Various Artists - Colombian Volcano Disaster Appeal Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 2-9-1986

Here's a really interesting benefit concert. There aren't a lot of musical acts, but the ones that took part gave interesting performances, often with some unusual song choices. The big stars were David Gilmour (formerly of Pink Floyd), Pete Townshend (formerly of the Who), Annie Lennox (of Eurythmics) and Chrissie Hynde (of the Pretenders).

In November of 1985, the Nevada del Ruiz volcano erupted, causing a natural disaster in Colombia. It melted glaciers and caused catastrophic flooding that killed over 25,000 people. A native Colombian musician, Chucho Merchan, with the help of Pete Townshend, organized this benefit concert to raise funds for the surviving victims and to help raise awareness of their plight. Highlights of the concert were broadcast in many countries around the world, and a DVD of parts of it was eventually released. 

I had been aware of this concert for a long time, but I could only find the sets from the main stars. I put songs from the David Gilmour and Chrissie Hynde sets on albums I've posted elsewhere on this blog. However, I recently found virtually the entire concert, with excellent sound quality. So that inspired me to post this, and sooner rather than later.

The first three acts were popular in Britain around the of this concert, though their popularity didn't last. Working Week was a British jazz-dance band that had a hit with the song "Venceremos (We Will Win)" in 1984, plus some other minor hits in 1985 and 1986. 

Jaki Graham, a British soul and dance singer, had three Top Ten hits in Britain in 1985 and 1986, with "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love," "Round and Round," and "Set Me Free." But curiously, it seems she was only given time to perform one song, and she chose a song that wasn't one of her hits. 

The Communards were a British synth-pop duo. They had two really big hits and some smaller hits in Britain, though they had no success in the U.S. In 1986, their version of "Don't Leave Me This Way" reached Number One in the British singles chart, and was the biggest hit of the year in that country. However, that single wouldn't be released until about six months after this concert, which explains why they didn't play it here. They also had another big hit with "Never Can Say Goodbye" in 1987. At the time of this concert, they'd only had one minor hit, "You Are My World," but they didn't play it here.

Here are their Wikipedia entries: 

Working Week (band) - Wikipedia 

Jaki Graham - Wikipedia 

The Communards - Wikipedia 

I don't feel the need to explain the other musical acts in this concert, since they're well known and I've posted albums by each of them at this blog already. However, the timing of how this concert fit into their careers is worth mentioning. David Gilmour started a full-time solo career in 1984 after Pink Floyd broke up in 1983. But he hadn't done much as a solo artist after putting out a solo album in 1984, so his appearance here was notable. He would lead a new version of Pink Floyd starting in 1987.

Similarly, Pete Townshend started a full-time solo career after the Who broke up in 1982. At the time of this concert, he'd only released one solo album, in 1985. But in this concert, he only performed three Who songs, plus "Save It for Later," a cover of an English Beat song. 

Annie Lennox was a member of Eurythmics at this time. However, at the time, she was taking a short break due to some trouble with her voice. That's probably why she only sang one song on her own (while also singing a duet at the end). It was very unusual for her to appear as a solo artist. Her solo career wouldn't really begin until her first solo album in 1992.

Similarly, Chrissie Hynde was a member of the Pretenders at this time. By 1986, the Pretenders had basically become Hynde plus whomever she wanted to work with. But I guess she was billed under her own name because she performed with some different musicians than her usual band at the time. Plus, it seems that freed her to play some more interesting songs. She only did two Pretenders songs, the first two in her set. Then she did covers by the Beatles ("In My Life"), the Righteous Brothers, ("Little Latin Lupe Lu"), Bob Dylan ("Property of Jesus"), and KC and the Sunshine Band ("Give It Up"). That probably was her most eclectic set list ever, and the fact the last song was a duet with Annie Lennox was even more interesting.   

By the way, I saw that both actors Peter Richardson and Harry Enfield spoke during the concert. So I figure one of them has to be the emcee talking between songs. It sounds like the same person talking each time, but I'm not familiar with their voices, so I don't know which one it would be. If anyone can tell, please let me know so I can fix the song title info.   

This album is exactly two hours long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 Inner City Blues [Make Me Wanna Holler] (Working Week)
03 Sweet Nothing (Working Week)
04 South Africa (Working Week)
05 Shot in the Dark (Working Week)
06 talk (emcee)
07 Heaven Knows (Jaki Graham)
08 talk (emcee)
09 Sentimental Journey (Communards)
10 Forbidden Love (Communards)
11 Don't Slip Away (Communards)
12 talk (emcee)
13 talk (Mike Oldfield & Maggie Reilly)
14 Moonlight Shadow (Mike Oldfield & Maggie Reilly)
15 talk (emcee)
16 You Know I'm Right (David Gilmour)
17 Run like Hell (David Gilmour)
18 Out of the Blue (David Gilmour)
19 Comfortably Numb (David Gilmour)
20 talk (emcee)
21 I'm One (Pete Townshend)
22 talk (Pete Townshend)
23 Save It for Later (Pete Townshend)
24 Pinball Wizard (Pete Townshend)
25 Magic Bus (Pete Townshend)
26 talk (emcee)
27 Blame It on the Sun (Annie Lennox)
28 talk (emcee)
29 Time, the Avenger (Chrissie Hynde)
30 Back on the Chain Gang (Chrissie Hynde)
31 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
32 In My Life (Chrissie Hynde)
33 Little Latin Lupe Lu (Chrissie Hynde)
34 Property of Jesus (Chrissie Hynde)
35 Give It Up (Chrissie Hynde & Annie Lennox)
36 talk (emcee)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/t9XbbPYK 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DEK86KzNjctEOg0/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. It's a screenshot I took from a video. It shows Chrissie Hynde and Annie Lennox together, on the last song in the concert. The video was very low-res and blurry, so the image has issues. But I was happy to at least come up with this, since I couldn't find any images of the two of them together. 

