Just about every band has (at least) one nestling in their catalogue. Invariably, many bands will have a plethora of un-licensed, un-authorised Live albums drawn from all parts of their carrer, often of varying quality (most of these “cheap” alternatives are usually pretty band sound wise, if I’m honest).
Of the many I have owned. heard, and in some cases stated “… and I was there”, one of the best is Motorhead – No Sleep Til Hammersmith.
Despite the suggestion in the title, the album was recorded in Leeds and Newcastle in early 1981 (the tour was only five dates long, and never actually got to Hammersmith). The band is the “classic” Motorhead line-up of Lemmy, Fast Eddie Clarke and Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor.
The album captures the band at the top of their game doing what they do best – playing very fast, very loud, full of energy and commitment to an uproarious and appreciative crowd.
As a Live Album, it is just about perfect.
Other nominations for Best (and Worst) Live Albums, please?
http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t490/Rigid_Digit/No_Sleep_til_Hammersmith_zpsu79zyqhs.jpg
Sometimes a live album is a means to revive a career, make some money from old tunes (with a new label) or celebrate a special gig. The band Burlesque released a live album Acupuncture in 1977 as their first ever release. Fast and cheap to record over studio fees but still sounds good.
I saw Burlesque sometime late70s/maybe early 80s at Sheffield Top Rank… I remember really enjoying them – I think they did a funny version of Man’s “Bananas” but that’s an album I’ve been trying to track down – might be a bit easier now I know its title!
Stiff Little Fingers – Hanx
Prior to a Autumn 1980 US Tour, new record label Chrysalis suggested the band produce a Live Album solely for the US Market as the debut was not widely available (Rough Trade Distribution not being an international thing).
The band expressed concern that the album would end up being imported and sold at vastly inflated prices in the UK, and negotiated a deal where the album would be mad available at a reduced price.
The July 1980 UK Tour provided the raw material for the planned Live Album. The show recorded at Aylesbury Friars was selected as the best performance, and the performance of “Johnny Was” from The Rainbow, London was added to the mix.
The album is a true reflection of an SLF show – flowing with energy, commitment, passion, and audience communication.
http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t490/Rigid_Digit/173a9d2fcbd3448f60de5dca01fea9e5_zpsnbfn00s2.jpg
I always thought there was something missing from the Grateful Dead’s studio work. Have they released any live albums?
Well, I chortled long and hard to your comment.
10cc Live and Let Live…..don`t care if it`s overdubbed, re-recorded, it`s fab. And I still don`t know what “the man responsible for the Windscale disaster” means.
Sounds like a Goon Show quotation. Specifically Bluebottle in The Scarlet Capsule.
Actually Bottle says “the brains behind….” but I still think it could be a reference.
Gosh.Gosh. I`ve been waiting to find the answer to this since about 1978. It`s a Goon show quote? I`ll sleep well tonight.
Thank you very very much.
Glad to be of service as the actress etc.
Three words: Misty in Roots.
Live at the Counter Eurovision? Now that is a cracking album!
We have a winner.
Three runners-up for Best Live Reggae Album:
Burning Spear: Live in Paris Zenith ’88
Aswad: Live and Direct (Notting Hill Festival)
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Live at the Roxy
Leonard Cohen – Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970
The more I listen, the more I am convinced that this is the best live album ever made (barring jazz, which is ‘always’ ‘live’). The crowd were restless after a long day with long pauses between acts at the festival. Len was asleep. He was roused to go onstage at midnight. Three songs in and the crowd were spellbound by this young troubadour and his enthusiastic drumless band. His inter-song banter is exemplary. The songs are delivered with joy. Yes! Len’s droning voice has inflection and a burning passion that is often lacking. But, the backing musicians, including Bob Johnston, and the female backing vocalists, bring a sunshine to Len’s beautifully constructed if dour songs. It really is a special album.
actually, i was there and i’m afraid that laughing len put me to sleep and i slept through the jimi hendrix set. never forgiven him.
Yes. But you were only six and it was waaaaay past your bed-time.
