Eli Paperboy Reed Trio - Gijon, Spain 7th March 2015

The Eli Paperboy Reed Trio hit Gijon last night for some deep down 'n' dirty blues, gospel, soul and Saturday night rock'n'roll.

Or I should say Sunday morning as the band didn't actually plug in and go until one in the morning. It was a long night for Eli as he also did a DJ set after the band finished.

I must say that, much as I like Eli's 60s Soul inspired albums, live is really the way to see him, and this back to basics Walkin and Talkin 10th anniversary tour really packs some primo blues'n'soul punches.

Eli has a phenomenal gospel inspired voice that is quite often reminiscent of Sam Cooke, Joe Tex or a more tender Wilson Pickett. The trio really gives his voice room to maneuver and also, I imagine,  allows for some gospel style vocal improvisation to take place.

An example of which may be seen on this clip when Eli's microphone broke in the middle of I'm Gonna Leave You Alone. He just carries on anyway and the result is some sublime soul. A really stunning performance.

And one that invited audience participation. The spirit was there and we were truly moved.
Watch.

And I swear the spirit of Sam Cooke was conjured up in the first 60 seconds of Take My Love With You.

Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Club in 1963?
Nope. Eli Paperboy Reed live in Gijon last night.
What a voice.

And this a cracking version of James Brown's Think.

The whole show was a brilliant example of gospel and soul flavored swamp blues with just the right amount of rock'n'roll chaos.

Just what you want in the midnight hour on a Saturday night.

Indeed, the very spirit of Saturday night itself.

Go see 'em.




More stranger than known

"Elvis is on the guest list" - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Gijon, Spain 22/05/2014 

Gregory Porter - The Gijon Jazz Festival 

James Brown's Deep Funk - No synthetic effects. No Safety Nets... 

Key To The Highway - The Rolling Stones at Chess Studios 1964 and 1965 

Peter Green - "A Mind To Give Up Living" - The Blues of despair and salvation
 

Key To The Highway - The Rolling Stones at Chess Studios 1964 and 1965

Key To The Highway
We are now 50 years on from the first Rolling Stones' Chess sessions in Chicago and also just over half a century on from the band's rise to fame so it's a pity that the Stones' vintage back catalog has become such a neglected thing. Unlike their contemporaries, the Beatles, Who, Byrds or Beach Boys, there are no box sets or anthologies of unreleased gems, alternate takes or killer live material. Stones' compilations tend to feature the same already well-known songs recompiled and repackaged as greatest hits CDs released every 5 years or so to coincide with the latest world tour.

And it's not like they are putting out any great new stuff either - their last album, the instantly forgettable A Bigger Bang, came out as long ago as 2005. So for a band that seems to have retired from doing anything new - never mind creative - it seems a shame that such a stunning back catalog - and one that helps define the rock era - should be so neglected. This dereliction has arguably led to their importance as the UK's foremost rhythm 'n' blues pioneers being undervalued. The Stones brought rhythm 'n' blues to a mass white audience - not only in the US but in the world. No mean achievement.

Fortunately, as is so often the case in the internet age, fans have taken care of any lack of interest the band or record company may have and "liberated" rare recordings previously hoarded or only available on expensive and shoddy bootlegs. As a result we have some pretty nifty compilations and playlists which in a more sensible world would have already seen official record company release but also serve to re-emphasize the importance of the band's legacy.

The Chess Sessions
One such is the "2120 South Michigan Avenue" compilation (see youtube clip below) of all the sessions the band recorded at Chess studios in Chicago in 1964 and 1965. In the early 60s many blues fans, and the Stones themselves, considered the Chess studios as the home of the blues. Muddy Waters (who according to legend helped the band unpack when they arrived), Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry and a whole host of blues musicians and singers recorded for the label. On their first US tour the Stones were keen to visit and record there and, although Chess didn't let out their studios to non label artists in those days, manager Andrew Loog Oldham managed to blag a session for the band in the summer of 1964. For the full story go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame page here http://rockhall.com/story-of-rock/features/all-featured/7710_the-rolling-stones-at-chess-records-satisfaction/

The Stones at Chess studios 1964

This may not be the best music the band ever recorded but it is key to what came later. Herein are the seeds of some of the best rock music recorded in the 60s and 70s. Let us not forget that, arguably more than the Beatles, the Rolling Stones set the template for what a rock and roll band in the 60s and 70s should look like, sound like and be like. And in 1964, the band arrived in the USA with the self appointed task of re-educating the American teenage public about the blues - an American music which white America had either forgotten about or was simply unaware of - and placing it firmly in the mainstream culture of US and western music where, 50 years on from these sessions, it still remains.

Many of these tracks were originally released on the albums "Rolling Stones No. 2" and "Out Of Our Heads". The songs It's all Over Now and Little Red Rooster were released as singles and the remainder surfaced on British EPs, American LPs - which often had different track-listing to their British versions - or single B sides. To my knowledge, Key To The Highway, a version of Mercy, Mercy different to the one on Out Of Our Heads, and a Bill Wyman song, Goodbye Girl, are all still officially unreleased. But the great thing about this compilation is that it arranges the songs chronologically thus leading the listener to re-evaluate the Rolling Stones as a blues band.

Ian Stewart (seen behind) played piano on the sessions

Confessin' The Blues
Remember this is the Stones as blues purists. Before the the mania and excess that was still to come but also before they'd started to write their own songs. In fact at the time of these sessions, the band were still relatively unknown in the US and, although they followed in the wake of the Beatles and the other British invasion bands, they would not achieve real success in the US until the release of their own (I can't get no) Satisfaction in early 1965 - written around the time of the last session here.

These sessions are not just an apprenticeship though. The thing that stands out when you listen to all of them together is how superior, as blues players, they were compared to contemporaries like the Yardbirds, Pretty Things, Them or the Animals. Those bands tended to play the blues with a stomping heavy rock'n'roll beat. Listen to the Stones on these sessions, especially on Down The Road Apiece or Around and Around, and you hear a band that really knows how to swing.

And the man who put the swing in the band was, of course, drummer Charlie Watts. Charlie was at heart a jazz drummer and he had an instinctive feel for playing just behind the beat emphasizing what Keith Richards maintained was the "roll" in rock 'n' roll - in other words making it swing. Charlie is really the star of the show here. Add Keith's great sense of timing and Chuck Berry riffing to the mix (check Keith's outstanding solo on It's All Over Now - one of his best) and you have band that has much more of an innate grasp of the blues essentials than their rivals.

