Various Artists - Rally for Nuclear Disarmament, Central Park, New York City, 6-12-1982

A few days ago (as I write this in December 2025), I posted five hours of a concert called "Peace Sunday," which was a big benefit concert for the anti-nuclear war movement in 1992, held in Los Angeles. As I was researching that one, I discovered there was another concert for the same cause that took place a week later in New York City. I did a little more digging, and found part of it that got broadcast on radio station WNEW at the time. So I'm presenting that here. 

There's a lot about this concert that I don't know, apparently lost in the mists of time. I do know there was an absolutely enormous protest rally in Central Park on June 12, 1982. News reports say about a million people attended, making it the largest protest rally in the history of the U.S., at least up until that time. Part of that all day event was a concert. Some of it was broadcast on the radio, and that's what I have here. But I can't find any information about how much more there was that is now missing. 

However, I do have some clues. Rita Marley actually performed four songs, which I found on YouTube. But the sound quality, apparently from homemade video footage was poor. I managed to salvage one song to at least represent her, but I had to do a LOT of work on it (using the MVSEP program) to make it at least listenable. Note the sound quality gets better after that, so don't be discouraged because it's the first song. I also know Jackson Browne played the song "For Everyman," which is not here. The radio broadcast cut in part way through the song, and there were technical problems, so only the last minute was salvageable. That was so little that I decided to just cut it out entirely. I also know performed a duet of the song "I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine." One can find a video of that on YouTube, but the quality was so bad that I had no hope of salvaging that one. They also did the song together in the studio for Ronstadt's 1982 album "Get Closer," by the way.

Furthermore, at the end of the concert, there were appearances by Jesse Colin Young, Bonnie Raitt, Carly Simon, and Graham Nash. I suspect one or more of them probably had songs of their own earlier in the concert. I also saw a mention that Holly Near sang something at some point. The problem is, the radio broadcast only showed highlights of some of the big names, and even then it seems they took commercial breaks from time to time, skipping songs. If anyone knows more (for instance if you attended and remember what happened), please let us know.

To make matters more complicated, two days earlier, there was a related concert with a very similar name, the "Concert for Nuclear Disarmament," held at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, just outside New York City. That holds about 15,000 people. I found a review of that concert. There were only three acts: James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, and Jackson Browne. But because there were fewer acts, each of them performed almost full sets. I found one audience bootleg of part of that, but the sound quality was pretty terrible, so I won't be posting it. 

Anyway, having something (in worthy sound quality) is better than having nothing. What we have here is pretty nice, even though many of the performers are the same ones who played in the "Peace Sunday" concert a week earlier in Los Angeles. Linda Ronstadt even played "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" with the same two well-known backing singers, Rosemary Butler and Nicolette Larson.

It was notable that Bruce Springsteen performed. However, I consulted the "Brucebase" website, which is very thorough, and that confirms that he only performed on two songs, while a guest during Jackson Browne's set. He sang his own song, "Badlands," with Browne on backing vocals, then Browne sang his own "Running on Empty" with Springsteen on backing vocals. 

Another interesting tidbit is that James Taylor and John Hall jointly performed the song "Children's Cry." Taylor mentioned before the song started that they had written it together specifically for this concert. I did a little searching. It seems the only time this song was ever played was at this concert and at the "Concert for Nuclear Disarmament" two days earlier. And it apparently was never officially released in any form.

This concert recording sounded pretty decent, but there were issues. Some time back, musical friend Lil Panda did some audio editing to improve just the Linda Ronstadt songs. So I used his version for those. I also tried some editing of my own. I ran all the songs through MVSEP, and got rid of most of the crowd noise during songs while keeping it at the ends of songs. I then ran all the songs through MVSEP again, and adjusted the balance between the lead vocals and the instruments. For maybe half the songs, the lead vocals were too low.

It anyone has more of this concert (or the related Concert for Nuclear Disarmament), please share it. 

This album is an hour and 33 minutes long. 

01 One Love (Rita Marley)
02 The Pretender (Jackson Browne & Gary U.S. Bonds)
03 talk (Joan Baez)
04 Imagine (Joan Baez)
05 Promised Land (Bruce Springsteen with Jackson Browne)
06 talk (Jackson Browne)
07 Running on Empty (Jackson Browne with Bruce Springsteen)
08 talk (Jackson Browne)
09 Tumbling Dice (Linda Ronstadt)
10 Blue Bayou (Linda Ronstadt)
11 talk (Linda Ronstadt)
12 The Shoop Shoop Song [It's in His Kiss] (Linda Ronstadt with Rosemary Butler & Nicolette Larson)
13 Desperado (Linda Ronstadt)
14 Heat Wave (Linda Ronstadt)
15 Living in the U.S.A. (Linda Ronstadt)
16 That Lonesome Road (James Taylor)
17 You've Got a Friend (James Taylor)
18 talk (James Taylor)
19 Up on the Roof (James Taylor)
20 Stand and Fight (James Taylor)
21 talk (James Taylor & Chaka Khan)
22 It's Growing (James Taylor & Chaka Khan)
23 talk (James Taylor)
24 Children's Cry (James Taylor & John Hall)
25 talk (Joy Ryder & Avis Davis)
26 No More Nukes (Joy Ryder & Avis Davis)
27 talk (John Hall)
28 Plutonium Is Forever (John Hall)
29 talk (John Hall)
30 talk (Jackson Browne & Graham Nash)
31 Power (John Hall, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash & Carly Simon)
32 talk (John Hall)
33 Let's Get Together (Jesse Colin Young & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/hjST8tt6

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/NVjT1WCkPe1RhvJ/file

The cover photo shows Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor. I would bet this was taken during the duet they did, "I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine," which unfortunately is not included here. The original was in black and white. But I used the "Kolorize" program to colorize it.

Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Paul McCartney, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-10-2012

Here's another MusiCares tribute show. This one celebrates Paul McCartney's music career. It's a bit short as far as these types of concerts go, but what's here is very good.

The usual format for these kinds of tribute concerts is a series of stars sing covers by the performer being honored, then there's an acceptance speech, and then the performer plays a couple of songs at the end. That's how this one went as well, except Paul McCartney performed two songs at the beginning as well as three at the end.

Actually, he did one more: a cover of "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" performed as a duet with Diana Krall. However, this is sourced from a DVD, and that wasn't included, so I don't have it here. Also, Katy Perry sang "Hey Jude," and the Foo Fighters sang "Jet," and those aren't here either, for the same reason. If anyone has those missing songs, please let me know and I'll be happy to add them in. 

Additionally, Cirque du Soleil started the concert with a medley of "Get Back," "Hello Goodbye," and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." But I edited that out because it was a visual performance done to the record versions. 

What's here is pretty great though, which isn't shocking considering McCartney was one of the best and possibly the most commercially successful songwriters of all time. Particularly interesting is the finale, a version of the Beatles medley "Golden Slumbers - Carry That Weight - The End" with McCartney, Joe Walsh, and Dave Grohl dueling on guitars.

As mentioned above, this has been officially released on DVD. However, there have been no audio releases. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 talk (emcee)
02 Magical Mystery Tour (Paul McCartney)
03 Junior's Farm (Paul McCartney)
04 talk (emcee)
05 talk (Alicia Keys)
06 Blackbird (Alicia Keys)
07 talk (emcee)
08 No More Lonely Nights (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
09 talk (emcee)
10 And I Love Her (Duane Eddy)
11 talk (emcee)
12 Oh, Darling (Norah Jones)
13 talk (emcee)
14 I Saw Her Standing There (Neil Young)
15 talk (emcee)
16 The Fool on the Hill (Sergio Mendes)
17 We Can Work It Out (Coldplay)
18 Yesterday (James Taylor with Diana Krall)
19 talk (James Taylor)
20 For No One (Diana Krall with James Taylor)
21 talk (emcee)
22 talk (Neil Portnow)
23 talk (Paul McCartney)
24 My Valentine (Paul McCartney, Diana Krall & Joe Walsh)
25 Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five (Paul McCartney)
26 Golden Slumbers - Carry That Weight - The End (Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh & Dave Grohl)
27 talk (Paul McCartney) 

This album is 54 minutes long. 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KaZyTRqs

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MaVF1LXhP4bCOhQ/file

The cover photo is from the finale of this exact concert. From left to right on guitars: Joe Walsh, Paul McCartney, and Dave Grohl. 

Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to James Taylor, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2-6-2006

Here's another MusiCares tribute concert. I only have a couple more of these after this one, and I want to post them in the next days. This one honors James Taylor.

