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THE KING OF POP

July 5, 2009 – 4:11 am

Just hours after Michael Jackson stepped off the stage at Madison Square Garden late on September 10, two jetliners crashed into the historic Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001. History was made.

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MICHAEL JACKSON
30th Anniversary Anniversary Special [no label, 1CD]
Live at Madison Square Garden, September 7 and 10, 2001. This is probably from the first performance. Ex- soundboard stereo. Some glitches are apparent eg jitter, skips, but not so frequent to disturb the whole show.

Royalty loves company.

Michael Jackson’s two concerts in New York had several firsts. He earned a reported US$7.5 million for each night. The best seats cost US$5,000 each. To close the first night, he had 40 pop, R&B and country legends sing a tribute to him. Both evenings included a 48-piece orchestra, 12 background singers, a 300-member gospel-choir, a 200-member children’s choir and a 40-member dance ensemble.

The stars who turned up in his honor included Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, Liza Minelli, James Ingram, Gloria Estefan, Luther Vandross, Slash, Jill Scott, Al Jarreau, Gloria Gaynor, Missy Elliot, Nelly Furtado, Dionne Warwick and Gladys Knight among many more.

The sellout audience included 200 superstars including Muhammad Ali, Carroll Baker, Ann Blyth, Marlon Brando, Kobe Bryant, Petula Clark, Macaulay Culkin, Willem Dafoe, Angie Dickinson, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Patty Duke, Rhonda Fleming, June Haver, Celeste Holm, Sally Ann Howes, Kim Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, Anne Jeffreys, Magic Johnson, Jennifer Jones, Quincy Jones, Eartha Kitt, Piper Laurie, Janet Leigh, Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono Lennon, Gina Lollobrigida, Ann Miller, Reggie Miller, Sir John Mills, Hayley Mills, Liza Minnelli, Patricia Neal, Liam Neeson, Franco Nero, Margaret O’Brien, Master P, Gregory Peck, Jane Powell, Vanessa Redgrave, Debbie Reynolds, Barbara Rush, Jane Russell, Ann Rutherford, Lizabeth Scott, William Shatner, Penny Singleton, Jill St. John, Elizabeth Taylor, Chris Tucker, Robert Wagner, Ruth Warrick, Esther Williams, and many more.

For this two-night stand, Michael choreographed all the numbers and also did not lip-synch his performances.

Sadly, most people will not remember Michael Jackson as the “King Of Pop” but rather as a pedophile. The 1994 and 2005 cases dragged his name into the mud with newspapers and television, both mainstream and sensational, taking potshots. Most will not believe the jury’s verdict that he was maliciously slandered and found innocent.

This show has only been seen once, when late in November 2001, it was broadcast on the CBS network as a two-hour special with the performances edited and rearranged. But there’s no denying that this was a special moment for Jackson as performer, songwriter, dancer and artist and it deserves more than just one screening. It will be up to his core of loyal fans to remember him this way.
- The Little Chicken

Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 192 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Track 01. Samuel L Jackson’s introduction (1.1MB)
Track 02. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ - Usher, Mya and Whitney Houston (6.5MB)
Track 03. Ben - Billy Gilman (3.2MB)
Track 04. Angel and It Wasn’t Me - Shaggy featuring Rayvon and Rikrok (4.3MB)
Track 05. Heal the World - Mya, Deborah Cox, Rah Digga, Monica and Tamia featuring The Brooklyn Youth Choir (7.5MB)
Track 06. She’s Out Of My Life - Marc Anthony (4.3MB)
Track 07. Bootylicious - Destiny’s Child (4.2MB)
Track 08. You Are Not Alone - Liza Minnelli (5.0MB)
Track 09. I Just Can’t Stop Loving You - James Ingram and Gloria Estefan (4.7MB)
Track 10. Man in the Mirror - 98 Degrees, Usher and Luther Vandross (6.7MB)
Track 11. Elizabeth Taylor’s tribute to The Jacksons (1.1MB)
Track 12. Can You Feel It - The Jacksons (4.0MB)
Track 13. ABC/The Love You Save - The Jacksons (2.5MB)
Track 14. I’ll Be There - The Jacksons (6.9MB)
Track 15. I Want You Back - The Jacksons (1.6MB)
Track 16. Dancing Machine - The Jacksons and N*SYNC (2.8MB)
Track 17. Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) - The Jacksons (5.5MB)
Track 18. Chris Tucker’s tribute to Michael Jackson “King Of Pop” (1.2MB)
Track 19. The Way You Make Me Feel - Michael Jackson (6.3MB)
Track 20. Black or White - Michael Jackson and Slash (3.3MB)
Track 21. Beat It - Michael Jackson and Slash (5.9MB)
Track 22. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson (11.1MB)
Click here if you reside in the United States
Click here if you reside outside the United States
Track 23. You Rock My World - Michael Jackson, Chris Tucker and Usher (8.1MB)

