The Doors - Alive, She Cried (1983)

(U.S 1965 - 1973)
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“Alive, She Cried” was the first official live release by The Doors since their 1970’s “Absolutely Live”. With the 1980 release of the Morrison bio “No One Here Get’s Out Alive” along with a new “Greatest Hits”, the fans were hungry for new material. This was it. Although this is all live material, each song was heavily edited by Paul Rothchild, with new overdubs added to some of the songs. The source material comes from the Aquarius Theatre, Felt Forum, Detroit and Boston shows. Fans would later get to hear the original source material when Bright Midnight Records (and later Bright Midnight Archives) released all of the original concerts unedited. They would also discover that although the version of “Little Red Rooster” on ‘Alive She Cried’ was credited to being from the Detroit show, it was actually from one of the New York Felt Forum shows. This release was discontinued after the Doors released the “In Concert” double CD in 1991 which contained all of the songs from this release.
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The Doors - Fillmore East, 1968

Liner Notes
It had been a long Monday afternoon for the Doors, stranded backstage at the Aquarius Theatre in Hollywood, waiting for something to happen. Scheduled to take temporary possession of the hall from the long-running hippie entertainment Hair, their intimate one-nighter was actually an important test run for a projected series of concert recordings. But it was a full hour past the agreed takeover time, and the Hair crew still weren’t moving their silly plastic props and staging quickly enough. The Doors were left to . . . . wait around . . . .

That there were four Doors taking part in the tedium was something of an amazement. Soundchecks had never been of much concern to Jim Morrison, who was usually elsewhere until minutes before showtime. He was, however, taking the occasion of this first live Doors recording very seriously. He had turned up at the theatre early, bearded and energized, ready to have at it.

The Doors - Hollywood Bowl, 1969

This feeling was shared by Robby Krieger, John Densmore and Ray Manzarek. The wanted it. After all the politics. The controversy and concert cancellations that had eaten up the better part of 1969, the quartet itched to play some music. When the changeover was finally complete and the band’s equipment in place, these tensions dissolved. The singer shouted for “Gloria” and they were off.

The Van Morrison classic was one of the first songs the band had worked up as they invented themselves in a makeshift Venice rehearsal room, and a presence that would snake through their entire history. They used it to flesh out their earliest sets, jamming on it with Van himself when the Doors opened for his group ‘Them’ at the Whisky A Go Go. It was central to the late 1966 performances at the New York club Ondine that helped win the band its influential East Coast following, and a song they would continue to call upon every so often until their final shows in 1971.

Always mood elevation for audiences, on this occasion in an empty hall, “Gloria” was a pure release for the band. Jim was relaxed and playful, his voice rested and strong. Free of the expectations of his audience, for a few precious minutes he succeeded in ditching the Lizard King. Here was another side of the Doors; celebrating the endurance of the simple urge to rock.

That Aquarius soundcheck was among a host of live Doors tapes that vanished sometime in the 70’s and were feared to be lost forever. This was a severe blow, as there was never much in the way of unreleased material to begin with. The Doors fashioned their remarkable achievement in a career brief even by rock & roll standards. Their six studio albums in five years toured a course of changes that would have been intense given a full decade. In this acceleration there was little waste and almost nothing left over.

The first signal that the missing tape situation was not without hope came when a videotape of a 1968, Danish television performance surfaced. Among the selections was a union of “Texas Radio & the Big Beat” and “Love Me Two Times”. Not only was this a unique coupling (“Texas Radio” would not officially show up until two years later on L.A. Woman), it was clearly of release quality.

This unexpected discovery sparked the Doors’ enthusiasm, and they resolved to mount a search for the rest of the tapes. Assisted by longtime producer Paul Rothchild, they spent many months exhaustively investigating every possible lead. The effort generated only frustration until they stumbled upon a scrap of paper in an unused desk at a Los Angeles storage facility, indicating that an unspecified shipment had been received but never logged in. Tallied with the existing information, this proved to be the missing piece of the puzzle. The year-long hunt was brought to conclusion in a matter of hours.

In reviewing these tapes, the band and Rothchild followed two basic criteria beyond the obvious musical considerations. The first was that they would not repeat any of the titles from Absolutely Live, no matter how different the version. The second was that, as the recovered tapes spanned a three-year period, they would attempt to assemble a correspondingly broad overview of the Doors’ capabilities.

So you have the exhilaration of the soundcheck “Gloria,” and the rock-hard economy of “You Make Me Real” and “Love Me Two Times.” The extended “Light My Fire” demonstrated how impressively these musicians could solo, but more importantly how supremely well they played together, the shared circuitry at the heart of the Doors’ timeless hoodoo. “Moonlight Drive” was among the first original songs concocted by the band, and this version is distinguished by the unexpected incorporation of a syncopated “Horse Latitudes.” “Latitudes,” “Texas Radio” and the inclusion of the “Graveyard Poem” in “Light My Fire” are applications of Morrison’s poetic consciousness as a means of keeping older material internally fresh. “Little Red Rooster,” with an assist from John Sebastian on harp, points to the twisted country blues that became an increasing concern in their final days.

