Manfred Mann - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1964-1966

If you follow this blog, you've probably noticed that I've been putting a particular emphasis on posting BBC performances from the 1960s and 70s. Not only are they usually great in terms of sound quality and often have unique songs not done anywhere else, but I find satisfaction in editing the songs to remove the annoying BBC DJs talking over the music. It's a particular joy for me to wipe all traces of DJ Brian Matthew, who sounds like the epitome of a smarmy, insincere promo guy.

So as I work my way through the big musicians from that era, Manfred Mann came to my attention. It turns out two official double albums of their BBC performances were released in 2019, one called "Radio Days, Part 1," and the other "Radio Days, Part 2." I got them and gave them a good listen. I must say I was impressed. Manfred Mann sold a lot of records back in the 1960s, but they don't have a very good critical reputation. They're seen much like the Hollies - a poppy singles band, except without Graham Nash and with fewer hits.

Listening to Manfred Mann's BBC recordings made me reassess them. I now think they're much better than they're given credit for. It turns out they actually were really talented jazz musicians who saw the huge success of rock music in the early 1960s and gave that a try. As a result, they were way more talented than other groups they're lumped in with, such as the Herman's Hermits. They had two excellent lead vocalists, and many of their songs, including some of their hits, were written by them.  They had a habit of sneaking in jazzy instrumentals to their repertoire as much as they thought they could for a pop band, and there are a few of those here.

So I've decided to do a total overhaul of their 1960s output, much as I did with the Zombies, in hopes of turning more people onto them. It turns out they did a lot of songs for the BBC that they never recorded anywhere else. So I'm not including any of those here. Instead, those will be added to the various studio recording compilations I've made. I also haven't included any of the occasional times when they played the same song twice for the BBC.

What that leaves is essentially a greatest hits of their 1960s material, since they tended to play their most popular songs for the BBC. Just as the official BBC albums have done, I've split their 1960s work into two parts. This album deals with the years when Paul Jones was the band's lead singer. He was replaced in mid-1966 by Mike d'Abo. That era will be the subject of my second and final BBC album from them.

You can see from the song titles which songs I had to edit to get rid of the BBC DJs talking (usually Brian Matthew), because I've included "[Edit]." In all the cases I think, the talking was over the start of the song. Using the sound editing software X-Minus, I was able to wipe the talking completely while keeping the underlying music.

I found a list of all the times Manfred Mann played at the BBC, and it included the names of most of the songs they played. Sadly, I'd estimate only about half of their performances with good recordings. Many unique songs they played are probably lost forever. (It doesn't help that there are virtually no live bootlegs of the band from the 1960s.)

I would guess that "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" is the band's best known song, at least from the 1960s. (The band morphed into Manfred Mann's Earth Band in the 1970s and had a massive hit with "Blinded by the Light.") By chance, none of the band's BBC performances of "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" survived. But I was able to find a version performed live for a TV show that sounds nearly as good. I did the same for "5 4 3 2 1," another big hit that also otherwise wouldn't have been included here. So, with those two songs included, this does include all the big hits from their Paul Jones era.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Groovin' [We're Gonna Groove] (Manfred Mann)
02 Watermelon Man (Manfred Mann)
03 Do Wah Diddy Diddy (Manfred Mann)
04 Sha La La [Edit] (Manfred Mann)
05 Come Tomorrow (Manfred Mann)
06 Look Away (Manfred Mann)
07 L. S. D. [Edit] (Manfred Mann)
08 Oh No, Not My Baby (Manfred Mann)
09 The Abominable Snowmann [Instrumental] (Manfred Mann)
10 The One in the Middle (Manfred Mann)
11 When Will I Be Loved [Edit] (Manfred Mann)
12 What Am I to Do [Edit] (Manfred Mann)
13 I Put a Spell on You [Edit] (Manfred Mann)
14 If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Manfred Mann)
15 Watch Your Step (Manfred Mann)
16 There's No Living without Your Loving (Manfred Mann)
17 Spirit Feel [Instrumental] (Manfred Mann)
18 Tired of Trying, Bored with Lying, Scared of Dying (Manfred Mann)
19 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (Manfred Mann)
20 Still I'm Sad [Instrumental] (Manfred Mann)
21 Pretty Flamingo (Manfred Mann)
22 Machines [Edit] (Manfred Mann)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16695555/MANFRDMNN1964-1966_BBSssonsVlum1_atse.zip.html

I'm not sure where the cover art comes from exactly. It looks like they're in a recording studio. But I do know it's from 1965.

