live at leeds

The Who captured their ferocious live energy with this incendiary performance recorded at the peak of their powers.    In the wake of the tour supporting 'Tommy', the band had developed a reputation for their concerts that led them to consider putting out a live album.  Faced with the prospect of listening to countless hours of tapes from their recent tour, Pete Townshend decided that they should instead record a couple of shows for the purpose of creating the live album.  The first show at the University of Leeds took place on February 14, 1970 and the second then next night in Hull utilizing the Pye Mobile Recording Unit.  Jon Astley and Kit Lambert produced the recording alongside The Who; but, when there were problems with some of the recording at Hull, the concert at Leeds was the only one used.  

Townshend looks back:    "There was some nice stuff there. I don’t know what possessed me to actually start to play like that. I suppose it just must have been the influence of Hendrix. Because up to that point I just wasn’t interested in single-note work. It seemed mad for me to even try to compete with the likes of Beck and Clapton and Jimmy Page. I first saw Jimmy Page when I was 14 or 15 and he was already in a professional band. He was one year older than me and he was in a professional band at 16 and he was earning 30 pounds a week when I was just still in school. He was playing really fast stuff and Ritchie Blackmore was in a heavy pop band like a Ventures-type outfit. You would just listen to records like that open-mouthed at the time. But at one particular time after Hendrix I decided it was worth trying to express myself through single note work. I think a lot of the help was when Henry introduced me to the SG. It fitted my sound and had a lyrical quality to it because the neck was so uncluttered at the top you could play high."

'Live at Leeds' charted at number thirteen in Norway, eight in Germany, six in Australia, five in the Netherlands, four in the US, three in the UK, and number two in Canada.  It is considered by many to be one of the greatest live rock albums ever released.  






http://thewho.com/







Side one
1. "Young Man Blues" (Mose Allison) 4:46
2. "Substitute" (Pete Townshend) 2:10
3. "Summertime Blues" (Jerry Capehart and Eddie Cochran) 3:22
4. "Shakin' All Over" (Johnny Kidd) 4:20




Side two
1. "My Generation" (Pete Townshend) 14:45


2. "Magic Bus" (Pete Townshend) 7:57







'Live at Leeds'
full album:
original LP



Side one
1. "Young Man Blues" (Mose Allison) 4:46
2. "Substitute" (Pete Townshend) 2:10
3. "Summertime Blues" (Jerry Capehart, Eddie Cochran) 3:22
4. "Shakin' All Over" (Johnny Kidd) 4:20
Side two
1. "My Generation" (Townshend) 14:45
2. "Magic Bus" (Townshend) 7:57




'Live at Leeds'
deluxe edition full concert:  



All songs written by Pete Townshend, except where noted.


1. "Heaven and Hell"  (John Entwistle) 5:07
2. "I Can't Explain"   2:26
3. "Fortune Teller"  (Naomi Neville)   2:35
4. "Tattoo"   3:01
5. "Young Man Blues"   5:14
6. "Substitute"   3:04
7. "Happy Jack"   2:14
8. "I'm a Boy"   2:46
9. "A Quick One, While He's Away"   8:41
10. "Summertime Blues"   3:22
11. "Shakin' All Over"   4:35
12. "My Generation"   15:25
13. "Magic Bus"   7:56

mtv unplugged in new york

Nirvana found a fitting epitaph in the eternal sigh of this haunted and harrowing acoustic augury.    The band had grown from the indie obscurity of their debut 'Bleach' to begrudgingly find superstardom with their major label debut 'Nevermind'.  Unsatisfied with the slick sound of their breakthrough, for their third album, they defied expectations (and the hopes of music executives) and produced the decidedly radio unfriendly 'In Utero'.  

At this point, the band accepted an offer to do a  performance for the trendy MTV 'Unplugged' series; but they were determined to do it on their own terms.  Producer Alex Coletti remembers:   "We got a setlist out of the band, and other than 'Come As You Are,' there are no real Nirvana hits.  I wish Kurt or someone in the band or management clued us into 'We put thought into this, this works this way, trust us.' Instead it was just [defiantly] 'This is what we’re doing.'...Not being familiar with some of the covers, some of the people here became very tense about 'We’ve got to get them to do more hits.'...I said to MTV, They're going to bring some guests on.' And at first everybody's eyes lit up, like, ‘Who's it gonna be?’ They wanted to hear the 'right names' — Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos…But when I said 'the Meat Puppets,' it was kind of like, 'Oh, great. They're not doing any hits, and they're inviting guests who don't have any hits to come play. Perfect.'"

