Lone Justice - BBC In Concert, Town and Country Club, London, Britain, 11-6-1986

I have to start this off with a request. As far as I know, this is the only BBC concert played by Maria McKee's 1980s band Lone Justice. (In her later solo career, she did two BBC concerts, one in 1991 and the other in 1993.)

This was a good time for a BBC concert, because Lone Justice only released two studio albums, and this took place shortly after the release of the second one. The band broke up a few months later.  

Given this was recorded by the BBC, I was surprised that the lead vocals were too low. Luckily, that's the one editing trick I've been doing a lot lately: I used the UVR5 audio editing program to boost the lead vocals relative to the instruments. I think it sounds a lot better now.

There are two extra songs at the end. In 1985, Lone Justice played those two songs for the BBC TV show "The Old Grey Whistle Test." Since of them is probably my favorite Lone Justice song, "Ways to Be Wicked," I decided to include them, even though there was no applauding audience. It was a failed A-side. In a better world, that would have been a big hit. (It was also written by Tom Petty.) The other song, "Sweet, Sweet Baby (I’m Falling)," also was a failed A-side. That one appeared in the BBC concert as the second track. But I also really like that song, so I don't mind having two versions.

This album is an hour and five minutes long. The 1986 concert without the last two songs is 58 minutes long.

01 Wait 'til We Get Home (Lone Justice)
02 Sweet, Sweet Baby [I’m Falling] (Lone Justice)
03 This World Is Not My Home (Lone Justice)
04 The Gift (Lone Justice)
05 Wheels (Lone Justice)
06 Shelter (Lone Justice)
07 Belfry (Lone Justice)
08 I Found Love (Lone Justice)
09 Heaven (Lone Justice)
10 Inspiration (Lone Justice)
11 talk (Lone Justice)
12 Sweet Jane (Lone Justice)
13 Ways to Be Wicked (Lone Justice)
14 Sweet, Sweet Baby [I’m Falling] (Lone Justice)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15528011/LoneJus_1986_BBInConcrtTwnanCountryClbLondnBritain__11-6-1986_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of lead singer Maria McKee is from the Farm Aid benefit concert in 1985.

Lone Justice - Little Diva and Sugar Jones - Non-Album Tracks (1985-1987)

I just posted a Lone Justice stray tracks album, and said it was the first of two, from 1983 to 1984. Here's the second.

This one covers 1985 to 1987. During that time, they released the albums "Lone Justice" in 1985 and "Shelter" in 1986. Yet they were prolific enough to have this album's worth of different songs as well.

Lone Justice was practically two bands, because between the first and second albums, all the personnel changed except for lead singer Maria McKee and guitarist Ryan Hedgecock. The first four songs are from 1985, and feature the first version of the band. Two of those are from the unreleased concert I've posted already. You can get the full concert here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/08/lone-justice-ritz-new-york-city-9-18.html

Note that another of these first four songs is "Sweet Jane," the Velvet Underground song. I included a studio version on my 1983 to 1984 stray tracks album. This one is a live version. I figured it's worthy of inclusion because it's significantly different, including being three minutes longer.

The rest of the songs are from the second version of the band, from 1986 to 1987. The first two of those are B-sides, and the third one comes from an archival live album. That leaves the last four songs. All of those are unreleased, but are studio recordings in excellent sound quality. They come from recording sessions for the band's planned third album. I don't know why, but McKee decided to break up the band mid-way through those sessions, so a third album never happened. The song "Panic Beach" (which by the way I think is great) would later be recorded for McKee's first solo album. But the other three appear to have never been released in any form, even though they all seem to be good originals.

By the way, the first song on this album, "Go 'Way Little Boy," is a rare case of a song Bob Dylan specifically wrote for another artist, and then never officially released any version of it for himself. "Fortunate Son" and "Cry Baby" are cover versions of famous songs (along with "Sweet Jane"), but I think the rest of the songs are originals.

01 Go 'Way Little Boy (Lone Justice)
02 Fortunate Son (Lone Justice)
03 Cry Baby (Lone Justice)
04 Sweet Jane (Lone Justice)
05 I Can't Look Back (Lone Justice)
06 If You Don't like Rain (Lone Justice)
07 Heaven (Lone Justice)
08 Friends for a While (Lone Justice)
09 Panic Beach (Lone Justice)
10 Little Diva and Sugar Jones (Lone Justice)
11 Much Too Good at Goodbye (Lone Justice)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15262413/LoneJus_1985-1987_LittleDvaandSugarJons_atse.zip.html

I don't know where or when this photo comes from. But it's definitely of McKee during her Lone Justice years, and I liked it enough to use it. As for the album title I chose, I think "Little Diva and Sugar Jones" refer to McKee and Hedgecock, the two founders of Lone Justice, but I'm not sure.

