Various Artists - Playboy After Dark (CBS Television City, Los Angeles, CA), Volume 2: September 1968

Here is the second volume out of eleven, in which I collected songs from episodes of the "Playboy After Dark" T.V. show.

In the write-up to the first volume, I explained a lot about the music on this unusual show. Here, I want to discuss some more about the show in general, to give some context and understanding about the music that was performed on it.

First off, the show has not aged well. AT ALL! In the 1960s and 70s, "Playboy Magazine" was seen as cool by many. The owner, Hugh Hefner, promoted an entire hedonistic lifestyle, and made himself the central character, turning himself into a household name. He died in 2017 at the age of 91. He was lucky he died when he did, because he missed the cultural reckoning of the "Me Too" movement that began after he died, starting with the public exposure of Harvey Weinstein only about a month later. It turns out that Hefner was a pretty horrible person. He had sex with countless thousands of women. In most cases, it was a blatantly transactional thing: women slept with him hoping that would give them a leg up to fame and fortune. Many hundreds of women in his media empire have signed onto letters defending him. But it has gradually emerged that in some cases, at least, things got ugly. He used grooming techniques to manipulate women in all kinds of awful ways. If you want to know more, check out a documentary series called "The Secrets of Playboy," released in 2020.

The reason I mention all that is because knowing what we know now sheds new light on how the "Playboy After Dark" T.V. show is perceived. I tried to skip past all the non-musical parts. Even so, I couldn't help but catch many cringey moments as I went looking for the songs. Although there was no nudity on the show, since it was on a major T.V. channel, there were scantily-clad beautiful women as scenery almost non-stop in every episode. Luckily, if you just listen to the music, you can avoid nearly all of the cringe. I made sure to only include the songs, even though there often were brief interviews with the musical stars, because the talking was usually, well, cringey too.

The T.V. show had a concept, which was that it tried to present the show as a party held in Hefner's Playboy mansion. You, the viewer, were supposedly an invited guest who got to have a fly on the wall perspective of the good times. The very start of each episode showed a limousine pulling up to a building, the door opening for you, and you got taken to the party where Hefner personally greeted you, and so on, all through each episode. The show wasn't actually filmed at the Playboy mansion, which was located in Chicago at the time. (In the early 1970s, shortly after this show finished, a new mansion was bought in Los Angeles and the Chicago one was slowly phased out.) Instead, to make this believable, exact duplicates of many rooms of the mansion were recreated in a Los Angeles recording studio. Every episode stuck to the party format, with dozens of people mingling about. (I noticed that most of them were the same people from episode to episode.) 

A lot of this obviously was contrived, especially many corny lines scripted in advance spoken for the T.V. cameras. But it seems that, to some extent, there was a real party going on. If you're going to have dozens of people lingering around together for the hours and hours it takes to film each episode, it's only natural that they would socialize. Normally, for shows like this, each star would appear when it's time for their performance, do their performance, and immediately leave. But interestingly, as I watched, I noticed that the various musical guests that appeared for each episode, and other performing guests, like comedians or famous actors, were in background scenes of the crowd too, just hanging out and talking to other people all throughout the episode. So you can see strange situations like Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead watching comedian Sid Ceasar make jokes, or actress Patty Duke dancing to the music of Ike and Tina Turner. The number of famous people from different entertainment fields crossing paths on this show is truly strange to see.

As part of this party conceit, supposedly, every now and then, some famous musical act would break into song to entertain those other party-goers. Often, Hefner would have a brief conversation with the lead singer and then ask them to play a song. Then the audience would be the fifty or so party-goers, usually completely surrounding wherever the musicians were playing. So you get bizarre situations like soul singer James Brown singing in the middle of a living room, with people (mostly beautiful women) sitting all around him, so much so that he could hardly move around like he normally did on stage.

The reason I mention all this is because it is relevant to how these songs were performed and recorded. At first glance, it seems like everything must have been lip-synced, given chaotic conditions like that. But on closer inspection, I believe the vast majority of it was live. Perhaps there were hidden microphones when there were no obvious ones in sight, and the crowd members were told to stay totally quiet. I say that because time and time again, I watched the lips of singers and I was convinced the performances had to be live. I've seen tons of lip-synced performances putting albums together for this musical blog, and I believe I can notice the slight timing discrepancies of lip-syncing. Furthermore, I double checked with the album versions of songs whenever I could find them. Also, even for the talking scenes between the songs, one can hear discussions taking place quite clearly, despite there often being no microphones in sight. Maybe some of that was rerecorded for clarity later, but if so, the way the lips matched the mouth movements is very impressive.

As I mentioned in my write-up to Volume 1, sometimes there were live vocals sung to partial or compete instrumental backing tracks. But I've included those, since I consider the different vocal performances worthy enough. Often though, there were backing musicians, but they would be hidden elsewhere in the room, with only brief glimpses of them. Other times, perhaps the entire thing WAS lip-synced, but it was done for a song that was completely unreleased. That happened a surprising amount, especially for the lesser known musical acts. 

One example of that last case on this album is Marvin Gaye. He sang two songs for the show, "Chained" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." "Chained" was a recent hit for him. I double checked with the album version, and that one was lip-synced. But there is no released version of him ever doing "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." So even if it was lip-synced (which it probably was), I still included that. That actually is a major find, in my opinion, given how rarely any "new" songs are discovered to have been sung by him this many years after he passed away in 1984. 

One great thing about this T.V. series, in my opinion, is that it often had live performances by musical acts with virtually no live performances available anywhere else. For instance, consider some of the performers on this album. O. C. Smith was a soul music star who had a couple of big hits in the late 1960s. But the only live album he ever released occurred early in his career, his 1966 debut album, before he had those hits. And I haven't found any bootlegs of him either. It's exactly the same with Checkmates, Ltd. Their 1967 debut album was live, before they had any hits. There are no other live albums or bootlegs from them. Rod Piazza and Gloria Loring would both go on to have long music careers, with most of their success coming much later. There's no other live performances from them that I could find until many years after this one. As for Angeline Butler, she only ever released one album, in 1970, which is an obscurity. This probably was her one time in a nationwide spotlight. 

And so it goes for many other musical acts all through this series. Time and time again, their appearances on this T.V. show was the only time they have a live performance recorded well, or at all, at least this early in their career. (Keep in mind that the number of bootlegs, truly live recorded TV shows, and official live albums skyrocketed in the 1970s and beyond, but were very rare in the 1960s.)

I want to add one detail about the Byrds, for serious Byrds fans. Founding member Chris Hillman left the band only two weeks prior to the taping of their appearance on this show, leaving Roger McGuinn as the only remaining founding member. The others in the band at this time were Clarence White, John York, and Gene Parsons.

This album is an hour and one minute long.