TT: 79:34m

The songs are not in the order as they were performed but as broadcast. This is the incomplete show. Missing are the following performances

My Baby - Lil’ Romeo featuring Master P
I Want Candy - Aaron Carter
Home (from The Wiz) - Monica
You Can’t Win (from The Wiz) - Jill Scott
Ease on Down the Road (from The Wiz) - Monica, Jill Scott, Al Jarreau, Deborah Cox
I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliot and Nelly Furtado
I’ll Never Love This Way Again - Dionne Warwick
Midnight Train To Georgia - Gladys Knight

The Jacksons were Jermaine, Jackie, Marlon, Tito, Michael and Randy.

A nice 3CD collection that covers his years with the Jackson 5 and his solo output with Motown is Michael Jackson & The Jackson 5’s The Motown Years. Get it here.

Want an official release of this show on DVD/ blu-ray? Go to http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/mj30th and sign the petition.

Posted in live | No Comments »

THE KING OF ROCK ‘N’ ROLL

July 4, 2009 – 4:05 am

He was a stranger in the crowd. After years as a matinee idol, Elvis reclaimed his crown in the legendary 1968 Singer TV Special, since regarded as his “comeback”. He went on to a long-term engagement at the International Hotel in Las Vegas playing 58 shows from August 10 to September 8. Two shows every night for 28 days*.

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ELVIS PRESLEY
Stranger In The Crowd [Audionics 2009-01-02 (Released in 2009), 1CD]
Live at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, August 13, 1970 (Dinner Show). Excellent soundboard stereo.

The hardest working man in show business was Elvis Presley. In 1970, Elvis went on five US tours playing 137 shows, almost two shows every night. Clearly no singer can maintain the highest standards over such a grueling schedule. The reason perhaps many of the recorded shows remain unreleased by his label. Lip-synching was not an option.

At the beginning of 2009, an enterprising label, International, released a huge boxset of 6CDs and 3DVDs that covered one week of filming Elvis in Las Vegas in August 1970. Included in the set for the first time were complete shows from August 10, 11, 12 and 13. The set, That’s The Way It Is: The Complete Works, was priced at US$400.

It was aimed at hardcore Elvis fans and collectors who want every recorded minute of their idol. In fact, the mistakes and slipups in these shows have made Elvis more human than iconic. It’s great not to have an airbrushed portrait.

For the record, the original movie and soundtrack of That’s The Way It Is assembled tracks from various shows during Elvis’ August stand at the International. Over the years, only the following shows have been officially released:

10 August Opening Night Show released on FTD as One Night In Vegas
11 August Dinner Show unreleased
11 August Midnight Show released on the BMG boxset Live In Las Vegas
12 August Dinner Show unreleased
12 August Midnight Show released on the 2000 BMG boxset edition of That’s The Way It Is
13 August Dinner Show unreleased

Although Elvis played 58 shows, only the above six shows were properly recorded.

The only drawback of TTWII: The Complete Works was that all the shows, allegedly taken from original masters, were in mono.

That has now been corrected by Audionics, another enterprising label. They are releasing these shows in stereo. The next two Audionics release will capture the unreleased August 12 dinner show in stereo, Twenty Days & Nights, and the unreleased August 11 dinner show in stereo, Something. This was announced on the elvis-collectors.com site on June 15.

With the success of That’s The Way It Is, Elvis’ handlers wanted another one. So in 1972, a second documentary was prepared - Elvis On Tour. This movie remains unreleased in the DVD format. But inside are very illuminating interviews with Elvis.

This is what Elvis revealed about his Hollywood years, which critics have universally reviled as mediocre made-for-money movies. Didn’t Elvis care?

“I cared so much until I became physically ill. I would become violently ill. At a certain stage, I had no say-so in it. I didn’t have a final approval of a script, which meant I couldn’t say ‘this is not good for me’ or whatever. I didn’t think anybody was consciously trying to harm me (but) it was just that Hollywood’s image of me was wrong and I knew it and I couldn’t say anything about it. I couldn’t do anything about it…

“I’d be running into production. I was doing a lot of pictures close together and the pictures got very similar… a lot of ‘em got very similar. If something was successful, they’d try to recreate it the next time around, so I’d read the first four or five pages and I’d knew, that it was just a different name, with the 12 new songs in it.

“The songs were mediocre in most cases, you can’t get good songs. So that’s what might have made it seem like indifference, you know. But I was never indifferent. I was so concerned until that’s all I talked about.

“It worried me sick.”

Finally, Elvis tells the interviewer “I had thought that they would try to get me a new property for me or give me a chance to show some kind of an acting ability or do a very interesting story, but it did not change, it did not change.

