10. Kiss – Alive!
9. Van Morrison – It’s Too Late To Stop Now…
8. Fleetwood Mac – The Dance
7. Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense (extended edition)
6. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Live 1975/85
5. Michael Hedges – Live on the Double Planet
4. The Allman Brothers Band – At Fillmore East (complete show edition)
3. Dire Straits - Alchemy
2. The Band (and guests) – The Last Waltz (extended edition)
1. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Live Rust
ABOVE: Dez's favorite live album of all time, Neil Young & Crazy Horse's Live Rust
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order): Rush – Rush in Rio, The MC5 – Kick Out the Jams, Sting – Bring on the Night, The Kinks – One For the Road, U2 – Under a Blood Red Sky, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Four Way Street (extended edition), Genesis - Live, Led Zeppelin – How the West Was Won, The Who – Live at Leeds (super duper extra special extended edition...it seems they re-release this gem every couple of years with even more extra tracks. And each time addicts like me contribute more to Pete Townshend's bank account), The Rolling Stones – Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, The Corrs (and guests) – Live in Dublin, Peter Gabriel – Plays Live, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones (and guests) – Live Art, Stephen Stills - Live and Billy Joel – Songs in the Attic.
ABOVE: Out of all of my picks, The Allman Brothers Band's At Fillmore East is probably the most accomplished. The improvisational skills of that band captured at that time make this record a work of art on par with the best jazz work of Miles Davis or John Coltrane. Be sure to grab the version with the extended tracks.
Your favorites?
13 comments:
Well, I'm glad you gave at least honorable mention to Songs in the Attic. A great record!
And you have one egregious omission (so egregious that you must have just forgot) -- Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. That's in the running for best ever, in my opinion.
Otherwise, nice choices. I love It's Too Late to Stop Now. You made me the Van fan I am, so I have you to thank for that record.
I think you have way (WAY) more live records than I do, but here are some more I think deserve mention:
Would you consider Amazing Grace by Aretha a live record? I think you have to. And then you have to add it.
Simon & Garfunkel at Central Park. Good one.
I liked Natalie Merchant's live album (some interesting/beautiful covers on that one).
There's some really great stuff on Farewell to the World, a concert Crowded House gave outside the Sydney Opera House when they first broke up. (Late '90s?)
A little-known musician I like a lot is Julian Velard, and his live shows are the reason. His live disc Make Me Feel (titled after his cover -- a real reinvention -- of Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel") is fantastic.
Also, I cheat and count REM Unplugged, because I downloaed it from somewhere. It's not an official release, but it was a really great set.
'Songs in the Attic' is a great record. I have generally soured on Joel, but that one record remains great.
I did not inadvertently omit Cash's 'At Folsom Prison'. I am a big Cash fan on a song by song basis. But none of his records (except 'Unchained') can keep my attention all the way through (including 'At Folsom Prison'). He does not vary is music enough.
'Amazing Grace' I would consider live. Much like Cash, I enjoy the moments on that record immensely. But I get bored listening to that record from start to finish. I can't list a record that doesn't hold my attention from start to finish.
Nice call on the Natalie Merchant record. I really do enjoy that one. Still not making my list, though.
Knew you'd figure out how to put REM in there somehow. By the way, what do you think of the new REM studio record?
OK on Aretha -- I agree. It's not something I listen to in its entirety. But dipping in is great.
On Cash, I'm a little more surprised. I really love the energy of that record, and given that you listed the Corrs (!), I figured Cash at least deserved an honorable mention.
I wrote about the new REM record on my blog, which I know you read religiously. But for the benefit of your readers: I like it. Is it as good as their stuff through '92? No. But there are some very good songs on it. And it's pretty consistent. For instance, I've listened to it pretty much in its entirety every time I've listened to it. It's better in that way than, say, Monster. A big improvement over their previous three, in any case.
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Hi Dez / GNaBB,
On behalf of Exile Productions and Exile Publishing, many thanks for plugging Van Morrison as one of your Top 10 Live albums and, if you / your readers want good quality, non-pirated, preview tracks from Van's new album - "Keep It Simple" - full versions of "That's Entrainment" and "Behind The Ritual" (along with album track samplers) are available for fans and bloggers to listen to (and link to) on Lost Highway's web-site at http://www.losthighwayrecords.com .
Up-to-the-minute info on Keep It Simple and Van’s 2008 shows is, of course, also available on www.vanmorrison.com and www.myspace.com/vanmorrison and, for a limited period, you can still hear Van's exclusive BBC concert at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio2_aod.shtml?radio2/r2_vanmorrison and you can also see his BBC sessions at http://www.bbc.co.uk/musictv/vanmorrison/video/ .
Thanks again for your plug.
Regards,
WEB SHERIFF
Close Dez, very close.
For my part I would have included in the top ten:
U2 Under a blood Red sky – The fiery live album that took their fiery Irish guts out of the over-produced gooey womb of the studio and put them back on stage with a few fiery amps, and the four fiery chords that Edge knew back then. That was back when Bono thought he was Kolber, or the other way round, I forget.