01 She's the One (Rod Piazza)
02 My Babe (Rod Piazza)
03 Little Green Apples (O. C. Smith)
04 The Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp (O. C. Smith)
05 It's Too Late [To Say You're Sorry] (Gloria Loring)
06 Did I Ever Really Live (Gloria Loring)
07 One of the Nicer Things (Jimmy Webb)
08 She's Lookin' Good (Checkmates, Ltd.)
09 Sunny (Checkmates, Ltd.)
10 Baby I Need Your Loving (Checkmates, Ltd.)
11 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Byrds)
12 This Wheel's on Fire (Byrds)
13 By the Time I Get to Phoenix (Marvin Gaye)
14 Turn Around Look at Me (Angeline Butler)
15 Goodbye Charlie (Angeline Butler)
16 Train (Buddy Miles)
17 Wrap It Up (Buddy Miles)
18 Lincoln's Train (John Stewart & Buffy Ford)
19 Signals to Ludi (John Stewart & Buffy Ford)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/jB4N5tsJ

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/8t3ffK26e3CTlxL/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from one of the episodes featured here. It shows Roger McGuinn, the lead singer of the Byrds. For some strange reason, he was wearing a military jacket. 

Various Artists - Playboy After Dark (CBS Television City, Los Angeles, CA), Volume 1: July to August 1968

Here's the start of a weird series of albums. In the 1950s, Hugh Hefner became famous due to his magazine "Playboy," featuring lots of pictures of naked women. He tried to make the magazine respectable by including a lot more than just the nude pictures, such as stories written by famous authors and interviews of prominent people. In 1968, he was able to launch a TV show, "Playboy After Dark," to help promote "Playboy," and it ended up running for two years. Since it was broadcast on a major TV network (CBS) across the U.S., any sort of nudity was out of the question. Instead, the show focused on music, comedy, and serious discussions with prominent people, as part of Hefner's effort to make his magazine more respectable. What interests me about the show is the music. So I've compiled no less than eleven albums with the best music from all the episodes of this show.

I love Western popular music from at least the 1950s until today, but in my opinion, the creative peak was in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This show happened to coincide with some of the very best years, and there was an attempt to include music of many different genres. So there was a lot of great music on this show. 

A big problem with most music on TV shows of this era is that the performances were usually lip-synced. That happened occasionally on this show, but I checked pretty carefully, and I believe the vast majority was performed live. (Admittedly, sometimes just the vocals were live, but that's still worth hearing, in my book.) In these albums I'm posting I believe I've weeded out all the lip-syncing, although it's possible I made the occasional mistake. 

As just one example, the rather obscure rock band the Collectors performed two songs on one of the episodes that makes up this first volume. I checked with the recorded versions of those songs, and one was lip-synced but the other one was performed live, so I only included the live one. (In that case, I surmise the harmony vocals and instrumentation were more complicated on one song, so that's why that one was lip-synced.) Or, in another example, Steppenwolf performed two songs live that are included on this album. But they later returned to the show and the songs they did then were all lip-synced. (In that case, those later songs were more musically complicated, with a group of female backing vocalists and other elements that would have been harder to reproduce live.) I was careful about detecting the lip-syncing like that all the way through this series.

Another big problem with most music on TV shows of this era is that most of it wasn't saved for posterity, since it was before the era of widespread ownership of video recording equipment. And when it was recorded, usually on those very first video recording machines, the quality often was low, and tended to degrade as copies were made of copies over the decades. 

But, luckily for us, this T.V. show is different. The people behind "Playboy" kept pristine copies of all the episodes. Then, in the 1990s, they started a Playboy cable channel, and broadcast all the episodes in full. I was able to find them via SoulseekQT. So for all the songs in all the albums in this series, the sound quality is truly excellent.

Despite that quality, the music from this show has generally been little known by music lovers. There are a few exceptions. The main one is that the appearance of the Grateful Dead for two songs on one episode has gotten around, because it's a very rare chance to see great video footage of that band from way back in 1969. Some of the other performances by famous rock bands have also been shared a bit, like performances by Fleetwood Mac, Canned Heat, the Byrds, and Steppenwolf. But that's well less than five percent of it. The vast majority hasn't been seen or heard, unless you've been one of the few people to watch the full episodes. The problem with that is that nearly all of the non-musical parts of those episodes are pretty dreadful. So I've taken it upon myself to "liberate" the music from these episodes so they can be properly appreciated by many more people. I went through all the episodes (quickly skipping over the non-musical parts), converted the video to audio, and saved the songs as mp3s.

I'll write more about the T.V. show, and especially about how very weird it was, in a later write-up in this series, because I don't want this write-up to get too long. But I do feel it's important to mention here with this first album that the music in this series is a very mixed bag. It seems Hugh Hefner had a lot of say about which musical acts would appear on his show - maybe even it was entirely up to him. But clearly, he had two competing desires. On one hand, it's obvious that he personally liked middle-of-the-road music, such as mood-setting cocktail jazz. He was in his forties when this show was on air, and he naturally preferred music in the style of what was popular when he was a teenager, which would have been the late 1940s. Thus one gets many acts like Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Johnny Mathis. But on the other hand, in this late 1960s era, rock and soul music were all the rage. If Hefner wanted the T.V. show to be successful and stay on air, he needed to cater to that audience as well. If you watch the episodes, over and over again, when he introduced rock and soul acts, he would say that that's "for the kids." Happily, he included a lot of music "for the kids," even though it's pretty obvious that he wasn't personally keen on it.

I could have just collected all the rock and soul acts, and this album series would be considerably shorter. But I figured that I'm probably the only person who ever is going to take the time to "rescue" the music from this T.V. show. After all, it's been decades, and only a small percentage has been rescued up until now. So I tried to include all the musical performances I considered at least decent. There were some musical acts that I simply couldn't stand hearing, so they got the axe. Nearly all of that was the show-biz stuff based on pre-rock and roll music. Just guessing, maybe I cut out about 20 percent of all the music.

That said, the odds are strong that you'll like some parts of this, and dislike other parts. If that's the case, just delete the songs you don't like. That's another reason I tried to be more inclusive, because it's easy for people to delete songs, but I doubt anyone would bother to find and add any of the songs I left out.

I believe that everything on all the albums in this series is unreleased in any musical format. Back in 2006, a three DVD collection was officially released of highlights from the show. But that's just a small portion out of the 49 episodes. One can also find all the episodes on DVD, but I believe those are bootlegged copies recorded from the T.V. broadcasts in the 1990s. I highly doubt there ever will be any official releases of the music here, due to the difficulty of getting the legal rights to so many different musical acts.

The songs here are in the order they appeared, first by episode, and then within each episode. If you want to know the details of which songs are from which episodes, consult the mp3 tag info for each song. We're lucky that we know the recording dates for all the episodes, not the broadcast dates, as is usually the case for most shows. So I used the recording dates. 

The only comment I'll make about the performers here is that there are two famous singers with the name Joe Williams. One, Big Joe Williams, was a blues singer. The other, just Joe Williams, was a jazz singer. The one here is the jazz singer. 

This album is an hour and four minutes long. 