“And so I became very discouraged, they couldn’t have paid me ‘a-no amount of money in the world to make me feel any self-satisfaction…”

The Vegas setup and the touring became the new trap, a new treadmill for Elvis to run. But here in 1970, he was the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll all over again.

Elvis died at the age of 42. None have worked harder than him.
- Professor Red

Note: Elvis quotes lifted from the Audionics essay by “Glem Finch”.
* Elvis played one show each on the opening night and closing night.

Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 192 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Track 01. Warmup (J. Guercio Orchestra) (2.6MB)
Track 02. Opening Vamp/That’s All Right (4.2MB)
Track 03. I Got A Woman (4.6MB)
Track 04. Hound Dog (1.7MB)
Track 05. Monologue (1.6MB)
Track 06. Love Me Tender (6.1MB)
Track 07. Don’t Cry Daddy (3.3MB)
Track 08. In The Ghetto (3.9MB)
Track 09. I Just Can’t Help Believing (5.2MB)
Track 10. Stranger In The Crowd (5.6MB)
Track 11. Make The World Go Away (4.1MB)
Track 12. Sweet Caroline (4.5MB)
Track 13. You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling (5.8MB)
Track 14. Polk Salad Annie (7.6MB)
Track 15. Band introductions (#1) (4.0MB)
Track 16. Band introductions (#2) by Art Carney (5.2MB)
Track 17. The Wonder Of You (3.4MB)
Track 18. Heartbreak Hotel (2.3MB)
Track 19. Blue Suede Shoes (1.6MB)
Track 20. One Night (2.8MB)
Track 21. All Shook Up (1.4MB)
Track 22. Bridge Over Troubled Water (5.9MB)
Track 23. Suspicious Minds (8.4MB)
Track 24. Can’t Help Falling In Love (3.1MB)
Bonus
Track 25. Sweet Caroline (mono) (4.6MB)
the complete Aug 13, dinner show mono version

TT: 76:12m

Lead Guitar:
The Band with Joe Guercio Orchestra
James Burton - lead guitar
John Wilkinson - rhythm guitar
Jerry Scheff - bass guitar
Ronnie Tutt - drums
Glen D. Hardin - piano
David Briggs - electric piano

Charlie Hodge - harmony vocals
Backing Vocals - Sweet Inspirations, The Imperials & Millie Kirkham

That’s The Way It Is remains one of his best albums from the middle years. In 2000, BMG celebrated the album’s 30th anniversary with a box set containing the original album plus a complete show from one of the August dates [this one is the August 12 midnight show] and a bonus disc of rehearsals. You can buy it here.

Posted in live | 4 Comments »

NEIL YOUNG - HYDE PARK 2009

July 2, 2009 – 3:16 pm

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NEIL YOUNG
Hyde Park 2009 [no label, 2CD]
Live at Hyde Park, London, UK, June 27, 2009. Very good audience recording.

The highlight of this concert must be the historic meeting of Neil Young and Paul McCartney on stage.

According to Examiner.com, “Young has been playing The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper classic, A Day In The Life, as his encore closer in recent shows. A Day In The Life was primarily John Lennon’s composition, but McCartney contributed the upbeat middle section, ‘Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head…’

“At the beginning of that point in the song, Young turned sideways, looking offstage. As the band played the steady thumping beat, McCartney ran out to the cheers and surprise of the fans, stood alongside Neil and sang the rest of the song. Young played the ‘orchestral climax’ section on his guitar, adding sustained feedback and general chaos, finally ripping his guitar strings and singing the eerie ‘ahhh, ahh ahh ahh,’ vocal chorus. The crowd went suitably nuts. To end the song, after the final chord, Young and McCartney walked over to the xylophone onstage and ponked a few whimsical last notes.”

From grunge to rock to mid-tempo ballads, Neil Young drew them out and entertained the crowd with a pleasing set. A minor quibble: with many songs from the Harvest album, one would have wished that Young had added Out On The Weekend as well.

Thanks to tbugsett who recorded and shared the tracks on the Dime site. tbugsett noted: “I was very close to one of the (speaker) stacks and Rick’s bass was more felt in the chest than actually heard. The ground felt almost like an earthquake… Hence the recording is very bass-heavy. I thought for a bit of doing some eq before uploading but decided in the end against it as this is a more true replica of how it sounded.”

Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 192 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Disc I: (56:10)
Track 101. Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) (9.1MB)
Track 102. Mansion On The Hill (8.6MB)
Track 103. Are You Ready For The Country? (6.9MB)
Track 104. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (5.8MB)
Click here if you reside in the United States
Click here if you reside outside the United States
Track 105. Spirit Road (9.8MB)
Track 106. Words (17.4MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 107. Short improvisation/Cinnamon Girl intro (1.6MB)
Track 108. Cinnamon Girl (8.0MB)
Track 109. Fuckin’ Up (9.9MB)

Disc II: (69:28)
Track 201. Mother Earth (6.4MB)
Track 202. The Needle And The Damage Done (3.6MB)
Track 203. Comes A Time (5.4MB)
Track 204. Unknown Legend (6.8MB)
Track 205. Heart Of Gold (5.1MB)
Track 206. Old Man (5.3MB)
Track 207. Down By The River (26.1MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 208. Get Behind The Wheel (4.5MB)
Click here if you reside in the United States
Click here if you reside outside the United States
Track 209. Rockin’ In The Free World (15.3MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 210. Encore break (4.9MB)
Track 211. A Day In The Life (with special guest Paul McCartney) (12.8MB - visit the html page to download the track)

Neil Young - guitar, harmonica, pump organ, piano, vibraphone, vocals
Ben Keith - pedal steel, lap steel, guitar, organ, background vocals
Rick Rosas - bass, background vocals
Chad Cromwell - drums, background vocals
Pegi Young - background vocals, vibraphone, piano, percussion
Anthony Crawford - background vocals, piano, electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Larry Cragg - banjo on Old Man

Click here to order Neil Young’s Archives Vol 1.

Posted in live | 12 Comments »

DAVE DOUGLAS - GERMANY 1999

July 1, 2009 – 4:10 am

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DAVE DOUGLAS
Speaking Truth To Power Modern Music Protest [no label, 1CD]
Live at the Donaueschinger Musiktage, Germany, October 15, 1999. Very good stereo FM broadcast.

“Angered by a newspaper article on the rising fortunes of weapon makers during the NATO war on Yugoslavia, I decided to write music celebrating positive protest against the misuse of money and power. Each piece is inspired by and dedicated to artists and activists who have creatively challenged authority, sometimes endangering their own lives, but inspiring the rest of us to resist.”
- Dave Douglas, May 2001.

This is Dave Douglas’ Witness album from 2001, premiered live in concert in Germany two years before the album’s release.

The show is incomplete as several tracks performed were not broadcast, for example, for Edward Said. It has been a long road since jazz first blew a fresh note in protest against racism and bigotry in the ’50s [Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite] and even longer since Billie Holiday sang about lynching in America’s south with Strange Fruit.

Witness gets lost in world history and offers observations of real people from different parts of the globe still fighting against injustice. Hence, the title of this album - to speak truth to power, using modern jazz as a form of protest.

Unfortunately, the listening experience is mixed. On the one hand, the minimalist style - nine men playing like there are only two on stage - could be interpreted as an attempt to reproduce ennui or apathy toward the causes of these unfortunate victims, as it is in life. Douglas dedicated songs to prisoners of conscience - Naguib Mahfouz, Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Nawal el-Saadawi, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Eqbal Ahmad and Chandralekha. Each song drags around in search of a melody. The listener finds it hard to listen just as it has been hard for these men and women to have their cases heard in public. The struggle becomes the issue.

Douglas however offers nothing new to jazz as a protest idiom. If you recall Max Roach’s We Insist: Freedom Now Suite or Albert Ayler’s Music Is The Healing Force of The Universe or Archie Shepp’s Things Have Got To Change, each of these albums hit with the force of a hurricane. It left you breathless. This was something new, unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Like the impact of a new idea - that racism was evil.

You don’t get much by way of the music on Douglas’ Witness. In fact, the playing is so standard, so polite, so accommodating, so friendly that you are irritated. Where’s the balls? The sense of outrage has been co-opted into co-operating with the authorities to not protest too loudly. Think non-governmental organizations without teeth.

When actually jazz, or any other music, should take a note from India’s anti-colonial leader, Gandhi, who substituted violent protest with a form of non-violent non-cooperation that could unite people to make a difference. Generally, Gandhi preached a protestor should practice boycott. Boycott their products, boycott their activities, boycott their people. That would send a non-violent and peaceful message that you disagree.

Otherwise, it’s just another show. - Michael Cheah

Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 192 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Track 01. Introduction [by German radio announcer] (2.7MB)
Track 02. A Catalog of Scenes: Mahfouz - for Naguib Mahfouz (30.7MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 03. Child Of All Nations - for Pramoedya Ananta Toer (11.4MB)
Track 04. Introduction (1.2MB)
Track 05. Woman at Point Zero - for Nawal el-Saadawi (12.3MB)
Track 06. Introduction (630k)
Track 07. Sozaboy - for Ken Saro-Wiwa (11.6MB)
Track 08. Introduction (487k)
Track 09. Creative Dissidence - for Eqbal Ahmad (11.2MB)
Track 10. Introduction (276k)
Track 11. One More News - for Chandralekha (9.3MB)
Track 12. Introduction (451k)
Track 13. Episode - for Tasmina Nasrim (7.7MB)

The Witness group:
Dave Douglas - trumpet
Chris Speed - saxophone & clarinet
Joshua Roseman - trombone
Erik Friedlander - cello
Mark Feldman - violin
Bryan Carrott - vibraphone, marimba
Drew Gress - bass
Ikue Mori - electronic percussion
Michael Sarin - drums

Click here to order Dave Douglas’ Witness album.

