Kevin's Watch

Are you a fan of live albums and recordings?

I have a love/hate relationship with live albums. I find them to be rather hit-and-miss ... the ones that "hit" are incredible, but the ones that "miss" become the most loathed albums in my entire collection.

On one hand, it's really great to hear some my favourites band play live (since I rarely get the opportunity to see them in concert), but sometimes the "warts and all" approach of live recordings can really be disasterous if not handled with care ...

I don't actually hate live recordings, but I would prefer to listen to the sonic glory of a well-produced studio album. I like to hear what interesting sounds can be conjured up using studio resources.

I love live music, but have no interest in live albums (as well as %99 of "un-plugged" albums).

4-Way Street by C, S, N & Y was one of the best live albums and, for it's day, extremely well produced even with a bunch of studio touch ups. Yessongs was the coolest live album of the 70s but, alas, intensity is the point and when it gets really intense Howe, Squire and Wakeman can sound like clangy aluminum siding grinding glass between them. I've been hoping for a reworked and digitally remastered Double CD set and some people tell me one's out but I have yet to see it...

The best live album I encounted in the 80s was Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Live Rust

I love live albums. My favorites:
"Year of the Horse," Neil Young
"The Wall Live: 1980-81," Pink Floyd
"Earphoria," Smashing Pumpkins
"From the Mudy Banks of the Wishkah," Nirvana
"Unplugged," Nirvana
"Pulse," Pink Floyd
and a couple selected Pearl Jam concerts
"The Kids Are Alright," the Who

Like anything else, some are great:

-Frampton Comes Alive
-Delicate Sound of Thunder

And some are horrible:

-The Song Remains the Same
-The Police Live

The whole point is to capture a moment in time, and that's really difficult if you're not there, in the moment.

Don't forget the power of the audience to absolutely blow away a live recording. I'm sure you can think of many examples--here are a few off the top off my head:

The audience singing almost all of Breakdown off Pack Up the Plantation Live!-Tom Petty, "You guys are gonna put me out of a job..."

Certain parts of Live Aid--like U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday and We Will Rock You-Queen , i.e.

and the person screaming in ectasy at exactly the right part of The Inner Mounting Flame by The Mahavishnu Orchestra that makes you envision a bird taking flight...ahhh, wonderful stuff!

And what about Woodstock for gods sake? NO RAIN NO RAIN! and David Crosby's famous line (re: C, S, N & Y) "This is the first time we've played before a live audience and we're scared s***less!"

Yes they can mark definate events and moments of time when you'd never see artists preforming with one another. Crap I'm always blown away wherever I see the playlist of Woodstock, let's look:

Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Tim Hardin,
Ravi Shankar, Richie Havens, Sly and the Family Stone,
Sweetwater, Quill, Canned Heat,
Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Grateful Dead,
Crosby, Stills & Nash (&Young), Santana, Jeff Beck Group,
Ten Years After, Johnny Winter, Jimi Hendrix,
Joe Cocker, Mountain, Melanie,
John Sebastian, Country Joe and the Fish, Paul Butterfield Blues Band,
Incredible String Band, Bert Sommer, Creedence Clearwater Revival,
Keef Hartley, The Band, Janis Joplin,
Sha-Na-Na, Blood, Sweat and Tears...

I love the energy and the theatrical/dynamic nature that live recordings have over studio albums, which is why I usually always love a great live version of a song more than its studio counterpart (The Beatles are an exception). Here's my top 4:

1) Procol Harum Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra 1972
2) King Crimson Live in Central Park 1974
3) Pink Floyd - Live at Pompeii
4) Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live (the studio album is great, but Roger Waters meant The Wall for the live format)

Comparing the bands that I have seen live,
and the studio versions of the songs,
the studio versions sound a lot better than live (IMO)

However... there are some live albums that I really DO enjoy.
Samples:
Santana - Sacred Fire
Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains The Same
Blue Oyster Cult - Some Enchanted Evening
Pink Floyd - Delicate Sound Of Thunder or Pulse
Moody Blues - Live At Red Rocks

Though I haven't seen Zeppelin in the flesh,
I like the above mentioned album better than the studio recordings.
The rest of the bands listed above I HAVE seen in the flesh and
like most of their live material more than some studio versions.

Not a big fan of live albums, they never seem to get the sound right.

But... MARILYN MANSON - THE LAST TOUR ON EARTH is awesome! For a live album, kudos to the guys who produced it.

Ohhh, I forgot about Some Enchanted Evening. That's probably my fave. The Song Remains the Same (to my ears) just doesn't sound right. How the West Was Won on the other hand....

Cail wrote:Ohhh, I forgot about Some Enchanted Evening. That's probably my fave. The Song Remains the Same (to my ears) just doesn't sound right. How the West Was Won on the other hand....

Yeah, How the West Was Won is a lot better than Song Remains, in my opinion. Get BBC Sessions, too.

Talking Heads and Cheap Trick are 2 reasons why live albums are necessary. There are so many memorable live moments that I am glad to have heard.... Robert Plant asking "Does anybody remember laugter?" during Stairway to Heaven....bands like U2 are magic live, and it transfers to the recording well. Bands like Rush are amazing live, because they sound like the studio recordings. Frampton.....thank God that was recorded. And that's just skimming off off rock music. Imagine how much classical and Jazz were recorded live. I doubt that any orchestra doesn't record live; can you imagine 150 instruments setting down their tracks separately? I can, but I like the way they do it better, live.

Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty" album was all original material recorded live in concert. Even tho I'm not a fan, it's still pretty good stuff.

"Different Stages" by Rush has to be the best quality live recording I've ever heard. Pity they had to release "Live in Rio" and spoil all that good work though.

The only live RUSH I have in my "library" is
"All The World's A Stage". Very good IMO

Pop in The Who Live at Leeds..............nuff said!

True, Live at Leads is one of the best alltime albums EVER! Whether live OR studio...

Tribute and Speak of the Devil from Ozzy are awesome...as are Iced Earth's "Alive in Athens", Pantera's "Live 101 Proof"...and...Metallica "Live S**t Binge and Purge"...a good end to the career of Metallica

Oh yeah, a few more albums I came across in my collection...

Black Sabbath - "Live at Last" (Older stuff w/ Ozzie)

Spoiler

Kicks ASS!!

and for those old-time rockers who know this name:
Frank Marino & Mahagany Rush - "Live" (Best stuff I heard from him)