01 I Wish It Would Rain (Chambers Brothers)
02 Love Is All I Have [Edit] (Chambers Brothers)
03 One Act Play (Collectors)
04 The Unicorn (Shel Silverstein)
05 I Know How It Feels to Be Lonely (Morgana King)
06 Sookie, Sookie (Steppenwolf)
07 Born to Be Wild (Steppenwolf)
08 Hallelujah, I Love Him So (Morgana King)
09 Yesterday I Heard the Rain (Tony Bennett)
10 There Will Never Be Another You (Tony Bennett)
11 Looking for a Boy (Sue Raney)
12 No One Will Ever Know (Sue Raney)
13 Worried Life Blues (James Cotton Blues Band)
14 Mercy, Mercy, Mercy [Instrumental] (Buddy Rich)
15 She's Murder [Murder in the First Degree] (James Cotton Blues Band)
16 Did I Ever Really Live (Joe Williams)
17 Young Man on the Way Up (Joe Williams)
18 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay (Pair Extraordinaire)
19 The Bright Lights and You Girl (Pair Extraordinaire)
20 Good Old Desk (Harry Nilsson)
21 Together (Harry Nilsson)
22 Cast and Crew (Harry Nilsson with Otto Preminger)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZGisK78T 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/3Uh7LuCrYuBJ1qc/file

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from one of the episodes of this show. It shows John Kay, the lead singer of Steppenwolf. 

Steve Wynn, R.E.M. & Natalie Merchant - McCabe's Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, CA, 5-24-1987

Here's a very an interesting bootleg concert recording, all of it acoustic. It was billed as a "Texas Records Lawsuit Benefit." I don't know what that was about. If anyone does, I'll put in the explanation here. 

Probably the biggest name at the time was R.E.M. But also, Natalie Merchant, then still with 10,000 Maniacs, had a prominent role. Another key figure was Steven Wynn. Some others were involved. I will get to them a minute.

Perhaps it's a bit of a stretch to call it "R.E.M.," since most of the time it was just lead singer Michael Stipe and lead guitarist Peter Buck. But they were joined for the last three songs by bassist Mike Mills. So the only one missing was drummer Bill Berry. But that makes sense, since this was a drum-free acoustic performance (for the most part). Note that, at the time, it was pretty much unheard of for any members of R.E.M. to perform in acoustic mode. Later, R.E.M. did do some acoustic sessions, but they were rarely as stripped down as this.

If you haven't heard of Steve Wynn, he lead the band the Dream Syndicate from 1981 to 1989, then had a long solo career (and band reunions) after that. Here's his Wikipedia page:

Steve Wynn (musician) - Wikipedia 

Also, this was a concert where everyone involved was clearly having fun and letting it all hang out, performing songs they otherwise would never or rarely have performed in concert. The venue, McCabe's Guitar Shop, has a lot to do with that. I've come across other concerts here that had various guest stars drop in and play some pretty random things, even decades after this. (Robyn Hitchcock, for instance, has played many interesting concerts here, with lots of guests.) It seems the people at the venue must have encouraged this format. The fact that the place is in Los Angeles, where many other musical people live or pass through, and the fact that it's so small, with room for only a hundred or two people, also must factor in. Many concerts here are less like normal concerts and more like a bunch of friends hanging out and playing music.

One downside to us listeners is that because the venue is so small, it's very rare to get bootleg recordings. After all, what are the odds of there being a bootlegger in a concert of two hundred people compared to one in a concert of 20,000 people? And when there are bootlegs, they typically are audience boots, that sometimes don't sound that good. That's why I haven't posted many concerts from this venue, even though they often are really special musically. But this one is a lucky exception, because it generally sounds very good as well. I say "generally" because I took this from three different sources, and some sources sound better than others. But a lot of it is at a soundboard level.

Getting back to who took part, as you can see in the artist name for this album, most of the songs involved Steve Wynn, R.E.M., and Natalie Merchant, solo and in various combinations. But there were others too. For instance, Peter Case played a few songs with Peter Buck of R.E.M. Case had been the main singer songwriter for the Plimsouls for much of the 1980s, but that band had broken up by the time of this concert. He soon settled into a long career in more of a folkie mode instead. 

Jenny Homer is not well known, but she was a member of the band Downy Mildew. In 1987, the year of this concert, they put out their debut album. Here's the Wikipedia entry for that band:

Downy Mildew (band) - Wikipedia

Kendra Smith was a founding member of the Dream Syndicate, the band I mentioned above that was led by Steve Wynn. But she left after just a couple of years to join a new band, Opal. She must have stayed on good terms with Wynn though, considering they sang a duet here. She later became a solo artist. Here's here Wikipedia page:

Kendra Smith - Wikipedia

This is not all of the concert. I've included a text file that lists all the songs known to have been performed. I included most of what I was able to find. If anyone has more, please let me know. But there also was some that I didn't include because the sound quality wasn't as good as the rest. Plus, there actually was an early show and a late show, with similar set lists. I combined them into one show, since I only had pieces here and there. The band Downy Mildew and Opal performed short sets in both shows, but none of that is here.

I can't emphasize how unique and interesting this is, especially if you're an R.E.M. fan or Natalie Merchant fan. Just getting to hear their songs in acoustic mode is special. But also both of those acts did a lot of strange cover songs. Take track 39, prominently featuring Stipe and Merchant. It's a cover of "Leaving on a Jet Plane" while "Sunday Morning" by Margo Guryan was sung at the same time!

Nearly all of this is unreleased. However, "Maps and Legends" and "The One I Love" were released by R.E.M. on the B-side to their single of "It's the End of the World as I Know It (And I Feel Fine)." 

This album is an hour and 52 minutes long.

