Unlimited Love: Barry White 80

Barry White - Just the Way You Are

Let's rejoinder the Johnny Too Bad post yesterday with one that's just as big on a message of love as John Martyn's music is, but in a completely different, if equally as sensual, way.

Today's musical behemoth had quite a journey from the gang streets of 1950s LA to the artist to whose music the most children have been conceived.

I can tell you this: when I was a kid in the 1970s, the music of Barry White was literally everywhere.

Something about that basso profundo voice coming out of this classy looking, giant dude lit up the dance floor, the charts and the boudoir like almost no other guy you could name.

A guy whose tunes concerned a single subject -- perhaps the single subject -- of l-o-v-e.

They say about the greatest singers and songwriters that they experience the massive success they do because their songs sound like they are being sung directly to you, the listener.

This applies to the full emotional spectrum of subject matter, and includes the brooding, isolated melancholy of a Nick Drake, all the way to the passionately intoned Words Of Love and Intimacy someone like Barry White is famous for.

Anyway say and think what you want, but there'll never be another singer who'll cause people to just spontaneously rip off their clothes and reproduce themselves into a gooey stupor like this man did.

Of course ROIOs of his performances are rarer than that necklace of hen's teeth you wore to the disco in 1977, but I excavated this satellite broadcast -- I think bits of this show were issued on a VHS tape back in the mists of time -- of this 1990 Belgium show to celebrate his big 8-0.

Barry White

Flanders Expo 

Ghent, Belgium 

10.6.1990

01 Never Never Gonna Give Ya Up

02 What Am I Gonna Do with You?

03 Playing Your Game, Baby

04 You See the Trouble with Me

05 You're the First, the Last, You're My Everything

06 I Wanna Do It Good to Ya

07 Just the Way You Are

08 Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe

09 Let the Music Play

Total time: 49:41

Barry White - vocals

with The Love Unlimited Orchestra, musical director John Roberts

players unidentified

192/48k audio extracted from an unofficially issued DVD of a 1990s European satellite TV rebroadcast

spectral analysis goes way past 20k, making this equivalent to a preFM source

converted to 16/44, edited & remastered by EN, September 2024
362 MB FLAC/direct link

For whatever reason, when I extracted this one I found that even though it said 192/48, the spectral analysis had it past the range of human hearing anyway, so call this a preFM if you wanna.

I'll be back in 10 days to continue the September remembrances, but I thought you could use a liberal dosage of unlimited love, courtesy of today's woulda-been octogenarian Love Master! You know you're iconic to the power of legendary when you get your own Simpsons shoutout.--J.

9.12.1944 - 7.4.2003

State of Grace & Danger

John Martyn - Some People Are Crazy

We'll blast off into September like a grip of nanothermite insta-toppling a skyscraper -- all so the Mossad could inaugurate their desired era of Zionist World Domination we now so serftastically enjoy -- with what woulda been the 76th b'day of one of my go-to guys.

I done him a few times years ago, but I've been on a Grace and Danger kick lately -- that's his 1980 record where he got a permanent band after a decade more or less solo -- and in the course of making a live compilation of that tour for myself I found the music too awesome not to share.

What is there to say about John Martyn? Why does his music move me and others so much?

He's thought of now as a pioneer and a heavyweight songwriter and guitar wizard, as the passage of time always smooths the rougher edges.

When he was alive, he was never quite able to break through to a wide audience, try as he might have, largely due to his badass attitude and the raging alcoholism that eventually took him away at the too-soon age of 60.

Our CIA Music Overlords don't allow performers such as he to break through anymore anyway; too personal, too emotionally relevant, and too unity-promoting for the Gumball Gulag they have in mind.

No matter though. People right now are playing the music of John Martyn without even knowing it's his birthday, while no one remembers William Colby except the fishes with whom he sleeps.

It's to them -- the listeners, not the fishes -- that this collection is dedicated.

