Spotifys Discover Weekly threw up the Matt Berry track ‘Take My Hand’ this morning.
I find the studio version a bit dull & forgettable if I am honest. However, the live version of this track is absolutely storming & has an energy to it that is lacking in the former.
Are there any other tracks where this is the case?
link to the live version
I mean, they’re both absolutely superb, but the 1963 live version of Bring It On Home To Me is – quite improbably – even better than the original recording:
It’s basically Sam Cooke singing the song the way he’d presumably have wanted, if the record company and his clean cut pop image hadn’t got in the way. Super raw, down and dirty, lots of audience call and response, those filthy horns – you can feel the sweat dripping from the ceiling, and hear something animal in his voice – it’s all absolutely wild.
I’m glad that both versions exist, but when I heard the live one it blew me away. He’s just doing some proper madness here; I love the sound of the crowd singing along, the “everybody’s with me tonight”, and all those “Ha ha”s he chucks in. The man could straight up sing like a motherfucker.
What a great album! Sam’s best by far. The record company shelved it for 22 years.
Sick squid from the Dodgers right now. You know you oughta.
A bit random but Walk Unafraid by REM off Up. A very lumpy pedestrian song on record, was the highlight of their set when I saw them live
We have done this before.
Wilco – Impossible Germany, great on the album, but Nels Cline takes it to another level live every single night.
Off-piste Kingpin is always my go to Wilco live track, and a big improvement on the sober original. Loose and ragged but powerful enough to cause an avalanche.
That whole show is an absolute riot, I fear drugs and/or drink may have been involved
@martin-hairnet
We have indeed done this before. I think we’ve done everything before. I don’t mind. Makes it easier, if anything.
Fleetwood Mac: The studio version of Not That Funny on Tusk is a fairly plodding, mediocre track. On the Fleetwood Mac Live album it’s a totally different beast, going off on a splendid mega-Buckingham guitarism whirl half way through before they find their way back to the song proper with aplomb.
(The same Live album’s versions of Never Going Back Again, Rhiannon and Landslide are also all superior to the -nonetheless brilliant- studio versions).
Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow: The live version of Catch The Rainbow knocks the spots off the studio version’s paltry six minutes, turning it into a side 2 spanning epic.
He’s right about Catch the Rainbow.
Still with Ritchie, every song on Made in Japan is way better than the studio version, and the demented live version of Black Night that is on 24 Carat People is much much better than the single version.
Japanese audiences y’see.
This reminds me: the new Tim Finn/Phil Manzanera album The Ghost of Santiago is well worth a listen.
Slippery People is a strange song performed by Talking Heads. The Gospel call and response brought it to the attention of Pops Staples. Decades later, Mavis sang it live for her eightieth birthday celebrations. The thing comes alive! A joyful manifestation of life. The highlight of the show.
My favourite Talking Heads song. I love the tight version on Speaking in Tongues but prefer the energy of the Stop Making Sense live version.
Friday Rock Show Live Version Cavalcade
Rosalie/Cowgirl’s Song – Thin Lizzy
Doctor Doctor – UFO
Motorhead – Motorhead
Lakeside Park – Rush
’39 – Queen
The Knife – Genesis
Whole Lotta Rosie – AC/DC
Angus! Angus! Angus!
See also:
Thin Lizzy – Southbound
Motorhead – Overkill
Queen – We Will Rock You (from Live Killers)
Good call on We Will Rock You – I never much liked the original, but the Live Killers version is a proper song!
See also Shot down in the Night by Hawkwind.
The Live ‘79 version is fab!
Anything Ducks Deluxe ever committed to vinyl.
Great in a sweaty pub, not really able to make the transition to the studio
A bit niche, but absolutely anything Tack>Head ever played was miles better live… This was always a favourite.
Love the Flintstones reference.
There’s a bit of the theme from the Godfather in there too. Just three musicians at the top of their game larking about with Adrian Sherwood at the desk working his magic. Another reason they were much better live was the frequent absence of vocalist Bernard Fowler – a fine singer but frankly I preferred them when he was off somewhere with the Stones.
I saw them at the Reading Festival in 1989. They were ace. I bought the Friendly as a Hand Grenade album, which was pretty good, but not a patch on the gig.
That was the first time I’d ever heard them too. I remember hearing them through the drizzle and wondering who was playing. I saw them at Kilburn National Ballroom the following January and they were phenomenal.
First one that came to mind:
Careful with that Axe Eugene! There are about five or six live versions and each is better than the slightly plodding original.
Also considerably extended…and scarier…
I reckon that, with the exception of Echoes, all the versions on Pink Floyd at Pompeii are better than the studio versions.
I have taken time to consider your comment and I am pleased to say I agree. Saucerful of Secrets in particular (see also the live Ummagumma one): I can’t really abide the studio original.
And if Echoes isn’t quite as good as the studio version, it’s pretty darn close.
Yep.
Don’t I have to fork out for an expensive box to purchase Pompeii?
Well, you could – or you could just buy the dvd…
Not if you’re ok with downloads. The various years from the expensive box are available to purchase individually on iTunes. They’re mostly double album downloads. Pompeii is on 1971 or 1972 I think.
A song that was good on the record, in 1967, and has continued to live a vibrant life is the old Fairport chestnut, Matty Groves, usually open to a yearly revision come Cropredy each year. This was one of the finest and most inventive, courtesy Maartin Allcock. I wanted to find the 2018 version, played as his swansong from life, but it has disappeared from the tube. Here it is from when he first unveiled it on his cohort of bandmembers.
They ran out of time this year, so no grooving along to Matty.
Purple Haze by Hendrix. Probably Foxy Lady as well. (Both very similar songs). The studio originals sound a bit too light and poppy, and are maybe trying a bit too hard to sound psychedelic. But live they both just soared, especially once he discovered the delights of the wah-wah pedal.
The Fat Lady Sings were ace live, but their records sound a bit flat. I was at this gig at the Mean Fiddler. A handful of live tracks came out on CD singles.
Their gig at Dingwalls, a few months after, is still in my top 5 gigs ever.
I’m a long-term fan of Aztec Camera and Roddy Frame but I used to skip the original recording of this song. It was too slow, too long and ill suited to the post Sade jazzy arrangement so common in the 80s. Since this version was released, it has become my favourite Roddy Frame song.
Starship Trooper – especially when they were using it as an encore in the 70s. The final Würm section was mind-blowing, just took everything over the cliff before you went home…