unfortunately, that friend failed to follow through. The festival took place anyway, because so many people arrived from out of the country that it would have been a bigger debacle for the local authorities to not allow it. But Cooley found himself in hot water. Ultimately, he had to get smuggled out of country to avoid possibly serving prison time.

The festival was held on a beach near the main city of San Juan. Somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 people attended, most of them from the U.S. But there were many problems. The weather caused a lot of problems. At times, it was very rainy. At other times, it was too hot, over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. A review in Creem Magazine reported, "Quite ironically, the festival's major drawing card, old sun, readily proved to be one of its most formidable villains. Even the most fanatical sun-worshipers soon found themselves crawling for cover after only minimal exposure; the medical tent reported that a vast majority of cases handled related directly to this torturous sun blaze."

There was a crazy amount of drug use. That lead to four deaths. One person was hacked to death while sleeping, possibly due to a bad drug deal or a romantic dispute. A couple other people drowned in the ocean. Creem Magazine also reported, "The dark eyes of violence were always staring over your shoulder. Gangs of Puerto Ricans roamed the grounds in varying shades of belligerence, many carrying knives and apparently itchy fingers. It was like an ugly New York City against a postcard backdrop."

A local newspaper, the San Juan Star, reported, "Mar y Sol was Puerto Rico's Woodstock Nation, except that by 1972 people were beginning to lose faith in the peace and love schtick." 

The title of a review in the New York Times was "Mar y Sol: Unhappy and Unsuccessful." You can read the entire review here:

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/05/archives/mar-y-sol-unhappy-and-unsuccessful.html

So while the festival had many serious problems, there also was a lot of good music. And experiences varied. I was looking up some YouTube videos of performances from the festival, and many commenters said they had a great time, with some saying it had been life-changing. So it was a mixed bag. But there were enough problems that there never was another festival like that allowed in Puerto Rico in that era.

There had been a really nice website dedicated to the festival. Unfortunately, it appears to have died a few months ago (as I write this in April 2026). However, one can still find links to pages from it using archive.org. Here's the main page describing what happened, with links to other pages:

https://web.archive.org/web/20201202130637/https://marysol-festival.com/history-menu/festival-history

Now, let me address the music. There were plans to make a movie out of the festival, but the filming never happened due to all the legal troubles related to the festival. I did find a few minutes of footage from a home movie, however, which you can see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhS5t_zx53k

While the movie didn't happen, a double album of highlights from this festival was released. But it didn't do very well, and it eventually went out of print. It's never even been released on CD. Here's a Wikipedia entry about the album, with a list of the songs from it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar_y_Sol:_The_First_International_Puerto_Rico_Pop_Festival_(album)

I wouldn't be posting this festival if that's all the recordings that survived. Luckily, there's more. A couple of the sets were later officially released in full, such as the sets by Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Alice Cooper. I'll explain the sourcing for each album. But a majority of what I found comes from a bootleg recorded by two locals, Pedro Collazo and Oscar Mandry. They only made an audience recording. But the sound quality is really damn good. One would easily think it's a soundboard instead. However, only parts of their recordings have made it to the Internet, and it seems they only recorded parts of the performances. Most sets are incomplete, and sometimes some songs are incomplete. I put together everything I could, combining all the official and bootleg sources I could find.

Before putting these albums together, I had never heard of Nitzinger. Turns out that was a band led by lead guitarist John Nitzinger. You can find his Wikipedia entry here:

John Nitzinger - Wikipedia

Some time in 1972, his debut album was released, also called "Nitzinger." He went on to have a long, though relatively low profile, music career. Just two of his songs here made it onto the official album from the festival: "Texas Blues - Jelly Roll." 

Brownsville Station is best known for a single hit. That hit, "Smokin' in the Boys Room," went all the way to Number Three on the U.S. singles chart in 1973. However, that was still a year away at the time of this festival, so you won't find that song here. In 1972, the band released its second album, which just barely made it into the Top 200 U.S. albums chart.

Here's their Wikipedia entry:

Brownsville Station (band) - Wikipedia

So, I would guess not a lot of people are going to be that keen about either of the musical acts here. But don't worry, there's a lot more to come from this festival. And I was to gather up all the music I can find from it, not just the most famous acts.  

This album is 44 minutes long. 

01 I'm a Steamroller, Mama (Nitzinger)
02 Ticklelick (Nitzinger)
03 Jam [Instrumental] (Nitzinger)
04 Louisiana Cock Fight (Nitzinger)
05 talk (Nitzinger)
06 Texas Blues - Jelly Roll - Dr. Feelgood (Nitzinger)
07 Mister Robert (Brownsville Station)
08 talk (Brownsville Station)
09 Wanted Dead or Alive (Brownsville Station)
10 talk (Brownsville Station)
11 Blue Suede Shoes (Brownsville Station)
12 Johnny B. Goode (Brownsville Station)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iF1P2hz9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/uBGhj7A7zu1j6FK/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows the band Nitzinger, with the crowd in the background. 

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 7: 1975

Here's another album of Lulu performing for the BBC. This is the seventh volume out of nine that I plan to post.

With this album, I'm entirely into the 1975 material that mostly led to me adding a bunch of new Lulu BBC albums. As I mentioned in the last write-up in this series, I came across all the episodes to the 1975 season of Lulu's BBC TV show, "Lulu." There were 13 episodes of the show that season, which ran from January to April. Each episode had one or more guest stars, but most of it consisted of Lulu singing songs, or performing in comedy skits. Despite having a hit BBC TV show for many years (1968 to 1975), she put out surprisingly few albums during that time period (and the same goes for singles). For instance, she released an album in 1973, and another one in 1976. So the vast majority of the songs on this album (and the other 1970s BBC albums I've put together) consist of songs she never officially released.