This concert followed the usual format for these kinds of things: a bonus of famous musical acts sang covers of his songs, then he accepted an award and gave a speech, and finally he played a couple of his songs. If you look at the song lists, a lot of big names showed up to perform his songs, including Bruce Springsteen. 

Another big name also played one of his songs at the concert: Paul Simon sung "Sweet Baby James." But unfortunately, this is sourced from a DVD, but that song wasn't included, and I couldn't find any version of it anywhere. If anyone has it, please let me know so I can add it in.

I know Simon played that song in this concert, because it's mentioned in this article, which is a good summary of the concert in general:

MusiCares Honors Singer James Taylor - CBS News 

Also, while trying to find a good photo for the cover art, I went through a stash of hundreds of photos from the concert, and noticed that other big names like Neil Young and Brian Wilson attended. But I doubt they performed, or they probably would have been mentioned in that news article I just linked to. 

As mentioned above, this is sourced from an official DVD, so the sound quality is excellent. No version is any audio format has been released. As I sometimes do, I converted the video to audio, then broke it into mp3s.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long. 

01 talk (Bill Clinton)
02 talk (emcee)
03 talk (Dixie Chicks)
04 Shower the People (Dixie Chicks)
05 talk (emcee)
06 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
07 Rainy Day Man (Bonnie Raitt)
08 talk (emcee)
09 talk (India.Arie)
10 Secret o' Life (India.Arie)
11 talk (emcee)
12 talk (Jackson Browne, David Crosby & Sheryl Crow)
13 Mexico (Jackson Browne, David Crosby & Sheryl Crow)
14 talk (emcee)
15 talk (Sting)
16 You Can Close Your Eyes (Sting)
17 talk (Dr. John & Taj Mahal)
18 Everybody Has the Blues (Dr. John & Taj Mahal)
19 talk (Alison Krauss & Jerry Douglas)
20 Carolina in My Mind (Alison Krauss & Jerry Douglas)
21 talk (emcee)
22 talk (Keith Urban)
23 Country Road (Keith Urban)
24 talk (emcee)
25 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
26 Millworker (Bruce Springsteen)
27 talk (Carole King)
28 You've Got a Friend (Carole King with James Taylor)
29 talk (Neil Portnow)
30 talk (James Taylor)
31 Shed a Little Light (James Taylor)
32 talk (James Taylor)
33 How Sweet It Is [To Be Loved by You] (James Taylor)
34 Fire and Rain (James Taylor)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/T6dgDM1s

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/5ezYaz8DOi7Zc9L/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Taylor receiving the award from Neil Portnow, the head of MusiCares at the time. 

Various Artists - 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 10-29-2009

Here's a really great concert filled with lots of big stars performing classic songs. It was a two-day concert in New York City, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I'm posting both days of the concert, and this is the first one. I highly recommend this.

This two-day long concert had an unusual and interesting format: eight major artists were chosen: Crosby, Stills and Nash, Paul Simon (with and without Art Garfunkel), Stevie Wonder, and Bruce Springsteen for the first day, and Aretha Franklin, Jeff Beck, Metallica, and U2 for the second day. Each of those major stars were hosts for one fourth of the days they were on. Then they invited other stars to join them, to play a song or two. For instance, the first major artist, Crosby, Stills and Nash, had Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and James Taylor as their guests. The result was that, between the major stars and their guests, most of the major areas of rock and roll going back to the 1950s were represented. 

There were some key gaps though. For instance, although Mick Jagger was a guest on the second day to represent the Rolling Stones, there really wasn't any special representation of the Beatles, the most important musical act of all. (Although there were occasional covers of Beatles songs, at least.) Bob Dylan was also very missed. But then again, you can only do so much in two concerts containing about four hours each. 

I spent a long time putting this together. It was quite tricky. I was able to find all the songs from this, the first night, but only two and a half hours from the second night, even though that one probably lasted about four hours as well. The main source I used was an officially released DVD. But the longest version of that was only about three hours for both concerts combined. Plus, many of those were bonus tracks, which meant they were out of order and often had the starts and ends cut off.

Luckily for me, Wikipedia came through for me particularly well, with a list of all the songs performed in the correct order, including lots of details. You can see that, and more info about the concert, here:

25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts - Wikipedia 

From that, I was able to figure out the songs I was missing, and try to find them. It turns out four hours of highlights were shown on HBO the year the concert happened. That was longer than the DVD, so I found some extra songs there. Then I found an audience bootleg of the entire first day. That's why I was able to include all the songs. However, the sound quality of the songs from the audience bootleg was significantly poorer than the songs from the DVD and the HBO broadcast. But, luckily, I was able to clean things up quite a lot, by putting a lot of effort into audio editing. I ran all the audience boot sourced songs through two processes that I use in cases like this. For one thing, I used the MVSEP audio editing program to raise the volume of the lead vocals in contrast to the instruments. (That is such a common problem for concert bootlegs.) Then I also used MVSEP to wipe out the crowd noise during the songs, while keeping the cheers at the beginnings and ends of songs. In my opinion, that made the quality gap between the different sources a lot smaller, though still noticeable. ("Marrakesh Express" is an example of one of the audience boot sourced songs, and the songs just before and after it are not, if you want to make a comparison.)

However, I still had a lot of work to do. Another problem with the audience boot-sourced song is that the cheering at the ends of songs sounded quite different, with the sound of clapping of individual people near the taper more prominent. I mostly fixed this by copying and pasting cheering from the ends of DVD-sourced songs, and slathering it over the cheering of the audience boot-sourced songs. I also had a lot of transition issues. It was rare to have two songs in a row from the same source. I generally fixed that by patching in more generic cheering. Yet another problem was the banter between songs. The ones from the audience boot-sourced songs sounded really weak. So I did extra editing to pull the actual talking out from the background noise. 

I could go on and on. There were lots of little tweaks. But I'm hoping that the end result is this will sound like one coherent concert from one source, more or less, and you won't notice the "making of the sausage" with all the editing to get it to sound that way. It would be really great if this whole thing gets officially released one day, in top quality. But I'm not holding my breath waiting for that.

One thing that makes this concert special is all the collaborations. There are too many to count. Lots and lots of big names performing songs together, and usually the only time they ever did that for the songs. There were some interesting cover versions as well, as an attempt to have some inclusion of famous musician who died or otherwise didn't attend. Stevie Wonder singing the Michael Jackson song "The Way You Make Me Feel" and Paul Simon with Crosby and Nash singing "Here Comes the Sun" are just two examples of that.

This should particularly delight Bruce Springsteen fans. He dominated this first night, which his section of the concert lasting an hour and a half, easily the longest. And he assisted Jerry Lee Lewis on the first song of the night as well. (Plus, he showed up on the second night as well, as we shall see later.)

This album is four hours and eight minutes long.

01 talk (Tom Hanks)
02 talk (Jerry Lee Lewis)
03 Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On (Jerry Lee Lewis with Bruce Springsteen)
04 Woodstock (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
05 Marrakesh Express (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
06 talk (Graham Nash)
07 Almost Cut My Hair (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
08 talk (David Crosby)
09 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
10 Love Has No Pride (Bonnie Raitt & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
11 Midnight Rider (Bonnie Raitt & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
12 talk (Graham Nash)
13 talk (Jackson Browne)
14 The Pretender (Jackson Browne & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
15 talk (James Taylor)
16 Mexico (James Taylor & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
17 Love the One You're With (James Taylor & Crosby, Stills & Nash)
18 Rock and Roll Woman (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
19 talk (Graham Nash)
20 Teach Your Children (Crosby, Stills & Nash & Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne & James Taylor)
21 Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (Paul Simon)
22 Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Paul Simon)
23 You Can Call Me Al (Paul Simon)
24 talk (Paul Simon)
25 Here Comes the Sun (Paul Simon with Crosby & Nash)
26 talk (Paul Simon)
27 The Wanderer (Dion & Paul Simon)
28 Late in the Evening (Paul Simon)
29 talk (Paul Simon)
30 Two People in the World (Little Anthony & the Imperials)
31 The Sound of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel)
32 Mrs. Robinson - Not Fade Away (Simon & Garfunkel)
33 The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel)
34 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel)
35 Cecilia (Simon & Garfunkel)
36 Blowin' in the Wind (Stevie Wonder)
37 talk (Stevie Wonder)
38 Uptight [Everything's Alright] (Stevie Wonder)
39 I Was Made to Love Her (Stevie Wonder)
40 For Once in My Life (Stevie Wonder)
41 Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours (Stevie Wonder)
42 Boogie On Reggae Woman (Stevie Wonder)
43 talk (Stevie Wonder)
44 The Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson & Stevie Wonder)
45 talk (Stevie Wonder)
46 Mercy Mercy Me [The Ecology] (Stevie Wonder & John Legend)
47 The Way You Make Me Feel (Stevie Wonder with John Legend)
48 talk (Stevie Wonder)
49 The Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King & Stevie Wonder)
50 Living for the City (Stevie Wonder)
51 Higher Ground - Roxanne - Higher Ground (Sting & Stevie Wonder)
52 Superstition (Stevie Wonder & Jeff Beck)
53 10th Avenue Freeze-Out (Bruce Springsteen)
54 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
55 Hold On, I'm Comin' (Bruce Springsteen & Sam Moore)
56 Soul Man (Bruce Springsteen & Sam Moore)
57 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
58 The Ghost of Tom Joad (Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello)
59 Fortunate Son (John Fogerty & Bruce Springsteen)
60 Proud Mary (John Fogerty & Bruce Springsteen)
61 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
62 Oh, Pretty Woman (John Fogerty & Bruce Springsteen)
63 Jungleland (Bruce Springsteen)
64 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
65 A Fine, Fine Boy (Darlene Love & Bruce Springsteen)
66 Do Run Run Run (Darlene Love & Bruce Springsteen)
67 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
68 London Calling (Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello)
69 Badlands (Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello)
70 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
71 You May Be Right (Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen)
72 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
73 Only the Good Die Young (Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen)
74 New York State of Mind (Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen)
75 Born to Run (Billy Joel & Bruce Springsteen)
76 [Your Love Keeps Lifting Me] Higher and Higher (Everybody)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/QU2h1WV1

