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Friday, March 21, 2014

The Jeff Beck Group - BBC-London 1967-1968 FM Broadcast (Bootleg)


Size: 59.3 MB
Bitrate: 320
mp3
Found under my car
Som Artwork Included

The Jeff Beck Group was an English rock band formed in London in January 1967 by former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck. Their innovative approach to heavy-sounding blues and rhythm and blues was a major influence on popular music.

The first Jeff Beck Group:
Formed in London in early 1967 and included guitarist Jeff Beck, vocalist Rod Stewart, rhythm guitarist Ronnie Wood, with bass players and drummers changing regularly. Early bass players were Jet Harris and Dave Ambrose, with Clem Cattini and Viv Prince trying out on drums. The lineup went through months of personnel changes, notably no fewer than four drummers before settling on Aynsley Dunbar and switching Ron Wood to bass. This line up spent most of 1967 playing the UK club circuit and appeared several times on BBC Radio. Beck signed a personal management contract with record producer and manager Mickie Most who had no interest in the group, only Beck as a solo artist.


Jeff Beck - Netherlands Single 1967 
During 1967 the band released three singles in Europe and two in the United States, the first, "Hi Ho Silver Lining", being the most successful, reaching No. 14 on the UK singles chart; it included the instrumental "Beck's Bolero" as the B side, which had been recorded several months earlier. The lineup for that session included guitarist Jimmy Page on rhythm guitar, John Paul Jones on bass, Keith Moon on drums, and Nicky Hopkins on piano. Frustrated that the band was not playing a strict enough blues set for his taste, drummer Dunbar left and was replaced by Roy Cook for one show, before Stewart recommended Micky Waller, a bandmate of his from Steampacket. Waller went on to play with the band all through 1968 and early 1969, and was their longest-lasting drummer.

Peter Grant, a road manager at the time, had been to the US with The New Vaudeville Band, and was aware of the new concert and Album-oriented rock FM radio format developing there. It was now possible to break out a band without using the "hit single" formula. Grant realised that Beck's band was ideal for this market and tried several times to buy Beck's contract from Mickie Most, who refused to let Beck go. By early 1968 the band was ready to throw in the towel, and again to his credit, Grant convinced them not to break up, and booked a short US tour for them. Beck is quoted as saying "We were literally down to one change of clothing each". Grant's first stop for them was in New York City, for four shows at Fillmore East, where they played second on the bill to The Grateful Dead. They apparently took the town by storm. 


1968
The New York Times ran the Robert Shelton article: "Jeff Beck Group Cheered in Debut", with the byline "British Pop Singers Delight Fillmore East Audience" proclaiming that Beck and his group had upstaged the Grateful Dead. The reviews from The Boston Tea Party were as good or better: "By the time he got to his last number... (the fans) were in a state of pandemonium the likes of which hadn't been witnessed since The Beatles hit town." By the time they wrapped up the tour at San Francisco's Fillmore West, Peter Grant had secured them a new album contract with Epic Records.

The band quickly returned to England to record Truth, which reached No. 15 in the US charts. The tracks were recorded within two weeks, with overdubs added the following month. Mickie Most was busy with other projects at the time and delegated most of the work to Ken Scott who basically recorded the band playing their live set in the studio. Beck's amplifier was apparently so loud, it was recorded from inside a closet. The extra line up for these sessions included John Paul Jones on Hammond organ, drummer Keith Moon and Nicky Hopkins on piano. They returned to the US for a tour to promote the release of Truth, billed as The Jeff Beck Group. Long time Beck fan Jimi Hendrix jammed with the band at Cafe Wha during this and their following tours.


Jeff Beck - Netherlands Single 1967
They embarked on their third tour in December 1968 with Nicky Hopkins, who although in poor health, decided he wanted to play live. He accepted Beck's invitation, even though he had been offered more money by Led Zeppelin. Later, he lamented that "We lost one of the greatest bands in Rock history...." Even with his best intentions, the last leg of the tour was curtailed by illness. Beck then postponed a fourth, February 1969 US tour. 

This was also because he felt they shouldn't keep playing the same material with nothing new to add to it. New material was written, Micky Waller was replaced by power drummer Tony Newman and Wood was dismissed, only to be re-hired almost immediately. The success of Truth ignited new interest from Mickie Most and they recorded an album with the same name of their earlier single: Beck-Ola at De Lane Lea Studios, engineered by Martin Birch. They released the single "Plynth" and laid down three Donovan backing tracks as a favour to Most. Two of them were used for his single "Barabajagal (Love Is Hot)".


In May 1969 the Jeff Beck Group embarked on their fourth U.S tour, this time with Nicky Hopkins as a full fledged member. The tour went smoothly, Beck-Ola was received extremely well, reaching No. 15 on The Billboard Charts, but it was reported that there was now terrible in-fighting within the band. 