Also at this time, Kurt Cobain was struggling with stomach problems and addition:    "I've been recuperating...I had done heroin for about a year, off and on. I've had this stomach condition for like five years. There were times, especially during touring, when I just felt like a drug addict - even though I wasn't - because I was starving [an outgrowth of this condition--Editor] and couldn't find out what was wrong with me. I tried everything I could think of. Change diet, pills, everything... exercised, stopped drinking, stopped smoking, and nothing worked. I just decided that if I'm going to feel like a junkie every day fucking morning and be vomiting every day then I may as well take a substance that kills that pain. I can't say that's the main reason why I did it, but that has a lot to do with it. It has a lot more to do with it than most people think...Most of the time I sing right from my stomach. Right from where the pain is...It's definitely there. Every time I've had an endoscope, they find a red irritation in my stomach. But it's psychosomatic, it's all from anger. And screaming. My body is damaged from music in two ways: not only has my stomach inflamed from irritation, but I have scoliosis. I had minor scoliosis in junior high, and since I've been playing guitar ever since, the weight of the guitar has made my back grow in this curvature. So when I stand, everything is sideways, it's weird...It gives me a back pain all the time. That really add the pain to our music. It really does. I'm kind of grateful for it."

Despite his health issues (he had been throwing up bile and blood the night before), the show was taped on November 18, 1993 at Sony Music Studios in New York City.  The set was put together with dark curtains, stargazer lilies, black candles, and a crystal chandelier, as per the request of Cobain ("Like a funeral.").   The performance was produced by Alex Coletti, Scott Litt, and Nirvana and featured Kurt Cobain on lead vocals and acoustic guitar;   Krist Novoselic on acoustic bass, accordion, and acoustic rhythm guitar;  and Dave Grohl on drums, backing vocals, and acoustic bass;   with Pat Smear on acoustic guitar, Lori Goldston on cello,  and special guests The Meat Puppets (Cris Kirkwood on acoustic bass and backing vocals and Curt Kirkwood on acoustic lead guitar) sitting in for renditions of three songs from their 'Meat Puppets II' album.   Challenges that had plagued rehersals evaporated during the live set when Cobain suggested he do 'Pennyroyal Tea' alone.  

Grohl looks back:  "I had this small cocktail drum set and these really light sticks.  In rehearsal, we would do a song, and Kurt would turn to me and say, 'Hey, do you think you could play it a little bit lighter?' 'Oh yeah, I'll try.' So we'd do another take, and he'd turn around and go, 'Could you bring it down just a little bit more?' And we'd do another take, and he'd say, 'You know what, just still, could you bring it down?' And I was like, 'Should I even f---ing be here?' ... We'd seen a lot of other bands do Unplugged tapings, and what they'd done was basically rock out the songs as if they were playing electric instruments. They didn't do anything to change the songs; they just basically plugged in acoustic guitars instead of electric ones. There was no way we were going to try to pull off 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' with f---ing acoustic guitars. It wouldn't work...I think Kurt wanted to bring it down to just the lowest, most dirge-like, Leonard Cohen level, which was really fun. I think that's what made it so special; it wasn't just acoustic versions of Nevermind."


Novoselic joked that the point was "to show off our softer side — like scented toilet paper...Doing MTV Unplugged was a lot of fun…It was a Nirvana triumph, but it's also Nirvana Lite. But it was cool that we managed to pull it off. At least I got to play my accordion."

Rather than re-record songs as was typical for other acts, Nirvana plowed through their set in one take that lasted less than an hour.  After a particularly cathartic version of Leadbelly's 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night', Cobain refused to go back out and do an encore.  His final plea with the producers:   "I can’t top that last song."  

Afterward, Cobain was still uncertain with the tentative audience response, confiding in MTV's Amy Finnerty:  “No one liked it...They just sat there silently.”
She reassured him:  “Kurt, they think you are Jesus Christ.  Most of these people have never had the opportunity to see you that close. They were totally taken with you.” 
Cobain reconsidered:  “I was really fucking good tonight, wasn’t I?”