Posted in live | 3 Comments »

JOHN LENNON - LOST HOME TAPES 1965-1969

June 29, 2009 – 9:47 am

Note: There is no full-size artwork.

JOHN LENNON
The Lost Home Tapes 1965-1969 [Misterclaudel MCCD-124, 2CD]

This two-CD set has just been released. While some tracks might have appeared on other boots, there are some tracks which were previously unreleased or they are longer than previous sources.

As far as home recordings go, the sound is pretty decent.

Readers are welcomed to share their thoughts and comments on these tracks.

Thanks to halfjapan for sharing these tracks on the net.

Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 192 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Disc 1
Track 101. He Said, He Said (2.8MB)
Track 102. She Said, She Said (2.4MB)
Track 103. Hold On, I’m Coming * (1.4MB)
Track 104. Mr. Moonlight * (6.4MB)
Track 105. Mellotron Music No. 1 (2.0MB)
Track 106. Mellotron Music No. 2 (701k)
Track 107. Mellotron Music No. 3 (516k)
Track 108. Mellotron Music No. 4 (2.5MB)
Track 109. Mellotron Music No. 5 (2.7MB)
Track 110. We Can Work It Out - Lucy From Littletown (3.8MB)
Track 111. Down In Cuba (2.9MB)
Track 112. Pedro The Fisherman (1.5MB)
Track 113. Chi-Chi’s (4.8MB)
Track 114. Daddy’s Little Sunshine Boy (762k)
Track 115. Stranger In My Arms (4.9MB)

The “Good Morning, Good Morning” Tape (January - February, 1967)
Track 116. Piano Songs 1 and 2 * (3.8MB)
Track 117. Testing The Equipment No. 1 * (1.5MB)
Track 118. Good Morning, Good Morning / Testing the Equipment No. 2 / There’s a Blue Ridge ‘Round My Heart’ / Mellotron Rhythms / Mellotron Drones and Cacophony * (13.9MB)
Click here if you reside in the United States
Click here if you reside outside the United States

The “Cry Baby Cry” Tapes
Track 119. Guitar Jam * (4.1MB)
Track 120. Mellotron Noise and Babbling / Noise Redux * (8.6MB)
Track 121. Cry Baby Cry, Piano Instrumental * (3.5MB)
Track 122. Piano Instrumental, Laughing Eyes * (4.5MB)
Track 123. Piano Waltz, Listening To Records * (5.3MB)
Track 124. Cry Baby Cry, Across The Universe * (5.6MB)
Track 125. Drone and Cueing Tapes * (2.7MB)

DISC 2
Track 201. Nothing But Hold Tight / Hey Bulldog / Hey Bulldog / Hey Bulldog / Set Me Free / Across The Universe / Piano Instrumental * (10.8MB)
Track 202. She’s Walking Past My Door / You Know My Name (Look up The Number) (3.7MB)

The “Julia” Rehearsal Tapes
Track 203. Julia (false start) / Julia (guitar track - complete) (6.4MB)
Track 204. Julia (false start) / Julia (vocal overdub - complete) (4.2MB)
Track 205. Julia (vocal and guitar overdub - complete) / Julia (playbacks) (5.8MB)
Track 206. The Maharishi Song (4.3MB)

The “Oh My Love” Rehearsal Tape
Track 207. Oh My Love (acoustic guitar demo) / Oh My Love (acoustic guitar demo w/false start) / Oh My Love (a cappella demo - Yoko) / Oh My Love (a cappella demo - Yoko) / Oh My Love (acoustic guitar demo) * (16.9MB)
Click here if you reside in the United States
Click here if you reside outside the United States

Track 208. A Case Of The Blues (3.9MB)
Track 209. I’ve Got A Feeling (2.2MB)
Track 210. Don’t Let Me Down (4.0MB)
Track 211. Don’t Let Me Down (2.9MB)
Track 212. I’ve Got A feeling (2.0MB)
Track 213. I Want You (8.0MB)

* = Previously Unreleased, or longer than previous sources

John Lennon Anthology [4CD] is the best of John Lennon’s music in a box so far. Buy it here.

