Beck - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-26-2016

This is another concert Beck performed for the BBC. 

There's a big time gap between the last BBC album, in 2003, and this one. In 2016, the year of this concert, Beck didn't have any new album to promote. However, he did play one song, "Dreams," that was an early single release for his 2017 album "Colours." So the concert is more of an overview of Beck's entire music career up until that point. Facing the huge Glastonbury Festival audience of well over 100,000, he generally did his best known songs. He also was backed by a band for pretty much the entire concert.

The entire concert is unreleased. However, the sound quality is excellent, as you'd expect from the BBC. It appears to be the full performance.

This album is an hour and six minutes long.

01 Devil's Haircut (Beck)
02 talk (Beck)
03 Black Tambourine (Beck)
04 Loser (Beck)
05 talk (Beck)
06 Hell Yes (Beck)
07 talk (Beck)
08 Mixed Bizness (Beck)
09 talk (Beck)
10 Que Onda Guero (Beck)
11 The New Pollution (Beck)
12 Go It Alone (Beck)
13 Lost Cause (Beck)
14 Soul of a Man (Beck)
15 Think I'm in Love (Beck)
16 Dreams (Beck)
17 talk (Beck)
18 Girl (Beck)
19 talk (Beck)
20 Sexx Laws (Beck)
21 E-Pro (Beck)
22 Where It's At (Beck)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oyF6mise

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

T. Rex (John's Children and Tyrannosaurus Rex) - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1967-1968

I've been reluctant to post BBC material from the British glam band T. Rex, because it's a rare case of the record companies actually doing things correct. In 2013, a six CD box set called "Marc Bolan at the BBC" was released, and it has everything one needs, including all the BBC performances of T. Rex band leader Marc Bolan from the start of his music career until his death. However, I decided to post this because I made a couple of important changes. For one, I removed all of the talking between songs (including many lengthy interviews). And two, I fixed all the instances when BBC DJs talked over the music. If you want all that talking between and over the music, the box sex is there for you. But this is version for the people who just want the music.

Like the box set, I've divided Bolan's BBC recordings into six albums. Here's the first one. This actually predates the existence of "T. Rex" per se. The first three songs are from his first band, John's Children. Then he formed a duo with Steve Porter, who changed his name to Steve Peregrin Took, called "Tyrannosaurus Rex." In early 1970, that name was shortened to just "T. Rex." But for consistency I'm just calling everything "T. Rex."

For pretty much Bolan's entire career, his song were instantly recognizable, due to his unique style. The one partial exception to that was the first band he was in, John's Children. That band had already been in existence for about a year when Bolan joined in 1967, and it already had a lead vocalist, Andy Ellison. Bolan joined only as lead guitarist after the band's guitarist left. So on the first three songs here, Ellison sings more than Bolan does. However, if you listen carefully, Bolan does sing some.

Bolan wrote and sang an excellent song for John's Children, "Desdemona." It was that band's first and only hit. Unfortunately, Bolan was only in the band for four months, and only took part in one BBC session, and they didn't do that song, so it's not here. I have three songs by John's Children at the start, but note they actually played four in their one BBC sessions. But for whatever reason, one of the songs, the cover "Daddy Rolling Stone," sounds significantly worse than the rest. So I've only included that one as a bonus track.

Everything else on this album is by Tyrannosaurus Rex, a.k.a. T. Rex, with Bolan on lead vocals. That's much more distinctive. BBC DJ John Peel was a big fan from early on, and many of these sessions were from Peel's show. In the middle of the song "Frowning Atahuallpa," there's a section where Peel recited some poetry written by Bolan. I kept that in, since it was part of the performance.

Bolan's early stuff is pretty unique, and it's not for everyone. Personally, I'm not that big of fan of this, although I do like a lot of his later stuff, after his style changed some. But I'm posting this for the sake of completeness. And if you are a Bolan fan, all his BBC material is essential, especially since virtually no live recordings exist from this early in his career.

01 Jagged Time Lapse [Edit] (John's Children [T. Rex])
02 The Perfumed Garden of Gulliver Smith (John's Children [T. Rex])
04 Hot Rod Mama [Edit] (John's Children [T. Rex])
05 Highways (T. Rex)
06 Dwarfish Trumpet Blues (T. Rex)
07 Scenescof (T. Rex)
08 Child Star (T. Rex)
09 Pictures of Purple People (T. Rex)
10 Hot Rod Mama (T. Rex)
11 Knight (T. Rex)
12 Frowning Atahuallpa (T. Rex)
13 Strange Orchestras (T. Rex)
14 Afghan Woman (T. Rex)
15 Deborah (T. Rex)
16 Mustang Ford (T. Rex)
17 Stacey Grove (T. Rex)
18 One Inch Rock (T. Rex)

Daddy Rolling Stone [Edit] (John's Children [T. Rex])

https://www.upload.ee/files/16064360/TRexx_1967-1968_BBSessonsVolum1_atse.zip.html

The cover is a photo of John's Children. I thought it would be more interesting to show that than just a picture of Bolan from slightly later on.

Mark Knopfler - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 5-23-1996

I previously posted a 1996 Mark Knopfler BBC concert. In fact, that one took place a mere four days before this one. But I'm posting both concerts because the set lists are different enough to justify that. 

Here are the six songs that were played in this concert and the one I posted as "BBC Sessions, Volume 2": "Walk of Life," "Last Exit to Brooklyn," "Romeo and Juliet," "Done with Bonaparte," "Brothers in Arms," and "Money for Nothing." In particular, this concert has some key Dire Straits songs not played in the other one: "The Bug," "Calling Elvis," "Sultans of Swing," and "Telegraph Road." This version of "Telegraph Road," which is 15 minutes long, is a particular highlight.

Seven of the songs here were officially released on a deluxe version of the album "Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits" (tracks 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13 and 14.) The rest are unreleased. But the sound quality is excellent throughout. There were no problems.

This album is an hour and 36 minutes long.

01 Darling Pretty (Mark Knopfler)
02 Walk of Life (Mark Knopfler)
03 Imelda (Mark Knopfler)
04 The Bug (Mark Knopfler)
05 Je Suis Desole (Mark Knopfler)
06 Calling Elvis (Mark Knopfler)
07 Last Exit to Brooklyn [Instrumental] (Mark Knopfler)
08 Romeo and Juliet (Mark Knopfler)
09 Sultans of Swing (Mark Knopfler)
10 talk (Mark Knopfler)
11 Done with Bonaparte (Mark Knopfler)
12 Telegraph Road (Mark Knopfler)
13 Brothers in Arms (Mark Knopfler)
14 Money for Nothing (Mark Knopfler)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/k7aqn4es

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/PDub1JNZR2RZEOQ/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/ejRS6

The cover photo is from a concert in Hamburg, Germany, in June 1996.

Eric Clapton - Hoodoo Man - Non-Album Tracks (1988-1992)

It's been a year since I last posted an Eric Clapton stray tracks album. I have to admit that I still have lost a lot of enthusiasm for his music ever since he came out strongly against the Covid vaccine. But I have a bunch more of these stray tracks albums by him, so I might as well keep posting them.

Five of the songs here have been officially released. "This Kind of Life" is from a Brendan Croker album. "That Kind of Woman" was actually written by George Harrison, but never recorded by him. Clapton did it for a charity benefit album called "Nobody's Child." "Border Song" was done for "Two Rooms," a tribute album to Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Finally, "The Stilt House" went on the "Lethal Weapon 2" soundtrack and "Runaway Train" went on the "Lethal Weapon 3" soundtrack. 

