I like the versions of Celluloid Heroes and 20th Century man off that album but most songs sound too rushed.
Ziggy Stardust the Motion Picture: Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud/Oh You Pretty Things/All the Young Dudes medley
I'm a huge fan of the Finn Brothers, and their 1993 Split Enz Anniversary tour yielded a live album version of "Message To My Girl" that renders the anemic studio version completely moot. To my ears, most of the Neil-led Enz albums suffer from really dated, often cheesy production. The Live CD from '93 stripped all that artifice away and let a few latter-day-Enz songs shine.
Oh, and Jackson Browne's "Your Bright Baby Blues" is terrific in it's studio version (Lowell!), but the spare arrangement on the Solo Acoustic album he put out is one of my favorite things ever. It may not be better, but it deserves to be on the same peak of the same mountain of greatness. A stunning performance.
I always thought McCartney's "Beware My Love" sounded much better and more immediate on Wings Over America than the studio version.
Pretty much everything by Richard Thompson. His live versions blow away the studio versions of any song you pick, yet paradoxically he's never released a live album on a major label (except for Small Town Romance, which was almost immediately withdrawn). He's well-known as an extreme perfectionist and has said he can't listen to his live performances because all he hears are the flaws. This self-released double CD is one of the finest live albums ever, but it's long out of print and officially only available in MP3 format. The electric guitar solos on "The Way That It Shows" are jaw-droppingly complex, but at the same time as intense as a Neil Young solo. RT at his finest, and it doesn't get much better than that.
"Can't Win" by Richard Thompson on More Guitar Also "Cooksferry Queen" performed 'on Later' with Jools Holland is insanely good.
There is an artist called Mr. Jukes who does a song called Grant Green. There is the studio version featuring a Charles Bradley on vocals then there is this live at the church version which omits him and uses a different singer. To me the live version is much better, but to my knowledge is only a video of it. Now I don't think it's necessarily "live" exactly but it's definitely better to me. here it is
I always thought live Who's Next would be the holy grail of live Who, but I actually disagree here; the live versions are good, but to my ears anyway, they don't blow the doors off the studio versions, which are perhaps the best recorded, best-produced Who studio tracks there are and really benefit from overdubbing to create extra texture (like the acoustic guitars and backwards guitars in Bargain) without overwhelming things (as happens on parts of Quadrophenia). Live Tommy is another matter. My favorite version of that actually is the performance on the Hull set - tighter than Wight but much better sound than Leeds.
Gary Moore's Parisienne Walkways. That sustained note in the studio version just doesn't compare to the brilliant live renditions. Glenn Hughes - No Stranger to Love (from the Live in South America CD from his Return of Crystal Karma album). Twas the Japanese release, methinks. Most of Joe Bonamassa's music live trumps the studio versions by far. Sloe Gin and The Ballad of John Henry come to mind.
The "Ziggy" version of "Width of a Circle" is pretty awesome, IMO. In the edited version, though - the full-length one grows tedious...
