DCC Archive Live albums... Best and worst.

the band rock of ages

 

The Rolling Stones one I can see, but I'm in sheer disbelieve about the other selections.

But to each his/her own, I guess...

 

Good
Widespread Panic - Light Fuse, Get Away & Live In The Classic City
Derek Trucks - Live At The Georgia Theatre & Roadsongs
Gov't Mule - The Deepest End: Live In Concert
Phish - A Live One & New Year's Eve 1995
The Allman Brother's Band - One Way Out Live

 

A couple good with orchestra:

Elton John - Live In Australia

Moody Blues - Live At Red Rocks

 

Worse than bad: Dylan and the Dead

 

I am a big fan of live albums. Here are my absolute favorites, in no particular order:

- Alive! (Kiss)
- Paris (Supertramp)
- Delicate Sound Of Thunder (Pink Floyd)
- Live And Dangerous (Thin Lizzy)
- Live After Death (Iron maiden)
- At Fillmore East (Allman Brothers Band)
- One More From The Road (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
- Live At Leeds (The Who) *
- Live (Genesis) *
- Made In Japan (Deep Purple)
- Made in Europe (Deep Purple) *
- Roxy And Elsewhere (Frank Zappa)
- The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life (Frank Zappa)
- The Birthday Concert (Jaco Pastorius)
- Big Swing Face (Buddy Rich Big Band) *

*: I'm of the opinion that, since fillers are expected to be absent from live performances, a live album should span at least two LPs. Although still great, these ones leave an "incompleteness" sensation on me.

 

"Join Together" isn't a bad effort at all - the sound quality is pretty poor (did the re-issue make any improvement at all on the sound?) but as a representation of the band's set lists at the time it does a great job. Perhaps they should have simply picked one show for the Tommy disc too. "Who's Last" is just a simple embarassment given what SHOULD and could have been released under the contract at the time.

 

Best.
The Who "Live at Leeds",obviously.
Worst.
The Jam "LIVE JAM".
while they are great to watch in a live concert/live TV situation,there is something about this i just don't like.
maybe the crossfades between each concert sampled making it seem it's all the same show,or maybe just the sterile sound.
their first Live LP,Dig The New Breed is a lot better [even at half the lenght of LIVE] and was compiled properly.

 

The worst live album I've heard is "Kelvin Hall" by the Kinks. The whole album seems to be overdubbed with a very loud 20 second tape loop of screaming girls. After a few minutes you realise your listening to the same shrieks and whoops over and over again. Just mindless vandalism in my opinion.

 

"Jimi Hendrix - Isle Of Wight"
What?!?!
You don't like the security walkie talkie chatter going on over the PA system during the show???

 

Listening to this on vinyl now.

I think it's fantastic!

 

The live BBC cuts from the Faces box set are much better in sound and quality and they have Ronnie Lane on bass.

 

I am surprised no one mentionned Donna Summer's "Live and More" as one of the best, which I listened to recently for the first time ever. I am not a disco fan, and I only like some of the songs (her disco hits), and maybe I am missing something (parts overdubbed and not live, etc.??). Otherwise it sounded like the ultimate disco fest (I realize it was getting a bit late for this, but still...), DS is a terrific singer - I was unaware or her range - the band is huge, and to top it off, the sound seems amazing to me for a live album of the era!

 

UFO Strangers In The Night is my all time favorite live album...excellent sonic quality for a live album.

 

I know this is off topic, forgive me, but I've got a killer Steve Earle show from 2004 soundboard. It was for the tour for "The Revolution Starts Now". Great stuff.

 

For the most part, I do not like live albums, live bonus tracks, etc. However, I do have a few exceptions, and they're mostly by Joe Jackson. He tends to rearrange most of his hits, changes/expands/reduces the size of his bands, pays attention to track selection...pretty much every live album is a new experience.

My two favorite examples of this are 2000's Summer In The City: Live in New York (playing in piano/bass/drums trio form, everything is arranged accordingly), and 2002's Two Rainy Nights (with a Latin-esque expanded band, and everything arranged accordingly).

 

I personally like the ACE remaster of "Rick Nelson In Concert at the Troubador, 1969." The first twelve songs on disc one are the songs from the original album and original CD- these are the songs that sound particularly good. The remainder of disc one contain alternate live versions of songs, and disc two contains previously unissued alternate performances from another night. The extra songs sound good, but nowhere near as good as the twelve songs from the original album and CD.

AJH

 

So I'm sorry of I missed this did any of these get mentioned that I missed?

Very Good

Taj Mahal - Recycling the Blues and Other Related Stuff (only 1 side is live but it is excellent)
CSN&Y - Four Way Street
Dave Brubeck - We're All Together Again For the First Time
BB King - Live at Cook County Jail

totally agree with the kudos to Allman Bros - Live at Fillmore, and Who Live at Leeds.

 

So many good live releases and they have all been covered in the thread.
Interesting mentions on the crappy live albums and that includes
Stevie Ray Vaughn's Live Alive and Yessongs mentioned earlier
by Unknown and DanG, who nailed it.

When I bought the release on vinyl in 1986, I couldn't believe the
muddy sound and bland mix. How could they have done that?
Yessongs sounded pretty bad too, although they have tried to
clean up both with remasters. I've not heard them, but SRV has
a great live bootleg around the same time from Philly. It is great.
Both good performances, especially the Yes, but marred in the
final product.

 

Who would have thought since that post there would be
6 shows in the Fire & Skill box
Rainbow show with the BBC set (and the Setting Sons deluxe set)
Wembley show in the super deluxe The Gift
Brighton Centre in the super deluxe Setting Sons
& Live disc in the 1977 box

 

Good:
Supertramp - Paris
Hendrix - Atlanta 1970, Woodstock, Band-O-Gypsies
Love - Forever Changes Live
Frampton - Comes Alive
Zappa - Best Band You Never Heard
Tori Amos - Venus and Back

So-so/Bad:
Beatles - Live @ Hollywood Bowl (Ron Howard one, gave it one listen and back on the shelf with it)
Yes - Yessongs (love the material, just wish it sounded better)
Hendrix - Isle of Wight (same as Yessongs, for historical reasons I wish I could find this in decent quality)
Todd Rundgren - Back to the Bars (changed the tempo/sound of some of his best songs too much)
Lennon - Live in NYC (not bad but he just seems a bit lackluster performance-wise, some good tunes though)

All the above is in my opinion. I don't actually hate many of the "bad" ones I mentioned, it's more of a case of thinking "with this much talent and decent recording tech available, why did this not come out better?"

 

I always go back to The Last Waltz. Some staying power there.
And, of course, Dylan Manchester, 1966.

Least Favourite...you know, I don’t go back to Steely Dan’s Alive in America as often as I should, considering how much I revere them. There are worse, of course...

 

Best: Unleashed In The East

Worst: Wings Over America

 

Best; Marianne Faithfull "Blazing Away"
Worst; Rainbow "Live In Europe"