That leaves five unreleased songs. "Forever" is a studio outtake. The other four are from concert bootlegs. Generally speaking, their sound is very good.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 A Remark You Made [Instrumental] (Eric Clapton)
02 Forever (Eric Clapton)
03 This Kind of Life (Brendan Croker & Eric Clapton)
04 The Stilt House [Instrumental] (Eric Clapton, David Sanborn & Michael Kamen)
05 That Kind of Woman (Eric Clapton)
06 Bad Boy (Eric Clapton)
07 Sweet Home Chicago (Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Steve Tyler & Others)
08 Border Song (Eric Clapton)
09 Hoodoo Man (Eric Clapton)
10 Runaway Train (Elton John & Eric Clapton)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1Dczg8u9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/v7Z7Py8ZEd2zVv0/file

The cover photo seems to be from a promo photo shoot taken around 1989.

Marshall Crenshaw - The Human Jukebox, Volume 5: 1995-2000

Here's another all cover songs album performed by Marshall Crenshaw. You don't have to be a fan of his original material to enjoy his covers of lots of different styles of music, often doing obscure gems.

On this volume in particular, Crenshaw digs deeper into the obscurities than on previous volumes. There are a few classic hits covered here, but only a few. By the way, the song "'Til I Hear It from You" isn't exactly a cover song. This was a big hit for the Gin Blossoms in 1995. But Crenshaw actually co-wrote, though he never recorded his own version on any album. So I thought it would be interesting to include that too.

This album is 53 minutes long.

UPDATE: On August 12, 2026, I updated the mp3 download zip file. I added two songs I only recently discovered, "A Town without Pity" and "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime." They were taken from a 1999 in-person radio show appearance. 

This is a list of the original artists for each song:

01 Don't Forget Me - Harry Nilsson
02 Wanda and Duane - Dave Alvin
03 All or Nothin' at All - Bruce Springsteen
04 Sock It to Me, Santa - Bob Seger
05 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone - Elvis Presley
06 Blue Eyed Elaine - Earnest Tubb
07 Fire - Jimi Hendrix
08 Treasure of Love - Clyde McPhatter
09 My Back Pages - Bob Dylan
10 My Mommy and Santa Claus - Lonnie & Lottie
11 A Town without Pity - Gene Pitney
12 Brother, Can You Spare a Dime - Bing Crosby
13 My True Love - Bobby Fuller Four
14 'Til I Hear It from You - Gin Blossoms
15 Journey to the Center of Your Mind - Amboy Dukes
16 Love's Theme [Instrumental] - Barry White & Love Unlimited Orchestra

Here's the usual song list:

01 Don't Forget Me (Marshall Crenshaw)
02 Wanda and Duane (Marshall Crenshaw)
03 All or Nothin' at All (Marshall Crenshaw)
04 Sock It to Me, Santa (Marshall Crenshaw with the Chisel Brothers)
05 I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone (Marshall Crenshaw)
06 Blue Eyed Elaine (Marshall Crenshaw)
07 Fire (Marshall Crenshaw)
08 Treasure of Love (Marshall Crenshaw)
09 My Back Pages (Marshall Crenshaw)
10 My Mommy and Santa Claus (Marshall Crenshaw)
11 A Town without Pity (Marshall Crenshaw)
12 Brother, Can You Spare a Dime (Marshall Crenshaw)
13 My True Love (Marshall Crenshaw)
14 'Til I Hear It from You (Marshall Crenshaw)
15 Journey to the Center of Your Mind (Marshall Crenshaw)
16 Love's Theme [Instrumental] (Marshall Crenshaw)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/m8aaoeTX

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/rejiEVhubwqXoG0/file

The cover photo is from a concert at the House of Blues in October 1995. I don't know which exact venue though, since there are a bunch with that name.

Sheryl Crow - The Good Fight - Non-Album Tracks (2018-2020)

Phew. Sheryl Crow has sooo many stray tracks. This is the nineteenth album of non-album tracks I've posted so far, and I still have two more to go to get caught up to the present day.

By now, you probably know the drill. This is the usual mix of released and unreleased tracks. There are six released tracks this time, and in four cases they're from Crow appearing on albums by other artists. The two others are A-sides ("Woman in the White House" and "Lonely Town, Lonely Street").

As for the three unreleased tracks, those are "Tumbling Dice," "Walk Away," and "Redemption Day." "Tumbling Dice" sounds a bit rough, and just barely made the cut. Everything else on the album sounds very good though. As for the song "Redemption Day," Crow has done versions just by herself and also as a duet with Johnny Cash. This is another duet version, but with Bruce Springsteen singing Cash's part.

There are two bonus tracks, both from bootlegs. The sound quality wasn't good enough for those.

This album is 39 minutes long, not counting the bonus tracks.

01 My Sweet Love (Reef & Sheryl Crow)
02 The Good Fight (Timothy B. Schmit & Sheryl Crow)
03 Tumbling Dice (Sheryl Crow)
04 Turn Off the News [Build a Garden] (Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real & Sheryl Crow)
05 Walk Away (Sheryl Crow & Joe Walsh)
06 Redemption Day (Sheryl Crow & Bruce Springsteen)
07 Everywhere You Go (Ziggy Marley & Sheryl Crow)
08 Woman in the White House [2020 Version] (Sheryl Crow)
09 Lonely Town, Lonely Street (Sheryl Crow with Citizen Cope)

Black Dog (Robert Plant & Sheryl Crow)
When Will I Be Loved (Sheryl Crow)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16054504/SherylC_2018-2020_ThGoodFght_atse.zip.html

This time, I used a concert poster for the album cover. I had to cut off a lot of the bottom part of the poster to get it to fit. I also write the album name over where the name of her back up band had been. (It used to say "and the Thieves.")

Elton John - Cover Versions, Volume 3: 1994-1999

Here's another album of cover songs by Elton John. As with the previous albums in this series, I collected covers he didn't put on his studio albums, which usually meant live performances.

During this time period, Elton John did a lot of joint tours with Billy Joel. They did a fair amount of interaction, playing songs together, or having John sing one of Joel's songs, or vice versa. So a bunch of songs here are from that. For instance, John did covers of Joel's "New York State of Mind," "My Life," and "Uptown Girl," and together they performed "A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles and a medley of the 1950s classics "Lucille" and "Great Balls of Fire."

Five songs here have been officially released, and those are the five songs that are also studio tracks. One of those songs, "Little Island," is a Randy Newman song that John sang on a Randy Newman album. The other four (tracks 3, 6, 7, and 11) are from tribute albums.

The remaining seven unreleased songs are all from concert bootlegs. John is famous enough that I believe these are all from soundboard recordings, so the sound is excellent throughout.

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 New York State of Mind (Elton John)
02 A Hard Day's Night (Elton John & Billy Joel)
03 I'm Your Man (Elton John)
04 Little Island (Elton John with Randy Newman)
05 Sand and Water (Elton John)
06 Don't Stop (Elton John)
07 Stand by Your Man (Elton John)
08 Lucille - Great Balls of Fire (Elton John & Billy Joel)
09 My Life (Elton John & Billy Joel)
10 Uptown Girl (Elton John & Billy Joel)
11 Twentieth Century Blues (Elton John)
12 Still the One (Shania Twain & Elton John)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uwVorBTc

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/n6H6l0ZQ6fuAK38/file

The cover photo is from a concert in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1995.

Foamfoot (The Black Crowes and Others) - The Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA, 1-8-1994

So who the heck was Foamfoot? This was a band made up of a couple key members of the Black Crowes, plus a key member of Jellyfish, plus others, that came together to play one concert entirely of cover songs back in 1994. The concert was professionally recorded for official release, but it never actually got released. But it makes for a great concert album because they guys really knew how to play classic rock. And, as a bonus, David Crosby joined in to sing a song.

The Black Crowes have mainly been led by the Robinson brothers, with Chris Robinson on lead vocals and Rich Robinson on vocals and guitar. But another key member in the 1990s was Marc Ford on lead guitar. The band was at the height of their popularity and creativity around 1994, with their first two albums selling millions in the U.S. 