Melissa Etheridge - From My Home to Yours - Home Concert, Los Angeles, CA, 4-29-2020

I think Melissa Etheridge has to be the hardest working musician during the coronavirus lockdown. She's been performing a home concert of about half an hour to an hour in length every single day since the lockdown began! As I write this, she's done over 50 concerts, and shows no sign of stopping.

I already posted one of her home concerts, a special one that consisted entirely of Bruce Springsteen covers. This is another special one from her. On April 29, 2020, in addition to her usual afternoon home concert, she did a second home concert that evening for a different social media platform, which she called "From My Home to Yours." That show focused on her best known hits. So this is ideal for people, like me, who don't own most of her albums but still enjoy her greatest hits.

Since all of these songs are performed by Etheridge alone, this is much like a solo acoustic version of her greatest hits album. Except it's not entirely that way, due to her mastery of the looping technique. As she did for a couple of the songs for her Bruce Springsteen show, she added drums and occasionally some other instruments to a "looped" backing track that she created all by herself on the spot. In the few cases she did this, I edited out the minute or two it took for her to build up the loop, because I don't think those parts stand up well to repeated listening. But still, kudos to her for being able to flesh some songs out all on her own so quickly.

Also note that for a couple of the looped songs, she plays an electric guitar instead of an acoustic, and adds her own licks and even entire solos. She also plays piano instead of guitar on a couple of songs. I knew she has a great voice, but I didn't realize she's so talented on so many instruments (especially if you include the drumming she did for the looping).

I believe all the songs are written or co-written by Etheridge, except for "Weakness in Me" by Joan Armatrading. Etheridge tends to talk a lot between songs. I kept nearly all of it, except for bits I thought wouldn't stand up to repeated listening, such as when she was plugging her next home concerts.

By the way, I've been keeping track of her daily home concerts. In the future, I plan on posting some highlights from that, such as when she does more special covers shows.

01 I Want to Come Over (Melissa Etheridge)
02 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
03 You Can Sleep While I Drive (Melissa Etheridge)
04 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
05 If I Wanted To (Melissa Etheridge)
06 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
07 Don't You Need (Melissa Etheridge)
08 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
09 Bring Me Some Water (Melissa Etheridge)
10 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
11 Weakness in Me (Melissa Etheridge)
12 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
13 Meet Me in the Dark (Melissa Etheridge)
14 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
15 Chrome Plated Heart (Melissa Etheridge)
16 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
17 I'm the Only One (Melissa Etheridge)
18 talk (Melissa Etheridge)
19 Come to My Window (Melissa Etheridge)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/tGmd2iWu

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/lMWUGyTk3kArcLI/file

The cover art is a screenshot taken from the concert in question. I used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality.

Brandi Carlile - Cover Songs, Volume 1: 2005-2010

I have to admit that I don't pay enough attention to artists who came onto the scene in the last decade or two. (If you know of some really great ones, please point them out to me.) A case in point is Brandi Carlile. I was only vaguely aware of her music career, but I hadn't really heard her. Then, a few weeks ago, I was watching Stephen Colbert's late night show and she did a version of John Prine's "Hello in There" in tribute to his recent passing. I was very impressed with her voice and started looking for more of her material. The more I found, the more impressed I was.

In terms of her original material, she is a talented songwriter, but I find her songs a mixed bag. As is so often the case with "modern" recordings, I have issues with the production in particular. But her fantastic voice just can't be denied. So what I've done is collected her cover versions (with a big assist from Lil Panda, who helped me out again).  A majority of these come from concert recordings, which tend to solve the "MOR" (Middle of the Road) production issues I otherwise have.

