Emmylou Harris - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 10-19-1978

Here's another episode of the great TV show "PBS Soundstage." This time, it features Emmylou Harris in 1978. 

Normally, these albums a little bit shy of an hour long, since the concerts were edited down to fit an hour-long time slot. But this time we get about an hour and twenty minutes, probably the full show. It's been a couple of months since I made this, but I remember I put it together from two sources: a recording of the TV show and a slightly lower quality bootleg of the full show. So this is probably the best sounding and fullest version of this available up until now.

Note that at this time in her career, Harris was all country. (Whereas later in her career she branched out into other musical styles.) So if you don't like country music, this might not be for you. But if you do, this is an excellent show that's still fully unreleased.

This album is an hour and 19 minutes long.

01 Two More Bottles of Wine (Emmylou Harris)
02 talk (Emmylou Harris)
03 Easy from Now On (Emmylou Harris)
04 To Daddy (Emmylou Harris)
05 Luxury Liner (Emmylou Harris)
06 Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (Emmylou Harris)
07 My Songbird (Emmylou Harris)
08 My Window Faces the South (Emmylou Harris)
09 talk (Emmylou Harris)
10 Tumbling Tumbleweeds (Emmylou Harris)
11 talk (Emmylou Harris)
12 Home (Emmylou Harris)
13 talk (Emmylou Harris)
14 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Emmylou Harris)
15 I Ain't Living Long like This (Emmylou Harris)
16 The Angels Rejoiced Last Night (Emmylou Harris)
17 Leavin' Louisiana in the Broad Daylight (Emmylou Harris)
18 Hallelujah I'm Ready to Go (Emmylou Harris)
19 talk (Emmylou Harris)
20 Could You Love Me (Emmylou Harris)
21 talk (Emmylou Harris)
22 The Green Rolling Hills (Emmylou Harris)
23 talk (Emmylou Harris)
24 I Believe Jesus Loves Me (Emmylou Harris)
25 talk (Emmylou Harris)
26 If I Needed You (Emmylou Harris)
27 Satan's Jewel Crown (Emmylou Harris)
28 talk (Emmylou Harris)
29 Keep on the Sunny Side (Emmylou Harris)
30 talk (Emmylou Harris)
31 Under the Weepin' Willow (Emmylou Harris)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/aCAoF7VH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/YZXbz1r8XV4ApOq/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from this exact concert.

Lynsey de Paul - BBC Sessions (1972-1975)

Here's another album of material that is not only unreleased but also unbootlegged, again thanks to the anonymous person sending me "Top of the Pops" BBC radio sessions. This one features British singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul.

I'm enjoying putting these albums together because they're leading me to discover many musical acts I'd missed. Being an American, I'd never heard of de Paul. But she was quite a successful singer-songwriter in Britain in the 1970s. There's a quote from a music critic in her Wikipedia entry that sums her up well: "In the early 70s U.K. musical landscape, Lynsey de Paul was the only British woman to achieve major success with her own work. She wrote 14 hits over five years and performed seven of them herself. In 1974, she became the first woman to win a coveted Ivor Novello song writing award, going on to win another the following year. An accomplished pianist, producer and arranger, her distinctive multi-tracked falsetto vocals were later favored by the likes of Enya. Often seen as a precursor to Kate Bush." 

She had movie star type looks, and studied classical music at the Royal Academy of Music as a teenager. But she started her career wanting to be a professional songwriter, not a performer. She had her first big success in early 1972 co-writing "Storm in a Teacup," a big hit for the Fortunes. She wrote some more hits for others that year. Later in 1972, her boyfriend at the time, movie star Dudley Moore, encouraged her to release the demo she made for one of her songs, "Sugar Me," as a single. She did, and it was a Top Ten hit in Britain, starting her career as a performer as well.  

More Top Twenty hits in her own name followed: "Getting a Drag" in 1972, "Won't Somebody Dance with Me" in 1973, "Ooh I Do" and "No, Honestly" in 1974, and "Rock Bottom" with Mike Moran in 1977. Yet she also managed to still write some more hits for other musical acts as well.

Her music career stalled in the late 1970s when she moved to California with her boyfriend at the time, movie star James Coburn, and stopped releasing singles in Britain. Instead, she diversified into other creative arts. Still writing songs for other musical acts, she also took up music production, acting in musicals and plays, interviewing and hosting for TV shows, drawing cartoons, writing numerous TV theme songs, composing ad jingles, arranging and producing classical music, writing children's songs, and hosting her own radio shows. As if that wasn't enough, she had been physically abused by her father as a child, which lead to her taking a strong interest in women's self-defense. She made a popular women's self-defense training video and a documentary on that subject. She also got involved with charity work, especially helping battered women. She died in 2014 of a brain hemmorage at the age of 66.

Here's her Wikipedia entry, which is quite long and interesting, since she had such a varied career:

Lynsey de Paul - Wikipedia

Most of the songs here are from the Top of the Pops radio show. That means there were a few instances of the BBC DJs talking over the music. But luckily that was tapering off in the early 1970s, so there are only three songs with "[Edit]" in their titles. Unfortunately, live performances for Top of the Pops also tapered off around 1973, so most everything here is from 1972 and 1973, with one Top of the Pops song ("Oo I Do") from 1974. But I was able to find two more songs she did for the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show in 1975. Those are the last two here. I also found a performance of "Storm in a Teacup" from a BBC TV show in 1972.

De Paul also did a short BBC concert in 1975 called "In Concert." I would like to post that here as well, but I can't find it. If anyone has it, please let me know.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Sugar Me [Edit] (Lynsey de Paul)
02 House of Cards (Lynsey de Paul)
03 Storm in a Teacup (Lynsey de Paul)
04 Sleeping Blue Nights (Lynsey de Paul)
05 Getting a Drag [Edit] (Lynsey de Paul)
06 Just Visiting (Lynsey de Paul)
07 All Night (Lynsey de Paul)
08 Water (Lynsey de Paul)
09 Ivory Tower (Lynsey de Paul)
10 Won't Somebody Dance with Me [Edit] (Lynsey de Paul)
11 Oo I Do (Lynsey de Paul)
12 Let's Boogie (Lynsey de Paul)
13 My Man and Me (Lynsey de Paul)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/b5xKH5u9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/EDfoFywqAmV7qpx/file

The cover photo is from 1977. I don't know any other details.

Don McLean - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1972-1982

American singer-songwriter Don McLean is best known for his classic 1971 song "American Pie," but he's much, much more than that. That was such a massive Number One hit that the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America" took a poll of music industry insiders in 2001 and voted it Number Five on a list of the most historically significant songs of the 20th century. That song has overshadowed the fact that McLean has had quite a successful music career even without it, including the hits "Vincent," "Castles in the Air," "Dreidel," and "Crying." 

This is another album that wouldn't be possible without the anonymous helper who has been sending me "Top of the Pops" BBC studio sessions. Being American, McLean mostly performed in the U.S. But he did sometimes perform concerts in Britain, and occasionally did something for the BBC while he was there. Tracks 1 through 3 and 5 through 8 all come from Top of the Pops sessions in 1972 and 1973. As far as I can tell, these are not only unreleased, but they haven't even been bootlegged anywhere. These are very different from the album versions as well. I surmise McLean was performing in a solo acoustic mode at the time, without any band. So all of these Top of the Pops performances are just his voice and his acoustic guitar.