Dylan – All Hallows’ Eve 1964 (Bootleg Series 6)
Jonathan Richman & Modern Lovers – Live (just for the endless Ice Cream Man if nowt else)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Live Seeds
The Birthday Party Live 1981-2 (better than their studio releases)
Aretha Franklin – Amazing Grace
Nina Simone – In Concert (the one with Pirate Jenny, Go Limp, Mississippi Goddam)
Paul Simon – Live Rhymin
This does not include bootlegs which will feature in a future podcast
“Take out your false teeth mama…”
the best between song ad-libs and probably the best working of a crowd you’ll hear on any live album – once again my nomination goes to ‘Live – Full House’ by the J. Geils Band
Did any J Geils studio album come anywhere near ‘Live – Full House’?
I don’t think so
As always, the answer is still Taj Mahal – The Real Thing from 1972.
Does it include You to Me are Everything?
Slade alive – a band on the cusp of greatness.
This is the correct answer.
It’s the optimal way to record a live album, all you need is a small, attentive audience.
Similarly recorded, but in a completely different style, is Eva Cassidy Live at Blues Alley
Slade – get a crowd in and burp at them…
Cheap Trick Live at Budokan or UFO STrangers in the Night
Both classic live albums.
I would say the two best – certainly in the hard rock genre.
When Natural Thing kicks off….
Frank Zappa pretty much stopped making studio albums altogether after he got his own mobile multitrack studio in the 1980s. Almost everything released from then on was live recordings, although he did often cut and paste different live performances together to make album tracks.
12 Comments in, and no mention of what I thought would be the obvious response:
The Who – Live At Leeds.
Perhaps an object lesson of what a Live Album should be – powerful, sweaty and direct.
The original release contained only 6 tracks (albeit including a near 15 minute version of My Generation).
The CD re-issue included the entire set (with the Tommy set on a a separate disc).
Grateful though I am to own this – my defualt is to return to the original 6 track release
As a teenage heavy rocker I loved a good album – Whitesnake’s Live in the Heart of the City, The Sabs’ Live Evi, MSG One Night in Budokan, but the best of them all, and the one I still play, has to be AC/DC’s If You Want Blood.
When we did a “favourite live album” thread on the old site a couple of yearsago, someone nominated Santana’s “Lotus”, which I bought on the strength of that recommendation. Whoever it was – thank you: “Lotus” is a cracker.
So, what to recommend today. Well….
1. Albert Ayler Quintet – Stockholm, Berlin 1966
If you’re a jazz fan and fancy giving Ayler a go, this is the one. Deeply spiritual music and – for Ayler – surprisingly accessible.
2. Jerry Garcia and John Kahn – Pure Jerry: Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium, San Rafael, California, February 28, 1986
If you don’t fancy wading through some gigantic 4CD Grateful Dead live set, but still want to enjoy the artistry of Jerry Garcia, this is a superb choice. Just a single CD: Jerry with an acoustic guitar, accompanied by John Kahn on double-bass, doing short songs in a stripped-down format. Contains a version of “Bird Song” that is simply exquisite.
3. Tangerine Dream live albums…
Well, “Ricochet” and “Logos” are both terrific, but I’m going to choose just one Tangs live album, it’s got to be “Encore”. Why? Because there’s MORE of it. Originally a double album, so it’s LONGER. Lots of lovely TD. Marvellous.
Does any Afterworder have “Poland” or even the “Bootleg Box Set Vol.1”? Those two live albums seem to be calling me like sirens…
Ellington at Newport. Nothing more needs to be said.
Lucinda Williams – Live @ The Fillmore
I’ll give my vote to the best r’n’r band there ever was, The Beat Farmers and their “Loud and plowed and LIVE!!”, released in 1990. It also has the introduction, that goes like this:
“We are doing a live album … you know, all around the world people have been clamouring for a live album … from New Kids on the Block … yea, but they’re not here tonight, they’re in Boston or something … so we found these guys at The Spring Valley Inn … so let’s give ’em a chance … ladies and gentlemen … from San Diego actually … The Beat Farmers.”
That is a fantastic album. And not just the Country Dick funnies (he actually gets a little annoying in the end). But take also this George Jones cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apIi8-JyOuI
A couple of “I was there”
Fairport’s In Reel Time (I believe this was overdubbed and generally tweaked)
TMTCH: Alive Alive O. Bum notes and wonky vocals but captured the night brilliantly.