That's not to say that they have all it down just yet. Jagger's vocals on the blues numbers occasionally verge on mimicry and pastiche  ("Oh dee clap o' mah hands"). It is only on the later soul numbers like Don Covay's Mercy, Mercy, Otis Redding's That's How Strong My Love Is and especially Bobby Womack's It's All Over Now that he starts to sound assertive and comfortable with what he's singing.

British EP "5 by 5" featured 5 songs recorded at Chess

Exile on Main Street
By the end of these sessions Keith Richards and Mick Jagger had started writing their own material and Keith had come up with the Satisfaction riff - he actually woke up in the middle of the night with it in his head and, before he forgot it, quickly got it down on tape. With that now iconic song the band broke through to the American mainstream. They would go on to become the so called bad boys of pop beloved of the tabloid press and then, after the Beatles split, reinvent themselves as "the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world". Although the blues remained an important influence in their music, they never recorded again in the Chess studios after 1965.

However the spirit of these recordings does resurface rather spectacularly on 1972's Exile On Main Street, arguably their finest LP. With tracks like Rip This Joint, Shake Your Hips, Stop Breaking Down and Ventilator Blues, it is a classic rock album soaked in the sound and the spirit of Chicago blues. And these sessions act as handy curtain raiser to that album.

So, 50 years on, it's worth listening to these sessions again and remembering that without the Stones the blues would not be as central in mainstream culture as it is today. These sessions are a vital part of the band's legacy. And also some great music. Take a listen (tracklisting below).

Recorded At Chess Studio Chicago, USA, 2120 South Michigan Avenue, 10/11 June 1964:
1 - It's All Over Now     3:24   
2 - I Can't Be Satisfied     3:25   
3 - Stewed And Keefed     4:07   
4 - Around And Around     3:02   
5 - Confessin' The Blues     2:46   
6 - Down In The Bottom     2:42   
7 - Empty Heart     2:36   
8 - Hi- Heel Sneakers     2:57   
9 - Down The Road Apiece     2:54   
10 - If You Need Me     2:02   
11 - Look What You've Done     2:18   
12 - Tell Me Baby     1:53   
13 - Time Is On My Side (Version 1)     2:52   
14 - Reelin' And Rockin'     3:36   
15 - Don't You Lie To Me     1:59   
16 - 2120 South Michigan Avenue     3:40   

Recorded At Chess Studio, 8 November 1964:
17 - What A Shame     3:04   
18 - Fanny Mae     2:12   
19 - Little Red Rooster     3:06   
20 - Time Is On My Side (Version 2)     3:00   
21 - Goodbye Girl     2:08   
22 - Key To The Highway     3:18   
23 - Mercy, Mercy (Version 1)     2:43

Recorded At Chess Studio, 10 May 1965:
24 - Mercy, Mercy (Version 2)     2:45   
25 - That's How Strong My Love Is     2:24   
26 - The Under-Assistant West Coast Promotion Man     3:22

Bonus track
27 - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction     2:44   





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The Rolling Stones' finest hour - "Get Yer Leeds Lungs Out"...

The Faces BBC Sessions - 5 Guys Walk Into The BBC...

Ry Cooder and Little Feat live - Rampant Slide Zone Syncopation

Peter Green - "A Mind To Give Up Living" - The Blues of despair and salvation

Jeff Beck at Southampton Guildhall July 3rd 2009

Jeff Beck is 70 today. In my opinion he is the greatest living British electric guitar player. In a career spanning nearly 50 years the man just seems to have gone from strength to strength. The first two Jeff Beck Group albums are rock classics and set the template for Led Zeppelin and the flood of 1970s heavy rock bands that followed. Trailblazing as those albums were the shows he played at Ronnie Scott's in 2008 showed him at the peak of his powers and with a subtlety and imagination that was still only nascent in his playing of the mid / late 60s.

Since the 70s he's pretty much kept to his own version of instrumental jazz rock but for me he is someone who is interesting not just because of his technique or "sound" but because he just seems to have more imagination than everyone else put together. You never really know what to expect from a Jeff Beck solo. His talent is unique and slightly off the wall. I think he is the only rock guitarist to get anywhere near the kind of musical artistic creativity that Jimi Hendrix had.

Here he is at a concert I saw in the cavernous and somewhat decrepit Guildhall in Southampton in July 2009. It was a sweltering hot night but Beck put in a stunning show. Here is part of the encore. It's a breathtaking solo from a man whose powers remain undiminished.

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Led Zeppelin at Southampton University 1973

Page and Plant talking about the new Led Zeppelin reissues

Peter Green - "A Mind To Give Up Living" - The Blues of despair...

Ten Years After - Swing In 1969

The Rolling Stones' finest hour - "Get Yer Leeds Lungs Out"...

Hugh Hefner's "Playboy After Dark" with The Byrds, BB King, Tina Turner, Grateful Dead, Country Joe, Fleetwood Mac, Deep Purple...

 

A compilation of live performances by Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly, Taj Mahal, BB King, Canned Heat, Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds, Sir Douglas Quintet, Steppenwolf, The Nitty Gritty Dirt band, The Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac, The Ike and Tina Turner Revue and Country Joe and the Fish on Hugh Hefner's late 60s Playboy After Dark TV Show.

Hugh Hefner plays
Ritchie Blackmore's guitar

Watch this while you can. It may not be on youtube for long.

In the late 60s Playboy founder and editor / publisher Hugh Hefner hosted a syndicated TV talk show with musical guests called Playboy After Dark. The show portrayed a "typical" party at Hefner's pad complete with Playboy playmates and celebrities. Hugh would chat informally and some pretty cool bands would turn up and play live in his mocked up tv studio "penthouse". Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, The Byrds (with Clarence White), The Grateful Dead (with Tom Constanten),  Deep Purple (with Rod Evans and Nick Simper), Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Canned Heat and Country Joe and the Fish are just a few performers seen in the compilation below  And all the while Hefner can be seen puffing on his pipe with a bunny or two on his arm looking like someone who, in 1969, would have passed for the epitome of square.