Just to be clear, everything here is from her BBC TV show. And none of the songs were included on the previous Lulu BBC album I had made dealing with her early 1970s time period. 

I have to admit a lot of this stuff is pretty far from rock or soul. "On the Good Ship Lollipop," for instance, a song made famous by Shirley Temple in 1934. By this time, she had became a versatile middle of the road actress and singer, performing songs in pretty much any genre. That said, she was a good singer, and she generally picked good songs. So, while this isn't for everyone, I figured that it deserved to be remembered. So I went through the bother of going through all the episodes of converting the songs into mp3s. 

Lulu sang a duet with Labi Siffre, choosing the classic hit "This Guy's in Love with You." Since I've made some BBC albums for Siffre too, I put this song on one of those collections too, his "BBC Sessions, Volume 3."

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. Note that I tried to remove the audience cheering as much as possible, using the UVR5 audio editing program. But sometimes, some remnants remained. 

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 I've Got the Music in Me (Lulu)
02 Goldfinger - Diamonds Are Forever - The Man with the Golden Gun [Edit] (Lulu)
03 I'm Stone in Love with You (Lulu)
04 Everything Is Coming Up Roses - On the Good Ship Lollipop - Don't Sit under the Apple Tree (Lulu)
05 You Make Me Feel Brand New (Lulu)
06 I'm a Woman (Lulu)
07 You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You (Lulu)
08 That's When the Music Takes Me (Lulu)
09 Baby I'm-a Want You (Lulu)
10 After Midnight (Lulu)
11 Hang On in There Baby (Lulu)
12 Puppet on a String (Lulu)
13 Knock, Knock Who's There - Boom Bang a Bang (Lulu)
14 Congratulations (Lulu)
15 The Ash Grove (Lulu & the King Singers)
16 Put a Little Love Away (Lulu)
17 Jubilation T. Cornpone (Lulu)
18 Spinnin' and Spinnin' (Lulu)
19 This Guy's in Love with You (Labi Siffre & Lulu)
20 I Won't Last a Day without You (Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/j2PqwJkQ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/n9ootA9JZXQ2V8Q/file

The cover photo is taken from a screenshot from a 1975 episode of her TV show.

Billy Preston with Buddy Miles - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 8-31-1973

It's time for another episode from that fantastic TV show, "The Midnight Special." This one stars Billy Preston, with Buddy Miles as his guest.

Preston started his music career quite young. Having taught himself how to play piano, he began performing on stage by the time he was ten. In 1963, he released his first studio album, at the age of 16. But he didn't have a lot of success at first, and mostly worked as a backing musician for Ray Charles and others. He got a big break in early 1969 when he backed the Beatles in the studio for a couple of weeks during their Get Back / Let It Be sessions. And when the song "Get Back" was released as a single that year, it was credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston." He had his first big hit later in 1969 with "That's the Way God Planned It." It didn't do much in the U.S., but it almost reached the Top Ten in Britain. More hits followed by the time of this show, especially "Outa-Space," "Will It Go Round in Circles," and "Space Race."

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

Billy Preston - Wikipedia 

This album is a combination of three episodes. Most of the songs come from the August 31, 1973 episode named in the album title. But "Blackbird" and "That's the Way God Planned It" come from a February 16, 1973 episode. Actually, "That's the Way God Planned It" was played twice, in the August and February episodes. But the August version faded out before the end of the song. So I used the complete February version. However, the talking right before it is from the August version. Also, tracks 11, 12 and 13 come from the December 14, 1973 episode.

Preston hosted the show again in 1975. I plan on posting that again. It seems he and Buddy Miles actually were friends (as they said on this episode), because Miles was a guest on that episode as well. It seems the host often had some say on who the guests for their episodes would be. 

I included Miles as the guest mostly because they performed "My Sweet Lord" together, as you can see from the cover image. Also, they had similar soul music styles. In case you're curious, the other guests on the August 1973 episode that Preston hosted were: Steely Dan, Bo Diddley, Maureen McGovern, Ned Doheny, and Gladstone. For the opening talk by Wolfman Jack, I edited it so that mentions of the those other guests weren't included. That's what that track has "[Edit]" in the title. I also included only part of the next track, which consisted of some comments by comedian Tommy Smothers.

By the way, "I'm So Tired" is not the Beatles song of the same name. However, "Blackbird" is a Beatles cover. 

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 talk [Edit] (Wolfman Jack)
02 talk (Tommy Smothers)
03 Will It Go Round in Circles (Billy Preston)
04 talk (Billy Preston)
05 Them Changes (Buddy Miles)
06 talk (Wolfman Jack)
07 My Sweet Lord (Billy Preston & Buddy Miles)
08 talk (Billy Preston)
09 All Spaced Out (Billy Preston)
10 Music's My Life (Billy Preston)
11 Space Race [Instrumental] (Billy Preston)
12 How Long Has the Train Been Gone (Billy Preston)
13 I'm So Tired (Billy Preston)
14 Blackbird (Billy Preston)
15 Thinking of You (Buddy Miles)
16 talk (Billy Preston)
17 That's the Way God Planned It (Billy Preston)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2vHo8jnd

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/PCrntjhghM3NAH8/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. That's Buddy Miles playing drums, and Billy Preston looking over at him while playing keyboards. I used Photoshop to remove some mostly empty space between them.

Elliott Smith - Umbra Penumbra, Portland, OR, 9-17-1994

Here's something a bit unusual from singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. This is the earliest known acoustic concert by him, all the way back in 1994. 