No record album can ever fully reproduce the magic of a live concert. These live Doors performances, however, document moments when that magic was present. And the presence continues to be felt. Kids in garages and basements everywhere still learn how to rock by hammering out homemade versions of “Gloria” and “Light My Fire”. Let it roll.
[by Benjamin Edmonds. August, 1983]
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This post consists of FLACs ripped from my prized 'mint' vinyl and includes full album artwork for both CD and vinyl media.  Although many reviews for this album are somewhat critical, I actually enjoy listening to this Live Recording more than their Absolutely Live release, and up until recently Little Red Rooster and Gloria were unavailable on any other release. For those of you who are looking for a complete Official Doors Collection, this album is a must have. From what I can tell, this album is somewhat of a collectors item.
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Track Listing:
01 - Gloria
02 - Light My Fire
03 - You Make Me Real
04 - Texas Radio & The Big Beat
05 - Love Me Two Times
06 - Little Red Rooster
07 - Moonlight Drive (Incl. Horse Latitudes)

The Doors were:
Guitar – Robby Krieger
Organ, Bass – Ray Manzarek
Drums – John Densmore
Vocals – Jim Morrison
Producer – Paul A. Rothchild
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The Doors Alive She Cried Link (230Mb)
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Can - Opener (1976) + Bonus Live Tracks

(German 1968–1979, 1986, 1991)

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Can was launched on an unsuspecting audience in autumn 1968, to a totally polarised critical reception. Their ability to arouse such strong confused feelings, for and against, was in itself a statement of their dynamism, confused because they were an enigma, could not be fitted to the current scheme of things, nothing was known of them as individuals. They are still the most unsettling of the German rock groups. Cologne is not Germany’s wildest city. This is why Can live there. Their studio, once a castle, now occupies an old cinema a few miles out of the city. Visitors are few – but never turned away, and in this easy practical atmosphere the band work. Can do not record numbers so much as discover songs or patterns in the process of recording. The timbre of their music, on record at least, has softened with their later albums from which this is compiled, and their music became more accessible. The key to Can’s music is not where it comes from or what the ingredients are, but how it works, how it moves and that’s to be discovered by listening.

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They have been compared to the Velvet Underground and there is some sense in that, although it could be misleading. If the Velvets play in a junkyard, the Can are somewhere more sinister still. Given that all rock of this organic nature has similarities, the Can are unmistakably Germanic. The kind of structured, planned pieces which many English groups go in for are rejected by them as "bourgeois" an attempt to beat the Romantic composers at their own game. Whatever truth there is in this, it means that this band are very single-minded and as far as possible create their music spontaneously. Having the luxury of their own studio, most of the material is worked out there on the floor. They just go in, start playing and let it take over. In fact it couldn't happen any other way because the music's textures are too subtle to be contrived beforehand. Originally they spent so much time in the workshop exploring their particular universe that they were sometimes thought of as a studio group. This is not so. The physical urgency of the music, its edgy excitement, is in no sense an insular affair and they have spent the last year doing many concerts in order to develop their confidence as public performers. They are a big group in the German underground where a few years ago, before its Liberty release, people were paying £6 or more fore private pressings of "Monster Movie"

The only outfit in England with anything in common with them is Hawkwind but again that is inapposite, Hawkwind's sound is cleaner and more straightforward, even if it operates on similar principles. Like any important band, the Can sound like no other.

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On lead vocals, Damo Suzuki doesn't so much sing as breathe words heavily into the microphone in a particularly doom-laden fashion. He is Japanese and 21, the others are German and older. Irmin Schmidtz is the organist and articulate spokesman. Unbelievably, he used to conduct symphony orchestras and his English inclines to phrases like "parameters of consciousness" With him there is none of Keith Emerson's front parlour arpeggios, or Richard Wright's Vaughan Williams chord changes, or Bring Auger's Sandy McPherson touch.

Damo Suzuki

Irmin studied under Stockhausen and Berio, and it shows. As for his playing, well, I don't know how he does it but it sounds like anything but an organ. Often it is almost indistinguishable from the guitar, but more disembodied, or the engine of flying saucer (if you know how that sounds). Then there is Holger Czukay. His Bass catches you like a clam (he is ex-Stockhausen, too) and recently he built a ferocious machine to generate maximum concussion. Michael Karoli plays guitar in a weird spidery chip-chop sort of way, quite unlike anyone else. And Jaki Liebezeit, the drummer, holds the axis while at the same time exploring endless possibilities within a given rhythmic pattern. Yet separating out the ingredients in this way can convey very little because the Can's music is intensely interwoven. Its surface is deceptively regular and beneath is an elaborate matrix of constantly shifting emphasis and cross-feeding, bulging in hypnotic spasms, its effect is ectoplasmic and powerfully sexual.

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Album Review

An excellent introduction to Can, though many of their pieces I personally like more are, obviously missing. Monster Movie was my first, then I bought this album. Interesting that some of their lesser-approved tracks from 'Soon Over Babaluma' are here, but they are lovely nonetheless.

A compilation of the more accessible side of Can at their prime. This collection would have been perfect with the inclusion of the classic tracks "Halleluwah" and "Mushroom".

The title of this 1976 Sunset Records / Universal Artists compilation of Can tracks works on at least three levels – first, it suggests an accessible introduction to the music of this influential but often ignored or difficult-to-pigeonhole Cologne unit, formed as it is from their mid-period legacy; secondly, it’s an amusing pun on the band’s name (mercifully, in spite of being quite good-humoured chaps, this was the only time they – or their labels – saw fit to make lighthearted fun of their name); finally, when combined with designer Paul Henry and photographer Trevor Rogers’s sleeve image of an open Campbells condensed soup can, there’s an inextricable link to Warhol’s semi-ironic brand of pop-art. So there you have it – best of, joke or artistic statement; take your pick.

Opener was compiled by journalist and major Can fan Duncan Fallowell and Tim Read and features eleven classic cuts ranging from the impossible funk of ‘Moonshake’ to the screwy clank of ‘Spoon’. Fallowell offers gushing sleevenotes which I’ve provided below (he co-wrote ‘Dizzy Dizzy’, included here, and so represents a somewhat biased viewpoint) and the rear has that typically Seventies approach of turning the sleeve over to pictures of the band – ranging from Michael Karoli and Holger Czukay looking like extras from Easy Rider to Irmin Schmidt and Jaki Liebezeit looking like hippy professors; Damo Suzuki just looks suave – plus brief details of their respective roles. Among the facts quoted: Karoli was a pupil of Czukay and saw The Who play in Torquay; Schmidt studied under Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio; Suzuki busked round Europe playing one chord on a guitar while improvising on top. Czukay is described functionally as the bassist and engineer, while Liebezeit’s multi-cyclical drumming is heralded as the defining factor in Can’s music. You can imagine how oddly compelling that sleeve might have been to someone flicking idly through the racks of LPs in an HMV in 1976.