Jimmy Ashurst, bass player from the Ju Ju Hounds, later explained what happened next. "There were several jams with Chris (Robinson), Marc (Ford), and Andy (Sturmer – drummer for Jellyfish). Chris was for the first time in his career living far from his brother Rich and I think he was interested in seeing what he was capable of doing without him. The live shows we did, Foamfoot and Big Toe, were more for fun and we did covers of other people’s songs."

So, as mentioned in that quote, in addition to this one show as Foamfoot, there was another show or two by the same band using the name "Big Toe," but that's mostly forgotten due to the lack of a high quality recording like this one. Furthermore, in late 1993, basically the same group of people plus a couple more did some recordings of songs written by Chris Robinson using the band name "Sweet Pickle Salad." Those have never been released, but exist on bootleg. 

In addition to the band members previously mentioned (Chris Robinson, Marc Ford, Jimmy Ashurst, and Andy Sturmer), Eric Bobo also played in the band on percussion. He'd previously played with Cypress Hill and the Beastie Boys. And note that while Sturmer was a key lead vocalist and songwriter for Jellyfish as well as being the band's drummer, in this band he just played drums. Furthermore, Gary Louris of the Jayhawks joined in to play guitar on one song in this concert. And David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, and Nash dropped in to help sing a song he wrote, "Long Time Gone."

This band seems to have been mainly led by Chris Robinson, and since he's the lead vocalist of the Black Crowes, it sounds a heck of a lot like the Black Crowes doing a bunch of cover songs. And although that band was most popular in the 1990s, they were heavily influenced by the classic rock of the early 1970s, especially bands like the Rolling Stones, the Faces, and Southern Rock bands like the Allman Brothers. In fact, in 2022, a reformed Black Crowes put out an EP called "1972" containing covers of songs from 1972 by those types of bands.

Given all that, it's not too surprising that the covers here are mostly from the early 1970s, plus a few from the 1960s. Here are the original artists for each song:

01 talk (Foamfoot)
02 Walk in My Shadow - Free
03 Bottle of Red Wine - Eric Clapton
05 Tin Soldier - Small Faces
07 Take the Highway - Marshall Tucker Band
08 Deal - Grateful Dead
10 Love Me Till the Sun Shines - Kinks
12 Long Time Gone - Crosby, Stills and Nash
14 Jemima Surrender - Band
15 One Way Out - Sonny Boy Williamson II / Allman Brothers Band
17 Presence of the Lord - Blind Faith

The sound quality is excellent. Note that this bootleg has gotten around a lot. There are rumors that the band members made it available as a bootleg after they couldn't get it officially released. But most of the versions had the last song, "Presence of the Lord," fade out before it ended. But a year or two ago (as I write this in 2023), a compete version of the song was posted on YouTube, so I used that version.

Even if you're not familiar with the Black Crowes, if you like classic rock from the early 1970s, you should enjoy this, because it's expertly sung and played by people who clearly love this kind of music.

Here's the usual song list:

01 talk (Foamfoot)
02 Walk in My Shadow (Foamfoot)
03 Bottle of Red Wine (Foamfoot)
04 talk (Foamfoot)
05 Tin Soldier (Foamfoot)
06 talk (Foamfoot)
07 Take the Highway (Foamfoot with Gary Lewis)
08 Deal (Foamfoot)
09 talk (Foamfoot)
10 Love Me Till the Sun Shines (Foamfoot)
11 talk (Foamfoot)
12 Long Time Gone (Foamfoot with David Crosby)
13 talk (Foamfoot)
14 Jemima Surrender (Foamfoot)
15 One Way Out (Foamfoot)
16 talk (Foamfoot)
17 Presence of the Lord (Foamfoot)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16055299/Foamfoot_1994_ThTroubdourLsAnglesCA__1-8-1994_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any photos of Foamfoot. The popular bootleg of this concert just uses a drawing of a crow. So instead I used a photo of Chris Robinson, singing at a Black Crowes concert in 1993.

Iggy Pop with David Bowie - Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, OH, 3-21-1977

It's high time I post something from Iggy Pop, so he's a concert from probably the most pivotal year of his music career. Plus, this could be of interest for David Bowie fans. Bowie was involved in every song here, but... only in a backing role. He played keyboards and sang backing vocals, but no lead vocals at all. You can see him sitting at the keyboards in the background of the cover photo.

It's fitting that Bowie was involved, because he played a pivotal role at this point in Pop's career. Pop had a few wasted years in the middle of the 1970s after Pop's band the Stooges broke up, mostly due to drug abuse. Bowie helped Pop get a solo career started. He co-wrote nearly all the songs on Pop's albums "The Idiot" and "Lust for Life," and produced and played some instruments on them for good measure. Still, the albums were more Pop than Bowie, and they were very critically acclaimed. They probably still are the most praised albums of Pop's career. However, sales weren't that good, although the albums at least reached the Top Forty in the U.S. and Britain.

In early 1977, Bowie had just released an acclaimed album of his own, "Low." But rather than tour to support it, he joined Pop's tour band for about six weeks. Pop went on to tour a lot more that year without Bowie, but this concert happens to be one with Bowie. Bowie deliberately kept a low profile during these concerts, never singing lead vocals or addressing the audience. However, if you listen carefully, you can often make out his voice with the backing vocals.

This concert happened after the release of "The Idiot," but before the release of "Lust for Life." So it mostly consists of songs from "The Idiot," plus songs from when Pop was in the Stooges.

After releasing "The Idiot" and "Lust for Life," Pop had one more album on his record company contract. So he decided to release a live album from his 1977 shows that ended up getting called "TV Eye Live 1977." Unfortunately, it was a pretty bad album. Pop put most of the production costs in his own pocket and had it produced and mastered very cheaply, which resulted in poor sound quality. So, for instance, although allmusic.com reviews gave both "The Idiot" and "Lust for Life" five stars out of five stars, "TV Eye Live 1977" only got one and a half stars. So there has been a big need for a good live album from his 1977 concerts.

Happily, in 2020, a box set called "The Bowie Years" was released. Not only did it include all three albums mentioned above, it included three full soundboard-based concerts. Two of those have disappointing sound quality though, and this one was the best, by far. So I'm posting this here to give this concert the prominence it deserves. 

I didn't have any problems with the recording, except for two near the end. First, the last song, "China Girl," faded out before the song ended. So I took the last bit from one of the other concerts in "The Bowie Years" and used that to give that song a decent finish. 

And second, this concert was lacking the song "Lust for Life," and that's my favorite Pop song from 1977. So I added that at the very end as a quasi-bonus track. That version comes from a concert in Manchester, Britain, in September 1977.

This album is an hour and two minutes long. Just the Cleveland part (without "Lust for Life") is 57 minutes long.

01 Raw Power (Iggy Pop)
02 T.V. Eye (Iggy Pop)
03 Dirt (Iggy Pop)
04 1969 (Iggy Pop)
05 Turn Blue (Iggy Pop)
06 Funtime (Iggy Pop)
07 Gimme Danger (Iggy Pop)
08 No Fun (Iggy Pop)
09 Sister Midnight (Iggy Pop)
10 I Need Somebody (Iggy Pop)
11 Search and Destroy (Iggy Pop)
12 I Wanna Be Your Dog (Iggy Pop)
13 China Girl [Edit] (Iggy Pop)
14 Lust for Life (Iggy Pop)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16050169/IggPp_1977_AgraBllroomClevelndOH__3-21-1977_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is actually two photos put together. I wanted a photo that showed Pop and Bowie together on stage, but I could only find photos of either Pop or Bowie. So I used Photoshop to put Pop in front of a photo of Bowie (and a couple of strangers standing at the side of the stage). Both photos were from the same concert, at the Rainbow Theatre in London, on March 7, 1977. So that was about two weeks before this concert.