Happily, Carlile has very good, wide ranging taste in music. She excels in country, folk, rock, and pop. And it seems she's willing to play any song she feels inspired by, sacred cows be damned. As an example, she's even sung "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen a bunch of times! (Though, unfortunately, I couldn't find a good enough version to include in this series. If anyone can find one, please let me know.) So, if you're like me and not that familiar with her music, I highly recommend you give this a try anyway. She really does have a great physical gift with her voice and she knows how to use it.

I've found so many excellent cover versions she did that I've made six albums out of them. This is the first one, and the others will be posted here soon. Each one is roughly 50 minutes long. It's a mix of acoustic and full band performances.

In terms of sound quality, I've been fairly strict. (Actually, Lil Panda was my filter - any song got nixed if he said the sound wasn't up to snuff.) For this album, a vast majority of the songs are officially released. But the five unreleased ones sound nearly as good. I used the MVSEP audio editing program to remove most of the crowd noise on the songs that had crowd noise.

This album is 50 minutes long.

Here's a list of who did the original versions. As you can see, she usually sticks to the classics.

01 Sixty Years On - Elton John
02 Pirate on the Run - Pat Monahan
03 Creep - Radiohead
04 All I Have to Do Is Dream - Everly Brothers
05 The Times They Are A-Changin' - Bob Dylan
06 Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Bob Dylan
07 Love Me Tender - Elvis Presley
08 Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival
09 My Repair - Jason Scavone
10 You Belong to Me - Patti Page / Jo Stafford
11 Let It Be - Beatles
12 Heaven - Bryan Adams
13 Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain - Roy Acuff / Willie Nelson
14 Forever Young - Alphaville
15 A Place Called Home - Kim Richey

Here's the song list:

01 Sixty Years On (Brandi Carlile)
02 Pirate on the Run (Pat Monahan ‎& Brandi Carlile)
03 Creep (Brandi Carlile)
04 All I Have to Do Is Dream (Brandi Carlile & Ben Taylor)
05 The Times They Are A-Changin' (Brandi Carlile)
06 Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (Indigo Girls & Brandi Carlile)
07 Love Me Tender (Chris Isaak & Brandi Carlile)
08 Fortunate Son (Brandi Carlile)
09 My Repair (Jason Scavone & Brandi Carlile)
10 You Belong to Me (Brandi Carlile with Gregory Alan Isakov)
11 Let It Be (Brandi Carlile)
12 Heaven (Brandi Carlile)
13 Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (Brandi Carlile)
14 Forever Young (Brandi Carlile)
15 A Place Called Home (Brandi Carlile & Tiffany Carlile)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CMLcqquq

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ZsTqNaKRPlvPT20/file

The cover art photo comes from a 2007 concert.

Crosby, Stills and Nash - Solo Demos, Volume 2: 1969

A few weeks ago, I posted an album that collected all the solo demos by Crosby, Stills and/or Nash in 1968, so long as I didn't use them somewhere else. This is a continuation of that series. This time, it deals with 1969. I have one more album coming, for 1970 and 1971.

As you can see from the song list, these are the demo versions of some of the biggest songs by CSN. They're a mix of songs from their first and second albums, plus a few others. Note that I included a version of "Marrakesh Express" on the "Sol Demos, Volume 1" album. But that version just had Graham Nash on it, and this version was a bit later and featured David Crosby as well. It's a similar situation with "Guinnevere." He made two demos, one in 1968 and one in 1969. So I've included the latter version here.

All but one song ("Black Queen") has been officially released, so the sound quality is great. The album is a bit on the short side at 39 minutes.

01 Teach Your Children (Graham Nash)
02 So Begins the Task (Stephen Stills)
03 Almost Cut My Hair (David Crosby)
04 Pre-Road Downs (Graham Nash)
05 Black Queen (Stephen Stills)
06 Guinnevere [Alternate Demo] (David Crosby)
07 Marrakesh Express (Crosby & Nash)
08 Triad (David Crosby)
09 Our House (Graham Nash)
10 The Lee Shore (Stephen Stills)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16383337/CROSBSTLLSNSH1969SloDmosVlum2_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo comes from a series of publicity photos relating to the 1969 "Crosby, Stills and Nash" album. I made some adjustments in Photoshop to add some background above their heads, since it cut off right at the very tops of their heads.

