Live albums you actually listen to

[RobW]

Largely agree with G-Man's assertion about live albums, but there are a few exceptions for me. Stop Making Sense and Talking Heads Live in Rome 1980 (I need to listen to the latter again actually). Also The Name of this Band is Talking Heads is a great complilation of live songs, can't remember if the earliest songs feature just the three piece band prior to Jerry joining. Wonderful listening to the band progressing and growing in terms of musicians.
I listened to SMS first before buying Fear of Music and have always been disappointed by the studio recordings of Air, Cities, Life During Wartime in comparison.

John Cale's Fragments of a Rainy Season is one of my favourite albums ever, and I love Le Bataclan '72 for the version of 'Berlin'. In fact, might listen to it now.

I think I have Bruce Springsteen's Live as Passaic Theatre under two different guises. Springsteen regularly releases live albums 'from the vaults' and i've bought three or four. One Born in the USA era, one from the Wrecking Ball tour which I think was his longest show and the Wembley 2016 show which I went to.

Not listened to the two Joy Division live albums in a while, and have a bootleg, 'No Ceremonies' too. The Preston gig is notable for their amp blowing up, hearing Rob Gretton from the side asking Hooky what's going on, and the local woman announcing, "Anyone from Burnley, the bus is leaving in 5 minutes". Brilliant version of Shadowplay though iirc.

Edit: Oh, and The Clash, From Here to Eternity I used to listen to a lot.

[Stumpy Pepys]

John Cale's Fragments of a Rainy Season is one of my favourite albums ever, and I love Le Bataclan '72 for the version of 'Berlin'. In fact, might listen to it now.

I've been after a copy of Bataclan 72 for a while, but I keep hearing that several recordings are at the wrong speed. Is yours okay and can you point me to a version?

[RobW]

I've been after a copy of Bataclan 72 for a while, but I keep hearing that several recordings are at the wrong speed. Is yours okay and can you point me to a version?

Ha, i've only just read that on the Wikipedia page. I honestly have no idea how I procured it, must have been from a torrent of the officially released version. It sounds fine to my tin ears, and I note that iTunes make a point that their version is 'pitch and speed corrected'.

[gavc23]

Live albums are helpfully often a Greatest Hits collection. But unlike a Greatest Hits, you don’t get frowned upon for claiming it’s your favourite album by a band.


I love live albums, current favourite is the Nightwish one from Wacken.

[Eggchaser]

As a concert film, Stevie Ray Vaughan's Live at The El Mocambo is awesome. Live Alive, as an album, however is not, being described by someone as "a mass of cocaine-fuelled overdubs".

[Stumpy Pepys]

Ha, i've only just read that on the Wikipedia page. I honestly have no idea how I procured it, must have been from a torrent of the officially released version. It sounds fine to my tin ears, and I note that iTunes make a point that their version is 'pitch and speed corrected'.

I hadn't looked for a while, but it turned out the Rough Trade release had been corrected. So I just bought one.

[pebblethefish]

Mentions above for Judas Priest gives me an excuse to post the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTQz1ABtzek

Enjoy

There's a better version with more motorcycle whipping but I can not find it, sorry.

I'm actually listening to a song from Priest Live right now. It's the only live album I've heard that gets the balance right between the music and the noise of the fans.

[Cal Alamein]

pebblethefish Gert from the Well
Thanks for sharing that video Gert - a metal way to wake up this morning!

I've now got a chance to digress and indulge you all w/ a rookie rock photography story. I was a student at the University of Oklahoma where I took my first and only darkroom photography class. My dad gave me his old Pentax and I loved the whole process, but had only been in class for about a month when I ran into a free-lance rock photographer who was shooting shots for Circus magazine. I told him I was going to the Priest show in Norman (this would be around September 1982) and he was able to take me right up in front of the stage with him. I had no flash so his advice was to set the aperture at 4 and shutter speed at 1/60 and shoot away. He fronted me a couple rolls of 36exp Tri-X and it was a blast. I'm digging the show, feeling like a big shot, but also trying to take advantage of this opportunity and get the best shots possible. After the show we got to meet the band and they were very personable, especially Halford. A night I'll never forget.

Naturally, I wanted to develop the film ASAP and hope there were some decent shots for prints. I was also excited to show the finished products to my photography professor. Long story short, she was not as impressed as I was and I got a B- for all my efforts. However, my classmates were far more supportive which was a good consolation.