John Martyn

1981 UK Tour Sampler

01 Lookin' On

02 One World

03 Johnny Too Bad

04 May You Never

05 Outside In

06 Hurt In Your Heart

07 Sweet Little Mystery

08 Spencer the Rover

09 Didn't Do That

10 Solid Air

11 Anna/Small Hours

12 Singin' In the Rain

13 Some People Are Crazy

14 Grace and Danger

15 Save Some (For Me)

16 Eibhli Ghail Chiuin Ni Chearbhail

17 Couldn’t Love You More

18 Amsterdam

19 Johnny Too Bad

20 Big Muff

Total Time: 1:53:50

disc break goes after Track 12

John Martyn - guitar & vocals

Alan Thomson - bass

Danny Cummings - percussion

Max Middleton - keyboards (Tracks 02-12)

Jeff Allen - drums (Tracks 02-20)

Tommy Eyre - keyboards (Tracks 01, 13-20)

Phil Collins - drums & vocals (Track 01)

Track 01: "The Old Grey Whistle Test" BBC Television Centre, London UK 1.10.1981 

sourced from the 2007 deluxe edition of "Grace and Danger" on the Island label

Tracks 02-06: "A Little Night Music" BBC Television Centre, London UK 8.12.1981 

sourced from the 2013 box set "The Island Years" DVD on the Island label

Tracks 07-12: Dominion Theatre, London UK 5.24.1981 

sourced from the 2001 CD "Sweet Certain Surprise" on the One World label (Tracks 07+08) and a 2nd gen off-air FM cassette (Tracks 09-12)

Tracks 13-19: "Rock Goes to College" Pathfoot Auditorium  Stirling University, Stirling UK 2.25.1981 

sourced from the 2006 DVD "At the BBC" on the Island label

Track 20: "Rock Goes to College" Pathfoot Auditorium  Stirling University, Stirling UK 2.25.1981 

sourced from a master off-air FM cassette from a 1980s Swedish radio rebroadcast of part of the concert 

this is the full song, and not the fragment in the TV broadcast and on the DVD

extracted, unified to 16/44 CD Audio, assembled, repaired & remastered by EN, September 2024

Tracks 07, 08, 10, 12 & 20 pitch corrected by PervFesser Goody, September 2024
666 MB FLAC/direct link

This is one of those rare deals where ostensibly official stuff and unissued things get mashed up, something I usually avoid doing but in this case, I didn't originally intend to put this up so it is what it is. The only track that's ever been on CD is the 1st one anyhow, and a couple of the others that were bonus cuts bundled in with album reissues.

I remastered everything to be its level best, and even paid a call on a certain PervFesser Goody to pitch-tune the more recalcitrant tapes. And yes, two of the officially-released tunes were at the wrong speed. Come on Overlords, step it up!

OK? Enough of my hatespeech, deserving as it may be. Enjoy this and even if you don't, I'll be back tomorrow with something completely different, yet just as full of a Love so sorely lacking. And of course a happy 76th to the immortally tremendous Johnny Too Bad, who just gets badder and badder!--J.

9.11.1948 - 1.29.2009

In Consort: Paul Winter 85

Paul Winter Consort - The Promise of a Fisherman

We'll sneak this on in under the wire for August, in celebration of a musical and ecological veteran and his milestone birthday today.

Did you know that today's guy was part of the first Jazz concert ever at the White House, as honored guest of then-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy?

I was Today Years Old when I learned that.

That was in 1962. By 1967 our hero had formed his Consort, which he's had, in one configuration or another, ever since.

This group helped usher in both the World Music era and the era -- still, thankfully, ongoing -- in which musicians got involved in ecological activism.

I call him the John Muir of Jazz, which he'd likely appreciate.

It is alleged to have started when he heard a recording of humpback whale calls in the late 1960s.

His Consort was one of the first to incorporate the sounds of wildlife into a Jazz record, and their 1977 LP -- documented on tour in today's share fare -- featured this aspect heavily.

Their Icarus album from 1974 is where the members of the band Oregon first played together.

In 1980, he formed his own label, called Living Music, as an outlet for his vision.

This led to him becoming artist-in-residence at The Cathedral Of St. John The Divine in New York City during the 1980s and 1990s.

Perhaps the muso most associated with the Save The Whales initiative, he's also heavily involved in the preservation of wolves in the wild, and has recorded songs around their vocalizations as you'll see in the concert here.

And a mighty fine concert it is, and wouldn't you know it's another one of those lifted and reassembled from that other Gang of Wolves.

