The other day I was delighted to see one of the bootleg blogs I read posted a link to the audio: Jackson Browne: live on Soundstage 2009.

One highlight of the show was “Time the Conqueror,” the title track from his latest album, which shows he definitely hasn’t lost his talent for songwriting.

Another highlight: Jackson and his band performing a great version of “Lives in the Balance”, featuring his excellent backup singers. He’s also added another poignant verse to the song (which was originally released in 1986), with the last two lines even quoting scripture.

I find it so strange and confusing,
They take God out of our lives day by day,
But when tragedy strikes like 911,
They call for the nation to pray.
But what should America pray for?
For God to smite our enemies?
Or to heal the wounds of history,
And to live with the world in peace?
Seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,
then will I hear from heaven and heal their land.

[chorus]
And there are lives in the balance.
There are people under fire.
There are children at the cannons.
And there is blood on the wire.

Jackson Browne is in my mind an under appreciated artist (especially in recent years). This Soundstage concert illustrates just how good he is.

I’ve posted before that sports and rock & roll don’t necessarily go well together. Having said that, Bruce Springsteen’s halftime performance was my favorite thing about yesterday’s big game.

Springsteen and his band are the quintessential showmen, even when they’re only playing for twelve minutes, they push it to the full limit.

And you’ve got to love that introduction…

I want you to step back from the guacamole dip. I want you to put the chicken fingers down, and turn your television all the way up!

Update: The NFL had YouTube remove the videos I was linking to. (Boo!) However, you can download bootlegs of the performance. T.U.B.E. has links to an audio bootleg of Bruce Springsteen’s halftime show as well as a video bootleg.

This is an outstanding recording, available in lossless FLAC format, released by the Cardinals themselves. The entire show is posted in the audio section of the Internet Archive: Ryan Adams Live at Overture Hall on 2008-10-05.

What a great souvenir of a great concert. A must for all Ryan Adams fans.

I recently stumbled upon this little gem: a bootleg of Sting’s Unplugged performance at MTV studios, in March of 1991 — back when MTV actually had music on the channel.

Sting was touring to support his latest release at the time, The Soul Cages. He plays four songs from that underrated CD, but the highlights of the session are outstanding versions of “Message in a Bottle,” “Fragile,” an excellent cover of Bill Wither’s “Ain’t No Sunshine,” and “Tea in The Sahara” which segues into “Walking On The Moon.”

Although a cover image is included in the archive, I didn’t think the publicity image of a Synchronicity era Sting made sense, so I came up with my own cover based on images from The Soul Cages CD.

Share and enjoy.

• Joe Strummer – Solos, Soundtracks, & Rarities
• Van Morrison – Gypsy Soul (Studio Demos)
• Peter Tosh – Equal Rights Demos 1977
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – 1969-08-26 – Los Angeles
  (the earliest completely recorded CSNY concert)
• Talking Heads – CBS Demos (1975)
• U2 – Pulled The Covers (1979-2006)

The one minor downside of T.U.B.E. is the slightly complicated downloading process.

First you download a text file, which contains the links you need to get the music. Most of the files are available on the file sharing service, RapidShare, where you can download for free, but with limits. Those limits include waiting a few minutes to start the download, and you can only retrieve a certain number of megabytes per hour. I find that I max out the free access after about a disc’s worth of songs, and then I have to wait an hour or so to download more (which can be a little annoying if you’re trying to get a multiple disc bootleg). Traditionally bootlegs have always been something to share among music fans, so I suppose a little patience is a small price to pay for a free download. RapidShare does offer a premium account which can be purchased for unlimited downloads.

The files themselves are compacted in RAR format, so you must have a program that can un-compact RAR files in order get the actual MP3 files. I’m currently using the free program, IZArc, to do the job.

But once you go through all that, it usually is worth it. The files are well documented, and often include cover art. The bootlegs I’ve downloaded have been of very good quality. Every time I check out T.U.B.E., I’m just amazed at the variety and sheer number of bootlegs posted on the site.

Chrome Dreams is described as “one of those great lost albums, from the further reaches of rock history, that never saw the light of day, except to boot collectors.”

This particular bootleg also includes a “select batch of bonus cuts to give you a further taste of just how creative Neil was during this fertile period” (the mid 1970′s).

Definitely worth downloading. Share and enjoy.