From 1990 until 1996, Smith was a member of the rock band Heatmiser. While still in that band, he began a solo career in 1994. He released his first solo album, "Roman Candle," in July 1994. The album was a fluke. He had recorded it in a friend's basement, and sent the songs to a record company in hopes of getting a record deal to release a solo single. But the company liked his demos enough to want to release all of them as an album. Smith later said, "I thought my head would be chopped off immediately when it came out because at the time it was so opposite to the grunge thing that was popular ... The thing is that album was really well received, which was a total shock, and it immediately eclipsed [Heatmiser], unfortunately." 

Smith performed over a dozen solo concerts on the West Coast promoting the album. This one is the best sounding recording from that tour, by far. I had this as a bootleg for ages. But in 2020, it was released as a bonus disc for a deluxe edition of his 1995 album "Elliott Smith." Normally I don't released officially released stuff, but I'm making an exception here because I think this concert doesn't get enough attention. One can practically put it with his studio albums due to the sound quality, as well as the song selection. He performed ten songs, but only three of them were from the "Roman Candle" album (tracks 6, 9, and 10). Most of the others were unreleased at the time. One of those, "Alphabet Town," would be released on Smith's 1995 self-titled album.

The last song, "Half Right," was one that would be released on the last Heatmiser album, "Mic City Sons," released in 1996. The other main singer-songwriter in that band was Neil Gust. He joined Smith to sing the song here. The song though was written by Smith. Smith's solo version of it eventually was released on the archival album "New Moon."

This album is 34 minutes long. 

01 talk (Elliott Smith)
02 Some Song (Elliott Smith)
03 Alphabet Town (Elliott Smith)
04 Whatever [Folk Song in C] (Elliott Smith)
05 talk (Elliott Smith)
06 No Name No. 4 (Elliott Smith)
07 Big Decision (Elliott Smith)
08 talk (Elliott Smith)
09 Condor Ave (Elliott Smith)
10 No Name No. 1 (Elliott Smith)
11 talk (Elliott Smith)
12 No Confidence Man (Elliott Smith)
13 talk (Elliott Smith)
14 Crazy Fucker (Elliott Smith)
15 talk (Elliott Smith)
16 Half Right (Elliott Smith with Neil Gust)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Gr3DMRQc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/Hxn19sSJEVvr8To/file

The cover photo is from 1994. But I don't know the details. 

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: 1973-1975

Here's the next volume of Lulu performing for the BBC. Only three songs here were on the previous Lulu BBC album I'd made dealing with this time period: tracks, 7, 9, and 10. Everything else is music I recently discovered.

The main reason I discovered a bunch of Lulu music is that I found the entire 1975 season of videos of Lulu's BBC TV show. (For that season, the show was renamed from "It's Lulu" to just "Lulu.") The sound quality was excellent, so I converted those to audio and cut out the mp3s of the songs featuring her. That 1975 material starts with track 11, and continues until the end of the album. It also makes up the bulk of the three additional BBC albums I'll be posting after this one.

That still leaves the rest of the album, tracks 1 through 10. As I mentioned, three of those songs are ones I posted on the old version of "BBC Sessions, Volume 4" (now completely replaced). After finding the 1975 season, I looked around and more still more videos I'd previously missed, mostly from YouTube. It helps that there's an active Lulu YouTube page, and it's posted a bunch of new stuff since I originally made some BBC albums for her. Tracks 1 through 9 come from the 1973 edition of her BBC TV show. (I couldn't find anything from 1974.) Only track 10 ("The Man Who Sold the World") is different, coming from a BBC radio show.

All the music here is unreleased. The sound quality is generally excellent, though it varies somewhat. I removed the applause as best I could from nearly all of these using the UVR5 audio editing program. But I couldn't get rid of all of it on all the songs. 

This album is 49 minutes long. 

01 Touch Me in the Morning (Lulu)
02 Killing Me Softly (Lulu with Sergio Mendes)
03 That's When the Music Takes Me (Lulu)
04 When You Smile (Lulu)
05 She (Lulu & David Clayton-Thomas)
06 For the Good Times (Lulu)
07 Blue Suede Shoes - Hound Dog - Heartbreak Hotel - Love Me Tender - Teddy Bear - Jailhouse Rock (Lulu)
08 Mr. Tambourine Man (Lulu)
09 Lean On Me (Bill Withers & Lulu)
10 The Man Who Sold the World (Lulu)
11 Never Can Say Goodbye (Lulu)
12 Goodness Gracious Me (Lulu & Michael Bates)
13 The Man with the Golden Gun (Lulu)
14 Smile, Darn You Smile (Lulu)
15 Baby Love (Lulu)
16 Let's Put It All Together (Lulu)
17 Stand by Your Man (Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/z563zgfb

alternate:

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

The cover photo is from an appearance on Lulu's TV show "It's Lulu" at some point in 1973.

Dave Mason - Mississippi Riverbank Club, Minneapolis, MN, 7-25-1986

Recently, a commenter named nytvf pointed out a Dave Mason concert on YouTube, and suggested I post that on my blog. I checked out the link, and I was impressed by the concert. It's an acoustic concert with great sound quality, but somehow it seems to only exist as that one YouTube. Well, until now, that is. Here it is converted by me into mp3s. Thanks to nytvf for the suggestion. (I'm always open to suggestions.)

Mason had commercial and critical success, highlighted by two big hits, "Only You Know and I Know" in 1970, and "We Just Disagree" in 1977. But his commercial fortunes went way down in the 1980s. He didn't even release a new studio album between 1980 and 1987. This concert happened near the end of that time. Pretty much all the songs he performed were songs he wrote in the 1960s or 1970s, or covers of classic songs. But while he didn't seem to be very creative with new songs during this time period, his performing skills were still a good as ever.

Mason played guitar, and was backed up by only one other person, Jim Krueger, also on guitar (and backing vocals). That's worth noting because Kreuger also wrote a couple of the songs performed here, "The Word" and "We Just Disagree." Kreuger was a member of Mason's band since the mid-1970s.