Joe Jackson - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: In Concert, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 8-15-1982

Here is a third album of Joe Jackson performing for the BBC.

Much changed for Jackson since the previous BBC album I posted, which was a 1980 concert. In 1981, he put out an album that was a tribute to swing and jump blues songs from the 1940s, called "Jumpin' Jive." Then, in 1982, he released the album "Night and Day." It was a collection of original songs, but it moved in a jazzier direction, and was especially influenced by the songwriting of Cole Porter. That was the album he was promoting with this concert, and most of the songs are from it.

This concert is 55 minutes long.

01 Look Sharp (Joe Jackson)
02 Cancer (Joe Jackson)
03 Real Men (Joe Jackson)
04 Breaking Us in Two (Joe Jackson)
05 Fools in Love (Joe Jackson)
06 Chinatown (Joe Jackson)
07 Target (Joe Jackson)
08 T. V. Age (Joe Jackson)
09 It's Different for Girls (Joe Jackson)
10 Tuxedo Junction (Joe Jackson)
11 Steppin' Out (Joe Jackson) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/sYxvwcSo

The only thing I know about the photo used on the cover is that it was taken at a concert in New York City in 1982.

Shocking Blue - The Star Dancing ‘83, Den Helder, Netherlands, 12-28-1984

These days, at least in the U.S. and Britain, the Dutch band Shocking Blue are mainly known as "one hit wonders" for their song "Venus." And that makes sense, because that song hit Number One in the U.S. and they never had any other Top Forty hits in either country. But they had many more good songs than that. For instance, they had 13 Top Twenty hits in the Netherlands, their native country, and many hits in other European countries.

I never thought I'd post a Shocking Blue album here, because I didn't know of any worthy rare or unreleased material. For instance, I never came across any bootleg concerts by them. But I recently found this. I think it's definitely worthy. Admittedly, it isn't from the band's prime time together, from 1967 to 1974. The band broke up for about ten years, but then all the original members of the band briefly reunited around 1984. I believe different versions of the band kept going until lead singer Mariska Veres died in 2006. But I consider this more legitimate since it was the entire original band.

In my opinion, Mariska Veres got most of the attention for her vocals and good looks, but the band's secret weapon was lead guitar player Robbie Van Leeuwen, due to his songwriting. Not only did he write all of Shocking Blue's hits, but he wrote hits for bands before (the Motions) and after (Mistral) as well. They really should have been bigger, but I'm pretty sure they were held back by the simple fact that they were a Dutch band. Back in the 1960s and 70s, it was extremely hard for any musical act to make it the English speaking world if they weren't from an English speaking country like the U.S., Canada, Ireland, or Britain. Shocking Blue made it with the song "Venus" because it was pretty much an unstoppable hit. But they could have had many more in better circumstances. They've gained a lot of credibility in retrospect, especially after Nirvana covered one of their songs ("Love Buzz").

This album has been sold in a limited basis with the name "Comeback." But I looked it up and I'm confident it's a grey market release, meaning the band's record company never approved it and the band hasn't profited from it. That's why it's only been on sale in a few countries with lax copyright enforcement, like Russia.

But regardless of that, the sound quality is excellent. Clearly, it's a soundboard recording. In fact, maybe the only downside is that the audience is rather quiet. I gather due to the smattering of clapping after some songs that they were played in a club to a small audience. But I tried to boost the volume of the applause after most songs. And I patched more clapping in after the last one, since that came to an abrupt end and left a bad feeling.

Most of the band's hits are here. But there's a surprising number of covers. There are two songs by Jefferson Airplane: "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit." Lead singer Mariska Veres sounds so much like Jefferson Airplane singer Grace Slick that it's almost uncanny. There's also a cover of "This Wheel's on Fire," originally by Bob Dylan and the Band, and "Crazy on You" by Heart.

This album is 59 minutes long.

01 talk (Shocking Blue)
02 Send Me a Postcard (Shocking Blue)
03 talk (Shocking Blue)
04 Long and Lonesome Road (Shocking Blue)
05 talk (Shocking Blue)
06 Somebody to Love (Shocking Blue)
07 Never Marry a Railroadman (Shocking Blue)
08 White Rabbit (Shocking Blue)
09 Venus (Shocking Blue)
10 talk (Shocking Blue)
11 Hot Sand (Shocking Blue)
12 talk (Shocking Blue)
13 Inkpot (Shocking Blue)
14 talk (Shocking Blue)
15 Never Release the One You Love (Shocking Blue)
16 talk (Shocking Blue)
17 This Wheel's on Fire (Shocking Blue)
18 Mighty Joe (Shocking Blue)
19 talk (Shocking Blue)
20 Crazy on You (Shocking Blue)
21 talk (Shocking Blue)
22 Out of Sight - Blossom Lady - Let Me Carry Your Bag (Shocking Blue)
23 Shocking You (Shocking Blue)
24 talk (Shocking Blue)
25 Venus [Reprise] (Shocking Blue)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16046581/ShckingBlu_1984_TheStrDancng83DnHeldrNtherlnds__12-28-1984_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any good photos of the band from their 1984 reunion era. So instead I went with a promo photo from the late 1960s or early 1970s.

Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne - Joan Osborne Sings Grateful Dead Songs, Volume 4 (2006)

I've already posted three volumes of Joan Osborne singing lead vocals on Grateful Dead songs with the band Phil Lesh and Friends. This the fourth, and unfortunately, last album in the series.

As with the others in this series, the entire tour was professionally recorded and released at the time, so the sound quality here is great. Also like the others, the songs are in chronological order from when they were played in concert.

Most of the songs here are Grateful Dead originals, but not all of them. "Let the Good Times Roll" and "In the Midnight Hour" are classic songs in their own right that were frequently covered by the Dead. "Blue Sky" was never performed by the Dead. However, it's by the Allman Brothers Band, another famous jam band from the same era, so it fits right in. Finally, just like the last volume, a Ryan Adams song was performed, "Peaceful Valley."

This album is one hour long, more or less exactly.

01 Attics of My Life (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
02 Here Comes Sunshine (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
03 Blue Sky (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
04 Reuben and Cherise (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
05 Lazy River Road (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
06 Let the Good Times Roll (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
07 Peaceful Valley (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
08 In the Midnight Hour (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16049341/JoanO_2006d_JoanOsbrneSngsGrtefulDdSngsVolum4_atse.zip.html

The cover photo shows Osborne at some point during this 2006 tour, but I don't know the details.

Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton - The Bottom Line, New York City, 5-9-1989

We're very lucky to have this recording. In 1989, Eric Clapton joined Carl Perkins for a bunch of songs in concert. I looked it up at a comprehensive Clapton fan site, and believe that's the only time that happened. Yet somehow a soundboard recording leaked to the public.

The first half or so of this is just Perkins and his usual band. That's quite nice all by itself, with this sound quality. But track 11 introduces Clapton, and he stayed on stage for the rest of the concert. It seems like they planned this in advance and may even have practiced some, because Clapton was quite involved and seemed to know what he was doing, including joining in on backing vocals a lot. He even sang lead for part of the song "Matchbox."

If anyone know more about this concert, and how it came to be professionally taped but then not officially released, please let me know.

This album is 50 minutes long. The portion with Clapton is the last 30 minutes.