01 talk (emcee)
02 talk (Steve Wynn)
03 Merritville (Steve Wynn)
04 talk (Steve Wynn)
05 Drinking Problem (Steve Wynn)
06 One More Cup of Coffee [Valley Below] (Steve Wynn with Bob Forres)
07 talk (Steve Wynn)
08 Days of Wine and Roses (Steve Wynn)
09 talk (Steve Wynn)
10 Solitary Man (Steve Wynn & Russ Tolman)
11 Walk, Don't Run - Baby, Please Don't Go (Peter Case & Peter Buck)
12 A Million Miles Away (Peter Case & Peter Buck)
13 talk (Peter Case & Peter Buck)
14 Sad Eyes (Peter Case & Peter Buck)
15 talk (emcee)
16 talk (Natalie Merchant)
17 The Fat Lady of Limbourg (Natalie Merchant)
18 talk (Natalie Merchant)
19 Don't Talk (Natalie Merchant)
20 talk (Natalie Merchant)
21 Hello Stranger (Natalie Merchant, Jenny Homer & Michael Stipe)
22 The Wind, the Wind (Natalie Merchant)
23 talk (Natalie Merchant)
24 Verdi Cries (Natalie Merchant)
25 talk (emcee)
26 The One I Love (Michael Stipe & Peter Buck)
27 talk (Michael Stipe)
28 Welcome to the Occupation (Michael Stipe & Peter Buck)
29 talk (Michael Stipe)
30 Disturbance at the Heron House (Michael Stipe & Peter Buck)
31 talk (Michael Stipe)
32 Finest Worksong (Michael Stipe & Peter Buck)
33 talk (Michael Stipe)
34 Maps and Legends (Michael Stipe & Peter Buck)
35 talk (Michael Stipe)
36 Harpers (Michael Stipe)
37 talk (Michael Stipe)
38 Damaged Goods (Michael Stipe, Peter Buck & Natalie Merchant)
39 Leaving on a Jet Plane - Sunday Morning (Everyone)
40 talk (Steve Wynn)
41 50 in a 25 Zone (Steve Wynn)
42 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart - Killing Time (Steve Wynn)
43 talk (Steve Wynn)
44 See that My Grave Is Kept Clean (Steve Wynn & Peter Buck)
45 Stagefright (Steve Wynn)
46 talk (Steve Wynn)
47 Too Little, Too Late (Steve Wynn & Kendra Smith)
48 More than a Pay Cheque (Natalie Merchant, Jenny Homer & Kendra Smith)
49 Hear the Wind Blow (Kendra Smith & Natalie Merchant)
50 A Campfire Song (Natalie Merchant)
51 The Counting Song [Wheel of Fortune] (Michael Stipe & Natalie Merchant)
52 Stretch My Hand (Michael Stipe & Peter Buck)
53 Spooky (Michael Stipe, Peter Buck & Mike Mills)
54 Fever (Michael Stipe, Peter Buck & Mike Mills)
55 So. Central Rain (Michael Stipe, Peter Buck & Mike Mills)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oK2JXY1J

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/l9qtjCKS16se9Ft/file

The cover photo appears to be promotional material for this exact concert. I changed the white text at the bottom.

Maria Muldaur - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 1-30-1974

Here's another concert from the Ebbets Field radio broadcasts. This one stars Maria Muldaur.

Muldaur is best known for the song "Midnight at the Oasis," which was written by David Nichtern, a member of her band. It reached Number Six on the U.S. singles chart in 1974. But actually, in terms of sales it should have been a Number One, because it was the 13th biggest single of the year. It was a slow grower, and stayed on the chart a long time. It was released as a single in November 1973, but didn't reach its peak chart position until June 1974. The reason I mention all that is because this concert took place right when that song was starting to climb the charts. So, while it was performed in this concert, probably neither she nor anyone in the audience realized yet what a massive hit it would be.

This concert came a few months after the release of her debut solo album, the cleverly titled "Maria Muldaur." But she'd had two albums prior to that as a duet with her husband at the title Geoff Muldaur.

 

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

This album is an hour long.

01 talk (Maria Muldaur)
02 Chauffeur Blues (Maria Muldaur)
03 talk (Maria Muldaur)
04 Any Old Time (Maria Muldaur)
05 talk (Maria Muldaur)
06 Midnight at the Oasis (Maria Muldaur)
07 talk (Maria Muldaur)
08 In My Tennessee Mountain Home (Maria Muldaur)
09 talk (Maria Muldaur)
10 Sweet Potato (Maria Muldaur)
11 talk (Maria Muldaur)
12 Three Dollar Bill (Maria Muldaur)
13 talk (Maria Muldaur)
14 I Never Did Sing You a Love Song (Maria Muldaur)
15 talk (Maria Muldaur)
16 Walkin' One and Only (Maria Muldaur)
17 talk (Maria Muldaur)
18 The Work Song (Maria Muldaur)
19 talk (Maria Muldaur)
20 Earl's Crab Shack (Maria Muldaur)
21 talk (Maria Muldaur)
22 Georgia on My Mind (Maria Muldaur)
23 talk (Maria Muldaur)
24 I'm a Woman (Maria Muldaur)
25 talk by emcee (Maria Muldaur) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Yt4QwXuG

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/KGJjNvv5Rt9fZ0r/file

The cover photo is from a 1974 concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

Tom Rush and Orphan - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 10-22-1974

Here's a 1974 concert by singer-songwriter Tom Rush. For the first fifteen minutes the band Orphan played some of their own songs without him. Then for the remainder of the show, he performed with Orphan backing him up.

In recent days, I've been really getting into the recordings of concerts from the Ebbets Field venue in Denver, Colorado. One reason I like it is because it was a small venue, holding only about 250 people, so they got some lesser known musical acts there. Yet they had excellent taste, and lots of their concerts were professionally recorded and broadcast on a local radio station. Thus, we get recordings from the likes of Tom Rush, when there are very, very few concert recordings of him from this era, due to him not being a big name. So expect a lot more along these lines with future Ebbets Field posts.

Tom Rush was one of the first of the singer-songwriters that came out of the 1960s folk movement. His first album was released in 1962. In addition to writing many of his own songs, he was one of the first to record versions of songs by other emerging singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, and James Taylor, helping them establish their careers. His most famous original song is "No Regrets," which he wrote in 1968. The Walker Brothers had a big hit with it in 1975.

Here's his Wikipedia entry. He's 85 years old as I write this in 2026.

Tom Rush - Wikipedia 

Rush's music career proceeded in the normal way until 1974, with him releasing a new album every year or two. But his 1974 album "Ladies Love Outlaws," which he was touring to promote when this concert happened, would be his last album for a while. He got burned out on his music career, especially touring, and retired to a farm in New Hampshire. He didn't resume his music career until 1981. So this concert is a good time for a concert, marking the end of the first phase of his career.

I don't know much about the band Orphan. They're so little known that they don't even have a Wikipedia page, which is pretty unusual. However, I was able to learn from elsewhere that they released studio albums in 1972, 1973, and 1974. They seem to have broken up or faded away after that. But this concert isn't the only time they appear in my music collection. I also have a 1972 bootleg concert of singer-songwriter Jonathan Edwards where they backed him, just like they backed Rush here. Perhaps I'll post that one sometime soon, because it's a good one. They mentioned their previous connection Edwards in some of their banter between songs, and played one of his songs, "Train of Glory."

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

This album is an hour and 15 minutes long. Just the Tom Rush set is exactly an hour long.

01 talk by Larry Bruce (Orphan)
02 It's a Good Day (Orphan)
03 talk (Orphan)
04 Everyone Lives to Sing (Orphan)
05 It's So Hard (Orphan)
06 Be My Woman Tonight (Orphan)
07 talk (Orphan)
08 Train of Glory (Orphan)
09 talk by Larry Bruce (Tom Rush with Orphan)
10 Jenny Lynn (Tom Rush with Orphan)
11 talk (Tom Rush with Orphan)
12 Desperados Waiting for a Train (Tom Rush with Orphan)
13 talk (Tom Rush with Orphan)
14 Mother Earth (Tom Rush with Orphan)
15 talk (Tom Rush with Orphan)
16 Hobo's Mandolin (Tom Rush with Orphan)
17 talk (Tom Rush with Orphan)
18 The Panama Limited (Tom Rush with Orphan)
19 talk (Tom Rush with Orphan)
20 Child's Song (Tom Rush with Orphan)
21 Who Do You Love (Tom Rush with Orphan)
22 talk (Tom Rush with Orphan)
23 No Regrets (Tom Rush with Orphan)
24 talk (Tom Rush with Orphan)
25 Ladies Love Outlaws (Tom Rush with Orphan)
26 talk (Tom Rush with Orphan)
27 Glory Road (Tom Rush with Orphan)
28 talk by Larry Bruce (Tom Rush with Orphan)
29 Lost My Driving Wheel (Tom Rush with Orphan)
30 Rotunda (Tom Rush with Orphan)
31 talk by Larry Bruce (Tom Rush with Orphan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/iASCHZt6

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/2N85SGayuGPjGJ2/file

The cover image is from a concert at the Great Southeast Music Hall in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 7, 1974. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Kolorize program.

