HEART – Live In Memphis 1985 [King Biscuit Flower Hour original broadcast from vinyl]

Some time ago we featured a bootleg of a HEART 1985’s live performance recorded in Memphis, TN, for the legendary broadcast show King Biscuit Flower Hour. There’s has been many bootleg releases, some even on silver-pressed CD’s.

However, most the times on these bootlegs the original sound has been modified, or sometimes take as source the FM radio broadcast itself.
So let’s go to the original source then: this ”Live In Memphis 1985” is ripped from the original vinyl pressed for the radio show broadcast – including ads et all, it’s the show as it was aired. At the time, the shows to be featured were professionally recorded with mobile soundboard, then the audio pressed on vinyl, and then the day of the King Biscuit Flower Hour show they played the vinyl LP straight to the airwaves.
Sound quality is excellent, capturing HEART at their prime.

This is Heart live at the beginning of their new sonic facet, their commercial / mainstream era and how the ‘new’ huge sound was translated to the stage.
The hits just kept coming during this mid-’80s Heart show captured in Menphis, TN. The band was in its second phase when this show was recorded, and included only the Wilson sisters, Ann and Nancy, and guitarist Howard Leese from the original 1975 line up.
“If Looks Could Kill,” “Barracuda,” “Straight On,” “These Dreams,” “Never,” “What About Love?”, “Magic Man,” etc, are just a number of the radio classics heard on this concert.

Heart, led by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, actually had two significant periods when they were at the forefront of the music scene with a string of hit singles. The first era was between 1976 and 1982, when they released their legendary Dreamboat Annie album and followed it with a number of multi-platinum albums for Epic’s Portrait Records.

The second period of their massive success was between 1985 and the early 1990s, long after the Wilsons had replaced all but Howard Leese from the original band (among the new members were Spirit / Firefall bassist Mark Andes and ex-Montrose drummer, Denny Carmassi), and moved to Capitol Records, who decided to roll the dice and see what was left of the once popular hard-rock pop act.
Much to the surprise of most of the music industry, the group had its biggest commercial success with a series of MTV and FM radio hits, mostly power ballads that included “These Dreams,” “What About Love” and “Never.”

This show, recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour Radio Concert Series in 1985, proves the band still had a lot of steam left even after ten years on the forefront of the FM rock scene.
Great show, great recording.

 

01 – KBFH Intro
02 – If Looks Could Kill
03 – Barracuda
04 – Straight On
05 – These Dreams
06 – Bebe le Strange
07 – Even It Up
08 – How Can I Refuse
09 – Never
10 – Crazy On You
11 – Magic Man
12 – What About Love
13 – KBFH Outro

Ann Wilson – Vocals, Flute, Guitar, Keyboards, Violin, Autoharp
Nancy Wilson – Guitar, Vocals, Mandolin, Keyboards, Harmonica
Howard Leese – Guitar, Mandolin, Keyboards, Autoharp
Mark Andes – Bass, Backing Vocals
Denny Carmassi – Drums

turbo