Neil Finn - Home Concerts 4, Los Angeles, CA, 4-8-2020 to 4-10-2020

Here's the fourth album in my series of Neil Finn's home concerts. He's been on hiatus from doing his daily concerts for the last week or so, which gives me a chance to catch up a bit. (I hope he hasn't stopped his home concerts for good!)

I think this is one of the strongest albums in the series. It has a great selection of songs, both in terms of originals and covers. The YouTube video of his cover of David Bowie's "Heroes" has gone viral to a certain degree. And he does some of the best and biggest Crowded House hits, such as "Fall at Your Feet" and "Something So Strong."

It also is unusual in that most of the songs have lovely vocal harmonies added to them. This is comprised of three home concerts in roughly equal measure. For the first one, Neil Finn went back over the recording before publicly releasing it and added harmonies to his own vocals. So those songs are sung by Neil Finn and Neil Finn. ;) The second concert is just him by himself. But for the third concert, his son Elroy joined in nicely on backing vocals.

Here are the original artists for each of the cover songs:

In My Room - Beach Boys
Coming into Los Angeles - Arlo Guthrie
Heroes - David Bowie
You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away - Beatles
Not Fade Away - Buddy Holly
I'll Follow the Sun - Beatles

I edited "Not Fade Away" because Finn started the song in one key, sang a little bit, decided it was too high for his voice, and switched keys without stopping the song. So I edited out the beginning bit in the different key. I also edited out his comment "That's better" shortly after changing keys.

01 In My Room (Neil Finn)
02 Anyone Can Tell (Neil Finn)
03 Fall at Your Feet (Neil Finn)
04 Love Is All that Remains (Neil Finn)
05 Something So Strong (Neil Finn)
06 Fingers of Love (Neil Finn)
07 Coming into Los Angeles (Neil Finn)
08 Heroes (Neil Finn)
09 You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Neil Finn)
10 Not Fade Away [Edit] (Neil Finn)
11 Private Universe (Neil Finn with Elroy Finn)
12 Silent House (Neil Finn with Elroy Finn)
13 Love This Life (Neil Finn with Elroy Finn)
14 Independence Day (Neil Finn with Elroy Finn)
15 I'll Follow the Sun (Neil Finn with Elroy Finn)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17363160/NEILFNN2020HmeConcrts04LsAnglesCA__4-8-2020_to_4-10-2020_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yn2ybiYq

The cover art is a screenshot from one of his recent home concerts, though I'm not sure which one.

Joe Jackson - Rainbow Music Hall, Denver, CO, 5-6-1979

I like most of Joe Jackson's music, and his latest album, 2019's "Fool," is excellent. That said, my favorite era of his music is 1979, with his "Look Sharp!" and "I'm the Man" albums. Jackson has released some live material here and there, but generally from 1980 onwards. (There are five songs from 1979 on his "At the BBC" collection.) So since there's no official 1979 live album, this is my attempt to create something that could stand in for that.

Luckily, it turns out that a handful of Jackson's 1979 were professionally recorded and played on radio stations at the time. So I listened to the best bootlegs of the "Look Sharp!" tour from the middle of 1979, most of which come from those radio shows, and I found the one I thought was the best, especially in terms of sound quality. That was a show at the Rainbow Music Hall in Denver, Colorado, in May 1979. It clearly is a soundboard, so much so that there isn't much audience noise at the ends of songs. I didn't attempt to boost the volume of the cheering. But I did break the talking between songs into their own tracks, and I often raised the volume of those comments.

The Denver show is 56 minutes long. That was fairly long for his concerts in that year, which all seem to have been an hour long or less. However, this album isn't just the Denver show. I've added six songs to the beginning of the album from other concerts around the same time that didn't get played at the Denver show. That makes it n hour and 18 minutes long.