The one thing that surprises me here is that it seems Mason didn't play "Only You Know and I Know," which I would guess is the second best known song he's written, behind "Feelin' Alright." (Perhaps there was more to this concert that what's on the recording, I don't know.) 

Anyway, this previously obscure recording is one of the best live recordings of his music, in my opinion. The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. I would guess it either has to be a soundboard or an FM radio broadcast.  

This album is an hour and 17 minutes long.

01 Feelin' Alright (Dave Mason)
02 World in Changes (Dave Mason)
03 talk (Dave Mason)
04 Every Woman (Dave Mason)
05 talk (Dave Mason)
06 Sad and Deep as You (Dave Mason)
07 That's Alright Mama [Instrumental Version] (Dave Mason)
08 talk (Dave Mason)
09 The Words (Dave Mason)
10 Not Fade Away (Dave Mason)
11 talk (Dave Mason)
12 Let It Go, Let It Flow (Dave Mason)
13 talk (Dave Mason)
14 Shouldn't Have Took More than You Gave - Dear Prudence (Dave Mason)
15 talk (Dave Mason)
16 Bird on the Wind (Dave Mason)
17 talk (Dave Mason)
18 We Just Disagree (Dave Mason)
19 talk (Dave Mason)
20 Maybe (Dave Mason)
21 talk (Dave Mason)
22 Dust My Blues (Dave Mason)
23 talk (Dave Mason)
24 All Shook Up (Dave Mason)
25 Bring It on Home to Me (Dave Mason)
26 Dear Mr. Fantasy (Dave Mason)
27 talk (Dave Mason)
28 All Along the Watchtower (Dave Mason)
29 talk (Dave Mason)
30 Take It to the Limit (Dave Mason)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vCDHvuqf

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/1SiXN82PhZRd9jK/file 

The cover photo is from 1981. You can see a second guitarist behind Mason's guitar. I assume that's Jim Krueger. But you can only see part of his head and some of his guitar.

Covered: Van McCoy, Best Of: 1962-1985

Here's another artist for my "Covered" series. To remind you, this highlights the talents of songwriters by collecting cover versions of their songs. This time, the focus is on Van McCoy.

These days, McCoy is probably seen by many as a one-hit wonder, because he had one huge hit under his own name: "The Hustle." This instrumental was a huge hit in 1975. It went to Number One on the main U.S. singles chart, as well as on the soul chart. It reached at least the Top Ten in most other countries as well, including hitting Number Three in Britain. 

That was his only Top 40 hit in the U.S., so technically that makes him a "one-hit wonder" in that country. But he did have other hits in other countries. For instance, he had three more Top 40 hits in Britain. But more important, he had a very long and successful career as a songwriter and producer. The focus here will be just on the songwriting part though.

 

McCoy was born in Washington, D.C., in 1940. He started playing piano and singing in a church choir at a young age. He began writing songs at the age of 12. Eventually, he would have 700 of his songs recorded and released by himself or other musical artists. He started to study psychology at Howard University, but dropped out in 1960 to pursue a music career. 

 

He formed his own record company from the very start. He had a little success with his own recordings. His first single, "Mr. D.J.," was a minor hit in 1960. But he soon found more success writing and producing songs for others. He mostly concentrated on that, though he continued to release singles under his own name. His first really big hit as a songwriter was "Baby, I'm Yours." Singer Barbara Lewis took it to the Top Ten in 1965. He continued to write many more hits in the 1960s and 1970s. I've included the ones I liked the best here. Note these aren't necessarily all the biggest hits on the charts.

 

In the 1970s, he began focusing more on his own career. In the 1960s, he only released one album under his own name. But in the 1970s, he released ten. His solo career really took over after his 1975 hit "The Hustle." But he continued writing and producing songs for others as well. Unfortunately, his career was cut short, because he died of a heart attack on June 29, 1979, at the age of 39.

 

Here's his Wikipedia entry if you want to know more. It's surprisingly detailed compared to other similar entries:

 

Van McCoy - Wikipedia 

This album is an hour and nine minutes long. 

01 Stop the Music (Shirelles)
02 Getting Mighty Crowded (Betty Everett)
03 Giving Up (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
04 Baby, I'm Yours (Barbara Lewis)
05 It’s Starting to Get to Me Now (Irma Thomas)
06 Where Does That Leave Me Now (Nancy Wilson)
07 Before and After (Chad & Jeremy)
08 Let It All Out (O'Jays)
09 Stop and Get a Hold on Myself (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
10 When You're Young and in Love (Marvelettes)
11 You're Gonna Make Me Love You (Sandi Sheldon)
12 The Way to a Woman’s Heart (Billy T. Soul)
13 I Get the Sweetest Feeling (Jackie Wilson)
14 So Soon (Aretha Franklin)
15 Lost and Found (Kenny Carlton)
16 Nothing Worse than Being Alone (Ad Libs)
17 Right on the Tip of My Tongue (Brenda & the Tabulations)
18 Let Me Down Easy (Derrick Harriott)
19 The Hustle (Van McCoy)
20 This Is It (Melba Moore)
21 Heavy Love (David Ruffin)
22 Baby Don't Change Your Mind (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
23 Sweet Bitter Love (Aretha Franklin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/pgC1na27

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/6J8Pg2jDSyrxSmE/file

The cover photo dates to 1975. I assume it's from an awards ceremony, but I don't know the details. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.

Smokey Robinson - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: Live in Hyde Park Festival, Hyde Park, London, Britain, 9-8-2013

Here's the second BBC concert Smokey Robinson did for the BBC. If there are others, I'm not aware of them.

