Fleetwood Mac - 1972-03-10 - Paramount Theater, Seattle, WA

Fleetwood Mac

March 10, 1972
Paramount Theater, Seattle WA
FM Broadcast Recording (KISW-FM), Very Good Quality
Avaialble in both Lossless (FLAC) and Mp3 (320kbps) versions

Continuing now with another popular radio-friendly band from the '70's, Fleetwood Mac, but with a twist. Most know and love Fleetwood Mac from their superstardom success from 1975 and beyond (The Buckingham-Nicks years), and then there are those that tout and prefer the early guitar blues-rock of the band (1967-1970) when lead by legendary guitarist Peter Green. But my favorite period of the band was the much less heralded transition years (1971-1974) between those two distinctly different periods, the Bob Welch years. It was a time that carried over some of the more rockin' and bluesy aspects of the earlier band, while also developing the pop sensibilities needed for radio and hit singles success. This was also the period when Christine McVie became a prominent member of the band, both with her vocals and songwriting, leading the way for more commercial success. They released 5 albums during this period, including some of their best, though not as successful as later entries. However, it was also a very turbulent period, with much turmoil, dissension, and turnover within the band, as well as legal issues and even the emergence of an imitation version of Fleetwood Mac. Despite everything going on, they put out a series of fine albums that set the stage for their greater success to come. Ok, so, by 1971, Original members and dual guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer had left the band, leaving guitarist Danny Kirwan, drummer Mick Fleetwood, and bassist John McVie. The former keyboardist-vocalist Christine Perfect, now married to McVie, had contributed (uncredited) to their 1970 album Kiln House, and was now made a full-time member of the band. And they also brought in guitarist-vocalist Bob Welch. The first album with this new lineup was Future Games (1971), which was, not surprisingly, a major departure from their previous albums. The songwriting and vocals were split among Kirwan, Welch, and C. McVie, with each having somewhat different styles. But the new format seemed to gain more attention in the US, eventually resulting in the earliest of their albums to receive a gold record there. But the next album, Bare Trees (1972) would be a major breakthrough, particularly in the US. Again featuring songs split among Kirwan, Welch, and McVie, this album featured the radio breakout songs Welch's 'Sentimental Lady' and Christine's signature 'Spare Me a Little', both of which received much radio airplay on FM AOR stations, and became band staples (with 'Spare Me A Little' laying the foundation for many future successful Christine-fronted singles). However, during the subsequent tour, Kirwan's alcohol and drug problems became insurmountable, and he was fired from the band.  This led to several additional lineup changes over the next couple years (which I will get to in the next post). For now, let's enjoy the final era of the band with Danny Kirwan still a part. Here is a show from early in 1972, just prior to the release of Bare Trees. Thus the show features the threesome of songwriter-vocals of Bob Welch, Danny Kirwan, and Christine McVie, and songs primarily from Future Games and Bare Trees, as well as some of their older catalog, rendered fresh by the guitar work of Welch and Kirwan. This was the first major tour that featured Welch and McVie, as well as the last to include Kirwan. This is a very good radio broadcast recording from the Seattle show. Since this radio show was a bit short, I have added a few bonus tracks from an August show in NY, which was one of the very last shows that included Kirwan (also of note is that the final track here, 'Trinity', is quite a rarity in that it was a Kirwan song that was recorded for the Bare Trees album sessions, but was not included on the album, and was not heard or released at all until many years later).   

Tracklist:
1. Tell Me All The Things You Do
2. Future Games
3. Get Like You Used To Be
4. Little Child Of Mine
5. Spare Me A Little
6. Homeward Bound
7. Black Magic Woman
8. Oh! Well
Bonus Tracks (1972-08-30 - Gaelic Park, The Bronx, NY):
9. Green Manalishi
10. Morning Rain
11. Trinity

Personnel:
Bob Welch: Guitar and Vocals
Danny Kirwan: Vocals And Guitar
Christine McVie: Keyboards and Vocals
John McVie: Bass
Mick Fleetwood: Drums

FLAC - Fleetwood Mac_1972-03-10_SeattleWA_FLAC.rar

Mp3 - Fleetwood Mac_1972-03-10_SeattleWA_Mp3.rar

The Doobie Brothers - 1979-02-22 - Budokn Hall, Tokyo, Japan

The Doobie Brothers

February 22nd, 1979
Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Soundboard recording, very good quality
Available in both Lossless (FLAC) and Mp3 (320 kbps) versions
 