However, those songs combined only made for 25 minutes of music. As I've mentioned elsewhere, the Top of the Pops radio show largely went to just playing the album versions around 1973, so it's not too surprising there aren't any more live versions of him on that show after that. But I looked around and found some more songs he did for the BBC, all BBC TV shows. Crucially, I found an unreleased version of "American Pie" from 1972, done for the "Sounds for Saturday" TV show. It also is just his voice and guitar. Tracks 9 through 11 come from BBC TV shows in 1978, and tracks 12 and 13 come from BBC TV shows in 1982. For all the songs done before an audience, I removed the clapping to make those songs fit in with the ones done without an audience.

Two of the songs from 1978, "Chain Lightning" and "Crying," come from a concert broadcast on BBC TV called "Don McLean and Friends." It also starred Elkie Brooks. If anyone has all of that one, I'd like to post that as a separate album (and remove the two songs from here). But although I didn't find that, I did find two other concerts he did that were broadcast for the BBC, so I'll post those here before long.

Thankfully, BBC DJ Brian Matthew restrained himself for once and didn't talk over the music to any of the Top of the Pops songs. That's probably due to the fact that Matthew finally rid himself of that bad habit around 1973.

This album is 55 minutes long. Everything here is officially unreleased.

01 Vincent (Don McLean)
02 What Can I Do for You (Don McLean)
03 Circus Song (Don McLean)
04 American Pie (Don McLean)
05 Everyday (Don McLean)
06 Magdalene Lane (Don McLean)
07 Mountains of Mourne (Don McLean)
08 And I Love You So (Don McLean)
09 When Love Begins (Don McLean)
10 Chain Lightning (Don McLean)
11 Crying (Don McLean)
12 Crazy Eyes (Don McLean)
13 Castles in the Air (Don McLean)

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

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/6pDV2ciG8Jfdnpz/file 

I don't know much about the cover photo except it was taken at a BBC performance in 1972.

Paul Weller - BBC Sessions, Volume 20: An Orchestrated Songbook, Barbican Theatre, London, Britain, 5-15-2021

Phew! I can't believe I'm finally posting the last Paul Weller BBC album. (At least for now. I'd be shocked if he doesn't keep doing more BBC concerts and such.) I just checked, and I posted Weller's "BBC Sessions, Volume 1" back in April 2023, and now it's May 2025. Not only that, but I skipped posting eight more solo BBC concerts from him, because I decided they were too similar to the ones I was posting. (In case you're curious, the ones I skipped were from 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2006, and 2015.)

This concert is unusual for several reasons. For one, Weller was backed by a full orchestra. He did that in the last BBC concert I posted from him, but otherwise he's rarely played with orchestras. Secondly, this concert took place during the peak of the Covid pandemic, so even though this took place in a popular concert venue in London, there was no audience. Finally, Weller had some special guests, each of them helping him to sing a song: James Morrison, Boy George, and Celeste.

This concert took place the same month as the release of his latest studio album, "Fat Pop." But what's odd is that there was very little connection between the two. As you can even guess from the album title, "Fat Pop" didn't have much to do with orchestral music. Only two songs from that album were performed at the concert, "Glad Times" and "Still Glides the Stream." Instead, the focus was on songs from all points of his music career that best suited an orchestral treatment.

This concert was broadcast live on the BBC as it happened, and also was a free webcast. You can still find it on YouTube. Later, it was officially released under the same name as the BBC concert: "An Orchestrated Songbook." I already had this recording before the official album came out, but they're basically identical. I did make one minor change though. As I mentioned above, there was no audience per se. That meant no clapping between songs. However, there were a couple dozen members of the orchestra, and there were a few moments when they clapped. Generally, they slapped their legs with their free hands while still holding their instruments. This only happened on the songs when special guests were introduced, plus after the last song. I thought it was odd to have only a little bit of clapping on a few songs. So I got rid of those few instances of applause.

This album is an hour and 11 minutes long.

01 Andromeda (Paul Weller)
02 talk (Paul Weller)
03 English Rose (Paul Weller)
04 talk (Paul Weller)
05 My Ever Changing Moods (Paul Weller)
06 On Sunset (Paul Weller)
07 Carnation (Paul Weller)
08 talk (Paul Weller)
09 Glad Times (Paul Weller)
10 Broken Stones (Paul Weller & James Morrison)
11 Gravity (Paul Weller)
12 talk (Paul Weller)
13 Bowie (Paul Weller)
14 Equanimity (Paul Weller)
15 talk (Paul Weller)
16 You're the Best Thing (Paul Weller & Boy George)
17 talk (Paul Weller)
18 Still Glides the Stream (Paul Weller)
19 Movin On (Paul Weller)
20 talk (Paul Weller)
21 Wild Wood (Paul Weller & Celeste)
22 talk (Paul Weller)
23 You Do Something to Me (Paul Weller)
24 White Horses (Paul Weller)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Zn9SMrXX

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/hRuPheDpdUCeYFs/file

The cover is a screenshot from this exact concert. I picked a moment that would show Weller, some of the orchestra, and one of his special guests. So Weller is gesturing towards Boy George, standing on the opposite side of the picture, wearing a hat.

Arrival - BBC Sessions (1969-1973)

I have to admit that I'd never heard of the British band Arrival in my life. But when an anonymous musical friend let me access his very rare collection of "Top of the Pops" BBC studio sessions, I saw a band named Arrival had lots of sessions, enough to make an album. So I looked into their music and discovered they're actually pretty good. So here's another album that's not only completely unreleased, it's been unavailable to the public until now.

Arrival got its start in Liverpool in the early 1960s, when Beatlemania made bands from Liverpool highly prized. However, they were just starting out and couldn't get a record contract. But they persisted, despite a name change and personnel changes. By 1969, they had developed into a talented band with three lead singers, two female and one male. Once they finally got a record contract, their record company gave them a new song written by singer-songwriter Terry Reid, "Friends." It was a hit, though only it Britain, where it made the Top Ten. 

A solid album followed, consisting almost entirely of their own songs. Dusty Springfield praised the band, and even wrote a positive blurb that was included on the back of their album. She meant it too, because years later she commented that if she ever was in a proper band instead of being a solo artist, she would want it to be something like Arrival. A second single followed, "I Will Survive," which was an original. It also was a hit in Britain, though it didn't quite reach the Top Ten.

The future looked bright for the band. But then things started to fall apart, due to the pressures of success. Three of the six band members left, and were replaced. They had a lot of trouble with their record company and changed companies. Momentum was lost, and it took two years until a second album was released. That album got very good reviews, just like the first one, but it contained no hits and didn't sell well. The band was discouraged and broke up. 

However, all was not lost, because three of the band members formed a new band with some other musicians called Kokomo. This band had some success in the 1975, and even got to back up Bob Dylan for a couple of songs during the recording of his 1976 album "Desire."

Here's the Wikipedia entry, although it says very little:

Arrival (band) - Wikipedia

Every song on this album is from unreleased Top of the Pops BBC sessions. (Thanks again to the anonymous person who sent the music to me!) As with all Top of the Pops recordings from this time period, the sound quality is excellent. The only snag was the usual one, namely that BBC DJ Brian Matthew talked over the beginnings and ends of songs. In fact, this time he did that for all but three of the songs, forcing me to clean them up with the UVR5 audio editing program. So that's why you'll see "[Edit]" in most of the song titles. 

Most of the songs are originals, but there are a few covers, like "Light My Fire" by the Doors, "(Let My Life Be Your) Love Song" by Jimmy Webb, "He's Missta Know-It-All" by Stevie Wonder, and "Yes We Can Can" by Allen Toussaint. The original song "Family Tree" appears in two very different versions, the first recorded in 1969 and the second in 1971. It finally made it onto their second album in 1972.

