AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Time-wasting site of the Month:
Wolfgang's Vault - Legal Bootlegs of 70's & 80's Concerts

Thanks to layoffs and attacks of common sense, most of us 3357ers have more than a touch of gray in our hair, if we have any hair left at all. The vast majority of us came of age musically in the 1970s, with a few on either side of that. That means we're in the prime demographic range for Wolfgang's Vault. The "Wolfgang" in question is none other than deceased rock-n-roll promoter extraordinaire Bill Graham, whose given name was Wolfgang. Bill Graham ran the Fillmore West nightclub in San Francisco, and the Fillmore East nightclub in New York City from the 1960s to the 1980s. He collected hundreds of tapes from Fillmore performances. The webmasters at the wolfgangsvault.com website archived this material and also acquired the rights to the King Biscuit Flower Hour (remember the KBFH?) tapes, as well as quite a few radio broadcast concerts, and all of this material is now available in free streaming form at the Wolfgangs Vault website. You can buy copies many of the concerts. Performance royalties are paid even on the streamed concerts, so you can listen guilt-free.

If you don't find your favorite artist now, check back soon. In the past week, concerts were added by artists like Joe Walsh and Bachman Turner Overdrive. Many artists have several concerts available on the Vault, from different eras of their careers. It is interesting to compare early shows to later ones.

There are a few notable lapses in the Vault's collection. Black artists are woefully underrepresented. I'd love to hear a late '70s Commodores concert, for example. Most of the acts are American. If you want concerts from across the pond, for the most part, you'll have to look elsewhere.

I've got to tell you, don't check out this site if you don't have a lot of time to kill. It's addicting. My favorite concert so far is a show by Meatloaf from 11/29/1977, when Bat Out of Hell was still fresh, and Meat's voice is in prime form. I was reminded that I was going to post something about this because of the death of baseball Hall-of-famer, Phil Rizzuto, who voiced the play-by-play on Paradise by the Dashboard Light.