Buzzy Linhart Live at the Café Au Go Go 1971

Track list

Sky Is Falling
Talk About A Morning
The Bag I’m In:Feelin’ Alright:Season Of the Witch (Medley)
The Time To Live Is Now
The Love’s Still Growing
God Bless The Child
Rollin’ On
Friends

This is the very first live recording ever released of cult legend Buzzy Linhart. In 2004, Art Berggren came across a trunkload of audio tapes of unreleased quality recordings made by Buzzy Linhart during a period of intense creativity from roughly 1965 to 1979, and Buzzy’s Teac A-7030 tape recorder made circa 1968 that with extensive restoration still worked. Among these recordings was a tape of an appearance by Buzzy at the legendary Café Au Go Go on April 8, 1971.

Buzzy had just completed production of his LP entitled “The Time To Live Is Now,” which had not been released yet. Buzzy hired a company to record these shows so that he could listen to what the audience had heard. In a 2005 interview Buzzy recollects: “We hadn’t released the record yet, we were playing some of the songs that night and at the club there were no fold back speakers pointing back at the band and I could hardly hear myself sing.”

We have restored and digitized the recordings of this show and have produced Buzzy Linhart Live At The Cafè Au Go Go 1971. The quality of these recordings is exceptional and so clear that the listener is transported back in time, and allows one to vicariously participate in the grand and seminal period of American popular music that took place in Greenwich Village during the1960s and the early 1970s.

The album contains a variety of songs from that era, including an energetic and high-spirited rendition of “The Bag I’m In,” written by Buzzy’s friend and mentor, Fred Neil; a deeply moving performance of “God Bless The Child;” Buzzy’s rendition of his raga-rock song “The Loves Still Growing,” that Carly Simon covered on her first commercial album released by Electra in 1971; and concludes with Buzzy’s mega-hit “Friends, which he had just co-written with Moogy Klingman, and which would eventually become the signature song of their friend Bette Midler.

Buzzy’s performances on this memorable night were augmented and energized by the superior musicianship of his band comprised of bassist Bill Takas, who honed his chops at Julliard, and drummer Luther Rix, whom Bette Midler had recently introduced to Buzzy.

We have carefully equalized, sweetened and re-mastered the original sound recordings to bring out as much clarity as possible without compromising the original performances, and we proudly present the result of that effort with Buzzy Linhart Live At The Cafè Au Go Go 1971. It is our hope that the release of this album will begin to bring about a long overdue revival of the work of this extraordinary artist and to demonstrate the significant and almost forgotten role that Buzzy played in the history and evolution of American popular music.

All recordings controlled by Buzzart Enterprises, Inc.
Produced by Art Berggren
Conceived and re-mastered by Bill Black
Artwork by Lamont Robinson
Artwork and design layout by Richard De Siato
Special thanks to Xeno Rasmussen, Shelly Toscano, Shannon Reily, Cathy Cavella, and Alex Merino

Purchase this Album
Genre: Rock: 60’s Rock
Release Date: 2014