This post consists of MP3's (320kps) ripped from vinyl (sourced from the web many moons ago) and includes limited artwork and label scans. As mentioned in the review above, this compilation could have been improved with the inclusion of some essential Can classics such as "Halleluwah" and "Mushroom". Been a vinyl release this would have been a big ask based on length limitations (although the single releases of these tracks would have sufficed), but for a CD media I have chosen to include some rare live renditions of these tracks as bonus tracks.  Now, all you need is the can opener!

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Track Listing

01. Dizzy Dizzy

02. Moonshake

03. Sing Swan Song

04. Come Sta, La Luna

05. Spoon

06. I’m So Green

07. Vitamin C

08. Future Days

09. Mushroom (bonus live 1972)

10. Halleluwah (bonus live 1972)

Can were:

Irmin Schmidt - Keyboards

Holger Czukay - bass

Michael Karoli - Guitar

Jaki Liebezeit - Drums

Kenji 'Damo' Suzuki - Vocals

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Can Opener Link (130Mb) New Link 16/11/2024

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Jimi Hendrix - At The BEEB [remastered] (1967)

(U.S 1963 - 1970)
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Jimi Hendrix was an American. Everyone knows that. His blues roots were deep and real, and his incredible craft was honed by years of working on the Chitlin' circuit backing artists from Little Richard to the Isley Brothers. But it wasn't until he came here to Britain, in the autumn of 1966, that he became a star in his own right and the full extent of his genius began to be realised, let alone recognised.
There were many factors that contributed to his swift success in this country. His English manager, Chas Chandler, was well-placed to help Hendrix put a sensational band together and secure a recording contract. His early live shows were like a bomb exploding in the heart of "swinging" London, and word of mouth among the tightly-knit English guitar-hero fraternity - including Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton - was quickly converted into supportive press coverage. And when Hendrix first appeared on the British TV shows Ready Steady Co! and Top Of The Pops singing "Hey Joe" in December 1966, the impact was instant and nationwide.
But one piece of the jigsaw, which has often gone unremarked, was the role of BBC radio, the state-owned, publicly-financed national broadcaster, in promoting, and more especially nurturing, such a radical talent.

Radio Caroline (1960's Pirate Radio Station)

It would be nice to report that, even back then, the BBC took an enlightened view of rock music, recognising its significance both as an artistic phenomenon, and as an articulation of the newly emerging youth culture. In fact, the most venerated broadcasting corporation in the world was initially baffled by pop music and unsure of what to do about it. It was only in response to the success in the mid-1960's of pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio London, broadcasting non-stop pop music from ships moored outside British territorial waters (in order to exploit a loophole in telecommunications law) that the BBC was reluctantly persuaded to set up its own pop station, Radio 1, which came on air in 1967, after the pirates had been outlawed.
But there were two factors which nevertheless enabled the BBC to become a key player in the development of British rock in the 19605 and, quite by accident, to build up a recorded archive from that era which is as priceless as it is unique.

One was the existence within the BBC of a small but dedicated cabal of rock enthusiasts, including DJs John Peel, Alexis Korner and Tommy Vance, producers Bernie Andrews, Jeff Griffin and John Walters and engineers such as Pete Ritzema and Bob Conduct, who actively sought out and endorsed all that was boldest and newest in contemporary music.
The acts they championed were frequently ahead of popular taste, the music they promoted on shows such as Saturday Club and Top Gear may not have been to the liking of the BBC suits. But it was part of the corporation's public service remit to make provision for music across the spectrum, and these programmes clearly met a need that was not being catered for elsewhere.
The other factor was the BBC's longstanding practice of recording musicians "in session", a procedure which falls half-way between making a "proper" studio recording and playing live, and which remains part of the fabric of music broadcasting in Britain to this day.

Pirate Radio DJ's

Radio sessions were the legacy of various restrictive practices instigated by the Musicians' Union (MU) dating back to the 1950's and beyond, but they gained fresh momentum during the beat boom of the 1960's as a way of getting round the "needletime" restrictions to which all British broadcasters were then subjected.
Bizarre as the idea now seems, in those days, playing records on the radio was perceived as a threat to the livelihood of working musicians. Not only did it mean that the radio station did not have to hire live musicians to play on its programmes, it was also widely believed that playing records on the radio too.
Thus was born the concept of needletime, which referred to the strictly limited number of hours of music on record which the BBC (and other broadcasters) were allowed to play per day. It was allocated by a rights-negotiating company called Phonograph Performance Limited (PPL) representing the record companies, who had an agreement with the MU as to how many hours broadcasters were entitled to have. To give an idea of how limiting this was, when the newly-formed Radios i and 2 first went on the air in 1967, the two stations were allowed just seven hours of needletime between them, per day. Incredibly, the needletime system was not abandoned until 1988.