John Cale, Nick Cave & Chrissie Hynde - Songwriters' Circle, Subterania Club, London, Britain, 7-9-1999

I recently discovered a bunch of "Songwriters' Circle" albums, and I plan on posting more of them soon. Most of them are pretty hard to find, except this one. It probably gets around more due to the star line-up of John Cale (formerly of the Velvet Underground), Nick Cave, and Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders.

By the way, I've already posted two Songwriters' Circle albums. They all follow the same format, in which three singer-songwriters are chosen and take turns singing songs in an acoustic format. Sometimes they join in a bit on each other's songs, sometimes not. Then, at the end, they usually sing a song together. 

I've already posted two such shows. Here's one with Jimmy Webb, Chip Taylor, and Nick Lowe:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/03/jimmy-webb-chip-taylor-nick-lowe.html

And here's one with Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega, and Loudon Wainwright III:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/12/richard-thompson-suzanne-vega-loudon.html

I have figured out all of these come from a BBC TV show called "Songwriters' Circle." But the odd thing is, this show has had two brief runs. There were a bunch of shows in 1999, including the one I'm posting here. Then there was a second bunch in 2010 and 2011. There haven't been any since. All the episodes remain unreleased as audio albums, but you can often find the videos of them on YouTube.

For this show, I found out there are two versions. One ends with "The Ship Song," and goes into a BBC DJ announcing the end of the show. Another has one more song, a cover of "I'm Waiting for the Man" by the Velvet Underground. I used the shorter version for most of this concert, since I had that in better quality. But I added in the extra song from the other version.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 talk (John Cale)
02 Dying on the Vine (John Cale)
03 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
04 Talk of the Town (Chrissie Hynde)
05 talk (Nick Cave)
06 West Country Girl (Nick Cave)
07 Thoughtless Kind (John Cale)
08 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
09 Kid (Chrissie Hynde)
10 talk (Nick Cave)
11 Henry Lee (Nick Cave)
12 talk (John Cale)
13 Fear Is a Man's Best Friend (John Cale)
14 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
15 I'll Stand by You (Chrissie Hynde)
16 talk (Nick Cave)
17 Into My Arms (Nick Cave)
18 talk (John Cale)
19 Ship of Fools (John Cale)
20 Back on the Chain Gang (Chrissie Hynde)
21 The Ship Song (Nick Cave)
22 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
23 I'm Waiting for the Man (John Cale, Nick Cave & Chrissie Hynde)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ewxUQBev

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/user/files/oKg50OZy7rZu2qu/file

The image is from this exact concert. I took it from a high-quality video. Nick Cave was far apart from the others on stage, due to him having to stick by the piano. I moved him in much closer.

The Pretenders - VH-1 Storytellers, VH-1 Storytellers Studio, New York City, 6-26-1999

Here's another album from the "Storytellers" TV show. This time, it's the Pretenders.

In 1999, the Pretenders released a new studio album called "Viva El Amor." As part of their tour to support the album, they did a turn on this TV show. However, only two of the songs performed actually come from the album: "Popstar" and "Biker." The rest are classics from earlier albums.

Chrissie Hynde, the band's lead singer and main songwriter, usually has little to no banter between songs in her concerts. But she was quite talkative here, sharing interesting stories. Martin Chambers, the band's founding drummer, also talked some.

All the music on this album is unreleased, except for "Back on the Chain Gang," which made it onto a Storytellers various artists collection.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Talk of the Town (Pretenders)
02 talk (Pretenders)
03 Kid (Pretenders)
04 talk (Pretenders)
05 Mystery Achievement (Pretenders)
06 talk (Pretenders)
07 The Phone Call (Pretenders)
08 Back on the Chain Gang (Pretenders)
09 talk (Pretenders)
10 Don't Get Me Wrong (Pretenders)
11 talk (Pretenders)
12 The Adultress (Pretenders)
13 talk (Pretenders)
14 My City Was Gone (Pretenders)
15 talk (Pretenders)
16 Popstar (Pretenders)
17 talk (Pretenders)
18 Biker (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17053527/TPRETNDRS1999StrytllrsStrytllrsStdoNwYrkC__6-26-1999_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uQXnXnAL

I couldn't find a good photo from this exact concert. So instead I went with a photo of lead singer Chrissie Hynde at a memorial concert for Paul McCartney's wife, Linda McCartney, in the same year.

US Festival '83, Glen Helen Regional Park, San Bernardino, CA, 5-30-1983 - Day 3, Part 6: The Pretenders

The sixth act from Day Three (Rock Day) of the 1983 US Festival is the Pretenders.

At the time of this festival, the Pretenders were undergoing some changes. They'd released two very successful albums, "Pretenders" in 1980 and "Pretenders II" in 1981. But in 1982, bassist Pete Farndon was fired from the band due to his excessive drug use. He died of a heroin overdose in April 1983, a month prior to this festival. Also in 1982, shortly after Farndon was fired, lead guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died of heart failure related to taking too much cocaine.

Later in 1982, the Pretenders released a single of the song "Back on the Chain Gang," backed with "My City Was Gone." Both became classics, and the single reached Number Five on the U.S. charts, the band's biggest success in the U.S. so far. But the band took a long time finishing their third album, "Learning to Crawl." It wouldn't be released until January 1984.

Although "Learning to Crawl" wasn't released yet, the band played four songs from it in this set: the previously mentioned "Back on the Chain Gang" and "My City Was Gone," plus "Middle of the Road" and "Time the Avenger." Most of the rest of the songs were from the band's first two albums. 