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/7oTCzzonspG0GVX/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right: John Fogerty, Darlene Love, Bruce Springsteen, and Sam Moore.

Various Artists- MusiCares Tribute to Neil Young, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1-29-2010

So far, I've posted three MusiCares tribute concerts. I recently got a request to post this one honoring Neil Young sooner rather than later, so here it is. I still have five more to post after this, so look for those eventually as well.

Tons of talented stars showed up to sing their favorite Neil Young songs. There's a lot of great music here. Unfortunately, there's also some that's missing. This comes from a DVD of the event. Generally speaking, only a small crowd of the rich and famous attend these MusiCares concerts, so bootlegs of them are very rare. We know from media accounts that three songs were performed that weren't included on the DVD. Those are:

"Long May You Run" by Stephen Stills & Sheryl Crow 
"Comes a Time" by Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin & Lucinda Williams
"A Man Needs a Maid" by Red Hot Chili Peppers

If anyone has any of those so I can add them, please let me know. I found a video of the Red Hot Chili Peppers song recorded on a cell phone and posted on YouTube, but the sound quality is terrible. I'm guessing a lot of the banter between songs was cut out as well. Actor Jack Black was the emcee, but he's not really heard at all in the recording.

Typically, the person honored in these tributes performs a couple of songs at the end of the concert. But while Neil Young was there, and gave a short speech, it seems he didn't perform any songs. 

Here's a good account of the concert by someone who attended:

https://tinnitist.com/2023/08/11/back-stories-neil-youngs-musicares-tribute-jan-29-2010/

And Rolling Stone Magazine published a bunch of photos from it, here:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/musicares-person-of-the-year-tribute-to-neil-young-210831/red-hot-chili-peppers-2-19005/

This album is an hour and eight minutes long.

01 Down by the River (John Mellencamp & T-Bone Burnett)
02 Mr. Soul (Ozomatli)
03 Don't Let It Bring You Down (Jackson Browne)
04 Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Lady Antebellum)
05 Tell Me Why (Norah Jones)
06 Broken Arrow (Wilco)
07 Harvest Moon (Josh Groban)
08 Revolution Blues (Everest)
09 Cinnamon Girl (Dierks Bentley & Booker T. Jones)
10 Ohio (Ben Harper)
11 Rockin' in the Free World (Keith Urban, John Fogerty & Booker T. Jones)
12 The Losing End [When You're On] (Elvis Costello)
13 Lotta Love (Jason Mraz & Shawn Colvin)
14 The Needle and the Damage Done (Dave Matthews)
15 Heart of Gold (James Taylor)
16 Helpless (Elton John, Leon Russell, Neko Case & Sheryl Crow)
17 Human Highway (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
18 talk (Neil Young)
19 Rockin' in the Free World [Reprise] (Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/BNxSXgS9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/UhnFSv0eArgOnvZ/file

The cover is from this exact concert. From left to right: Dave Matthews, Jason Mraz, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Shawn Colvin, and James Taylor.

Various Artists - MusiCares Tribute to Carole King, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1-24-2014

I recently started posting MusiCares tribute concerts. Here's another one. This one honors singer-songwriter Carole King, from 2014.

I've celebrated King's music on this blog quite a bit already. For instance, she and her songwriting partner Gerry Goffin are the subject of six albums in the "Covered" series. If there's an award for songwriting, she probably has gotten it, since she's written more hit songs than just about anybody on the planet. Oh, and her 1971 album "Tapestry" has sold over 15 million copies, making it one of the best selling albums of all time, as well as appearing in the Number 25 spot in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the top 500 albums of all time. Not to shabby. 

This follows the usual format of such benefit concerts. Lost of guest stars performed their versions of King's songs. Then King gave an acceptance speech. Then she played a few songs at the end of the concert. She had a particularly close relationship with James Taylor, going back to the early 1970s, so it's not too surprising that Taylor dueted with her on most of those final songs.

The music here has not been released in audio format. However, it has come out on a DVD. That's how we have a recording, since these MusiCares concerts generally haven't been bootlegged at all. I converted the DVD to audio format, then broke the music into mp3s. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 39 minutes long.

01 talk (emcee)
02 Hi De Ho [That Old Sweet Roll] (LeAnn Rimes & Steven Tyler)
03 So Far Away (Pink with Paul Mirkovich)
04 I Feel the Earth Move (Train)
05 talk (Lady Gaga)
06 You've Got a Friend (Lady Gaga)
07 talk (Gloria Estefan)
08 It's Too Late (Gloria Estefan)
09 talk (will.i.am)
10 Love Makes the World - Where Is the Love (will.i.am & Leah McFall)
11 Beautiful (Sara Bareilles, Zac Brown, Jason Mraz & Raining Jane)
12 Way Over Yonder (Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill & Darlene Love)
13 talk (Joy)
14 Where You Lead (Jesse & Joy)
15 Crying in the Rain (Miguel & Kacey Musgraves)
16 talk (Alicia Keys)
17 [You Make Me Feel Like] A Natural Woman (Alicia Keys)
18 Been to Canaan (Jennifer Nettles)
19 I'm into Something Good (Amy Grant)
20 It Might as Well Rain until September (Miranda Lambert)
21 One Fine Day (Martina McBride)
22 Up on the Roof (James Taylor)
23 talk (Neil Portnow)
24 talk (Carole King)
25 Home Again (Carole King, Moez Dawad & Ahmad A. El Haggar)
26 Sweet Seasons (Carole King & James Taylor)
27 talk (Carole King & James Taylor)
28 Hey Girl (Carole King & James Taylor)
29 talk (Carole King & James Taylor)
30 Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Carole King & James Taylor)
31 talk (Carole King)
32 Jazzman (Carole King & Tom Scott)
33 I Feel the Earth Move (Carole King & Everyone) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/LE6zAFv4

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/Qi10lCVRGcuAGWH/file

The album cover image is from this exact concert. From left to right: James Taylor, Zac Brown, Carole King, Sara Bareilles, and Jennifer Nettles. (I'm not counting the bald headed man behind King. I don't know who he is.)

James Taylor - Benefit for Gerry Studds, Cape Cod Coliseum, South Yarmouth, MA, 8-30-1975

Here's a great concert from James Taylor that seems to be surprisingly little known. What makes it stand out is that it was a solo acoustic concert in 1975, and he almost never performed in that mode after 1971, until decades later. It sounds much like Taylor playing to a small group of friends on his front porch (even though the venue actually held about 5,000 people).

This was a benefit concert for Gerry Studds, a Democrat, who was in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 to 1997. The concert took place a couple of months before the next election for Studds.

