Dead Weather: Bonnaroo, 2010
This will probably be my last major post before
I cease operations here at the Licorice Pizza blog. That should happen at the end of this week. As such, I wanted to share something really decent I got hold of not long ago.
The Dead Weather played Day 3 (June 12) of this year’s Bonnaroo Festival, sandwiched on the “What” stage between Big Sam's Funky Nation and Jimmy Cliff on one side and Stevie Wonder and Jay-Z on the other. Kind of an unlikely, yet appropriate, slot for this unholy gothic blues quartet.
I’ve made no secret of mentioning that I really liked
Sea of Cowards. I think the band and album are a natural progression for Jack White, moving forward from the basic blues stomp of the White Stripes. My only issue is that I would rather hear Jack on guitar than drums. Fans at Bonnaroo got a chance to see him do just that during their set: White stepped out to play lead guitar on “Will There Be Enough Water?” launching into an extended solo to end the set. When the band returned for its encore, Jack again took lead guitar for “I Can’t Hear You.”
Like every other year and every other festival, needless to say I couldn’t attend Bonnaroo. It sounds as if Dead Weather was phenomenal.
Rolling Stone wrote, “Their set was a nasty reconfiguration of classic blues, ripping out everything but the floorboards and rebuilding a rickety, menacing house on top of them.”
I’m not sure of the original source for this recording, but the sound quality is as suitably great as the band. Again, my host is expiring in a couple of days and the individual tracks are likely not going to be available after that. The RapidShare file should be around a bit longer.
Forever My Queen.mp3 60 Feet Tall.mp3 Hang You from the Heavens.mp3 You Just Can’t Win.mp3 So Far from Your Weapon.mp3 I Cut Like a Buffalo.mp3 No Horse.mp3 A Child of a Few Hours is Burning to Death.mp3 The Difference Between Us / I’m Mad.mp3 Hustle & Cuss.mp3 Die by the Drop.mp3 New Pony.mp3 Will There Be Enough Water.mp3encoreBlue Blood Blues.mp3 I Can’t Hear You.mp3 Treat Me Like Your Mother.mp3 Zipfile linkageLabels: blues, Jack White, live music
Happy Independence Day
It was kind of a tough call deciding what would be an appropriate Fourth of July post. The most obvious call was the Beach Boys – why, I don’t know, but the Beach Boys always seem right. At some point last night I woke up and thought the Rolling Stones, but in the clear light of day I realized that was an obviously delusional idea.
While looking through music this morning, I found what seems to be perfect: Bob Dylan and Tom Petty playing a July 4 concert in New York. I mean, what’s more American than that? I suppose I could upload some hotdogs for you.
While this is a great show and I would have loved to see any stop on the True Confessions tour, the sound quality here is about a C-. That being the case, I'm posting only a handful of songs – just something to get your morning moving. Enjoy your Fourth.
Masters of War.mp3 ~
Bob Dylan with Tom Petty & The HeartbreakersBreakdown.mp3 ~
Tom Petty & The HeartbreakersA Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall.mp3 ~
Bob Dylan (acoustic)Ballad of a Thin Man.mp3 ~
Bob Dylan with Tom Petty & The HeartbreakersJohnny B. Goode.mp3 ~
Tom Petty & The HeartbreakersRefugee.mp3 ~ Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.mp3 ~
Bob Dylan with Tom Petty & The HeartbreakersThis recording is from the July 4, 1986, show at Rich Stadium in Buffalo, N.Y. It may or may not show up as July 14 when downloaded. According to the
Gone Gator Website, there was no July 14 show on that tour, so I take that as a typo and assume this is the July 4 show.
Labels: acousticness, classic rock, holiday, live music
Hole: Live 1995
I realized last night that I’ve been going to concerts longer probably than some of you have been alive – my first show was KISS, on the 1979
Dynasty tour.
This realization came to me while I was waiting for Hole to take the stage at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach. What brought this realization is watching everyone around me busy with their cell phones: texting, tweeting, taking pictures, and generally doing everything to remember this experience other than actually experiencing it. It made me feel old and annoyed thinking about how much the concert-going experience has changed over the years.