However, the set concluded with a cover of the classic Motown song "Money (That's What I Want)." This was done as kind of a jokey reference to all of the intrigues in the news about the big payments some acts were getting for taking part in the festival, including the bickering between bands like the Clash and Van Halen. Lead singer Chrissie Hynde introduced the song by saying, "I'd like to do this song especially for all the bands who played at the US Festival. And especially all the ones who didn't because they weren't getting paid enough."

This album is sourced from a soundboard worthy bootleg, and it is the complete set. I believe all the performances on it are unreleased with the exception of "Money." That was included as a bonus track on a "Learning to Crawl" release. I also was growing up in Southern California at the time. I didn't get to see the festival, but I remember this version of "Money" got played on the radio a lot at the time, even though it apparently never got an official release until much later.

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

060 My City Was Gone (Pretenders)
061 Message of Love (Pretenders)
062 The Adultress (Pretenders)
063 Talk of the Town (Pretenders)
064 talk (Pretenders)
065 Stop Your Sobbing (Pretenders)
066 Private Life (Pretenders)
067 Time the Avenger (Pretenders)
068 Mystery Achievement (Pretenders)
069 The Wait (Pretenders)
070 talk (Pretenders)
071 Middle of the Road (Pretenders)
072 Up the Neck (Pretenders)
073 Precious (Pretenders)
074 talk (Pretenders)
075 Back on the Chain Gang (Pretenders)
076 Brass in Pocket (Pretenders)
077 Money [That's What I Want] (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17039576/VA-1983USFstvlDay0306Prtndrs_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FzL72FUP

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Heatwave Festival, Mosport Park, Bowmanville, Canada, 8-23-1980, Part 3: The Pretenders

Next up for the 1980 Heatwave Festival is a set by the Pretenders.

At the time of this concert, the Pretenders had released their first album in 1979, simply titled "Pretenders," but were still a year away from releasing their second album, "Pretenders II." So most of the songs were from their first album, but two of the songs, "The Adultress" and "Louie Louie," were from the coming second album. Additionally, "Porcelain" only came out as a B-side and on an EP.

There has never been an officially released live album from the early years of the Pretenders, although a full 1981 concert has been released as bonus tracks for the deluxe edition of "Pretenders II."

The sound quality is excellent, since the festival was professionally recorded, even though it's all officially unreleased. There were no problems.

This album is 56 minutes long.

044 talk (Pretenders)
045 Precious (Pretenders)
046 The Adultress (Pretenders)
047 Kid (Pretenders)
048 Space Invader [Instrumental] (Pretenders)
049 talk (Pretenders)
050 Private Life (Pretenders)
051 talk (Pretenders)
052 Brass in Pocket (Pretenders)
053 Stop Your Sobbing (Pretenders)
054 talk (Pretenders)
055 The Wait (Pretenders)
056 Louie Louie (Pretenders)
057 Porcelain (Pretenders)
058 Tattooed Love Boys (Pretenders)
059 Up the Neck (Pretenders)
060 Mystery Achievement (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17315601/VA-HtwveFstivlMsprtPrkBwmnvlleCnda__8-23-1980_03Prtndrs.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CQwgZcVc

The cover photo of Chrissie Hynde is from this exact concert.

Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 12-26-1979 to 12-29-1979: Day 3: The Pretenders, the Specials & the Who

Here's Part Three of the four-part Concerts for the People of Kampuchea. It has the highlights from the third night. Just like Part Two, there were three big music acts. This time, it was the Pretenders, the Specials, and the Who.

If you want to know more about these concerts in general, check out my write-up for Part One. The track numbering here begins with track 47 in case you want to put all four parts in one folder. If you do, you'll have a mega-concert nearly five hours long.

As I mentioned previously, there was an official double album released of these concerts, but it is long out of print. Three songs by the Pretenders, one song by the Specials, and four songs by the Who come from that. In addition, a bootleg of outtakes from the official album was made public eventually. The rest of the Pretenders and Specials songs come from that, as well as some of the Who songs. 

But on top of all that, I found a bootleg of the entire set by the Who. However, I've only included some of the songs from that, for a couple of reasons. One reason is that while the sound quality is very good, it's not quite as good as the songs from the other sources. 

The other reason is that it was an off night for the Who. Lead guitarist (and occasional lead singer) Pete Townshend was going through a phase where he was going overboard with drugs and especially alcohol. It was very obvious to concert goers that he was very drunk during this concert. He danced around much more than usual, but sometimes flubbed his guitar or vocal parts. He also gave a kind of political speech during the "Dancing in the Street - Dance It Away" medley. It was meant to support the goals of the benefit concert, but it was done in a sarcastic style that could have been easily misunderstood.

Because of all that, I tried to only pick the Who songs that sounded the best and didn't have obvious flubs. 

I would have liked to have more songs by the Pretenders and the Specials, but I think there's just enough for both acts to put up a good showing. But for all three acts, there were many more songs played that what's included here. I'm sure about the song order for the Who set, but the songs might be a bit mixed up for the other two acts, I'm not sure. Also, I'm guessing some of the banter between songs is missing. But since I've heard the full Who set, I know there was no banter before the starts of any of their songs.

This album is an hour and 33 minutes long.

47 The Wait (Pretenders)
48 Precious (Pretenders)
49 Tattooed Love Boys (Pretenders)
50 Brass in Pocket (Pretenders)
51 Private Life (Pretenders)
52 Monkey Man (Specials)
53 talk (Specials)
54 It Doesn't Make It Alright (Specials)
55 Stupid Marriage (Specials)
56 talk (Specials)
57 Too Much, Too Young (Specials)
58 Baba O'Riley (Who)
59 Sister Disco (Who)
60 Behind Blue Eyes (Who)
61 Who Are You (Who)
62 See Me, Feel Me (Who)
63 I Can See for Miles (Who)
64 Won't Get Fooled Again (Who)
65 Summertime Blues (Who)
66 Dancing in the Street - Dance It Away (Who)
67 The Real Me (Who)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mqTe6o6o

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/mlzNvPL6h789zg0/file

second alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DZ7ETVr3I2XqGoN/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. Pete Townshend is closest to the camera. Roger Daltrey is in the middle ground, and John Entwistle is farthest away. I sharpened the picture using Krea AI, and made some additional changes in Photoshop.

