Various Artists - Les Paul & Friends, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York City, 8-18-1988

Les Paul never liked rock and roll all that much, but he is one of the key people who made rock and roll what it is nonetheless. I'll explain more about his massive influence on music further down below. But first, this was a tribute concert to honor Paul when he was still in good enough health to perform. He was 73 years old at the time of this concert, but he would go on to live another 21 years before dying in 2009. A lot of musical stars showed up to honor him and perform music with him: Eddie Van Halen, B. B. King, Carly Simon, Steve Miller, Rita Coolidge, David Gilmour, Stanley Jordan, and the Stray Cats.

I think Les Paul isn't as well known as he should be today, because he made his considerable mark on music before the rock and roll era ever began. Here's the intro to his Wikipedia entry: 

"Les Paul was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar... and served as inspiration for the Gibson Les Paul. While he is mainly known for jazz and popular music, he had an early career in country music. In the 1950s, he and his wife, singer and guitarist Mary Ford, made numerous recordings, selling millions of copies. Paul is credited with many recording innovations. His early experiments with overdubbing, delay effects such as tape delay, phasing, and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention. His licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques, and timing set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. Among his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. [He] is the only inductee in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame."

In this concert, Paul played lead guitar on some instrumentals by himself. He also served as the emcee, introducing the guest stars. He then played guitar for some of the guest stars as well.

This is that was broadcast on the Cinemax TV channel. Maybe this is all of it, or maybe there was more, I don't know. You can find the video of this on YouTube. However, this has never been officially released in any audio format. 

This album is exactly one hour long. 

01 How High the Moon [Instrumental] (Les Paul)
02 talk (Les Paul)
03 Lover [When You're Near Me] [Instrumental] (Les Paul)
04 talk (Les Paul & Eddie Van Halen)
05 Echo Tribune - Back Pain Boogie [Instrumental] (Eddie Van Halen)
06 talk (Les Paul)
07 Every Day I Have the Blues (B.B. King)
08 talk (Les Paul & B.B. King)
09 It Happens (Carly Simon)
10 talk (Les Paul & Carly Simon)
11 talk (Les Paul)
12 God Bless the Child (Steve Miller)
13 talk (Les Paul)
14 Am I Blue (Rita Coolidge)
15 Somewhere Over the Rainbow [Instrumental] (Les Paul)
16 talk (Les Paul)
17 It's Been a Long, Long Time [Instrumental] (Les Paul)
18 Deep in the Blues [Instrumental] (David Gilmour)
19 talk (Les Paul & David Gilmour)
20 talk (Les Paul & Stanley Jordan)
21 Georgia on My Mind [Instrumental] (Stanley Jordan)
22 talk (Les Paul & Waylon Jennings)
23 I Really Don't Want to Know (Waylon Jennings)
24 Blue Suede Shoes (Stray Cats & Everyone)
25 How High the Moon [Instrumental] (Everyone)
26 Vaya con Dios [Instrumental] (Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/JHeRRgbe

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/bI4yBNMPj5h56H8/file

I assume the cover photo was taken either before or after the concert. From left to right, top row: B.B. King, Waylon Jennings, and Eddie Van Halen. In the middle is Les Paul. Left to right, bottom row: Stanley Jordan and Steve Miller.

Oh, by the way, I have some very good choices for the cover art. In addition to the one I chose, I've included two more in the download zip. One shows Les Paul with Eddie Van Halen, and the other shows most of the big name stars playing together for the finale. 

A Conspiracy of Hope, Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, 6-15-1986, Part 2 - Little Steven, Bob Geldof, Stanley Jordan, Joan Armatrading & Jackson Browne

This is Part 2 of the final show of the 1986 "A Conspiracy of Hope" tour. If you want more information on the concert in general, read the write-up for Part 1. Here are just some basic facts about the songs and artists in this part.

Little Steven (Steven van Zandt), was a guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band from the early 1970s. However, he left that band to pursue a solo career in 1984, right before Springsteen became a superstar with his "Born in the U.S.A." album. He didn't have much commercial success as a solo artist, and later rejoined the E Street Band. But he did gain a lot of prominence in 1985 with his anti-Apartheid song "Sun City." I believe John Waite and Darlene Love joined him for his set here, but they only sang backing vocals.

Bob Geldof was the lead singer for the Irish band the Boomtown Rats. But he became more famous in the 1980s for his activism. He helped form the group Band Aid, and co-write their song "We Are the World." Then he organized the 1985 Live Aid concert. I believe he was backed up by Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul for his set here.

Stanley Jordan, a jazz guitarist, was an unusual addition to this concert. He released his debut album was released the year before this concert. It was a sensation, setting records on the jazz charts, due to his unique guitar playing style. He performed all the songs here alone on stage.

I've posted albums by Joan Armatrading and Jackson Browne at this blog before. They're famous enough that I hopefully don't need to describe them. Browne was arguably the most famous of the artists in this album, so it makes sense that his set was the longest of the four here, at 30 minutes. Note that the last song he performed, "I Am a Patriot," was actually written by Little Steven.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long.

021 Los Desaparecidos (Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul)
022 Sanctuary (Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul)
023 Native American (Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul)
024 talk (Bob Geldof)
025 In the Pouring Rain (Bob Geldof)
026 talk (Bob Geldof)
027 Redemption Song (Bob Geldof)
028 talk (Stanley Jordan)
029 All the Children [Instrumental] (Stanley Jordan)
030 The Sound of Silence [Instrumental] (Stanley Jordan)
031 Eleanor Rigby [Instrumental] (Stanley Jordan)
032 Steppin' Out (Joan Armatrading)
033 Turn Out the Light (Joan Armatrading)
034 I Can't Lie to Myself (Joan Armatrading)
035 Love and Affection (Joan Armatrading)
036 For Everyman (Jackson Browne)
037 Soldiers of Plenty (Jackson Browne)
038 talk (Jackson Browne)
039 Lives in the Balance (Jackson Browne)
040 Till I Go Down (Jackson Browne)
041 For America (Jackson Browne)
042 talk (Jackson Browne)
043 I Am a Patriot (Jackson Browne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uJpsNCe2 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/NdmmuokuuDu0D0o/file

The cover photo of Jackson Browne comes from this exact concert.