The first one I posted was from a few years earlier, 2009. This one is somewhat shorter. It seems he jettisoned the relatively recent songs from the set list, and focused more on classic hits. (Either that, or the BBC edited the concert down that way.) Virtually all the songs are big hits he had in the 1960s as part of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. The exceptions are two big hits he had as a solo artist: "Just to See Her" and "Cruisin'." 

There's a lot of overlap in the set lists between these two concerts, but there are differences too. For instance, "Volume 1" contains "Being with You" but not "Cruisin'," and this one contains "Cruisin'" but not "Being with You." Those are his two biggest solo hits.

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 58 minutes long. 

01 Going to a Go-Go (Smokey Robinson)
02 I Second That Emotion (Smokey Robinson)
03 talk (Smokey Robinson)
04 You've Really Got a Hold on Me (Smokey Robinson)
05 Ooh Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson)
06 talk (Smokey Robinson)
07 The Tears of a Clown (Smokey Robinson)
08 talk (Smokey Robinson)
09 Motown Boogie - The Way You Do the Things You Do (Smokey Robinson)
10 Get Ready (Smokey Robinson)
11 My Girl (Smokey Robinson)
12 talk (Smokey Robinson)
13 Just to See Her (Smokey Robinson)
14 The Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson)
15 Cruisin' (Smokey Robinson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/deF5o7GQ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xWNsyFcPOtqnbE1/file

The cover image is from this exact concert.

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: 1971-1972

I recently discovered a big amount of Lulu performances for the BBC, so much so that I'm expanding the four albums I'd previously posted into nine albums. This is almost entirely due to finding many more performances from the BBC TV shows she hosted. So here's a fifth volume.

Previously, I'd had one volume stretching from 1971 to 1975 (the old "Volume 4," now deleted). Nearly all of what had been on that volume is on this volume: tracks 1 through 8, and 10 through 14. So the only new tracks are 9 and 15. That means that virtually all the songs on the volumes after this will be new.

Although Lulu had a BBC TV show of her own during this time period, called "It's Lulu," I could find very few songs from this time period from that show. Actually, I only found two: "The More I See You," and the bonus track, "Scarborough Fair." (That's a bonus track due to poor sound quality.) So there's a possibility that many more songs from these years will eventually emerge, if some more recordings of those TV shows were saved somewhere. 

Instead, most of the songs on this album come from performances for the "Top of the Pops" BBC radio show (not to be confused with the BBC TV show of the same name). That makes up tracks 1 through 7 and 12 through 14. Note that you'll see "[Edit]" in the titles of a lot of those songs. That's due to the usual problem of BBC radio recordings from this era of DJs talking over the music. I did my usual editing, using the UVR5 program to remove the talking while keeping the music.

That leaves just tracks 8 through 11, and 15. All of those come from other BBC TV shows that had Lulu on as a guest. If you want specific details, please check the mp3 tags, as usual. These songs generally had audience applause. But I got rid of most of that using the UVR5 program. 

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is generally excellent, though it varies some. 

This album is 46 minutes long, not including the bonus track.

01 Bridge Over Troubled Water [Edit] (Lulu)
02 You've Gotta Believe in Love [Edit] (Lulu)
03 Save the Country (Lulu)
04 Get Ready [Edit] (Lulu)
05 I Got Love [Edit] (Lulu)
06 Resurrection Shuffle [Edit] (Lulu)
07 Everybody's Got to Clap (Lulu)
08 It Don't Come Easy (Lulu)
09 The More I See You (Lulu with Dudley Moore)
10 Just a Little Lovin' (Lulu)
11 Nights in White Satin (Lulu)
12 Amazing Grace (Lulu)
13 It Takes a Real Man [To Bring Out the Woman in Me] (Lulu)
14 Even If I Could Change [Edit] (Lulu)
15 My Father's House (Lulu with the Young Generation)

Scarborough Fair (Dusty Springfield & Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/SFJw5zRP

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/chnsyalqmBk42N6/file

I don't know anything about the cover photo except it's "circa 1972."

Elvis Presley - International Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, 8-24-1969, Late Show

Once upon a time, Elvis Presley was arguably the biggest music star in the world. But I've noticed his fame is fading faster than that of others from his era, as people who grew up with him keep dying. His peak was before my time too, and I surmise it helped a lot to have lived through those years to fully understand what a groundbreaking musical act he was at the time. While I'm not a huge Presley fan, I do want to post some things that can help people appreciate why he was so famous in the first place. I previously posted highlights from his 1968 comeback TV special, which was one of the pinnacles of his musical career. This concert represents another musical peak for him.

Presley had a great music career in the 1950s, but squandered most of the 1960s starring in a bunch of bad B-movies. However, the 1968 comeback TV special I mentioned above showed that he was musically revitalized and ready for something new. He followed that with the studio album "From Elvis in Memphis" in June 1969, which was a big critical and commercial success. Rolling Stone Magazine has rated this as one of the top 500 albums of all time.

After that, he wanted to try performing concerts again. Aside from the brief concerts he did in front a small studio audience for his 1968 comeback special, he hadn't performed a concert since 1961. But demand was very high now that he was suddenly hot again, with a new hit album and hit singles. In May 1969, the brand-new International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, booked Presley for fifty-seven shows over four weeks (usually twice a night), beginning July 31 and running until early September. His previous backing musicians declined to participate, afraid of losing the lucrative session work they had in Nashville. Instead, Presley found new, high quality accompaniment, led by lead guitarist James Burton.

These new concerts were a huge success. The hotel soon gave him a five-year contract in which he would play there each February and August, at an annual salary of $1 million. That was a remarkable sum for that era. He would go on to perform concerts frequently in the 1970s, instead of making more movies (until his death in 1977). 