Chrissie Hynde - Later Tonight - Non-Album Tracks (2009-2014)

My long series of Pretenders stray tracks albums continues here. However, this is so dominated in the credits by Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer and songwriter of the Pretenders, that I'm billing it as a Chrissie Hynde album. Only two songs have the Pretenders in the credits, and even those are duets.

The Pretenders put out an album in 2008, "Breaking Up the Concrete." They didn't put out another one until 2016, "Alone," nearly a decade later. The Pretenders had basically been Hynde plus a changing cast of backing musicians for a long time prior to this era. But I guess she figured putting the band name on an album meant that a certain style was expected.

In this time period, she increasingly moved away from that style. In 2010, she created a band with her boyfriend at the time, called "JP, Chrissie & The Fairground Boys," and put out an album called "Fidelity." Then, in 2014, she released her first true solo album, "Stockholm."

But on top of that she was doing other musical projects that often further expanded her musical range. For instance, she'd gotten into Brazilian bossa nova music in a big way back in 2004, even living in Brazil for a while. That interest continues on a couple of songs here. She also sang some in French!

Six of the 12 songs here are officially released. They generally come from various artists compilations. For instance, her version of "Let It Be" appeared on a tribute album to Paul McCartney. The unreleased songs are tracks 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, and 12. "This Kiss" and "Cry" come from an episode of the TV show "CMT Crossroads" in which she collaborated with country star Faith Hill. The others are cover songs done in concert. "Murder in My Heart for the Judge" was by Moby Grape, "Under My Thumb" by the Rolling Stones, and "Vocal" and "Later Tonight" by the Pet Shop Boys.

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 Postcard from London (Ray Davies & Chrissie Hynde)
02 Murder in My Heart for the Judge (JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys)
03 This Kiss (Pretenders & Faith Hill)
04 Cry (Pretenders & Faith Hill)
05 Un Garcon Qui Pleure (Benjamin Schoos, Marie France & Chrissie Hynde)
06 The Empty Boat (Chrissie Hynde, Moreno, Kassin & Domenico)
07 Laisse-moi t'Aimer - We'll Be Together (Michel Berube & Chrissie Hynde)
08 Rodeo (Paul Allen & the Underthinkers with Chrissie Hynde)
09 Under My Thumb (Ingrid & Chrissie Hynde)
10 Let It Be (Chrissie Hynde)
11 Vocal (Chrissie Hynde)
12 Later Tonight (Chrissie Hynde)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700859/TPRETNDRS2009-2014_LatrTonght_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from a private dinner event in 2014. Hynde was sitting next to supermodel Cindy Crawford, but unfortunately I felt obliged to crop her out.

Bob Dylan with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison & Chrissie Hynde - Wembley Stadium, London, Britain, 7-7-1984

I've been working my way through Bob Dylan's music career chronologically. So far, as I write this in November 2022, I've made it to about 1976. But I recently came across this excellent concert from 1984, so it goes to the top of the pile of things to post.

In 1984, returned to commercial and critical success after a few controversial years with very religious albums. This concert must have been a symbolic triumph for him, playing before over 70,000 people in Wembley Stadium in London on a bill that included opening acts Nick Lowe, UB40, and Santana.

Dylan put on a long show, 2 hours and 31 minutes, with lots of special guests (who I will explain in a minute). He was in a very rocking mood, playing even some sedate songs like "Every Grain of Sand" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" in a lively style. His band included lead guitarist Mick Taylor, formerly of the Rolling Stones, who ripped many excellent solos throughout the show.

Here's a review from the time in Rolling Stone Magazine. The article title says it all: "Bob Dylan Back in Peak Form." The article calls it one of the concert highlights of Dylan's career, and I would agree.

Bob Dylan performs epic concert at Wembley Stadium – Rolling Stone

Dylan must have liked this show because he released a live album late in 1984, "Real Live," with six of the ten songs coming from this exact concert. Personally, I must prefer hearing a full concert like this one to a live album with songs chosen from different concerts. Besides, this is two and half hours long and "Real Live" is only 50 minutes long.

The sound quality of this bootleg is excellent. I found different versions of this concert on the Internet, and most of them are merely okay sounding audience bootlegs. But this version comes from a soundboard. It sounds just as good as the versions of the songs on the "Real Live" album, in my opinion.

There was only one sonic flaw. On four of the songs, there were some very small silent gaps, each of them only a second or less. But it was enough to be noticeable and annoying. I carefully edited those songs to remove the gaps, and when I did I found there wasn't any music missing. Those four have "[Edit]" in their names. 

Now, let me discuss the many special guests on this show. Dylan played two hours, mostly with a full band, but some songs done solo acoustic. Then he came back for what turned out to be a very unusual encore that lasted 35 minutes. For the whole encore, he was joined by Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton & Chrissie Hynde. Santana and Clapton often played guitar solos. Right before the song "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat," Dylan joked, "There's too many guitar players up here. I may just sing the first verse and leave." It would be good if someone could watch the video of this concert on YouTube and figure out who played which solo in the encores (with Mick Taylor presumably playing some too).

Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders mostly sang backing vocals, though apparently she also played a harmonica solo on one song. This was not her finest hour - it's very challenging to sing harmony with Dylan, since he changes how he sings the lyrics in unpredictable ways. 