I remember when I saw Iggy in 1980 or '81, I was
scared! The crowd was ugly. I later learned that it’s mostly in fun, but it’s rare these days to see a band and worry about your safety. Everything is very sanitized these days, which I guess makes venue owners sleep better at night. I compare that Iggy experience with the Hole show because the theaters are probably more or less the same size (I saw Iggy at the Hollywood Palladium in California) and Courtney, being Courtney, always brings the potential for some kind of disorder. There were no surging crowds last night; no one spit at Courtney; no one crowd-surfed or stage-dived; and there was no mosh pit full of sweaty, shirtless fat guys. Hmm, maybe that’s
not such a bad thing.
So how was the show?
Courtney Love released
Nobody’s Daughter and is touring under the name “Hole.” Regardless, this is the Courtney Love show: She’s such a personality that, at his point, it doesn’t much matter whether it’s Eric Erlandson or Micko Larkin alongside her; it’s still gonna be the Courtney show. The current band has been together long enough that there’s some form of chemistry, but it’s really not “Hole” per se. And apparently, use of the name is still being
discussed.
Regardless, this version of Hole opened with an appropriate cover of “Sympathy for the Devil.” They ripped through about an hour-and-a-half worth of material, mostly from
Nobody’s Daughter and 1994’s
Live Through This, going deep into the latter for songs such as “Plump.” As advertised, Courtney stayed clear of material from
America’s Sweetheart. Also, regrettably, they didn’t play anything from Hole’s debut,
Pretty On the Inside.
So, the band has changed. The concert-going experience has changed. Has anything stayed the same? Well, due to a DUI roadblock (Thank God and $12 beers I wasn’t drinking) it still took two hours to get home, just like the old days driving back from Los Angeles.
This recording goes back to the original Hole band; it was recorded February 1995 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. I also added in “Loser Dust,” one of my favorites from the new album, but a song they did not play last night.
Plump.mp3 My Beautiful Son.mp3 Miss World.mp3 Asking for It.mp3 Hungry Like the Wolf.mp3 Gutless.mp3 I Think That I Would Die.mp3 Credit in the Straight World.mp3 Teenage Whore.mp3 Violet.mp3 Loser Dust.mp3 Labels: grunge, live music, rock
Rolling Stones: SNL, 1978
I mentioned the other day I was involved in watching season four of Saturday Night Live. Somehow there was a mix-up down at Blockbuster and they sent disk two before they sent disk one. Eventually disk one arrived and I was able to look at that season's opening episode, which featured the Rolling Stones.
American music in 1978 was on the precipice between the punk rock and disco eras. The Stones had just released
Some Girls with “Miss You,” a strongly danceable track, opening the album. This SNL appearance would throw all disco pretense out the window as they took the stage for a classically ragged performance.
“Get out of my life / Don’t fuck my wife.” Did that really make it past the censors? Keef, reportedly so drunk at dress rehearsal that he was dropped from a sketch, makes it onstage to play (he’s a trained professional, kids). Mick’s voice blown into ragged hoarseness. The band a mesmorizing mess. This is the Stones in boiled down, punk rock mode. Barely even recognizable as the band we’ll see three decades later in Shine A Light.
These tracks were unofficially released as part of a boot titled
Sucking Don on SNL. Along with the SNL appearance, the disk includes performances from Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, as well as the SNL rehearsals. I owe big, big thanks to Dino over at
D&P’s Bootleg Tunz World for finding this for me. I had spent quite a bit of time looking for
Sucking Don before I reached out to Dino. Within a few hours, one of his readers had located it and passed it along. His site is great and I want to encourage you to visit it early and often.
Beast of Burden.mp3 Respectable.mp3 Shattered.mp3 Labels: classic rock, live music, Rolling Stones, TV
Hendrix in Miami(!?!): live 1968
Here’s what I like about the Internet: Last night I read something about the 1968 Miami Pop Festival (more about what I read in a sec), and within the half hour I had located a recording of Jimi Hendrix’s appearance and was listening to it. Not all that long ago, I probably never would even have heard about the festival, let alone been able to so quickly find a recording from one of the artists playing there.
Some quick background info on the Miami Pop Festival, then I’m going to link you to the site that got this whole post going. “Woodstock was born at Miami Pop” is the retrospective tagline attached to the event. Michael Lang, who would go on to be one of the brains behind Woodstock, was the Miami event promoter.
The two-day festival took place May 18 and 19 at the Gulfstream Park horse racing track in Hallandale Beach, which is actually just north of Miami. Featured acts included Hendrix, Steppenwolf, the Mothers of Invention, and Blue Cheer. The weather was typical Miami for that time of year – rain, rain, and more rain. Hendrix’s “Rainy Day, Dream Away” was supposedly written in response to the rain cancellation of the Sunday show. Rock legend also has it that rain and technical difficulties plagued Hendrix’s short set and resulted in Jimi tossing his guitar into the audience, only to be claimed by Frank Zappa.