After Cobain's death in April of 1994, MTV played the concert around the clock.  DGC announced that the 'Unplugged' show would be released as part of a retrospective double live album called 'Verse Chorus Verse'; however, Novoselic and Grohl were still too grieved to compile the release and decided to just release 'MTV Unplugged in New York'.  During its first week of release in November of 1994, the album debuted at number one with three hundred and ten thousand, five hundred copies sold.  It also charted at number twenty in Japan; six in Germany and Norway; three in Belgium and Switzerland; two in the Netherlands and Sweden; and number one in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, New Zealand, Spain, and the UK.  'MTV Unplugged in New York' also won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.  







http://www.nirvana.com/









'MTV Unplugged in New York'
full show:


Nirvana - MTV Unplugged 1993 by fecalmaster

All songs written by Kurt Cobain, except where noted.

About a Girl — 01:09
Come As You Are — 04:17
Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam (The Vaselines) — 08:47
The Man Who Sold the World (David Bowie) — 13:23
Pennyroyal Tea — 17:47
Dumb — 22:35
Polly — 25:52
On a Plain — 29:32
Something in the Way — 33:07
Plateau (Meat Puppets) — 40:50
Oh, Me (Meat Puppets) — 44:20
Lake Of Fire (Meat Puppets) — 47:40
All Apologies — 51:31
Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Leadbelly) — 58:00






bare witness: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9HE8rlJeNg





rehersals

fathers and sons

Muddy Waters went back to the blues with a new generation of hot young players to create this double album of studio and live tracks.  Waters had experimented with psychedelic blues on his previous efforts 'Electric Mud' and 'After the Rain'; but the albums were not well received in the blues community, even though they proved influential to psychedelic rock.  

Guitarist Mike Bloomfield came up with the idea to make a record with his idol Waters.    Marshall Chess recalled:   "Michael was at my house and he said he'd like to do a record with Muddy and Paul.  The title, 'Fathers and Sons', was his idea."  

Waters considered:   "That's a very good title, 'cause I am the daddy, and all these kids are my sons.  I feel there are so many kids tracking in my tracks that I'm the father out there...I think it was one of the greatest sessions we did since Little Walter's time and Jimmy Rodgers'.  We was close to the old sound."

The studio disc of  'Fathers and Sons' was recorded April 21–23, 1969 at Tel Mar Studios and engineered by Ron Malo, while the live songs were recorded on April 24, 1969 at the Super Cosmic Joy-Scout Jamboree and engineered by Reice Hamel.   The entire project was produced by Norman Dayron and featured Muddy Waters on  vocals and guitar;   Otis Spann on piano;   Michael Bloomfield on guitar;   Paul Butterfield on harmonica;   Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass guitar;   Sam Lay on drums;   and Paul Asbell on rhythm guitar;  with Buddy Miles on drums on "Got My Mojo Working, Part 2";   and Jeff Carp on chromatic harmonica and Phil Upchurch on bass guitar on "All Aboard".  

Butterfield revealed:   "Duck Dunn had never played this kind of music, really.  And most of the cats haven't been playing this type of music for a long while.  It really made me feel good to get back and really be playing some stuff on the harp that was what I came from, the thing that really turned me on to be playing in the first place.  Now I'm playing different things, different changes.  It made me feel so good to be playing something that wasn't just, 'Well, we'll get together and do this recording.'  We've been enjoying ourselves.  Really felt good...A lot of it had to do with Muddy's singing.  Muddy might not be a young cat anymore, but he's doing it.  He still gets an awful good feeling for me for playing.  He's the main cat; we're playing with Muddy.  It's his feeling, and the way he's doing the stuff is making us feel really good.  Feeling is 99 percent of it.  If you're not feeling the music, how can you expect the other cats who are playing to really feel it?"

Spann said:    "It did remind me of old times.  I had more feeling in the session than I've had in a long time.  It's a funny thing, the people say the white kids can't play blues, but that's wrong."

http://www.muddywaters.com/


http://www.mikebloomfield.com/

'Fathers and Sons'
full album:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1pEnapsr1k



All songs written by McKinley Morganfield, except where indicated.