I must say, I was pretty impressed with this band. They're a lot more than a two-hit wonder. They combined soul with pop, and had strong group vocals, with a mix of female and male lead vocals. They were sadly forgotten though, with their music out of print until a retrospective was released in 2012. Hopefully this post will give them some attention again.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 I Never Knew What You Were Up To [Edit] (Arrival)
02 Family Tree [Early Version] [Edit] (Arrival)
03 World of Darkness [Edit] (Arrival)
04 Light My Fire [Edit] (Arrival)
05 Friends [Edit] (Arrival)
06 Don't Turn His Love Away (Arrival)
07 Sit Down, Float [Edit] (Arrival)
08 Take Me [Edit] (Arrival)
09 It's a Hard Road [Edit] (Arrival)
10 I Will Survive [Edit] (Arrival)
11 Not Right Now [Edit] (Arrival)
12 [Let My Life Be Your] Love Song [Edit] (Arrival)
13 Out of Desperation [Edit] (Arrival)
14 Family Tree [Edit] (Arrival)
15 Sun in the Heaven [Edit] (Arrival)
16 He's Missta Know-It-All [Edit] (Arrival)
17 You're Still a Friend of Mine (Arrival)
18 Yes We Can Can (Arrival)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6teEo3ho

alternate

https://bestfile.io/mdCJaVtccrZwK54/file

There are very few color photos of this band, it seems. It's especially hard to find good photos because the name "Arrival" is so generic. So I resorted to using the cover photo of the official album "The Complete Recordings of Arrival." However, this had some text over the lower portion of the picture. I used some Photoshop tricks to get rid of that. Then I used the Krea AI program to sharpen what had been a pretty low-res image.

Gilbert O'Sullivan - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1971-1973

Here's an album of Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan performing for the BBC. I must say I'm not really a fan, perhaps because I'm American and he was a big star only in Britain. I was only familiar with a couple of his hits before putting this together, like "Alone Again (Naturally)" and "Get Down." But he's a talented songwriter with a unique style, for sure. Also, all of the performances here are not only unreleased but I believe they also haven't even been bootlegged. I'm lucky enough to have them thanks to an anonymous musical friend passing BBC "Top of the Pops" radio shows to me. So I want to make stuff like this publicly available. This will be a major find for any Gilbert O'Sullivan fan, especially because the sound quality is excellent.

This album consists entirely of BBC studio sessions, all from "Top of the Pops" shows. But I also came across two BBC concerts he did. So I've made this "Volume 1." The concerts will make up the other two volumes.

Gilbert O'Sullivan moved to London in 1967 to pursue a music career. For a few years he was unsuccessful. But he had a surprise Top Ten hit in Britain in 1970 with the song "Nothing Rhymed." (It's unfortunate that I couldn't find a BBC studio session version of that song to include here, but there are versions on both of the BBC concerts I plan on posting.) He went on to have 13 Top Forty hits in Britain over the next ten years, including two Number One songs. He didn't do as well in the U.S., but he did have three big hits there too: "Alone Again (Naturally)," "Clair," and "Get Down." It helped that he understood the importance of branding. He changed his name from Raymond Sullivan to Gilbert O'Sullivan to play off people's memories of the Gilbert and Sullivan songwriting team. He also stuck with several distinctive looks, the first and best known being what Wikipedia called a "Depression-era street urchin" look.

Luckily for us, O'Sullivan's era of greatest popularity was about 1971 to 1973. That's lucky because the "Top of the Pops" radio show mostly transitioned from unique in-the-studio performances to simply playing the recorded versions in the early 1970s, but this album contains the vast majority of his big hits. 

Here's his Wikipedia entry:

Gilbert O'Sullivan - Wikipedia

I must say I'm rather surprised there hasn't been an official BBC album of this stuff, or even just including some of them as bonus tracks or on archival releases or the like. As I mentioned above, the sound quality here is excellent for all the songs. The only snag was the usual problem of BBC DJ Brian Matthew talking over the beginnings and ends of songs. That's why so many song titles have "[Edit]" in them. As usual, I wiped the DJ talking while keeping the music using the UVR5 program. It seems someone must have told Matthew to cut it out around 1972, since the last ten songs are free of that problem.

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

01 Doing the Best I Can [Edit] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
02 Underneath the Blanket Go [Edit] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
03 Everybody Knows [Edit] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
04 Thunder and Lightning [Edit] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
05 Matrimony [Edit] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
06 Permissive Twit [Edit] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
07 We Will [Edit] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
08 Susan van Heusen [Edit] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
09 Too Much Attention [Edit] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
10 Who Was It [Edit] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
11 No Matter How I Try [Edit] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
12 If I Don't Get You Back Again [Edit] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
13 Alone Again [Naturally] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
14 Save It (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
15 Bye Bye (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
16 Came to See Me Yesterday [In the Merry Month Of] (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
17 Ooh Wakka Doo Wakka Day (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
18 But I'm Not (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
19 Clair (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
20 I Hope You'll Stay (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
21 Out of the Question (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
22 Get Down (Gilbert O'Sullivan)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Pj1J2vXu

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/fKK0vMPyzsO8uzw/file

I don't know anything about the cover photo except that it's from 1971 or 1972, when O'Sullivan was still sporting his 1930s look.

Manhattan Transfer & Take 6 - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 5-31-2017

Here's another episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. The one I posted earlier today had two acts (Tom Waits and Mose Allison) but no overlap on stage. This is just the opposite, with the two acts performing together most of the time.

The Manhattan Transfer and Take 6 are a couple of the biggest names when it comes to vocal jazz groups. By the time of this concert in 2017, the Manhattan Transfer had a long history. They were formed in 1969 and had some hits in the 1970s and 80s. They kept going with a largely unchanged line-up until the 2010s, when deaths started to take a toll. They held their final concert in 2023. By contrast, Take 6 is younger, with their debut album being released in 1988. They're also an all-black group, and have more of a focus on gospel and acappella. But there was a lot of overlap with musical styles, leading the two groups to start touring and performing together since about 2011.

This concert is longer than usual because it was released as a DVD called "The Summit." That also means the sound quality is excellent. However, I suspect the banter between songs was removed, because there's almost none of that on this recording. I didn't attempt to figure out who exactly was singing on which song (since I often couldn't tell), so instead I credited both groups for all the songs.

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long.

01 Mean Joe [Killer Joe] (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
02 Straighten Up and Fly Right (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
03 Tuxedo Junction (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
04 Candy (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
05 It's Good Enough to Keep [Airmail Special] (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
06 Just in Time (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
07 I've Got Life (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
08 Spread Love (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
09 Happy (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
10 Like Someone in Love (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
11 Twilight Zone - Twilight Tone (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
12 Gold Mine (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
13 [Get Your Kicks On] Route 66 (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
14 Mary (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
15 Operator (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
16 A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
17 Overjoyed (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
18 Stand by Me (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
19 Trickle Trickle (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
20 Boy from New York City (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
21 Birdland (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)
22 What'd I Say (Manhattan Transfer & Take 6)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/YRCFKqAV

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/q9wfOjQ8EjFFgvD/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. I cropped the image some, so not all the performers on stage are showing. But most of them are.

Tom Waits and Mose Allison - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 8-12-1975

Here's an interesting episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. It's really two concerts in one: a short set by Tom Waits and then another short set by Mose Allison. I did a little research and confirmed that Waits and Allison performed on the same stage on the same day, due to a comment by Waits that he was excited to be taking part in the same show as Allison, one of his musical heroes. However, there's nothing here that has them together on stage as the same time. (That's why I'm using "and" in the title instead of "&," to try to convey the two acts weren't linked.)