The article I read was posted yesterday on a site called REV Miami. The site basically covers music, art, and similar happenings from around this area. One of the site’s creators, Ric Delgado, managed to land an interview with Ken Davidoff, a rock photog of some renown. The Miami Pop Festival the first major event Davidoff covered, and he shared his memories of that with REV Miami, including a run in with Hendrix: “My first night time shot was a beautiful full length pic of Jimi in these blue crushed velvet pants that practically glowed,” Davidoff said. “For the second shot I moved closer. As the strobe went off for the second time, I was stunned to hear Jimi stop, look directly at me, and say, ‘There will be no more flash photography.’”
The rest of the interview, including Davidoff’s memories of shooting other rock greats and some outstanding examples of his work, can all be found at the
REV Miami Website. I cannot encourage you enough to go there when you’re finished here.
This is a soundboard recording of very good quality and, as far as I know, has never been officially released, although obviously it’s been bootlegged aplenty.
Intro.mp3 Foxy Lady.mp3 Fire.mp3 Hear My Train a Comin’.mp3 Purple Haze.mp3 Outro.mp3 Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, live music, rock
Motley Crue: Live 1982
I was at a friend’s house this weekend when he put on a DVD of some stuff he had recorded from a TV channel called
Palladia. Now, I’ve got low-end cable, so of course I’d never heard of the channel. What it is, is “a 1080i high definition music television network that shows music-related content from its owner, MTV Networks.” In layman’s terms, we watched a couple of cool-ass concerts.
The channel broadcasts a lot of the stuff that MTV and VH1 used to, but they also have what looks like a fair amount of original and live performance content, such as a Lily Allen concert playing this week. Palladia appears to be available mostly via satellite TV providers, but after some searching, I found that iTunes makes some of the station’s programming available for streaming or purchase.
How does this all relate to what we’re doing here today? One of the concerts we watched was a Motley Crue show from last year. During the show we were talking about all the
serious shit Motley Crue has done during their nearly 30-year career; from Vince Neil’s car crash that killed Razzle from Hanoi Rocks to filming anti-drug commercials while wasted off their asses. These guys were the epitome of out-of-control rock ‘n’ rollers. Presumably they’ve cleaned up a bit, but they can still bring a sleazy rock show complete with strippers and a crowd of breast-baring women. Musically the band sounded as good as they ever have, with Vince Neil’s voice still standing up to the hair metal falsettos of the Crue’s first album.
I went back and forth on whether to post an old or new Motley Crue show. In the end I went with the former because I’ve had this on my drive forever. It was recorded Nov. 19, 1982, at Perkin’s Palace in Los Angeles and originally broadcast on the
"mighty MET." Take Me to the Top.mp3 Looks That Kill.mp3 Public Enemy #1.mp3 Red Hot.mp3 Starry Eyes.mp3 Piece of Your Action.mp3 Shout at the Devil.mp3 Merry-Go-Round.mp3 Running Wild in the Night.mp3 Hotter than Hell.mp3 Live Wire.mp3 Labels: glam, hair metal, live music
Nudedragons Live in Seattle, pt. 2
Alright, then. As promised, part two of the Nudedragons April 16 set at the Showbox Theater in Seattle. This half includes an extended version of “Slaves and Bulldozers” as well as a cover of the Doors’ “Waiting for the Sun” to wrap up the show.
.jpg)
Beyond their August appearance at Lollapalooza, Soundgarden have no definite tour plans. According to a
Billboard article the band is considering offers to appear at as-yet-undetermined U.S. and European festivals. However, the article continues, “a tour routing is still a work in progress, due to [drummer Matt] Cameron's prior commitments to play with Pearl Jam in the spring and summer.”
Nothing to Say.mp3 Loud Love.mp3 Blow Up the Outside World.mp3 Pretty Noose.mp3 Outshined.mp3 Slaves and Bulldozers.mp3 Encore:
Get On the Snake.mp3 Big Dumb Sex.mp3 Waiting for the Sun (Doors cover).mp3 Remember I mentioned yesterday that the zip sets were divided differently than the posted sets. Anyway, the second part is right
here.
Labels: covers, grunge, live music
Nudedragons Live in Seattle, pt. 1
Oops!