On top of that, Van Morrison made a brief but important appearance in the encore too. He only showed up for the song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." That was a Dylan song he sang on a Them album back in 1966, and he's revisited in concert from time to time ever since. He sang the lead vocals for it here. I think Hynde also sang a verse, but unfortunately wasn't turned on because one can barely hear just a few traces of her voice in the middle of the song.

This concert shows Dylan swinging for the fences, trying to please a huge crowd, and hitting a home run. Look at the set list below. Almost every song is a well known classic, and he performed most of them in a rocking style. So if I were to present just one Dylan concert to someone not that familiar with his music, I probably would choose this one.

01 Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan)
02 Jokerman (Bob Dylan)
03 All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan)
04 Just like a Woman (Bob Dylan)
05 Maggie's Farm (Bob Dylan)
06 I and I (Bob Dylan)
07 License to Kill (Bob Dylan)
08 talk (Bob Dylan)
09 I've Got to Use My Imagination (Bob Dylan & Greg Sutton)
10 A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (Bob Dylan)
11 Tangled Up in Blue (Bob Dylan)
12 It's Alright, Ma [I'm Only Bleeding] (Bob Dylan)
13 Simple Twist of Fate (Bob Dylan)
14 Masters of War (Bob Dylan)
15 Ballad of a Thin Man (Bob Dylan)
16 Enough Is Enough [Edit] (Bob Dylan)
17 Every Grain of Sand [Edit] (Bob Dylan)
18 Like a Rolling Stone [Edit] (Bob Dylan)
19 Mr. Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan)
20 Girl from the North Country [Edit] (Bob Dylan)
21 It Ain't Me, Babe (Bob Dylan)
22 talk (Bob Dylan)
23 Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (Bob Dylan with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton & Chrissie Hynde)
24 talk (Bob Dylan)
25 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bob Dylan & Van Morrison with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton & Chrissie Hynde)
26 Tombstone Blues (Bob Dylan with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton & Chrissie Hynde)
27 Senor [Tales of Yankee Power] (Bob Dylan with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton & Chrissie Hynde)
28 The Times They Are A-Changin' (Bob Dylan with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton & Chrissie Hynde)
29 Blowin' in the Wind (Bob Dylan with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton & Chrissie Hynde)
30 Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan with Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton & Chrissie Hynde)
31 talk (Bob Dylan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KhBmeEi6

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/KjYCMNSw8z0s3rz/file

The cover photo is from the exact concert featured here. I'm pretty sure that's Chrissie Hynde in the white shirt with her back to the camera, and Eric Clapton standing next to her.

The Pretenders - Riviera Theater, Chicago, IL, 9-8-1980

This week as I write this (in November 2021), 40th anniversary deluxe editions of the Pretenders' first two classic albums ("Pretenders I" and "Pretenders II") were released. I think those releases had a lot of good things included, but when it comes to live material from 1980, they didn't do the best job. They included a 50-minute-long concert from Boston, and 24 minutes of another concert from New York City. Both of those shows sound just fine, but they largely have the same songs.

Personally, I prefer this concert from Chicago. It was professionally recorded so it could be played live on the radio. As a result, it sounds every bit as good as those two shows included on those recent releases, but it's significantly longer, at an hour and 13 minutes. As result, it includes more of the lesser known songs of that time period, instead of just the expected hits. 

I like everything Chrissie Hynde has done, with or without the Pretenders, all the way to the present day. That said, there was something special about their music from their first few years. In my opinion, virtually every song from their first three albums is a classic, and even some of the non-album tracks are great. The original members of the Pretenders had a special chemistry, so if you want to hear this band live, it's hard to beat this concert.

Although this is a bootleg, there were virtually no problems with the recording. The only snag is that, since it was taken from a radio broadcast, DJs tried to talk everywhere they could. Happily, there was no talking over the music, but there was some during times of prolonged audience cheering. I removed all the DJ talk and made sure there was a decent amount of cheering whenever it was expected.

As an aside, I've just redone all the links for all the Pretenders / Chrisse Hynde albums I've posted so far. I did so to fix the volume balance between songs as well as changing how the mp3 tags are done. So if you care about that sort of thing, you might want to redownload them.

01 Precious (Pretenders)
02 The Adultress (Pretenders)
03 Kid (Pretenders)
04 Talk of the Town (Pretenders)
05 Space Invader (Pretenders)
06 Cuban Slide (Pretenders)
07 talk (Pretenders)
08 I Go to Sleep (Pretenders)
09 Private Life (Pretenders)
10 Brass in Pocket (Pretenders)
11 talk (Pretenders)
12 The Wait (Pretenders)
13 Stop Your Sobbing (Pretenders)
14 Louie Louie (Pretenders)
15 Porcelain (Pretenders)
16 Tattooed Love Boys (Pretenders)
17 talk (Pretenders)
18 Up the Neck (Pretenders)
19 Mystery Achievement (Pretenders)
20 Whatcha Gonna Do about It (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700856/TPRETNDRS1980_RvieraThetrChicgoIL__9-8-1980_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any great color photos of the band in concert from 1980. However, I did from one from 1981, a concert at the Lyceum in London, so I used that.

The Pretenders - Both Sides of Goodbye - Non-Album Tracks (2005-2008)

It's been a long time since I've posted the last Pretenders stray tracks album, so here's another one. Of course, by this time "the Pretenders" has basically become lead singer and songwriter Chrissie Hynde, plus whoever else she felt like playing with (though at least original drummer Martin Chambers was in the band during this time period). About half the songs here are credited to the Pretenders and the other half just to Hynde, but it doesn't really make a difference.