Waits gets the top billing here, because his section is considerably longer, 36 minutes compared to 21 minutes. However, video footage confirms that Waits was the opening act. At the time of the concert, Waits was recording his third solo album, "Nighthawks at the Diner." It would be released a few months later, in October 1975, which was probably around the time this episode was broadcast. Three songs, " Eggs and Sausage (In a Cadillac with Susan Michelson)," "Better Off without a Wife," and "Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)," are from that album. The rest are from his previous album, "The Heart of Saturday Night."

While Waits was in an early stage of his music career, Mose Allison was already about 50 years old and a much respected music veteran. Personally, I like his music, so I'm glad I finally have an excuse to post something from him. His music combined blues and jazz, and his songwriting had a quirky sense of humor. (He died in 2016 at the age of 89.) Here's his Wikipedia entry, if you want to know more:

Mose Allison - Wikipedia 

Unfortunately, if you watch the Mose Allison portion of this concert on YouTube, as I did, you can tell this recording is not complete. He was just starting a new song when the credits rolled and the show came to an end. There was only a little bit of that song, not enough to even identify what it was. So I just cut that off and added some extra applause to the end of the previous song to give this album a fitting ending. 

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 Eggs and Sausage [In a Cadillac with Susan Michelson] (Tom Waits)
02 Semi Suite (Tom Waits)
03 Diamonds on My Windshield (Tom Waits)
04 Drunk on the Moon (Tom Waits)
05 Better Off without a Wife (Tom Waits)
06 Nighthawk Postcards [From Easy Street] (Tom Waits)
07 [Looking For] The Heart of Saturday Night (Tom Waits)
08 San Diego Serenade (Tom Waits)
09 If You Going to the City (Mose Allison)
10 Everybody's Crying Mercy (Mose Allison)
11 Your Molecular Structure (Mose Allison)
12 Swingin' Machine (Mose Allison)
13 How Much Truth (Mose Allison)
14 Your Mind Is on Vacation (Mose Allison)
15 I Don't Worry about a Thing (Mose Allison)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/URwxbg1H

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/QGtuyZjk2LeP8mY/file

The cover photo of Tom Waits is from this exact concert. I took a screenshot from a YouTube video. Since it was low-res, I ran it through the Krea AI program, sharpening it up some.

Blossom Toes - BBC Sessions (1967-1971)

I've mentioned that I'm putting a special emphasis on posting rare BBC sessions from the 1960s and 70s. Here's another one. If you've heard of Blossom Toes (with a "the," apparently), pat yourself on the back, because not many people remember them. In my opinion, they deserved more attention than they got.

This British band got started in 1962 as the Ingoes. They went through the usual progression of British bands at the time, starting out mainly doing covers of blues and soul songs, then graduating to doing their own material. In early 1967, with psychedelic music becoming the next big thing, the band named changed to Blossom Toes, some personnel changes were made, and they went all in with psychedelia. Their debut album, "We Are Ever So Clean," was released in late 1967. Record Collector Magazine has put it on their list of the 100 greatest psychedelic albums. I think it's an excellent album, consisting entirely of original songs by multiple band members. It's on the more poppy and whimsical side of psychedelia, instead of heavy instrumental jamming and the like. I'm reminded of the Kinks, especially with the band having a very British sensibility.

However, while this album was critically well received, it didn't sell much, and no hits happened. So the band didn't release any album in 1968, and drastically changed their approach. Their next album, 1969's "If Only for a Moment," sounds like a completely different group. The psychedelic whimsy is gone, replaced by a heavier hard rock approach. This also is a very good album despite the change, but it too didn't sell. So they went through another drastic change. Slimming down from five members to three, they changed their name to "B. B. Blunder" to give themselves a fresh start. Their 1971 album "Worker's Playtime," is good, but not as good their earlier albums. When that album also didn't do well commercially, they broke up.

Here's the Wikipedia article on the band:

Blossom Toes - Wikipedia 

The first three songs here come from a 1967 BBC session. They were eventually released on a 2022 deluxe edition of the "We Are Ever So Clean" album. The fourth song, "Listen to the Silence," is from a French TV show, "Bouton Rouge." I'm including it even though it's not from the BBC per se because the sound quality is excellent and it's unreleased. Even though this took place in early 1968, the band was already transitioning to a harder sound. That song would later appear on their second album. 

Actually, much of this album finds the band in transition, since more of it comes from 1968, their transitional year. Tracks five and six come from a 1968 BBC session. They also were eventually released on that deluxe edition mentioned above. "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" is a cover of the classic Bob Dylan song. Tracks seven, eight, and nine are from a late 1968 BBC session, with the band in more of a hard rock mode.

The final two tracks come from a 1971 BBC session, after the band had changed their name to B.B. Blunder. 

The band recorded more songs at the BBC, but they aren't included because their recordings either have poor sound quality or were lost entirely. I did include one more, "Love Bomb," as a bonus track, but only a bonus track, due to middling song quality. I also included some other rarities as bonus tracks. "Jump Back" is from late 1966, when the band was still in R&B cover song mode, and still known as the Ingoes. It's remarkable how different they would sound only a few months later. "Mister Watchmaker" and "The Remarkable Saga of the Frozen Dog" are from the same French TV show mentioned above, "Bouton Rouge." These two sound very good. The reason they're only bonus tracks is because I already included BBC versions of those songs.

A few songs were plagued by the usual BBC problem of the time: BBC DJs talking over the music. That explains the songs that have "[Edit]" in their titles. I did my usual thing, using the UVR5 audio editing program to fix those.

The late 1960s were filled with very good musical acts that got lost in the shuffle. Blossom Toes were one of those bands. If you like this album, I suggest you check out their first two albums as well.

This album is 42 minutes long, not including the bonus tracks. With them added, it's an hour and three minutes long.

01 Mister Watchmaker (Blossom Toes)
02 What On Earth (Blossom Toes)
03 The Remarkable Saga of the Frozen Dog (Blossom Toes)
04 Listen to the Silence (Blossom Toes)
05 I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (Blossom Toes)
06 Love Is (Blossom Toes)
07 Wait a Minute [Edit] (Blossom Toes)
08 Ever Since a Memory (Blossom Toes)
09 Peace Loving Man [Edit] (Blossom Toes)
10 Sticky Living [Edit] (Blossom Toes [B. B. Blunder])
11 Have Yourself a Good Time [Edit] (Blossom Toes [B. B. Blunder])

Jump Back (Blossom Toes [Ingoes])
Love Bomb (Blossom Toes)
Mister Watchmaker (Blossom Toes)
The Remarkable Saga of the Frozen Dog (Blossom Toes)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/WfBGdDr3

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/vgHOwwEH0muX9Gf/file

The cover image is one of the few decent pictures I could find of the band at all. It was in black and white and low res. I colorized it with the Palette program. Then I used the Krea AI program to improve the detail.
 

Elvis Costello - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1981-1986

In the BBC poll I conducted here in February 2025, Elvis Costello was tied for the third most votes. So here's something else from him. This is a collection of BBC studio sessions from 1981 to 1986.

This album was rather tough to compile, because Costello performed for the BBC many times, both for TV and radio shows. This gathers together eight different appearances, most of them unreleased. The first song is from an appearance on "Jim'll Fix It" in early 1981, and is a duet with Glenn Tilbrook, lead singer of Squeeze. The next two songs are from a 1981 benefit concert that was broadcast on the BBC. One of them, "Psycho Song," was released on a very obscure official album of the concert, called "Fundamental Frolics."