The Grateful Dead

BB King

To be fair, Hefner put these bands on TV when no one else was interested. To appear on Ed Sullivan you had to have a hit and be mainstream friendly. The Smothers Brothers show was pretty hip but again favoured bands like the Jefferson Airplane who'd had commercial success. This makes some of the clips here super rare and and gives Playboy After Dark a certain cool. This compilation is a joy to watch. Pure time trip. Sexy and fun. Fantastic Bands, great dancers, groovy clothes...
Classic 60s TV.

According to legend when the Grateful Dead appeared they dosed everyone with high grade acid and the cameramen ended up filming the ceiling. They weren't invited back.

Playboy After Dark
01. DEEP PURPLE (Oct. 23, 1968) And The Address, Hush. 02. IRON BUTTERFLY (Aug. 8, 1968) In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Iron Butterfly Theme. 03. TAJ MAHAL (Oct. 16, 1968) Everybody's Got To Change Sometime, EZ Rider. 04. B.B. KING (April 15, 1970) So Excited, The Thrill Is Gone. 05. CANNED HEAT (Jan. 20, 1969) Turpentine Moan, On The Road Again 06. LINDA RONSTADT (April 16, 1970), Lovesick Blues, Long Long Time 07. THE BYRDS (Sept. 28, 1968) You Ain't Goin' Nowhere, This Wheel's On Fire 08. SIR DOUGLAS QUINTET (Jan. 25, 1969) Mendocino, She's About A Mover 09. STEPPENWOLF (Dec. 17, 1969), Berry Rides Again, Monster-Suicide-America, From Here To There Eventually 10. THE NITTY GRITTY DIRTBAND (Dec. 11, 1968), Washington At Valley Forge, Alligator Man 11. THE GRATEFUL DEAD (Jan. 18, 1969) Mountains Of The Moon, St. Stephen 12. FLEETWOOD MAC (Jan. 8, 1970) Rattlesnake Shake 13. IKE AND TINA TURNER REVUE (Dec. 3, 1969), I Want To Take You Higher, Come Together, Proud Mary 14. COUNTRY JOE AND THE FISH ( April 16, 1970) Sing Sing Sing, I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag

Big thanks to the youtube uploader.

Bonus - 2 shows
If that is not enough for you here are two complete shows featuring Ike and Tina Turner and Sammy Davis Jr. Fascinating viewing. Tina Turner is sublime and Sammy Davis looks like he's been getting wardrobe advice from Jimi Hendrix. The rest is occasionally ridiculous but no more inane that what you get nowadays on the Graham Norton show. Also features The Checkmates, Anthony Newley and a young Bill Cosby

More stranger than known

1970 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival documentary

Fairport Convention Bouton Rouge Sessions   

Freddie King live on POP2 - September 1973

The Grateful Dead - 1969 Dark Star set to vintage film ...

Ten Years After - Swing In 1969 

The Pretty Things live on Pop 2 - 13th January 1971...

"Elvis is on the guest list" - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Gijon, Spain 22/05/2014

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion put in a thunderous 90 minute set in Gijon, Spain last night. Although I must admit I have never been a massive fan - there just aren't the songs there for me - they are definitely a band to be experienced live. 90 minutes of non-stop relentless blues-storming punk'n'roll feedback-drenched pneumatic guitar riffage played at brain-piercing volume and blood-draining speed left those still standing at the end of the set numb, dazed and dumbstruck.

There were few technical issues - lights, dodgy sound and the band came on later than expected - but the last 30 or 40 minutes were intense and exhilarating. And proof that primordial is also eternal.

And Elvis was on the guest list. You know he was there...


Take a listen

 
Encore

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20 years of the Xixon Sound

Baby Woodrose and Kadavar in Gijon, 3rd May 2013 

The Return of the Manta Ray - Manta Ray live ... 

The Sadies - This Week's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World live... 

The Faces BBC Sessions - 5 Guys Walk Into The BBC...

In the early 70s there was always great debate about who really was "The Greatest Live Rock 'n' Roll Band In The World". Most claimed the title for the Rolling Stones, many said Led Zeppelin and some said The Who. Also equal contenders were the Faces. The Faces brand of lurching raunch'n'roll rivaled the Stones on a good night and with alcohol fueled cheeky good time cheeriness probably inspired greater levels of audience participation than Mick and Keef, Page and Plant or Daltry and Townshend ever managed to achieve. The best evidence for their live greatness can be heard on their still officially unreleased BBC sessions.

Stewart, McLagen, Wood, Jones and Lane - The Faces

The Faces
The name of the group was The Faces. Not Rod Stewart and the Faces. The Faces. It was a band. Rod Stewart was the lead singer. Ronnie Wood played the guitar and had a sound that rivaled, and arguably surpassed, Keith Richard's for rusty bucket raunchiness. Ronnie Lane played a funky, melodic, chunky bass and also sang and wrote a few songs. Ian McLagan provided a snaky classic Hammond organ sound and Kenny Jones played some of the most propulsive drums in British rock.

The band had grown out of the Small Faces. Singer / guitarist Steve Marriott had decided that the Small Faces weren't serious enough for him and he wanted to put some hair on his chest, play boogie rock and hit it big in the USA. So off he went off to form Humble Pie with his mate Peter Frampton. With the lead singer / guitarist having left them in the lurch, the three remaining Small Faces teamed up with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood, both of whom had just left the Jeff Beck Group and were looking for a band. Stewart was the last to join as the wary and unconvinced Ronnie Lane, already let down by one lead singer, had an inkling that Stewart, who already had a promising solo career on the go, probably wouldn't stick around for long once fame struck. Which is pretty much what happened.


The BBC sessions
The band never really recorded a classic album and after Rod Stewart's solo success they seemed to be cast further and further into his shadow. There are some great singles but the band are best remembered live. Unfortunately the official live album "Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners", recorded at the end of their career after Ronnie Lane had left, completely fails to do them justice. The evidence for their true live greatness is to be found on many of the strangely still unreleased BBC sessions from the period. The band recorded quite a large number of live sessions from 1969 to 1973 - probably as a result of their being BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel's favourite band - and they are dynamite. A list of songs and session dates can be seen at the bottom of this post.