Like Gatz, I liked the louder end of things when younger. I always liked ver Purp’s Made in Japan and Blackmore’s Rainbow Live on Stage.
I had always thought In Reel Time was totally studio with audience added in later, maybe from a show, DBP, that you actually were at.
I’ve gone off live albums, as they rarely last like studio equivalents, however many I seem to have.
I believe that’s the case. Bit of a swiz, as the cover photo of the Cropredy crowd and the applause clearly seem designed to make you think it’s the 87 show.
The game is given away somewhat by them having used a lot of the real show in the video It All Comes round again (You can see me in that! Standing up in the middle of the crowed at one point.) All in all it was a strange way to release an album.
Oh well, I hadn’t realised it was totally studio. Just wait ’till I see that Simon Nicol at WIYE tomorrow.
Lots of ’70s “live” albums were studio tweaked after the event. The live equipment, particularly the stage monitors (and the recording equipment in the trucks, come to that) weren’t really good enough or reliable in those days. Out of tune keyboards, dodgy vocal harmonies etc. would routinely be replaced before the records were released.
I was interested to hear, in a conversation with Nicko McBrain some years ago, that when Maiden did a live DVD shoot at the time, Nicko had to stay behind until the audience had all left to reshoot rather a lot of his featured bits in the video, as they couldn’t get certain camera angles on the kit during the actual show, and that this was common practice in “live” video productions.
Yessongs, Made in Japan, How The West Was Won, Welcome Back My Friends, Live Dead – to name but a few that spring to mind.
Highlight of the Clash live album From Here to Eternity: “Sing in tune, you bastard” (That’s Joe heckling a man in the audience)
One obvious answer is Bob Marley and The Wailers Live! However, tread carefully. You need the version with the longer Lively Up Yourself, sadly back to its truncated vinyl version on the latest CD, the Definitive Remaster, which includes a pointless Kinky Reggae.
The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads. The Face of This Listener Is Very Happy. The Rome bootleg kicks too.
Performance is very impressive too.
The Name of this Band is the correct answer, especially the second disc with Adrian Belew and Busta Jones funking everything up to the max. I can take or leave the earlier stuff.
This has to be a contender
https://flic.kr/p/rutLVf
Nom de dieu!
That was a great concert. Hughie kept the audience waiting for 3 hours before he arrived by helicopter and the opening knobbly knees contest was bombarded by plastic bottles full of Top Deck.
I don’t understand this place any more.
I presume the reason that nobody has put forward Little Feat’s “Waiting for Columbus” is that it is such an obvious contender that it was considered a bit gauche to even mention it?
As for “I was there” – how about the Ramones’ “It’s Alive” recorded at the Rainbow on a New Year’s Eve that for once, I will always remember (quite a few NYEs that I can’t say that about).
How about Electrif Lycanthrope now it is no longer a bootleg?
The Pirates’ Don’t Munchen It is tremendous, if exhausting. The midpoint between Mot’read and Howlin Wolf. Mick Green sounds like he has at least five hands.
Live albums are less common in the folk world, folk rockers aside. The evidence suggests that more should try it. John Smith’s defining classic Axe Mountain is no longer in common circulation, but Lau’s 2008 Live album is very much out there. No surprise given my bias, I think it’s a corker. Last year’s festival favourites Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin brought out Live in Calstock (you’re the rock and roll capital of the world etc etc) which is an exhibition of this quality duo.
Aaaargh. I’m letting myself down. There is also the excellent Blowzabella live album Dance. I’m only bloody going to see them on Saturday; how did I forget?
But this is no mere fanboy loyalty. A Blowzabella bal is a big affair – a dancefloor moving in and out like a gigantic breathing thing. They are also gigs of devotion. This all comes over on the CD. Literally, this album took my life down a whole new avenue, turned me into a dancer, introduced me to a network of like minds across the country, gave me creativity. Much as I love Seconds Out, it didn’t do that for me.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – ‘Weld’ (hold the Arc Weld feedback disc tho!)
Is there anybody out there, who wants to rock?.