Tracks four through seven are from a conventional BBC radio session, for the Kid Jensen show in 1981. The next four, tracks eight through 11, are from another Kid Jensen show, in 1983. Two them, "Danger Zone" and "Big Sister's Clothes - Stand Down Margaret," later appeared as bonus tracks for the "Punch the Clock" album. "Peace in Our Time" is from a 1983 BBC TV show. "Georgia on My Mind" is from a 1985 BBC TV show. That's quite an interesting version, because it was done as a duet with his father, Ross MacManus, who was a professional trumpet player and singer in jazz bands. (Costello's birth name is Declan MacManus.)

 

"Don't Get Above Your Raising" is a duet with Ricky Scaggs. It was part of a Scaggs concert broadcast by the BBC in 1986, which was later released as the live album "Ricky Scaggs: Live in London." That makes it the fourth and final officially released performance on this album. The last three songs are from an appearance on the "Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC TV show in 1986.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 From a Whisper to a Scream [Edit] (Elvis Costello & Glenn Tilbrook)
02 Gloomy Sunday (Elvis Costello)
03 Psycho Song (Elvis Costello)
04 Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down (Elvis Costello)
05 Sweet Dreams (Elvis Costello)
06 Colour of the Blues (Elvis Costello)
07 Why Don't You Love Me (Elvis Costello)
08 Danger Zone (Elvis Costello)
09 Big Sister's Clothes - Stand Down Margaret (Elvis Costello)
10 Pills and Soap (Elvis Costello)
11 Shipbuilding (Elvis Costello)
12 Peace in Our Time (Elvis Costello)
13 Georgia on My Mind (Elvis Costello & Ross MacManus)
14 Don't Get Above Your Raising (Ricky Skaggs & Elvis Costello)
15 I Hope You're Happy Now (Elvis Costello)
16 Uncomplicated (Elvis Costello)
17 Leave My Kitten Alone (Elvis Costello)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/sUcXKCFr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/PvXCJSalBkFgBtZ/file

The cover photo shows Costello in concert in 1982. I don't know the details beyond that.

Peter Gabriel - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-26-1994

Here's another BBC album from Peter Gabriel, the top winner of my February 2025 poll. I promise to be focusing more on posting more from the poll winners. This is his full set from the 1994 version of the annual, massive Glastonbury Festival.

The previous volume in this series is from 1979. I really wish I could find some BBC material between that year and this one, since the 1980s were his most creative and commercially successful era of his solo career. But I can only go with what's out there. I'm also a bit disappointed, because this happens to be quite similar to a Peter Gabriel concert I posted that was part of the 1994 Woodstock Festival. It was from the same tour, and the two shows are only two months apart. But again, I just have to go with the shows that happened, not the ones I wish happened. At least this concert is about 20 minutes longer than the Woodstock one, so it has a few more songs.

Gabriel released the studio album "Us" in late 1992. He was still touring to support it in 1994 after not really touring since 1988. The sound quality was a little subpar compared to the usual unreleased BBC concerts I post. Maybe there were some difficulties in recording at the huge Glastonbury Festival. However, I was able to make some adjustments to improve the sound a bit, especially by boosting the lead vocals in relation to the instruments. This should sound better than any other version out there so far, but still not fantastic.

This album is an hour and 56 minutes long.

01 talk (Peter Gabriel)
02 Come Talk to Me (Peter Gabriel)
03 Quiet Steam (Peter Gabriel)
04 Steam (Peter Gabriel)
05 talk (Peter Gabriel)
06 Games without Frontiers (Peter Gabriel)
07 Across the River (Peter Gabriel)
08 Shakin' the Tree (Peter Gabriel)
09 Blood of Eden (Peter Gabriel)
10 Red Rain (Peter Gabriel)
11 San Jacinto (Peter Gabriel)
12 Solsbury Hill (Peter Gabriel)
13 Digging in the Dirt (Peter Gabriel)
14 Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel)
15 Secret World (Peter Gabriel)
16 In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel)
17 Biko (Peter Gabriel)
18 talk (Peter Gabriel)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/aheZ6Bi4

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xWvTJSg2xrHxGnq/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Covered: Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards, Volume 2: 1980-2015

Here's the second and final Covered album highlighting the talents of the songwriting duo Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards.

As usual, the songs here are in rough chronological order. At the beginning time period for this album, 1980, Rodgers and Edwards were in crisis. They'd had hit after hit in the late 1970s. In fact, the first song here, "Upside Down" by Diana Ross, would top the singles chart in the U.S. and many other countries in 1980. However, pretty much all their hits songs were in this disco genre, and the popularity of disco was crashing hard in 1980. "Upside Down" was one of the last gasps. They basically broke up their wildly successful band Chic, keeping it together only because they owed more records to their record company. Rodgers in particular was depressed by the changing musical trends and developed a bad drug habit.

Disco was so reviled due to overexposure that people actually organized the mass destruction of disco records. Rodgers and Edwards responded by focusing most of their energies on writing and producing songs for other musical acts. Unfortunately, I can only include songs in which they're writers or co-writers, not songs they only produced. But Rodgers in particular became one of the hottest producers in the music business in the 1980s. For instance, he helped produce David Bowie's smash album "Let's Dance" in 1983 and Madonna's smash album "Like a Virgin" in 1984. He also produced albums for Duran Duran, Sheena Easton, Jeff Beck, Thompson Twins, Mick Jagger, the B-52's, Grace Jones, Al Jarreau, Steve Winwood, Cyndi Lauper, and many more. In the 1990s, he produced for Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, David Lee Roth, the Stray Cats, and again many more.

Note that I've included the song "Let's Dance" by David Bowie despite the fact that the song is solely credited to Bowie. That's because in my opinion Rodgers, who produced the song, totally deserved cowriting credit. Believe it or not, when Bowie first presented the song to Rodgers, it was a folk song, with just Bowie's voice and an acoustic guitar! Rodgers utterly transformed the song with a new arrangement, changing the chords, the key, the rhythm, and just about everything else but the basic melody and words. It went on to be a Number One hit in the U.S., Britain, and many other countries. Bowie even later cited Rodgers as the main reason for the song's massive success. (Note that a demo of the song was later released, but this is already after Rodgers had transformed the song, not the original acoustic demo.) 

I would suspect that Rodgers often helped co-write songs as part of his production duties without getting official songwriting credit. One example where he did get credit was "Tick Tock" by Stevie Ray Vaughan (as part of the Vaughan Brothers), which he co-wrote with Vaughan. 

The songwriting success for this duo slowed down as they got older, as is common. That was magnified by the fact that they focused much more on producing. Unfortunately, the Rodgers and Edwards partnership was cut short in 1996 when Edwards died of pneumonia while on tour with Chic in Japan. As I write this in May 2025, Rodgers is still alive and is 72 years old.

By the 2010s, one would have thought that the biggest songwriting success for Rodgers was behind him. But in 2013, he collaborated on four songs with Daft Punk, and of them was "Get Lucky." This would go on to be one of the biggest hits of the decade. It reached Number One in many countries, though it stalled out at Number Two in the U.S. for several weeks. With this new popularity, Rodgers' 1970s band Chic released their first single in 23 years with "I'll Be There" in 2015, and it went to the top of the dance singles chart (though it didn't make the pop singles chart).

Note that nearly all the songs presented here are the original hit versions. But one exception is "Thinking of You" by Paul Weller. He had a Top 20 hit with it in Britain in 2004. However, it first was a hit for Sister Sledge back in 1984. The other exception is "Everybody Dance." I included a hit version by Evolution in 1993. But it was first a hit for Chic back in 1977.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Upside Down (Diana Ross)
02 Backfired (Debbie Harry)
03 Why (Carly Simon)
04 The Jam Was Moving (Debbie Harry)
05 Let's Dance (David Bowie)
06 Kissing with Confidence (Will Powers with Carly Simon)
07 Tick Tock (Vaughan Brothers)
08 Everybody Dance (Evolution)
09 Thinking of You (Paul Weller)
10 Get Lucky (Daft Punk)
11 I'll Be There (Chic)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZPKXNq3N

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/k5MpBQsKfqqwW8O/file

For the cover image, I found black and white photos of Rodgers and Edwards in 1981. I combined them and moved their bodies close together. Then I colorized them using the Kolorize and Photoshop programs.