His first run of concerts in Las Vegas in August 1969 was his best. He was very excited to be performing again, and to be received so well, so he was at the top of his game. Also, his music still leaned on rock and soul. Just one year later, his music would shift to more middle-of-the-road pop. Many of the concerts from this month have been officially released, including some box sets. But after some digging, I found this one which remains unreleased, yet has ideal soundboard sound quality. (All the shows were professionally recorded for a live album.) 

Most of the songs were hits from the 1950s and early 1960s, or covers of classics (including a version of "Words" by the Bee Gees, released the year before). However, he included two new hit songs. "In the Ghetto" was released in April 1969, and went all the way to Number Three in the U.S. singles chart, his first Top Ten hit since 1963. But "Suspicious Minds," released as a single just two days after this concert, did even better. It would go all the way to Number One, becoming his 14th and last Number One hit in the U.S. Rolling Stone Magazine would later rank it as one of the top 100 songs of all time.

If you want just one live album by Presley, I would suggest this one.

Here's an interesting quote from a "Newsweek" review from his first month of concerts in 1969:

"Dressed in a chic black tunic and bell bottoms that matched his long but neatly combed black-tinted hair. Elvis Presley stepped onstage last week at the International Hotel in Las Vegas and launched into the driving beat of 'Blue Suede Shoes'. The audience of 2,000, most of them over 30, roared and squealed in nostalgic appreciation. In spite of his updated look, Elvis hadn't changed at all in the nearly nine years since his last personal appearance. Shaking, gyrating and quivering, he again proved himself worthy of his nickname, 'The Pelvis.' Through nervousness caused him to sing 'Love my, me tender' for 'Love Me Tender', the pasty-faced enchanter quickly settled down to work his oleaginous charms, backed by a 30-piece orchestra, a five-man combo and a chorus of seven. Oozing the sullen sexuality that threw the America into a state of shock in the 50's, he groaned and swiveled through a medley of 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Don't Be Cruel', 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'All Shook Up' and 'Hound Dog'. It was hard to believe he was 34 and no longer 19 years old."

(By the way, I had to look up the word "oleaginous." Can you imagine a news magazine using a word like that in today's dumbed-down media environment? Anyway, it basically means "oily.") 

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

01 Blue Suede Shoes (Elvis Presley)
02 talk (Elvis Presley)
03 I Got a Woman (Elvis Presley)
04 talk (Elvis Presley)
05 All Shook Up (Elvis Presley)
06 talk (Elvis Presley)
07 Love Me Tender (Elvis Presley)
08 talk (Elvis Presley)
09 Jailhouse Rock - Don't Be Cruel (Elvis Presley)
10 Heartbreak Hotel (Elvis Presley)
11 talk (Elvis Presley)
12 Hound Dog (Elvis Presley)
13 I Can't Stop Loving You (Elvis Presley)
14 Johnny B. Goode (Elvis Presley)
15 talk (Elvis Presley)
16 Baby, What You Want Me to Do (Elvis Presley)
17 Runaway (Elvis Presley)
18 Are You Lonesome Tonight (Elvis Presley)
19 Words (Elvis Presley)
20 Yesterday - Hey Jude (Elvis Presley)
21 talk (Elvis Presley)
22 In the Ghetto (Elvis Presley)
23 talk (Elvis Presley)
24 Suspicious Minds (Elvis Presley)
25 talk (Elvis Presley)
26 Can't Help Falling in Love (Elvis Presley)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zLt7DwcT

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/cXKfFw3k2drNVGR/file

I found two good photos I wanted to use for the cover. I couldn't decide which one I liked more, so I decided to use both. Both of them are from a 

Smokey Robinson - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: Electric Proms, The Roundhouse, London, Britain, 10-24-2009

Smokey Robinson is a true soul music legend. He was the leader of the Motown band Smokey Robinson and the Miracles in the 1960s, and had a successful solo career after that. I found two concerts he did for the BBC. Both of them are well past his commercial prime, but he could still his songs very well. Here's the first of the two, from 2009.

In 2009, Robinson put out a new studio album, "Time Flies When You're Having Fun." In this concert, he performed three songs from the album: "Don't Know Why," "Girlfriend," and "Time Flies." The first one is a cover, and was a major hit for Norah Jones in 2002. The other two were written by Robinson. Other than that, the concert mostly leans on hits he did with the Miracles in the 1960s, with a couple of solo hits near the end, plus another cover, "Fly Me to the Moon."

A couple of songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. I fixed this album a while back, so I don't remember the problem with those. But given they are the first and last songs, I'll bet there were BBC DJs talking over the music. 

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Going to a Go-Go [Edit] (Smokey Robinson)
02 I Second that Emotion (Smokey Robinson)
03 talk (Smokey Robinson)
04 You've Really Got a Hold on Me (Smokey Robinson)
05 Ooh Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson)
06 talk (Smokey Robinson)
07 The Way You Do the Things You Do (Smokey Robinson)
08 Get Ready (Smokey Robinson)
09 My Girl (Smokey Robinson)
10 talk (Smokey Robinson)
11 My Girl [Reprise] (Smokey Robinson)
12 talk (Smokey Robinson)
13 Don't Know Why (Smokey Robinson)
14 talk (Smokey Robinson)
15 Fly Me to the Moon (Smokey Robinson)
16 talk (Smokey Robinson)
17 The Tears of a Clown (Smokey Robinson)
18 Girlfriend (Smokey Robinson)
19 Being with You (Smokey Robinson)
20 Time Flies (Smokey Robinson)
21 Just to See Her (Smokey Robinson)
22 The Tracks of My Tears [Edit] (Smokey Robinson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CZnhNBsp

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/e5oitpiTHD5Y4rK/file

The cover image is from this exact concert.

Elton John - Cover Versions, Volume 6: 2008-2017

Here's the sixth and last album in a series of albums of cover versions by Elton John. I had started posted this series back in 2023, but I stopped for a couple of years due to problems with the copyright police. But they seem to be going easy on me lately, so I'm finally finishing off the series.

