The 1968 Bless it Pointed Little Head from the Airplane is a stunning live recording. Same with the Dead’s Live Dead & Skull Roses and Creams Wheels of Fire and many more. I enjoy these CCR live records but they are not great recordings for the time which is surprising since they sold more records than all of them so budget should have been an issue.
I think those examples you mentioned had a bit more prep-work and were recorded specifically with an album in mind...therefore a bit more caution and attention to detail. And, those were recorded on 8 track and/or 16 track. In the case of this Albert Hall release, it was probably recorded on 4 track for use as audio for the film/video footage. It probably wasn't intended to ever be released on a record. Overall, all of the officially released CCR was recorded well enough, despite any technical limitations. I don't think budget was an issue, but instead no intention of actually making a live record.
Good points. As the band leader, John Fogerty was a perfectionist in the studio but probably did not place a whole lot of value in recording their gigs (e.g. like the Dead) which tended to be 45-minute recreations of their records (and that’s no knock on the band). While it’s true that CCR sold lots of records, didn’t Fantasy Records have a relatively small stable of artists that appealed to the Rolling Stone Mag demographic (e.g., John Fahey)? So perhaps Fantasy didn’t recognize that there was a premium to budget for state of the art live rock recordings.
They didn't have "The Bear" (Stan Owsley) recording them. He did an outstanding job on those early Dead live albums.
Fogerty was a control freak, so the live recordings he probably did not value much, as he had little control over how they were done.
Do you want them to get a time machine and spent more time micing up the stage or something? live albums are just documents of the moment. I personally feel grateful that they even exist when I come across one that hooks me
Quality issues aside, this film documents what a great show CCR put on. Nonstop energy and all the guys are into it.
It’s not surprising the Dead’s sound surpassed most other live recordings of the era given the degree to which they were pioneering all things audio at that time…
FYI, the CCR set in the Woodstock box has different mastering - and better IMO - than the individual release.
The studio albums were all recorded, mixed, and mastered for less money than Sgt. Pepper's or Pet Sounds alone cost to record. CCR didn't take 3-6 months to make a record.
Just got done watching the Netflix thing and very much enjoyed the live portion. They really seemed to be into it and I particularly enjoyed Doug Clifford's performance. Remarkably tiny stage too. Almost comical compared to these days. Anyway, I've put the album on my wishlist on the back of this.
Anyone else noticed how they changed the arrangement of Suzie Q on the woodstock recording? A bit remarkable, as CCR so often stuck their initial arrangements.
All I can say is that, if you consider RAH akin to a low quality bootleg, you can't have really heard too many low quality bootlegs...
To provide some perspective, my understanding is that only 7 microphones were available at Woodstock, each band sharing a similar recording setup. Whereas nowadays some bands use 7 mics or more just for drums!
I stand corrected thanks. “In a February 2019 Front of House article, Hanley remembered, “(At Woodstock) we used about 20 Shure Unidyne microphones which were modified.” “I also used four modified Shure M67’s [microphone mixers] with input pads, two Shure M63 Audio Masters for EQ, an Altec 1567A tube mixer and four Teletronix LA2A tube limiters between the mixers and the power amplifiers. Below the stage, we had over 20 McIntosh MC3500 series 350-watt RMS high-fidelity tube amplifiers.” ”I built special speaker columns on the hills and had 16 loudspeaker arrays in a square platform going up to the hill on 70-foot towers.”
Wow! Just heard At Royal Albert Hall for the very first time yesterday. Played it again earlier and absolutely loved every second. The performance is so bloody good I didn't pay attention to the sound quality as I was too darn busy belting out the songs and having a jig. BTW, blinked on the Absolute Originals SACD box set fairly recently on Discogs and lost out. Grr!
Low budget live recording 50+ years ago didn't always produce stellar results. However, the quality in the performance and the music will shine through regardless, and CCR's live releases are a good example of this, especially the Woodstock set. I haven't got the new Royal Albert Hall album yet, and I think it's gonna have to be a real doozy to surpass Woodstock.