Covered: Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards, Volume 1: 1977-1980

With my Covered series, highlighting talented songwriters who often didn't find fame as performance artists, I still have lots of albums I want to post that go back to the 1950s and 60s. But just for fun, I want to go forward to the late 1970s and after to showcase a songwriting duo who are all about getting you to dance: Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. I have two albums of their songs. Both of them would make a great mix tape to play at a dance party, as they're filled with some of the biggest and best dance songs of all time.

Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards both grew up in New York City. They met in 1970 as touring musicians in 1970 when their music careers were just getting started. They formed a band in 1972 which would eventually evolve in Chic. Rodgers played guitar (in 2023, Rolling Stone Magazine would list him as the seventh greatest guitarist of all time for his massive influence) and Edwards played bass. They finally got their first big break in 1977 with the song "Dance, Dance, Dance," which they wrote for their band Chic. For the next few years, they repeatedly rode the disco wave to the top of the charts. "Le Freak" by Chic in particular was massive, selling seven million worldwide and becoming one of about 20 best selling singles of all time up until that point. "Good Times" also deserves special note. In addition to hitting Number One in the U.S. singles chart, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked it number 68 in their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

"Good Times" also turned out to be one of the most sampled songs of all time. That's why "Rapper's Delight" is included here as well. Normally, I don't include songs in any Covered series albums if they are basically just prominent samples with rap lyrics on top. But I'm making a special exception for "Rapper's Delight." It's one of the first and most important rap songs of all time. It introduced the term "hip hop" to the world in its lyrics. Rolling Stone Magazine also put it in the last of the 500 greatest songs of all time. It also is so heavily based on "Good Times" that Rodgers sued for a copyright violation as soon as he heard the song. He and Edwards were quickly added as songwriters and received royalties.

But while Rodgers and Edwards wrote Chic's hits and also produced them, they didn't stop there. They also began writing and producing songs for others, and had yet more massive hit singles doing so. During this time period, they especially had success writing songs for Sister Sledge and Diana Ross.

Here are the Wikipedia entries for Rodgers:

Nile Rodgers - Wikipedia 

and Edwards:

Bernard Edwards - Wikipedia 

I don't think Rodgers and Edwards get the credit they deserve, probably because dance music isn't highly valued by music critics. But I'd argue they've had far greater musical impact on the world than most famous "serious" singer-songwriters. Keep in mind this is only Volume 1. Volume 2 will follow shortly.  

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 Dance, Dance, Dance [Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah] (Chic)
02 I Want Your Love (Chic)
03 Lost in Music (Sister Sledge)
04 Le Freak (Chic)
05 Rapper's Delight (Sugarhill Gang)
06 He's the Greatest Dancer (Sister Sledge)
07 Spacer (Sheila & B. Devotion)
08 Good Times (Chic)
09 I'm Coming Out (Diana Ross)
10 We Are Family (Sister Sledge)
11 My Old Piano (Diana Ross)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uAdbwKHa

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/38L4D6zbNKGVsCA/file

I couldn't find a good photo of Rodgers and Edwards together. However, I found a photo of the entire Chic band posing for a French TV show in 1979. I removed the other three band members and moved Rodgers and Edwards together. Edwards is the one wearing glasses.

The Rolling Stones - BBC Sessions, Volume 8: In Concert, Trans World Dome, St. Louis, MO, 12-12-1997

To quote Michael Corleone in "Godfather III," "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!" Every time I think I'm done posting BBC albums by the Rolling Stones, it seems I find another one. This one typically isn't considered a BBC album because it was broadcast on U.S. radio at the time, and also shown on pay-per-view TV. But I found out from the BBC website that it was broadcast on the BBC at the same time, so that makes it a BBC album in my book.

At the time of this concert, the Rolling Stones were promoting their latest album, "Bridges to Babylon." Four songs are from that album: "Anybody Seen My Baby," "Saint of Me," "Flip the Switch," and "Out of Control." Also notable are some guest stars: Dave Matthews, Taj Mahal, and Joshua Redman. The song the band played with Taj Mahal, "Corrina, Corrina," was only ever performed by them at this one concert.

In 1998, the band released a live album of their 1997 tour. It contained three songs from this exact concert: "Waiting on a Friend," "Corrina, Corinna," and "The Last Time." Otherwise, everything here has not been officially released in any audio format. However, a DVD of this concert also exists. 

Sigh. Due to the belated discovery of this album, the two Rolling Stones BBC albums that come after this have been renumbered. If you want to get the updated versions (with revised cover art and mp3 tags), here are the links:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-rolling-stones-bbc-sessions-volume_24.html

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-rolling-stones-bbc-sessions-volume.html

This concert is two hours and 28 minutes long.

01 [I Can't Get No] Satisfaction (Rolling Stones)
02 Let's Spend the Night Together (Rolling Stones)
03 talk (Rolling Stones)
04 Flip the Switch (Rolling Stones)
05 Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones)
06 talk (Rolling Stones)
07 Wild Horses (Rolling Stones with Dave Matthews)
08 talk (Rolling Stones)
09 Anybody Seen My Baby (Rolling Stones)
10 Saint of Me (Rolling Stones)
11 talk (Rolling Stones)
12 Corrina, Corrina (Rolling Stones with Taj Mahal)
13 talk (Rolling Stones)
14 Out of Control (Rolling Stones)
15 talk (Rolling Stones)
16 Waiting on a Friend (Rolling Stones with Joshua Redman)
17 talk (Rolling Stones)
18 Miss You (Rolling Stones)
19 talk (Rolling Stones)
20 All about You (Rolling Stones)
21 talk (Rolling Stones)
22 Wanna Hold You (Rolling Stones)
23 talk (Rolling Stones)
24 It's Only Rock 'n Roll [But I Like It] (Rolling Stones)
25 The Last Time (Rolling Stones)
26 talk (Rolling Stones)
27 Like a Rolling Stone (Rolling Stones)
28 Sympathy for the Devil (Rolling Stones)
29 Tumbling Dice (Rolling Stones)
30 talk (Rolling Stones)
31 Honky Tonk Women (Rolling Stones)
32 Start Me Up (Rolling Stones)
33 Jumpin' Jack Flash (Rolling Stones)
34 talk (Rolling Stones)
35 You Can't Always Get What You Want (Rolling Stones)
36 Brown Sugar (Rolling Stones)

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

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/pEwrUXIMbAPo9Je/file

I couldn't find any good images from this exact concert. The cover photo is from another concert in the same tour, in August 1997. From right to left, that's Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, and Charlie Watts.

Vanity Fare - BBC Sessions (1968-1974)

I just posted a BBC album by the British band Christie. Here's one by the British band Vanity Fare. Like the Christie album, this consists entirely of performances on the BBC radio show "Top of the Pops" that are not only unreleased, but also apparently unbootlegged until now. I have an anonymous musical friend who is sending me this material.

Like Christie, Vanity Fare had two big hits in the early 1970s, but failed to sustain success. The two hits for Vanity Fare were " Early in the Morning" and "Hitchin' a Ride." Both reached the Top Ten in the singles charts in the U.S., Britain, and many other countries. Unlike Christie, which wrote all their songs, Vanity Fare relied on professional songwriters. In my opinion, this is a pretty good album. I'm surprised they didn't have more hits, because they picked good songs and played them well. 