Rod Stewart had recorded his first album An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down for Mercury Records. They finished and returned to England, only to return to the States in July 1969 for their fifth and final time. It was a short tour, mostly along the East Coast, including Maryland, their final Fillmore East appearance, and the Newport Jazz Festival.

 Beck broke up the band on the eve of the Woodstock Music Festival, at which they had been scheduled to perform, a decision Beck later stated that he regretted.




Jeff Beck Group BBC Sessions 1967-1968:
♣ Jeff Beck
♣ Rod Stewart
♣ Ronnie Wood
♣ Aynsley Dunbar
♣ Mickey Waller
♣ Dave Ambrose

01. Hi Ho Silver Lining  02:51
02. I'm Losing You  02:06
03. Rock My Plimsoul  04:18
04. Tallyman  02:54
05. Shapes of Things  03:23
06. Rock My Plimsoul  02:22
07. I'm Losing You  02:17
08. Tallyman  02:48
09. You Shook Me  02:53

1. Link
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2. Link
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Jeff Beck 1968

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Led Zeppelin perform Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions 1995


Here is another god one: "When The Leeve Breaks"



//ChrisGoesRock



Led Zeppelin - 1969-10-10 Paris, L'Olympia (First Show) (Bootleg)

Artwork - Front

Size: 187 MB
Bitrate: 320
mp3
Artwork Included
Found in my sofa

It wasn't just Led Zeppelin's thunderous volume, sledgehammer beat, and edge-of-mayhem arrangements that made it the most influential and successful heavy-metal pioneer. It was the band's finesse. Like its ancestors the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin used a guitar style that drew heavily on the blues; its early repertoire included remakes of songs by Howlin' Wolf, Albert King, and Willie Dixon (who later won a sizable settlement from the band in a suit in which he alleged copyright infringement). 



Artwork - Back
But Jimmy Page blessed the group with a unique understanding of the guitar and the recording studio as electronic instruments, and of rock as sculptured sound; like Jimi Hendrix, Page had a reason for every bit of distortion, feedback, reverberation, and out-and-out noise that he incorporated. Few of the many acts that try to imitate Led Zeppelin can make the same claim.

Page and Robert Plant were also grounded in British folk music and fascinated by mythology, Middle Earth fantasy, and the occult, as became increasingly evident from the band's later albums (the fourth LP's title is comprised of four runic characters). A song that builds from a folk-baroque acoustic setting to screaming heavy metal, "Stairway to Heaven," fittingly became the best-known Led Zeppelin song and a staple of FM airplay, although like most of the group's "hits," it was never released as a single. Though sometimes critically derided during their lifespan, Led Zeppelin was unquestionably one of the most enduring bands in rock history, with U.S. sales of more than 100 million records.




When the Yardbirds fell apart in the summer of 1968, Page was left with rights to the group's name and a string of concert obligations. He enlisted John Paul Jones, who had done session work with the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, Lulu, Dusty Springfield, and Shirley Bassey. Page and Jones had first met, jammed together, and discussed forming a group when both were hired to back Donovan on his Hurdy Gurdy Man LP.


Page had hoped to complete the group with drummer B.J. Wilson of Procol Harum and singer Terry Reid. Neither was available, but Reid recommended Plant, who in turn suggested Bonham, drummer for his old Birmingham group, Band of Joy. The four first played together as the session group behind P.J. Proby on his Three Week Hero. In October 1968 they embarked on a tour of Scandinavia under the name the New Yardbirds. Upon their return to England they recorded their debut album in 30 hours.




Adopting the name Led Zeppelin (allegedly coined by Keith Moon), they toured the U.S. in early 1969, opening for Vanilla Fudge. Their first album was released in February; within two months it had reached Billboard's Top 10. Led Zeppelin II reached Number One two months after its release, and since then every album of new material has gone platinum; five of the group's LPs have reached Number One. After touring almost incessantly during its first two years together, Zeppelin began limiting its appearances to alternating years. The band's 1973 U.S. tour broke box-office records throughout the country (many of which had been set by the Beatles), and by 1975 its immense ticket and album sales had made Led Zeppelin the most popular rock & roll group in the world. In 1974 the quartet established its own label, Swan Song. The label's first release was Physical Graffiti (Number One, 1975), the band's first double-album set, which sold 4 million copies.


On August 4, 1975, Plant and his family were seriously injured in a car crash while vacationing on the Greek island of Rhodes. As a result, the group toured even less frequently. That and speculation among fans that supernatural forces may have come into play also heightened the Zeppelin mystique. (Plant believed in psychic phenomena, and Page, whose interest in the occult was well known, once resided in Boleskine House, the former home of infamous satanist Aleister Crowley.)