01 The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise (Carl Perkins)
02 talk (Carl Perkins)
03 Dixie Fried (Carl Perkins)
04 talk (Carl Perkins)
05 Born to Rock (Carl Perkins)
06 talk (Carl Perkins)
07 The Birth of Rock and Roll (Carl Perkins)
08 Your True Love (Carl Perkins)
09 talk (Carl Perkins)
10 Put Your Cat Clothes On (Carl Perkins)
11 talk (Carl Perkins)
12 Mean Woman Blues (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
13 talk (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
14 Matchbox (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
15 talk (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
16 Roll Over Beethoven-Maybellene-Slippin' and Slidin'-I'm Walkin'-Whole Lotta Shakin'-Hound Dog (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
17 talk (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
18 Blue Suede Shoes (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)
19 Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad (Carl Perkins with Eric Clapton)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16039160/CarlPerk_1989_TheBottmLneNwYrkC__5-9-1989_atse.zip.html

We're very lucky that I managed to find one photo from this exact concert, showing Perkins and Clapton together. Unfortunately, it was only in black and white, but I colorized it with the help of the Palette program.

Mark Knopfler - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Colston Hall, Bristol, Britain, 5-19-1996

Mark Knopfler had been a big star with Dire Straits until 1992, but his solo career didn't really get going until 1996, with the release of his first proper solo album, "Golden Heart." I've already posted one BBC album from him that contains BBC studio sessions starting in 1996. Volume 2 here consists of a 1996 concert broadcast on the BBC. I actually plan to post two BBC concerts he did in 1996 because their set lists are different enough. But first, here's this one.

Everything here is officially unreleased, as far as I know, but the sound quality is excellent. The good news is the concert is fairly long, at an hour and nine minutes. The bad news is I suspect that some of it wasn't broadcast and thus isn't included, because his concerts typically lasted longer than that.

Since Knopfler only had one solo album to draw on at this point, he tended to play more Dire Straits songs than he did later in his solo career. That's the case here. Even with the concert being incomplete, there are still five songs done by Dire Straits: "Walk of Life," "Romeo and Juliet," "Brothers in Arms," "Money for Nothing," and "Going Home." Most of the other songs are from his "Golden Heart" solo album. But "Last Exit to Brooklyn" is from a 1989 movie soundtrack of the same name, and "Father and Son" is from the 1984 movie soundtrack "Cal."

01 Walk of Life (Mark Knopfler)
02 Rudiger (Mark Knopfler)
03 I'm the Fool (Mark Knopfler)
04 Last Exit to Brooklyn [Instrumental] (Mark Knopfler)
05 Romeo and Juliet (Mark Knopfler)
06 talk (Mark Knopfler)
07 Done with Bonaparte (Mark Knopfler)
08 A Night in Summer Long Ago (Mark Knopfler)
09 Father and Son [Instrumental] (Mark Knopfler)
10 Golden Heart (Mark Knopfler)
11 Cannibals (Mark Knopfler)
12 Brothers in Arms (Mark Knopfler)
13 Money for Nothing (Mark Knopfler)
14 Going Home [Theme From 'Local Hero'] [Instrumental] (Mark Knopfler)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16049325/MarkK1996c_BBSessonsVolum2InConcrtColstnHallBristlBrtain__5-19-1996.zip.html

The cover photo is from a concert in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1996.

James Brown - Keystone, Berkeley, CA, 1-30-1982

Good God, poeple! Take it to the bridge! Here's Jaaaaameeeees Brooooown!

I've long wanted to post something here by James Brown, since he is one of the soul music greats. However, my policy is to only post worthy music, and there have been so many zillions of James Brown albums officially released, including about 30 live albums, that I didn't come across anything worthy. 

But that's finally changed. I came across an unreleased concert that has excellent sound quality and performance, plus a great selection of songs. Also, it's from a time, the early 1980s, when there are no official live albums (at least that I know of). In fact, if you just wanted one James Brown live album from the second half of his career, it would be hard to beat this one, official or not.

Brown had a pretty rough time in the late 1970s. Disco was all the rage, largely replacing his style of funky soul music. His sales plummeted. He tried disco, but it didn't work. Thankfully, by the time of this concert, disco fever had broken. Brown wisely went back to doing the funky soul he did so well. Although this concert was recorded in 1982, the set list and performance could have easily come from 1974.

Brown did two shows on this evening. Most of the music here is from the first show. But he played three different songs in the late show, so I added those to the end. 

This concert is 55 minutes long.

01 Show Intro (James Brown)
02 James Brown Intro (James Brown)
03 The Payback (James Brown)
04 It's Too Funky in Here (James Brown)
05 Doing It to Death (James Brown)
06 Try Me (James Brown)
07 Talk with Me (James Brown)
08 Get on the Good Foot (James Brown)
09 Prisoner of Love (James Brown)
10 I Got the Feelin' (James Brown)
11 It's a Man's Man's Man's World (James Brown)
12 Cold Sweat (James Brown)
13 Please Please Please (James Brown)
14 Jam (James Brown)
15 [Get Up I Feel like Being A] Sex Machine (James Brown)
16 Georgia on My Mind (James Brown)
17 Papa's Got a Brand New Bag (James Brown)
18 I Got You [I Feel Good] (James Brown)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16036901/JmesBrwn_1982_KystneBerkelyCA__1-30-1982_atse.zip.html

The cover photo isn't from this exact concert, but it's close. It's from a concert only one day later, in Reseda, California. With the text, I drew upon the style of old James Brown concert posters for inspiration with the font type and colors and so forth.

Leonard Cohen - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 5-30-1988

This is the fourth, and so far last, Leonard Cohen BBC album I plan on posting. Like the last one, it's a concert. It's also a much longer one, clocking in at over two hours long.

Cohen's career reached a commercial low point in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was so bad that when his album "Various Positions" was released in 1984, his record company refused to release it in the U.S. (For years, one could only get it as an import from Canada.) But that was a strong album that contained what would become his most famous song, "Hallelujah." His next album, "I'm Your Man," was arguably even better. It also sold much better, helped by the fact that he had a new record company that supported it. 

This was part of his tour to support that album. There are no official live albums from the 1980s at all, so this is an excellent one to fill in that gap. The sound quality is top notch, as you'd expect from the BBC.

Note that Cohen's voice got much deeper all through the 1980s. So he sound considerably different than on the last BBC concert album, recorded in 1979.

I believe there's only one song missing: "Avalanche." I don't know why it wasn't included.

Unfortunately, I imagine this is the last BBC album I'll be posting of his music, because I don't know of any BBC concerts or significant sessions after this. He did perform a set at the Glastonbury Festival in 2008, and those sets are almost always broadcast by the BBC. But I'm guessing his set wasn't broadcast, because I can't find a good copy of that performance anywhere. If you have one, please share.

This album is two hours and 19 minutes long.

01 talk (Leonard Cohen)
02 Dance Me to the End of Love (Leonard Cohen)
03 talk (Leonard Cohen)
04 Ain't No Cure for Love (Leonard Cohen)
05 Who by Fire (Leonard Cohen)
06 Bird on the Wire (Leonard Cohen)
07 talk (Leonard Cohen)
08 I'm Your Man (Leonard Cohen)
09 Sisters of Mercy (Leonard Cohen)
10 Coming Back to You (Leonard Cohen)
11 talk (Leonard Cohen)
12 First We Take Manhattan (Leonard Cohen)
13 talk (Leonard Cohen)
14 Chelsea Hotel No. 2 (Leonard Cohen)
15 Tower of Song (Leonard Cohen)
16 The Stranger Song (Leonard Cohen)
17 If It Be Your Will (Leonard Cohen)
18 Everybody Knows (Leonard Cohen)
19 Joan of Arc (Leonard Cohen)
20 Hallelujah [Edit] (Leonard Cohen)
21 There Is a War (Leonard Cohen)
22 talk (Leonard Cohen)
23 Take This Waltz (Leonard Cohen)
24 The Partisan (Leonard Cohen)
25 Suzanne (Leonard Cohen)
26 Passin' Through (Leonard Cohen)
27 I Tried to Leave You (Leonard Cohen)
28 Whither Thou Goest (Leonard Cohen)
29 So Long, Marianne (Leonard Cohen)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/XCz1W8sF

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/0SJvOxDirqLJfud/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/mDiDT

The cover photo was taken in Paris, France, in May 1988.