Although the band faded in popularity, they never disbanded. The band still exists today as I write this in 2025, although there have been many personnel changes.

Here's the Wikipedia entry:

Vanity Fare - Wikipedia

Aside from the two big hits, which still get played on oldies stations, you may recognize some of the other songs. For instance, "Carpet Man" was written by Jimmy Webb and made famous by the 5th Dimension. "Well... Alright" is by Buddy Holly," "Hang on to a Dream" is by Tim Hardin, and "Keep the Customer Satisfied" is by Paul Simon. "I Live for the Sun" was a hit for the Sunrays in the U.S. in 1965. Vanity Fare actually had a minor hit with it in Britain in 1968 (reaching Number 20 in the charts), but nowhere else.

I just pointed out that for the Christie BBC album, DJ Brian Matthew outdid himself and talked over the music for every single song. That wasn't the case here, but it's very close: only one song was spared! So that's why so many songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. As usual, I used the UVR5 audio editing program to wipe the DJ talking while keeping the music.

This album is 57 minutes long.

01 I Live for the Sun [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
02 Carpet Man [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
03 Highway of Dreams [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
04 Early in the Morning [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
05 Sunshine Help Me [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
06 Well... Alright [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
07 Hitchin' a Ride [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
08 Carolina's Coming Home [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
09 On Your Own [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
10 Hang on to a Dream [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
11 Megowd [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
12 Come Tomorrow [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
13 Keep the Customer Satisfied [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
14 Rock 'n' Roll Band [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
15 Better by Far [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
16 Stand [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
17 I'm in Love with the World (Vanity Fare)
18 Take It, Shake It, Break My Heart [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
19 Fast Running Out of World [Edit] (Vanity Fare)
20 Throw Your Weight Around [Edit] (Vanity Fare)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/yNXyAe6s

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/SvxFfhraDM8PM7j/file

The cover photo shows the band on the set of the Engelbert Humperdinck TV show in February 1970.

Christie - BBC Sessions (1970-1972)

I mentioned recently that I'm trying to make a concerted effort to post more BBC albums of relatively obscure musical acts from the 1960s and 70s. I'm lucky to have a musical friend sending me some material that's not only unreleased, it hasn't even ever been bootlegged before (at least as far as I can tell). Here's another example of that, an album of BBC sessions by the British band Christie.

Christie is best known for the 1970 hit "Yellow River." It was only a moderate hit in the U.S., reaching Number 23 in the singles chart. However, it was a Number One hit in Britain and 25 other countries, making one of the biggest hits worldwide that year. And despite the fact it wasn't a big U.S. hit, it still gets played on oldies radio stations there. Their second single, "San Bernadino," was also a Top Ten hit in Britain and many other countries, but barely charted in the U.S. But subsequent singles failed to sell. The band petered out around 1974, though there were later reunions.

The band was a trio, but the main force was Jeff Christie, who was the lead vocalist, bassist, and songwriter. Virtually all the songs here were written by Christine, though there's a nice cover of "Rock and Roll Woman" by Buffalo Springfield.

These BBC sessions albums often serve as good de facto "best of" collections, and this album is a good example of that. They were a pretty decent rock and roll band that could have had more success if the breaks had fallen their way.

All of the songs here come from the "Top of the Pops" BBC radio show, hosted by Brian Matthew. He had a terrible habit of talking over the beginnings and ends of songs, but he really outdid himself here. I believe this is the first album like this I've posted where every single song has "[Edit]" in the title, because Matthew talked over all of them! But I did the usual fix of using the UVR5 audio editing program to erase his voice while keeping the underlying music.

Here's the Wikipedia page for the band:

Christie (band) - Wikipedia

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 Yellow River [Edit] (Christie)
02 Inside Looking Out [Edit] (Christie)
03 Down the Mississippi Line [Edit] (Christie)
04 San Bernadino [Edit] (Christie)
05 New York City [Edit] (Christie)
06 Man of Many Faces [Edit] (Christie)
07 Peace Loving Man [Edit] (Christie)
08 Picture Painter [Edit] (Christie)
09 Country Sound [Edit] (Christie)
10 Everything's Gonna Be Alright [Edit] (Christie)
11 Freewheelin' Man [Edit] (Christie)
12 Rock and Roll Woman [Edit] (Christie)
13 Iron Horse [Edit] (Christie)
14 Funny Things [Edit] (Christie)
15 One Way Ticket [Edit] (Christie)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/H7mj4jhJ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/fS6BI5JtxgeyckC/file

The cover photo shows the three band members around 1970. I believe the man in the middle is Jeff Christie. I darkened the background some.

Lucinda Williams with Kacey Chambers - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 7-10-2003

I'm back from my short vacation. Thanks to all of you who wished me well. I had a great time. Here's another episode of the "PBS Soundstage" show. This time, singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams is the star. However, it starts with a short set by another singer-songwriter, Kasey Chambers.

I had never heard of Kasey Chambers before putting this album together. But when I learned about her, I soon understood why this was a logical pairing. Chambers is from Australia, and has often been likened to an Australian Lucinda Williams. Her first album, "The Captain," was released in 1999. To support it, she went on tour as an opening act for Williams. Her second album, "Barricades & Brickwalls," released in 2001, featured a guest appearance by Williams. It was a huge hit in Australia, going to Number One on the album charts there and achieving platinum status seven times over. It was the best selling album of her career. However, it did much less well elsewhere, for instance not quite reaching the top 100 in the U.S. album charts. 

Here's the Wikipedia entry about her:

Kasey Chambers - Wikipedia 

The Chambers set is relatively short, only 18 minutes long. The last of the four songs she performed, "Changed the Locks," is actually a Lucinda Williams cover. However, it doesn't appear Chambers and Williams appeared on stage together during this concert. Perhaps they were recorded at different times.

I've posted a bunch of albums by Williams at the blog already, so she doesn't need much of an introduction. Not long before this concert, in April 2003, she released the studio album "World without Tears." It was very well received by critics, and sold about half a million copies. Not surprisingly, she played a few songs from it.

The first song here has "[Edit]" in its title. That's due to a voiceover near the beginning of the song. I got rid of it in the usual way, with the help of the UVR5 audio editing program. I don't know the exact date this concert actually took place. The date in the title is probably the broadcast date.

This unreleased album is 54 minutes long.

01 Barricades and Brick Walls [Edit] (Kasey Chambers)
02 If I Were You (Kasey Chambers)
03 Captain (Kasey Chambers)
04 Changed the Locks (Kasey Chambers)
05 talk (Kasey Chambers)
06 Ventura (Lucinda Williams)
07 World without Tears (Lucinda Williams)
08 Essence (Lucinda Williams)
09 talk (Lucinda Williams)
10 Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings (Lucinda Williams)
11 Joy (Lucinda Williams)
12 Overtime (Lucinda Williams)
13 talk (Lucinda Williams)
14 Righteously (Lucinda Williams)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/r8bP8osS

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/836bjAK6EkvZU9j/file

The cover photo is a screenshot from this exact concert. I used the Krea AI program to improve the image quality.

Mini-Vacation

I just want to let you know I'll be traveling for six days, starting right now. So no posting until May 6th. But when I get back, I have tons of stuff to post. For instance, I have the entire Texas International Pop Festival of 1969 all ready to go. Plus lots more BBC and Soundstage stuff. See you then.

Richard Thompson - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: In Concert, Barrymore's Music Hall, Ottawa, Canada, 4-11-1985

In the BBC poll I did back in February 2025, Peter Gabriel got the most votes. The second most went to Richard Thompson. So I posted a couple things from Gabriel recently, and now here's something from Thompson. More albums from more musical acts will be coming soon. This is a full concert from 1985.