Proof? Listen to this mammoth 12 minute version of Ike and Tina Turner's "You're My Girl (I Don't Want To Discuss It)" from a concert recorded at the Paris Theatre in London for a John Peel's Sunday Concert radio show on May 13th 1971. It shows how stunning the band really were live. Ron Wood intros the song with an agitated Meters / James Brown style hard funk guitar riff - kind of punk funk - McLagan's keyboards respond to Wood's riffing, and rhythm section Lane and Jones anchor the heavy funk while Stewart goes into his best soul man mode. Around 4 to 5 minutes in it starts to get almost unbearably intense. And loud. Stewart is lost in the sheer power of a band possibly somewhat overawed at the flow of events themselves. The band go way beyond whatever the sum of their individual parts is to achieve glorious funkified musical transcendence. This is the longest recorded version of this song and is far superior to the version released on the Five Guys Walked Into A Bar 4CD Box. It's far more powerful than anything the Stones were doing at the time and it's classic 70s British rock at its best. Why is it still unreleased?
Listen.

You're My Girl (I Don't Want To Discuss It)

In fact, as far as I'm concerned, the best and most enjoyable Faces music is actually to be heard on these BBC sessions. Here is where you hear the true soul of the band. Their official albums are all dry patchy affairs and it's only on these sessions that you experience what the band really had to offer. Especially on the May '71 gig. That would make a classic live album all by itself. It's 40 minutes of  R'n'B drenched supercharged rock'n'roll and includes versions of Bad N' Ruin, Bobby Womack's It's All Over Now, Had Me A Real Good Time and the Temptations' (I Know) I'm Losing You. The tempo, pace and power just don't let up. And of course these are far better versions than the officially released ones.

Here are some more BBC session highlights from youtube

Devotion (from the 19/11/1970 session).
Rod Stewart and Ronnie Lane giving it some nice vocalizing. Stewart really did have one of the great white soul voices of the era.

Too Bad
"Gimme the moonlight...". The entire band sounding three sheets to the wind then... Mac intros, a frenzied riff from Ron Wood and everyone is off like the clappers. The last one to finish buys the next round.

Had Me A Real Good Time
The band's live appeal summed up in one song.

Memphis
An extremely muscular cover of the Chuck Berry song. Almost verging on punk at times. Stewart is overwhelmed by a band going at it like a battalion of tanks.

Underrated
It has been said over the years that the Faces were sloppy and a bit of a mess live. So drunk they couldn't keep it together etc. Rod Stewart, at the end of the band's career, was wont to cast a few aspersions in interviews about their musical prowess but then he had his own agenda going on and anyway was probably being led astray towards the 70s superstar high life by then girlfriend Britt Ekland. Like Steve Marriott, the poor old Faces were simply not good enough for him anymore either.

The recorded evidence on these BBC sessions and other live performances suggests completely the opposite. At least as long as Ronnie Lane was in the band (he quit in mid 73 to go solo) they were easily one of the best live acts around. True, after he left things did seem to slide a bit as they headed off into musical boogieland and played Rod Stewart's more successful solo material. However when they were good they were truly great and the alcohol fueled merry-making was very much a part of the act. Even on a rough night they'd be guaranteed to put a smile on your face.


Sounds for Saturday
Here's a show they recorded for BBC2 TV on 26th October 1971 which gives an idea of them at their peak. Recorded before a television audience it doesn't have the sheer rapturous punk energy of the May '71 radio concert but it does show them off in all their raunch'n'roll glory. Rod Stewart was one of the great front men of the era and Ronnie Wood, even if his lead work, especially on Love In Vain is er... somewhat clueless, can be seen here as a demon rhythm guitarist.

Three Button Hand Me Down / Maybe I’m Amazed / Too Much Woman-Street Fighting Man-Too Much Woman / Miss Judy’s Farm / Love In Vain / Stay With Me / I’m Losing You 

The End - Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind...
The band pretty much fell apart after Ronnie Lane left. Lane jumped ship when Stewart started to focus more on his solo career. He was never happy about the "Rod Stewart and The Faces" billing they got in the US. They weren't a backing band after all. They struggled on for a year or so with Tetsu Yamauchi as a replacement but Stewart could now barely summon up the interest and they only managed to record a couple more singles.  

Ron Wood eventually went off to join the Rolling Stones in their declining years. Kenney Jones joined the Who for a while after Keith Moon died and Ian McLagan formed his own band, worked with the Stones and Dylan, and is still gigging. There is talk of a reunion in the next year or so but relations between certain members still seem somewhat fragile. It's a pity they can't all make up and be friendly as good time mateyness was one of the things the band managed to conjure up so well on stage and was so much a part of their appeal.

If there is a reunion it will be without poor old Ronnie Lane who died in 1997 after many years of suffering multiple sclerosis. However a reunion and a BBC sessions release would be good news indeed. As Kenney Jones said earlier this year when talking about reunion possibilities, "the Faces never finished on a good note, so it would be nice to finish on a good note, and that would be that."

And that, on the back of an official release for these BBC sessions, would complete the legacy of the Faces - one the greatest Rock 'n' Roll bands of the classic rock era.




Bonus clip - London Rock
Faces clip from 1970 TV documentary London Rock
The band are interviewed and seen rehearsing. Kenney Jones talks about his childhood “where we grew up and used to play on bombsites” and the two Rons discuss life and philosophy down by the river with their girlfriends in tow. "What's needed now is a revolution in the nut" says one Ron. "I just came for the ice cream" says the other.
What a wonderful bunch of lads they were.

A list of the Faces BBC Sessions
This is just a list I compiled myself from internet sources over the years. It is not definitive and I don't claim complete trustworthiness for it..
If anyone can see any mistakes or can improve on it let me know.

15 tracks appear on Five Guys Walked Into A Bar 4CD Box.
Still plenty left for an official release

1) 9th March 1970 BBC Top Gear
01 Shake, Shudder, Shiver  2:45
02 Love In Vain  7:12
03 Wicked Messenger (Brian Matthew intro) 2:55
04 Maybe I'm Amazed  5:19

2) 10th March 1970  ‘Dave Lee Travis’,
London, Camden Theatre. Host: Dave Lee Travis.
01 Three Button Hand Me Down
02 Flying
03 Wicked Messenger
Note: Broadcast on the 15th March 70.

3) 28th March 1970, Top Gear, Playhouse Theatre, London
 01 Wicked Messenger
02 Devotion
03 Pineapple and the Monkey
04 Shake Shudder Shiver
 
4) August 27 1970 "Mike Harding Show", Aeolian Hall, Studio 2, London
01 All Over Now
02 Three Button
03 Around The Plynth
Broadcast 1st September 1970

5) 15th September 1970 ‘Top Gear’, Maida Vale, Studio #4, London
Host: John Peel.
01 Had Me A Real Good Time
02 Around The Plynth
03 Country Comfort
Note: Broadcast on the 19th September 1970.

