Fillmore: The Last Days [Box set, Live]

Various Artists - Rock - Classic | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 19, 1991)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Box set, Live
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000024YS
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,294 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Time-warp back to the last week of live shows (1971) at the famed Bay Area rock venue! A long interview with Fillmore head honcho Bill Graham joins Casey Jones Grateful Dead; Fresh Air Quicksilver Messenger Service; In a Silent Way Santana; So Fine Elvin Bishop Group; Back on the Streets Again Tower of Power plus Hot Tuna, Boz Scaggs, Taj Mahal and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Days Gone By, January 29, 2004

By 

Richard D. Hodgson (Madera, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fillmore: The Last Days (Audio CD)

I bought this years ago on vinyl, and I still have it. The LP came with an authentic poster and ticket, an informative booklet which included some great photos and a listing (by date) of every show that ever played the Fillmore, and a bonus 7" 33-1/3 rpm "Words With Bill Graham" disc. The CD reissue, of course, doesn't give you the poster nor ticket, nor the extensive booklet, but the interview is included. Musically, this album is excellent. Some performances may be marginally better than others, but many are brilliant, and all were chosen by the artists themselves. The recording quality is amazingly good, especially when compared to many other live recordings of the period. What's also cool is that the album presents a number of very talented artists who were somewhat obscure at the time and almost unknown today-- but who deserve not to be forgotten. Alongside of those are great performances by bands and artists who went on to become legends. The incredible version of "Baby's Callin' Me Home" by Boz Scaggs is alone worth the cost of the set. The Dead's cover of "Johnny B. Goode" that appears here is the best I've yet heard-- far superior, to my ears, to the already great version that appears on "Skull & Roses". In addition are great performances by Quicksilver, The Sons, Santana, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Cold Blood, Tower of Power-- the list goes on. The "Final Night Jam" that closes out the set (with Taj Mahal, Boz Scaggs, Elvin Bishop and a host of others not even credited) is way cool. It all ends with "Greensleeves", often played at the end of the night, amid the sounds of the audience leaving the auditorium for the last time. Very poignant, indeed. Some may pan this album for various reasons, including the very inclusion of some of those more obscure artists. But I think they are missing the point. This is a documentation of a moment in time and history. And I for one would not want to be without it.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The soundtrack for the end of an era., January 13, 2002

By 

Jason P. Gold (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fillmore: The Last Days (Audio CD)

When I was in college back in the mid-'70s, my younger sister told me to buy this album. I took her advice. At first, I hated it. I was still musically challenged and into more commercial AM music. (This was not Bread or the Monkees or even the Rolling Stones.) But, I liked a couple of songs. So, I listened to it some more. The more I listened, the more I liked it. I got to like it so much that I have bought four or five copies. The only other albums I have bought that many copies of are Dark Side of the Moon, Abbey Road, the Beatles' "White Album," the Doors' "LA Woman" and ELP's Brain Salad Surgery. So The Last Days is in good company!... It is true that the album contains "hits" from the better known bands who played rather than the best music played that week. For example, The Last Days contains a 9 minute version of Its a Beautiful Day's FM staple "White Bird." They played better music that night including an 18 minute jam on a piece called "Time" and 12 minutes of "Wasted Union Blues." The fact they did not make it to the Last Days Album doesn't mean the more 'commercial' (I found a bootleg copy of the entire IBD performance.) "White Bird" track is any less than excellent or thoroughly enjoyable. (In my opinion, it is the best version of "White Bird" I have heard.) And one could complain the album doesn't contain enough of the Dead (it has two short Dead tunes "Casey Jones" and "Jonny B. Goode"). You can get tons of live Dead, and what is there is still great!

The less 'commercial' cuts include Boz Scaggs' "Baby's calling me home," Cold Blood's performance of "I just want to make love to you," the Taj Majal jam session on side 6 of the vinyl and Tower of Power's "Back on the Streets Again." The Tower's cut is a blaring funk horn track. Very cool. Boz Scaggs work is musical Nirvana, developing from a hopeful, hesitant vocal so quiet it is almost burried in the tape noise and growing to an overwhelming wall of sound, a musical orgasm blasting you into another dimension. (This was not Boz Scaggs the Disco King, but Boz Scaggs the rock/blues musician.) Cold Blood is raw and sensual. Taj Majal's masterful blues work could make an onion cry.

The album provides a glimpse into Rock's most energetic and creative period. I think any shortcommings the album may have are because it is hard to condense an entire week of music into two hours. The Last Days of the Filmore is pure fun and hope from an earlier time. Earth, air, fire and water. Love and peace. This is a great album.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Place This One In A Time Capsule, September 15, 2000

By 

"marleyscott" (Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fillmore: The Last Days (Audio CD)

I was fortunate enough to have seen several of the great performers that make up this incredible box set. Although I never had occassion to visit the Filmore West, as a native New Yorker I attended some great great shows at The Filmore East. Virtually all of the performances here are truely inspired and in many cases blow away the orginal studio recordings.

For starters, I saw Santana in 1969 at The Filmore East. The orginal lineup was capable of performing their entire self titled debut album note-for-note, start to finish. Here they wail through a smoldering version of Incident At Neshabur and turn in a beautiful interpretation of the Miles Davis classic In A Silent Way. The Dead visit familiar ground with a rousing performances of Johnny B. Goode and Casey Jones. The NRPS enliven the crowd with their old smuggler's favorite Henry and Hot Tuna and Papa John blaze through Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burnin'. The real surprise here is the explosive, 12 plus minute version of Baby's Calling Me Home by Boz Scaggs.

My overall feeling on this album is... put it into a time capsule and in one hundred years, when someone wants to learn a thing or two about this thing called pop culture in America during the 60's and 70's, let them listen to Last Days of The Filmore.