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 9: 1975-1976

Here is the ninth, and last, volume of Lulu performing for the BBC. 

All but the last four songs are from her 1975 BBC TV show, "Lulu." As I mentioned in previous volumes, I found all the episodes of that TV show for the 1975 season. I converted the episodes to audio and then chopped out the songs and turned them into mp3s. That was enough for all of the two previous episodes, plus most of this one and another previous one. 

Lulu had BBC TV shows under different names from 1968 to 1975. So one reason this series is coming to an end with this volume is there is a sudden drop in the amount of material I could find. Also though, music was changing. Disco, punk, new wave, and such came along and swept away a lot of earlier musical trends. Lulu was tied to those earlier trends, so it makes sense that her show came to an end right about this time.

With the end of the show, that just leaves the last four songs. The last episode of her show aired in April 1975. I found a few strays from the latter half of 1975, and well as 1976. Tracks 16 and 17 come from a BBC TV special called "Seaside Special." You might want to give it a look on YouTube, especially because it has ABBA performing two songs actually live on stage instead of lip syncing like they usually did on TV shows. Track 18 is from the BBC TV show "Top of the Pops." I included it here because Lulu actually performed that song live, when most performed on that show did lip syncing. The final song is from another BBC TV special, called a "Jubilee of Music." It's the only song here from 1976 instead of 1975. It's fitting that the song Lulu sang was "Shout," because that's the song that made her into a star back in 1964.

Everything here is unreleased. The sound quality varies some, but is generally excellent. Note that pretty much all the songs were performed in front of a cheering audience, but I used the UVR5 audio editing program to remove as much of the cheering as I could.

This album is 45 minutes long. 

01 Son of a Preacher Man (Lulu)
02 Your Kiss Is Sweet (Lulu)
03 Song Sung Blue (Lulu)
04 Wouldn't It Be Luverly (Lulu)
05 Snowbird (Lulu)
06 Flash Bang Wallop (Lulu)
07 It May Be Winter Outside (Lulu)
08 A New Fangled Tango (Lulu)
09 You've Made Me So Very Happy (Lulu & David Clayton-Thomas)
10 I Just Don't Want to Be Lonely (Lulu)
11 Listen to a Country Song (Lulu)
12 Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie (Lulu)
13 Take Your Mama for a Ride (Lulu)
14 New York, New York (Lulu & Dickie Henderson)
15 When Will I See You Again (Lulu)
16 Raised on Rock (Lulu)
17 A Boy like You (Lulu)
18 Heaven and Earth and the Stars [Edit] (Lulu)
19 Shout (Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/NFM1F2MZ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/R0fWFGTY9gzqnFU/file

The cover image is from an unknown concert in November 1976. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. 

Larkin Poe - Baloise Session, Event Halle, Basel, Switzerland, 11-6-2025

Here's a fairly recent concert by Larkin Poe. Well, a few months back as I write this in April 2026, at any rate. They're one of my favorite "newer" acts (by my "kids, get off my lawn" standards, hehehe), and I like to promote them by posting unreleased things from them. It's been a while since the last album I posted though. One reason is their "Tip O' the Hat" acoustic covers have slowed down to nearly nothing. Also, I haven't come across recent material with worthy sound quality. But then I came across this.

For this concert, the two Larkin Poe sisters (Rebecca Lovell and Megan Lovell) rocked out with a full band. I have to admit I prefer their acoustic style, since I like acoustic music in general. But this is a lot of fun. They certainly can do both styles very well.

This comes from the "Baloise Session" TV show. So far, I haven't really posted anything from this show. But it's been going since the 1980s, and broadcasts full concerts on various European TV stations. (As far as I can tell, it only gets to the U.S. via the Internet.) So even though this is unreleased, it's very well produced, and the sound quality is excellent. I found a video of this concert, converted it to audio, and broke it into mp3s.

I believe all the songs here are originals. In early 2025, Larkin Poe released their studio album "Bloom." A lot of the songs come from that. 

And by the way, congrats to them for winning a "Best Contemporary Blues Album" Grammy Award in 2024 for their album "Blood Harmony." They've never had a hit, and they don't fit the modern pop scene so they don't get much radio play, but they've been steadily growing in popularity by being really good and constantly promoting and performing. 

This album is an hour and ten minutes long. 

01 Nowhere Fast (Larkin Poe)
02 Mockingbird (Larkin Poe)
03 Easy Love, Part 1 (Larkin Poe)
04 Band Intros (Larkin Poe)
05 Bluephoria (Larkin Poe)
06 If God Is a Woman (Larkin Poe)
07 talk (Larkin Poe)
08 Southern Comfort (Larkin Poe)
09 talk (Larkin Poe)
10 Little Bit (Larkin Poe)
11 talk (Larkin Poe)
12 Devil Music (Larkin Poe)
13 AC-DC (Larkin Poe)
14 Bad Spell (Larkin Poe)
15 Pearls (Larkin Poe)
16 Wanted Woman (Larkin Poe)
17 Bolt Cutters and the Family Name (Larkin Poe) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/c4Zws1Xj 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/pGG1GQvZEhyCBan/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. It's a screenshot I took from the video.

J. J. Cale - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 2-13-1975

Here's a concert by the king of the mellow Tulsa groove, J. J. Cale. It's rather short, but the sound quality is excellent, since it comes from an FM radio broadcast.

I've been trying to resist, because I have too much good music to post already. But yesterday I finally gave in and collected all the concerts from this venue, Ebbets Field, in Denver, Colorado, that I could find. It's a remarkable treasure trove of music because from 1973 to 1977, dozens of concerts from this venue were broadcast on a local radio station, and the professional recording of them was better than usual for that era. I kept finding more and more. I've already posted six, but I found about another 50! So you can look forward to seeing a lot more of those here in the near future.

There are a few I can't find that I'm pretty sure exist, because excerpts from their recordings have been posted here:

https://colomusic.org/music/ebbets-field-rarities-1973-1977/

If anyone has the Ebbets Field concerts from the following, please let me know:

Joan Armatrading
Jesse Colin Young
John Fahey
Loudon Wainwright III
Eric Andersen
Wet Willie
Minnie Riperton
Beau Brummels
Dr. Hook 

I'm happy to say I've found the vast majority of the other concerts mentioned on that webpage. Those should all get posted here eventually, knock on wood.

