The psychedelic folk band Pearls Before Swine was the brainchild of singer, composer, and cult icon Tom Rapp, born in Bottineau, ND in 1947; after writing his first song at age six, he later began performing at local talent shows, and as a teen, he bested a young Bob Dylan at one such event. Upon relocating to Melbourne, FL, Rapp formed Pearls Before Swine in 1965 to record a demo which he then sent to the ESP-Disk label; the company quickly signed the group, and they soon traveled to New York to record their superb 1967 debut One Nation Underground. The explicitly anti-war Balaklava, widely regarded as Pearls Before Swine's finest work, followed in 1968; the group moved to Reprise for 1969's These Things Too, mounting their first-ever tour in the wake of releasing The Use of Ashes a year later. Two more albums, City of Gold and Beautiful Lies You Could Live In, followed in 1971; moving to Blue Thumb, Rapp resurfaced as a solo artist with 1972's Stardancer, but upon the release of Sunforest a year later he then retired from music, subsequently becoming a civil rights attorney. Rapp made an unexpected return to live performance in mid-1998 when he appeared at the Terrastock festival in Providence, RI, joining son Dave and his indie pop band Shy Camp; he soon began work on 1999's A Journal of the Plague Year, his first new LP in over two decades. Constructive Melancholy, a retrospective of Pearls Before Swine's tenure on Reprise, also appeared that same year. (allmusic.com)
320Kbps mp3
CD 1
Venue Radio Hilversum, Netherlands
1. Another Time
2. The Riegal / When the War Began
3. The Jeweler
4. Island Lady
5. Rocket Man
6. If You Don't Want To
7. Suzanne
1971, Nov. 08 Free Music Store, New York
Dialogue
08 The Jesus Song
09 Dialogue > Island Lady
10 Dialogue > Wedding
11 Dialogue > When The War Began
12 dialogue > Marge
1970-1971 WBAI-FM, New York
CD 2
Set 1
Everybody's Got Pain
Island Lady
Look Into Her Eyes
Man In the Tree
Casablanca
Butterflies
Oh Dear Miss Morse
Epitaph On An Army of Mercenaries
The Wedding
Margery
These Things Too/Sail Away
CD 3
Set 2
Grace Street
Simple Things
A Life
The Jeweler
Song About A Rose
If You Don't Want To
The Riegal
I Will Not Care
Second Chances
Rocket Man
Suzanne
Snow Queen
