IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY - FILLMORE WEST 1968
June 11, 2009 – 3:10 pm
Click on the panels for a better view or to download artwork.
IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY
Fillmore West 1968 [no label, 3CD]
Live at Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, May 23-25, 1968. Very good soundboard.
David LaFlamme’s violin might give It’s A Beautiful Day a rustic or folk feel but wife Linda’s keyboards (Hammond organ?) situate the band within rock’s spectrum. Given that the band grew out of the Summer of Love, somehow the eclectic mix of folk, jazz, rock and classical not only seem inevitable but appropriate.
Think Summer of Love and the Grateful Dead, Hendrix, Janis Joplin easily come to mind, with probably The Mamas And The Papas quickly falling into place. Hardly anyone thinks of It’s A Beautiful Day though tracks such as White Bird and Western Union Blues were hits that never quite made it and the intro to Bombay Calling was slowed down by Deep Purple and became the intro to Child In Time (on the In Rock album).
When the band played the Fillmore in 1968, they were previewing songs that would be found on their self-titled debut album, which would be released the following year. Opening their May 23 and 24 sets with flowing instrumental jams, the band not only helped to create a relaxed atmosphere (for the audience, probably augmented by untold amounts of so-called abusive substances) but a mood that was conducive to their variety of ballads, psychedelia and rock.
This is what a fan wrote about the group’s debut album: “It certainly is a beautiful day and a pretty unique album at that. There have really been few attempts at merging the classic psychedelic sounds of mid-Sixties San Francisco bands with the pretentious art rock experiments of their British colleagues, and even fewer ones that really worked - this excellent debut, which It’s A Beautiful Day were never really able to top, is one of the exceptions. Yes, David LaFlamme and his cronies do have a style of their own, but it’s nigh near impossible to define in a few words.”
It’s A Beautiful Day disbanded in 1974 but reformed in 1997 under the name David LaFlamme Band and continue till today.
It’s not common to find vintage It’s A Beautiful Day shows being shared on the net, and probably rarer still to find them in such fine audio quality. Thanks then to tonerman69 for sharing these tracks on the Dime site and to mjcrossuk for the artwork. We hope older readers will enjoy this stroll down memory lane and newer readers a chance to discover a “new” band. Being from these parts of the woods, we also look forward to readers’ reminisce about the band.
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.
These tracks are no longer available for download. Kindly email us at [email protected] if you want to download them at a later date.
Disc 1 - 5/23/68
Track 101. Intro > Jam 10:32
Track 102. Wasted Union Blues 12:19
Track 103. White Bird 6:48
Track 104. Hot Summer Day 11:02
Track 105. Countryside 5:19
Total 46:02
Disc 2 - 5/24/68
Track 201. Jam > Bombay Calling 10:08
Track 202. Wasted Union Blues 11:43
Track 203. White Bird 6:41
Track 204. Hot Summer Day 9:36
Track 205. Countryside 5:20
Total 44:23
Disc 3 - 5/25/68
Track 301. Band intro 0:14
Track 302. Wasted Union Blues 11:32
Track 303. White Bird 6:39
Track 304. Hot Summer Day 11:48
Track 305. Love For You 2:28
Track 306. Bulgaria 5:53
Track 307. Love For You 1:52
Track 308. Heavy Changes 9:48
Track 309. Time Is 5:33
Total 56:02
Click on the link to order It’s A Beautiful Day
.
26 Responses to “IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY - FILLMORE WEST 1968”
Perfect summer music.
By BobAnderson on Jun 11, 2009
absolutely fabulous. thank you very much.
By darthcdrx on Jun 11, 2009
Wonderful!
Very, very much appreciated. The music you share here is so great, it’s making more than just my day
By bd on Jun 11, 2009
After a session of Hendrix,Black Sabbath, Crimson King, and etc, Putting on them on was (is) so cool because it was like opening the window to let some fresh air, and get the smoke (which there usually was) out.
I always liked there stuff…thanks for the posting.
Peace Out
By Markie Poo on Jun 11, 2009
This sounds great! Thanks!
By Liberty on Jun 12, 2009
Damn…so mellow they make your socks fall down!