Side A (studio)
00:00 "All Aboard" – 2:50
02:56 "Mean Disposition" – 5:42
08:42 "Blow Wind Blow" – 3:35
12:26 "Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had" – 3:03
15:32 "Walkin' Thru The Park" – 3:07

Side B (studio)
18:52 "Forty Days and Forty Nights" (Bernard Roth) – 3:04
22:02 "Standin' Round Crying" – 4:01
26:10 "I'm Ready" (Willie Dixon) – 3:33
29:52 "Twenty Four Hours" (Eddie Boyd) – 4:46
34:42 "Sugar Sweet – 2:16

Side C (live)
37:00 "Long Distance Call" – 6:35
43:30 "Baby, Please Don't Go" (Big Joe Williams) – 3:05
46:36 "Honey Bee" – 3:57

Side D (live)
50:32 "The Same Thing" (Dixon) – 6:00
56:36 "Got My Mojo Working, Part 1" (Preston Foster, Morganfield) – 3:39
1:01:00 "Got My Mojo Working, Part 2" (Foster, Morganfield) – 5:33

roxy & elsewhere

Zappa and the Mothers dummied up some be-bop bondage and  twisted tango for this intricate inspired improvization.  The double-live album captures the band at the height of its powers with most of the material recorded at The Roxy Theatre in Hollywood, California during three nights in December of 1973 with three songs recorded at the Edinboro State College, Edinboro, Pennsylvania and the  Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois in May of 1974.  'Roxy & Elsewhere' features Frank Zappa on guitar, vocals, and production;   Napoleon Murphy Brock on flute, tenor saxophone, and vocals;   George Duke on synthesizer, keyboards, and vocals;  Bruce Fowler on trombone and dancing;  Tom Fowler on bass guitar;  Walt Fowler on trumpet and bass trumpet;   Ralph Humphrey and Chester Thompson on drums;  Don Preston on synthesizer;  Jeff Simmons on rhythm guitar and vocals;  and Ruth Underwood on percussion;  with Robert "Frog" Camarena, Debbie, Lynn, and Ruben Ladron de Guevara on backing vocals.   

 'Roxy & Elsewhere'  went to number twenty-seven on the US pop album chart.  






http://www.zappa.com/







movie trailer








'Roxy & Elsewhere' 
full album:



Side one
1. "Penguin in Bondage"   6:48
2. "Pygmy Twylyte"   2:13
3. "Dummy Up" (Brock, Simmons, and Zappa) 6:02
Side two
4. "Village of the Sun"   4:17
5. "Echidna's Arf (Of You)"   3:52
6. "Don't You Ever Wash That Thing?"   9:40
Side three
7. "Cheepnis"   6:33
8. "Son of Orange County"   5:53
9. "More Trouble Every Day"   6:00
Side four
10. "Be-Bop Tango (Of the Old Jazzmen's Church)"   16:41









http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BynKe8BjIxk&list=RDlnDqHppWS_Q&index=5



01:48 Cosmik Debris
09:49 Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue
10:53 Kung Fu
11:54 Penguin In Bondage
16:02 RDNZL
20:26 Montana
29:01 Dupree's Paradise
53:44 Join The March And Eat My Starch
54:22 Farther Oblivion

rust never sleeps

Neil Young revitalized his career by embracing the spirit of punk while staying true to his roots with this half acoustic, half electric tour de force.  After recording the country folk of 'Comes a Time' in 1977, Young was ready to move on to something new.  He became involved in the film 'Human Highway' with Devo, who recorded a version of his song 'Out of the Blue' with him in the film.  During the performance, Mark Mothersbaugh was chanting the phrase "rust never sleeps" which was part of an advertising campaign he had done for Rustoleum paint.  Young put it in the song and used it as the template for his next big project:  a choreographed concert to be recorded and filmed.  The shows would begin acoustic and, after the road crew put together huge amplifiers during the concert, end with a raucous electric set with Crazy Horse.  