Someone sent me this brand new Soundgarden recording last week and it’s been sitting on my desktop since, where I almost forgot to post it.
When Soundgarden split up in 1997, it seemed pretty unlikely Seattle’s godfathers of grunge would ever reunite. “I haven't received any phone calls from anyone in Soundgarden about a reunion since we broke up, nor have I called anyone,” Chris Cornell said in 2007 interview with MTV News. “We were happy with how it ended. There was no unfinished business.”
Before and since, various other members of Soundgarden had also nixed the possibility of a reunion. However, in March 2009, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, and Ben Shepherd teamed with Tad Doyle (of Tad fame) to perform a handful of Soundgarden songs at a Tom Morello show. Then in October, Cornell joined his three former bandmates at a Pearl Jam show, where they played together on “Hunger Strike.”
.jpg)
Then came a New Year’s Day tweet from Cornell: “The 12-year break is over and school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again!” Since, the band has been in a flurry, rehearsing for their upcoming headlining slot at Lollapalooza, and possible U.K. festivals.
On April 16, the band played what Cornell called “a rehearsal, really” for about 1000 fans at the Showbox in Seattle. The show was billed under the pseudonym “Nudedragons,” an anagram of Soundgarden. I have no idea of the original source for this, but it sounds like an audience recording. On a scale of 1-5, I’d put the sound quality at about 3-3.5. The band sounds great and you might even forget Chris Cornell put out an album like
Scream.
Since there are 19 tracks, I’m going to split this over two posts and of course I’ll zip up each post for your shopping convenience. (Because of RapidShare upload limits, the two zip files are going to be split differently than the two posts – just be sure to tune in tomorrow and you’ll get everything.)
Intro.mp3 Spoonman.mp3 Gun.mp3 Searching With My Good Eye Closed.mp3 Rusty Cage.mp3 Beyond the Wheel.mp3 Flower.mp3 Ugly Truth.mp3 Fell On Black Days.mp3 Hunted Down.mp3 Unzip part one
here.
Labels: grunge, live music
Armed Forces Day
I think it’s pretty cool that there’s a day set aside each year just to recognize what is arguably Elvis Costello’s greatest album.
Oh c’mon! I’m just kidding. I served my time in the U.S. military and I know what Armed Forces Day is. It’s probably too late in the day for most of you to run out and do anything to mark the occasion, but just take a sec this evening and appreciate the men and women who are serving in the Armed Forces.
Some background, in case you don’t know: On Aug. 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy, and Air Force Days. The single-day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under one department – the Department of Defense.
“This is the day on which we have the welcome opportunity to pay special tribute to the men and women of the Armed Forces ... to all the individuals who are in the service of their country all over the world,” wrote the
New York Times in a 1952 article. “Armed Forces Day won't be a matter of parades and receptions for a good many of them. They will all be in line of duty and some of them may give their lives in that duty.”
But I do have a song from Elvis Costello’s 1979
Armed Forces album. Or actually it’s a track that was originally included on a bonus 45 that came with the vinyl release, then added onto the CD re-release.
Watching the Detectives (live).mp3 Labels: holiday, live music, punk
AC/DC - Live on BBC, 1976
All right, all right – settle down. I know that you, my faithful readers, get tired of me posting music only I find interesting. But how fun would things here be if all I ever posted was Zeppelin boots?
In appreciation of your patience, I found an old AC/DC live recording for you; something originally broadcast by the BBC back on July 8, 1976. The location was the Paris Theatre in London, which the Beeb used to use for live performances. AC/DC were on their first tour of the U.K., the “Lock Up Your Daughters” tour.
The sound quality here is very good. The performance of the band itself, though, is an interesting contrast to the AC/DC that would appear a couple of years later on the
If You Want Blood live album. The audience here is sedate, almost polite, and the band itself rips through the five songs mostly staying faithful to the album sound and with little of the snarl of later performances. You’d think they were trying to make a good impression or something.
A couple of the tracks performed at this show, “Soul Stripper” and “Baby, Please Don’t Go” were released on AC/DC’s debut Australian album, but didn’t show up here in the States until the 1984
’74 Jailbreak. Also be warned that you’re going to hear Pete Drummond chat between each of the songs.
Pete Drummond Introduction.mp3 Live Wire.mp3 It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll).mp3 Soul Stripper.mp3 High Voltage.mp3 Baby, Please Don’t Go.mp3 Labels: AC/DC, Australian, live music
Beatles - Atlanta '65
I found this Beatles “recording of indeterminate origin” a while ago and was impressed by two things: First, the sound quality is almost at a professional level; and next, the fact that they tear through 10 songs in less than half an hour. I wasn’t sure if I was hearing the Beatles or the Ramones.