Newport Folk Festival, Festival Field, Newport, RI, 7-25-1968 to 7-28-1968, Part 10 - Buddy Guy & Junior Wells

This is the last of ten albums featuring the biggest names from the 1968 Newport Folk Festival. This time, it's a set from the blues duo Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.

Guy and Wells were successful solo artists, but they also had a long and successful partnership, sometimes working as a duo from the 1960s until Wells died in 1998. I believe they started performing together around 1966, but they wouldn't release their first album as a duo until 1972. I can't say this with total certainty, but I think this is their best and only concert recording as a duo from the 1960s.

Guy and Wells did different types of blues together. They've even done some acoustic albums which I particularly like. But at this phase of their career, they mostly played a more rocking and lively form of blues, sometimes even veering into soul music. This was helped by the fact they were assisted by a horn section. You can see that here by the fact that they finished with a cover of "I Got You (I Feel Good)," the soul classic by James Brown.

This concert is 39 minutes long.

129 talk by George Wein (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
130 Intro [Instrumental] (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
131 One Room Country Shack (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
132 Checkin' on My Baby (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
133 talk (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
134 Hoodoo Man Blues (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
135 Messin' with the Kid (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
136 talk (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
137 Help Me (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
138 talk (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
139 Call It Stormy Monday - I Got You [I Feel Good] (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/EgA7aHvf

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/M1wbNmlqHl2NjLj/file

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

UPDATE: On October 5, 2024, I upgraded the photo with the use of the Krea AI program.

Newport Folk Festival, Festival Field, Newport, RI, 7-25-1968 to 7-28-1968, Part 9 - Janis Ian & Tim Buckley

This is the ninth of ten albums of the 1968 Newport Folk Festival. This was part of the festival's last day, July 28, 1968. There are two sets here, one from singer-songwriter Janis Ian and the other from singer-songwriter Tim Buckley.

Ian was quite young at the time of this concert, just seventeen years old. She'd had a surprise hit the year before with the song, "Society's Child (Baby, I've Been Thinking)," which dealt with interracial romance. The same month as this concert she released her third album, "The Secret Life of J. Eddy Fink." It was a bad time in her life. She was doing a lot of drugs to cope with her fame, and even attempted suicide. You wouldn't know that from her performance here though, which was fine.

Tim Buckley has become something of a music legend, in part due to dying young (in 1975) as well as having a famous musical son, Jeff Buckley, who also died young. As a result, there's a demand for his live recordings. So this is a very welcome addition to his discography. The sound quality is excellent, like everything from this festival. And it took place at an interesting time, when he was moving from folky material to more experimental and jazzy material. 

His first song, "Buzzin' Fly," wouldn't be released until a year later, on his album "Happy Sad." The next two songs were covers. He played them a lot in concert, but he didn't put them on any albums at the time. "The Dolphins" would be released on a studio album, but not until 1973. His final song, "Morning Glory," was from his most recent album at the time, "Goodbye and Hello."

This album is 45 minutes long. The Janis Ian set is 23 minutes long, and the Tim Buckley set is 22 minutes long.

116 talk by George Wein (Janis Ian)
117 Janeys Blues (Janis Ian)
118 Pro-Girl (Janis Ian)
119 Society's Child [Baby, I've Been Thinking] (Janis Ian)
120 New Christ Cardiac Hero (Janis Ian)
121 My Land (Janis Ian)
122 talk by Oscar Brand (Tim Buckley)
123 Buzzin' Fly (Tim Buckley)
124 Wayfaring Stranger (Tim Buckley)
125 talk (Tim Buckley)
126 The Dolphins (Tim Buckley)
127 talk (Tim Buckley)
128 Morning Glory (Tim Buckley)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vquwj16G

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MIrw9pJheWTzYzI/file

The cover art shows Janis Ian on the left and Tim Buckley on the right. Both are from this exact concert. It's a shame I had to edit them down to get both to fit. If anyone wants me to post the full versions, or of any of the others from the concert that I had to split in two, let me know and I'll post them here too. 

UPDATE: On October 5, 2024, I upgraded the photo with the use of the Krea AI program.

Newport Folk Festival, Festival Field, Newport, RI, 7-25-1968 to 7-28-1968, Part 8 - Kaleidoscope (US) & Taj Mahal

Next up at the 1968 Newport Folk Festival were Kaleidoscope (U.S.) and Taj Mahal. 

I say "Kaleidoscope (U.S.)" and not just "Kaleidoscope," because in the late 1960s, there were two fairly well known bands with the name Kaleidoscope, one in Britain and one in the U.S. I've already posted a few albums by the British Kaleidoscope. I like them a lot, and in my biased mind they are THE Kaleidoscope, so that's why I clarify that this is the U.S. band by putting "U.S." in their name. That said, Kaleidoscope (U.S.) had a lot going for them. They had a very unique sound that has been described as "psychedelic folk." Retrospectively, they're probably best known for the fact that their guitarist was David Lindley, who would go on to have a long and successful music career after the band broke up before the end of the 1960s.

In fact, I would say the Kaleidoscope set was the big deal here, much more so than Taj Mahal's. That's not to knock Taj Mahal at all, but instead it's a matter of scarcity. There are lots of Taj Mahal concert recordings, both bootleg and official, but I only know of one Kaleidoscope official live album and no bootlegs. So this is a key addition to their pretty small recorded legacy.

Also, their set was quite interesting and even provocative. They started out with a short and simple cover of the country song "Hello Trouble." Then they took a cover of another cover, "Oh Death" - made famous by Ralph Stanley, who had played earlier in the festival - and totally transformed it. Normally a short song, they stretched it to twelve minutes, mostly by adding a spoken word section in the middle with very harsh words about the Vietnam War, a hot, controversial topic at the time. They followed that with "Taxim," a long instrumental with strong "world music" elements.

Taj Mahal had already performed a set earlier in the festival. I included that in the first album in this series. The set he did here wasn't terribly different. It included two of the same songs: "She Caught the Katy (And Left Me a Mule to Ride)" and "EZ Rider." But only this one ended with "Ain't That a Lot of Love," which is one of my favorite songs from him, and one of his most upbeat ones.

This album is 54 minutes long. The Kaleidoscope set is 32 minutes long, and the Taj Mahal set is 21 minutes long.

101 talk by Pete Seeger (Kaleidoscope (US))
102 Hello Trouble (Kaleidoscope (US))
103 talk (Kaleidoscope (US))
104 Oh Death (Kaleidoscope (US))
105 talk (Kaleidoscope (US))
106 Taxim [Instrumental] (Kaleidoscope (US))
107 talk (Taj Mahal)
108 Dust My Broom (Taj Mahal)
109 talk (Taj Mahal)
110 She Caught the Katy [And Left Me a Mule to Ride] (Taj Mahal)
111 Diving Duck Blues (Taj Mahal)
112 talk (Taj Mahal)
113 EZ Rider (Taj Mahal)
114 talk (Taj Mahal)
115 Ain't That a Lot of Love (Taj Mahal)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/vyozDRvw

alternate:

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

For the cover, that's Kaleidoscope on the left and Taj Mahal on the right. Both photos are from this exact festival. However, I don't know if Taj Mahal's picture is from this set, or the one he played earlier in the festival. And the Kaleidoscope picture was originally in black and white, because that's all I could find of them from this show. But I colorized it with the help of the Palette computer problem. Also, unfortunately, I had to crop out the drummer to get it to fit. Since good photos of the band in concert are very few and far between, and it took some work to colorize it, here's the full picture.

UPDATE: On October 5, 2024, I upgraded the cover photo with the use of the Krea AI program.