In 1976 Led Zeppelin released Presence, a 4-million seller. The group had just embarked on its U.S. tour when Plant's six-year-old son, Karac, died suddenly of a viral infection. The remainder of the tour was canceled, and the group took off the next year and a half. In late 1978 Plant, Page, Jones, and Bonham began work on In Through the Out Door, their last group effort. They had completed a brief European tour and were beginning to rehearse for a U.S. tour when, on September 25, 1980, Bonham died at Page's home of what was described as asphyxiation; he had inhaled his own vomit after having consumed alcohol and fallen asleep. On December 4, 1980, Page, Plant, and Jones released a cryptic statement to the effect that they could no longer continue as they were. Soon thereafter it was rumored that Plant and Page were going to form a band called XYZ (ex-Yes and Zeppelin) with Alan White and Chris Squire of Yes; the group never materialized. In 1982 Zeppelin released Coda (Number Six, 1982), a collection of early recordings and outtakes.



Plant and Page each pursued solo careers. Jones released a soundtrack album, Scream for Help, in 1986, and has worked in production. The remaining members of Zeppelin have reunited sporadically since. They played in 1985 at Live Aid (with Phil Collins and Tony Thompson on drums), and in May 1988 (with John Bonham's son, Jason, on drums) at the Atlantic Records 40th-anniversary celebration at New York's Madison Square Garden. They also performed at Jason Bonham's wedding. Zeppelin's concert movie, The Song Remains the Same (originally released in 1976), is still a staple of midnight shows around the country, and Zeppelin tunes like "Stairway to Heaven," "Kashmir," "Communication Breakdown," "Whole Lotta Love," and "No Quarter" are still in heavy rotation on classic-rock radio playlists. In 1990 a St. Petersburg, Florida, station kicked off its all-Zeppelin format by playing "Stairway to Heaven" for 24 hours straight. (Less than two weeks later, the station had expanded its playlist to include Pink Floyd.)



In fall 1994 Page and Plant participated in the No Quarter album, which they followed up with a new 1998 studio effort, Walking Into Clarksdale. Jones, who was not invited to join them, was by then working and touring with Diamanda Gal ás, with whom he recorded 1994's The Sporting Life. In 1997 a live-in-the-studio collection of Zeppelin's BBC radio sessions peaked at Number 12 and went platinum. In 1999 the recording industry announced that the band was only the third act in music history to achieve four or more diamond-certified albums, signifying sales of 10 million copies.


In recent years, Page has become the group's unofficial archivist, and in 2003 he oversaw the release of two best-selling live-show collections: The three-disc album How The West Was Won (Number One) and the DVD set Led Zeppelin. He then turned his attention to The Song Remains the Same, expanding both the film and its soundtrack for a November 2007 re-release, which was accompanied by yet another best-of collection, Mothership (Number Seven).




The slew of vintage-Zeppelin material was merely a prelude for a long-rumored reunion, which finally occurred on December 10th, 2007, at a London concert in honor of Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegün. With Jason Bonham on drums, the band performed 16 songs. The performance sparked speculation that more reunion shows — and possibly even a worldwide tour — might be in the works. But Plant's support of his successful Alison Krauss collaboration Raising Sand may have gotten in the way; Jones and Page did get together with drummer Taylor Hawkins and the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, however, to perform a few Zeppelin songs live in London in 2008.


Persistent subsequent rumors suggested that Jones, Page, and Jason Bonham might be on the verge of recording with a new singer, but no such group ever materialized. Expect to hear continued Zep reunion rumors in the future, though — as long as sufficient band members are still around to reunite.


Led Zeppelin, 1969.10.10
Paris, L'Olympia (First Show)

01. Communication Breakdown  04:05
02. I Can't Quit You Baby  06:52
03. Heartbreaker  04:31
04. Dazed And Confused  14:59
05. White Summer/Black Mountain Side  11:24
06. You Shook Me  12:21
07. How Many More Times  22:53

Various Live Bonus Material in very good soundquality:
01. Long Time Coming  02:33
02. She Just Satisfies  02:03
03. Traveling Riverside Blues  05:12
04. Blues Medley  06:34
05. Whole Lotta Love  22.22
06. Around and Around  03:18
07. All My Love  07:41
08. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp  04:57
09. Kashmir  06:15
10. Trampled Underfoot  08:07
11. Achilles Last Stand  09:06
12. Nobody’s Fault But Mine  05:28

Part 1: Link
Part 2: Link
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Part 1: Link
Part 2: Link
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'Whole Lotta Love'

Led Zeppelin II (1969) opens up with one of the most famous guitar riffs in rock history. The guitar parts in "Whole Lotta Love" are largely original, but Robert Plant's lyrics borrowed quite heavily from the 1962 Muddy Waters song "You Need Love." The Small Faces nicked the words in 1966 for their track "You Need Loving," and it's quite clear that Led Zeppelin were familiar with both songs when they wrote "Whole Lotta Love." In 1985, Willie Dixon (who wrote "You Need Love") sued Zeppelin, and he now gets credit on the song. Controversy aside, the song is one of Led Zeppelin's most famous and it was the centerpiece of most of their concerts, often stretching well past 30 minutes. 