This recording comes from the Aug. 18, 1965, show at Atlanta Stadium in Atlanta, Ga., the third stop on the tour. Beatlemania was at its peak and the band was just coming off one of the most amazing concerts ever – the Shea Stadium show.
This is the last tour while the Beatles were still “moptops”; at the end of the year, they would release
Rubber Soul and the music and band would start to take a new direction, showing new influences and growing up, as it were.
Almost four years ago I posted from a vinyl version of the Beatles at the Star Club, a recording from 1962, before they were
the Beatles. I commented about the “the absolute rawness and pure unvarnished rock and roll energy” of the recording. Three years later, the Beatles were a worldwide phenomenon, but the live energy was still there. They tear through their set with a force and vitality we wouldn’t see from England for another decade.
Introduction – Paul Drew.mp3 Twist and Shout.mp3 She’s a Woman.mp3 I Feel Fine.mp3 Ticket to Ride.mp3 Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby.mp3 Can’t Buy Me Love.mp3 Baby’s In Black.mp3 I Wanna Be Your Man.mp3 Help!.mp3 I’m Down.mp3 unzip 'em all
here.
Labels: Beatles, live music
'Through Being Cool'
When I was back there in seminary school....
Oh wait, that’s a different story. How about “when I was back there in high school...”
... I saw Devo make their network television debut on Saturday Night Live. Although many of my tastes were very white bread and mainstream, I was also drawn toward music that was outside of that box. In the harsh world of high school, those tastes were seldom met with approval.
Such was the case when, the Monday after their October 1978 appearance on SNL, I went to school raving about this band who had quirkily covered “Satisfaction” and had the gall to appear dressed in yellow jumpsuits like some freaks from another planet, while preaching de-evolution. And all this just a week after the Stones themselves had graced the stage at Studio 8H.
SNL was still relatively new and hip then, so everyone watched it and everyone had seen Devo and everyone hated them. Those of you who are still just a few years removed from high school will remember how fear of the unknown and different is a potent virus that pervades every school, everywhere. So of course a couple of weeks later, when I showed up at school sporting a Devo t-shirt, it was greeted with hatred and derision by the cool kids rocking their Mahogany Rush tees.
tl;dr? I’m posting Devo, not Mahogany Rush.
This is a collection of live Devo, recorded at various venues and at various dates, from the 1978 SNL appearance through a 1988 performance of “Girl U Want.” Unfortunately, other than rough dates, I don’t have any additional information on where the songs come from.
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.mp3 ~ SNL, 1978
Mongoloid.mp3 ~ 1978
Uncontrollable Urge.mp3 ~ 1978
It Takes A Worried Man.mp3 ~ 1980
Gates of Steel.mp3 ~ 1980
I Saw Jesus / Through Being Cool.mp3 ~ 1981
Working In A Coalmine.mp3 ~ 1981
Smart Patrol / Jerkin’ Back and Forth.mp3 ~ 1981
Patterns.mp3 ~ 1982
Girl U Want.mp3 ~ 1988
That’s Good.mp3 ~ 1988
Labels: covers, live music, new wave, TV
'Buried Alive'
I can’t even count the number of times I’ve posted up some Aerosmith and tried to qualify the post by saying something like, “Well, back when they were good...”
Despite all qualifications, I happened recently to run up on some newer Aerosmith that’s pretty good. So I think I’ve found the problem: They need to cut out the shit in the studio. I found a couple of disks of demos and damned if even the crap songs from the later albums sound decent when they’re unadorned by studio fluffery. Prime example: “Living on the Edge,” which was, in my opinion, a typical late model, Aerosmith pop song. The demo shows the song stripped down and raw, before Bruce Fairburn glossed it up and turned it into mainstream mediocrity.
This collection, which was probably assembled by a fan, is titled
Divers Aerosmith. I don’t know if that’s meant to be “Diver’s” or “Diverse.” Regardless, the original set had 32 songs, some of which had been released commercially, some of which had poor sound quality, and some of which just sucked (i.e. an orchestral version of “Crazy”). I trimmed the fat and ended up with 11 songs that I think are pretty quality. With the exception of “Mama Kin” and “Walk This Way,” everything comes from
Permanent Vacation or newer. And, to the best of my knowledge, nothing here has been commercially released.