The Pretenders put out albums in 2002 and 2008. That was a fairly long time, but as you can see here, Hynde continued to put out songs during that time, with or without the Pretenders. Only three of the songs are officially unreleased: "Candy, "Only Happy When It Rains," and "Waterloo Sunset." Those three are taken from TV show broadcasts, not concert bootlegs, so their sound quality is very good. The rest of the songs come from a wide variety of sources, including singles, an EP, various artists compilations, and movie soundtracks.

This album is 42 minutes long.

Oh, by the way, the same day I posted this, I added three more songs to the Pretenders stray tracks album "Spiritual High." So you might want to check that out too. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-pretenders-spiritual-high-various.html

01 Lovesong (Chrissie Hynde)
02 Neither of Us Can See (Incubus & Chrissie Hynde)
03 Waterloo Sunset (Pretenders)
04 Don't Hang Up (Ringo Starr & Chrissie Hynde)
05 The Joker - Everything I Own (Jason Mraz & Chrissie Hynde)
06 Candy (Pretenders & Iggy Pop)
07 Only Happy When It Rains (Pretenders & Shirley Manson)
08 My Father (Chrissie Hynde)
09 Both Sides of Goodbye (Pretenders with Willie Nelson)
10 Blue Christmas (Pretenders)
11 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Pretenders)
12 Chicago (David Gilmour, Bob Geldof & Chrissie Hynde)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700860/TPRETNDRS2005-2008_BothSdesGodbye_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo shows Chrissie Hynde at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert in New York City where the Pretenders were inducted.

The Pretenders - In the Still of the Night - Non-Album Tracks (2003-2004)

Here's the next in a long series of stray tracks albums from the Pretenders. 

However, I should note this is really more of a Chrissie Hynde album. By this time the Pretenders had basically become Hynde plus a revolving group of supporting musicians. All but one of the songs here are credited to "Chrissie Hynde" with or without others instead of the "Pretenders" anyway. But I'll call this a Pretenders album to keep it consistent with all the other stray tracks album in this series.

The songs here are good, but stylistically, they're all over the map, from a cover of a 1930s ballad to a techno hit. By the way, speaking of that techno hit, "Straight Ahead," I'm not a big fan of it (or that style), but it was a hit and Hynde did sing parts of it, so I've included it. It's at the very end, so it's easy to leave off if you want to do that. I found an interesting acappella version that apparently was created by someone isolating just Hynde's vocal track, so I've included that as kind of an intro, or alternate.

During this time period, it seems Hynde took a prolonged break from the Pretenders. From early 2004 until early 2006, the Pretenders basically didn't play any concerts, and didn't release any new music. Instead, Hynde got very interested in Brazil and its music. She actually lived there for much of 2004. You can see this musical influence with some songs in the middle of this album, especially the two she did with Moreno Veloso (who is the son of the great Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso).

In terms of sound quality, five of the songs come from concert bootlegs. The sound quality of those isn't great, but it's plenty good. The rest are all officially released, from a wide variety of sources.

01 Something to Believe In (Pretenders)
02 Big Bad Cat (Bruce Willis & Chrissie Hynde)
03 In the Bleak Midwinter (Chrissie Hynde & the Blind Boys of Alabama)
04 Never Be Alone Again (Russell Crowe & the 30 Odd Foot of Grunts with Chrissie Hynde)
05 As Time Goes By (Rod Stewart & Chrissie Hynde)
06 Don't Let Me Down (Chrissie Hynde)
07 The Empty Boat (Chrissie Hynde)
08 Nenhuma (Chrissie Hynde & Moreno Veloso)
09 I Get Along without You Very Well (Chrissie Hynde & Moreno Veloso)
10 Cry [If You Don't Mind] (Jarabe De Palo with Chrissie Hynde)
11 In the Still of the Night (Chrissie Hynde)
12 Straight Ahead [Acapella Version] (Chrissie Hynde)
13 Straight Ahead (Tube & Berger with Chrissie Hynde)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700861/TPRETNDRS2003-2004_InStllofNght_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo comes from a Pretenders concert in Dublin, Ireland, in 2003.

Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne - Dylan Lockdown (2020)

UPDATE: The link for this album has been removed, because all the songs here, plus one more, has been officially released as the album "Standing in the Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan."

 

So what has Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders been up to since the coronavirus lockdown began? She's made a couple of recorded appearances, but they've been short and unremarkable. But she's taken a different approach: together with Jame Walbourne, who has been lead guitarist for the Pretenders since 2008, she's done a series of Bob Dylan covers. Instead of the common acoustic approach during the lockdown, she's worked up full band versions of each song, then released then on the Internet once a week.

Her Dylan versions are excellent. What I particularly like is that she's generally selected less covered songs, including a couple of downright obscure ones. She also picked some of my all-time Dylan favorites, especially "Blind Willie McTell." There are only eight songs, but it totals up to 46 minutes, which is an ideal album length.

I've been collecting her Dylan songs each week. I was going to wait longer before posting, because I didn't know how many covers she'd do. But with this week's song, she mentioned it was the last song of the Dylan series.

If you're at all a Chrissie Hynde/Pretenders fan, or a Bob Dylan fan, you should give this a listen. Lots of artists have officially released albums consisting entirely of Dylan covers. For whatever reason, Hynde decided to release this de facto new studio album on the Internet for free.

01 In the Summertime (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
02 You're a Big Girl Now (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
03 Standing in the Doorway (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
04 Sweetheart like You (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
05 Blind Willie McTell (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
06 Love Minus Zero-No Limit (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
07 Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
08 Tomorrow Is a Long Time (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)

I was planning on making my own cover art for this album, as usual. But when Googling for a picture of Chrissie Hynde and James Walbourne together, I stumbled across some album art a person named spunky2018 made for the Dylan lockdown series. So even though I found some pictures of them together, I've used this one instead. I like how spunky2018 made it in the style of an old Dylan album.

