The best live records/cd's

scottpro1969 · Post by **scottpro1969** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 3:46 pm

Listening to Rush's All The World's A Stage recently and hearing how raw and powerful the performance sounded, I thought it would be cool to hear others opinions of the best live recordings that have been captured on vinyl or cd. Interesting topic I think. Anyway, I'm 35 yrs old so my list may be thought of by one or more of 3 categories, 1)You're too damn young, 2)You're too damn old, or 3) You're too damn lame.

Nonetheless, I have a list of my favorites and am very interested to see others input. Well, first of all is the aformentioned All The World's A Stage which (to me) is an aweseome/raw recording of Rush back when they broke out. I've heard Geddy say that he was disappointed with the sound quality of the recording...not me. Apparently a lot of "live" albums done in the 70's & 80's were heavily dubbed, which is unfortunate. This one sounds to me to be a good example of what you would have heard seeing Rush live at the breakout point of their career. Exit...Stage Left was good, but seemed to me to be too...how do I say...generic. Probably just the recording. A Show Of Hands, I can't listen to. The saving grace was Rush In Rio for me. I've seen them every tour since Signals and can't remember watching them have a better time on stage together. And subsequently, sounding better.
Enough about Rush (the reason I chose the bass).
Just looking through my inventory, here's my favorite "live" cd's.
The Who- Extended Live At Leeds. What a great band. Leed's University??? Wow, can you imagine being at that show??? So few people in an arena to see such an important performance. Speechless.

Rush- All The World's A Stage. Reasons stated above.

The Beatles- At The Hollywood Bowl...at their best. Bass is in the forefront on my recording. Such a help. John's RIC on "She's A Woman" sounds incredible. As does the whole band. "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" is also such a stand out. Especially Ringo's drum beat which is different on the original recording.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer- Royal Albert Hall...Greg Lake is an underrated bassist, just listen. The timing is awesome for such complex music.

Yes- Yessongs...no explanation required.

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band- Nine Tonight. A personal favorite of mine. So soulful. Great roots rock & roll. One of the best Rock & Roll voices ever.

The Kinks- One More For The Road...I grew up listening to this so it's a personal thing.

John Fogerty- Premonition. Great versions of the best of Credence. What a voice. Too bad they can't all get along.

Paul McCartney- Wings Over America. Probably heavily overdubbed as I've heard but the bass is in the forefront. Awesome stuff.

Elton John- Here & There (disc 2)...I listened to this today and the introduction of John Lennon gave me goosebumps. Not to mention how insane the bass line to "Whatever Get's You Through The Night" is. Very impressive. Important night for John in his career, too. Excellent Elton.

There are more but, I'll leave it at that for now. I hope to find more recordings to get a hold of by your suggestions.

loendmaestro · Post by **loendmaestro** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:47 am

Great Thread! BTW, I'm 34 & my list may fall in your earlier categorization as well.

My 2 cents:

Thin Lizzy - Live & Dangerous. Yeah there's some "studio magic" on there, but Phil Lynott was such an underrated songwriter. And let's not forget, he was a Rick player in the very early days!

UFO - Strangers In The Night. Yeah, Schenker is a head case but he could wail. The remastered, resequenced version is great.

Robin Trower - Live. Listen for the snare drum rattle during his feedback on Daydream.

Humble Pie - Performance Rockin' The Fillmore. Steve Marriott - god rest his soul. Chris Robinson from the Black Crowes should have to give the Steve Marriott estate a dollar every time he opens his mouth. Also, hear Frampton when he had something to offer. Before all of that solo dreck.

Deep Purple - Made In Japan. Classic.

The Band - The Last Waltz. Say farewell to one of the greatest bands ever, with an all star cast & film direction by Martin Scorsese.

Rainbow - On Stage. Some of Blackmore's most inspired playing. Indulgent? Yes. Entertaining? Absolutely.

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Live. You can't touch the rhythm section of the Barrett Brothers.

Glenn Hughes - Soulfully Live In The City Of Angels. Brand new release from a hero of mine. A live in the studio retrospective of his career. Features Chad Smith of the RHCP on drums.

Trapeze - Way Back To The Bone. Live in Texas 1972. Glenn Hughes in his prime baby!