Only four of the songs here are unreleased. "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Birthday" are from a bootleg of a joint concert John did with Billy Joel in 2009. (He's done a lot of those over the years.) Unfortunately, the sound quality of those two songs are lower than the rest, despite my best efforts to make some audio editing improvements. "Streets of Philadelphia" is from a 2013 MusiCares tribute concert to Bruce Springsteen that I've posted in full on this blog. "Gravity," a duet with Sara Bareilles, is from a 2014 concert.

Pretty much all the other songs are from John's appearances on albums by other musical acts. Check the mp3 tags for more details. The one exception is "I Love You All the Time," which was released as an A-side in 2016.

This is probably going to be the last album in this series because, rather surprisingly, I can't find any good cover versions he did after 2017. Mind you, he's done lots of songs on his studio albums, but these albums only collect covers that aren't the versions from his studio albums. If anyone knows of covers I've missed from this time period, or after, let me know and I'll probably add them in to this album. 

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 Joseph, Better You than Me (Killers, Elton John & Neil Tennant)
02 Back in the U.S.S.R (Elton John & Billy Joel)
03 Birthday (Elton John & Billy Joel)
04 Snowed In at Wheeler Street (Kate Bush & Elton John)
05 Oh Well, Part 1 (2Cellos & Elton John)
06 Streets of Philadelphia (Elton John with Raphael Saadiq)
07 The Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson & Elton John)
08 Gravity (Sara Bareilles & Elton John)
09 I Love You All the Time (Elton John)
10 Where Do the Guilty Go (Elton John & Frankie Miller)
11 Alone Again, Naturally (Pet Shop Boys & Elton John)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/5co2GBbS

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MyoGx6JEfwTVUTa/file

The cover image is from a concert at the Manchester Evening News Arena, in Manchester, Britain, on December 20, 2008.

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: 1969-1971

If you think I've posted a "BBC Sessions, Volume 4" for Lulu, you're not wrong. I recently discovered a ton of Lulu's BBC material that I'd missed before. In fact, I found so much that previously I'd posted four volumes, but now I'll be posting a total of nine! The vast majority of the new stuff is from the 1970s, especially 1975, but there is some music from the late 1960s. There are so many changes that I got rid of the old "Volume 4" and I'm replacing it with this one. I'd guess about half of the songs on this revamped volume are new.

Note also that I radically overhauled "Volume 3." I added a bunch of songs to that, and moved some other songs from that one to this one. So if you're interested in this at all, I strongly suggest you download the revised version of that album. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/10/lulu-bbc-sessions-volume-3-1968-1972.html

The first song is the only one not actually from the BBC. It's a duet with Johnny Cash, from Cash's own TV show. Most of the next bunch of songs are from the BBC radio show "Top of the Pops." Specifically, tracks 2 through 11 (with the exception of "Boom Bang a Bang," which was from a BBC TV special), plus track 19. These come from a musical associate named Marley, who sent me a bunch of performances from the BBC radio show "Top of the Pops." So a big thanks to him.

I mentioned in the previous volume that Lulu had her own BBC TV show from 1968 to 1975. I haven't been able to find many songs from her TV show from this time period, but I did find a handful from 1970. Those make up tracks 12 through 17. Track 18 ("Saved") is from another BBC TV show.

All of the performances here are officially unreleased. One snag with the new "Top of the Pops" tracks is that most of them had BBC DJs talking over the music. But I was able to remove the talking and keep the underlying music thanks to the X-Minus audio editing program. Those are the ones with " [Edit]" in their titles. I also got rid of the crowd noise as best I could for the songs that had that, mostly the TV show-sourced ones.

This album is 48 minutes long. 

01 Games People Play (Lulu & Johnny Cash)
02 Oh Me, Oh My [I'm a Fool for You Baby] [Edit] (Lulu)
03 Sweep Around Your Own Back Door [Edit] (Lulu)
04 The Letter [Edit] (Lulu)
05 Boom Bang a Bang (Lulu)
06 Feelin' Alright [Edit] (Lulu)
07 Marley Purt Drive [Edit] (Lulu)
08 Mr. Bojangles [Edit] (Lulu)
09 Dirty Old Man [Edit] (Lulu)
10 Hum a Song [From Your Heart] [Edit] (Lulu)
11 Show Me [Edit] (Lulu)
12 Girl Talk (Lulu & Cass Elliot)
13 Sugar, Sugar (Lulu, Dudley Moore & Cass Elliot)
14 Keep the Customer Satisfied (Lulu)
15 Sweet Little Sixteen - Long Tall Sally - Blue Suede Shoes (Lulu)
16 Free the People (Dusty Springfield & Lulu)
17 Joy to the World (Dusty Springfield & Lulu)
18 Saved (Lulu)
19 Help [Edit] (Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iCGFCJJK 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/uYCahxSGauK9xJd/file

The cover art photo comes from a BBC TV show in 1971, but I don't know the details.

Elliott Smith - The Steamboat, Austin, TX, 5-3-2003

I was listening to some Elliott Smith music yesterday, and I noticed that I'd never posted this concert from him. So I want to fix that ASAP, since it's an excellent concert. It's the best concert I've heard from 2003, the last year of his life. (He died on October 21, 2003, at the age of 34.) This is a solo acoustic concert.

What makes this concert recording stand out is the sound quality. It's an excellent soundboard bootleg. He was in good form, which wasn't always the case in 2003. He hadn't toured much since 2000, and he was playing a lot of new songs, some of which would end up on his 2004 album, "From a Basement on the Hill." It also ends with a nice cover of "Blackbird" by the Beatles. 