In order to circumvent this situation, the BBC would record its own sessions; or in other words hire musicians to come in to its own studios and quickly record a batch of songs which could then be played on the radio (albeit only twice) without using up precious needletime. Most of these sessions were simply an expedient way of gaining access to the popular jazz, swing or light orchestral music of the day, but in the hands of the rock specialists they quickly became a means of discovering and exposing new talent. As far as John Peel was concerned, the brief of his programme Top Gear, was "to look beyond the horizons of pop," and the session gave him the perfect tool for doing just that.
Often rock artists would record a BBC session before they had recorded their first album, and sometimes even before they had signed a recording contract. Hendrix's first two sessions for Saturday Club, recorded on February 13, 1967 and March 28,1967, both took place before he had finished recording Are You Experienced, and for him and other future superstars such as Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie and Genesis, a BBC session was the first chance of exposing tracks other than hit singles to a mass audience.

But although a session at the BBC was an important step to take, it was not a place where a performance had to be cast in stone. Artists were encouraged to regard the session as an opportunity either to try out new songs, or rework old material in fresh and surprising ways, or simply to have a bit of fun. The best sessions, in other words, were those that brought a sense of occasion or were in some other way unique to that specific programme. As Ken Garner wrote in his book In Session Tonight (BBC Books, 1993): "Whatever it is, when you tune in and catch a new session, somewhere deep in the back of your mind, you know you are hearing something extraordinary; something you would not otherwise have heard were it not for the BBC, Radio 1 and DJs like John Peel."
The recording of these sessions was, of necessity, a quick, low-budget affair. At the height of its music recording activity in the 1960's and early 1970's, the BBC had fourteen studios at its disposal, most of which were converted theatres or cinemas. The Playhouse Theatre in Charing Cross where the Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded at least one of their Top Gear sessions (October 6, 1967), has since been refurbished and has become a fully functioning West End theatre again. The Camden Theatre in Camden Town is now an established live venue called the Music Machine. The most famous BBC recording facility, and the only one still in use for that purpose today is Maida Vale, a purpose built rock recording studio in North West London.

John Peel On The Deck Of Galaxy (Radio London)

The sessions were conducted in two, three-and-a-half-hour stretches with a break of an hour in between (from 15.00 to 23.00 hrs, all told), during which all equipment would have to be set up and miked, and five songs recorded (or so it was hoped; frequently only four songs would actually be completed). The sophisticated, multi-track recording equipment of today was barely dreamt of.
"We used to record a backing track, in mono," recalls former engineer Bob Conduct, "and that track maybe didn't have vocals or a guitar solo or whatever. Then you'd play the track back to the band, usually via very small communications headphones - high quality cans just didn't exist - and you couldn't vary the mix in any way at all, either for the band or for yourself. That was also copied onto a second tape and mixed live with whatever the band were adding to it which might be a first layer of backing vocals and a keyboard overdub. There was no chance to go back and alter the mix so you simply had to get it right in the first place. That process could happen up to a maximum of three times, after which you lost quality enormously."

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Half-way through the session, the musicians, producers and studio personnel would all repair to one of the local pubs, perhaps The Sherlock Holmes in Northumberland Avenue or the tiny Ship & Shovel under the arches at Charing Cross. "People don't believe me now when I tell them I went for a drink with Jimi Hendrix," Conduct says, wistfully, "But you've got to remember we were all quite young and it was really very relaxed and informal."
It is that never-to-be-repeated combination of youthful bonhomie and carefree sense of adventure which defines the special magic of the Jimi Hendrix Experience BBC Sessions which have been collected in their entirety for the first time on this album.

L-R: Mitch Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding

Take the day the group showed up at the Playhouse Theatre to record a session for Peel's Top Gear and found Stevie Wonder hanging around, waiting to be interviewed for another programme by Brian Matthew. As Noel Redding recalled, writing in his book, Are You Experienced? (Fourth Estate, 1990) "When Mitch nipped off to the loo, some enterprising person suggested an informal jam between Jimi and myself, with Stevie on drums. We jammed two segments of an old R&B song ["I Was Made To Love Her"] with Stevie, of course, they forgot to turn the tape machines off."

"It's not that wonderful," recalls engineer Pete Ritzema of the recording. "But it is one of those legendary things; Stevie Wonder did jam with Jimi Hendrix and it's there on tape."
Given that such connections often happened, perhaps it is not surprising that rumours have long abounded that the back-up vocals on "Day Tripper," a barnstorming version of the Beatles song recorded for a later Peel session, were sung by John Lennon. In fact it was Redding, rising to the occasion with his best Lennon impersonation. In that same session Hendrix came up with a jingle for Radio 1. Making it up on the spot, he responded by singing, in a giggly drawl, "Radio 1 you stole my gal but I love you just the same," surely the most off-the-wall station ident in the history of broadcasting.

There are other entertaining instances of Hendrix's humour at work, as on a version of the Elvis Presley hit, "Hound Dog," which comes complete with ludicrous howling and barking noises in the chorus. And clearly, if the party sounds in the background of "Hear My Train A Comin'" are anything to go by, Hendrix had a ball making these tapes.
It wasn't all plain sailing, however. When Hendrix turned up to do his first BBC session for Saturday Club the group was allocated S2, a tiny studio in the Broadcasting House sub-basement, three floors below street level. Producer Bill Bebb was aghast at the volume - "We could hear Jimi through the soundproof glass, and we could see the glass moving," he said - and he remembers fielding a complaint from the Concert Hall two floors above where a string quartet performance going out live on Radio 3 was being interrupted by the faint but unmistakable sound of Hendrix's guitar.

But along with the larking around and occasional volume crisis, the BBC Sessions also coaxed vintage performances of many Hendrix classics - "Hey Joe," "Purple Haze," "Foxy Lady," "Spanish Castle Magic" and "Stone Free" - alongside some blistering, off-the-cuff workouts of blues standards such as Muddy Waters' "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man" - featuring BBC presenter Alexis Korner on slide guitar - and Howlin' Wolfs "Killing Floor" taken at Hendrix's preferred breakneck pace.
Four tracks in particular stand out as an absolutely essential part of Hendrix's recorded legacy. "Drivin' South," a hefty instrumental groove, conjures astonishing performances from both Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell, while "Wait Until Tomorrow" and "The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp" (with its neat new ending) are both exceptional performances of songs which the Experience hardly ever played live.