Aretha Live at the Fillmore - The Fillmore album guys, the Fillmore album! She (embodied by this album) was so real, so preciously lacking in any commercialized packaged bullshit that we’re expected to choke down these days. Raw talent on stage in a time and place when it people actually valued such a rare thing. Now there’s Ashley Simpson. It hurts me physically. But as for Aretha at the Fillmore - talkin’ ‘bout WhoooooooooooOOOOOoooooooo! ‘Nuff said. She also, at one point, sees Ray Charles in the audience and drags him up for spontaneous duet of Spirit in the Dark. Nifty. She did do a lot of great covers like Love the One Your With, Eleanor Rigby, and Bridge over Troubled Waters to appeal to the expanded whiteness of that audience, or so I guess, but it does not feel contrived or insincere. Not to this Whiteness.
Stills Live – A man, probably a man full of Bourbon, finds a zone and then revels in it like it were a giant margarita swimming pool. Ethereal at times, and sounding like he’s not just going through the motions. I find it very affecting.
Get You Ya-Yas Out – This just smacked me full in the face when I was a young lad and I’ve been asking please sir may I have another ever since. Stones with the BS boiled off and playing it real, as they should. The guitar parts chime like Stan’s bell choir, sorry, that was supposed to be Satan’s bell choir.
Michael Hedges Live on the Double Planet – Well, you don’t have to sell me on MH, I even went alone one night to see him live, it was as an amazing ethereal experience. I personally agree with having it on the list, but it’d be a hard sell in the fly-over states.
I would like to submit for your consideration The Police Live. They are less wusses when live. Landlord! Yes!
The Springsteen Live Box Set always makes me want to pump my fist in the air and shout YEAH! This country is so a flawed land of contrast and broken dreams! NOW LET’S GO FIGHT COMMIES AND TERRORISTS FOR IT, AND ALSO AT SOME POINT GET A GIRL TO LIKE ME AT LEAST PARTLY BECAUSE OF MY CAR ON THE WAY! YEEHOOO! That box set is fashioned, I think out of coal scraped from the faces and hands of Americas coal miners and bonded with their tears. Seriously, it’s a powder keg of a live album that catches BSATESB at their stadium-shuddering best. Dez’s descriptions of the spectacle he witnessed while attending shows on the Born in the USA stadium tour have stayed with me like tall tales told by a lanky Texan over a campfire. Did you know Springsteen had the power of flight and controlled the weather through most of the 1980s? Ask Dez.
Songs from the Attic – Of course, no question. That was the sweet spot, pre-baloney.
JW I agree that Julian Velard, who I thank you for introducing me too, is a viable choice. I have several of his albums.
Also, consider, instead of Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense, their early work live album The Name of This Band is Talking Heads. It’s more stripped down. When they were hungry and gives you a look at their work before it was heavily produced. I’m not a wild TH fan, but I find the album interesting to listen to and compare to what came later.
Hey, I stand by that Corrs record. They are a talented pop group, and the guest spots of Bono and Ron Wood are both very memorable and well done.
JMW, I read your blog religiously. I remember you posting in anticipation of the release of REM's new one, but I do not recall an in depth review. I will check again.
Johannes, that Stills album is awesome. As you saw, it was in my Honorable Mention list. You were the one who got me into Hedges. You gave me that live Hedges on LP! On The Police, you should know I am as big a Police fan as anybody. But I have never thought they came across as well on live recordings as in the studio. Yet, I saw them on this reunion tour they are on, and they were AWESOME. But I'm not a big fan of that live Police album.
I'm glad you remember my Tales of Springsteen. That experience of sitting in Texas Stadium on the 'Born in the USA' tour I will never forget. I've never been in a place with that many people who were so excited and into the event.
Funny thing on the Talking Heads. I am usually on board with the "rock is better raw and with the rough edges" argument as well. But the fact that 'Stop Making Sense' is SOO slick and cleanly produced that you could use it to sterilize surgical instruments is kind of what I really dig about it.
Johannes, Fillmore -- yes! That spontaneous duet with Ray Charles is awesome. That album definitely belongs on the list.
And, Dez LIVES in a fly-over state!
The Fillmore album for Aretha...eh. It's alright. If you want sweaty 60's/70's live soul, try some Otis Redding records like 'At the Whiskey A-Go Go' or 'Live in Europe'.
By the way, timely post on my part. Yesterday I picked up a live album that could very well warrant a spot on my list given some time. I just grabbed Lindsey Buckingham's 'Live at the Bass Performance Hall'. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. 15 tracks, and 6 of them are solo acoustic. Only Michael Hedges and Stephen Stills rival Buckingham as a rock acoustic guitar player. Check out "Trouble", "Go Insane" and "Shut Us Down" especially. Brilliant!! In fact, I should properly review this album.