From about 1972 to 1982, Richard Thompson was in a duo with his then-wife, Linda Thompson. After their marriage and musical partnership broke up in 1982, he got serious with a solo career. In 1983, he released the album "Hand of Kindness," and then in 1985, he released the album "Across a Crowded Room." This concert features him on tour promoting that latter album. For the tour, he recruited another male and female musical duo to join his band, Clive Gregson and Christine Collister. Collister, in particular, added female vocals that kind of filled the role Linda Thompson used to fill. Both Gregson and Collister got their own lead vocal songs during this concert, with Collister singing "Warm Love Gone Cold" and Gregson singing "Summer Rain."

In my opinion, Thompson's songwriting was especially good during this time period, with his 1982 album with Linda Thompson, "Shoot Out the Lights," being my favorite. It also was his most poppy and accessible. That continued with these albums. So I think this concert is an excellent introduction to his solo career, with him playing the best songs from his two recent solo albums plus key songs from earlier in his career.

I believe this concert was almost the end of the tour, with just one more concert a day later. So, to document the tour, this concert was recorded for both audio and video. A version edited down to an hour was shown on British TV, called "Across a Crowded Room Live." That also was broadcast on BBC radio. Seven of the tracks from it appeared on the DVD portion of the album "Live at the BBC" in 2011. Then, in 2019, the full concert was released, called "Across a Crowded Room - Live at Barrymore's 1985." Normally, I don't like to post stuff that's officially released already, but I'm doing that here since it's a good way to start a series of Thompson's BBC albums, the vast majority of which is unreleased. 

This album is an hour and 45 minutes long.

01 Fire in the Engine Room (Richard Thompson)
02 She Twists the Knife (Richard Thompson)
03 Shoot Out the Lights (Richard Thompson)
04 You Don't Say (Richard Thompson)
05 Warm Love Gone Cold (Christine Collister with Richard Thompson)
06 Wall of Death (Richard Thompson)
07 How I Wanted To (Richard Thompson)
08 Little Blue Number (Richard Thompson)
09 When the Spell Is Broken (Richard Thompson)
10 Did She Jump or Was She Pushed (Richard Thompson)
11 The Wrong Heartbeat (Richard Thompson)
12 talk (Richard Thompson)
13 Summer Rain (Clive Gregson with Richard Thompson)
14 For Shame of Doing Wrong (Richard Thompson)
15 I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (Richard Thompson)
16 talk (Richard Thompson)
17 Nearly in Love (Richard Thompson)
18 Love in a Faithless Country (Richard Thompson)
19 I Ain't Going to Drag My Feet No More (Richard Thompson)
20 talk (Richard Thompson)
21 Tear Stained Letter (Richard Thompson)
22 talk (Richard Thompson)
23 Withered and Died (Richard Thompson)
24 Skull and Cross Bones (Richard Thompson)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/io4R6MBR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/PT1i3CGtub925jj/file

For the cover image, I took a screenshot from a YouTube video of this exact concert. The video was low-res, as is often the case with these things. But I ran the image through the Krea AI program twice until it looked a lot better.

George Benson, Chet Atkins & Earl Klugh - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 12-18-1978

Here is a very unusual episode of the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. Back in the 1970s especially, the show had some jazz-themed episodes. I don't plan on posting most of those, because I'm not much of a jazz fan (and most of them seem lost anyway). However, I'm making an exception for this one, because I am a fan of guitar playing, and this features three guitar masters who almost never performed together. In fact, for all I know, this might be the only time the did. I'm speaking of Chet Atkins, George Benson, and Earl Klugh.

Of the three, George Benson might be the most famous. Although a talented jazz guitarist, he is a talented singer and songwriter. He had a bunch of pop hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His 1976 album "Breezin'" sold over three million copies. However, for this concert, he focused almost entirely on his jazz guitar playing. He only sang one song, one of his biggest hits, "The Greatest Love of All." (Whitney Houston later had an even bigger hit with it.) In fact, that's the only song in this concert with lead vocals. 

Here's his Wikipedia page:

George Benson - Wikipedia

Chet Atkins is probably the second most famous of the three. He was significantly older than the other two, being born in 1920, making him about 58 years old at the time of this concert. Known as "Mr. Guitar," his fingerpicking style was formative in the development of country music. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him number 21 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

Here's his Wikipedia page:

Chet Atkins - Wikipedia 

Earl Klugh is probably the least well known, because he didn't cross over from jazz to pop like Benson did. But he's still sold millions of albums. He's also the connection that made this trio work, since he had links to both Benson and Atkins. At first glance, Atkins was country and had little to do with jazz musicians Benson and Klugh. But Klugh got interested in playing guitar as a child after watching Atkins perform on TV. He ended up guesting on some of Atkins' albums, and Atkins guested on one of his. Later on, he also played on on of Benson's albums and was a member of his touring band for about a year. In 1987, they would release an album together, called "Collaboration."

Here's his Wikipedia page:

Earl Klugh - Wikipedia 

Basically, this concert alternated between Benson, Atkins, and Klugh performing together, and playing off each other, and short solo sets. All in all, Benson played three songs solo, Atkins played four songs solo, Klugh played three songs solo, and the three of them played four songs together. Unfortunately, the last song they played together, "Bluesette," fades out after less than two minutes because that's when the hour-long time slot for the show ended. I couldn't find any way to fill in the rest of the song since the three of these guys playing together was so unique. I just kept in as much as I could.

The video of this concert is available on YouTube, and I imagine it's been there for a long time. But this is probably the first time it has been converted to an audio bootleg. The conversion process was relatively easy for me, but I had to do some sleuthing to figure out the names of all of the songs. There's one song Benson did that I just call "Instrumental." I found lots of comments on YouTube asking about this song, and nobody knew the name. It could be an original that he never put on album. If anyone knows the name of it, please let me know.

This unreleased album is 59 minutes long.

01 Cherokee [Instrumental] [Edit] (George Benson, Chet Atkins & Earl Klugh)
02 Weekend in L.A. [Instrumental] (George Benson)
03 The Greatest Love of All (George Benson)
04 Instrumental (George Benson)
05 talk (George Benson)
06 Oh Lonesome Me [Instrumental] (George Benson, Chet Atkins & Earl Klugh)
07 Cascade [Instrumental] (Chet Atkins)
08 talk (Chet Atkins)
09 Don't Think Twice, It's Alright [Instrumental Version] (Chet Atkins)
10 Kentucky [Instrumental] (Chet Atkins)
11 talk (Chet Atkins)
12 The Stars and Stripes Forever [Instrumental] (Chet Atkins)
13 Manha de Carnaval [A Day in the Life of a Fool] [Instrumental] (George Benson, Chet Atkins & Earl Klugh)
14 Jolanta [Instrumental] (Earl Klugh)
15 Dr. Makumba [Instrumental] (Earl Klugh)
16 Cry a Little While [Instrumental] (Earl Klugh)
17 Bluesette [Instrumental] [Edit] (George Benson, Chet Atkins & Earl Klugh)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Puu3KYoR

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/0hxXdy6JHydUfOo/file

I had a very difficult time making the cover image. It is a photo from this exact concert. I felt I had no choice since I couldn't find any other instances of these three people together. But the YouTube video I used as a source was very low-res. So I had to put it together in pieces. I took one screenshot of all three of them. Then I took screenshots to focus on their faces, to get more accuracy there. I used Photoshop to resize some pieces and put them all together. I also used Krea AI multiple times, adding detail to different parts too. 

By the way, from left to right, that's Chet Atkins, George Benson, and Earl Klugh.