Young would reveal at the time:   "I wanted people to leave saying that Neil Young's show was the loudest fucking thing they'd ever heard...I first knew something was going on when we visited England a year and a half ago.  Kids were tired of the rock stars and the limousines and the abusing of stage privileges as stars. There was new music the kids were listening to. As soon as I heard my contemporaries saying, 'God, what the fuck is this....This is going to be over in three month,' I knew it was a sure sign right there that they're going to bite it if they don't watch out. And a lot of them are biting it this year. People are not going to come back to see the same thing over and over again. It's got to change. It's the snake that eats itself. Punk music, New Wave. You call it what you want. It's rock & roll to me, it's still the basis of what's going on...I knew I had to get out there and rock.  But I also knew that I couldn't see myself out there doing it the way it had always been. Standing out there with a microphone. It's got to continue to be as new as when it started...The music business is so big these days, I feel dwarfed by it. I mean, I put out a record and, you know, it does okay. Somebody like Foreigner or Boston, they come out with a record and sell ten times as many as I do. I think that's great. But I still feel like this...little guy...You know, I do the same thing over and over and over again. It has a slightly different look to it every time. This tour seemed to wrap something up. It's a retrospective, but it's looking back on right now. I think I broke through to another arena; now, people won't be surprised if I enhance the program with actors and diverge totally away from music, then come back out of it into music again. It's making rock & roll more visible to me...I'm lucky.  Somehow, by doing what I wanted to do, I manage to give people what they don't want to hear and they still come back. I haven't been able to figure that out yet...People don't understand sometimes, how I can come in and go out so fast, how I can be there and want to do something and then when it's over, for me it's over. To other people it's just a beginning. Sometimes that's hard for people to take. I can see how that would be. I just don't like to stay in one place very long. I move around, I keep doing different things...Just different things...I only follow the [impulses] I get.  And if it makes me laugh... I know it's a good one. Basically I've had a really good time, even though my songs have mostly expressed the down side. I like that there's a lot of humor in rock & roll now. A lot of people take me so seriously. They don't know what to do with me not taking myself so seriously anymore. I guess it's just that a lot of people from the Sixties and early Seventies...just aren't that funny...I've got a job to do, The Eighties are here. I've got to just tear down whatever has happened to me and build something new. You can only have it for so long before you don't have it anymore. You become an old-timer... which... I could be... I don't know.    After all, it's just me and Frank Sinatra left on Reprise Records."

Much of  'Rust Never Sleeps' was recorded live at San Francisco's Boarding House and during the Neil Young tour with Crazy Horse in late 1978.  Overdubs were added later and two songs were recorded in the studio before the tour.   Produced by Neil Young, David Briggs, and Tim Mulligan,  the album features Neil Young on guitar, harmonica, organ, and vocals;   Frank "Pancho" Sampedro on guitar and vocals on side two;  Billy Talbot on bass and vocals on side two;  Ralph Molina on drums and vocals on side two;   Nicolette Larson on vocals on "Sail Away";  Karl T. Himmel on drums on "Sail Away";  and Joe Osborn on bass on "Sail Away".

'Rust Never Sleeps' hit number twenty-eight in Canada,  thirteen in the UK, nine in Sweden,  eight in Australia and the US, and number seven in New Zealand.  The electric sound presaged the grunge movement and gave Young new credibility with the kids.  






http://www.neilyoung.com/





'Rust Never Sleeps' 
film trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir9VmO0cBbQ


film playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL67A9D7A1299DB8BC




"My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" (Young, Jeff Blackburn) – 3:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpr8Y39FLMA




"Thrasher" – 5:38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t00MXZKbW0M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PsdaoKuNLg





"Sail Away" – 3:46
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrd03CvfbQs




"Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" (Young, Blackburn) – 5:18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQhEvfeJocM




My my, hey hey
Rock and roll is here to stay
It's better to burn out
Than to fade away
My my, hey hey.

Out of the blue and into the black
They give you this, but you pay for that
And once you're gone, you can never come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black.

The king is gone but he's not forgotten
This is the story of a Johnny Rotten
It's better to burn out than it is to rust ('cause rust never sleeps)
The king is gone but he's not forgotten.

Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There's more to the picture
Than meets the eye.
Hey hey, my my.

full album:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrQRSk_JRU4Xt4u5a5UMqd4GPGnIxk2ZO





All tracks written by Neil Young except where noted

Side one (acoustic)
1."My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)"  Neil Young, Jeff Blackburn 3:45
2."Thrasher"   5:38
3."Ride My Llama"   2:29
4."Pocahontas"   3:22
5."Sail Away"   3:46
Side two (electric)
1."Powderfinger"   5:30
2."Welfare Mothers"   3:48
3."Sedan Delivery"   4:40
4."Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)"  Neil Young, Jeff Blackburn 5:18