[Bored Of Education]

They are all great photos, Cal, but the first one is all sorts of aces.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Seconded, that is a great story with the content to match.

[RobW]

I forgot about the Dylan Bootleg series. I used to listen to the "Royal Albert Hall" volume an awful lot, and did have the Philharmonic Hall volume (VI?) from 1964 which I recall was utterly brilliant.

I see Springsteen has released another live album from the Born in the USA tour this week.

[Cal Alamein]

Bordeaux Education Walt Flanagans Dog - Thanks! Bored, that is my favorite as well. Only his strumming hand is in focus. I looked at my contact sheets as well and out of about 100 shots there was maybe only a little over a dozen that were fit for a print.
RobW
I'm also a fan of the Royal Albert Hall show and also the 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue

[Bored Of Education]

That is the thing about live photography - sometimes photos that maybe aren't technically 'correct' sum up the event, mood, atmosphere much better than sharp perfect photos. Especially blurring which is brilliant at showing the energy of a live performance.

[Tony C]

Bill Withers at Carnegie Hall and Little Feat's 'Electrif Lycanthrope' (originally a bootleg but now widely available and on Spotify) are old favourites but the live album I play most now is Goat's 'Fuzzed Out'. They remain the current band I would most like to see live but haven't yet managed it.

[Sporting]

How many great/popular artists are there who (have) never released a live album to die for (at least if you're a fan)? Perhaps The Beatles are the prime example. How about The Kinks?

[Stumpy Pepys]

How many great/popular artists are there who (have) never released a live album to die for (at least if you're a fan)? Perhaps The Beatles are the prime example. How about The Kinks?

I'd happily pay for the Beatles' Shea Stadium concert, but the CDs I've seen look like upmarket bootlegs and I've no idea what the quality is.

[Toby Gymshorts]

A quick post to add my admiration for Cal Alamein's pics upthread. Absolutely superb.

As a side note, one of K.K.'s Flying Vs sold for ?150,000 at Bonhams, back in 2018.

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24669/lot/160/

[elguapo4]

I'd happily pay for the Beatles' Shea Stadium concert, but the CDs I've seen look like upmarket bootlegs and I've no idea what the quality is.

Isn't that the one that they ran the sound through the stadium P.A ? No one could hear a thing and it went a long way towards convincing the Fab Four to retire from live performances.

[Nefertiti2]

Van Morrison
It's Too Late to Stop Now

[Stumpy Pepys]

Isn't that the one that they ran the sound through the stadium P.A ? No one could hear a thing and it went a long way towards convincing the Fab Four to retire from live performances.

Yes and quite probably. But I know there are good-quality recordings, but Apple Corp has never remastered and released the whole concert.

[Trevor Red]

Take No Prisoners by Lou Reed. Recorded over a week of shows at the Bottom Line in 1978. He had a hell of a band that year and amused himself by telling scabrous, gossipy stories over their vamping. Top stuff.
Curtis Live by Curtis Mayfield. One of the great soul voices with just a four piece band.

[danielmak]

To return to the story from Cal Alamein above, it's interesting because I'm sure that some professional music photographers were jerks but this is the second of two stories I have heard where someone goes out of their way to help someone else. A good friend of mine used to work as a music photographer and now shoots on TV and film sets. He started shooting large concerts when he as 11 or 12 years old by smuggling in parts of his camera among his different friends. He saw a guy shooting, approached the guy to find out how the guy was allowed to do that, and the guy basically started hooking my friend up with photo passes (teaching him how to contact record labels, managers, etc.). The guy benefited to a degree because he would have my friend shoot concerts and then sell the photos to magazines when the guy couldn't be in two places at once. I guess in Cal's situation the photographer didn't see a job security threat--just some college kid taking photos for a class.

[Kevin S]

I'm also a fan of ... the 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue

Just popped this on for the morning and thought I'd mention it, but see that it's already been called - marvellous.

[ad hoc]

Just popped this on for the morning and thought I'd mention it, but see that it's already been called - marvellous.

I take it that you and Cal Alamein have seen the film about the tour by Martin Scorcese on Netflix? Well worth it if you haven't

[Kevin S]

No, I don't have Netflix anymore but will keep that in mind - cheers!