But perhaps the most exciting prospect of all Is the version of "Love Or Confusion" recorded for Saturday Club on February 13,1967. This was a particularly complicated song that Hendrix rarely attempted to play live, and here, although there has been some double-tracking, the recording exposes the bare bones of the song - Redding's lumpy bass riff clinging on for dear life to Mitchell's mutant-Latin drum pattern behind the solo - in a way that is both fascinating and incredibly dramatic.
While Hendrix's recordings for BBC radio make up an essential alternative portfolio of his best work, the legacy of his many appearances on BBC TV were not, generally speaking, of such intrinsic value. Often, as on programmes such as Top Of The Pops, he would either sing live vocals over a backing track or else mime to the record, and these appearances were nearly always to promote his latest single. There were, however, live performances of different material, such as the occasion on the Dusty Springfield Show when he sang an endearing duet with Dusty Springfield of the Charlie & Inez Foxx song "Mockingbird." Sadly this has been lost, along with recordings of many other TV appearances which have either been wiped, stolen or in some other way gone missing over the years.
But not everything has disappeared, and as a bonus, BBC Sessions also includes some of Hendrix's most memorable appearances on BBC TV. One is a version of "Manic Depression" played completely live on Late Night Line-Up, an arts discussion programme which had little, if anything, to do with high-voltage rock'n'roll.
"It was recorded in Studio B," recalls the show's producer Michael Appleton, "which was basically a studio that was built for the continuity announcers to sit in and say their links between programmes. It was basically made for one person and a camera and a vase of flowers. When Jimi came in, we did the session and it filtered in from Floor 4 all the way through to the ground floor, and there were complaints about the sound in the studio directly below us."

Jimi with Lulu

Hendrix's appearance on The Lulu Show caused even more havoc, only this time intentionally so. Lulu, having seen Jimi on her rival Dusty Springfield's show, had invited the Experience to appear on her show, but wanted to play safe by having the band simply trot out "Hey Joe." Hendrix had other ideas and as soon as she had announced the band he took off on a long, free-form "introduction" that was nothing like "Hey Joe," or anything else for that matter.
The show was being broadcast absolutely live and the producer and floor manager were growing increasingly agitated when, eventually, the first verse of "Hey Joe" emerged from the melee and the song settled into recognisable shape. Hendrix was in peak form, even tuning up his bottom E string on one of the verse turnarounds and giving Mitchell a wink of cheerful disbelief at his own audacity.

Then he suddenly abandoned the song altogether and announced that the band were instead going to play a tribute to Cream, who had recently decided to split up. The Experience launched into an unscripted instrumental version of "Sunshine Of Your Love" while behind the scenes pandemonium broke out, as the production team saw their carefully-planned and timed-to-the-second schedule spiraling out of control. The last thing you can hear on "Sunshine Of Your Love" is Hendrix calling out "We're being put off the air..." the perfect end to one of the most fondly-remembered live television appearances in the history of rock'n'roll.

Jimi Hendrix was a musician who changed the face of rock'n'roll, but he was also a personality who left his mark wherever he went. As well as offering many glorious insights into his music, The Jimi Hendrix Experience: BBC Sessions, more than any other Hendrix collection, gives you a sense of the man and his group as they really were during that first, heady flush of success, breaking new ground on a daily basis and enjoying every minute of it.  [written by David Sinclair. 1998]
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This set was compiled from the true mono BBC masters and not the poor fake stereo tape dubs used for "Radio 1" and "
BBC Sessions". The songs have been edited together to flow straight through like a radio broadcast or session tape. The extra session material included on "BBC Sessions" has been excluded, however, this bootleg is more complete than "Radio One". This set was designed for audiophiles, but even the casual listener will notice an improvement over the official releases. There was no compression or noise reduction added in the remastering process, however my source for this bootleg was presented in MP3 format (320kps), and so there is some compression. If anyone has a FLAC copy of this bootleg I'd love to hear from you. Full album artwork and associated photos are included (with choice photos of John Peel taken from his Auto-Biography entitled 'John Peel: Margrave Of The Marshes', which by the way is an excellent read). Some alternative covers for this release are shown below.
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Track Listing
01. Interview 1
02. Hey Joe
03. Stone Free
04. Love Or Confusion
05. Foxy Lady
06. Purple Haze
07. Killing Floor
08. Fire
09. Interview 2
10. The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp
11. Little Miss Lover
12. Drivin' South (Version 1)
13. Catfish Blues
14. Hound Dog
15. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
16. Hoochie Coochie Man
17. Drivin' South (Version 2)
18. Radio One Theme
19. Spanish Castle Magic
20. Wait Until Tomorrow
21. Day Tripper
22. Hear My Train A Comin'

Jimi Hendrix Experience:
Jimi Hendrix, Guitar, Vocals
Noel Redding - Bass, Backing Vocals
Mitch Mitchell - Drums, Backing Vocals

Tracks 1-5: February 13, 1967
Tracks 6-8: March 28, 1967
Tracks 9-14: October 6, 1967
Tracks 15-17: October 17, 1967
Tracks 18-22: December 15, 1967
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Jim Hendrix At The BEEB Link (175Mb) New Link 23/01/2026

W.O.C.K on Vinyl: Cheap Trick - Christmas, Christmas (2017)

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Before things get too serious here at Rock On Vinyl, I thought it might be fun to post a song / album at the end of each month, that could be categorized as being either Weird, Obscure, Crazy or just plain Korny.