This actually consisted of two concerts. First, Taylor performed for about an hour, with a break halfway through. Then Studds gave a speech. Then Taylor performed for another hour, with another halfway break. I assume there were different crowds for the two sets, because Taylor played almost the exact same songs in the same order for both. This recording is based on the late show. There were only two songs exclusively performed in the early show: "Walking Man" and "Rainy Day Man." I put those at the start. Then the late show follows, in full. However, he sometimes made comments between songs in the early show that were different from comments he made in the late show. So I added those in as well. That means this is kind of a mix of both shows, due to some early show banter sprinkled in to the late show. But hopefully from a listener's point of view, it should sound like one seamless show.

The concert took place a few months after the release of Taylor's hit album "Gorilla." He played a couple of songs from the album, "Gorilla" and "Lighthouse," as a well as a B-side, "I Can Dream of You," written by his brother Livingston Taylor. But surprisingly, he didn't play either of the two big hits from the album, "Mexico" and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)." I strongly suspect that for some songs here, this is the only recording of them being performed in solo acoustic mode, but I don't know for sure. 

This concert is unreleased. There were no sound problems. However, I used some noise reduction on the banter to remove some hiss and background noise. But I didn't use any of that for the actual music. 

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long. 

01 talk (James Taylor)
02 Walking Man (James Taylor)
03 Rainy Day Man (James Taylor)
04 You Can Close Your Eyes (James Taylor)
05 talk (James Taylor)
06 Sunny Skies (James Taylor)
07 talk (James Taylor)
08 One Man Parade (James Taylor)
09 Brighten Your Night with My Day (James Taylor)
10 talk (James Taylor)
11 Things Go Better with Coke (James Taylor)
12 talk (James Taylor)
13 I Can Dream of You (James Taylor)
14 talk (James Taylor)
15 Anywhere like Heaven (James Taylor)
16 talk (James Taylor)
17 Mud Slide Slim (James Taylor)
18 talk (James Taylor)
19 Baby, It's Cold Outside (James Taylor)
20 talk (James Taylor)
21 talk (James Taylor)
22 Hello Old Friend (James Taylor)
23 talk (James Taylor)
24 Riding on a Railroad (James Taylor)
25 talk (James Taylor)
26 Blossom (James Taylor)
27 Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight (James Taylor)
28 Gorilla (James Taylor)
29 Circle Round the Sun (James Taylor)
30 Lighthouse (James Taylor)
31 talk (James Taylor)
32 Migration (James Taylor)
33 Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
34 talk (James Taylor)
35 Steamroller (James Taylor)
36 talk (James Taylor)
37 Sweet Baby James (James Taylor) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/pXmTf5wb 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/Aqi04KxiJDsvnLZ/file

Listening to the banter between songs, I heard Taylor complain about the great heat. So that means this concert must have taken place in the middle of the day. Based on that, I wanted to use a photo of him outside. I couldn't find any photos of him in concert outside in the mid-1970s. I ended up using a screenshot taken from a movie he starred in in 1971 called "Two Lane Blacktop." The hair blowing in the wind on the right side was cropped off in the original photo, but I used the AI powers of Photoshop to extend the image on that side.

Various Artists - Gershwin Prize for Popular Song Honoring Paul Simon, Warner Theatre, Washington, DC, 5-23-2007

Here's another "Gershwin Prize for Popular Song" concert. This one honors Paul Simon.

This was the very first Gershwin Prize to be awarded. In 1998, some entertainment producers and promoters came up with the idea of having an award for comedians, which resulted in the annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, connected to the Library of Congress and with an annual concert broadcast on PBS TV stations. That idea turned out to be a big success, so in 2003 the same group came up with the same idea, but for musicians. Then I guess it took a few more years before the first prize was awarded in 2007. You can read more about the prize and its history here:

Gershwin Prize - Wikipedia 

In this concert, there weren't that many guest stars performing Simon's songs. But that meant that most of the bigger names there (Lyle Lovett, James Taylor, Alison Krauss, Marc Anthony, and Stevie Wonder) got to perform two songs instead of the usual one.

As is usually the case with such concerts, it ended with a short set by the honoree, Paul Simon. Given the huge role Art Garfunkel had in Simon's music career as part of Simon and Garfunkel, I feel he got kind of dissed here, being only involved in one song, "Bridge Over Troubled Water." But the two of them had a turbulent relationship for decades. Their last tour together would take place in 2009, and their last performance together in 2010. After that, they had a more severe and prolonged falling out, though I was glad to see it reported that by 2024 they had reconciled as friends again.

This albums in unreleased in audio format. However, a DVD of it has been released. Strangely, it seems to be the only Gershwin Prize concert released on DVD. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 36 minutes long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 talk (Bob Costas)
03 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (Lyle Lovett)
04 The Boxer (Alison Krauss, Shawn Colvin & Jerry Douglas)
05 Mother and Child Reunion (Stephen Marley)
06 Homeless (Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
07 Slip Slidin' Away (James Taylor & the Dixie Hummingbirds)
08 Sunday Morning with the Sensational Nightingales (Billy Collins & the Dixie Hummingbirds)
09 That Was Your Mother (Lyle Lovett with Buckwheat Zydeco)
10 Still Crazy After All These Years (James Taylor)
11 El Condor Pasa (Marc Anthony)
12 Late in the Evening (Marc Anthony)
13 Gone at Last (Yolanda Adams & Jessy Dixon)
14 Something So Right (Dianne Reeves)
15 The 59th Street Bridge Song [Feelin' Groovy] (Grover & Elmo of the Muppets)
16 Graceland (Alison Krauss & Jerry Douglas)
17 talk (emcee)
18 talk (James H. Billingston)
19 talk (Paul Simon)
20 Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes (Paul Simon & Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
21 talk (Paul Simon)
22 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel)
23 talk (Paul Simon)
24 Father and Daughter (Paul Simon)
25 Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Paul Simon with Stevie Wonder)
26 talk (Paul Simon)
27 Loves Me like a Rock (Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder & the Dixie Hummingbirds)
28 The Sound of Silence [Instrumental Version] (Philip Glass)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/C2ct9sek

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/3k0vX3n5GD90SUE/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. It shows Simon with Stevie Wonder and some members of the Dixie Hummingbirds when they performed "Loves Me like a Rock" together.

Various Artists - An All-Star Tribute to Joni Mitchell, Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, 4-6-2000

For a few years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the TNT TV network hosted a few annual "all-star tributes" to some music legends. I've already posted albums of such tribute shows to Johnny Cash, Brian Wilson, and Paul Simon. Here's another one, celebrating the music of Joni Mitchell.

This concert actually featured Joni Mitchell herself, but she had a relatively minor role. At the very end, she performed one song and gave a short speech. Instead, the bulk of the concert consisted of famous musical acts performing her songs. Just look at the cover or at the song list to see the names. There also were some famous non-musicians who talked a little bit between songs, such as actors Susan Sarandon and Laurence Fishburne, and the main host, Ashley Judd. Plus, I never thought my music blog would have a track by Hillary Clinton, but here we are.

If I recall correctly, there was some more stuff to this concert that I edited out, such as testimonials about Mitchell's life and career, narrated by the likes of Goldie Hawn and Rosie O'Donnell. I kept the focus on the songs, and introductions to the songs.

The Stone Temple Pilots were also due to perform at this concert. However, the band's lead singer, Scott Weiland, blew his voice out by performing three full concerts the day before. They were due to perform the song "Woodstock." At the last minute, Richard Thompson stepped up to perform that song instead. That's why he's the only performer here to do two songs, because he also had been scheduled to perform the song "Black Crow." 

Note that the final song, "The Circle Game," faded out before it ended. Probably that's when the TV broadcast came to an end. I extended it a bit by repeating a chorus from earlier in the song and then fading it out. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in its title.

There's an amazing official Joni Mitchell website, www.jonimitchell.com. It has a webpage just on this concert, with lots of pictures and dozens of newspaper articles about it. Here's a link:

Joni Mitchell - 2000.04.06 | An All-Star Tribute To Joni Mitchell Hammerstein Ballroom | New York 

This album remains officially unreleased as an audio album. However, a DVD of it has been released. But this is about ten minutes longer. The sound quality is excellent. 

This concert is an hour and 18 minutes long. 