Is there anybody out there, who wants to roll?.And…
Is there anybody out there, who wants to boogie?.
Tonight.
Live.
From the Apollo.Glasgow.
We have the number one Rock & Roll Band in the land..
Will you welcome.
the magnificant.
Status
Quooooooo
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-4qml_Goz8
(Nobody’s going to hire me as a stage announcer).
….honorary mention for “Dreamtime Live at The Lyceum” – The Cult.
Not everyone’s cup of patchouli oil i grant you. It is however like no other live album that i’ve heard, in that the singer Ian Astbury has a considerable verbal pop at elements of the crowd.
In fact the two times i’ve seen them….digging at the audience has been a theme and rather exciting too.
Great choice… Am I mistaken to think I got mine free with Dreamtime??
You undoubtedly did andophil,….. I missed that boat and borrowed my friend’s for a while back then. But if you’re on Spotify, it’s all on there now.
I’ve never much liked live albums – there’s always the danger of encountering an extended drum solo. If I had to chose one it would Van Morrison’s ‘Too Late to Stop Now’ which I think hangs together beautifully.
This is fantastic,. It might be a live performance but the applause is clearly edited in from some other much larger venue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZfV6XisBI8
As I recall the audience recording was sourced from a John Martyn show.
This was in answer to the In Real Time posting way above, I don’t know how it ended up down here.
Joni’s Miles of Aisles records a gig I would have loved to have attended. Ms Mitchell backed by Pat Metheny’s band.
Gosh! Googled and just found the whole album complete with graphics; vintage films and clips of the band. Most odd. I presume this was a commercial release of some kind.
Pretty fabulous stuff anyway.
Errrr…. I think you’re getting your Joni live albums mixed up there, KaisFD.
The live album and DVD where she plays with Jaco, Pat Metheney, Don Alias, et al is “Shadows and Light”, from 1980.
Miles of Aisles was an earlier double live album from 1974 with a band called the L.A. Express (Robben Ford, Larry Nash, etc.). As far as I know, no official film from this tour is available.
Both albums are very fine. How could they be anything else?
Sorry, John, but Miles of Aisles features Tom Scott and the LA Express (Robben Ford, Max Bennett, John Guerin, Larry Nash).
You are right, though, in that it’s great!
Damn my slow typing!
The mighty, mighty Lynyrd Skynyrd- One More From The Road
U2 – Under A Blood Red Sky (there’s been a lot of talk about this next song…..)
Guns n Roses – Live Era
Wilco – Kickin’ Television
i have two favourite live albums. The first is Rainbow Live On Stage. my favourite band when I was about 14, just before punk changed everything. Rainbow Rising was very good. Live on stage was even better. Catch The Rainbow took a mediocre track from their first album and made it something very special.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOdxQ89XSSE
My other favourite is the very underrated (hardly ever mentioned) Fleetwood Mac live. It has the best versions of Rhiannon and Landslide, and a stunning version of Never Going Back Again. And with Not That Funny. again, a mediocre track on the studio album (Tusk) made quite extraordinary live. If you want proof of what an amazing guitarist Lyndsey Buckingham is, check out this version, especially around 3.50.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX67z-fcY_Y
Ges my vote too – I remember being blown away by the first time I heard the soloing on that album. Lindsey is a genius.
The most mind widening live album for me was Woodstock.
The album I lsten to most is Hard Rain. Reworked songs anger energy lacerating guitars words spat out. Just try idiot wind or shelter from the storm.
One for the ‘worst’ category
Simple Minds – Live In The City of Light
At their pomp rock worst, touring the Once Upon a Time album, sucking the joy out of Love Song, NewGoldDream and a frankly laughable version of Sly Stone’s ‘Dance to the Music’.
Avoid
I used to absolutely love ‘Dig the New Breed’* by The Jam; I remember it as having great raw energy and a good cover version of ‘Big Bird’. Have to confess to not having played it in years so I’ve no idea how it stands up.
*Terrible title though.
Dig The New Breed (despite the title) did a stirling job of showing The Jam as a Live act over their lifetime.
However, since their demise, later releases ‘Live Jam’ and ‘The Jam At The BBC’ eclipse this offering
(by quite a long way!).