"You Need Loving"

The Small Faces (1966) , 'You Need Loving', taken from their first album for Decca,'Small Faces'. This Actual recording is from my first pressed copy of the mono vinyl, which I purchased on it's release date, in 1966.What a voice Steve Marriott has at such a young age, this was before Robert Plant, sang similar on 'Whole Lotta Love'. Steve Marriott, is a great loss to rock music, and his music will always shine.


Saturday, March 15, 2014

The Faces - John Peel Show, England 1970-06-25 FM (Bootleg)



Size: 77.9 MB
Bitrate: 320
mp3
Found in Cyberspace
Some Artwork
FM Broadcast

The Faces were Peel’s favourite band in the first half of the 1970s and he appears to have enjoyed their goodtime approach both musically and socially. As well as “playing” mandolin with the band on Top Of The Pops in 1971, the DJ invited them all to his wedding three years later. In subsequent decades, he continued to cite the Faces’s April 1973 gig at Sunderland Locarno as the best he ever attended.

In 1987, Peel discussed the special attraction of The Faces for him with producer John Walters in the third programme of the Peeling Back The Years series:


Faces - German Single 1970
JW: One band that we have not mentioned in this pre-punk programme that were great favourites of yours and certainly brought you back quite sensibly to good old rock and roller’s enjoyment – and that was the Faces ... They were a band of lads. They’d been the Small Faces, Rod the Mod, all people that were seen – and I remember this very clearly because time changes – in the early ‘70s they were all seen as played out, frankly.

JP: Yes, yes.

JW: “No, not that lot again!”

JP: Well, that was very much my attitude. But as I say, I met them and you and my wife at around the same time – all people with very different attitudes to mine, much more realistic attitudes I think than I had. And I met the Faces backstage at a gig in Newcastle City Hall. And I can’t remember who else was on the bill – I think the Nice were, oddly enough. But anyway, they had a dressing room and I was sitting in – I didn’t have a dressing room – and there was a phone booth backstage and I was sitting in that thinking beautiful thoughts. I mean, genuinely thinking beautiful thoughts, in as far as I was capable of doing that. 


John Peel's Rare Album - Front Cover 1970
And they came and flung the door open and said, “Hello, John, mate, how’s it going, squire?” You know, “Come on, let’s have a drink.” And I didn’t drink at the time at all. And as they went away, my first reaction was, “Dear, oh dear, what dreadful rowdy people.” And then I saw them disappear into their dressing room that was full of scantily clad women and so forth and the sound of breaking glass and curries being flung against walls and so on, and I thought to myself, “Actually, these people are having a much better time than I am,” you know.

JW: So that rather implies that you were attracted socially as a bit of relief. What about the musical side?

JP: Well, because it was – I mean, the music exactly defined the band, you know. There was no sort of pretence in there at all. And I suppose I just got fed up – and as I say, it came about at the same time as I started to work regularly with you and meeting the pig, whose background was vastly different to mine, and as I say, much more rooted in reality. And I just, the Faces for me recaptured the kind of feelings I’d had when I first Little Richard and people like that and Jerry Lee Lewis, in the same way as the Undertones were to a few years later.


Japan Single 1970
John Peel's Archive Things Album, BBC 1970
An LP entitled John Peel's Archive Things was issued by BBC Records in 1970, with a selection of the most popular archive tracks he had played during the show's run, and sleevenotes in which he expressed an enthusiasm for a free-form radio format in which anything might happen. But Peel never again presented such an adventurous programme; the BBC's tight programming schedules made free-form radio impossible and most of the American "underground" FM radio stations which had introduced such open formats gradually turned into commercial stations playing "album-oriented rock". A 1970 article in International Times on censorship in the BBC even suggested that Peel was now working under a "special contract", which forbade him from expressing his opinions on non-musical matters during his shows.

According to Ken Garner's The Peel Sessions , Peel's Night Ride show grew out of an idea by producer John Muir for a "non-needletime" programme drawing on the BBC's store of archive recordings from around the world. This meant that not only were the shows cheaper to produce, but that they also reflected the hippy era's growing interest in exotic cultures.


Faces Billboard November 1970
(open picture in a NEW WINDOW for 100% size)
As Peel remarks in the album notes, there was a positive audience response to some of the "Archive Things", as he called them, so a selection of the most popular pieces appears on the LP. However, Night Ride ended in autumn 1969 and this album was issued in the following year, so there was little chance of it finding airplay on other, more conventional Radio One programmes. In 1970 BBC Records was a small-scale, non-commercial enterprise which did not publicise its releases to any great extent, and "world music" as a popular genre did not exist; so the LP was condemned to obscurity.