The Pretenders - Get Out of London - Non-Album Tracks (1999-2002)

Here's the next stray tracks album from the Pretenders. Technically, a bunch of songs are credited to Chrissie Hynde, but it doesn't matter because by this point the Pretenders were just Hynde plus a bunch of back-up musicians. So I interchangeably mix her "band" and "solo" tracks.

All but one of the songs on this album are officially unreleased. They come from a variety of sources, mostly soundtracks and tribute albums. The one unreleased song, a cover of "The Loner" by Neil Young, comes from a concert bootleg. Admittedly, its sound quality is a little worse. But it's still good enough to include.

By the way, I especially like the song "Get Out of London." It's super rare. I was lucky to find a version of it on YouTube, because I couldn't find it anywhere else. If you're a Pretenders fan, you should check this out for that song alone.

01 Waiting in Vain (Chrissie Hynde)
02 The Needle and the Damage Done (Pretenders)
03 Loving You Is All I Know (Pretenders)
04 I Wish You Love (Chrissie Hynde)
05 She (Pretenders & Emmylou Harris)
06 The Loner (Pretenders)
07 Nebraska (Chrissie Hynde)
08 Mystery Train (Jeff Beck & Chrissie Hynde)
09 Bless You (Pretenders)
10 Out of This World (Chrissie Hynde & Jools Holland)
11 Get Out of London (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700868/TPRETNDRS1999-2002_GetOutLondn_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from a Bob Marley tribute concert in 1999.

The Pretenders - Angel of the Morning - Non-Album Tracks (1995-1999)

Here's the next in my series of stray tracks albums for the Pretenders. As with previous albums, there are a surprising number of such songs, and they're usually pretty good.

It helps that I'm including Chrissie Hynde "solo" songs. But in fact, by this time, there really is no difference between "the Pretenders" and Hynde's solo work, since the Pretenders had become pretty much Hynde plus a bunch of back-up musicians.

The last album in this series was made up nearly entirely of covers of well known songs. There are a lot of such songs this time around too (such as songs 2 through 6, and 9). But there are more songs that are either originals or at least more obscure covers. (To be honest, I'm not sure who wrote some of these; if anyone knows, please let me know and I'll add that info in.)

All but one of the songs were officially released, usually on movie soundtracks, various artists compilations, or bonus tracks. The one unreleased song, "Creep," comes from a TV show performance, so the sound quality is as good as the rest.

01 Blue Sun (Pretenders)
02 Angel of the Morning (Chrissie Hynde)
03 Everyday Is like Sunday (Pretenders)
04 Creep (Pretenders)
05 Live and Let Die (Chrissie Hynde)
06 Goin' Back (Pretenders)
07 Goodbye (Pretenders)
08 The Homecoming (Pretenders)
09 Baby, It's You - Message to Michael (Chrissie Hynde)
10 Morning Glory (Chrissie Hynde)
11 California (Pretenders)
12 Back Down (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700863/TPRETNDRS1995-1999_AnglofMornng_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of Hynde comes from 1995. It was in black and white and I had plenty of other options in color. But I really liked this one, so I colorized it and used it.

The Pretenders - Spiritual High - Non-Album Tracks (1990-1994)

Here's the next in my series of stray tracks albums from the Pretenders. By this point, the Pretenders were really just Chrissie Hynde and a bunch of back-up musicians. In fact, the 1990 album "Packed!" only indicated Hynde as a member. So this also has some Hynde solo songs, and I treat the two things interchangeably.

Either Hynde was really in a mood to do covers during this period, or she wasn't being very prolific with her songwriting, because every single song is a cover version. Maybe it was some of both. She does some famous songs by the likes of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix, as well as some obscurities. "Spiritual High (State of Independence)," in which she was the guest lead vocalist for the band Moodswings, was a minor hit.

All songs here have been officially released, except for one. That one, a cover of the Doors' "Touch Me," apparently was intended for a Doors tribute album that never came to be. Somehow, the cover got released on bootleg, and its sound quality is just as good as all the other songs.

I've unfortunately had to include one songs as a bonus track, due to sound quality issues. That's a cover of "Positive Bleeding" by Urge Overkill. The Pretenders only played this a few times in concert, and all we have is an okay sounding audience bootleg recording.

This album is 47 minutes long, not counting the bonus track.

01 Not a Second Time (Pretenders)
02 Spirit of Life (Pretenders)
03 Gula Gula (Clannad with Chrissie Hynde & Mari Boine)
04 Born for a Purpose (Pretenders)
05 Touch Me (Pretenders)
06 Spiritual High [State of Independence], Part II (Moodswings & Chrissie Hynde)
07 I Shall Be Released (Chrissie Hynde)
08 Bold as Love (Pretenders)
09 I'm Not in Love (Pretenders)
10 Superstar [Groupie] (Chrissie Hynde & Superfan)
11 Full Moon, Dirty Hearts (INXS & Chrissie Hynde)
12 Hey Little Boy (Chris Spedding & Chrissie Hynde)
13 Trouble with Me (Mick Ronson & Chrissie Hynde)

Positive Bleeding (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700862/TPRETNDRS1990-1994_SpritulHgh_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is of Hynde in concert in Ashbury Park, New Jersey, in 1994.

The Pretenders - Windows of the World - Non-Album Tracks (1986-1988)

Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders released a new solo album earlier this month, called "Value Bone Woe." I really like it. It's different than her usual stuff, going in a kind of jazzy chanteuse direction. I suggest you check it out.

Here's another album of stray tracks from the Pretenders in honor of her new release. From this point on, I'll be treating the Pretenders and Chrissie Hynde as essentially one and the same, because all the original members of the Pretenders were gone from the band, and it became Hynde plus a group of backing musicians. Also from this point on, she did a fair amount of recordings and performances under her own name.