Here's one more from The Doobie Brothers, this time from the peak of the Michael McDonald years. As mentioned in the last post, Michael McDonald was brought in as a last-minute replacement for the ailing and hospitalized Tom Johnston in order to finish their 1975 tour. But Johnston was still sidelined and needing rest in 1976 when the band was preparing for their next album. And since Johnston was also one of their primary songwriters, they were in need of substantial additional material to record. So, McDonald, who had a bunch of demos of songs he was working on for himself, brought his songs to the band, became a full-time member and the band moved on from there. However, McDonald's songs, style, and groove, with his more laid-back, blue-eyed soul, jazzy style and soft- spoken vocals were very much different from the previous signature sound (Johnston's hard-rockin' guitar songs) of the band, but they made it work. The album, Takin' It To The Streets (1976), debuted this new form of the band, and was quite successful, with two of McDonald's songs, 'Takin It To the Streets' and 'It Keeps You Runnin' becoming radio hits. BTW, Tom Johnston did write, play, and sing lead on one song, as well as share vocals with Simmons on one other song, but that was the extent of his involvement on the album. Whereas McDonald's songs and style dominated, bringing a different sound to the band, in general, their success continued undaunted. By the next album, Johnston was back, and participated in the recording sessions early on, but the band dynamics had changed and Johnston left during the sessions and the band carried on without him. Although Johnston wrote and recorded 5 songs with the band, none of them were put on the new album, Livin on the Fault Line (1977), which further cemented McDonald's lead role in the band. The next album, Minute By Minute (1978) became their most successful album, reaching No.1 in the Us and Canada, and hit singles 'What a Fool Believes' and 'Minute By Minute' (both McDonald songs). However, the huge success of the album was marred by internal turmoil within the band, as guitarist Jeff Baxter, drummer John Hartman, and percussionist Bobby LaKind left the band in early 1979. The band would make only one more album, One Step Closer (1980), before disbanding following further departures of Porter and Simmons. There would be various reunions in the late '80's, 90's, and beyond, but the glory days were over by the '80's. The show posted here is a great soundboard recording from early 1979, among the last shows to include Baxter and Hartman, and featuring a greatest hits of McDonald's songs, as well as songs from earlier in the band's career. A fine example of the band at the peak of the McDonald years.  

Tracklist:
1. Jesus Is Just Alright
2. Long Train Runnin'
3. Sweet Maxine
4. It Keeps You Runnin'
5. Take Me In Your Arms
6. Open Your Eyes
7. What A Fool Believes
8. Neal's Fandango
9. Echoes Of Love
10. You Made That Way
11. Black Water
12. Steamer Lane Breakdown
13. Road Angel
14. China Grove
15. Takin' It To The Streets
16. Listen To The Music

Runtime - 1 Hour 17 Minutes 6 Seconds

Patrick Simmons - Guitar, Vocals
Michael McDonald - Keyboards, Synthesizers, Vocals
Jeffrey Baxter - Guitar
Tiran Porter - Bass, Vocals
John Hartman - Drums
Keith Knudsen - Drums, Vocals

FLAC part1 - Doobie Brothers_1979-02-22_Tokyo_FLAC1.rar
FLAC part2 - Doobie Brothers_1979-02-22_Tokyo_FLAC2.rar

  mp3 - Doobie Brothers_1979-02-22_Tokyo_mp3.rar

The Doobie Brothers - 1975-10-26 - Von Braun Center, Huntsville, AL (plus bonus tracks)

The Doobie Brothers

1975-10-26
Von Braun Center, Huntsville, AL
FM Broadcast recording, very good quality
Available in both Lossless (FLAC) and Mp3 (320 kbps) versions

Here's another classic show from The Doobie Brothers, a couple years after the last one posted, which was still when they were a guitar-driven rockin' band, but also at a time when major changes were coming. The band followed up the success of Captain and Me (1973)  with another blockbuster album, What Were Once Vices are Now Habits (1974). Shortly after finishing recording their next album, Stampede (1975), in late 1974, it was obvious that Tom Johnston's health  was in bad shape. He needed to take time off, but the band started a promotional tour in early 1975, which Johnston started, but couldn't finish, as he required emergency hospitalization for severe bleeding ulcers and an extended recovery time. In order to finish the tour, the band brought in vocalist-keyboard player Michael McDonald (who Jeff Baxter knew from his Steely Dan days), divided up the vocal responsibilities, and split-up the dual guitar parts between Baxter and Simmons, and continued the tour quite successfully.  After the tour, the band was at a crossroads: Johnston, who was their primary songwriter and singer, would be unavailable for the foreseeable future, but the band were contractually required to release a new album in 1976. Fortunately, new addition McDonald was a seasoned songwriter as well, and bassist Tiran Porter also contributed some new songs, which along with Simmons' solid songwriting was just what they needed. So, McDonald's addition became permanent. However, McDonald's more laid-back, jazzy keyboard style and soft- spoken vocals took the band in a very different direction and style than the hard-rockin' Johnston, and thus their next album started a whole new phase of the Doobie Brothers music. But that's a story for next time. Right now, we are still focused on the more rockin' version of the band. Here is a combination of a couple of radio shows from 1975, an almost complete recording from Huntsville AL in October, as well as some tracks from an earlier show (with Tom still performing) in March, and topped off finally with a complete performance of 'Without You' (which has been cut in both of the previous recordings featured here. The shows feature new songs from Vices and Stampede, in addition to favorites from the earlier albums.
 