Newport Folk Festival, Festival Field, Newport, RI, 7-25-1968 to 7-28-1968, Part 7 - Big Brother & the Holding Company

Next up for the 1968 Newport Folk Festival was Big Brother and the Holding Company, led by singer Janis Joplin.

At the time of this festival, Joplin and her band hadn't had much success so far. They'd released one album in 1967, simply called "Big Brother and the Holding Company," but it had only reached Number 60 in the U.S. charts. They'd put out a few singles, but only one of them, "Down on Me," had charted at all. In August, just one month after this concert, their second album, "Cheap Thrills," would be released. It would hit Number One in the U.S. and sell millions, becoming a classic. But that was still in the future.

Despite that relative lack of success so far, the buzz about Joplin had already turned her into a star. 

I previously posted a link to a Rolling Stone Magazine review of the entire Newport festival. It was written by famed rock critic (and future producer for Bruce Springsteen) Jon Landau. He was a real curmudgeon in his sour review, disliking most all the acts in the festival, especially Joplin and her band. (He even wrote, "I should note the audience loved every minute of [her performance] and that I was singularly isolated in my reaction.") But even he had to admit that her set was "unquestionably the hit of the festival."

Joplin and her band was the last act to perform on the July 27th day of the festival. Technically, their set was on the 28th, because they went on well after midnight. A curfew was enforced, so the band had to play a shorter set than they wanted. Many or even most of the people in the crowd waited through folk acts all day in order to see Joplin, and they'd gotten bored and restless. 

However, all that changed when Joplin took the stage. Landau later wrote that the song "Ball and Chain" in particular earned a "massive standing ovation." And at the end of the set, "[Joplin] and the audience just beamed at each other through her two encores."

Here's that Landau review again, in case you're curious to read the whole thing:

The Newport Folk Festival: 1968 (rollingstone.com)

This album is 35 minutes long.

087 talk by Unknown Emcee (Big Brother & the Holding Company)
088 Piece of My Heart (Big Brother & the Holding Company)
089 talk (Big Brother & the Holding Company)
090 Summertime (Big Brother & the Holding Company)
091 talk (Big Brother & the Holding Company)
092 Coo Coo (Big Brother & the Holding Company)
093 talk (Big Brother & the Holding Company)
094 Combination of the Two (Big Brother & the Holding Company)
095 talk (Big Brother & the Holding Company)
096 Ball and Chain (Big Brother & the Holding Company)
097 talk (Big Brother & the Holding Company)
098 Down on Me (Big Brother & the Holding Company)
099 talk (Big Brother & the Holding Company)
100 Piece of My Heart [Reprise] (Big Brother & the Holding Company)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6EHwP6dE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/flpyQHL04LrsKiK/file

The cover photo comes from this exact concert.

Newport Folk Festival, Festival Field, Newport, RI, 7-25-1968 to 7-28-1968, Part 6 - B. B. King

I posted five albums of the 1968 Newport Folk Festival, but there are ten in all. So here's the sixth one. It's a set from legendary blues guitarist B. B. King.

King was a tireless concert performer, usually playing concerts well over 300 nights a year. So it's highly likely this was his well-honed typical set done with a full band, without any changes for the folk theme or folky crowd of the festival. But that's fine. He was in peak form in the late 1960s, with his most acclaimed live albums from that time period, so it's good to have another live recording like this from him.

As with the other albums from this festival, there was some problem with wind blowing on the microphone, especially during the applause and banter. But I cleaned that up using the Izotope 10 audio editing program, just like I did for the other albums.

This album is 32 minutes long.

076 talk by George Wein (B. B. King)
077 Everyday I Have the Blues (B. B. King)
078 How Blue Can You Get (B. B. King)
079 Whole Lot of Loving (B. B. King)
080 talk (B. B. King)
081 Please Accept My Love (B. B. King)
082 talk (B. B. King)
083 I'm Gonna Do What They Do to Me (B. B. King)
084 Sweet Sixteen (B. B. King)
085 Paying the Cost to Be the Boss (B. B. King)
086 talk by George Wein (B. B. King)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/LkPoMGds

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/dfqjrzm5zlELEpy/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Newport Folk Festival, Festival Field, Newport, RI, 7-25-1968 to 7-28-1968, Part 5 - George Hamilton IV & Ralph Stanley

The fifth album from the 1968 Newport Folk Festival gets even more rootsy, with sets from country singer George Hamilton IV and bluegrass musician Ralph Stanley.

George Hamilton IV doesn't seem to be that well known these days, probably because he didn't excel with original songs or a unique style. Here's his Wikipedia entry:

George Hamilton IV - Wikipedia

But he started out as a teen idol in the late 1950s, then switched to country music in the early 1960s. By the time of this festival, he had become very interested in playing folk songs in a country style. He had a knack for covering songs by emerging singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot. He had dozens of country hits in the 1960s and 1970s.

For his set at the festival, he played two songs by Lightfoot ("Steel Rail Blues" and "Early Mornin' Rain") and one by Mitchell ("Urge for Going"), as well as "Abeline," which was a Number One coutnry hit for him in the U.S. in 1963.

Ralph Stanley was a giant figure in bluegrass music for a long time. Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Ralph Stanley - Wikipedia

He was born in 1927 and died in 2016 at the age of 89. He was known both his his distinctive singing and his banjo playing. If you're not familiar with the bluegrass genre, he's probably best known in the wider popular culture for singing the song "Oh Death" in the 2000 movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

This album is 39 minutes long. The Hamilton IV set is 19 minutes and the Stanley set is 20 minutes.

053 talk by Unknown Emcee (George Hamilton IV)
054 Steel Rail Blues (George Hamilton IV)
055 Abeline (George Hamilton IV)
056 talk (George Hamilton IV)
057 Urge for Going (George Hamilton IV)
058 talk (George Hamilton IV)
059 Don't Think Twice, It's All Right [Instrumental Version] (George Hamilton IV)
060 talk (George Hamilton IV)
061 Break My Mind (George Hamilton IV)
062 Early Morning Rain (George Hamilton IV)
063 talk by George Wein (George Hamilton IV)
064 talk by Unknown Emcee (Ralph Stanley)
065 How Mountain Girls Can Love (Ralph Stanley)
066 talk (Ralph Stanley)
067 Man of Constant Sorrow (Ralph Stanley)
068 talk (Ralph Stanley)
069 Pretty Polly - Wild Bill Jones (Ralph Stanley)
070 talk (Ralph Stanley)
071 The Hills of Roane County (Ralph Stanley)
072 talk (Ralph Stanley)
073 Sally Goodin' [Instrumental] (Ralph Stanley)
074 talk (Ralph Stanley)
075 Little Birdie (Ralph Stanley)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/bH9kgeY9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/aLqTPmBuAi86044/file

The cover art has a picture of Hamilton IV on the left and Stanley on the right. The one of Hamilton IV is from this exact concert. However, I couldn't find any photos of Stanley from the festival. In fact, I had trouble finding any good photos of him from this time period at all. I ended up using an undated black and white one. Then I colorized it using the Palette program.

UPDATE: On October 5, 2024, I upgraded the photo with the use of the Krea AI program.

Newport Folk Festival, Festival Field, Newport, RI, 7-25-1968 to 7-28-1968, Part 4 - Mississippi Fred McDowell, Joan Baez & Ramblin' Jack Elliott

In the fourth volume of the 1968 Newport Folk Festival, things get increasingly folky. The two main performers here are from before the rock era, the kinds of musicians that almost never got bootlegged.

Mississippi Fred McDowell in particular went way back. Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Wikipedia

He was born in 1904 and died in 1972, just a few years after this festival. He actually was a farmer most of his life. But about ten years before this, musicologists discovered him while doing field recordings in the Southern U.S. Only then did he become a professional musician and start putting out records.