Of the 2, ‘BBC’ is the best
Oh thanks, not sure I’ve heard those (the shame!)
Played ‘Dig the New Breed ‘ this morning to remind myself; it’s really very good, especially ‘Set the House Ablaze’.
Jam at the BBC very annoyingly used the broadcast version rather than the pre-FM version so that the naughty word in Mr Clean was still bleeped out.
I thought the sound was rather flat and ended up disposing of it in Oxfam.
Thanks for correcting me, Nigel.
The concert film I posted was Shadows and Light, which I believe was also released as an album.
Just checked. It was and it’s on Spotify. Yippee!
I’d’ve been quicker, @kaisfatdad, if I hadn’t had to look up the keyboard player’s name. This also allowed me to correct the bass player’s name. I’d mixed him up with Marcus Miller, another fine bassist, and narrowly avoided joining you in the corner with my suggestion that the low end was taken care of by a well-known Cheeky Chappie 😀
Thanks too to DuCo01 for correcting me on that.
The AW is no place to get your facts wrong!
“dons dunce’s hat and sits in corner”
Early copies of the 1992 Throwing Muses album Red Heaven contained a bonus disc of Kristin Hersh Live at Hoboken. Just Kristin, an acoustic guitar and a small spellbound audience. The fast, electric, almost grungy Muses songs stripped to bare bones showed how well she could play guitar but most of all laid bare a bi-polar soul in all its vulnerability and rage.
So that record or Live Dates by Wishbone Ash.
I’ve got that version of Red Heaven and the live disc is stunning I’d agree.
I always loved Solo by Don McLean, a double LP of just him and a guitar (and sometimes a banjo!)
Has my favourite bit of on-stage patter. At the end he wanders off stage after playing Vincent and the crowd goes wild , When he comes back for the inevitable encore he says, “You didn’t have to do that I was coming back anyway”
“Waiting for Columbus” of course!
The Numbers Band (or 15 60 75), “Jimmy Bell’s Still Back In Town” (1976): their debut, a live album, is brilliantly fierce blues/jazz/rock burn up from Ohio. The missing link between Pere Ubu and The Blues Brothers, perhaps.
Oh YES!!
Isn’t it their only album?
One more from me. My all time winning card in Rock Star Top Trumps is Richard Thompson, and if there was just album of his which I could save from a burning building it would Semi Detached Mock Tudor (the ‘official bootleg’ available from his website, recorded on the Mock Tudor tour with Thommo in particularly unhinged form on the electric guitar work outs).
Ooh yes! It’s glorious. But I’d venture that “Ducknapped”, also on RT’s label, is even better and possibly even more more unhinged:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwW4bfxwVmc
In addition to the usual suspects listed above, I’ll add Dire Straits “Alchemy”. May not be cool, but I love that album and its probably the only Dire Straits album you need…..
It has the extended workout of Sultans Of Swing, the gorgeous Telegraph Road, the unnamed bit of music before Tunnel Of Love and ends on a high with the theme from Local Hero. On the whole all tracks are better than the studio album versions and played by a band at its peak.
Absolute cracker.
Dire Straits really were a top band, certainly for the first 3 albums anyway.
Alchemy acts (in my mind) as a bookend to that section of their career.
“Twinsting By The Pool” and “The Walk Of Life” were only a drumbeat away …
(actually TBTP had already been released, but you know what I mean …)
An apposite post as I have been having an irrational binge on Bruce Springsteen live albums from 1978.They are all radio broadcasts from that tour that I have recently bought on Amazon (so they must be legit!). They are Live at the Winterland, Live in Cleveland and live at the Roxy. No overdubs but great live albums and the Cleveland concert contains the great cod boxing intro:-
“Ladies and Gentlemen
and now the main event,
Round for Round
Pound for pound,
there ain’t no finer band around.”
Some of my live faves-
‘Made in Japan’ by the Purps takes some beating. Even though I always skip the drum solo. ‘Bursting Out’ by Tull is good- although it sounds suspiciously ‘tarted up’.
‘Wings Over America’ always makes me smile. Not a duff track on there (although again I suspect a small amount of magic dust has been sprinkled in post-production).