By the way, I've noticed there's a video of this entire concert on YouTube. This isn't sourced from that, though. The video quality isn't that good, but I thought I'd mention it for people who might want to watch it. 

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 Happiness (Elliott Smith)
02 Memory Lane (Elliott Smith)
03 Rose Parade (Elliott Smith)
04 Strung Out Again (Elliott Smith)
05 talk (Elliott Smith)
06 Plainclothes Man (Elliott Smith)
07 I Figured You Out (Elliott Smith)
08 St. Ides Heaven (Elliott Smith)
09 A Passing Feeling (Elliott Smith)
10 Division Day (Elliott Smith)
11 talk (Elliott Smith)
12 Between the Bars (Elliott Smith)
13 Twilight (Elliott Smith)
14 I Better Be Quiet Now (Elliott Smith)
15 talk (Elliott Smith)
16 Pretty [Ugly Before] (Elliott Smith)
17 Waltz No. 2 [XO] (Elliott Smith)
18 Satellite (Elliott Smith)
19 talk (Elliott Smith)
20 Coast to Coast (Elliott Smith)
21 Say Yes (Elliott Smith)
22 talk (Elliott Smith)
23 Blackbird (Elliott Smith)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/H56xYJ42

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/hRfx7N2IVC2fHqT/file

The cover image is from a concert at the University of London Union, in London, Britain, on March 30, 2003.

The Gregg Allman Band - BBC Rock Hour, Uncle Sam's, Hull, MA, 11-12-1982

Here's an interesting BBC concert starring Gregg Allman, one of the main singer-songwriters for the Allman Brothers Band. I just stumbled upon this the other day, and I'm posting it straight away because it's very hard to find.

This concert came at a difficult time in Allman's musical career. The Allman Brothers Band reunited in the late 1970s after a couple of years apart, and put out three studio albums. But their music was out of sync with the musical trends of the time, and they broke up again in early 1982. This break up would last until 1988. Allman was forced to focus on his solo career. But he was even less of a draw as a solo act than as part of his old band. For several years, he was reduced to mostly performing in small clubs, if he could get paid to perform at all.

Given that context, it's rather surprising that 1982 seems to be the one and only time the BBC recorded and broadcast a Gregg Allman concert. Kudos to them. Also, kudos to Allman to sticking to his musical style instead of trying to chase the latest musical trends, a strategy that rarely works. This was his first tour after the Allman Brothers Band broke up for the second time earlier in 1982. He would keep touring through the 1980s. He finally would get a break when his next album, "I'm No Angel," was a surprise hit in 1987. It helped that, by that time, the mass public was getting around to appreciating his style of music again.

Already, Allman's band largely consisted of the same people he'd find success with in 1987. Most importantly, he stuck with two brothers, Dan Toler on lead guitar and David Toler on drums. Both of them were members of the Allman Brothers Band from 1979 to 1982.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. Most of the songs were originally done by the Allman Brothers Band, or were on 1970s Gregg Allman solo albums.

This album is 51 minutes long. 

01 talk (Gregg Allman)
02 Dreams (Gregg Allman)
03 talk (Gregg Allman)
04 Sweet Feelin' (Gregg Allman)
05 talk (Gregg Allman)
06 Matthew's Arrival [Instrumental] (Gregg Allman)
07 talk (Gregg Allman)
08 Trouble No More (Gregg Allman)
09 Queen of Hearts (Gregg Allman)
10 talk (Gregg Allman)
11 Midnight Rider (Gregg Allman)
12 talk (Gregg Allman)
13 Stand Back (Gregg Allman)
14 One Way Out (Gregg Allman)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/LaoQUfXc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/hcLgiq4ky6Yxcsu/file

The cover photo was taken at the Keystone Palo Alto, in Palo Alto, California, on September 26, 1985.

The Pretty Things - Copenhagen Beat Festival, K.B. Hallen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 8-22-1970

I'm pretty psyched to present this album. One thing I like doing with this blog is trying to fill in musical gaps. For instance, the Pretty Things were a great band in the 1960s especially, and great live performers, but there are very few surviving live recordings worth listening to. So here's something to help fill in that gap.

I believe this recording comes from a European TV station that broadcast the entire Pretty Things set from the Copenhagen Beat Festival in 1970. You can find the entire video on YouTube in black and white. That makes this one of the earliest surviving musical recordings from the band. 

However, there were some sound quality issues, even though it was recorded by a professional film crew. One problem was that the lead vocals were low in the mix. I fixed that using the MVSEP program. For many of the songs, I went through line by line to bring up particularly quiet bits. I did the same with the banter between songs. But I took extra steps there. For instance, I ran all of those bits through Adobe's vocal enhancer program, and I got rid of extra reverb. Before, it was virtually impossible to understand most of the banter. Now, I can make out most of it.

Note that I've posted a BBC concert by this band from just a couple of months earlier that has a similar set list. But "similar" isn't the same. For instance, one nice surprise here is a cover of "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (although it's drastically different, and mostly instrumental, with only one verse the same as the original). This concert and the BBC one I just mentioned are the best two early concerts by this band that I've come across so far.

This album is 46 minutes long. 

01 Blue Serge Blues (Pretty Things)
02 talk (Pretty Things)
03 She's a Lover (Pretty Things)
04 talk (Pretty Things)
05 In the Square - The Letter - Rain (Pretty Things)
06 talk (Pretty Things)
07 Sickle Clowns (Pretty Things)
08 talk (Pretty Things)
09 Old Man Going (Pretty Things)
10 Mona - Drum Solo (Pretty Things)
11 Ohio (Pretty Things)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/EMB7dab3

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/9v4eaYVJNUA4XTC/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. I took it from a YouTube video of the concert. That was in black and white. But I used the Kolorize program to colorize it. That's lead singer Phil May in the black leather jacket, and Pete Tolson behind him.