The LP was enthusiastically reviewed by Richard Williams in Melody Maker (clipping from grang354 collection - date unknown). Williams claimed that Night Ride "was vastly more adventurous and far more rewarding than Top Gear, because it took us into new, unfamiliar realms of music which, like travel, truly broadened the mind". The album "teaches us the international communication and universal beauty of music, and in many cases it provides clues to music's earliest history. Anybody who can see beyond Cream/Taste/Zeppelin can't fail to enjoy it, and get something out of it"

Peel himself commented on the release of the album in his column for Disc & Music Echo of 1970-06-20 (many thanks to Peel Mailing List member Mick for this information): "If you can recall the Wednesday "Night Ride" I used to help with, then you'll remember the curious things from the BBC archives that were played. Some of the best are gathered together on BBC Radio Enterprises REC 68M which will be easily as hard to get hold of as the "Top Gear" LP was. It's called "Archive Things" and is quite a laugh--brings back memories of a programme that I still miss a lot."

Faces 
June 25, 1970
Paris Theatre
London, England
FM Broadcast  

01. You're My Girl (I Don't Want To Discuss It)  06:17
02. Wicked Messenger  04:18
03. Devotion  06:27
04. It's All Over Now  08:18
05. I Feel So Good  08:39

Bonus Show:
Faces
BBC Transcription Pre-Fm reels
John Peel Sunday Concert
Paris Cinema, London, England 
May 13th 1971

01. You're My Girl (I Don't Want To Discuss It)  12:11
02. Love In Vain  08:26 
03. Bad N' Ruin   05:45
04. It's All Over Now  06:53
05. Had Me A Real Good Time  07:05
06. (I Know) I'm Losing You  06:30

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Friday, March 14, 2014

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Déja Vu (Classic Album US 1970)


Size: 79.1 MB
Bitrate: 256
mp3
Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included
Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Déjà Vu is the second album by Crosby, Stills & Nash, and their first in the quartet configuration of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. It was released in March of 1970 by Atlantic Records, catalogue SD-7200. It topped the pop album chart for one week and generated three Top 40 singles: "Woodstock", "Teach Your Children", and "Our House".

Déjà Vu was greatly anticipated after the popularity of the first CSN album and given the addition of Young to the group, who at the time remained largely unknown to the general public. Stills estimates that the album took around 800 hours of studio time to record; this figure may be exaggerated, even though the individual tracks display meticulous attention to detail. 


The songs, except for "Woodstock", were recorded as individual sessions by each member, with each contributing whatever was needed that could be agreed upon. Young does not appear on all of the tracks, and drummer Dallas Taylor and bassist Greg Reeves are credited on the cover with their names in slightly smaller typeface. Jerry Garcia plays pedal steel on "Teach Your Children" and John Sebastian plays harmonica on the title track.

Four singles were released from the album with all but the last, "Carry On," charting on the Billboard Hot 100. The popularity of the album contributed to the success of the four albums released by each of the members in the wake of Déjà Vu — Neil Young's After the Gold Rush, Stephen Stills' self-titled solo debut, David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name, and Graham Nash's Songs for Beginners. [Wikipedia]


Billboard Magazine July 1970
One of the most hotly awaited second albums in history -- right up there with those by the Beatles and the Band -- Déjà Vu lived up to its expectations and rose to number one on the charts. Those achievements are all the more astonishing given the fact that the group barely held together through the estimated 800 hours it took to record Déjà Vu and scarcely functioned as a group for most of that time. Déjà Vu worked as an album, a product of four potent musical talents who were all ascending to the top of their game coupled with some very skilled production, engineering, and editing. 

There were also some obvious virtues in evidence -- the addition of Neil Young to the Crosby, Stills & Nash lineup added to the level of virtuosity, with Young and Stephen Stills rising to new levels of complexity and volume on their guitars. Young's presence also ratcheted up the range of available voices one notch and added a uniquely idiosyncratic songwriter to the fold, though most of Young's contributions in this area were confined to the second side of the LP. Most of the music, apart from the quartet's version of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock," was done as individual sessions by each of the members when they turned up (which was seldom together), contributing whatever was needed that could be agreed upon. "Carry On" worked as the album's opener when Stills "sacrificed" another copyright, "Questions," which comprised the second half of the track and made it more substantial. 


Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young - German Single 1970
"Woodstock" and "Carry On" represented the group as a whole, while the rest of the record was a showcase for the individual members. David Crosby's "Almost Cut My Hair" was a piece of high-energy hippie-era paranoia not too far removed in subject from the Byrds' "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man," only angrier in mood and texture (especially amid the pumping organ and slashing guitars); the title track, also by Crosby, took 100 hours to work out and was a better-received successor to such experimental works as "Mind Gardens," out of his earlier career with the Byrds, showing his occasional abandonment of a rock beat, or any fixed rhythm at all, in favor of washing over the listener with tones and moods. "Teach Your Children," the major hit off the album, was a reflection of the hippie-era idealism that still filled Graham Nash's life, while "Our House" was his stylistic paean to the late-era Beatles and "4+20" was a gorgeous Stephen Stills blues excursion that was a precursor to the material he would explore on the solo album that followed. 


Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young 1969
And then there were Neil Young's pieces, the exquisitely harmonized "Helpless" (which took many hours to get to the slow version finally used) and the roaring country-ish rockers that ended side two, which underwent a lot of tinkering by Young -- even his seeming throwaway finale, "Everybody I Love You," was a bone thrown to longtime fans as perhaps the greatest Buffalo Springfield song that they didn't record. All of this variety made Déjà Vu a rich musical banquet for the most serious and personal listeners, while mass audiences reveled in the glorious harmonies and the thundering electric guitars, which were presented in even more dramatic and expansive fashion on the tour that followed. [AMG]

Recorded July - December, 1969 at Wally Heider's Studio C, San Francisco and Wally Heider's Studio III, Los Angeles. Released March 11, 1970

Personnel:
♦ David Crosby — vocals all tracks except "4+20"; rhythm guitar on "Almost Cut My Hair," "Woodstock," "Déjà Vu," "Country Girl," and "Everybody I Love You"

♦ Stephen Stills — vocals all tracks except "Almost Cut My Hair"; guitars all tracks except "Our House"; keyboards on "Carry On," "Helpless," "Woodstock," and "Déjà Vu"; bass on "Carry On," "Teach Your Children," and "Déjà Vu"; percussion on "Carry On"

♦ Graham Nash — vocals all tracks except "Almost Cut My Hair" and "4+20"; keyboards on "Almost Cut My Hair," "Woodstock," "Our House," and "Everybody I Love You"; rhythm guitar on "Teach Your Children" and "Country Girl"; percussion on "Carry On" and "Teach Your Children"

♦ Neil Young — vocals on "Helpless" and "Country Girl"; guitars on "Almost Cut My Hair," "Helpless," "Woodstock," "Country Girl," and "Everybody I Love You"; keyboards, harmonica on "Country Girl"

Additional personnel:
♦ Dallas Taylor — drums; tambourine on "Teach Your Children"
♦ Greg Reeves — bass on "Almost Cut My Hair," "Helpless," "Woodstock," "Our House," "Country Girl," and   "Everybody I Love You"
♦ Jerry Garcia — pedal steel guitar on "Teach Your Children"
♦ John Sebastian — harmonica on "Déjà Vu

01. "Carry On"  Stephen Stills 4:26
02. "Teach Your Children" Graham Nash 2:53
03. "Almost Cut My Hair" David Crosby 4:31
04. "Helpless" Neil Young 3:33
05. "Woodstock" Joni Mitchell 3:54
06. "Déjà Vu" David Crosby 4:12
07. "Our House" Graham Nash 2:59
08. "4 + 20" Stephen Stills 2:04
09. "Country Girl (Whiskey Boot Hill/Down Down Down/"Country Girl" (I Think You're Pretty)" Neil Young  5:11
10. "Everybody I Love You" Stephen Stills, Neil Young 2:21

1. Link
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2. Link
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Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young 1969

Article of the day

Tudor Lodge Article -  July 25th 1970  Melody Maker
(Open picture in a new window for 100% size)

Sunday, March 09, 2014

Not to be missed: Blue Cheer - Highlights and Low Lives (Superb Hardrock US 1990)


Size: 104 MB
Bitrate: 256
mp3
Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included
Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Highlights and Lowlives is the eighth studio album by American rock band Blue Cheer, released in 1990 and produced by Jack Endino.

Being a child of the 60's I'm glad to see my favorite band is still alive and kicking. So it wass with great anticipation I ordered "Highlights and Lowlives" --After listening to it a few times I said to myself: " Yeap, that's my Blue Cheer alright". They're stll plugging away with that combination of Blues and Hard Rock that earned them the title of "The Fathers of Heavy Metal".


Album Foldout
As much as I love the music I still haven't figured out why the emphasis on the military shown on this release. Urban Soldiers - good song, but why? "The Flight of the Enola Gay" -- I doubt if Peterson was even born when the Enola Gay took off on "that fateful day". All I can figure is the album came out right about the time of the 50th Anniversary of the bombing. Hell of a topic for a tribute.
But, over all, if you like your Blues with that hard rock edge, get this CD --Blue Steel Dues is the best track of the bunch. Get it even if only for that one song.