6) 19th November 1970, Paris Theatre, London
1 You're My Girl (I Don't Want To Discuss It)
2 Wicked Messenger
3 Devotion
4 It's All Over Now
5 I Feel So Good
34:02

7) 20th April 1971 ‘Sounds Of The Seventies’ Kensington House, Studio T1, London
Host: Bob Harris.
01 Oh Lord I’m Browned Off
02 Love In Vain
03 Maybe I’m Amazed
04 Had Me A Real Good Time
Note: Broadcast on the 3rd May 71.

8)  29th April 1971 ‘Top Of The Pops’ TV show, London.
01 Richmond
02 Bad’n Ruin

9) 13th May 1971 Sunday Concert, Paris Theater, London,
01 I Don't Want To Discuss It  13:18
02 Bad & Ruin 5:06
03 It's All Over Now  6:35
04 Had Me A Real Good Time  6:15
05 Losing You  6:21

10)  28th September 1971 ‘Top Gear’  Maida Vale, Studio #4, London
Host: John Peel.
01 Stay With Me
02 Too Bad  3:42
03 That's All You Need/Plynth 8:03
04 Miss Judy’s Farm
05 Maggie May
Note: Broadcast on the 6th October.

11) 26th October 1971  ‘Sounds For Saturday - The Music Of The Faces’, TV (BBC2)
01 Three Button Hand Me Down
02 Maybe I’m Amazed
03 Too Much Woman-Street Fighting Man-Too Much Woman
04 Miss Judy’s Farm
05 Love In Vain
06 Stay With Me
07 I’m Losing You
Note: Broadcast 1st April 1972.
Total 43m.17s.

12) 17th February 1972 "In Concert", Paris Theater, London
01 Three Button Hand Me Down 5:00
02 Miss Judy's Farm 4:04
03 Last Orders Please 2:54
04 Devotion  6:32
05 Too Bad  3:42
06 That's All You Need/Plynth 8:03
07 Stay With Me  4:18

13) 8th February 1973 "In Concert", Paris Theatre, London
01. Silicone Grown 2:54
02. Cindy Incidentally 2:45
03. Angel 4:39
04. Memphis, Tennessee 4:11
05. True Blue 4:25
06. I'd Rather Go Blind 5:15
07. You're My Girl (I Don't Want To Discuss It) 5:27
08. Twistin' The Night Away 4:30
09. It's All Over Now 3:48
10. Miss Judy's Farm 4:03
11. Maybe I'm Amazed 5:24
12. Three Button Hand Me Down 5:17
13. I'm Losing You 6:25

14) 12th February 1973 'Radio 1 Club', Paris Theatre, London
01 Cindy Incidentally
02 My Fault
03 Borstal Boys
Note: Broadcast 1st March 1973
Total 9m.10s.

15) 1st April 1973 ‘In Concert’*, Paris Theatre, London
Host: John Peel.
01 Silicone Grown
02 Cindy Incidentally
03 Memphis, Tennessee
04 If I’m On The Late Side
05 My Fault
06 The Stealer
07 Borstal Boys
08 True Blue
09 Twistin’ The Night Away
10 Miss Judy’s Farm
11 Bad 'N' Ruin
12 Too Bad
Note: Broadcast on the 21st April.
Total 48m.05s.


This post is dedicated to the great John Peel. The Faces were Peel's favourite band in the early 70s and he features as MC on so many of these concert sessions.





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Led Zeppelin at Southampton University 1973

Parallax - The Pink Floyd BBC Sessions

Ry Cooder and Little Feat live - Rampant Slide Zone Syncopation 

The Rolling Stones' finest hour - "Get Yer Leeds Lungs Out"

 

1970 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival Documentary

A short Woodstock style documentary on the 1970 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival.

The program for the 1970 festival included headliners Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King, Bobby Blue Bland, Otis Rush and Son House - unfortunately none of them are included here. Were they even filmed?

The first festival was in 1969 and both festivals lost money. The all-blues program couldn't bring in enough people to break even and, like Woodstock and the 1970 Isle of Wight festival, many crashed the fences and got in for free.

Funnily enough after a quick look on google I can't even find a poster or program for the 1970 festival so one wonders how well publicized it was and whether that also contributed to its financial shortcomings.

It's a great little documentary resonant of its time. A time when large scale festival organization was still in its infancy. If only there were more music. 

More on the festival here
The Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival – A Brief History by Michael Erlewine (official historian for the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz festival) http://michaelerlewine.com/viewtopic.php?f=148&t=148

Michael Erlewine's video history of the first two festivals  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NZL_KDI59s

The Ann Arbor Chronicle -  Singin’ the Ann Arbor Blues. 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival was Midwest's Woodstock
http://annarborchronicle.com/2009/08/27/column-singin-the-ann-arbor-blues/




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Cream live at the Spalding Bar-B-Que, 29th May 1967

Freddie King live on POP2 - September 1973

Texas International Pop Festival with Led Zeppelin... 

Ry Cooder and Little Feat live - Rampant Slide Syncopation

Ry Cooder

Back in the 70s two of the hottest live bands around were the Ry Cooder band and Little Feat. When it came to rootsy rock’n’roll with the emphasis on the “roll” or relaxed funk with a touch of shuffle, both the Cooder band and Little Feat pretty much had it nailed.

Little Feat

Cooder and the Feat had a lot in common apart from their live prowess. Ry Cooder and the Feat's Lowell George were two of the best slide guitar players of their generation. Cooder actually played slide on parts of the the first Little Feat album after Lowell George sustained a hand injury and couldn’t play on the sessions.  Both bands also had a fixation on all things “south of the border”. Cooder incorporated the Tex-Mex style and featured Texan accordion player Flaco Jiménez in his band. The Feat used latin themes as lyrical inspiration in songs like Spanish Moon and Down Below The Borderline.

Throughout the 70s both bands put out a whole series of superb, critically praised albums that were commercial flops. Revered in Europe and almost unknown in the US they had pretty much given up the ghost by the mid 80s. Little Feat temporarily split after Lowell George’s untimely death in 1979 and Cooder went off into score film soundtracks, most successfully on Paris Texas. He also worked with John Hiatt and Nick Lowe in the band Little Village, and helped bring Cuban music to the mainstream with the Buena Vista Social Club film and albums.