01 Raised on Robbery (Wynonna Judd & Bryan Adams)
02 talk (Ashley Judd)
03 Carey (Cyndi Lauper)
04 talk (Ashley Judd)
05 Woodstock (Richard Thompson)
06 talk (Hillary Clinton)
07 Chelsea Morning (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
08 Big Yellow Taxi (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter with James Taylor)
09 talk (James Taylor)
10 River (James Taylor)
11 talk (Ashley Judd)
12 You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio (Wynonna Judd)
13 talk (Susan Sarandon)
14 Help Me (k.d. Lang)
15 talk (Laurence Fishburne)
16 The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines (Cassandra Wilson)
17 talk (Ashley Judd)
18 The Circle Game (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
19 talk (Ashley Judd)
20 talk (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
21 Amelia (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
22 talk (Ashley Judd)
23 Black Crow (Richard Thompson)
24 talk (Richard Thompson)
25 talk (Ashley Judd)
26 Free Man in Paris (Elton John)
27 talk (Elton John)
28 A Case of You (Diana Krall)
29 talk (Ashley Judd)
30 talk (Tony Bennett)
31 Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)
32 talk (Joni Mitchell)
33 The Circle Game [Reprise] [Edit] (Joni Mitchell & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/acNAjTY6

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/GVHWLt1ZTKXHMpu/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right, that's Joni Mitchell, James Taylor (in back), Cassandra Wilson, Shawn Colvin, and Elton John.

Various Artists - New York Children’s Health Project Benefit, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 12-13-1987

The first thing I want to make clear is that, while this is a star-studded benefit concert, it is also in large part a Paul Simon concert. Out of the 32 songs here, Simon sang lead on 11 of them, and backing vocals on another three. That's because Simon was the host and the prime mover behind the cause for this benefit.

I did a little research on how this concert came to be, and I think it makes for an interesting story. Apparently, when Simon was working on his studio album "Graceland" in 1985 or 1986, he was taking going to his recording studio in the heart of New York City most every day. Each morning, he would make eye contact with a homeless girl begging on a street corner. But eventually, after months, she didn't show up for a while. He asked around, and found out that she had died. Being homeless, she had no access to health care. Simon decided he wanted to do something to help.

Around this time, homelessness had greatly risen in New York City. Plus, many thousands of families were packed into squalid welfare hotels. Simon connected with Dr. Irwin Ledlener. a pediatrician, who was already working on the problem. 

Ledlener later recalled, "We went on a tour of some of the not-so-hot spots in the city. We went to the welfare hotels, to boarder-baby facilities where they had these infants whose mothers were crack
cocaine addicts, and we went to some of the infant H.I.V. programs. It was a hell of a day, just one thing after another." Simon and Ledlener decided that it was obvious many homeless children weren't getting any health care, so they decided to make that their focus. 

Ledlener told him it would cost about $90,000 for a mobile van to bring health care to where the homeless where. Simon paid for that out of his own pocket, and the van began operating in the fall of 1987. But it soon became clear that just one van wasn't enough. Plus, there were upkeep costs, and the need for a charity group (called the "Children's Health Fund") to keep medical records on the homeless kids no matter how often they moved. So Simon put this concert together. It raised about half a million dollars, which was doubled by a contribution from his record company. 

More vans were bought. The results were impressive, so the program kept expanding. By 2005, the charity had expanded far beyond New York City. They had 20 vans in 14 states. Simon followed up with two more benefit concerts (in 1993 and 2012) to help keep the charity funded. All in all, it seems like one of the best results of a benefit concert that I've heard of, although it's a shame the government wasn't performing this help already.

Anyway, getting to the details of this concert, keep in mind that Simon's most recent project was his wildly successful "Graceland" album, released in 1986. That sold 16 million copies worldwide. So perhaps it's not too surprising that Simon played eight songs from that album, while he still had support from the vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo and other South African musicians that had gone on tour with him to support the album. I checked, and this was essentially the very last concert of Simon's Graceland tour.

Other than that, there were short sets by Lou Reed, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Dion, Laurie Anderson, Bruce Springsteen, Ruben Blades, James Taylor, Nile Rodgers and Chaka Khan. Apparently, Billy Joel wasn't scheduled to take part, but since he dropped in at the last minute, he did an impromptu song. I believe Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five played a song, but it got cut from the bootleg I found. I think you can hear him for about ten seconds at the end of the Nile Rodgers medley, introducing Chaka Khan. Paul Shaffer & the World's Most Dangerous Band backed most of the musical stars who didn't bring their own bands, like Bruce Springsteen. Debbie Harry and Grace Jones were there, but they only introduced Lou Reed and then helped sing backing vocals to "Walk on the Wild Side."

One special moment was that Dion was backed by some major star power on his song "A Teenager in Love." His backing vocalists were Ruben Blades, James Taylor, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed! You can see how that looked from the album cover. That's a sign of how much of a musical influence he was on all of them, since he came from an earlier generation.

There were some celebrity appearances as well. Springsteen was introduced by New York baseball stars Ron Darling and Don Mattingly. Whoopi Goldberg introduced Nile Rodgers. She spoke for longer, but I cut out some of it because she was just stalling for time while the band got ready, as she admitted, and it showed. Comedian Bill Cosby gave a speech prior to introducing Ruben Blades. But I cut out all of it except for a few words introducing Blades, since I can't stand to hear him due to his later revealed history of rape. Lorne Michaels, Kevin Nealon and Chevy Chase introduced James Taylor.

As far as I know, everything here remains unreleased. But the bootleg I found has soundboard quality.

This album is three hours and 13 minutes long.

01 The Boy in the Bubble (Paul Simon)
02 Gumboots (Paul Simon)
03 Whispering Bells (Paul Simon)
04 talk (Paul Simon)
05 Crazy Love, Vol. II (Paul Simon)
06 I Know What I Know (Paul Simon)
07 talk (Paul Shaffer & the World's Most Dangerous Band)
08 Treat Her Right (Paul Shaffer & the World's Most Dangerous Band)
09 talk (Paul Shaffer, Debbie Harry & Grace Jones)
10 Tell It to Your Heart (Lou Reed)
11 talk (Lou Reed)
12 New Sensations (Lou Reed)
13 Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed with Debbie Harry & Grace Jones)
14 talk (Lou Reed)
15 The Wanderer (Dion)
16 Runaround Sue (Dion)
17 talk (Dion)
18 A Teenager in Love (Dion with Simon, Springsteen, Joel, Reed, Taylor & Blades)
19 talk (Paul Simon)
20 Yinhle Lentombi (Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
21 Homeless (Paul Simon & Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
22 Graceland (Paul Simon)
23 talk (Paul Simon)
24 You Can Call Me Al (Paul Simon)
25 talk (Paul Simon)
26 talk (Paul Simon)
27 Babydoll (Laurie Anderson)
28 Let x = x (Laurie Anderson)
29 talk (Paul Simon, Ron Darling & Don Mattingly)
30 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
31 Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen)
32 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
33 Glory Days (Bruce Springsteen with Paul Simon & Billy Joel)
34 Cuentas del Alma (Ruben Blades)
35 talk (Ruben Blades)
36 Muevete (Ruben Blades)
37 talk (Paul Simon, Lorne Michaels, Kevin Nealon & Chevy Chase)
38 Looking for Love on Broadway (James Taylor)
39 Carolina in My Mind (James Taylor)
40 That Lonesome Road (James Taylor)
41 talk (Whoopi Goldberg)
42 talk (Nile Rodgers)
43 We Are Family - Le Freak - Good Times (Nile Rodgers)
44 I Feel for You (Chaka Khan with Nile Rodgers)
45 talk (Paul Simon)
46 New York State of Mind (Billy Joel)
47 Still Crazy After All These Years (Paul Simon)
48 Late in the Evening (Paul Simon)
49 Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes - Drums (Paul Simon with Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
50 talk (Everybody)
51 Rock and Roll Music (Bruce Springsteen & Everybody)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/jKCnMBjU

alternate

https://bestfile.io/en/uLq5HEnWr1SO0XO/file

The cover photo was taken at this exact concert. It shows the moment Dion was backed by an impressive bunch of stars on the song "A Teenager in Love." From left to right, that's Ruben Blades, James Taylor, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, and Dion. Dion had been further over to the left by about ten feet. In fact, I took him from a different photo taken in the same sequence. Then I used Photoshop to move him close to Springsteen.

James Taylor - VH-1 Storytellers, VH-1 Storytellers Studio, New York City, 5-31-1997

Next up for "VH-1 Storytellers" is an episode featuring singer-songwriter James Taylor.

This one is twice as long as a typical episode of this TV show. I don't know if that's because it was broken into two episodes or if it's a bootleg that contained the full concert. But either way, we get lots of music.

In 1997, Taylor released the studio album "Hourglass," his first studio album in six years. It was seen as a comeback for him, both commercially and critically. It was his first Top Ten album in the U.S. in 16 years, selling over a million copies. It also won him a Grammy Award for Best Pop Album.

He performed six songs from his new album: "Line 'Em Up," "Hangnail," "Jump Up Behind Me," "Enough to Be on Your Way," "Little More Time with You," and "Another Day." His other songs were generally classics from older albums. On some songs he played solo acoustic, while on others he was backed by a small band.