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Rock And Roll Hall Of Famers Cheap Trick rocked in the Yuletide season with the release of their first holiday-themed album, Christmas Christmas, released October 20, 2017 on Big Machine Records. Arriving mere months after their critically acclaimed eighteenth studio album, 'We're All Alright!', Cheap Trick co-produced the holiday collection alongside their longtime collaborator, Grammy Award winner Julian Raymond (Glen Campbell, Fastball). In addition to three-new original tunes, the album features the band's take on the standard, "Silent Night," along with such yuletide classics as the Kinks' "Father Christmas," Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run," the Eagles' "Please Come Home For Christmas," Harry Nilsson's "Remember (Christmas)" and the Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight), among others.

This isn't the first time Cheap Trick has spread holiday cheer. In 1996, the band released a holiday-themed fan club EP Gift featuring the songs "Come On Christmas" and "Christmas Christmas." In 2012, the band also and reworked their most famous song, "I Want You To Want Me," as "I Want You For Christmas" to commemorate the 25th anniversary of A Very Special Christmas album franchise, complete with a bizarre marionette-themed music video.

Asked about the band's creative drive, Petersson said: "It just seems very natural for us - I can't really explain it. People will ask for advice and I just don't have any. We love recording and writing together, and we always search for that perfect record you can never achieve, so I guess that might be one of those things that keeps us going. There's always room for improvement and change." 

Combining a love for British guitar pop songcraft with crunching power chords and a flair for the absurd, Cheap Trick provided the necessary links between '60s pop, heavy metal, and punk. Led by guitarist Rick Nielsen, the band's early albums were filled with highly melodic, well-written songs that drew equally from the crafted pop of the Beatles, the sonic assault of the Who, and the tongue-in-cheek musical eclecticism and humor of the Move. Their sound provided a blueprint for both power pop and arena rock; it also had a surprisingly long-lived effect on both alternative and heavy metal bands of the '80s and '90s, who also relied on the combination of loud riffs and catchy melodies.

So once again in December, the C in WOCK is for Christmas with a little bit of Cheap TricK thrown in for good measure, making this another well deserved candidate for this month's WOCK on Vinyl post. Ripped to MP3 (320kps) and including artwork, this post should fit nicely into your Christmas stocking this year. Merry Christmas everyone and have a Safe & Happy New Year.

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Tracklist

01.  Merry Christmas Darlings (3:45)

02.  I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day (3:35)

03.  I Wish It Was Christmas Today (3:13)
04.  Merry Xmas Everybody (3:17)
05.  Please Come Home For Christmas (3:29)
06.  Remember Christmas (3:00)
07.  Run Rudolph Run (3:58)
08.  Father Christmas (3:55)
09.  Silent Night (3:56)
10.  Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) (2:06)
11.  Our Father Of Life (3:16)
12.  Christmas Christmas (2:16)

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Robin Zander - lead vocals, guitar

Rick Nielsen - lead guitar, background vocals

Tom Petersson - bass, background vocals

Daxx Nielsen - drums

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Cheap Trick Christmas Link (44Mb) New Link 17/11/2024

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Bruce Springsteen - Live At The Hammersmith Odeon (1975) Bootleg

(U.S 1964 - Present)
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In 1975, Bruce Springsteen became one of the decade’s great success stories, but he remained plagued by self-doubt. While that year’s Born to Run is often perceived as his masterwork—the aural equivalent of the “rock and roll future” ad copy that’d been plastered above his face to boost sales of his previous two LPs—Springsteen was convinced upon completion that he’d produced a failure. The solution, he thought, was to shelve Born to Run and release a live album instead. His perfectionist tendencies in the studio and the high-pressure stakes of making a hit record amplified Bruce’s worst fear: that he, an artist steadily building his name on supposed authenticity, was in danger of being reduced to a product. But on stage, he was in control. From an early point in his career, Springsteen knew that nobody (no label, no management, no pull quote) could sell his music like he could.

Ironically, it would be decades before the first full-length Springsteen show was released as an album. That show would be his November 1975 performance at London’s Hammersmith Odeon theater—issued as a film accompaniment to 2005’s Born to Run reissue, a stand-alone 2CD set in 2006, and a vinyl box for  Record Store Day. Among the most celebrated nights in Springsteen’s career, Hammersmith Odeon, London ’75 captures the potent combination of determination, ambition, and vulnerability that makes Bruce’s early years so fascinating. Taking place three months after the release of Born to Run and several weeks after he graced the cover of both Time and Newsweek, this show would be his first outside the U.S. Same goes for the E Street Band, now solidified into a sturdy six-man rock group, after stints from jazz musicians and a violinist. “Finally,” proclaimed posters splattered around the city (which Springsteen allegedly tore down in a fit of nervous rage before the show), “London is ready for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.”

While many of Springsteen’s 24 recorded songs at this point were precisely about breaking out of your hometown, proving yourself to the world, and never looking back, his Hammersmith performance feels gloriously unrehearsed. At the 3,500-seat venue, Springsteen effectively separated himself from the crowd—turning his back to them, pulling his thick wool cap over his eyes, and literally crawling into a hole during the breakdown in “Spirit in the Night.” When he tries to make conversation, his storied ability of connecting to an audience is not on display: “So, how’s things going over here in England and stuff, eh? Alright?” he asks, before doubling over in laughter: “I never been here before.”

Bruce Springsteen & The E. Street Band

His unrefined energy carries the show. It took Springsteen six months to record “Born to Run,” but it takes him just four minutes to blast through it, a mere six songs into the set. The band proceeds with a shaky, sloppy spirit, landing miles away from the arena workhorse the song would evolve into. More practiced tunes like “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” and “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” are amplified and energized. When the songs reach their climaxes, Springsteen backs off the mic and lets his band overpower him, with massive waves of catharsis from Stevie Van Zandt’s lead guitar and Clarence Clemons’ saxophone.