Anyway, back to Cale. One nice thing about this concert is that it's one of the earliest live recordings of him available. I've only come across one that's from earlier, and that's a strange one from 1971 that is almost entirely instrumental. So this could be the first "normal" concert recording that's publicly available. Another nice thing, at least for me, is that his music sounds more lively than usual. 

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

This album is 38 minutes long.

01 talk (J. J. Cale)
02 Louisiana Women (J. J. Cale)
03 talk (J. J. Cale)
04 Lies (J. J. Cale)
05 Nowhere to Run (J. J. Cale)
06 Mo Jo (J. J. Cale)
07 Call Me the Breeze (J. J. Cale)
08 Woman I Love (J. J. Cale)
09 Bringing It Back [From Mexico] (J. J. Cale)
10 talk (J. J. Cale)
11 Magnolia (J. J. Cale)
12 After Midnight (J. J. Cale)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QgzXyRZT

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ETN67pX9otBhEwR/file

The cover image is from a concert in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1986.

Peter Frampton - Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 3-6-1974

Here's a concert by Peter Frampton. This took place about two years before he briefly became a rock superstar with the 1976 live album "Frampton Comes Alive!"

Frampton became a rock star even before he turned 18 as the lead singer and lead guitarist of the band the Herd. Then, from 1969 to 1971, he was one of the co-leaders of the popular band Humble Pie. He quit to start a solo career. For much of the 1970s, he struggled to gain fame. For instance, this concert took place the same month he released "Somethin's Happening," his third solo album. It would only reach Number 125 on the U.S. album chart. 

But his lack of popularity would later lead to the massive success of "Frampton Comes Alive!" because he was gradually putting out lots of quality songs that not many people knew about. So when that live album came out, it was like a "greatest hits"-level collection of songs that most people had never heard before. For instance, consider, "Do You Feel like We Do," performed in this concert. It came out on a 1973 album, but wasn't released as a single, so few people knew about it. But it was released as a single off "Frampton Comes Alive!" in 1976, and would hit the Top Ten in the U.S. singles chart and become one of his most famous songs.

So, for this album, one gets to hear Frampton was he was still playing small clubs. In fact, we know this venue, Ebbets Field, only held about 250 at the most. But for a few years in the mid-1970s, many shows from this location were broadcast on a local radio station. That's why we have recordings like this that sound as good as official live albums.

Actually, this is the fifth album I'm posting that was recorded at Ebbets Field. More will be coming soon. So I just started a new "Ebbets Field Concerts" label to help you find the other ones.

Normally, these Ebbets Field broadcasts sound unusually good for their era. However, there were some problems with this one. I used a version where someone else already made some fixes. I left in a note file about that. I made some more fixes. Namely, the volume sometimes surged loud or quiet on the first couple of songs. But I was able to adjust that using the Audacity program. If you listen now, I don't think you'll hear any remaining problems. 

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 53 minutes long.

01 It's a Plain Shame (Peter Frampton)
02 Doobie Wah (Peter Frampton)
03 talk (Peter Frampton)
04 Lines on My Face (Peter Frampton)
05 I Wanna to Go to the Sun (Peter Frampton)
06 talk (Peter Frampton)
07 Do You Feel like We Do (Peter Frampton)
08 talk (Peter Frampton)
09 Jumpin' Jack Flash (Peter Frampton)
10 talk (Peter Frampton)
11 White Sugar (Peter Frampton)
12 talk by emcee (Peter Frampton)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/P9cVKFGS

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/LZSqdUmKOQ6qASV/file

The cover photo was taken in London in 1974. I don't know any more details. I used the AI features inside Photoshop to add most of his left arm (the one on the opposite side of the microphone) because that was missing in the original.

Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd - In Session (CHCH-TV Studios, Hamilton, Canada, 1987)

From about 1983 to 1988, there was a very unusual and interesting program on a Canadian TV station, called "In Session." It specialized in putting two or more musicians together in a recording studio and then filming their collaboration. Here's an episode that united three soul musicians: Steve Cropper, William Bell, and Eddie Floyd.

First off, a bit more about this TV show. I've previously posted two other episodes. One paired Glen Campbell with Jimmy Webb, and the other paired Campbell with Leon Russell. I have since found out that a 1983 episode paired Stevie Ray Vaughan with Albert King. I won't be posting that one, because it has been officially released, and that album is well known and easily available:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Session_(Albert_King_and_Stevie_Ray_Vaughan_album)

But I recently dug deeper, and found some other interesting episodes. I plan on posting at least two more after this one. If anyone knows more about this show, or has more episodes, please let me know, because I haven't been able to find out much. (For instance, I couldn't find the exact date of this episode, and I've even seen conflicting information on the year. So if anyone has more accurate info about that, please let me know.)

Anyway, back to this episode. Cropper, Bell, and Floyd were far from strangers, because they collaborated with each other quite a lot back in the 1960s. All of them were part of the Stax Records hit-making machine. Cropper is best known as a session musician lead guitarist as well as a songwriter (I've posted two Covered albums for him), though he also was a key member of the Stax house band, Booker T. and the MG's. Bell and Floyd were both famous for their singing careers. However, both of them were also very capable songwriters. For instance, Bell wrote his hits "You Don't Miss Your Water" and "Private Number," and well as songs for others, such as "Born Under a Bad Sign" for Albert King. Floyd generally wrote all of his hits, including the classic "Knock on Wood." Many of them, including that one, were written with Cropper. But Floyd also wrote songs for others. For instance, he and Cropper wrote a couple of hits for Wilson Pickett, such as "634-5789 (Soulsville U.S.A.)" and "Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)."

Cropper and Bell also wrote songs together. For instance, they wrote "Share What You Got (But Keep What You Need)," a minor hit for Bell in 1966. Furthermore, Bell and Floyd wrote songs together. For instance, they co-wrote the 1971 song "'Till My Back Ain't Got No Bone," which was recorded by Bell and later covered by Albert King. Additionally, Cropper often played lead guitar on the songs recorded by Bell and Floyd. So there was a lot of collaboration going on between these three, plus others at Stax like Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and David Porter. 

For this episode, the three of them performed one classic soul hit after another. For most of the songs, at least one of them sang, wrote, or played on the original. They also shared some interesting stories between the songs. If you're a fan of the great Stax records of the 1960s and early 1970s, you really should listen to this.

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is very good. 

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 I Can't Turn You Loose [Instrumental] (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
02 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
03 These Arms of Mine (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
04 I've Been Loving You Too Long (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
05 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
06 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay - Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa [Sad Song] (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
07 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
08 A Tribute to a King (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
09 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
10 Knock on Wood (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
11 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
12 Hip Hug-Her [Instrumental] (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
13 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
14 You Don't Miss Your Water (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
15 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
16 634-5789 [Soulsville U.S.A.] (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/MSBFW64m

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/gulpelJL5thPLnR/file

The cover image is from this exact TV show episode. From left to right: Steve Cropper, William Bell, and Eddie Floyd. The image is rather low res because it's a screenshot I took from pretty rough video footage. 

