Showing posts with label Chip Taylor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chip Taylor. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Various Artists - The Best of the Rest, Volume 1, Ebbets Field, Denver, CO, 1973-1974

I previously said I was almost done with posting music from Ebbets Field radio broadcasts, but I'm not quite done. I've made two compilations of all the songs that are available with excellent sound quality, from a variety of musical acts. Here's the first of those compilations.

The reason we have these songs is because in the 2000s, KCUV-FM, a Colorado radio station, released four albums containing songs from Ebbets Field concerts. The first one was called "Live From Ebbets Field Vol. 2: 1973-1976," and the others just changed volume numbers. These were obscure, local releases to begin with, and then soon went out of print, so now they're almost impossible to find as albums. But luckily, someone put all the songs on the Internet, so I was able to get them. I went through all the albums, and removed the songs that I included on full concert albums. Then I sorted the remainder chronologically.

It's remarkable to think that all of these concerts were broadcast in full on Colorado radio stations in the 1970s, yet those concert recordings now seem to be lost. Then there's an equal number on "The Best of the Rest, Volume 2," plus still more radio broadcasts that weren't even selected for these compilations. In fact, it's known that about 300 such concerts from that venue were broadcast in the 1970s! I've posted 70 concerts from there. This volume and the following one contain songs from another couple dozen. So that leaves recordings for another 200 concerts that must exist somewhere, in excellent sound quality. The fact that two previously unknown Ian Matthews concerts came out on an archival box set this year (2026) is an encouraging sign that somebody out there still has at least some of them and could release them if someone pays the licensing fees. Let's hope more get to the public somehow.

By the way, if any of you have any recordings from this venue that I've missed, please step forward with them, so I can post them! A commenter recently said they have a full Wendy Waldman concert and offered to share it with me, but since then I never heard back from that person. (If you're out there, please do share, it's never too late.) 

If you want the dates of the concerts for these songs, please check the mp3 tags. All that information is there. The only thing I want to say about the below songs is that although I've posted a Peter Frampton concert from Ebbets Field, the Frampton song here is not from that. The one I posted is a 1975 concert, but the song here is from a 1974 concert. 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 A Whiter Shade of Pale (New York Rock Ensemble)
02 The Lodger (Peter Frampton)
03 Hello, Hello (Sopwith Camel)
04 Steppin' Out (Joan Armatrading)
05 Ridgetop (Jesse Colin Young)
06 Wild Thing (Chip Taylor)
07 Carolina Day (Livingston Taylor)
08 Wabash Cannonball (Doc & Merle Watson)
09 Blackbird (Kenny Rankin)
10 The Ballad of Curtis Loew (Al Kooper)
11 Fare Forward Voyagers (John Fahey)
12 Down Drinking at the Bar (Loudon Wainwright III)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uF3yCdFz

alternate:

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

Since this is a "various artists" album, I wanted to do something different for the cover art. I was able to find very, very few photos from inside the Ebbets Field venue. Here is one. Instead of looking at the stage, it shows the audience in their bleacher seats covered with the venue's notorious orange shag carpet. I'm not sure which concert this is from exactly, but I think it's from one by the Ramones in early 1977.

Unfortunately, I don't have any audio recording from any Ramones concert held here, just this photo.  

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Jimmy Webb, Chip Taylor & Nick Lowe - Songwriters' Circle, Subterania Club, London, Britain, 7-16-1999

For a few years, the BBC had a musical TV show alternately called "Songwriters' Circle" or "In the Round." In it, they would bring three singer-songwriters together and have them take turns playing songs. I particularly like it because in most cases the artists would participate with each others' songs, creating some interesting moments.

I've posted some of these shows already. Use the "Songwriters' Circle" label on the side of the blog to find the others.

I hope to post more, when I find good versions. Unfortunately, I've found only a few, so if you have any, please let me know.

This particular show brought together Jimmy Webb, Chip Taylor and Nick Lowe. I'll bet you know Jimmy Webb, or at least know many of his songs. Although he never had a big commercially successful solo career, he wrote many classics, like "Up, Up and Away," "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," and "MacArthur's Park." Chip Taylor is much less of a famous name. But he also wrote some classic songs, such as "Wild Thing," "Angel of the Morning," "I Can't Let Go," and "Any Way that You Want Me." Nick Lowe I consider a songwriter's songwriter. He hasn't had many big hits, but he seems incapable of writing a bad song. His hits include "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass," and "Cruel to Be Kind."

For the duration of this concert, Webb played the piano while Taylor and Lowe played guitar. Generally speaking, they played on each others' songs most of the time. For instance, Taylor commented how surprised and delighted he was to hear Webb play a piano solo to his song "Wild Thing." However, I've only included more than one name in the song credits when there was some shared lead vocals near the end of the show. 

One interesting facet of this show is that both Webb and Taylor played an original song that they apparently never have officially released. I'm pretty confident about the names of these songs because the YouTube video of this show has the names of the songs at the bottom of the video for a few seconds when they start. The original song by Webb is "Rich Kids Can't Play the Blues." The one by Taylor, "Talking the President," is commentary about US President Bill Clinton's sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky, which was very big news at the time the show was recorded.  

This concert is 48 minutes long.

01 Highwayman (Jimmy Webb)
02 talk (Chip Taylor)
03 I Can't Let Go (Chip Taylor)
04 talk (Nick Lowe)
05 What's Shakin' on the Hill (Nick Lowe)
06 talk (Jimmy Webb)
07 Galveston (Jimmy Webb)
08 talk (Chip Taylor)
09 Angel of the Morning (Chip Taylor)
10 talk (Nick Lowe)
11 Without Love (Nick Lowe)
12 talk (Jimmy Webb)
13 Rich Kids Can't Play the Blues (Jimmy Webb)
14 talk (Chip Taylor)
15 Talking the President (Chip Taylor)
16 Man That I've Become (Nick Lowe)
17 talk (Jimmy Webb)
18 Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb with Chip Taylor)
19 talk (Chip Taylor)
20 Wild Thing (Chip Taylor with Jimmy Webb & Nick Lowe)
21 talk (Nick Lowe)
22 [What's So Funny 'Bout] Peace, Love and Understanding (Nick Lowe with Chip Taylor & Jimmy Webb)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/5Y4dPkRp

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/qJdb02zPDtMYB70/file

The cover is a screenshot I took from the video of this show. I actually put it together in Photoshop from three different shots, since they were rather far apart from each other. From left to right: Jimmy Webb, Chip Taylor, and Nick Lowe.