Paul Winter Consort

Bottom Line

New York City, New York USA

6.28.1978

01 Mountain Wedding/band introductions

02 Ballad In 7/8

03 Ocean Dream

04 Ancient Voices (Nhemamusasa)

05 Lay Down Your Burden

06 Happy Guru

07 The Promise of a Fisherman

08 Minuit/Whole Earth Chant

09 Wolf Eyes

10 Icarus

Total time: 1:33:30

disc break goes after Track 06

Tracks 01-08 are from the late show

Tracks 09 & 10 are from the early show

Paul Winter - saxophones, reeds, keyboards & vocals 

David Darling - cello

Nancy Rumbel - oboe, English horn, piano & vocals 

Michael Blair - drums & percussion 

Jim Scott - guitar 

John Guth - bass & guitar 

Michael Holmes - keyboards & vocals

Warren Bernhardt - piano

with special guests:

Dr. Paul Berliner - mbira & vocals

Susan Osborn - vocals

additional vocals provided by the ensemble

320/48k audio streamed from Wolfgang's Vault

spectral analysis goes to 20 kHz, making this essentially equivalent to a preFM source

converted to 16/44 CD Audio, repaired, denoised, retracked and somewhat remastered by EN, August 2024
509 MB FLAC/direct link

That wraps up August, and I've already looked at September so I'd remember to make it memorable.

Do enjoy these 93 minutes of blissness, though... I was gonna say it's a whale of a show! And a suitable celebratory artifact to honor the 85th b'day of Paul Winter!--J.

Ndegeocello Song

Meshell Ndegeocello - Headline

I've got a couple more August cards in the well, beginning with this person, who is turning 56 today.

I've never seen her play as far as I can remember, but my friend from way back in Oakland days 20+ years ago lived in the same building as her at one time, and pointed out her car to me once in the garage.

As The Simulation would have it, it's also his birthday today... and he's also a bass player.

As synonomous with Groove as any bassist alive or not, today's berfday lady has actually been around for a good long time, when you think about it.

Her first record came out over 30 years ago, yet something about her constant, project-to-project explorations of the diverse and demandingly danceable seems eternally fresh and of the current times and moment somehow.

Always reliable for records that interpret social conscience through grooves deeper than ten Grand Canyons, her concerts are themselves often whole excursions into a kind of musical activism that takes place not by spoken political polemic, but by vibrational osmosis.

That is to say, what -- in the hands of less aware and sensitive artists -- might come across as too intentional and heavy-handed, comes through in her work effortlessly and without the listener having to wonder what she means.

It's a rare gift, and further proof -- were it necessary -- that the power of The One carries with it an ability to transmit to the hips what the mind resists.

So enough of my nonsense blather, let's get to the concert, shall we?

Where this comes from in terms of origin is anyone's guess, as it only exists in public as a YouTube video where the uploader is waxing melancholically about how he'd blow the Pope to have it as lossless audio.

But then that's what Baby Jesus created Soulseek for, amirite? One person had it on there, and when I examined it, it was so lossless it went way past the range of human hearing, causing my husband's German Shepherd to start a Soul Train line with my in-laws' beagle.

Meshell Ndegeocello

Auditorium Parco della Musica

Rome, Italy

5.13.2006

01 Tariq (Love Song #3)

02 Point of No Return

03 Come Smoke My Herb

04 Love Song #1

05 Headline

06 Evolution

07 band intros over unidentified theme

08 Michelle Johnson

09 Blacknuss (outro theme)

Total time: 58:17

Meshell Ndegeocello - bass & vocals

Daniel Jones - keyboards

Michael Severson - guitar

Gilmar Gomes - percussion

Mike Kelly - bass

Adam Deitch - drums

digital capture of a seemingly uncompressed broadcast of indeterminate origin, possibly from satellite TV or radio

spectral analysis goes past 22 kHz, making this well equivalent to a preFM source

slightly edited for dead air and retracked -- with volume from halfway through Track 02 to end of show increased +2.5 dB -- by EN, August 2024
391 MB FLAC/direct link

What kicks booty about this one is that she's just starting to twist up the material for her 2007 record, The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams, and because she's that sort of old-school legit she's gonna try it out on a live audience ready for something more familiar... and they're gonna love it despite the fact that it's just coming into shape. So you get a looseness that seems tight, if that makes sense.

Anyhow she was born in the appropriately tumultuous and questioning year of 1968 and is 56 today. I've always wanted to cover her, and not least because I'm always hyped to take a breather from the hypermasculinized sausage factory of this page and give some needed respect to the ladies (and the non-gender-conforming). Especially those who make music as impactful and honest as Meshell Ndegeocello does.--J.