Jerry Lee Lewis ‘Live at Hamburg’ (The Nashville Teens being thrashed to within an inch of their musical chops. Raucous).
The Standells ‘In Person at P.Js.’. Unpretentious and loud fun.
‘Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out’. Come on. It’s just brilliant. I love the arrogant ‘don’t-give-a-fuck’ tone of the ‘sorry you had to wait’ at the beginning.
B.B King ‘Live at the Regal’. Mesmerising.
Joe Cocker ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen’.
MC5 ‘Kick Out the Jams’. I love the four minutes of angry feedback at the end of the final track.
Not really a huge fan of live albums, so it might be seen as a recommendation that the only one that’s on my iPod is “Live Seeds” from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
Having said that, I do need to add the “Expanded” album from These New Puritans which they recorded live at the Barbican and re-worked the “Field of Reeds” songs and others.
“The Curse” from Throwing Muses is also worth a listen, I’ve – inexplicably – never heard Kristin’s “Cats and Mice” solo live album.
Manuel Gottsching – Live at Mt. Fuji
Fripp & Eno – Live in Paris 28.05.1975
Rarely a week goes by without this one getting a spin: (let’s see if i can embed a Spotify link…)
There’s an Allman Brothers Band live in the studio from 1971 which is slidetastic.
The recent Allman Brothers Beacon theatre live album from 1992 is a fantastic recording too
Some bands have released some great live albums and then attempted to repeat the process with much more duff results. There’s Thin Lizzy “Live & Dangerous” (and fairly well overdubbed) followed by the way less awesome “Life”. Kiss “Alive” likewise but not Alive II or III.
Blue Oyster Cult’s “On Your Feet” is way better than “Some Enchanted Evening” despite the former having a pancake flat mix – the bootleg “In The West” shows you what On Your Feet could have been. Johnny Winter’s “Captured Live” slightly buggers up my theory as it came 5 years after the inferior “And Live”.
Queen ‘s Live Killers is great big, messy, noisy fun. Queen’s Live Magic, well, not so much.
Let’s not forget the awesome ‘Live At The Paradiso’ (1979) by Link Wray. Here’s a sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyG5Zudvr9A
Juders Preeeest – Unleashed in the East.
Again, like the Thin Lizzy one, overdubbed to hell and back but a stonkingly great album
Genesis Live changed my life, it really was like LSD sans the chemical enhancement. Today I still adore it and Todd Rundgren’s Utopia wita Another Live has never lost its lustre, please try this…
Ignore the naff cover, mine looks like this and is dead cool!
THIS! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Live#mediaviewer/File:Anotherlivecover.jpg
Genesis Live you say? I’m on that! (clapping that is)
It wasn’t you who shouted “The Knife” then was it?
“What the fox is that on yer head!”
Sadly inaudible.
Genesis Live may be the only live album with a genuinely funny one liner from the singer (the unaccompanied bass pedal solo one).
I wish there was a longer document of that era… but there’s no filler so it gets my vote.
Along with all the classics mentioned above:
Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison
The Band -Rock Of Ages
King Curtis At Filmore West
Warren Zevon-Learning To Flinch
ooo – just thought of another.
Iron Maiden – Live After Death
Side 1 – 3 recorded at Long Beach, Side 4 at Hammy O.
The accompanying video was exclusively from the Long Beach show – why split the record?
Maiden at their hard-rocking peak
Scream for me Long Beach, scream for me!!!
Their “Rock in Rio” live album is great too. All three guitarists present and correct.
Get well soon Bruce.
Wonderful album that never fails to uplift. Also a terrific showcase for Bill’s humility – he really IS grateful to the audience for turning out & boy do they get a show.
When I was a boy, going out on a Friday night meant playing Thin Lizzy, Live and Dangerous at maximum volume or Purple`s Live in Japan. Playing them now still makes me want to go out, might just put them on and have a beer !
5 tremendous latin albums:
Jazz On The Latin Side All Stars Vol. 1
Jazz On The Latin Side All Stars Vol. 2
Tico All Stars – Descargas Live At The Village Gate
Fania All Stars – Live At The Yankee Stadium
Fania All Stars – Live At The Cheetah Vol. 2
The first Roxy Music LP I heard was Viva – since then I’ve preferred those live tracks over their studio counterparts.
