Product Description

No Description Available.
Genre: Popular Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 19-FEB-1991

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Hello - John Walker
2. Hello Friends
3. So Fine - Elvin Bishop Group
4. Party 'Til the Cows Come Home - Malo
5. Pana - The Sons of Champlin
6. Poppa Can Play - It's a Beautiful Day
7. White Bird - Quicksilver Messenger Service
8. Fresh Air - Quicksilver Messenger Service
9. Mojo
10. Introduction - Bill Graham
11. Back on the Streets Again - Tower of Power
12. Baby's Callin' Me Home - Boz Scaggs
13. I Just Want to Make Love to You - Cold Blood
14. Passion Flower - Stoneground
15. Henry - New Riders of the Purple Sage

Disc 2:

1. Casey Jones - Grateful Dead
2. Johnny B. Goode - Grateful Dead
3. Introduction - Bill Graham
4. Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning - Hot Tuna
5. Incident at Neshabur - Santana
6. In a Silent Way - Santana
7. Jam Session: We Gonna Rock - Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal, Boz Scaggs
8. Jam Session: Long and Tall - Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal, Boz Scaggs
9. Final Night Jam Session/Bill Graham Goodbye/Greensleeves
10. Words with Bill Graham - Elvin Bishop Group

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40756 in Music
• Brand: Unknown
• Released on: 1991-02-19
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Live, Box set
• Dimensions: .39 pounds

Customer Reviews

Days Gone By
I bought this years ago on vinyl, and I still have it. The LP came with an authentic poster and ticket, an informative booklet which included some great photos and a listing (by date) of every show that ever played the Fillmore, and a bonus 7" 33-1/3 rpm "Words With Bill Graham" disc. The CD reissue, of course, doesn't give you the poster nor ticket, nor the extensive booklet, but the interview is included. Musically, this album is excellent. Some performances may be marginally better than others, but many are brilliant, and all were chosen by the artists themselves. The recording quality is amazingly good, especially when compared to many other live recordings of the period. What's also cool is that the album presents a number of very talented artists who were somewhat obscure at the time and almost unknown today-- but who deserve not to be forgotten. Alongside of those are great performances by bands and artists who went on to become legends. The incredible version of "Baby's Callin' Me Home" by Boz Scaggs is alone worth the cost of the set. The Dead's cover of "Johnny B. Goode" that appears here is the best I've yet heard-- far superior, to my ears, to the already great version that appears on "Skull & Roses". In addition are great performances by Quicksilver, The Sons, Santana, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Cold Blood, Tower of Power-- the list goes on. The "Final Night Jam" that closes out the set (with Taj Mahal, Boz Scaggs, Elvin Bishop and a host of others not even credited) is way cool. It all ends with "Greensleeves", often played at the end of the night, amid the sounds of the audience leaving the auditorium for the last time. Very poignant, indeed. Some may pan this album for various reasons, including the very inclusion of some of those more obscure artists. But I think they are missing the point. This is a documentation of a moment in time and history. And I for one would not want to be without it.

Place This One In A Time Capsule
I was fortunate enough to have seen several of the great performers that make up this incredible box set. Although I never had occassion to visit the Filmore West, as a native New Yorker I attended some great great shows at The Filmore East. Virtually all of the performances here are truely inspired and in many cases blow away the orginal studio recordings.

For starters, I saw Santana in 1969 at The Filmore East. The orginal lineup was capable of performing their entire self titled debut album note-for-note, start to finish. Here they wail through a smoldering version of Incident At Neshabur and turn in a beautiful interpretation of the Miles Davis classic In A Silent Way. The Dead visit familiar ground with a rousing performances of Johnny B. Goode and Casey Jones. The NRPS enliven the crowd with their old smuggler's favorite Henry and Hot Tuna and Papa John blaze through Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burnin'. The real surprise here is the explosive, 12 plus minute version of Baby's Calling Me Home by Boz Scaggs.

My overall feeling on this album is... put it into a time capsule and in one hundred years, when someone wants to learn a thing or two about this thing called pop culture in America during the 60's and 70's, let them listen to Last Days of The Filmore.

The soundtrack for the end of an era.
When I was in college back in the mid-'70s, my younger sister told me to buy this album. I took her advice. At first, I hated it. I was still musically challenged and into more commercial AM music. (This was not Bread or the Monkees or even the Rolling Stones.) But, I liked a couple of songs. So, I listened to it some more. The more I listened, the more I liked it. I got to like it so much that I have bought four or five copies. The only other albums I have bought that many copies of are Dark Side of the Moon, Abbey Road, the Beatles' "White Album," the Doors' "LA Woman" and ELP's Brain Salad Surgery. So The Last Days is in good company!... It is true that the album contains "hits" from the better known bands who played rather than the best music played that week. For example, The Last Days contains a 9 minute version of Its a Beautiful Day's FM staple "White Bird." They played better music that night including an 18 minute jam on a piece called "Time" and 12 minutes of "Wasted Union Blues." The fact they did not make it to the Last Days Album doesn't mean the more 'commercial' (I found a bootleg copy of the entire IBD performance.) "White Bird" track is any less than excellent or thoroughly enjoyable. (In my opinion, it is the best version of "White Bird" I have heard.) And one could complain the album doesn't contain enough of the Dead (it has two short Dead tunes "Casey Jones" and "Jonny B. Goode"). You can get tons of live Dead, and what is there is still great!

The less 'commercial' cuts include Boz Scaggs' "Baby's calling me home," Cold Blood's performance of "I just want to make love to you," the Taj Majal jam session on side 6 of the vinyl and Tower of Power's "Back on the Streets Again." The Tower's cut is a blaring funk horn track. Very cool. Boz Scaggs work is musical Nirvana, developing from a hopeful, hesitant vocal so quiet it is almost burried in the tape noise and growing to an overwhelming wall of sound, a musical orgasm blasting you into another dimension. (This was not Boz Scaggs the Disco King, but Boz Scaggs the rock/blues musician.) Cold Blood is raw and sensual. Taj Majal's masterful blues work could make an onion cry.

The album provides a glimpse into Rock's most energetic and creative period. I think any shortcommings the album may have are because it is hard to condense an entire week of music into two hours. The Last Days of the Filmore is pure fun and hope from an earlier time. Earth, air, fire and water. Love and peace. This is a great album.