Best Blue Oyster Cult live recording from 2020

So Blue Oyster Cult has released 5 live albums over the past year, and I'm curious about which one/ones you think are the best. All 5 were recorded between 2012-2017. They were released in advance of their new studio recording, The Symbol Remains (which is a very good album, this far into their career).



I've listened to them all, and there's certainly a bit of overlap track wise, but right now I'm enjoying the 2012 iHeart Radio Theater show. A lot of energy throughout the performance.

Note - there is also a live '83 release coming next week (which was previously included digitally with the Complete Columbia box, but now gets a standalone physical release). I don't know if that one should be compared to these, as it's more of an archival release compared to the more recent recordings.

Anyway, what's your take? Which do you enjoy the most?

 

I prefer BÖC threads with umlauts.

 

You may like/enjoy the 44.1/16 "Harvester of Lives" 5 disc live performance originally released October 30, 2012 by Columbia Records as 320Kbps MP3 . The 44.1/16 resolution is available for download and on Tidal (perhaps other streaming sites). I am not sure when the higher resolution became available. FWIW, the late 1970s and early 1980s always have a more powerful and energetic sound-though perhaps not always recorded as well--than the later years (IMO).

 

I got those 4 live shows that make up Harvester of Lives with the Complete Columbia box when it first came out. I'm glad they're starting to put them out on physical media (the live '83 disc out next week is one of those 4 shows).

And I agree that the archival live stuff is better overall than the newer recordings. I'll stick take what I can get from this band though.

Was generally just curious if others had picked up all these new live releases, and which ones they preferred.

 

Here’s the site for RealGone the 1983 release. The previous versi0n was lossy as I recall from the boxed set.
Blue Oyster Cult: Live ’83 CD

 

Thanks just ordered this

 

It’s a terrific show.

 

They are all fantastic but my fave is the 2017 Live In London.

They do the entire first album (+plus some other great tunes) and I am sucker for that album.

The band is firing on all cylinders and the sound quality is excellent to my ears, and the DVD is excellent as well.

Some real cool stuff happens too, like Richie breaking his high E string during the beginning of his showcase solo in Last Days of May, yet he keeps on playing anyways & delivers some jaw dropping playing, after which Buck makes sure to point out the crowd that he did it on only 5 cylinders instead of 6.

 

Been thinking about picking these up, hopefully there will be more feedback as to which are the best. (Of course, I say that knowing if I buy one I'll end up buying them all.)

 

I picked up all of these, along with the Frontiers reissue of A Long Day's Night. I also snagged the Live '83 release last week. I am strongly in favor of all of them. The 'Rock of Ages Festival' show struck me as an exceptionally fiery performance. There's not a single one I'm not jazzed about, though. If there are more live releases forthcoming from any era, I will enthusiastically snap them up.

A couple questions / comments for discussion:

1) I was hoping to see the CD portion of 'A Long Day's Night' expanded to 2 discs, to match the length of the video. I was disappointed this didn't happen.

2) Does anyone know specifically why 'This Ain't the Summer of Love' had to be omitted from inclusion on any of the video media, but was allowed to remain on the audio?

3) I was a little annoyed that the method of release was bundled CD/DVD packages, and then separate Blu-ray discs by themselves. I wanted the CDs for listening, and Blu-rays for watching. I'm not particularly interested in the DVDs, but was forced to buy them. Right now I've only sprung for the CD/DVD editions of all releases, and I'm now really milling over buying them all on Blu-ray before they're all out of print and doubled in price. I am their ideal fool, I mean customer.

 

The Long Day’s Night blu ray with the bonus live tracks is where it’s at for me, but I love the other videos just as much. What I’d love to see in the future is for the band to do full performances of Secret Treaties and Spectres. With Albert and Joe guesting.

 

In regards to the omission of "this ain't the summer of love", I believe the thinking is that there was a songwriter on that who is now dead and perhaps estate did not agree to video rights or could not be located

 

I just found this great interview with Murray Krugman from just a couple months ago. He's talking about how he was screwed by Sandy out a co-writing credit for ETI, and then he says this:

"And many years later, there was a TV show where BÖC played all of the songs on Agents of Fortune. (laughs) And I refused to give the show’s producer permission to do “This Ain’t the Summer of Love” (note: which Krugman co-wrote with Albert Bouchard and Don Waller). So, it had all of the songs from Agents—except “Summer”. And he said to me, “Well, we’re offering $500.” And I said, “This band probably owes me three-quarters of a million dollars in royalties”. “Well, we’ll go up to $750.” And I just said, “Are you listening to yourself?” (laughs)"

One mystery solved. The interview is at pleasekillme.com . I'm betting anyone that likes BÖC enough to be on this thread would enjoy the heck out of this interview.

 

Thanks. That makes more sense as you would think Don Waller estate would have made a deal

 

Does anyone know why I can't locate a copy of the Cleveland vinyl...?

 

So why didn’t.he sue them?

 

They should put all 5 of the live albums in a box set and sell it at 'Original Album Classics' prices. Subtitle it 'ODed On LIVE itself'.

 

If it’s just the CDs I’d buy it. I don’t wanna get the DVDs which are useless to me personally, and will only drive up the price.