Note that one song from this performance was officially released: "Mexico." It appeared on a various artists collection of Storytellers highlights.

This album is an hour and 24 minutes long.

01 talk (James Taylor)
02 Carolina in My Mind (James Taylor)
03 talk (James Taylor)
04 Sweet Baby James (James Taylor)
05 talk (James Taylor)
06 Jump Up Behind Me (James Taylor)
07 talk (James Taylor)
08 Mexico (James Taylor)
09 talk (James Taylor)
10 Mona (James Taylor)
11 talk (James Taylor)
12 Enough to Be on Your Way (James Taylor)
13 talk (James Taylor)
14 Little More Time with You (James Taylor)
15 talk (James Taylor)
16 Steamroller (James Taylor)
17 Copperline (James Taylor)
18 talk (James Taylor)
19 The Frozen Man (James Taylor)
20 talk (James Taylor)
21 Riding on the Railroad (James Taylor)
22 talk (James Taylor)
23 Hangnail (James Taylor)
24 talk (James Taylor)
25 Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
26 talk (James Taylor)
27 Another Day (James Taylor)
28 talk (James Taylor)
29 Line 'Em Up (James Taylor)
30 talk (James Taylor)
31 Valentine's Day (James Taylor)
32 talk (James Taylor)
33 Mudslide Slim and the Blue Horizon (James Taylor)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17187506/JAMSTYLR1997StrytllrsStrytllrsStdoNwYrkC__5-31-1997_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/h5zNseeB

The cover is a screenshot from this exact concert. It was rather low-res, so I used the Krea AI program to sharpen it up.

No Nukes Concerts, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 9-20-1979 to 9-23-1979: James Taylor with Carly Simon

Next up is the fourth album I'm posting from the 1979 No Nukes concerts. This time it's James Taylor. He sang duets with his wife at the time, Carly Simon, on the last two songs. So I gave her partial billing too, even though her role was a relatively minor one.

James Taylor was a big star at the time of this concert. He had hits all the way through the 1970s, including one earlier in 1979, "Up on the Roof." This concert was with a full band, and he rocked more than I expected on a couple of the songs.

This album is put together from multiple concerts, like some of the others from No Nukes. The first ten tracks are from the September 20th concert in Madison Square Garden. The remainder are from the September 23rd concert, also in Madison Square Garden. Note that I found an audience bootleg with some other songs ("Up on the Roof" and "Carolina in My Mind") but the sound quality was too poor to merit their inclusion.

Two of the songs here had serious problems. I fixed one of them quite well, I think. The bootleg I used was missing a big chunk at the start of "Your Smiling Face." However, I found the rest of it from the 1980 "No Nukes" movie, and I patched that in. A big portion of "Sweet Baby James" was missing too. Unfortunately, the only fix I could find came from a rough audience bootleg. I used all the audio editing tricks I could, but the first two minutes still sounds noticeably worse than the rest. Luckily, that song was done in a solo acoustic format, so the audience boot part doesn't sound as bad as it did on full band songs. 

Carly Simon was married to Taylor from 1972 until 1983. However, Taylor enjoyed going on tour frequently, and Simon hated to perform concerts at all, and did so very rarely. This was one major reason why they got divorced. In keeping with that difference, Taylor seems to have played sets each of the four nights of the No Nukes concerts, while Simon didn't do any set of her own, despite also being a big star. However, she did sing two songs at the ends of Taylor's sets, both cover versions, and also took part in helping to sing the concert finales each night. One of the songs Taylor and Simon sang together, "Mockingbird," was a bit hit for them as a duet in 1974. 

Taylor released the album "Flag" in May 1979. Two of the songs here, "Brother Trucker" and "Millworker," first appeared on that album.

There were a surprisingly big number of Taylor songs on the official "No Nukes" album compared to other performers: "Captain Jim's Drunken Dream," "Honey Don't Leave L.A.," "The Times They Are A-Changin'," and "Mockingbird." But as I mentioned with previous albums from these concerts, he performed these on multiple nights, so I don't know if these versions are exactly the same as the officially released ones or not. Everything else is unreleased.

This album is 52 minutes long.

01 Your Smiling Face [Edit] (James Taylor)
02 talk (James Taylor)
03 Stand and Fight (James Taylor)
04 Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight (James Taylor)
05 talk (James Taylor)
06 Brother Trucker (James Taylor)
07 talk (James Taylor)
08 Mexico (James Taylor)
09 talk (James Taylor)
10 Honey Don't Leave L.A. (James Taylor)
11 talk (James Taylor) (James Taylor)
02 Sweet Baby James [Edit] (James Taylor)
13 talk (James Taylor)
14 Long Ago and Far Away (James Taylor)
15 Millworker (James Taylor)
16 Captain Jim's Drunken Dream (James Taylor)
17 Lo and Behold (James Taylor)
18 The Times They Are A-Changin' (James Taylor & Carly Simon with John Hall & Graham Nash)
19 Mockingbird (James Taylor & Carly Simon)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17362828/VA-NONUKS1979MdisnSqurGrdnNwYrkC__9-20___9-23-1979JmsTylratse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/YRjYanae

 I could have used just a photo of Taylor for the album cover, but I didn't have any really good ones from the No Nukes concerts. I found a decent one of him and Simon from the concerts though, and decided to use that.

Various Artists - Gershwin Prize for Popular Song Honors Joni Mitchell, D.A.R. Constitution Hall, Washington DC, 3-1-2023

Last month as I write this, in March 2023, Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell was awarded the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. A TV show of this event was filmed and broadcast a few days ago. That's why there now is an audio recording of it in excellent quality.

Mitchell is 79 years old as I write this, and she isn't in the best of health. In 2013, she had a brain aneurysm and nearly died. She had to relearn how to sing and play guitar from scratch. The good news is that she had made a remarkable recovery. She played a set at the Newport Folk Festival in 2022, and she's scheduled to perform a full concert in June 2023. However, for this show, she only sang for two songs at the end. The rest features other musical artists performing some of her best known songs.

I edited this down a bit. I kept all the music, but I cut out some extraneous material between songs. For instance, there were some extra testimonials about Mitchell by people who didn't actually perform any songs. Garth Brooks was one of them. As another example, there was a brief interview with Mitchell filmed at another time in which she was asked her opinion of jazz musician Wayne Shorter, who had died recently. There also were speeches and introductions by various people, including a bunch of US senators and other politicians. I cut all that out, and only kept comments by artists that were relevant to the songs they were about to play. I also included Mitchell's acceptance speech, which appears to be surprisingly brief, less than a minute long.

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

UPDATE: On August 24, 2025, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is the same. However, I changed the title slightly and used a new cover image. This is so the album look could fit in with other albums in the Gershwin Prize series.

01 talk (Marcus Mumford)
02 Carey (Marcus Mumford with Brandi Carlile & Lucius)
03 talk (Brandi Carlile)
04 Both Sides Now (Annie Lennox with Brandi Carlile & Lucius)
05 Help Me (Angelique Kidjo)
06 talk (James Taylor)
07 California (James Taylor)
08 talk (Brandi Carlile)
09 Shine (Brandi Carlile with Lucius & Celisse)
10 talk (Ledisi)
11 Big Yellow Taxi (Brandi Carlile, Angelique Kidjo, Cyndi Lauper, Annie Lennox, Ledisi & Lucius)
12 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
13 Blue (Cyndi Lauper)
14 A Case of You (Graham Nash)
15 talk (Herbie Hancock)
16 River (Herbie Hancock & Ledisi)
17 talk (Diana Krall)
18 For the Roses (Diana Krall)
19 talk (Joni Mitchell)
20 Summertime (Joni Mitchell with Brandi Carlile, Lucius & Celisse)
21 The Circle Game (Joni Mitchell & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/woAWCFJo

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/l2HX4nYfqsqWpla/file

The cover is a photo from the TV show.

Joni Mitchell with James Taylor - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Paris Theatre, London, Britain, 10-29-1970

Note that I've already posted this concert back in 2018. But I'm posting it again because I realized my original post has an accuracy problem. I took that from a bootleg that presented the concert as a joint one between Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, with both of them singing some of their own songs. However, it turns out that's not actually how the concert really was. Some of those songs were taken from other concerts around the same time, giving Taylor a larger role. I've decided to keep that version, for those who just want a good listen and aren't that interested in the accuracy. If you want it, it's still at this link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/07/joni-mitchell-james-taylor-in-concert.html

But for those who want this concert exactly as it happened, I'm presenting this version. Taylor was present, but it was mostly a Mitchell concert. Taylor played and sang backing vocals on a few of her songs in the second half of the show, but he only sang one of his own, "You Can Close Your Eyes," done as a duet with her, with her vocals arguably more prominent.