Bottom line: Here’s yet another Aerosmith post. You know we're all still fans.
Buried Alive.mp3 ~
Pump outtake
Crazy.mp3 ~ acoustic version
Guilty Kilt.mp3 Hollywood.mp3 ~
Permanent Vacation demo
Line Up.mp3 ~ smoky bar mix
Livin’ on the Edge.mp3 ~
Get A Grip demo
Mama Kin.mp3 ~ live, with Guns ‘n’ Roses
Once is Enough.mp3 ~
Permanent Vacation demo
Samurai.mp3 Permanent Vacation demo
Sedona Sunrise.mp3 ~
Pump demo
Walk This Way.mp3 ~ live, with Bon Jovi
Labels: Aerosmith, classic rock, demos, live music, outtakes
Post #666
After three years and eight months I’ve made it to post number 666. Some careful mathing breaks that down to about 15 posts a month or an average of more or less one every other day. Which is better than I thought I was doing.
Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
I hold no special significance in the “Number of the Beast.” I’m way more aware of it through pop culture than I am through religious studies. Based on some quick, half-assed Internet research, 666 appears to have originally been used as code in order to write about Roman emperors (most likely Nero) without openly referring to them.
Through the ages, different beliefs have used different methods to sum different names, pretty much arriving at any person they feel is evil enough to be dubbed “The Beast.” Some scholars have decided the number was mistranslated and was supposed to have been 616, and would have referred to Caligula. Aleister Crowley believed
he was the beast and adopted the name “The Great Beast.” By then using Greek gematria (assigning values to words), he was able to arrive at the sum of 666 for himself. I even found a Website where they had translated Al Gore into ASCII code and made it equal 666.
Be all that as it may, I’ve decided Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” would be a swell way to acknowledge post number 666. This version comes from their March 15, 1985, show at the Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, Calif. This was one of the shows recorded for the classic
Live After Death LP. What I’m posting comes from a Recording of Indeterminate Origin of the March 15 show and not from official release.
The Number of the Beast (live).mp3 Labels: live music, metal
'Who Put the Boot In'
Counting down to the Super Bowl and The Who’s halftime show. I’m pretty stoked to see them play even though I have a feeling I’ll be disappointed in the end. The last couple of years have brought some outstanding performances from Bruce Springsteen and Prince and I’m halfway dreading seeing The Who get up there and mash 40-odd years of music into a 15-minute medley of greatest hits. Or worse, something that sounds like a collection of TV theme songs and beer commercials. But hey, that’s just me – ever the optimist.
In an
interview with
Billboard, Pete Townshend says the band plans on “kinda doing a mashup of stuff: A bit of ‘Baba O’Riley,’ a bit of ‘Pinball Wizard,’ a bit of the close of ‘Tommy,’ a bit of ‘Who Are You,’ and a bit of ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again.’
As a sort of blogging tailgate party, I’ve dug up an old live Who show. This comes from a June 12, 1976, performance at the Swansea City Football Club in Swansea, Wales.
According to
The Who Concert Guide, there are about seven songs the band played that didn’t make it onto this recording. The recording here opens with a set of “Tommy” material, whereas the actual show opened with older stuff and put “Tommy” in the middle. Some other songs here were also moved around a bit from their actual order in the show. Seeing as this clocks in at exactly an hour, maybe it was meant for radio broadcast or summat and was edited for that. But don’t let all these details bog you down. This is a typically powerful performance from The Who and the sound quality is very good and we’ll be damn lucky if they turn in half as good a performance tonight.
Amazing Journey.mp3 Sparks.mp3 Acid Queen.mp3 Fiddle About.mp3 Pinball Wizard.mp3 I’m Free / How Can We Follow.mp3 Baba O’Riley.mp3 Squeeze Box.mp3 Behind Blue Eyes.mp3 Dreaming from the Waist.mp3 Summertime Blues.mp3 My Generation.mp3 Won’t Get Fooled Again.mp3Labels: classic rock, current events, live music
‘Is There Anybody Alive Out There’
I thought I’d pass along part of something I found the other day: A “recording of indeterminate origin” from last year’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction concert.
If you’ll recall, there were shows October 29 and 30 at Madison Square Garden honoring the Rock Hall inductees. The recording I’ve got is from the first night’s show, recorded – in that time-honored method – by someone in the audience. The sound, while obviously not professional quality, isn’t bad. According to the notes that came with the file, this person started the night with a “limited” (read: “no”) view seat in an area that also had terrible sound. He soon “realized it wasn't going to be very good [and] quickly relocated myself to one of the expensive seats and luckily its rightful owner never showed up.”
