Live CDs from Santana, Dio, Traffic and more

 

[In the sense that the same shows often appear on a variety of labels, the rash of broadcast loophole recordings of recent years is no different than the tsunami of copyright gap CDs of the 1990’s. Here are a few short reviews of some of the latest examples, along with some similarly short reviews from the back pages of the Live! Music Review print editions.]

Dio: Live In Santa Monica 1983 (Klondike 5073)

Venue: Santa Monica, Ca 10/7/83

Sound Quality: very good to excellent radio broadcast, a little compressed.

Cover: 8-page insert and tray card in standard jewel case.

Track Listing: Station Introduction/ Stand Up And Shout/ Straight Through The Heart/ Shame On The Night/ Stargazer/ Guitar Solo/ Heaven And Hell/ Holy Diver/ Rainbow In The Dark/ Man On The Silver Mountain> Starstruck

Comments: Bootlegs of this King Biscuit Flower Hour radio broadcast go back to numerous vinyl releases (mostly of European manufacture) in the 1980s. 5 tracks appear on the official deluxe edition of Holy Diver (2012).

The tour was the first for the debut album (Holy Diver) of Ronnie James Dio (more accurately, the band Dio named after himself). By 1983 Dio was a well-known commodity in the world of hard rock, having previously fronted the bands Elf, Black Sabbath, and Rainbow. Dio brought along former Sabbath bandmate, Vinny Appice, former Rainbow mate, Jimmy Balin, and unknown guitarist (at the time)Vivian Campbell, to take the album charts by storm. The band would go through numerous line-up changes through the years, but never recapture the sales that Holy Diver enjoyed. As a bootleg, Live In Santa Monica serves little purpose these days, as the bulk of the material has been released officially.

Santana: Live At The Bottom Line, New York 1978 (Boiling Point 003)

Venue: Bottom Line, NYC, NY 10/16/78

Sound Quality: very good to excellent broadcast recording from low generation source

Cover: Single panel insert and tray card in slimline double jewel case. Bare basics and does not list recording date

Track Listing: (disc 1) Intro> Well Alright/ Black Magic Woman/ Gypsy Queen/ Dance Sister Dance/ Europa/ Dealer/ Spanish Rose/ Incident At Neshabur/ Victory Is Won/ Move On/ Batuka/ No One To Depend On/ (disc 2) One Chain/ Toussaint L’Overture/ She’s Not There/ Open Invitation/ Jungle Strut/ Transcendance/ Evil Ways

Comments: As FM radio made its move from free-form to AOR formats, Santana moved in the opposite direction, moving deeper into albums with jazz stylings and spiritual concepts. They would find themselves absent from the Top 40 charts for 5 years before releasing the part live/ part studio album, Moonflower. With that release, a much more accessible album, they finally returned to high rotation radio play with a pop cover of The Zombies’ “She’s Not There.” In 1978 they released the follow-up, Inner Secrets, once again with an eye toward the more narrow formats radio had taken. The result was another Top 40 hit, “Stormy,” and two other singles that cracked the Top 100, the disco-ish “One Chain” and a remake of another radio classic, Buddy Holly’s “Well Alright” – modeled after Blind Faith’s hit version. Columbia Records must have been thrilled as sales skyrocketed. Fans favoring Santana’s more adventurous work, not so much.

Live At The Bottom Line features the band touring in support of that album which would be followed by another crack at the charts with 1979’s Marathon, another Top 40 hit, “You Know That I Love You,” and a new singer (Alex Ligertwood) that sounded an awful lot like the previous one (Greg Walker). By 1981’s Zebop!, the commercial move was in full flower and the Latin rhythms most favored by fans of the Woodstock-era almost entirely absent. What we get from this 1978 performance is a last-look at a smoking band on the verge of a complete overhaul. Not entirely for fans of earlier days, but fans of the more pop-oriented Santana should love it.

Traffic: Live In London (London Calling LCCD5062)

Venue: Paris Theatre, London, UK 4/30/70 (BBC broadcast)

Sound Quality: Excellent broadcast recording, most likely from a pre-broadcast transcription disc of one of the many BBC re-broadcasts of the show.

Cover: Nice graphics in cardboard digipak containing 8-page booklet inside with period photos and an article from the 5/29/70 issue of Friends magazine. But you have to wonder if there is any fan involvement here when the title of one of their most famous albums (John Barleycorn Must Die) is wrongly titled on the back cover as “John Barleycorn Is Dead.”

Track Listing: Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring/ Every Mother’s Son/ No Time To Live/ Medicated Goo/ John Barleycorn/ Pearly Queen/ Stranger To Himself/ Empty Pages/ Glad/ Freedom Rider

Comments: Part of the agreement to allow Steve Winwood to record for a competing label (the Blind Faith album) was for Winwood to record two additional albums in the future for Island Records. Island would accept either newly recorded solo albums or new Traffic albums. With the quick break-up of Blind Faith, Winwood would begin work on a new solo album. As the sessions proceeded, Traffic bandmates Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi would become involved and the result was a new Traffic album, John Barleycorn Must Die. Before the album was completed, the trio would appear on the Beeb’s In Concert series. This is the result – a stripped down Traffic performing old favorites and new songs not yet familiar to the public. It’s magnificent. Highly recommended for folks that missed the earlier versions.