Lulu - BBC Sessions, Volume 8: 1975

Here's the eighth album of Lulu performing for the BBC. Like the previous volume, everything here is from 1975.

All the songs from the previous volume, and a good chunk from the volume before that one, come from the 1975 season of Lulu's BBC TV show. For most years, it was called "It's Lulu," but for its final season in 1975, it was just called "Lulu." This volume also contains nothing but songs from that show. As I mentioned previously, I found videos of all the episodes from that season on SoulseekQT, converted them to audio, and chopped out mp3s of the songs I wanted to post.

In the 1970s, Lulu became an all-around entertainer for her show, doing lots of comedy parts and singing music in many different pop styles. We see that again here. She sang just about any song that was popular, including "Rainy Days and Mondays" by the Carpenters, "Waterloo" by ABBA, and "If" by Bread. She also occasionally sang songs from decades earlier. 

 

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

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 I Can See Clearly Now - Montego Bay (Lulu)
02 Laughter in the Rain (Neil Sedaka & Lulu)
03 Rainy Days and Mondays (Lulu)
04 I've Never Seen Anything like It - Talk to the Animals (Lulu)
05 The Rhythm of Life (Lulu)
06 Sugar Candy Kisses (Lulu)
07 Sand and Sea (Lulu & Gilbert Becaud)
08 Waterloo (Lulu)
09 I'm a Brass Band (Lulu)
10 Please Mr. Postman (Lulu)
11 Just an Old Fashioned Girl (Lulu)
12 Getting to Know You (Lulu & Johnny Mathis)
13 Trouble - Blue Suede Shoes (Lulu)
14 Cabaret - An Englishman Needs Time - The White Rose of Athens - Big Spender [Edit] (Lulu)
15 And I Love Her So (Lulu)
16 If (Lulu)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/c2drG2Ns

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/yR9mrZgc9pp0Iys/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from one of her 1975 TV show episodes. 

Mar Y Sol Pop Festival, Manati, Puerto Rico, 4-3-1972, Part 2: Jonathan Edwards, Long John Baldry & More

Here is the second part of the third (and last) day of the 1972 Mar Y Sol Pop Festival. This is the last album from this festival. Like the other album I put together from this third day, this is a grab-bag, consisting of relatively short sets of four music acts: Jonathan Edwards, Long John Baldry, Fran Ferrer & Puerto Rico 2010, and Osibisa.

Jonathan Edwards is a singer-songwriter who had a hit with the song "Sunshine." It went all the way to Number Four in the U.S. singles chart in 1971. That makes him a one-hit wonder. But he was (and still is) a lot more than that. I especially like his first few albums, and I've posted a concert from him. We have six songs from him here, but they only make up about 18 minutes of this album. "Sometimes in the Morning" and "Train of Glory" are from the official live album from the festival. His other songs are from the same audience bootleg as most of the other songs I've posted from this festival.

The next three songs are from British blues singer Long John Baldry. I've posted a BBC sessions album from him, as well as music from a band he was in, Steampacket. He had his biggest success in 1967, when he put out a single, "Let the Heartaches Begin," that went all the way to Number One in Britain (though it barely made the U.S. singles chart). His career was still going fairly well at the time of this concert. He had a minor hit in 1971 with the song "Don't Try to Lay No Boogie Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll." Interesting fact: half of his 1971 album "It Ain't Easy" was produced by Elton John, and the other half was produced by Rod Stewart. "Bring My Baby Back" made it to the official live album from this festival, while the other song here is from the same audience boot mentioned elsewhere.

Fran Ferrer & Puerto Rico 2010 was a salsa band from Puerto Rico. Apparently, some of their lyrics were political, but the meaning was generally missed by the mostly English speaking audience. There were other lesser known bands like this one that performed at the festival, such as Banda del K-rajo, Bang, Elephant's Memory, Michael Overly, Rubber Band, Stonehenge, and Malo. But we don't happen to have any recordings from them, and we happen to have two songs from this band. Both are from the same audience boot mentioned above.

The last song was by the band Osibisa, who were the last musical act to perform at the festival. This song made it to the official live album. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about them: Osibisa is a Ghanaian-Caribbean Afro rock band founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate West African and three London-based Caribbean musicians. Osibisa was the most successful and longest lived of the African-heritage bands in London... and was largely responsible for the establishment of world music and Afro-rock as a marketable genre." They would have a couple of hits in Britain later in the 1970s.

Here's their Wikipedia entry:

Osibisa - Wikipedia 

So that's the last of the music I have from this festival. But before I finish my write-up of this last album, I want to explain a bit about some interesting events that happened as the festival finished. As I mentioned in a previous write-up, the main promoter of the festival was Alex Cooley, who had promoted some other major rock festivals. But he ran into a lot of trouble with this one, including the fact that he failed to get the proper permits. The festival only happened because it would have caused more trouble for the government to have tens of thousands of angry fans who had paid to fly to Puerto Rico just to attend the festival.

Cooley later explained how the festival ended for him: "[A] guy who was working in the festival, came over to me, the last night of the festival, and said [the government] issued a warrant in San Juan and they were coming to arrest me. So they smuggled me out of there with a Volkswagen bus. I got in the bus and they put things on top of me and they took me to the airport and there were people at the airport that were very sympathetic towards this and they let them.... Of course, you'd never be able to do this now - they let them drive the Volkswagen out on to the runway. So I got out of the Volkswagen and got directly on the plane. So that's how I got out of San Juan, out of Puerto Rico."

He left in all sorts of trouble, including owing at least $40,000 in taxes that apparently never got paid.

Cooley wasn't the only one who had trouble leaving the festival. Creem Magazine reported, "People had begun making the long trek back to San Juan and points beyond after the first day of the festival, but even this steady exodus didn't avert the Tuesday tie-up at the airport. Many of the people who had purchased the $149 festival package found that their return plane tickets were good only for stand-by, thus effectively leaving the stranded until auxiliary flights could be arranged."

Luckily, the government helped take care of the people stranded at the airport. Tents were set up near the main terminal. The Red Cross, the government, and even some airline companies provided food, water and medical attention. Some bands performed for the stranded passengers. Pan American Airlines provided the flights for about 3,000 people who attended the festival from outside Puerto Rico who otherwise couldn't leave. It took several days before everyone was able to leave the country. 

No wonder the government was mad at Cooley and the other festival organizers. It's also no wonder why Puerto Rico didn't have another rock festival like this until decades later.

This album is 55 minutes long. 