Amazingly, Cooder has only ever released two live albums. 1977's Showtime and this year's excellent Ry Cooder And Corridos Famosos Live In San Francisco which features versions of classic live 70s material like Crazy 'Bout an Automobile and Dark End of the Street.

Little Feat put out the double live LP Waiting For Columbus in 1977 which has since been expanded into a double CD. The band have also, and most generously, made a whole library of concerts spanning their entire career available on the Live Music Archive for free download.

So, apart from the official releases (which you really should own), here are a handful of excellent officially unreleased video and audio recordings which show off why the two bands were such highly regarded live acts.


Ry Cooder
"Let’s Have A Ball" is an excellent 90-minute Ry Cooder concert filmed by Les Blank. It features Ry Cooder and a band which includes Van Dyke Parks, Jim Keltner and Flaco Jiménez playing at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz, California, on March 25th, 1987. It was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK in 1988 but is unavailable commercially. Apparently Cooder doesn’t want it released. God knows why. It's brilliant. Check out Cooder's sublime and sensual solo around the 18 minute mark on How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?

The band are; Ry Cooder: guitar, vocals. Jim Keltner: drums. Van Dyke Parks: keyboards. Jorge Calderon: bass. Flaco Jiménez: accordion. Miguel Cruiz: percussion. Steve Douglas: sax. George Bohannon: trombone. Singers: Bobby King, tenor; Terry Evans, baritone; Arnold McCuller, tenor; Willie Green Jr, bass

Let’s Have A Ball / Jesus On The Mainline / How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live? / Jesus Hits Like The Atom Bomb / Down In Mississippi / Maria Elena / Just A Little Bit
The Very Thing That Makes You Rich (Makes Me Poor) / Crazy About An Automobile / Chain Gang / Down In Hollywood / Good Night Irene.

Thanks to  yosh95wilde for uploading this YouTube

Ry Cooder Live in japan 1988
Here's another excellent show recorded a year later in Tokyo on 28th June 1988.

Ry Cooder - guitar, vocals, Van Dyke Parks - piano, Flaco Jiminez - accordeon, Steve Douglas - sax, Jim Keltner - drums, Jorge Calderone - bass, Bobby King - vocals, Terry Evans - vocals.

00:00 Low-Commotion / 03:40 Little Sister / 08:00 He'll Have To Go / 13:30 Jesus On The Mainline / 19:00 Down In Mississippi / 27:20 Do Re Mi / 32:00 Get Rhythm / 36:00 Chain Gang / 42:00 Goodnight Irene

Thanks to TheRockenroller for uploading this on YouTube

1970 Cooder Promo film produced by Van Dyke Parks
As a bonus here is a wonderful 14 minute short on Cooder produced by Van Dyke Parks in 1970 as "Warner Brothers Records Director of Audio Visual Services". Cooder sounds pretty folksy here.

Thanks to CaptainJos for the Youtube upload.

Little Feat
The Feat are still going strong although now with Gabe Ford replacing the late Richie Hayward on drums. According to a friend of mine who saw them in London in February, they are still a live force to be reckoned with.

Here are two shows widely bootlegged in the 70s which contain arguably some of the best music they ever recorded with Lowell George. These albums, along with 1974's official Feats Don't Fail Me Now were pretty much my introduction to the band and I actually prefer both of these to the rather slick sounding Waiting For Columbus. Both of these are powerful electric funked up hard rock albums which demonstrate a band both inspired and very much at the top of their game. One of the tightest rhythm sections around coupled with Paul Barrere and Lowell George's snaky dual leads make this some of the best 70s live rock music ever recorded. No wonder Jimmy Page called them his favourite band in a 1975 Rolling Stone interview.


Little Feat Live at Civic Auditorium on March 20, 1973. Originally bootlegged in the 70s as Aurora Backseat. Eldorado Slim here was never officially released and Got No Shadow segues into the intense jazz rock of The Fan. Lowell is er... quite chatty.

Little Feat live at Ultrasonic Studios, Hempstead, NY. September 19th, 1974. Originally bootlegged as Electrif Lycanthrope in the 70s. The whole show is stunning. Particularly outstanding is the Spanish Moon > Skin It Back > Fat Man in the Bathtub medley. The Fan is a stunning blast of super rapid funked up jazz rock with the emphasis on rock.

And finally, with ex Rolling Stone Mick Taylor at the Rainbow in London on 3rd August 1977

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Gregory Porter - The Gijon Jazz Festival

James Brown's Deep Funk - No synthetic effects. No Safety Nets... 

Medeski Martin and Wood - Gijon Jazz Festival 

The Rolling Stones' finest hour - "Get Yer Leeds Lungs Out"

Peter Green - "A Mind To Give Up Living" - The Blues of Despair and Salvation

Peter Green, Chicago Blues Recording Sessions
Photo © Jeff Lowenthal

Peter Green is the most outstanding British blues guitar player to come out of the 1960s blues boom.

Clapton, Page, McLaughlin... yeah they were brilliant too but for me the art is in the soul and Peter Green had soul. Loads of it. Maybe even too much. BB King said "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats" and Green’s stunning solo on Fleetwood Mac’s officially unreleased live rendition of BB King's "I've Got A Mind To Give Up Living" (recorded live at The Warehouse, in New Orleans on 31st January 1970 - see clip below) demonstrates how really spot on the mark BB was.

But this is really not just a case of the cold sweats. This is the blues and if something can be described as "achingly beautiful" this is it. The 4 minute solo is an agonizingly moving, heart-aching, bare knuckled exploration of the despair the song’s stark lyrics only hint at.


I've got a good mind to give up living, and go shopping instead.
I say, I've got a good mind to give up living, and go shopping instead.
To pick up me a tombstone, and be pronounced dead.

When I read your letter this morning that was in your place in bed.
I read your letter this morning that was in your place in bed.
And that's when I decided, that I would be better off dead.

It read, there is no use you looking, or ever hoping to get me back.
Oh, there's no use you looking, or ever hoping to get me back.
Yes, because it's all over now, and baby you can bet on that.