By O.B. Dan on Jun 13, 2009
I was lucky enough to see them in concert back those many years ago when I was in college. So it was great nostalgia hearing them live again.
By Belmo on Jun 13, 2009
This is amazing!The sound recording is simply amazing. A wonderful recording that portraits the way they sounded that days.
Thank You very much for this Outstanding Live performance posting. The only word that defines what I believe about this is: PERFECT!
By Alberto on Jun 13, 2009
Amazing concert!
By Rochacrimson on Jun 15, 2009
GREAT STUFF -more SF scene, please!
By m-f on Jun 16, 2009
in my younger years i received a vinyl copy of their first album in a swap with some dude…superb stuff, it still get’s onto my turntable on a hot summers night (or if the openfire is burning in winter) Thanks for sharing this material.
By ikke on Jun 18, 2009
Thank you ten times over. After listening to this I remembered three things:
1) I’d forgotten how good these cats were! 2) I knew every one of these tunes 3) And a hundred other memories from ‘68 that flooded back: Thank you Very Much.
By John P McNea III on Jun 21, 2009
Hope this set is made available again — would love to have it!
By John on Feb 8, 2010
Thanks for putting this killer recording up for download!
By Luis Torregrosa on Feb 12, 2010
Wow long live the hippies. Let me have this one for my collections.
By flidir on Feb 22, 2010
WOW…this looks great wish I had been at those shows! I would love to get a download of this.
By Victorianhippie on Mar 10, 2010
Sounds Great…Thanks so much
By Victorianhippie on Mar 10, 2010
This is the performance when they when called at the last minute to perform on the Cream goodbye performance.This is great and there is one tune I never saw elsewhere called countryside. IABD performed at something called Dogstock a few years back and what a pleasure it was to get to talk to him. I remember when I lost some records in a divorce ( IABD for one) and when I went to replace them I found they were all out of print. It took a while but I got them back.Eat your heart out Matthew Cates!!!
By Phil Winans on Apr 16, 2010
Found this elsewhere within a few seconds, God bless Google.
Thanks for all the info!
By Steve the Healer on Aug 20, 2010
Great stuf. Thanks!
By Humberto on Jul 28, 2011
This is absolutely great stuff. Thank you so much. I saw them live, forget what year.
By charlie013 on Sep 24, 2011
I WAS LUCKKY TO SEE THEM W/MY THEN FIANCE LIVING IN SF THEN 68-69′THEY WERE PLAYIN IN A SMALL CLUB OFF UNION & LOMBARD ST., THEY ALSO PLAYED @ AVALON, FAMILY DOG, PLAYLAND/OCEAN BEACH SF. THEY WERE AWESOME SO TIGHT, SHARP, KOOL W/GREAT STAGE PRECENSE N CHEMISTRY. SO “SUREAL” THEN N NOW TO HEAR N THINK ABOUT IT! TOO BAD THEY GOT SCREWED BY THEIR MGR KATZ N MAYBE THE RADIO STATIONS N COLUMBIA RECORDS, AS THEIR MGR.KATZ KEPT/PLAYED THEM IN SEATTLE SO LONG, WERE SOME OF THE REASONS IF NOT ALL AS TO WHY THEY NEVER GOT THE “BIG-TIME NOTERIETY” AS THE AIRPLANE, JOPLIN,JERRY GARCIA, ETC. THO THEY SHOULDA! ALOHA N MAHALO DAVID N LINDA/IBD FOR THE ALL THE GREAT MUSIC N MEMORIES!!! IBD/DibdOWTHEY /CHEMISTRYWESOME SHARP N TIGHT
By HAPABOY on Sep 25, 2011
THEIR WHITE BIRD ALBUM I HAVE IS A COLLECTORS ITEM THO NOT SURE WHAT ITS VALUE TODAY. MY GUESS 30-$40 IN GOOD SHAPE!?
By HAPABOY on Sep 25, 2011
Could you please open these up for downloads.
I’d like to upload on 8.19.17 if possible.
Thanks very much,
Don
By Don Grossinger on Aug 19, 2017
hi
the last concert patti smith in cbgb’s something happen with it. sorry
thaNKS A LOT
PICHI
By pichi on Apr 11, 2018