01 talk (Jonathan Edwards)
02 Athens County (Jonathan Edwards)
03 Dues Day Bar (Jonathan Edwards)
04 talk (Jonathan Edwards)
05 Give Us a Song (Jonathan Edwards)
06 Shanty (Jonathan Edwards)
07 talk (Jonathan Edwards)
08 Sometimes in the Morning (Jonathan Edwards)
09 Train of Glory (Jonathan Edwards)
10 It Ain't Easy (Long John Baldry)
11 talk (Long John Baldry)
12 Bring My Baby Back (Long John Baldry)
13 Hemos Dicho Basta [Incomplete] (Fran Ferrer & Puerto Rico 2010)
14 Ya Se Van (Fran Ferrer & Puerto Rico 2010)
15 Y Sharp [Instrumental] (Osibisa)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZSLiFptp

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/iaLTJsYB36ObzqH/file

The cover image of Jonathan Edwards is from this exact concert. 

Mar Y Sol Pop Festival, Manati, Puerto Rico, 4-3-1972, Part 1: Cactus, Faces & More

Here is the first part of the third, and last, day of the 1972 Mar Y Sol Pop Festival. Unfortunately, for this last day of the festival, I wasn't able to find as much music as I found for the first two days. So I just have portions of sets. This has music from Cactus, the Faces, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Potliquor.

The four Cactus songs all come from official sources. The first three are from a live album called "'Ot 'n' Sweaty," released in 1972. The fourth song, "Bedroom Marurka," is from the official live album of the festival, "Mar y Sol: The First International Puerto Rico Pop Festival."

Cactus broke up a couple of months after this festival. Two band members, bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, joined with Jeff Beck to form the band Beck, Bogert and Appice, releasing an album later in 1972. Here's the Wikipedia entry about Cactus:

Cactus (American band) - Wikipedia 

The Faces, starring Rod Stewart, were one of the main headliners of the festival. However, they didn't perform last on the last day, as one might expect of a headliner. Apparently, the organizers realized that the audience size steadily declined towards the ends of festivals like this, so it was better to have the headliners on earlier. (Interesting fact: when Jimi Hendrix performed at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, most of the audience had left already. Only about 30,000 to 100,000 of the peak 600,000 people remained.) Unfortunately, we only have three songs from the Faces. All three of those are unreleased.

There's just one song here from the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the jazz fusion band led by guitarist John McLaughlin, "Noonward Race." But it's an impressive 13-minute-long instrumental. It comes from the official live album of the festival. Here the Wikipedia entry about this band:

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Wikipedia

Finally, that leaves the final song, from a band called Potliquor. This band played Southern rock with a Louisiana influence, since they were from Louisiana. They were together from 1969 to 1973 (plus a reunion in the late 1970s), and put out three albums in those years. Unfortunately, they were signed to a small record label and didn't get much promotion or distribution help. They were building some momentum, but that ended when the band broke up after only a few years. Their one song here is unreleased.

Here's their Wikipedia entry:

Potliquor - Wikipedia

This album is 59 minutes long. 

01 Swim (Cactus)
02 Bad Mother Boogie (Cactus)
03 Our Lil Rock 'n' Roll Thing (Cactus)
04 talk (Cactus)
05 Bedroom Mazurka (Cactus)
06 It's All Over Now (Faces)
07 Maggie May (Faces)
08 Miss Judy's Farm (Faces)
09 Noonward Race [Instrumental] (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
10 The Train (Potliquor)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/DHMVDrgp

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/izVfQzS9XcCFAi3/file

The cover image of Rod Stewart is from this exact concert. The original picture was in black and white, but I converted it to color with the Kolorize program.

Mar Y Sol Pop Festival, Manati, Puerto Rico, 4-2-1972, Part 4: Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Here is the fourth and last part of the second day of the 1972 Mar Y Sol Pop Festival. There is still one more day of the festival to go after this. This set features the prog rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

At this point in the band's career, they had only released two albums: "Emerson, Lake and Palmer" in 1970, and "Tarkus" in 1971. They had a new album coming ("Trilogy"), but it wouldn't be released until June 1972, and they didn't perform any songs from it. 

The band's bassist and lead vocalist Greg Lake later shared some memories about the band's experience at the festival: 

"The first thing I remember about the Mar Y Sol festival was stepping down onto the runway to discover the sun was so intense it had begun to melt the tarmac. After quite a long drive, we arrived at a luxury tropical hotel. At first, it all felt like a holiday atmosphere until we began to learn there were serious problems at the site and the government was trying to get the festival stopped. I remember jumping down out of a helicopter and being greeted by the backstage manager, who told me that they had just killed a rattlesnake under the stage. The whole thing did not feel good. It was not until later that we discovered a body being ferried out on the helicopter we had just arrived in was, in fact, the dead body of someone who’d been murdered, apparently over some drug deal that went wrong."

Lake also recalls having problems during the band's set. "I remember performing and feeling my left arm becoming unbearably hot. I quickly snatched a look between playing and singing and could see that my left arm was actually beginning to give off smoke. Apparently they had set up a huge and powerful search light on the side of the stage and were planning to use it during the filming. After a few desperate and agonizing screams from me, they finally switched it off."

This album is an hour and 17 minutes long.

01 talk (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
02 Hoedown [Instrumental] (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
03 Tarkus (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
04 Take a Pebble (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
05 Lucky Man (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
06 Piano Improvisation [Instrumental] (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
07 Pictures at an Exhibition (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
08 Rondo [Instrumental] (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uC48SVJP 

alternate: 

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

I couldn't find many photos from this festival. For this album, I was only able to find one decent one. It only shows keyboardist Keith Emerson. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.

Richard Thompson - Boxed Set, Cowcaddens, Glasgow, Britain, 8-16-1999

Here's a very nice Richard Thompson concert. It's from 1999, just after he released what I consider one of his best solo albums, "Mock Tudor," earlier that year.

I have to admit, I had planned to post this as the next album in my long series of Thompson's BBC albums. Most versions of this label it as a BBC concert. But right before posting, I did a little more digging and discovered this concert was done for a British TV show, but not a BBC one. "Boxed Set" was a short-lived music show around 1999 and 2000, done for Scottish Television (STV) in association with ITV. But, BBC or not, it's a worthy concert and one of his most high-profile TV appearances, so I'm posting it here.

I didn't have to do much audio editing. There was a short interview section with Thompson in the middle of the show that I got rid of, since it wasn't actually from the concert. Also, some of the cheering at the ends of songs got cut off as the TV show quickly went to commercial breaks and things like that. So, in those cases, I copied and pasted in some cheering from the ends of other songs. But that was about it.

Note that he was joined by his son Teddy Thompson to help sing the song "Persuasion." Teddy has had a successful music career of his own. 

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

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 talk (Richard Thompson)
02 Cooksferry Queen (Richard Thompson)
03 Bathsheba Smiles (Richard Thompson)
04 talk (Richard Thompson)
05 Uninhabited Man (Richard Thompson)
06 Persuasion (Richard Thompson with Teddy Thompson)
07 Two Faced Love (Richard Thompson)
08 Al Bowlly's in Heaven (Richard Thompson)
09 I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (Richard Thompson)
10 The Sights and Sounds of London Town (Richard Thompson)
11 Tear-Stained Letter (Richard Thompson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZeNZzz2P

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/Fd36kzW1Ex2q6fk/file

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

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.