(Songwriter: Carl B. Adams)


It’s bleak. The first line comes complete with a punchline that might bring a smile to your face but it's then forcibly removed by the following line which comes almost as a slap. It seems humour has no place here. There is only loss and despair and the final line is a killer. We’ve all been there, fleetingly if we are lucky, but this is a dark place and no one would want to stay for too long. Anyone who has experienced depression or the pain of loss knows that words are often inadequate yet the musicality, tone and development of Green’s solo seems to evoke and communicate that despair in a way that forces us to empathize and be moved by it. Around the 4:30 mark the solo becomes almost so unbearably intense, with notes scattering like firecrackers, that the listener is left stunned by the emotion it lays bare. Truly breathtaking. Take a listen.

And yet where does this ability to transform a situation so dark and painful into something we can all relate to and be moved by come from?

Peter Green had soul but it came at a price. He was a man who must have profoundly understood the song's despair. He was, by the time of this recording, a man beset by his own personal demons. In 1970 Fleetwood Mac were the most successful band to come out of the second British Blues boom of the late 1960s. They had even crossed over into mainstream success in the UK with hit singles like Albatross, Black magic Woman and Oh Well. They had put out three very successful albums and were building a strong reputation touring the USA. The Live in Boston box set (recorded in February 1970) and other unofficial recordings from this time show them to be a live band to be reckoned with. The Fleetwood / McVie rhythm section were rock solid and Green and second guitarist Danny Kirwin’s fiery duel leads on songs like Rattlesnake Shake and The Green Manalishi turned them into mammoth jamathons that, not only maintained intensity, pace and structure but also rocked liked merry hell. For me, Fleetwood Mac's Live in Boston ranks alongside The Who Live At Leeds and The Grateful Dead's Two From The Vault as one of the best live sets of the rock era. Hard rock with power, precision, and passion.

They looked like a band who were about to be one of the most successful international rock bands of the 70s. Another Zeppelin, Who or Stones. Yet five months after this New Orleans performance Peter gave it all up and Fleetwood Mac would have to wait until the end of the decade and with a very different line-up to achieve the success that seemed so close in 1970.

The first signs of Green's alienation from fame and success can be heard in the lyrics of 1969’s "Man of the World" single. "I guess I've got everything I need. I wouldn't ask for more. And there's no one I'd rather be but I just wish that I'd never been born."  Green was also consuming large quantities of LSD, had started to wear robes and appeared almost messianic on stage. He also wanted to give away all the band’s earnings. The monster in the 1970 single The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown) was money.

In late March 1970, a few weeks after the New Orleans Warehouse show, Green had some kind of LSD freak-out at a commune in Munich and according to Fleetwood Mac manager Clifford Davis his mental decline became far more pronounced from there on.

Green left Fleetwood Mac after a final performance at a festival in Bath on 23rd May 1970 where one audience member described him as looking lonely and dejected. There were a few live appearances after that. He appeared at the June Bath Festival with John Mayall, and also recorded a solo album which was pretty much just a long jam session (The End of the Game). There was also a brief temporary reunion with Fleetwood Mac in 1971 when Green helped the band to complete a US tour after guitarist Jeremy Spencer quit but nothing more came of it..

Green then became a recluse, was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and faded into obscurity for the rest of the decade.

He returned to recording in the late 70s and, as his health improved in the 90s, he even toured with his new Splinter Group but for me, those recordings, good as they are, come nowhere near what he achieved with Fleetwood Mac. As far as I know he has now retired from performing. The BBC made a documentary of his life called "Man of the World" in 2009 (see below).


The Blues of Despair.
That someone can create music of such delicacy and feeling from so dark a place does, I suppose, beg the perennial question - Is great art dependent on pain? Pfff... Maybe. Sometimes. If that is what drives the art but I'd like to think that is not always the case. There must be other forces at work. Imagination, a need for personal exploration, a desire to communicate....

And the salvation?
Depression is cruel and bleak and it can affect all of us to varying degrees. It’s a disease that one suffers alone in a kind of mental solitary confinement. "A Mind To Give Up Living" may be a just a song and a guitar solo but if the artist moves us and helps us to empathize with that suffering then he or she also helps us to understand it. It unifies us.
And that is a start...



Man of the World
2009 BBC documentary on the life of Peter Green directed by Steve Graham. It features archive performances and interviews with Carlos Santana, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green.

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Cream live at the Spalding Bar-B-Que 1967

Freddie King live on POP2

The Rolling Stones' finest hour - Get Yer Leeds Lungs Out!

Ten Years After Swing-In 1969

Freddie King live on POP2 - September 1973

Some fantastic footage of Freddie King on French TV's POP2 show on the 8th September 1973. Freddie was a massive influence on the 1960s British blues scene, especially Eric Clapton.

Hideaway / Sweet Home Chicago / Palace Of The King / Ain't Nobody's Business / Whole Lot Of Loving / Please Accept My Love / Look on Yonder's Wall

 

Ten Years After - Swing In 1969

I have always had a bit of a weakness for Ten Years After. The live album Undead recorded in May 1968 at Klooks Kleek in London is a classic late 60s British blues album and one of my favourites of the era. What separated TYA from Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack or the other late 60s British blues boomers was their ability to incorporate jazz. Count Basie's "I May Be Wrong, But I Won't Be Wrong Always"  and Woody Herman's "Woodchopper's Ball" demonstrate a band who definitely had the chops and could really swing. Alvin Lee had had an easy fluid jazz style and more than capable support from Leo Lyons on bass, Ric Lee on drums and Chick Churchill on keyboards.

The problem with TYA, I think, was their lack of song writing skills. Nothing written by the band really stands out and, after they hit massive success with their guitar boogie onslaught Going Home in the Woodstock film, the band gave up playing jazz and lapsed into boogie rock cliche. Within a few years the band had foundered artistically and were playing the same set live year after year. Alvin Lee eventually got bored and quit.

This clip, however, is from November 1969, after Woodstock, but before the boogie rot had set in. The band are still doing a jazz tinged set. There is fluidity to Lee's playing and the Lee / Lyons dual solo during Good Morning Little Schoolgirl is really quite impressive. This band could swing.