Now I don't understand why this one is so underrated. Maybe that 90's style production is the reason why so many people call this one a dull album. But for me this one is a great album. The sound is a heavy blues rock sound and I like it a lot. The highlights for me include "Hunter of Love", "Big Trouble in Paradise", "Flight of the Enola Gay" and the amazing "Blue Steel Dues". The only thing I really have to complain about is that ridiculous album cover. It just blows.


Biography by Wikipedia:
Blue Cheer was an American rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was sporadically active until 2009. Based in San Francisco, Blue Cheer played in a psychedelic blues-rock style, and is also credited as being pioneers of heavy metal (their cover of "Summertime Blues" is sometimes cited as the first in the genre), punk rock, stoner rock, doom metal, experimental rock, and grunge. According to Tim Hills in his book, The Many Lives of the Crystal Ballroom, "Blue Cheer was the epitome of San Francisco psychedelia." Jim Morrison of The Doors called the group "The single most powerful band I've ever seen."

The band is said to have been named after a street brand of LSD and promoted by renowned LSD chemist and former Grateful Dead patron, Owsley Stanley.

Golden years (1967–1969):
Blue Cheer came together in 1967. The formation of the band was organised by Dickie Peterson. Dickie Peterson lived in San Francisco where the sixties music scene was starting to hit the high note. Peterson had previously been with the Davis-based band Andrew Staples & The Oxford Circle, as well as future Blue Cheer members Paul Whaley and Gary Lee Yoder. The original Blue Cheer personnel were singer/bassist Dickie Peterson, guitarist Leigh Stephens and Eric Albronda as drummer. Albronda was later replaced by Paul Whaley, who was joined by Dickie's brother Jerre Peterson (guitar), Vale Hamanaka (keyboards), and Jere Whiting (vocals, harmonica). Albronda continued his association with Blue Cheer as a member of Blue Cheer management, as well as being the producer or co-producer of five Blue Cheer albums.


Dickie Peterson 1990
The band was managed by an ex-member of the Hells Angels named Gut. Early on, it was decided that the lineup should be trimmed down. It was said that Blue Cheer decided to adopt a power trio configuration after seeing Jimi Hendrix perform at the Monterey Pop Festival, but was later proven to be false. Hamanaka and Whiting were asked to leave. Jerre Peterson didn't want to remain in the group without them, so he departed as well, leaving Dickie, Leigh and Paul as a trio. Their first hit was a cover version of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" from their debut album Vincebus Eruptum (1968). The single peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, their only such hit, and the album peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 chart. In Canada, the song peaked at #3 on the RPM Magazine charts.

The "Summertime Blues" single was backed with Dickie Peterson's original song "Out Of Focus". Peterson also contributed to the album the eight-minute "Doctor Please" and "Second Time Around", which features Paul Whaley's frantic drum solo. Filling out the record, the band cranked out blues covers "Rock Me Baby" and Mose Allison's "Parchman Farm" (titled "Parchment Farm").

The group underwent several personnel changes, the first occurring after the 1968 release of Outsideinside after Leigh Stephens left the band due to musical differences or, as some report, deafness. He was replaced by Randy Holden, formerly of Los Angeles garage rock band The Other Half. On 1969's New! Improved! Blue Cheer there were different guitarists on side 1 and side 2 (Randy Holden and Bruce Stephens) due to Holden's unanticipated departure from the band. Following Holden's departure the band's lineup initially consisted of Dickie Peterson (bass), Tom Weisser (guitar), and Mitch Mitchell (drums), before Whaley returned and Stephens joined the band. Later, Ralph Burns Kellogg also joined the band on keyboards. Blue Cheer's style now changed to a more commercial hard rock sound à la Steppenwolf or Iron Butterfly. By the fourth album Blue Cheer Paul Whaley had left the band and had been replaced by Norman Mayell, and following the release of the fourth album Bruce Stephens also left the band and was succeeded by Gary Lee Yoder who helped complete the album.


According to Dickie Peterson the group's lifestyle during this period caused problems with the music industry and press. Peterson said the group was outraged by the Vietnam War and society in general.

Reconfigurations, inactivity and first extended hiatus (1970s):
The new line-up of Peterson, Kellogg, Mayell and Yoder in 1970 saw the release of The Original Human Being, followed by 1971's Oh! Pleasant Hope. When Oh! Pleasant Hope failed to dent the sales charts, Blue Cheer temporarily split up in 1972.

There was a temporary resumption in 1974 with Dickie Peterson being joined by brother Jerre, Ruben de Fuentes (guitar) and Terry Rae (drums) for some tour dates. This grouping continued on briefly in 1975 with former Steppenwolf bassist Nick St. Nicholas replacing Dickie. The group was then largely inactive for nearly three years, until 1978.

Dickie returned in 1978–79 with a fresh line-up of Tony Rainier on guitar and Mike Fleck on drums. This version of the group went out on an American tour in 1979, primarily playing nightclubs. They played only material from the first two "heavy" Blue Cheer albums, opening their shows with "Summertime Blues".