This enterprising person managed to capture the entire show for posterity, from Tom Hanks’ opening remarks to the Bruce Springsteen-led closing performance of “Higher and Higher.” Rather than repost the whole thing, I decided I’d go with a theme and just repost Springsteen’s portion of the show. This was, to me anyway, the most compelling, with guest performers ranging from John Fogerty to Billy Joel. The only stumble is the version of “London Calling,” which sounds forced. Otherwise, the performances are solid. “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” with guest guitarist Tom Morello, hits the middle ground between Springsteen’s original and Rage’s thrashing cover. There’s also an amazing 12-minute version of “Jungleland.”
Again, this is an audience recording, so the sound isn’t pristine, but it is well listenable and proves beyond a doubt that the E-Street Band is one of the greatest bar bands ever.
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.mp3 Hold On.mp3 ~
with Sam MooreSoul Man.mp3 ~
with Sam MooreThe Ghost of Tom Joad.mp3 ~
with Tom MorelloFortunate Son.mp3 ~
with John FogertyProud Mary.mp3 ~
with John FogertyPretty Woman.mp3 ~
with John FogertyJungleland.mp3 Fine Fine Boy.mp3 ~
with Darlene LoveDa Do Ron Ron.mp3 ~
with Darlene LoveLondon Calling.mp3 ~
with Tom MorelloBadlands.mp3 ~
with Tom MorelloYou May Be Right.mp3 ~
with Billy JoelOnly the Good Die Young.mp3 ~
with Billy JoelNew York State of Mind.mp3 ~
with Billy JoelBorn to Run.mp3 ~
with Billy JoelHigher and Higher.mp3 ~
with ensembleOr, if you're feeling particularly lazy, you can click
here and get the whole thing at one time.
Labels: classic rock, covers, live music, Springsteen
'White Men In Hammersmith Odeon'
Happy New Year!
I haven’t posted any live music in a while and it seems the new year would be a good time to get back into the habit. I had tried to plan this as a New Year’s Eve post, but other activities got in the way.
I picked this particular performance from the Clash because of its date. I was looking for an NYE performance and this December 27 show is the closest I could find. It’s actually from the 1979
Concerts for the People of Kampuchea benefit show. The Clash appeared along with Ian Dury and Matumbi on the second night. There is an official album from the four-day event, but only one Clash song, “Armagideon Time,” made its way onto that release. For the sake of my sanity, I’m not gonna post that here (although savvy readers may find a “bonus” track in the RapidShare DL).
A bit o’ background: The Clash had toured America in September and October of 1979, where they previewed some songs from the-then-unreleased
London Calling LP. With that album fresh in the shops by the Kampuchea show, songs from it were much more prominent in the set list. Also of note is a revved-up ska-like version of “Bankrobber,” different from the soon-to-be-released single, which was more in the reggae style of its inspiration, Max Romeo’s “Public Enemy Number One.”
Clash City Rockers.mp3 Brand New Cadillac.mp3 Safe European Home.mp3 Jimmy Jazz.mp3 Clampdown.mp3 The Guns of Brixton.mp3 Train In Vain.mp3 Wrong ‘em Boyo.mp3 Koka Kola.mp3 White Man in Hammersmith Palais.mp3 Stay Free.mp3 Bankrobber.mp3 Janie Jones.mp3 Complete Control.mp3 Armagideon Time
London Calling.mp3 or – get it all in one shot
here.
Labels: live music, punk, the Clash
Down the Holiday Trail, pt. I
Ten days before Christmas and 10 days since my last post seems like a good mid-point and a good place to jump up on the holiday song bandwagon.
I’m going to take it a little easier on myself this year than I did last year and post just a few random songs a day, every other day until Christmas Day. Then I’ll do a massive Christmas song dump – haha, just kidding.
I’ve picked up a couple of new things since last year, but for the most part, these are holiday standards we all know and love. From today’s post, one of the new things for me is the Flirtations’ “Christmastime is Here Again,” which I found when I was looking the other day for “Nothing But a Heartache.” A beautiful version by a woefully underappreciated 60’s “girl group.” The other song I just recently found is the Boss’ version of “Blue Christmas,” a live version that I think was recorded in December 2000.