Ten Years After at WDR Studios, Cologne.
Setlist:
01 I May Be Wrong, But I Won't Be Wrong Always
02 Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
03 Spider In My Web
04 I'm Going Home

The Ike and Tina Turner Revue in Europe - February 1971

1971 was a good year for Ike and Tina Turner. In the previous 12 months they'd had their first top 40 hit in the USA in nearly ten years with a cover of Sly & The Family Stone's I Want to Take You Higher (their most famous hit River Deep - Mountain High was a flop when originally issued in the US). A cover of The Beatles' Come Together also charted and began a switch away from R'n'B towards rock flavoured material. In early 1971, they covered Creedence Clearwater Revival's Proud Mary which became their biggest hit, reaching number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling over a million copies. A live album What You Hear Is What You Get was recorded at Carnegie Hall and became their first gold-selling album. Such was the success of their 1971 recordings that Ike was able to build Bolic Sound Studios near their home in Inglewood, California.

Watching the clips below from German Beat Club and Dutch TV one can see that Tina Turner was always a star. The voice. The energy. The command of the stage. The sexual allure...  However, how much was she held back by Ike and what could she have achieved without him?

There is no doubt that Tina owes her career to Ike but imagine if she'd left him sooner. Ike and Tina Turner scored some memorable hits but they were covers. What if someone had been writing material especially for her? Can you imagine the results if Tina had recorded at Muscle Shoals for Atlantic in the mid to late 60s? Or, given that Tina always said she preferred singing rock to soul, fronting a rock band and outrocking Janis Joplin?

Anyway, we can only guess and watch some of these excellent clips from the 1971 European tour when Tina still had a lot of rock'n'roll edge before she got softened up in the 80s. The Ikettes are also impressive here as back up singers. Perhaps the choreography doesn't stand up too well now but they have a personality and character that contemporary backing vocalists never have. There is warmth, playfulness, energy and some real raw soul here.



On Beat Club
River Deep - Mountain High
Beat Club was a German music program that ran from September 1965 to December 1972. It was broadcast from Bremen, Germany. The version of River Deep - Mountain High here is stunning - one of the best live versions I've heard. Raw and primitive but matching the tumultuous intensity of the Spector version.

Proud Mary
Starts nice and easy...

Take Another Piece of My Heart.
The Ikettes get their turn and do a solid version of Take Another Piece of My Heart. According to rabbitno2's comment on YouTube under this clip the Ikettes here are, left to right, Esther Jones, Jean Burks and Vera Hamilton

Come Together / Respect
Respect is ironic considering Tina's personal life at the time with Ike. "I'd like to talk about respect but instead..."

The Ike and Tina Turner Review live
An hour of the Ike and Tina Turner Review recorded in February 1971 for Dutch TV.
Not as impressive as the Beat Club performances but Tina is in fine voice, looks great and is very much the star of the show. The Ikettes lend splendid support. What backing singers are this athletic nowadays? Ike stays pretty much in the background, which is probably just as well, as he seems to be sporting a 1964 Beatle wig and looks like he just beamed down from the Starship Enterprise. No wonder the audience seem so bemused in the early part of the show.

Mostly a rock oriented repertoire however the bluesy I Smell Trouble is outstanding - deep soul with Ike giving it some fine and dirty blues guitar.

1. Them Changes
2. Sweet Inspiration
3. I Want To Take You Higher
4. Ooh Poo Pah Doo
5. A Love Like Yours, Don't Come Knockin' Every Day
6. River Deep, Mountain High
7. Come Together
8. Honky Tonk Women
9. Proud Mary
10. I Smell Trouble
11. There Was A Time
12. Shake A Tail Feather
13. I Want To Take You Higher

 

Texas International Pop Festival with Led Zeppelin, Janis, Johnny Winter, Delaney and Bonnie, Sly, Sam and Dave

Ever wondered what everyone was doing just two weeks after the Woodstock Festival? Pretty much the same kind of thing actually but this time at The Texas International Pop Festival held at Lewisville, Texas, on Labor Day weekend, August 30 to September 1, 1969. The bill featured many of the same bands who'd played Woodstock - Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, Ten Years After, and the Incredible String Band.

Amazingly, a film (of sorts) exists called "Got No Shoes Got No Blues"  featuring Grand Funk Railroad, Tony Joe White (doing a pretty good "Polk salad Annie), James Cotton, Chicago, Led Zeppelin (a segment of Dazed and Confused), Ten Years After (Spoonful) and Janis Joplin (Summer Time).

It's not great quality and most of the footage isn't synched with the music but it obviously has historical interest and also quite a lot of charm. There is all the Woodstock style footage of grooving smiling hippies, naked bathing, pot smoking, and local officials saying what a nice bunch of kids they are after all. Chip Monck is the MC and Wavy Gravy can be seen from time to time too so the vibes are definitely Woodstockian

However the movie was never finished for commercial release and what you see below is an 80-minute workprint (with time code) that was presumably edited for securing a pre-editing distribution deal.

The commentary (mocked?) from a religious radio station gives an idea of how outlandish, threatening and scary conservative America found the hippy phenomenon in the late 60s. We are informed that "hippies never wash" and their naked bathing is "just so they can get away with it". The local sheriff seems pretty cool though.

Some of the music is very good. Led Zeppelin, still to release their second album and announced as "The Led Zeppelin", put in a short but potent one hour set (see below). It's actually always been one of my favourite "unofficial" Led Zeppelin recordings. The band sound hungry, there is a primitive power to it and there is none of the self indulgent soloing of the later years.The Communication Breakdown encore is a blinder.

Most of the festival was recorded and apart from Zeppelin, there are complete sets by Sly and The Family Stone, Santana, Ten Years After, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter and others. See below for a section of what's available at the moment on YouTube.

It is surprising though, given the historical importance and the quality of some of the music, that, if the original footage and tapes still exist, no one is looking at it again for some kind of release.
Or are they?



"Got No Shoes Got No Blues"

Led Zeppelin - edited clips 16mm I can't Quit You Baby, Dazed And Confused, How Many More Times, and Communication Breakdown.

Led Zeppelin full set audio

Johnny Winter

Sly and the Family Stone

Delaney and Bonnie

Sam and Dave

James Cotton Blues Band

Rotary Connection with Minnie Riperton
This has a long intro but stick with it. Minne Riperton had an amazing voice. What is that at the 8:00 mark?

Chicago

Ten Years After
The complete TYA set.

Ten Years After - Texas International Pop Festival (Live) (1969)

 

Janis Joplin
The YouTube uploader won't allow embedding so click here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZMubm-pwY0
and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OilWHLNnUbM




More info on the festival here
http://www.texaspopfestival.com/home.htm

Festival programme http://www.voicesofeastanglia.com/2012/04/texas-international-pop-festival-1969-programme.html