The first three Pretenders albums are undeniable classics, in my book. This album deals with the time of the band's fourth album, 1986's "Get Close." That album was widely considered a step down, being seen as overproduced and not rocking enough. I have to agree with that critique, even though it still has a lot of good songs on it. Happily, the stray tracks from this time don't suffer those same problems.

This is around the time Hynde starting appearing in concert billed as herself instead of part of the Pretenders. She only performed a few songs here and there, but she played some unexpected songs instead of the usual Pretenders numbers. Four of the songs here come from her appearance at a benefit concert in early 1986. Another three are acoustic duets she did in concert with Elvis Costello. For all the live performances, I removed the audience noise to make them fit in with the other songs. Generally speaking, all the live songs are the only officially unreleased ones, but they sound very good.

I think all the songs but one are covers. The one exception is "Worlds Within Worlds." That was a bonus track for the "Get Close" album. "Reconsider Me" sounds a lot like a Hynde original, but it actually was written by Warren Zevon.

This is a very electric album, ranging from a cover of the proto punk rock song "1969" to the acoustic duets with Costello, plus a fair amount of reggae. Personally, I like this as much or more as "Get Close," because it doesn't suffer from the usual 1980s production issues.

Oh, by the way, this includes two versions of "Windows of the World," the classic anti-war song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Normally, I'm loathe to include two versions of the same song on one album, but I'm making an exception here because the two versions are quite different. One is a full band, album-ready version, and the other is one of the acoustic duets in concert with Costello.

01 Reconsider Me (Pretenders)
02 Worlds within Worlds (Pretenders)
03 Little Latin Lupe Lu (Chrissie Hynde)
04 In My Life (Chrissie Hynde)
05 Property of Jesus (Chrissie Hynde)
06 Give It Up (Annie Lennox & Chrissie Hynde)
07 Where Has Everybody Gone (Pretenders)
08 Windows of the World (Pretenders)
09 1969 (Pretenders)
10 Steppin' Razor (Chrissie Hynde with Coati Mundi, Sly & Robbie)
11 Breakfast in Bed (UB40 & Chrissie Hynde)
12 Days (Elvis Costello & Chrissie Hynde)
13 There's a Place (Elvis Costello & Chrissie Hynde)
14 Windows of the World [Live Acoustic] (Elvis Costello & Chrissie Hynde)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700870/TPRETNDRS1986-1988_WindwsoWrld_atse.zip.html

For the album cover photo, I used a photo of Hynde in concert with the Pretenders in 1987.

The Pretenders - Cuban Slide - Non-Album Tracks (1978-1980)

There are a lot of musical artists I want to post about but haven't gotten around to yet. The Pretenders/Chrissie Hynde are a big one. I've been surprised at just how much good non-album material there is. This is the first of at least nine stray tracks albums I have from her and her band.

A lot of people think the Pretenders were at their best during the era of their first three albums, and I'm one of them. Arguably, the Pretenders were only a real band for their first two albums, because two of the four band members died between the recording of the second and third albums. It became Hynde plus backing musicians after that. Happily, all of the songs here are from when all four original members were still in the band.

This album is definitely a mixed bag. There are some great songs. For instance, "Cuban Slide" is one of my favorite Pretenders songs of all time, which is why I've named this album after it. There are a handful of other very nice originals. But there also are some slight instrumentals and unremarkable cover versions. But still, I consider anything from these early years to be pretty great.

The first song is a version of the famous 1960s Troggs hit "Wild Thing," except it's sung in French. It's credited to "Chrissie Hynde and the Strangeways." I don't know the full story behind this, but apparently the Strangeways weren't a real band, but a bunch of musicians who came together very briefly just to record this, right before the Pretenders were formed.

The next three songs are some demos recorded by Hynde with or without the other Pretenders. I actually have an entire album of demos from the band's early years to post. But I've put these three songs here instead because these are songs not done elsewhere, while the other demos are all versions of well-known Pretenders tunes. "Do I Love You" is a cover of a 1960s hit by the Ronettes, while the other two are originals that sound good enough to me to have fit on the first Pretenders album.

Most of the rest of the songs are originals also. One exception is "Sabre Dance," a 1960s hit that's a guitar-based instrumental, with Hynde strangely and occasionally singing some of the lyrics to "Stop Your Sobbing" on top of it. "Counterfeit" is a song by Chris Spedding that wasn't officially released by him until 1986.

Unfortunately, the sound quality on that one, plus "Tequila" (a Hynde original and not the 1960s instrumental hit) are rougher than all the rest. That's because they come from an audience bootleg. But still, I think they sound good enough for inclusion. However, the Pretenders' cover of "Girl Don't Come," a 1960s hit by Sandie Shaw, is even rougher. So I've only included that one as a bonus track.

01 Chose Sauvage [Wild Thing] (Chrissie Hynde & the Strangeways)
02 Do I Love You [Demo] (Chrissie Hynde & Steve Jones)
03 I Can't Control Myself [Demo] (Pretenders)
04 Suicide [Demo] (Chrissie Hynde)
05 Sabre Dance - Stop Your Sobbing [Live] (Pretenders)
06 I Need Somebody (Pretenders)
07 Swinging London [Instrumental] (Pretenders)
08 Nervous but Shy [Instrumental] (Pretenders)
09 Cuban Slide (Pretenders)
10 Porcelain (Pretenders)
11 Whatcha Gonna Do about It (Pretenders)
12 Counterfeit (Pretenders)
13 Tequila (Pretenders)

Girl Don't Come (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700858/TPRETNDRS1978-1980_CubnSlde_atse.zip.html

I based the cover art on the cover of the "Extended Play" EP, since "Cuban Slide" and a couple other songs here come from that.  But I changed the photo and most everything else, while keeping the general look. I called the band "Pretenders" instead of "The Pretenders" because that's what was written on the EP cover.