So, settle down, put another log on the fire – or, if you’re in someplace like Miami, turn the air conditioning a little lower – and let’s all get in the holiday spirit.
Run Rudolph Run.mp3 ~ Keith Richards
Blue Christmas (live).mp3 ~ Bruce Springsteen
Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight).mp3 ~ Ramones
Christmas Time is Here Again.mp3 ~ The Flirtations
Silent Night / Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis.mp3 ~ Tom Waits
Labels: acousticness, holiday, live music, punk, Springsteen
Say It Ain't So, Lily
Gossip around the tabloids has it that Lily Allen is chucking the music biz. There is no truth to the rumors that she is giving it up to be with me.
Lily on Wednesday
told the BBC that she plans on taking “one or two years off from recording and performing music.” Her last scheduled performance is a March show with Dizzee Rascal at the O2 Arena in London. She also told the Beeb’s Radio 1 that she plans on setting up a fashion shop with her sister and working with new bands. “I’m just going to concentrate on doing some behind the scenes sort of stuff,” she said.
I’ve got say that Lily Allen taking a break from music will have no major impact on my life. However, I can admit to having been a casual fan since I saw her on Saturday Night Live a couple of years ago. I thought she was adorable looking and I kinda dug her infectious, pumped-up, ska-type music. And I have a weakness for girls with British accents.
Over the last couple of years I’ve picked up a handful of her songs here and there, but I never got around to buying a full album. I think what scared me away were tunes that veered away from ska and more into Pink territory. To be honest though, I haven’t really
hated anything I’ve heard from Lily Allen.
Anyway, to see her off, I’ve rounded up a few live and non-LP tracks. And Lily, if you get bored with all this new found free time, there’s always a chip butty waiting for you in Apt. 104.
Everybody’s Changing.mp3 ~
Keane cover – non-LPNaïve.mp3 ~
live, BBC Radio 1Oh My God.mp3 ~
Kaiser Chiefs cover – non-LP LDN.mp3 ~
live, 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., Feb. 16, 2007Blank Expression.mp3 ~
Specials cover – live, 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., Feb. 16, 2007. Labels: covers, live music, pop muzik, ska, unplugged
Rolling Stones - Memphis '78
I noticed it’s been a long time since I posted any live stuff. I imagine that sort of falls in line with my overall lackadaisical approach around here lately. But I thought it might not hurt to look through my things and see if I could find something interesting to share. What I came up with is this recording from the Rolling Stones’ 1978 tour.
For the U.S. leg of their ’78 tour, the Stones played 25 shows over the course of about two months: the first was June 10 in Lakeland, Fla.; the tour wrapped up on July 26 in Oakland. A lot of Stones “experts” consider this one of their best tours because of the back-to-basics approach the band took. They played a lot of older stuff, interspersing songs from the newly released
Some Girls album, most of which fit nicely alongside the classics.
This recording comes from the June 28 show at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tenn. I believe part of this show was broadcast for the old King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show. One notable thing about this recording is the debut of “Hound Dog,” which the Stones would only play at this show and the following night in Lexington, Ky.
When I first got this recording, the songs were in no type of order. I’ve arranged them in what I believe to be the proper set list, first by listening, to see what seems to logically follow, and by using a couple of sources, including
RocksOff.org, a great Rolling Stones fan site.
Let It Rock.mp3 All Down the Line.mp3 Honky Tonk Women.mp3 Star Star.mp3 When the Whip Comes Down.mp3 Miss You.mp3 Lies.mp3 Beast of Burden.mp3 Shattered.mp3 Just My Imagination.mp3 Respectable.mp3 Far Away Eyes.mp3 Love In Vain.mp3 Tumbling Dice.mp3 Happy.mp3 Hound Dog.mp3 Sweet Little Sixteen.mp3 Brown Sugar.mp3 Jumpin’ Jack Flash.mp3 or, if you prefer, you can
UnZip it.
** NOTE **update - I believe all links are back in working order now
thanks!
Labels: classic rock, live music, Rolling Stones
I’ve made no secret of mentioning that I really liked Sea of Cowards. I think the band and album are a natural progression for Jack White, moving forward from the basic blues stomp of the White Stripes. My only issue is that I would rather hear Jack on guitar than drums. Fans at Bonnaroo got a chance to see him do just that during their set: White stepped out to play lead guitar on “Will There Be Enough Water?” launching into an extended solo to end the set. When the band returned for its encore, Jack again took lead guitar for “I Can’t Hear You.” 
.jpg)
.jpg)
