Redbeard’s Blog

Cheap Trick- Need Your Love- Passaic NJ 12/78

Cheap Trick actually delayed  Dream Police, their studio follow-up to the brilliant 1978 third album Heaven Tonight, not because of a lack of strong songs  written, but because their fluke live-in-Japan-only release At Budokan  virtually…

Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band- Factory- Cleveland 8-78

With the release of the album Darkness on the Edge of Town in 1978, Bruce Springsteen went from the Cinemascope sweep of Born to Run three years earlier to the Rock Generation's defacto Secretary of Labor.

Rolling Stones- Mixed Emotions- Toronto 9-3-89

When interviewing Keith Richards in early January 1989 ostensibly about his solo album Talk is Cheap,  I was repeatedly reminded by his delightful publicist Jane Rose not to ask about the 900 pound gorilla in the studio: the Rolling Stones,…

Neil Young and Crazy Horse- Down By the River- San Francisco 1986

Neil Young and Crazy Horse live "Down By the River"

SHOWCO- Chari Short pt 1

Chari Short, part one of two.

John Fogerty- Green River- Burbank 5-97

John Fogerty was rehearsing his band in Burbank CA in front of a small studio audience when the band dug into the title song from that Creedence Clearwater Revival "Green River" album.

Crowded House- Don’t Dream It’s Over/All I Have to Do is Dream- 2010

"Hey now, hey now...". What a great band. Formed from the stray strands of New Zealand's Split Enz, Crowded House had up to four lead singers and the brilliant songs of Neil Finn. Not even the almost criminally inept career direction of their…

Toad the Wet Sprocket- Fall Down- Dallas 5-19-94

Love these guys live, and as you can hear, Toad the Wet Sprocket can pull off their tight melodic sound straight off the floor without any tricks, as here with "Fall Down" from May 1994.

AC/DC- Shot Down in Flames- Paris 1979

AC/DC's worldwide breakthrough album Highway to Hell , here is another white-hot live performance from the original Aussie outfit fronted by the inimitable Bon Scott ripping through "Shot Down in Flames" in Paris 1979. -Redbeard

Neil Young-“Needle & the Damage Done” Live Aid Phila. 7-13-85

Dallas-Ft.Worth radio station Q102 and the Dallas Morning News  sent me to JFK Stadium in Philadelphia 7-13-85 to cover the US Live Aid concert. About a year later Neil Young was doing a live interview with me on my afternoon Q102 radio show, and during it I played him performing "The Needle and the Damage Done" at the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia. It stopped Neil Young in his tracks, and he began asking me where I got it.