The BBC must have really loved Mitchell in 1970, because she did a BBC concert in September 1970, which I've just renamed as "BBC Sessions, Volume 1. You can get there here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2021/11/joni-mitchell-in-concert-bbc-television.html

Yet she was back two months later with this concert, playing many of the same songs. Perhaps the reason they had her again was the added appeal of having Taylor join her for some songs. In any case, they're both concerts worth hearing, with excellent sound quality. This is arguably the better one, not only because of Taylor but also because it's about 20 minutes longer. She was very talkative between songs, and there's some good banter between her and him.

This full concert has been officially released as part of the "Archives, Volume 2" box set. That's how I noticed I had some songs added in from other sources.

01 talk (Joni Mitchell)
02 That Song about the Midway (Joni Mitchell)
03 talk (Joni Mitchell)
04 The Gallery (Joni Mitchell)
05 Hunter (Joni Mitchell)
06 talk (Joni Mitchell)
07 River (Joni Mitchell)
08 My Old Man (Joni Mitchell)
09 The Priest (Joni Mitchell)
10 talk (Joni Mitchell)
11 Carey (Joni Mitchell)
12 A Case of You (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
13 talk (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
14 California (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
15 talk (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
16 [He Played Real Good] For Free (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
17 talk (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
18 The Circle Game (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
19 talk (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
20 You Can Close Your Eyes (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
21 Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)
22 talk (Joni Mitchell)
23 Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376018/JONIMCHLLJAMSTYLR1970BBInCncrtParsTheatreLondnBrtin__10-29-1970.zip.html

I wanted to use a color photo of Mitchell and Taylor playing music together for the cover. Unfortunately I couldn't find one, but I found a black and white one that's the cover of a bootleg for this show. I kept most of the design and just changed some of the text. Then, months later, I figured out how to colorize it. The photo was taken at a concert in Queens College in New York in December 1970.

James Taylor - Jabberwocky Club, Syracuse, NY, 2-6-1970

I have a particular fondness for solo acoustic performances, so when it comes to live James Taylor music, it's not a big surprise that I especially love his solo acoustic concerts. Unfortunately, those are few and far between. In 2007, he released a nice live album called "One Man Band" that features just him on guitar plus a keyboard player. But other than concerts around the time of that live album, the only other time I know of when he played in that format was at the very start of his career, in 1970. It's probable, like Bonnie Raitt when she started out, that he simply couldn't afford a band to support him yet.

There are a couple of excellent solo acoustic concert recordings by Taylor in 1970. This is one, and I plan on posting the other at a later date. We luckily have this one because the Jabberwocky Club was essentially run by students at the local college, and they regularly broadcast the concerts on the local college radio station, WAER. (Speaking of Raitt, I've posted a concert of her at the same club from 1971.) We're very lucky to have this pristine recording, because although Taylor had put out one album in 1968, it had essentially flopped. His next album, "Sweet Baby James," would be a smash, sell millions, and go on to be included on many best albums of all time lists. But this concert took place a couple weeks prior to the release of the album, so he was relatively unknown. (That probably helps explain why he was playing at a club of only a couple hundred people at the time.)

Once Taylor hit the big time, he began the usual trend of playing songs from his latest album plus the greatest hits from previous albums. He's been frustratingly predictable, with few unusual song choices. But in early 1970, he simply didn't have that option, because he didn't have much material yet. As a result, he peppered his concerts with lots of interesting cover versions. I've already posted an album that compiles his 1970 cover versions, which you can find here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/06/james-taylor-acoustic-cover-songs-1970.html

Eleven out of the 21 songs on that album are the exact same performances as on this concert. But it's worth hearing the concert in full. For one thing, the covers are just one third of all the songs played here. But also, this includes all of his banter. He has entertaining comments before nearly every single song.

Actually, both the concerts on February 6th and 7th were recorded and broadcast. The two concerts were so similar that I've only included the February 6th show, plus three songs at the end that were only played on the 7th. It seems probable that only the second and third sets of each night were saved for posterity. I've removed a couple of references to the end of the set in the middle of this recording, because it otherwise would be a bit odd to hear him talking about only playing one or two more songs in the middle of it.

I made a few edits to this. As I often do, I broke the banter into their own tracks, then boosted the volume for those. Also, there was a fair amount of hiss. I didn't fit in a problem during the songs. But for the banter, the hiss really stood out during the silent parts. So I applied some noise reduction, but only to the banter. I also made a couple other minor fixes, like when the applause faded out too quickly.

This concert is an hour and 37 minutes long, including the three songs at the end from the show one night later.

01 talk (James Taylor)
02 Rainy Day Man (James Taylor)
03 talk (James Taylor)
04 Diamond Joe (James Taylor)
05 talk (James Taylor)
06 Things Go Better with Coke (James Taylor)
07 talk (James Taylor)
08 Machine Gun Kelly (James Taylor)
09 talk (James Taylor)
10 Anywhere like Heaven (James Taylor)
11 talk (James Taylor)
12 Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
13 talk (James Taylor)
14 Circle Round the Sun [I Know You Rider] (James Taylor)
15 talk (James Taylor)
16 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (James Taylor)
17 Carolina in My Mind (James Taylor)
18 talk (James Taylor)
19 Sunshine Sunshine (James Taylor)
20 talk (James Taylor)
21 Dixie (James Taylor)
22 talk (James Taylor)
23 Hallelujah, I Love Her So (James Taylor)
24 talk (James Taylor)
25 Blossom (James Taylor)
26 talk (James Taylor)
27 Sunny Skies (James Taylor)
28 talk (James Taylor)
29 Brighten Your Night with My Day (James Taylor)
30 talk (James Taylor)
31 Pretty Boy Floyd (James Taylor)
32 talk (James Taylor)
33 Yesterday (James Taylor)
34 talk (James Taylor)
35 Steamroller (James Taylor)
36 talk (James Taylor)
37 Country Road (James Taylor)
38 talk (James Taylor)
39 Duncan and Brady (James Taylor)
40 talk (James Taylor)
41 Hush-a-Bye (James Taylor)
42 Something in the Way She Moves (James Taylor)
43 talk (James Taylor)
44 Taking It In (James Taylor)
45 talk (James Taylor)
46 If I Needed Someone (James Taylor)
47 talk (James Taylor)
48 Sweet Baby James (James Taylor)
49 talk (James Taylor)
50 People Get Ready (James Taylor)
51 talk (James Taylor)
52 Something's Wrong (James Taylor)
53 talk (James Taylor)
54 Knocking 'Round the Zoo (James Taylor)
55 talk (James Taylor)
56 Satisfied Mind (James Taylor)

https://www.imagenetz.de/f9eWu

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ReAEDnVM

second alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/hnL00NPYkYVUW9c/file

The cover art photo is of Taylor in concert in 1970, but I don't know which concert exactly. Although I couldn't find a photo of him at the Jabberwocky Club, I did find the club's logo, so I added that in. Also, his nose was covered by the microphone, and it wasn't a good look. So I used Photoshop to move the microphone back a bit, then pasted in a different nose to fill in the missing spot.

Various Artists - A Night for Austin Benefit Concert, 6-10-2020

Back in June 2020, there was a benefit concert to help concert venues in Austin, Texas that were in financial danger due to the coronavirus lockdown ending all concerts for a while. It was organized by the married couple Paul Simon and Edie Brickell, and they got a lot of big names to help out. I missed hearing about the concert when in happened, but I'm catching up to it now.

Generally speaking, each artist only performed one song. As the hosts, Paul Simon took part in three songs, and Edie Brickell took part in two. Because this was recorded at the height of coronavirus related problems, there was no fixed location. Instead, all the performances were recorded in advance in the musician's homes. 

I've cut this down a fair amount to make it better for repeat listenings. I didn't remove any of the music. However, there was a lot of talking between songs, and I cut that down quite a lot. There was a lot of talk praising Austin, Texas as a musical hub, and people complimenting Simon and Brickell for arranging the benefit concert, and asking people for donations to help out, and so on.

There have been a lot of these kinds of benefit concerts since the pandemic began. Most of them don't interest me that much. But I like most of the artists here, and the song selection. Simon and Brickell kept the quality control high. 

The concert is an hour and forty minutes long.