On Stage at the Hammersmith Odeon

As a composer and bandleader, Springsteen began refitting his catalog to carry the load of increased expectations. “The E Street Shuffle” is slowed down to lament the innocence of bygone days, while a verse about a dead-end relationship with a waitress in “Sandy” is replaced with him whispering how “the angels have lost their desire for us.” From Roy Bittan’s austere piano introduction in “Thunder Road” to a proggy extension of “Kitty’s Back” that spans an entire side of vinyl, Springsteen’s catalogue feels big and dynamic enough to take on the world. As the show goes on, you can almost hear Springsteen realizing it.

While Bruce and his band were ready for London, the feeling wasn’t entirely mutual yet. A Cream review of the show read disappointingly, with Simon Frith describing the E Street Band as being “pretty crummy in its technical range and subtlety.” He even took issue with Springsteen’s physical presence: “I mean, he’s so bloody small!,” he seethed, “This is the future of rock’n’roll??” Writing for Sounds, Vivien Goldman was sympathetic but skeptical: “There was an immense feeling of strain about this show, following a press and publicity campaign of unparalleled intensity.” An NME writer, meanwhile, concluded his review assuredly: “Bob Dylan can relax.” The audience seemed similarly impassive, occasionally roaring with excitement (especially for the roots-rock covers in “Detroit Medley”), but more often clapping in awkward patches, filling the silence with heckles like, “Oi, turn the guitars up!”

Springsteen took it all to heart. After all, this is an artist who selected his rock critic manager after reading his mixed review of The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, calling out its poor production. Once Springsteen returned to the states, his setlists started including a cover of the Animals’ “It’s My Life,” a gnarly enactment of an artist taking control over his narrative. Bruce would evolve accordingly, turning the guitars up and sonically tearing down his label’s press posters with 1978’s righteous, unadorned Darkness on the Edge of Town. But for his desperate stand at the Hammersmith Odeon, Springsteen stood as far from home as he’d ever been, and—backed by a band swiftly ascending to the height of their powers—defined what he’d do for the rest of his career. For those two hours, his myth and his music were inseparable. [extract from pitchfork.com/reviews]
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Clemons & Springsteen

This post consists of MP3's (320kps) ripped from my classic Ruthless Thymes bootleg, a single album release featuring 7 of the 16 tracks played at the Hammersmith Odeon concert on November 18th, 1975.  Because there is no song separation (typical of these 'Swingin' Pig' type bootlegs), I have chosen to provide the rips as two files (Side1 and Side2) to retain the continuity of the concert.  Although the sound quality is OK it starts off a bit shaky, probably because the recorder was still getting their sound levels right. And so, this is definitely an audience recording and not soundboard quality. Front cover artwork along with some select concert photos are included.
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Tracklist
A1 10th Avenue Freeze-Out
A2 Spirit In The Night
A3 Lost In The Flood
A4 She's The One
B1 Born To Run
B2 E Street Shuffle
B3 Saint In The City
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The E Street Band:
Bruce Springsteen - Guitar, Vocals
Roy Bittan - Piano, Vocals
Clarence Clemons - Saxophone, Percussion
Danny Federich - Keyboards
Garry Tallent - Bass Guitar

Steve Van Zandt - Guitar, Vocals
Max Weinberg - Drums
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Bruce Springsteen Live Link (112Mb) 

New Link 14/04/2025
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The Party Boys - Greatest Hits (Of Other People) 1983

(Australian 1982–1992, 1999, 2011)

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The Party Boys were an Australian music group from Sydney that was formed in 1982, they were a popular band during the 80’s era. A talented young bass guitarist, Paul Christie formed this band in association with iconic legend Kevin Borich.

Both of them were already engaged in diverse music projects at that time. Thus, “The Party Boys” and its journey officially started  between Paul and Kevin.

True to their name this band was really “The Party Boys” and they really knew how to perform and have a rocking good time.

In the path of progressing, many talented musicians like Kevin Borich, Ross Wilson, Richard Clapton, James Reyne, Marc Hunter and Australia’s one and only Angry Anderson occasionally joined this band and helped them to produce various successful music creations. After consistently performing for a period of ten years, the journey of this well-known music band ended in 1992, they did get back together in some form during 1999 and 2011 for some performances..

The first line-up of this band comprised of two experienced music professionals – Paul Christie and Kevin Borich. In 1982, when Paul Christie decided to leave his earlier music band (Mondo Rock), he decided to form a new group and performed cover songs at the local Australian pub circuit.

By showcasing commendable music performances, they easily grabbed the attention of the Aussie audience. They performed hundreds of gigs at various local pubs. One of their live albums, named as “Live at Several 21sts” (released in 1983), witnessed massive popularity and great recognition with Aussie radio listeners. This album reached number # nine position on the Australian national charts. 

In November 1983, the band members issued another superior music production – their second live album – “Greatest Hits (of Other People)” - but this time with Richard Clapton at the helm singing lead vocals. Just like its predecessors, this album too gained a great acclaim from the proficient music critics. Furthermore, “Greatest Hits (of Other People)” achieved number # 25 position on Australian charts.

Richard Clapton and Harvey James QUICKLY moved on to other projects which opened the door for Skyhooks vocalist Shirley Strachan to join the project on vocals and with Rose Tattoo's Rockin' Rob Riley replacing Harvey James. [extract from aussieradios.com]

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Richard Clapton - The Best Years Of Our Lives

(a brief account off  Clapton's time with the Party Boys)

In 1983, I was recruited into The Party Boys, a so-called 'supergroup', a really popular live act. From the outset, this band was, as the name implied, the hardest-living group of musos in Australia. Talk about the party that never ended.