And I kinda like Exit Stage Left. Reminds me of my teenage years watching 'Night Flight' on the USA network - made me want to be a bassist too.

lshaia · Post by **lshaia** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 4:28 am

All good choices, particularly the Who, Bob Marley, and Robin Trower. Some of my favorites are:
Be Bop Deluxe - Live in the Air Age
Steve Hackett - The Tokyo Tapes (with John Wetton)
Cream - Live Cream Volume 2 (back when EC was god)
George Harrison - The Concert for Bangladesh
The Allman Brothers - Live at Fillmore East

I like Exit Stage Left too, although my first Rush album (I'm 45, so it was an album) was All The World's A Stage; I saw them at a skating rink during the tour for that album and had to have it.

iamthebassman · Post by **iamthebassman** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 6:34 am

Scott, good thread, good list('cept I never liked Rush). I like Elton's "Here and There" too. Just got the CD a while back, got the LP when it came out. Dee Murray was a HUGE influence on my bass playing, and even on my starting to play bass. He was a great player with great tone. Check out another, lesser-known EJ live album, 11-17-70. Just Elton, Dee, and Nigel Olsson on drums. The bass is up front and rockin'.

aceonbass · Post by **aceonbass** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 8:28 am

Good call on "Tokyo Tapes" Lindsay. Their performances of Genesis'"Watcher Of the Skies" as well as King Crimson's "I Talk To the Wind" blow me away every time. The DVD is even better with bonus footage. Anyway....other my pics would be..
Rick Wakeman's "Journey To the Centre Of the Earth"
"U.K.Live" featuring the original lineup playing material from their first and SECOND album before Holdsworth and Bruford left(they weren't on the studio album)
"801 Live"(Brian Eno, Phil Manzanara,Simon Phillips)
"The Police Live". This 2CD set captures a lot of the energy that their studio stuff, although great, doesn't have.
"Yes Symphonic Live" This DVD has superb sound and footage of each of the band members along with a full orcestra.

byu · Post by **byu** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:27 pm

Holdsworth & Bruford are not on "U.K. Live". It's Bozzio. "801 Live" is superb.
Cheers,
Bill

dougp · Post by **dougp** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 1:49 pm

Here's a few of my favorites ...

James Brown - 'Live At The Apollo', CLASSIC recording dripping with more sweaty energy than any of the white (and yellow) guys I list below could muster.

MC5 - 'Kick Out The Jams', the only thing wrong with this one is that you don't get the visual impact of Smith/Kramer's synchronized guitar moves and Tyner's James-Brown-on-speed-isms.

Albert Ayler - 'Village Vanguard', who knew that free jazz could sound so sweet?

The Who - 'Live At Leeds' (1-CD "extended" version), that 'Tommy' stuff just doesn't scorch like the rest of this incredible performance.

Flamin' Groovies - 'Live 1970', the one band from the SF 60s scene that could actually *rock*, and I have to list it since I own the 4001 that was played on it.

Deep Purple - 'Made In Japan', the ultimate 70s metal live album.

Groundhogs - 'Live At Leeds', the only English blues-rock band worth mentioning.

Hawkwind - 'Space Ritual', the ultimate psychedelic live album, with fantastic Rickenbacker bass work.

Stooges - 'Metallic K.O.', best-ever audience vs. performer recording, and great high-energy sleaze to boot (although I prefer Ron Asheton to James Williamson on guitar).

Miles Davis - 'Pangaea'/'Agharta', tough to pick my favorite of these space-jazz-with-a-groove albums, but since they were recorded the same day, I'll count 'em as one.

Ramones - 'It's Alive', 1-2-3-4, hey ho let's go! RIP Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee.

Crack The Sky - 'Live Sky', (former) hometown favorite, and you gotta credit any band that pulls of "I Am The Walrus" live.

John Cale - 'Sabotage Live' dark, bleak, disturbed, and best-of-all, all new/unreleased songs.

Neil Young - 'Live Rust', great acoustic songs AND guitar explosions with Crazy Horse, best of both worlds.

Motorhead - 'No Sleep Til Hammersmith', the ultimate 80s metal live album (see Slayer for the 90s).

High Rise - 'Live', amazingly over-the-top motor-psycho Japanese punk/psychedelia.