The Tubes’ What Do You Want From Live seemed to encapsulate them so well that I’ve never bothered to re-listen to any previous studio releases, or check out any consequent.
“Open The Door – Richard!” What About “Absolutely Live” By The Perceptiveness Of Jimbo???
For The Unbelievers I Give You – The Doors.
I’m sure it had enhancements as well – like most “live” albums
I’m not seeing Ziggy Stardust – The Motion Picture here. I particularly love “My Death” (hated it for years, it seemed more ponderous than passionate) and the Ronno wig-outs, plus the audience is just hanging on to itself throughout, especially with the announcement “not only is this the last show of the tour…it’s the last show we’ll ever do” (cue audience “Noooooooo!!”)
David Live and Stage need not apply, though there’s some teutonic coldness to the latter which is sort of appealing. The Santa Monica release loses points for bad sound and cutting the 13 minute drum solo (wait! come back!) forget Moby and Toad, this is where it’s at.
The best Fairport live album is the manic House Full: Live at the Troubadour, in which Thommo and Swarb take guitar and fiddle duels about as far as you can go. Studio albums need not apply.
Highway Song Live by Blackfoot. Blistering.
I do love the live Bill Withers mentioned above, but the audience clapping, esp on Use Me, drives me crackers.
Here are a couple not mentioned thus far:
Delaney and Bonnie & Friends On Tour With Eric Clapton
The Allman Brothers Live at the Fillmore East
If we’re also talking about contenders for worst live album, how about Faces’ “Coast To Coast…”. Execrable is the word I’m looking for.
Always beats me how a band that made its reputation from its live performances could put out such a travesty. If you want to see the real thing though, check out YouTube for the Edmonton Sundown performances – Ronnie Lane’s last gig with them – https://youtu.be/Mjx2B8mv9ro
or quintessentially (though not technically a live performance but filmed in the studio) this:https://youtu.be/JRa6l1x-Q6E. Three Button hand Me Down – cool as fuck.
Most of my favourites have been named already (UFO, AC/DC, The Who Live at Leeds, Dylan Bootleg 66, Rainbow on Stage etc). To which I’d add:
Ziggy Stardust 1973 Hammersmith
Quo Live
Humble Pie at the Fillmore
Thin Lizzy – Live and Dangerous
Deep Purple – BBC In Concert 1972
Rolling Stones – the Brussels Affair (I wish this had been released commercially in the UK properly)
Rory Gallagher – Stagestruck
Ted Nugent – Double Live Gonzo
Whitesnake – Live in the heart of the City
Led Zeppelin – How the West was won
Pink Floyd – Pulse
Cream – Albert Hall 2005
Jeff Beck – Live at Ronnie Scotts
Bob Marley at the Lyceum
Joe Bonamassa – Live at Nowhere in Particular
Thunder Live
Now let’s have something suitable. Here’s Ted Nugent ripping through Them’s “Baby Please Don’t Go”. It rocks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKPag9xQ3JM
‘Stagestruck’ blew my podgy, spotty 14 year old head off my shoulders.
‘Wayward Child, yeaahhh!’
Yes, a lot of my favourites mentioned plus some new ones to investigate.
I have a soft spot for Deep Purple’s ‘Made In Europe’. It contains a moment of real levitation as the drum paradiddle and guitar riff intro to ‘You Fool No One’ finally kicks in.
Listen to it loud through headphones and I defy you not to find yourself on the ceiling.
Every version of the Blog has this post. Every time I post this. Because it comes from the very best live album of them all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Movement
Buy it. You’ll feel better. Or your money back.
Springer,
Well, I managed to miss all the previous recommendations of the Les McCann live album. But I’m glad I read this one. It does indeed sound an absolute treat. I have ordered a copy.
Swiss Movement
Les McCann trio with saxophonist Eddie Harris and trumpeter Benny Bailey
Top ten albums recorded at The Village Vanguard.