Posted in rarities | 10 Comments »

GENE PITNEY - BIRMINGHAM 1992

June 29, 2009 – 4:09 am

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GENE PITNEY
Birmingham 1992 [no label, 1CD]
Live at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham, England, 1992. Very good FM broadcast.

Like Roy Orbison, Gene Pitney had a high-pitched voice that was easily recognisable, and with songs such as Town Without Pity and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, he was seen as a singer who conveyed a sense of the epic in the movies. While Pitney’s Liberty Valance never made it to the film, the casual listener could also easily mistake the other Bacharach-David tune, Twenty-four Hours From Tulsa, for another song from the movies.

But Pitney was more than a singer. He was an accomplished musician (guitar, piano, drums) and sound engineer. The songs he wrote included He’s A Rebel (The Crystals) and Hello Mary Lou (Rick Nelson).

Given his string of hits, Pitney’s concert could have stretched a couple of hours but to make things more palatable, he had two medleys for his 1992 Birmingham show. While signature tunes such as Town Without Pity, Twenty-four Hours and Liberty Valance were left untouched, long-time fans would have preferred longer versions of Hello Mary Lou, Rubber Ball and She’s A Rebel.

There was a time long before the construction of cineplexes when actors such as Kirk Douglas, Rock Hudson and Paul Newman were seen as matinee idols. And for a generation or more, the screen exploits of these matinee idols would forever be associated with singers such as Gene Pitney. On April 4, 2006, Pitney died of heart disease. He was 66 and was on tour.

Thanks to JTT for sharing the tracks on the Dime site.

Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 192 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Track 01. Town Without Pity (3.5MB)
Track 02. I Must Be Seeing Things (4.1MB)
Track 03. Nobody Needs Your Love, Like I Do (3.0MB)
Track 04. If I Didn’t Have A Dime (3.4MB)
Track 05. Tower Tall (3.4MB)
Track 06. Canada Highway (3.8MB)
Track 07. Medley: Backstage / Looking Through The Eyes Of Love / It Hurts To Be In Love / Princess In Rags / Just One Smile / Half Heaven, Half Heartache / I’m Gonna Be Strong (15.4MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 08. Twenty-four Hours From Tulsa (4.0MB)
Track 09. True Love Never Runs Smooth (3.1MB)
Track 10. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (4.8MB)
Track 11. Medley: I Wanna Love My Life Away / Hello Mary Lou / Rubber Ball / She’s A Rebel (8.3MB)
Click here if you reside in the United States
Click here if you reside outside the United States
Track 12. Oceans Away (4.6MB)
Track 13. Heartbreaker/Introductions (5.2MB)
Track 14. Somethings Got A Hold Of My Heart (6.3MB)

Click here to order Gene Pitney albums.

Posted in live | No Comments »

SUZI QUATRO - ITALY 1975

June 28, 2009 – 4:07 am

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SUZI QUATRO
Italy 1975 [no label, 1CD]
Live at the L’Altro Mondo, Rimini, Italy, August 15, 1975. Very good soundboard.

Some rockers seem to age better than others. Take Suzi Quatro for instance. Viewers of Midsomer Murder might have caught her in the episode, The Axeman Cometh (picture right),  where she could still cut a commanding figure on stage. [Suzi’s sister, Patti was a member of Fanny, one of the earliest all-female rock bands - tip of the hat to “The Doc”.]

While some fans consider Joan Jett the “Queen of Rock And Roll” [probably more because of her hit I Love Rock And Roll], the title could very well have been applied to Suzi Quatro though its damn hard to dislodge Patti Smith from the throne right now.

With her black leather jacket and brash performance, she challenged and usually walked away victorious, the male-dominated rock scene with hits such as 48 Crash, Can The Can, Devil Gate Drive and even that Elvis chestnut, All Shook Up. Though born in Detroit, Quatro found fame outside the United States - in Europe, Australia and Asia [where her records were played alongside those by fellow glam rocker, Gary Glitter or the Glitter Band].

For this 1975 Italian show, Quatro might have been promoting her Your Mamma Won’t Like Me album but where the audience was concerned, it’s almost a best-of compilation. And more rock than glam, the fans were not disappointed.

And when Quatro heard about Michael Jackson’s death, she posted on her website (suziquatro.com): “woke up at 3 am last night… went downstairs… for some reason… went online… and then I saw the headlines… shocked to the core… went back to bed… mumbling… “I can’t believe he’s dead!!!’ which eventually woke Amy up… ‘what did you say grandma’… ‘Michael Jackson is dead… go back to sleep honey’… and she did… I was in tears most of the day… radio played non stop song by this marvelously talented man… what a shame his big come back turned into a ‘never’ come back…  for one will keep his memory alive… in my heart.”

Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 192 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Track 01. Soundcheck - instrumental #1 (6.7MB)
Track 02. Soundcheck - instrumental #2 (4.6MB)
Track 03. Soundcheck - Your Mama Won’t Like Me (4.9MB)
Track 04. House Announcement (798k)
Track 05. All Shook Up (6.0MB)
Track 06. 48 Crash - G-Men - Too Big (6.8MB)
Track 07. The Wild One (4.7MB)
Track 08. Your Mama Won’t Like Me (5.3MB)
Track 09. You Can Make Me Want You (5.6MB)
Track 10. I May Be Too Young (4.8MB)
Track 11. Cat Size (6.2MB)
Track 12. Glycerine Queen (5.4M)
Track 13. Shakin’ All Over (11.1MB)
Click here if you reside in the United States
Click here if you reside outside the United States
Track 14. Instrumental (7.0MB)
Track 15. Can The Can (6.8MB)
Track 16. Devil Gate Drive (6.7MB)
Track 17. Keep A-Knockin’ (6.1MB)

Click here to order Suzi Quatro albums.

Posted in live | 1 Comment »

MILES DAVIS - STOCKHOLM 1973

June 27, 2009 – 4:11 am

Click on the panels for a better view or to download artwork.

MILES DAVIS
Stockholm 1973 [no label, 1CD]
Live at the Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden, October 27, 1973. Very good Sveriges Radio TV broadcast.

At this point in time, any well-recorded Miles would be welcomed and this show, taken off a TV broadcast, sounds very good.

According to his autobiography, Miles was already pretty pissed that Columbia Records did not push 1972’s On The Corner the way he felt it should have been (especially to younger listeners). He said: “Just because I was 47 years old in 1973 didn’t mean I was supposed to sit down in some rocking chair and stop thinking about how to keep doing interesting things. I had to do what I was doing if I was going to keep thinking of myself as a creative artist.”

“I would try exploring one chord with this band, one chord in a tune, trying to get everyone to master these small simple things like rhythm. We would take a chord and make it work for five minutes with variations, cross rhythms, things like that.

“And then I was playing over and under and through all of this, and the pianist and bass were playing somewhere else. Everyone had to be alert to what everyone else was doing. At the time Pete (Cosey) gave me that Jimi Hendrix and Muddy Waters sound that I wanted. I think that could have been a real good band if we had all stayed together, but we didn’t. There was too much happening with my health.”

Thanks to poiuyt for sharing the tracks on the Dime site.

Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 192 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Track 01. Untitled Original 730424c (23.5MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 02. Calypso Frelimo (29.8MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 03. For Dave (18.7MB)
Click here if you reside in the United States
Click here if you reside in Europe
Click here if you reside in the Asia-Pacific region
Track 04. Tune in 5 (with applause) (6.6MB)
Click here if you reside in the United States
Click here if you reside outside the United States

Lineup:
Miles Davis (tpt, org)
Dave Liebman (ss, ts, fl)
Pete Cosey (g, perc)
Reggie Lucas (g)
Michael Henderson (el-b)
Al Foster (d)
James Mtume Forman (cga, perc)

Click here to order Miles Davis’s On The Corner.

Posted in live | 6 Comments »

CLAPTON & WINWOOD - ST PAUL, MN 2009

June 25, 2009 – 2:06 pm

Click on the panels for a better view or to download artwork.

ERIC CLAPTON and STEVE WINWOOD
St Paul 2009 [no label, 2CD]
Live at the Xcel Energy Center, St Paul, MN, June 18, 2009. Very good audience recording.

It would be safe to say that not only were the Eric Clapton-Steve Winwood 2008 shows successful, the two enjoyed each other’s company onstage and had a good time, hence the show goes on.

Back in 1969, both Clapton and Winwood were in Blind Faith, who only released one album and had a brief tour. The group disbanded on August 24 in Hawaii - 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of the group. Apart from the Madison Square Garden gig in 2008, the two had collaborated earlier at the Chicago Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2007.

In St Paul, Clapton lets it rip from the word go - listen to After Midnight for some fiery display - and there does not seem to be any letting up from either Clapton or Winwood.

Scott Lyson posted the following comments on Whereseric.com: “The crowd at the Xcel only sat during No Face and Georgia, but EC’s solo during Driftin’ caused half the crowd to erupt from their seat, and the crowd remained standing for the rest of the concert. The two masters played brilliantly together. I was surprised that most of the crowd were familiar with a majority of the material played and sang along quite a bit.

“The band was fantastic, and as the reviews correctly point out, drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr. really packed a punch. Seemed definitely more like an EC concert than a SW concert, and Eric I don’t think hit a bad note. I thought almost every song was performed better than the NY shows.”

Thanks to Mcboots who recorded and shared the show on the Dime site and for the artwork.

Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 192 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Disc 1
Track 101. Had To Cry Today (10.6MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 102. Low Down (5.2MB)
Track 103. After Midnight (7.5MB)
Track 104. Presence Of The Lord (6.9MB)
Track 105. Sleeping In The Ground (6.9MB)
Track 106. Glad (5.3MB)
Track 107. Well Alright (6.4MB)
Track 108. Tough Luck Blues (9.7MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 109. Pearly Queen (8.1MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 110. Crossroads (7.9MB)
Track 111. No Face, No Name, No Number (5.7MB)
Track 112. Forever Man (5.6MB)

Disc 2
Track 201. Georgia On My Mind (8.3MB)
Track 202. Driftin’ (8.3MB)
Track 203. How Long Blues (5.7MB)
Click here if you reside in the United States
Click here if you reside outside the United States
Track 204. Layla (8.0MB)
Track 205. Can’t Find My Way Home (6.5MB)
Track 206. Split Decision (9.4MB)
Track 207. Voodoo Chile (25.0MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 208. Cocaine (10.7MB)
Track 209. Dear Mr. Fantasy (13.4MB - visit the html page to download the track)

Lineup:
Eric Clapton - guitar, vocals
Steve Winwood - vocals, Hammond B3, piano, guitar
Chris Stainton - keyboards
Willie Weeks - bass
Abe Laboriel, Jr. - drums
Michelle John - backing vocals
Sharon White - backing vocals

Click here to order Clapton-Winwood Live From Madison Square Garden 2009.

Posted in live | 5 Comments »

RICKIE LEE JONES - GLASGOW 2001

June 23, 2009 – 4:06 am

Click on the panels for a better view or to download artwork.

RICKIE LEE JONES
Glasgow 2001 [no label, 2CD]
Live at the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Scotland, January 24, 2001. Very good audience recording. Bonus tracks recorded off UK radio.

Back in 2001, Rickie Lee Jones might have just released her 10th record and her second album of covers, It’s Like This, but she opened her Glasgow concert with classics from her self-titled 1979 debut album - Young Blood and Weasel And The White Boys Cool.

While fans might have longed for Chuck E’s In Love, the song might have been too hip and cool for the mood of the evening, which is marked by the majestic and operatic (in spirit) Ghostyhead. While the scat-filled Little Yellow Town brings up the rhythm somewhat, Jones’s performance and show is best appreciated if the listener (or viewer) allows himself or herself to enter into her world of rock oddities and jazz inflections.

Reviewing the show in The Independent, Sue Wilson wrote: “The performance did contain enough moments of transcendent beauty, intensity and/or eeriness to illuminate why Jones is regarded as such a genius, the first coming with the incantatory title track of her experimental, trip-hop-influenced 1997 album Ghostyhead, performed here accompanied only by Jones’s whispery guitar touches, together with long dark strokes of double bass and shivers of percussion.”

Thanks to “unknown” (and GRC!) for sharing the tracks on the Dime site and to svpbit for the cover artwork. For this download, please follow the setlist below.

Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 192 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.

Disc 1
Track 101. Young Blood 3:07 (4.3MB)
Track 102. Weasel And The White Boys Cool 5:18 (7.3MB)
Track 103. Ghostyhead 7:22 (10.1MB)
Track 104. Little Yellow Town 6:58 (9.5MB)
Track 105. Stewart’s Coat 4:43 (6.4MB)
Track 106. The Old Laughing Lady (Neil Young) 4:45 (6.5MB)
Track 107. The Magazine 5:31 (7.5MB)
Track 108. Skeletons 3:44 (5.1MB)
Track 109. Living It Up 6:30 (8.9MB)
Track 110. We Belong Together 5:23 (7.4MB)
Track 111. Coolsville 4:50 (6.6MB)
Track 112. The Street Where You Live 2:51 (3.9MB)

Disc 2
Track 201. Satellites 5:11 (7.1MB)
Track 202. Cloud Of Unknowing 6:11 (8.5MB)
Track 203. The Last Chance Texaco 4:31 (6.2MB)
Track 204. Show Biz Kids (Steely Dan) 4:27 (6.1MB)
Track 205. The Moon Is Made Of Gold 4:42 (6.4MB)

Bonus Tracks

Royal Concert Hall, 24 Jan 2001, Glasgow, Scotland
From UK radio broadcast
Track 206. Stewart’s Coat 4:21 (5.9MB)
Click here if you reside in the United States
Click here if you reside outside the United States
Track 207. The Last Chance Texaco 4:25 (6.0MB)

(date unknown), Guilfest, Guildford, UK
from UK radio broadcast
Track 208. We Belong Together 4:52 (6.7MB)
Track 209. Weasel And The White Boys Cool 6:22 (8.7MB)

Click here to order It’s Like This and Ghostyhead.

Posted in live | 2 Comments »