Various Artists: Anti-Nuclear Disarmament Rally Central Park NYC ’82 (Rox Vox RVCD2090)

Venue: Central Park, NYC, NY 6/12/82

Sound Quality: Good radio broadcast with flaws reminiscent of a multi-generational source 

Cover: 8-page booklet with liner notes and tray card in slimline double jewel case

Tracklist: (disc 1) For Everyman (Jackson Browne/ The Pretender (Jackson Browne & Gary U.S. Bonds)/ Imagine (Joan Baez)/ Promised Land/ Running On Empty/ Backstage (Jackson Browne & Bruce Springsteen)/ Tumbling Dice/ Blue Bayou/ It’s In His Kiss/ Desperado/ Heatwave/ Back In The USA/ Backstage (Linda Ronstadt) (disc 2) That Lonesome Road/ You’ve Got A Friend/ Band Introductions/ Up On The Roof/ Stand And Fighr (James Taylor)/ No More Nukes (Joy Ryder & Avis Davis)/Plutonium Is Forever (John Hall)/ Power/ Get Together Finale (John Hall with Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, & Carly Simon)

Comments: Not a lot to recommend this one - some tape-fluctuation and thin sound. While the performances are generally fine, they are incomplete. Plus, there’s a lot of DJ blabber throughout. Still, if you desire a companion piece for the No-Nukes official release, this might suffice until a better recording comes along.

Back Pages: (more short reviews from the August 1997 print edition of Live! Music Review, available on the Internet for the first time)

AC/DC: Hola Madrid (MM 002)

Venue: The Main Bullring, Madrid, Spain 7/4/96

Sound Quality: excellent broadcast recording

Cover: 2-panel insert and 2-sided tray card

Tracklist: Back In Black/ Shot Down In Flames/ Thunderstruck/ Girls Got Rhythm/ Hard As A Rock/ Shoot To Thrill/ Boogieman/ Hail Caesar/ The Jack/ You Shook Me All Night Long/ Whole Lotta Rosie/ Highway To Hell/ For Those About To Rock

Comments: AC/DC hasn’t messed with their formula for 20+ years and it still works. This broadcast has appeared on a number of other releases.

The Doors: Wanted (Sugarcane Records SC 52016)

Venue: The Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada 6/6/70

Sound Quality: Compressed radio broadcast, badly eq’d

Cover: One picture of Morrison’s face made to look like a wanted poster

Tracklist: Roadhouse Blues/ Backdoor Man/ Five To One/ When The Music’s Over/ Who Do You Love?/ Light My Fire/ The End

Comments: Just another version of one of the most bootlegged radio broadcasts, and not a very good one at that.

Foo Fighters: Brixton (KTS 518)

Venue: 1-11 The Brixton Academy, London, UK 11/14/95; 12-13 The Lowlands Festival, Holland 6/27/95; 14 NYC, NY 7/95; 15 London, UK 11/16/95

Sound Quality: excellent broadcast recordings

Cover: 12-panel insert and 2-sided tray card. Lots of pictures of Dave Grohl on stage, possibly from video

Tracklist: Enough Space/ This Is A Call/ Winnebago>Watershed/ For All The Cows/ Weenie Beenie/ Big Me/ I’ll Stick Around/ Alone And Easy Target/ Up In Arms/ Gas Chamber/ Exhausted/ My Hero/ Ho, George/ This Is A Call/ Winnebago>Watershed

Comments: Typical of any number of other high quality Foo Fighters broadcasts, Brixton comes highly recommended only if you haven’t already got two or three other bootlegs featuring the same or similar material. And if you haven’t yet, you haven’t been looking. Grohl & company deliver with the usual high energy, but the seasoned collector will probably want to wait for something featuring material from the latest album. The final track is a specially recorded studio version for the BBC.

Elton John: Rocket Man (Live Line 15460)

Venue: Worceter, MA 1983

Sound Quality: Excellent broadcast recording

Cover: Generic 1-piece front cover & tray card

Tracklist: Tiny Dancer/ Rocket Man/ Daniel/ Candle In The Wind/ The Bitch Is Back/ Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me/ Who Wears These Shoes/ I’m Still Standing/ Goodbye Yellow Brick Road/ Your Song/ Philadelphia Freedom/ Saturday Night’s Alright/ Crocadile Rock

Comments: There’s a few fade-outs at the end of songs in this highly circulated recording. This disc contains the kind of sound quality that will please the person that buys 20 CDs a year, but a recording that every serious Elton John fan already has.

[All reviews by Bill Glahn]