Harvey and Clapton

My first night with them took place at Tharen's, a very upmarket restaurant in Darlinghurst. EMI Records was hosting the night; the band's first album had just gone gold. What could have been a great meal was left untouched while band and label raised hell. We then moved on to James Reyne's room at the Sebel Townhouse—I was filling in for James in the band—and proceeded to trash it, doing silly rock star stuff like pulling paintings and mirrors off the walls, tossing things around, just wreaking havoc.

At the first rehearsal, I arrived and patiently waited for the rest of the band—Kevin Borich, Harvey James, bassist Paul Christie and Angels' drummer Graham 'Buzz' Bidstrup— who eventually arrived several hours late and then proceeded to party on. Before I knew it we were on stage at the Manly Vale Hotel, drunk as skunks and playing like maniacs to a full house.

I wasn't too enamoured with the band's music, which was all famous covers, because PC, the band demagogue, would insist everything we played be transposed. Consequently, as James had warned me, I had to struggle with ludicrously inappropriate keys, which left me sounding either like Mickey Mouse or Satan. The tour ran for two long weeks, and although we each made fantastic money, to me it felt like artistic prostitution.

There are two very funny stories from this period, however, which should be recounted. During that first tour, Buzz Bidstrup (the Angels drummer) and I became good friends and maintained each other's sanity throughout all that pressure. One night Buzz and his wife Kaye invited me and Jimmy and Jane Barnes around for a small, intimate dinner party. Everyone was drinking fine and expensive wine, but unfortunately I have always been very allergic to the histamines in wine. Jimmy began ribbing me for not partaking but I stood my ground because I knew that pretty soon I would go red in the face and become very inebriated. Nevertheless, much to my chagrin, I allowed myself to be talked into having a few glasses of wine. Just as the wine was taking effect, I realised that-it was unusually strong and immediately regretted drinking some. To make matters worse, Jimmy insisted we get stuck into the vodka.

Jimmy then produced a home video camera he had hidden away and methodically began setting it up on a tripod in front of me.

'Whaddya doin', Jimmy?' I asked, my brain turning to jelly.

Jimmy said nothing, then suddenly joined me on the lounge and introduced The Jimmy Barnes Tonight Show. My mouth was dry, and I could hardly speak. I just wanted to curl up and go to sleep.

Jimmy began doing takes of his Tonight Show, with me as his special guest, much to the hilarity of everyone else. Jimmy is actually fantastic at this stuff, and could very easily make a successful talk show host if he ever chooses that fork in the road. (He did have his own TV show in the new millennium.)

However, by this stage I was catatonic and we sat there doing take after take, with Jimmy intro'ing his show and me pissed out of my brain. The only words I could utter were: 'Whaaaaat are ya doin?', 'Why?', or 'Switch that fuckin' thing off, for Christsake.' I guess you had to be there but it sure was funny at the time.

A certain guitarist came out on my next outing with The Party Boys. The guitarist was renowned for leaping off a PA stack at the Newcastle Workers Club, and during the ensuing solo, exposing himself to the audience. His nickname was The Beast.

I'd planned a return trip to Berlin straight after the tour. The tour ended in the rural NSW town of Taree; we all woke up quite late in a seedy motel. I had an impressive camera, complete with an expensive motor drive. I took about a dozen shots of the band, then forgot all about it.

I arrived in Berlin some weeks later. I'd completely forgotten the photo shoot in Taree. Volker and I went out soon after my arrival, and I finished the roll of film by shooting the old Gestapo HQ, the Reichstag and other prominent Nazi buildings that I thought might be demolished. I was very serious about the shots, taking light readings and being careful with my exposures.

I left the film with a laboratory close by the apartment where we were living. A young, pretty Berlin girl was working behind the counter and insisted on going through every shot with me to ensure that I was satisfied with the processing. She worked her way backwards through the shots of Berlin, diligently asking for my approval of the colours and exposures.

Then she burst out laughing, and asked me who this was in the first dozen frames.

'Oh,' I said nonchalantly, flashing back to Taree, 'you see, I'm a rock musician from Australia, and this is a band I play with called The Party Boys.'

'Ach ja!' she said, then proceeded to giggle.

In the band shots, The Beast was progressively rolling up his short shorts to reveal his penis in the last half dozen shots. Here I was, 20,000 kilometres away, trying to explain (in German) about this amusing character, and how this wasn't common behaviour for Australian men. [extract from Richard Clapton - The Best Years Of Our Lives, Allen & Unwin Books, 2014. p220 - 224]

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This post consists of FLACs ripped from my OZ label vinyl (EMI) and includes full album artwork and label scans. Regrettably my copy did not come with an inner sleeve which I have seen on ebay (see right).
This is an interesting album as the 'hits' come from a diverse range of artists ranging from Bob Dylan, to Del Shannon, to Jimi Hendrix and not only features Clapton on lead vocals, but also showcases Borich, Christie and James taking the lead on a few tracks.

If you like this album and you're ready for a party, then you'll find their other 4 albums elsewhere on the blog - enjoy.

.Track Listing

01.  I’m A Rocker

02.  I Fought The Law

03.  Highway Chile

04.  Runaway

05.  Sweet Emotion

06.  Sugar Shack

07.  Stealer

08.  Street Fighting Man

09.  Mercury Blues

10.  Rainy Day Woman No’s 12 & 35

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The Party Boys were:

Graham Buzz Bidstrup - Drums, Bass,
Vocals

Kevin Borich - Guitar, Vocals

Paul Christie - Bass, Drums, Harmonica, Vocals

Harvey James - Guitar, Bass, Vocals

Richard Clapton - Lead Vocals

with Don Raffaele - Saxophone

The Party Boys FLAC Link (255Mb)

New Link 03/01/2024

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