1. John Coltrane – Live At a The Village Vanguard
2. Sonny Rollins – A Night At The Village Vanguard
3. Bill Evans – Waltz For Debby
4. Art Pepper – Friday Night At The Village Vanguard
5. Brad Mehldau – Art Of The Trio, Vol 4: Back At The Vanguard
6. Woody Shaw – Stepping Stones: Live At The Village Vanguard
7. Keith Jarrett – Nude Ants
8. Paul Motian – Lost In A Dream
9. Kenny Burrell – A Night At The Vanguard
10. Chucho Valdés – Live At The Village Vanguard
11. Max Boyce – Oggy Oggy Oggy
….sorry I was having a Beany moment
Tigger – if you want to make the Vanguard list into a full football team eleven, then we can add…
11. Fred Hersch – Alone at the Vanguard
A very fine album. Think you’d like it.
Thanks, duco. I’ll check that out. Marc Ribot’s from last year is pretty good too!
I don’t think anyone mentioned Free Live.
Aside from the throwaway version of All Right Now it is a superb live album. The version of The Hunter is brilliant.
The additional live disc on the Songs Of Yesterday box set includes material from the gigs that Free Live was originally taken from.
Other Live! greats:
Humble Pie – Rockin’ the Fillmore /Performance
The Who – Live at Leeds (choose your version, I go for the expanded sans Thomas)
Zappa/Beefheart/Mothers – Bongo Fury
Zappa/Mothers – Roxy and Elsewhere
Zappa/Mothers – Live in New York
The Mothers – Just another band from LA
Genesis – Seconds Out
801 – 801 LIve
Hawkwind – Space Ritual
Hawkwind – The 1990 Roadshow
James Rays Gangwar – LIve 93
The Porcupine Tree – Coma Divine
Siouxsie and the Banshees – Nocturne
The Clash – Bonds 1981 (widely available bootleg)
The Sisters Of Mercy – Floorshow (widely available bootleg)
Uriah Heep – LIve 1973
Yes – Yessongs
Yes – Yesshows
The Nice – Five Bridges
I can do live VHS/DVDs if’n y’want?
It’s inevitable: the mighty ‘Between Nothingness & Eternity’ by The Mahavishnu Orchestra – like The Who’s Live At Leeds, a single album of perfection drawn from a much longer performance. None of its three tunes were previously released. The 2011 remaster on ‘The Complete Columbia Albums’ box set is sublime. Here’s ‘Trilogy’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y7QmdtcY5k
I had a love hate relatationship with all those 70s/80s aor Americans that kind of wanted to make hard rock but had to think of the girlies too (boo hiss!). On their Double Live In America!!!! albums I usually liked them better than in the studio.
Journey – Captured
REO Speedwagon – You Get What You Play For
Kansas – Two For The Show
Head East Live
Grand Funk – Caught In The Act
Angel – Live
Some great live album intros:
Lou Reed: Rock n’Roll Animal – Sweet Jane
Frank Sinatra: The Main Event
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWA_gMzr2NA
King Curtis: Live at the Fillmore – Memphis Soul Stew (vid not from the album – but the greatest band intro ever!)
And some great live albums that never make lists:
Dixie Chicks – Top of the world
Van Morrison – Live in San Francisco
Teddy Pendergrass – Live Coast to Coast
J Geils Band – Blow your face out
Peter Gabriel Plays Live… I saw him at Newcastle City Hall in ’84 … my first ever gig.
So it has a special place for me as I wore the grooves out on it for a year after.
100+ responses, and still no one’s got the right answer, which is Christy Moore’s Live At The Point
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnnexnvtxCs&list=PL4k1gUCbNhwHR0lg_bNpSeoJ7B33Re7hn&index=3
My deep dark secret is that the first LP I ever bought was a live one, albiet Gary Glitter, Remember me This Way (Live at the rainbow) 73 or 74 I think
Yes SixDog, Unleashed in the East. Fookin’ brilliant !
As are Live at the Counter Eurovision by Misty In Roots, Iggy’s TV Eye 1977, Aswad’s Live and Direct…..” You know what Live and Direct mean ? Mean Live and Direct”. Cracking album. And Uncle Neil’s Weld and Live Rust.