Further reconfigurations, relocation to Germany, second and third extended hiatus (1980s–1998):
Blue Cheer was once again inactive in the early 1980s. There was another attempt to reunite in 1983, but that fell through. In 1984, Peterson had better luck when he returned with Whaley and Rainier as Blue Cheer and a brand new album The Beast Is Back, which was released on the New York label Megaforce Records. Whaley left again in 1985 as drummer Brent Harknett took over, only to be succeeded by Billy Carmassi in 1987. That same year, Dickie led yet another new lineup of the Cheer that had Ruben de Fuentes back on guitar and Eric Davis on drums. In 1988, the line-up changed once again, being now composed of Dickie Peterson (bass), with Andrew "Duck" MacDonald (guitar) and Dave Salce (drums).


Blue Cheer 1967
From 1989 to 1993, Blue Cheer toured mainly in Europe. During this time, they played with classic rock acts as well as then-up-and-coming bands: Mountain, Outlaws, Thunder, The Groundhogs, Ten Years After, Mucky Pup, Biohazard and others.

1989 saw the release of Blue Cheer's first official live album, Blitzkrieg over Nüremberg. This album was recorded during Blue Cheer's first European tour in decades.

1990 saw the release of the Highlights and Lowlives studio album, composed of blues-based heavy metal and one ballad. The album was co-produced by notable grunge producer Jack Endino and producer Roland Hofmann. The line-up was Peterson, Whaley on drums and MacDonald on guitars.

Blue Cheer followed up "Highlights" with the much heavier Dining with the Sharks. Duck MacDonald was replaced by German ex-Monsters guitar player Dieter Saller in 1990. Also featured is a special guest appearance by Groundhogs guitarist Tony McPhee. The album was co-produced by Roland Hofmann and Blue Cheer. Gary Holland (ex-Dokken/Great White/Britton) replaced Whaley on drums in 1993.

In the early 1990s, Peterson and Whaley re-located to Germany. In 1992 Peterson recorded his first solo album "child of the darkness" in Cologne with a band named "The Scrap Yard". The album appeared five years later in Japan on Captain Trip Records. After Peterson came back to the U.S. (1994), Blue Cheer was dormant from 1994 to 1999.


Blue Cheer 1969
The return of Blue Cheer (1999–2009):
In 1999, Peterson & Whaley got together with guitarist MacDonald, to resume touring as Blue Cheer. This band configuration remained largely constant from 1999 until Peterson's death in 2009.

In 2000, Blue Cheer was the subject of a tribute album, Blue Explosion – A Tribute to Blue Cheer, featuring such bands as Pentagram, Internal Void, Hogwash and Thumlock.

Peterson and Leigh Stephens were together once again in Blue Cheer with drummer Prairie Prince at the Chet Helms Memorial Tribal Stomp in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on October 29, 2005, and their lively performance drew old rockers like Paul Kantner and others from backstage to observe. They did some recordings in Virginia in Winter 2005 with Joe Hasselvander of Raven and Pentagram on drums, due to Paul Whaley choosing to remain in Germany. While Hasselvander played on the entire album, his contribution was reduced to drums on five songs, with Paul Whaley re-recording the drum parts on the balance of the album. This was because Whaley was set to rejoin the band and it was felt that he should contribute to the album, prior to touring. The resulting CD, What Doesn't Kill You..., released in 2007, features contributions from both Whaley and Hasselvander as a consequence.

Blue Cheer's video for Summertime Blues made an appearance in 2005 documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, where Geddy Lee of Rush referred to the group as one of the first heavy metal bands.

Death of Dickie Peterson and disbandment (2009):
On October 12, 2009, Peterson died in Germany after development and spread of prostate cancer. After Peterson's death, longtime Blue Cheer guitarist Andrew MacDonald wrote on the group's website that "Blue Cheer is done. Out of respect for Dickie, Blue Cheer (will) never become a viable touring band again."

Personnel for this album:
♦ Dickie Peterson - bass guitar, lead vocals
♦ Duck MacDonald - lead guitar, backing vocals
♦ Paul Whaley - drums

01. "Urban Soldiers" (Dickie Peterson) - 4:09
02. "Hunter of Love" (Duck MacDonald, Peterson) - 5:32
03. "Girl from London" (MacDonald, Peterson) - 5:40
04. "Blue Steel Dues" (MacDonald, Peterson) - 6:19
05. "Big Trouble in Paradise" (Peterson, Rainer) - 4:11
06. "Flight of the Enola Gay" (MacDonald, Peterson) - 3:49
07. "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man" (Willie Dixon) - 5:56
08. "Down and Dirty" (MacDonald, Peterson) - 4:35

Japanese Bonus Track 
09. "Blues Cadillac" (Peterson) - 3:49

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