Steely Dan, Alive in America, from 1994. It's the live album from their first tour since the 1970's, and it's remarkable. However, it might merit disqualification on the grounds that some of the tracks are from different performances. Even so, definitely worth a listen.
Also, I'm really surprised that no one mentioned 'Frampton Comes Alive.' What gives?
Songs in the Attic are also form different performanes. I don't think it matters.
I only know that Do You Feel? song from that Frampton album, but if individual songs were nominable I think it's legit. As a guitar player I really like it and the sense of the crowd and the atmosphere comes through so well. It's thrilling '70s mac&cheese.
I will blaspheme here and say that i've tried hard to get into the Allman Bros Fillmore thing, but i keep coming back to the conclusion that the lauded guitar playing is not that intersting, and neither are the songs themselves. I think it's virtues are that it captures a moment in rock history of characters in a rock&roll tragdy. To me it's oodles of southern fried noodles.
On the positive I will reccomend Robert Earl Keen live albums. There is not one album to rule them all, and he probably does not appeal to you guys much, but i have to say i can listen to this guys clever story-country-rock songs over and over. He's better live than in the studio and his band is amazing. Check it out.
Dez, I appreciate your view on the Talking Heads albums. I actually never found them that intersting to begin with.
I'm surprised at your view on the Aretha@Fillmore album. Don't let Aretha hear you say that, I'm sure she reads this blog. I like the way she takes these covers andmakes them her own. Fantstico! Regardless, I think soul is probably a class in it's own. A class where you'd still be wrong.
Also, on a totally unrelated subject, about an hour ago I cut open a guys chest who'd been shot, clamped his aorta pumped his heart in my hand and restarted it with little electric shock paddles that go on the heart. I got to yell "clear!" He's in the OR now with a pulse.
I'm sory, I just had to tell somebody that, and sitting in my little call room at 12:30 bloggin about Aretha Franklin, GNABB is my only venue. I complain a lot about my job, but every once in a while it actually is like TV.
I'm not above digging me some 'Frampton Comes Alive'. Actually, "Show Me the Way" is a serious guilty pleasure for me. I love that cheesy song. In fact, I will put it on right now as I write this response. Oh yeah, there's that talk box. "I want you...to show me the way...every day!" Woo!!
Johannes, blasphemous indeed! 'At the Fillmore East' is transcendently great!! What is wrong with you, son? I expected better judgment. Put on "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and listen to Duane Allman's guitar solo near the end (eight or so minutes in, I'm guessing). Nothing more passionate has ever been played on the six string. "Whipping Post"?? Come on, that is rock improvisation of the highest order. I must vigorously disagree with you.
I can dig Robert Earl's Texas schtick, but it gets old quick. Part of it is that I am annoyed by his fans (much like I hate Dave Matthews fans). Not really the artist's fault. More than the somewhat hackneyed live albums of his, I really love his studio record 'Gringo Honeymoon'. Now that is Texas storytelling at its best.
Perhaps you and I switch positions on various Fillmore live albums. Because I have tried to get into the Aretha Fillmore live album several times, and it just sounds like rather generic soul shouting. I love much of Aretha's material, so I am no Aretha hater. But I find more spirited soul in Otis Redding's live recordings, for instance.
I don't own enough live music to contribute to this in any meaningful way but I must say I'm surprised, given the predilections of at least two of the posters, to see no mention of the (dreadfully overhyped) Stevie Ray Vaughan. Or did he just not do any live albums? Enlighten me.
ANCIANT
Guapo, I agree with you. SRV is overhyped. At the same time, he is one of the greatest blues guitarists to ever live. Yet still overhyped.
To answer your question, he released one live record while he was alive, there have been many posthumous live material released.
The one official live album released during his lifetime is 'Live Alive'. While it was hugely influential on me in my youth, in retrospect it is rather ragged. Vaughan himself admitted that the record was recorded at the height of his drug problems and he was barely functional on some nights.
Posthumous live SRV: 'In the Beginning', a recording of a very young SRV playing in some 6th Street club in Austin. Fun for fans, but not essential. Then there is 'Live at Montreux', a two disc set covering his performances in 1982 and 1985 at the Montreaux Jazz Festival. It is interesting mostly for historical purposes, as the '82 performance is the famous one where he was booed by many "purist" audience members who felt his electric overdrive take on blues was somehow not in keeping with the music (akin to Dylan's infamous Newport Festival appearance, but obviously less important). It was also at this '82 Montreaux peformance where Vaughan was booed that David Bowie saw him and asked him to play guitar on the 'Let's Dance' album. The '85 performance is a triumphant return where he is greeted as a blues god. Funny what difference three years can make (and, I am sure ANCIANT will argue, a brush with Bowie).
Then there's an '84 performance available called 'Live at Carnegie Hall'.
Also, on the 'SRV' box set, about half of it is previously unreleased live material.
So, to answer your question, there is a shitload of live SRV available. I just don't find it all that different from his studio stuff, since he recorded his studio albums pretty much live in the studio anyway.
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