By the way, I had to figure out the names of all the songs. I think I got them all right, except for one. I didn't know the title of the 19th track, done by Flaco Jimenez, but a kind commenter gave me the name, so I've fixed that one.

01 Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Paul Simon)
02 Sailin' On Through (Terry Allen)
03 Rainy Taxi (Britt Daniel)
04 The Governor (Gary Clark, Jr.)
05 Lonestar (Norah Jones)
06 Shadows (Kalu & the Electric Joint)
07 Roll with What You've Got (Charlie Sexton with Doyle Bramhall II)
08 [Get Your Kicks On] Route 66 (Asleep at the Wheel)
09 Easy Does It (David Ramirez)
10 [Hey Baby] Que Paso (Augie Meyers with Flaco Jimenez & Los Texmaniacs)
11 When It Don't Come Easy (Patty Griffin)
12 Baby, Please Come Home (Jimmy Vaughan)
13 Five Hearts Breaking (Alejandro Escovedo)
14 Colors (Black Pumas)
15 Mr. Lee (Paul Simon & Edie Brickell)
16 The Last Thing on My Mind [Instrumental Version] (Jerry Douglas)
17 Too Sick to Pray (Ethan Hawke & Indiana Hawke)
18 Lovers in a Dangerous Time (Shawn Colvin)
19 Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio (Flaco Jimenez & Los Texmaniacs)
20 No Wicked Grin (John Hiatt)
21 When Something Is Wrong with My Baby (Bonnie Raitt & Boz Scaggs)
22 Pontiac (Ryan Bingham)
23 Just Outside of Austin (Lukas Nelson)
24 If I Had a Boat (Lyle Lovett)
25 Little Brother (Vince Gill)
26 Keep Believing (Edit Brickell)
27 America (James Taylor)
28 Homeward Bound (Paul Simon)
29 On the Road Again (Willie Nelson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zxh3gDTF

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/yi07m5b1AQ7NlgH/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/e8Hmd

The album cover is based on a promotional poster for the concert. The poster was rectangular, with the bottom portion listing all the artists who took part. I simply cut that part off, and the rest fit in a square space very nicely. So I didn't make any changes except cropping the image, and pasting in the date of the concert at the bottom.

Joni Mitchell & James Taylor - In Concert - Paris Theatre, London, Britain, 10-29-1970

For much of 1970, and into early 1971, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor were romantically involved. I mention this because it resulted in some good music, including both of them writing songs about each other. (Much of Mitchell's "Blue" album is about Taylor, including "All I Want" and "Blue," as well as other songs like "See You Sometime" and "Just like This Train." Taylor's songs about Mitchell include "You Can Close Your Eyes," "Love Has Brought Me Around," and "New Tune.")

However, perhaps the highlight of their musical connection was a concert they did for the BBC in October 1970. It was an hour long radio show called "In Concert" that was hosted by the famous British DJ John Peel. This is that concert.

What exactly happened, and where, with this concert is confusing. The John Peel Wiki website lists two BBC concerts Mitchell and Taylor did together, and suggests one might have taken place at the Royal Albert Hall. But Mitchell's official website jonimitchell.com only has one they did together, and an official version of all of it was released on "Archives, Volume 2" in 2021. So I've posted that exact version elsewhere on this blog. You can find that here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2023/01/joni-mitchell-with-james-taylor-bbc.html

That one is basically a Joni Mitchell concert, with Taylor only assisting on five songs, only one of which was written by him. Consider this instead a kind of fantasy version of a more ideal Mitchell and Taylor concert, with both of them sharing the stage more equally.

Some of the songs come from a popular bootleg that is said to be this BBC one, yet has songs not on the officially released version. Perhaps there was a second concert with Taylor, or maybe more songs were played and some were cut for the final broadcast? In any case, these songs exist somehow, from somewhere, and many of them definitely feature Mitchell and Taylor together.

But also, when I first put this concert together in 2018, I felt there was an imbalance of too many Mitchell songs compared to Taylor's. To make up for this, I included some extra songs of Taylor's from another show done only two weeks earlier, the Amchikta benefit that helped fund the start of Greenpeace. Both Mitchell and Taylor played at that concert, and Taylor joined Mitchell through the middle of a cover of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" when Mitchell couldn't remember all the words.

Naturally, I included that duet. I also included three Taylor songs to make up for the imbalance. I put all the extra mystery Mitchell songs and the Amchitka songs at the start of the concert. I mixed these extra songs together in a way that duplicates them taking turns like the rest of the "In Concert" performance. Luckily, the Amchikta songs were recorded in fantastic sound quality and were done in the same solo acoustic format, so it's very hard to tell they weren't part of the same show.

The end result is an hour and a half of Mitchell and Taylor taking turns playing some of their best songs instead of just the hour of the actual "In Concert" broadcast. The "extra" tracks at the beginning conclude with the "Mr. Tambourine Man" duet.`

This album is an hour and 28 minutes long.

01 Hunter [The Good Samaritan] (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
02 talk (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
03 River (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
04 talk (James Taylor)
05 Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
06 Carolina in My Mind (James Taylor)
07 My Old Man (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
08 talk (James Taylor)
09 Sweet Baby James (James Taylor)
10 A Case of You (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
11 Mr. Tambourine Man (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
12 That Song about the Midway (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
13 talk (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
14 The Gallery (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
15 Rainy Day Man (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
16 talk (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
17 Steamroller (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
18 The Priest (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
19 talk (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
20 Carey (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
21 Carolina in My Mind (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
22 talk (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
23 California (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
24 talk (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
25 [He Played Real Good] For Free (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
26 talk (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
27 The Circle Game (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
28 talk (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)
29 You Can Close Your Eyes (Joni Mitchell & James Taylor)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376018/JONIMCHLLJAMSTYLR1970BBInCncrtParsTheatreLondnBrtin__10-29-1970.zip.html

I wanted to use a color photo of Mitchell and Taylor playing music together for the cover. Unfortunately I couldn't find one, but I found a black and white one that's the cover of a bootleg for this show. I kept most of the design and just changed some of the text. Then, months later, I figured out how to colorize it. The photo was taken at a concert in Queens College in New York in December 1970.

James Taylor - Acoustic Cover Songs (1970)

I'm not that big of a James Taylor fan. I really like his first three albums (from 1968, 1970, and 1971), but I feel he often coasted or repeated himself after that.

However, 1970 was a banner year for him. Early in the year, he released the album "Sweet Baby James," which went on to sell millions.

There are two bootleg concerts of him from early 1970 that I like a lot. Both of them are pristine soundboards, and in both of them he performed solo acoustic. One nice thing about both shows is that instead of just playing his own songs, he performed lots of cover songs that never got released on any of his albums. He has a way of taking songs from all sorts of genres and "James Taylor-ifying" them in a pleasing, mellow way.

What I did was take all of the cover songs not on any albums of the era and edit out the talking and the clapping. It makes for an excellent 52 minute long album that is very much in the vein of "Sweet Baby James."

All the songs are sourced from the two concerts I mentioned above, except for the last two tracks. One of those is from another 1970 acoustic concert, while the last track is a song from Taylor's first album done as a duet with Bobbie Gentry on the BBC in 1969.

By the way, I recommend hearing the entire concerts these song are drawn from (the Jabberwocky Club from February 1970 and Harvard University from April 1970). Taylor is very entertaining, with lots of talking and joking between songs. Sadly, after 1970, he seems to have switched to a different style of concert, with a lot less talking and a lot fewer or no odd cover songs.

01 Diamond Joe (James Taylor)
02 Will the Circle Be Unbroken (James Taylor)
03 Dixie (James Taylor)
04 Hallelujah, I Love Her So (James Taylor)
05 Pretty Boy Floyd (James Taylor)
06 Yesterday (James Taylor)
07 Duncan and Brady (James Taylor)
08 Hush-a-Bye (James Taylor)
09 If I Needed Someone (James Taylor)
10 People Get Ready (James Taylor)
11 Satisfied Mind (James Taylor)
12 With a Little Help from My Friends (James Taylor)
13 Mannish Boy (James Taylor)
14 Okie from Muskogee (James Taylor)
15 Greensleeves (James Taylor)
16 [He Played Real Good] For Free (James Taylor)
17 In My Reply (James Taylor)
18 Diamonds in the Rough (James Taylor)
19 Up on the Roof (James Taylor)
20 Something's Wrong (James Taylor & Bobbie Gentry)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693309/JAMSTYLR1970_AcoustcCovrSongs_atse.zip.html

The cover art is based on a picture from Taylor appearing at the BBC in 1970.