Tracklist:
01 Jesus Is Just Alright
02 Rockin' Down the Highway - Road Angel
03 South City Midnight Lady
04 Eyes of Silver
05 Black Water
06 Long Train Runnin'
07 China Grove
08 Without You (cut)

Bonus Tracks:
1975-03-23 - San Francisco CA
09. Neil's Fandango
10. Take Me In Your Arms
11. Workin' On You
1975-10-08 - Memphis, TN
12. Without You

Patrick Simmons - guitar & vocals
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter - guitar
Michael McDonald - keyboards, vocals (except 03-23 tracks)
Tiran Porter - bass, vocals
John Hartman - drums
Keith Knudsen - drums, vocals
Tom Johnston - guitar & vocals (1975-03-23 tracks only)

FLAC - Doobie Bros_1975-10-26_Huntsville+_FLAC.rar

mp3 - Doobie Bros_1975-10-26_Huntsville+_Mp3.rar

 

The Doobie Brothers - 1973-05-31 - Ultrasonic Studios, West Hempstead, NY

The Doobie Brothers

1973-05-31
Ultrasonic Studios, West Hempstead, NY
FM Broadcast (WLIR-FM) recording, very good quality
Available in both Lossless (FLAC) and Mp3 (320 kbps) versions

Let's continue with a theme of radio-friendly '70's bands. Here's The Doobie Brothers! The band was originally formed in 1970 when singer-guitarist-songwriter Tom Johnston and drummer John Hartman teamed up with singer-guitarist-songwriter Patrick Simmons and bassist Dave Shogren. They never actually wanted or intended for the name of the band to be The Doobie Brothers, but they were having trouble deciding on a name for their new band and were jokingly dubbed The Doobie Brothers by a musician friend, and thus used that for few early gigs. Although they always planned to come up with a better name, they never did, and the Doobie Brothers stuck. The band featured hard-driving dual electric lead guitars, three-part harmony vocals, and strong drumming, and soon established themselves as an up and coming band in Northern California, and a record contract with Warner Brothers followed. Their first album (The Doobie Brothers-1971) didn't quite capture the drive and energy of the band, being more acoustic, but it was a strong start. Later in 1971, singer-songwriter-bassist Tiran Porter replaced Dave Shogren, and they added a second drummer, Michael Hossack, which cemented the classic early lineup. The band's next album, Toulouse Street (1972) was their breakthrough, with the radio hits 'Listen to the Music', 'Rockin Down the Highway', and 'Jesus is Just Alright' and a solid album of songs. But their third album, The Captain and Me (1973) is what I consider to be their masterpiece, a near-perfect pop-rock album, just great from start to finish. With both Johnston and Simmons being top-notch singer-guitarist-songwriters with different but complementary styles, Johnston being more of a rocker, with a gritty R&B sound, and Simmons with a more laidback fingerpicking, they mesh and interplay perfectly with Johnston's hard-driving guitar rockers like 'Long Train Runnin', 'China Grove', and 'Without You', perfectly balanced with Simmons' acoustic beauties like 'South City Midnight Lady' and 'Clear as the Driven Snow'. Add in some funk, great harmonies and melodies, and it is just a classic '70's album. Their next album, What Were Once Vices are Now Habits (1974), continued their winning streak, with more big hits ('Black Water', 'Eyes of Silver', 'Another Park Another Sunday') and another strong album. There were however some changes in the band, as Michael Hossack left and was replaced with Keith Knudsen, and Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter (Steely Dan), who appeared as a session player on previous albums, joined the band full-time (due to the transition of Steely Dan from a real band to Becker-Fagen and session musicians). Also, by the end of 1974, after completing recording for their next album, Stampede (1975), Johnston's health  rapidly declined, needing to be hospitalized for bleeding ulcers and needing to take an extended break from the band. This would result in some major changes in sound and direction for the band in the coming years. But that is another story for another time. Today we focus on the those early glory days with Johnston and Simmons et al, and this great rockin' set from the Captain and Me tour.   

Tracklist:
01.South City Midnight Lady
02.Tuning
03.Clear as the Driven Snow
04.Long Train Running
05.Listen to the Music
06.China Grove
07.Rockin' Down the Highway
08.Tuning
09.Disciple>
10.Jesus is Just Alright>Disciple
11.Tuning
12.Without You (cut-fadeout)
Bonus Track: Midnight Special TV performance - date unknown)
13.Natural Thing

Tom Johnston - guitar & vocals
Patrick Simmons - guitar & vocals
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter - guitar
Tiran Porter - bass
John Hartman - drums
Michael Hossack - drums, percussion

FLAC - DoobieBros_1973-5-31_Ultrasonic_FLAC.rar

mp3 - DoobieBros_1973-5-31_Ultrasonic_mp3.rar
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