Thanks to these added songs, every single song from the "Look Sharp!" album is included, as well as five songs from the "I'm the Man" album, which had yet to be released at the time. There also are four cover songs: "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" by Ben Bernie and His Orchestra, "Pressure Drop" by Toots and the Maytals, "Come On" by Chuck Berry, and "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino. I've included versions of all four of those on the "The Harder They Come" stray tracks album, but those are different versions.

01 [Do The] Instant Mash (Joe Jackson)
02 Friday (Joe Jackson)
03 talk (Joe Jackson)
04 Fools in Love (Joe Jackson)
05 talk (Joe Jackson)
06 Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries (Joe Jackson)
07 talk (Joe Jackson)
08 Pressure Drop (Joe Jackson)
09 talk (Joe Jackson)
10 Geraldine and John (Joe Jackson)
11 One More Time (Joe Jackson)
12 Pretty Girls (Joe Jackson)
13 talk (Joe Jackson)
14 Look Sharp (Joe Jackson)
15 talk (Joe Jackson)
16 Sunday Papers (Joe Jackson)
17 Baby Stick Around (Joe Jackson)
18 talk (Joe Jackson)
19 Is She Really Going Out with Him (Joe Jackson)
20 talk (Joe Jackson)
21 It's Different for Girls (Joe Jackson)
22 Kinda Kute (Joe Jackson)
23 talk (Joe Jackson)
24 Happy Loving Couples (Joe Jackson)
25 I'm the Man (Joe Jackson)
26 Throw It Away (Joe Jackson)
27 talk (Joe Jackson)
28 Got the Time (Joe Jackson)
29 talk (Joe Jackson)
30 Come On (Joe Jackson)
31 Ain't That a Shame (Joe Jackson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693438/JOJCKSN1979b_RinbwMsicHallDenvrCO__5-6-1979_atse.zip.html

For the album cover, I could have chosen an ordinary photo of Joe Jackson from 1979. But I found one of him wearing novelty oversized sunglasses, and I thought it would be more interesting to use that one.

Shawn Colvin - Home Concerts 1, Austin, TX, 4-11-2020

Here's someone else to add to those doing nice home concerts. As I keep saying, if you know of others I've missed that you think are worthy, please let me know. It's hard to find all these, since they're happening on different social media platforms.

I'm not a huge Shawn Colvin fan like I am for, say, Rosanne Cash, but I like her well enough. This concert actually serves as good introduction for her, if you aren't that familiar with her stuff. She plays her one big hit - "Sunny Came Home" - as well as some of her other best originals. She also does a few covers, namely: "Summer's End" by John Prine, in honor of his recent passing, "For the Roses," by Joni Mitchell, and "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" by the Talking Heads. The whole concert is 45 minutes long.

I'm optimistically calling this "Home Concerts 1" with the assumption that there will be a "2" and others to follow. Actually, I'm most of the way to a "2" already, because she's been posting individual songs every now and then since the coronavirus lockdown began. So I plan on posting those once I have enough for an album.

Note that Colvin has a reputation for being very talkative during her concerts. That was somewhat true in this case, though she seems to have edited herself for a more streamlined show. I've included her between song banter and raised the volume on it to make it easier to hear. But I think I might have edited a few parts down to make the whole thing more listenable. (I forget since I did that a week or two ago.)

01 talk (Shawn Colvin)
02 Even Here We Are (Shawn Colvin)
03 talk (Shawn Colvin)
04 Trouble (Shawn Colvin)
05 talk (Shawn Colvin)
06 Summer's End (Shawn Colvin)
07 talk (Shawn Colvin)
08 For the Roses (Shawn Colvin)
09 talk (Shawn Colvin)
10 Steady On (Shawn Colvin)
11 talk (Shawn Colvin)
12 That Don't Worry Me Now (Shawn Colvin)
13 talk (Shawn Colvin)
14 I Don't Know Why (Shawn Colvin)
15 talk (Shawn Colvin)
16 Sunny Came Home (Shawn Colvin)
17 talk (Shawn Colvin)
18 This Must Be the Place [Naive Melody] (Shawn Colvin)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2jAXPcuM

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/4G7KN0Kp3riupgH/file

For the album cover, I used a screenshot from the YouTube video of this very concert.