Lone Justice - Rattlesnake Mama - Non-Album Tracks (1983-1984)

I've posted a 1985 concert from Lone Justice, Maria McKee's 1980s band, and I've posted a bunch of Maria McKee's solo stuff, with more to come. But it occurred to me that I haven't posted Lone Justice stray tracks yet, so I'm going to do that now. There are enough so that I've been able to make two albums out of them. Here's the first one.

Lone Justice was formed in 1982, but they didn't put their first album until 1985, the first of only two. It turns out they did a fair amount of recording in 1983 and 1984, and had enough material for an album, but didn't release it, for some reason. Many fans believe their 1985 and 1986 albums were overproduced, and didn't reflect how great the band was in concert. Those fans generally prefer their 1983 and 1984 recordings as being more authentic to their "cowpunk" sound. (Personally, I like their first album, but I think their second one was overcooked.)

The vast majority of songs here have been officially released, but almost all of them came out on archival releases many years later. Only "Never Be You," a Maria McKee solo track released as part of a movie soundtrack, came out at the time. Three of the songs - "Sweet Jane," "The Highway Song," and "Jackson" - are still unreleased. But those are studio recordings, and they have excellent sound. The vast majority of the songs were written by McKee and/or other Lone Justice band members, though there are a few exceptions, such as the above-mentioned "Sweet Jane" and "Jackson," as well as "Working Man's Blues" and "This World Is Not My Home" and probably a couple of others.

All in all, it's very strange that Lone Justice didn't release an album by 1984 that contained many of these songs. I suspect their record company saw so much potential in McKee and her fantastic voice that they wanted to try to hit a home run with her right away, and didn't let the band develop in an organic way. At least we have these recordings.

Two songs have been included as bonus tracks. One, "Sweet Dr. Jesus," was recorded in 1981, when McKee was just 15 years old. She sings it with Bryan McLean of the 1960s band Love, who, believe it or not, was her much older half-brother. The other bonus track, "Mama Said You're Doing Me Wrong," is a fine song from 1984 that I otherwise would have included, but the only recording I know of comes from an audience concert bootleg, and the sound quality is rather rough. By the way, that song was co-written by McKee and McLean.

01 Drugstore Cowboy (Lone Justice)
02 Nothing Can Stop My Loving You (Lone Justice)
03 Dustbowl Depression Time (Lone Justice)
04 Grapes of Wrath (Lone Justice)
05 Rattlesnake Mama (Lone Justice)
06 Working Man's Blues (Lone Justice)
07 Cactus Rose (Lone Justice)
08 Cotton Belt (Lone Justice)
09 This World Is Not My Home [I Ain't Got No Home] (Lone Justice)
10 How Lonesome Life Has Been (Lone Justice)
11 Sweet Jane (Lone Justice)
12 The Highway Song (Lone Justice)
13 Never Be You (Maria McKee)
14 The Train (Lone Justice)
15 Jackson (Lone Justice)

Mama Said You're Doing Me Wrong (Lone Justice)
Sweet Dr. Jesus (Maria McKee with Bryan MacLean)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16695507/LONJSTCE1983-1984_RttlesnkeMma_atse.zip.html

I'm not sure when or where the cover art photo is from exactly, but I'm guessing it's from 1985.

Lone Justice - The Ritz, New York City, 9-18-1985

I've posted some material from Maria McKee's solo career, and I plan on posting a lot more. But so far, I've overlooked her earlier band, Lone Justice. With this post, I'm starting to rectify that.

For a time in the mid-1980s, Lone Justice was considered the hot "it" band. Many people who saw them in concert assumed they would go on to be hugely successful. That never happened, and it's a mystery why. But one can listen to an album like this one and understand why there was all the hype.

This is a really excellent concert. I've listened to a bunch of Lone Justice concerts, and this one is my favorite. It's a bootleg, but the sound is just as good as an official live album from the era. The song selection is excellent too.

I've added "Sweet Jane" as a bonus track of sorts. It's from another 1985 show, but one can easily imagine it was an encore to this one, since the band frequently played it as their encore.

01 You Are the Light (Lone Justice)
02 Grapes of Wrath (Lone Justice)
03 Fortunate Son (Lone Justice)
04 After the Flood (Lone Justice)
05 Ways to Be Wicked (Lone Justice)
06 Working Late (Lone Justice)
07 Go Away Little Boy (Lone Justice)
08 Sweet, Sweet Baby [I'm Falling] (Lone Justice)
09 Don't Toss Us Away (Lone Justice)
10 Rattlesnake Mama (Lone Justice)
11 Working Man Blues (Lone Justice)
12 The Train (Lone Justice)
13 East of Eden (Lone Justice)
14 Wait 'Til We Get Home (Lone Justice)
15 Soap, Soup and Salvation (Lone Justice)
16 Cry Baby (Lone Justice)
17 Sweet Jane (Lone Justice)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16695509/LONJSTCE1985_ThRitzNwYrkCty__9-18-1985_atse.zip.html

I'm happy to say the photo for the cover art here is a screenshot taken from the very concert the music comes from. That's because a quality video of the show exists on YouTube, and I took it from that.