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Yosemite under Orion's gaze

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Live and in color


I have been on a music thing lately, scrubbed the Charlatans and Ultimate Spinach posts, but would like to continue on the best album topic. Live album this time, of the rock persuasion. When I was a kid I loved several live albums and I am happy to report that they still hold up very nicely, thank you. My all time faves:

Historic Performances Recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival - Otis Redding/Jimi Hendrix Reprise Records (1970) Otis's set probably the strongest live performance ever recorded.

Who - Live at Leeds - Decca (1970) Magic Bus still rips after all these years

Traffic - Welcome to the Canteen - Island (1971) A gem from one of my favorite groups

Allman Brothers - At Fillmore East - Capricorn (1971) The seminal album of southern rock, saw the Allmans in their infancy that year with Steppenwolf once and once with Three Dog Night.  Brilliant syncopation.

The Band - The Last Waltz - Warner Brothers (1978) Bittersweet but powerful, if only for another chance to once more hear the haunting melodies of Danko and Manuel. Rock of Ages - right up there too, with great horn section.

Frampton Comes Alive - A&M (1976) - Not necessarily my cup of tea, but historically significant and the hugest seller of its time. Didn't start to appreciate Frampton until later when I started digging Marriott and Humble Pie and Faces so much. Saw him twice, once with Bowie and once on his own and what a great player he is.


John Mayall - The Turning Point - Polydor 1969 - Room to move, incredible musicianship throughout.


Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - Four Way Street Atlantic (1971) - The Black Queen with Stills still worth the price of admission.

John Cale -Sabotage -Spy Records (1979) - Great version of Walking the Dog


Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense - Sire (1984)

My brain is going numb, anybody have any more suggestions?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tres Hombres

Cheap Thrills

Turn Turn Turn

Surrealistic Pillow

Are You Experienced?

Bare Trees

any Beatle album

Blue Heron said...

Bare trees was studio as was most of the fab four.

Anonymous said...

LIVE ALBUMS????

duh..............

Michael Stutz said...

Stones " the Brussels Affair" Belgium 1973.
Recently made available as a remastered download. Goats Head soup era , Mick Taylor crushes that other guy who plays guitar.

"Band of Gypsies". Jimi Hendrix with a group that was only recorded this one time.

Rory Gallager "Live in Europe" the Irish guitar ace and blues mans best recording.

Dead. " Live Europe 1972" you can wade through too much of this stuff with the dead, but while technically a compromised live album, since they overdubbed bits, for this casual dead listener, it tells the story of what they were good at better than any studio album,.

Anonymous said...
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Blue Heron said...

I was just listening to Band of Gypsies last night. Personally love the Redding/Mitchell experience a bit more but this is certainly a fine album.

You are preaching to the choir on Mick Taylor, I am the biggest fan. Will have to find the Brussels record.

I started seeing the dead in 72 and while I love Europe 72, the full power of the live band was never adequately captured. I would say that the live dead album that is called skullfuck comes the closest with its version of Darkstar and the Eleven.

thanks for chiming in, MIchael!

Blue Heron said...
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Anonymous said...

YesSongs
Incredible musicians especially Steve Howe at his peak.
Yours is no Disgrace and Starship Troopers are classics.