Joan Baez was the featured musician of the previous album in this festival series. But this album took place one day later. She had performed solo acoustic, but she came back on stage at this time to play a couple of classic country songs with a band. It seems she only did two songs.

The remainder of the album is Ramblin' Jack Elliott's set. Here's his Wikipedia page:

Ramblin' Jack Elliott - Wikipedia

Elliott truly was a ramblin' guy. He ran away from home at age fifteen to join the circus. Before long he connected with legendary folk musician Woody Guthrie. He essentially became his young apprentice for many years, traveling with him and learning his songs. He kept playing for a long time, for instance having a role in Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder tour in 1975 and 1976, and even playing with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the 2000s. As I write this in late 2023, he's still alive, at the age of 92.

At some points, this wind problem mentioned in previous albums happened here too. But I fixed that using the "de-wind" feature of the Izotope 10 audio editing program.

Also, Elliott's set was quite short, only three songs, and had big problems. Parts of the songs "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "If I Were a Carpenter" were missing. Luckily though, he did studio versions a year earlier for an album in the same acoustic style done here. So I used the studio versions to fill in the missing parts. Even though live and studio versions are combined, I'd be surprised if you can find where the edits took place. I'm guessing there could have been more songs to his set that might not have been properly recorded at all.

But that was just the first three songs of his set. You may notice he did an additional five songs. That's because of the special set I previously mentioned with the Arlo Guthrie set, the one dedicated to Woody Guthrie. Since Elliott was so close to Woody, it was only natural that he was a part of that, and that he played a bunch of songs. So those last five songs are all Woody Guthrie covers done as part of that set.

This album is 46 minutes long. The McDowell set is 10 minutes long, the Baez one is eight minutes, and the Elliott one is 29 minutes.

033 talk by George Wein (Mississippi Fred McDowell)
034 Fred's Worried Life Blues (Mississippi Fred McDowell)
035 Shake 'Em on Down (Mississippi Fred McDowell)
036 Write Me a Few Lines (Mississippi Fred McDowell)
037 talk by Ralph Rinzler (Mississippi Fred McDowell)
038 talk by Bob Siggins (Joan Baez)
039 Green, Green Grass of Home (Joan Baez)
040 talk (Joan Baez)
041 The Banks of the Ohio (Joan Baez)
042 talk by Unknown Emcee (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
043 talk (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
044 912 Greens (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
045 talk (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
046 Don't Think Twice, It's Alright [Edit] (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
047 If I Were a Carpenter [Edit] (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
048 Ramblin' Round (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
049 How'd You Do (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
050 Why Oh Why (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
051 Car, Car (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)
052 Talking Merchant Marine (Ramblin' Jack Elliott)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZFgeYE1D

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/M20FQYsh32J5YmI/file

For the cover, that's McDowell on the left and Elliott on the right. Both photos were taken during this festival.

UPDATE: On October 5, 2024, I upgraded the photo with the use of the Krea AI program.

Newport Folk Festival, Festival Field, Newport, RI, 7-25-1968 to 7-28-1968, Part 3 - Joan Baez

Next up at the 1968 Newport Folk Festival is folk singer Joan Baez.

In 1968, Joan Baez was a big star. In fact, I was surprised to recently read that the organizers of the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival - basically, the British version of Woodstock, with lots of big name artists - considered her the biggest name draw of the whole festival. And at this time, she would have been considered hip enough to appeal to both the folk and rock crowds at the festival, in part due to her strident anti-Vietnam War protests.

Baez did an all acoustic set. It's the only set from the festival I'm presenting here that has been officially released. It's notable for the cover of "Gentle on My Mind," made famous by Glen Campbell, because Baez otherwise never recorded it.

For two of the songs, she sang duets with her sister, Mimi Farina. Farina was a well known folk singer in her own right, especially as part of the duo of Richard and Mini Farina, but that ended when Richard died in 1966. As far as I know, Farina didn't do a set of her own during the festival.

Many of the sets were plagued by wind noises, and that was the case here. But I used Izotope 10 to "de-wind" some of the files. If any still remain, please let me know and I'll make another effort.

Note that Baez also sang a couple of songs in a very short set at the festival a day later. I'll include those on the next album, to put them in the proper chronological context.

This set is 37 minutes long.

021 talk by Jean Ritchie (Joan Baez)
022 Carry It On (Joan Baez)
023 Gentle on My Mind (Joan Baez)
024 talk (Joan Baez)
025 Maria Dolores (Joan Baez)
026 talk (Joan Baez)
027 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Joan Baez)
028 talk (Joan Baez)
029 Legend in My Time (Joan Baez & Mimi Farina)
030 Morning, Morning (Joan Baez & Mimi Farina)
031 Suzanne (Joan Baez)
032 We Want Our Freedom Now (Joan Baez)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/WUE2GgTF

alternate:

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

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

UPDATE: On October 5, 2024, I upgraded the photo with the use of the Krea AI program.

Newport Folk Festival, Festival Field, Newport, RI, 7-25-1968 to 7-28-1968, Part 2 - Arlo Guthrie

The 1968 Newport Folk Festival continues with Arlo Guthrie.

As an aside, note that I'm not entirely sure of the order of performers in this festival. I tried to research it, but I only got some clues, like a mention of a particular act being the last one of the day, or one performer going before another one. So the order is my best guess. I do know which day each performance took place on though, and that information is in the mp3 tags. In Guthie's case, his set was on August 26th, the second day of the festival.

Arlo Guthrie is famous for being the son of Woody Guthrie, probably the most revered folk musician of all time. But he also has had a long and successful music career of his own. He found fame early, when he was just a teenager. In the 1967 Newport Folk Festival, he peformed a newly written long story-song, "Alice's Restaurant Massacree," and it got a tremendous reception. He recorded it at another concert shortly after that and released it on his debut album later that year. As a result, he was already well-known by the time of this festival, though mainly known for that one song.

If this is his full performance, then he didn't play that song this time. However, he made passing reference to it more than once, and you can tell from the reaction that the audience was familiar with it. Instead, he played a couple of songs done in a very similar vein, that was a mix of talking, often humorous, and singing. 

The last three songs are actually from a different set at the same festival. There was a special set with multiple artists that was a tribute to Arlo Guthrie's famous father, Woody Guthrie. Arlo played a few songs in that, so I put them at the end of his set. Two of them, "The Oklahoma Hills" and "Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues," were covers of Woody Guthrie songs. But the last one, "The Motorcycle Song," was an Arlo Guthrie original.

Note that the recordings of this festival were often plagued by the sound of wind blowing against the microphone. For some reason, this didn't seem to affect the music or singing much at all. However, it often was quite noticeable during the cheering after songs, and the banter between songs. It wasn't a problem with the first album I posted, but it affected some of the songs here. But happily, I recently got the audio editing program Izotope 10, and that has a "de-wind" feature that works very well. I'm not going to mark all the songs I edited, because there were many. But note that this version sounds better than others you might find on the Internet because the windy noises have been removed. (If any remain, please let me know and I'll try to fix them.)

This album is 48 minutes long.

013 talk by Jean Ritchie (Arlo Guthrie)
014 Swimmy Swim (Arlo Guthrie)
015 talk (Arlo Guthrie)
016 The Pause of Mr. Claus (Arlo Guthrie)
017 Meditation [Wave Upon Wave] (Arlo Guthrie)
018 The Oklahoma Hills (Arlo Guthrie)
019 Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues (Arlo Guthrie)
020 The Motorcycle Song (Arlo Guthrie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1e1QpUga

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/FQOHVrDaT9ibW6A/file

The cover photo comes from this exact concert. However, it was in black and white. I used the program Palette to colorize it, then did some touch ups with Photoshop.

UPDATE: On October 5, 2024, I upgraded the photo with the use of the Krea AI program.