portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Thursday, February 06, 2025

ALBUMS THAT SHOULD EXIST | PAUL CARRACK

Paul Carrack - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: In Concert, Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, UK 11-18-1997

I've posted a couple of early 1980s BBC concerts that co-starred Nick Lowe and Paul Carrack. I'm planning on posting a couple of Nick Lowe solo career BBC concerts also. I'm more of a Lowe fan, but I've discovered a couple of Carrack solo career BBC concerts, so I'm posting them as well. Here's the first one, from 1997.

Paul Carrack has had a very strange music career. He sings lead vocals on many famous hits, but he's only had one sizable hit in the U.S., "Don't Shed a Tear" in 1987, and none in Britain. Yet he's the lead vocalist on "How Long" by Ace, "Tempted" and "Loving You Tonight" by Squeeze, and a bunch of Mike and the Mechanics hits, including "Silent Running," "Over My Shoulder," and "The Living Years." I think he'd be much more famous if his name had prominently featured on all those hits. 

Carrack has often been recruited as a band member or session player mostly because of his excellent, soulful voice, not to mention his keyboard playing and songwriting skills. One gets to see all that one display here. It's a relatively short (and unreleased) concert, at less than an hour. But it features some of the hits mentioned above by Ace, Squeeze, and Mike and the Mechanics, although oddly, not his big solo hit, "Don't Shed a Tear." Perhaps that's because this concert took place in Britain, and while that was a Top Ten hit in the U.S., it only reached Number Sixty in the British singles chart.

This album is 54 minutes long.

01 Another Cup of Coffee 
02 You Give Me Something 
03 Eyes of Blue 
04 Time to Let Go 
05 The Way I'm Feeling Tonight 
06 Perfect Love 
07 Satisfied 
08 Tempted
09 talk 
10 Over My Shoulder 
11 The Living Years 
12 How Long 


Now I have said how much I appreciate Paul Carrack and he is, apart from being the go to keyboard player and backing singer to a thousand bands (well a few), he is also the author of two favourite songs in the classic Ace hit ‘How Long’ and the wonderful Mike and The Mechanics song ’The Living Years’ which never fails to bring a tear to my eye as I think about my dear dad . . . . . enjoy what Paul has shared above at the titular link! 

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