Liquorball - 'Live From Hitler's Bunker', because this list needs at least one guaranteed-to-clear-the-room selection.

Barbara Manning & the Go-Luckys - 'Transatlantic Trips', one of my favorite female singer/songwriters hooks up with young rockin' German twins and travels the world.

Unfortunately, the great live performances from many of my favorite acts, from Black Sabbath (70-75) to Patti Smith (70s), are only available as bootlegs.

apollo11 · Post by **apollo11** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 2:41 pm

Live at Leeds, extended version---greatest live band ever, in my opinion.

Right up there at the top of my live list, along with Live at Leeds, is Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. It is, in fact, my favorite live album. Absolutely incredible listening to the Man in Black, at his musical and performing peak, getting on with his audience of hardened criminals. It doesn't get any better, as far as live albums go. Won Grammy for best country album of the year, too.

More great ones off the top of my head, most have been mentioned:
Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl
Wings Over America
Yessongs
Elvis in Concert--I might get laughed at for this one, but I've always loved it.
Skynyrd's One More From The Road
Chuck Berry---virtually anything live by this legend is exciting. Great performer.
Clapton's Live in the 70's

and another prison show: Johnny Cash At San Quentin, extended version. Close to Folsom, really close, but a slightly less commanding performance.

Great topic!

aceonbass · Post by **aceonbass** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:04 pm

Bill...Teri Bozio plays on "Night After Night"(UK Live). I have a very rare CD of the original lineup playing songs from the second CD,"Danger Money", at what sounds like a fairly small venue but with great dynamics....Cheers...Dane

mortivan · Post by **mortivan** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 4:32 pm

I third the opinion of Hackett's Tokyo Tapes. Wetton's singing and playing is mighty fine on this one. And U.K.'s Night After Night is a great performance.

I always liked Renaissance's Scheherazade on Live at Carnegie Hall as much as, if not better than the studio version.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 5:14 pm

I'm amazed nobody mentioned Get Yer Ya Ya's Out, when you play that you are at a Stone's concert, that's my all time favorite live album. I would bet there are no dubs on that one.
I saw The Stooges in 1969 at The Boston Tea Party. I like almost everything they ever did, I consider the remix of Raw Power to be the apex of rock, it's been all downhill for me since then, I have never heard another record with that kind of ferocious energy ever. Funhouse is another one in a different way because those two guys (Williamson and Ashton) were such different players.

malcolm · Post by **malcolm** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 5:38 pm

jack casady w/ the airplane on "bless it's pointed little head" or "30 seconds over winterland". both bass classics.

casady on hot tuna's 1st,"hot tuna" or their 2nd,"first pull up then pull down", which is way under-rated.

jack bruce on cream's "live cream" or "goodbye".

berry oakley, allman's "eat a peach" & "live @ the fillmore".maybe the best live, recorded bass sound out there.

phil lesh, the dead's "europe 72".way under-rated.

chris squire, "yessongs"...squire is outrageous.

jaco pastorius on weather reports "8:30" or joni mitchell's "shadows & light"...or jaco's own dvd,
"modern bass" which you have to check out.

loendmaestro · Post by **loendmaestro** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 6:08 pm

Thumbs up to Bruce! Berry's tone on Fillmore is incredible...

byu · Post by **byu** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 7:53 pm

Dane,
Sorry, thought we were talking official releases, meaning "Night After Night". I too have the live concert w/Bruford and it's definitely better. Bruford's playing on "Caesar's Palace Blues" is so crisp & concise.

Bob - "Get Yer Ya Ya's Out" - haven't listed my favorite live albums yet but that's my all time fave too.

Why hasn't anyone listed Little Feat "Waiting For Columbus"?

Live albums in general are what I prefer top listen to.

Cheers,
Bill

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 8:24 pm

My tastes seem to be a little more mainstream...
(Not in Order)
Cheap Trick at Budokan (love the 12 string bass!)
Neil Young - Live Rust
Yes- Yesshows
Rush - Exit Stage Left
Ozzy Osbourne - Tribute (was also a big Randy Rhoads fan)
Kiss - Alive!
Frampton Comes Alive.
Hey, I was a youngster back then. Those were the days of the big gatefolds and album art you could stare at while listening and imagine you were there....and memorizing all the credits. Not in the CD age...