Great Live Albums

I love live albums. Since I don’t go to concerts anymore, for me they are the next best thing to being there, especially if there is a DVD tie-in. Live albums fall into three areas – 1. The stop-gap between studio albums to keep a musical act in the public eye; 2. The contractual obligation, like a greatest hits album, that allows an act to complete a recording contract with one label before moving on to a better deal with another label; 3. The document of a band’s prowess as a live act that can’t be captured in a studio. Here are some live albums that fall into the third category that I think are required listening.

Deep Purple – Made in Japan (1973) – recorded over a three night span of shows in Osaka and Tokyo. This live document featured the best-known and most successful Deep Purple line-up of Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice. The original album included only seven songs, but the 1998 remastered version also included the encore songs Speed King, Black Night, and Lucille. Made in Japan has the definitive version of Highway Star, on which both Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore are simply spectacular. The rest of the band isn’t too shabby either. It also features a superb Smoke on the Water that’s better than the Machine Head original, a lengthy Lazy and an even longer Space Truckin’, both from Machine Head. In order to provide an on-stage foil for guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord fed his Hammond organ through a Marshall stack, providing the Hammond with a more metallic sound. Instead of sounding like a mellow instrument that one would hear in jazz or blues, by feeding the Hammond through a Marshall stack Jon Lord turned a piece of furniture into a fire-breathing, smoke-belching beast. On both Lazy and Space Truckin’, Jon Lord uncaged the beast. I saw Deep Purple on their 1985 Perfect Strangers tour. They were as great that night as they were on Made in Japan. What a shame they couldn't get along and keep it together.

The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East (1971) – Produced by Tom Dowd, this was recorded over four shows in March 1971. I’ve written about this album at length in a previous blog, therefore I won’t repeat myself. I’ll just say the deluxe edition of At Fillmore East is the best live album I’ve heard from anybody. The track listing:

Statesboro Blues/Trouble No More/Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’/Done Somebody Wrong/Stormy Monday/One Way Out/In Memory of Elizabeth Reed/You Don’t Love Me/Midnight Rider/Hot ‘Lanta/Whipping Post/Mountain Jam/Drunken Hearted Boy [featuring Elvin Bishop]

Peter Frampton – Frampton Comes Alive! (1976) – if you grew up in the 1970s, you heard this album a lot – I know I did. My friend Mike owned a copy [I’m sure he still has it], and everyday he put his stereo speakers in his upstairs bedroom window and blasted Frampton Comes Alive! for the whole neighborhood to hear. We heard it so much that I think we all knew every nuance of Do You Feel Like We Do, all 13 minutes of it. There are many reasons why Frampton Comes Alive! is the best selling live album of all time: 1) Good songs; 2) Great guitar playing; 3) It’s an excellent recording – it just sounds good. The deluxe version sounds even better. Frampton’s most recent releases, Fingerprints and Thank You Mr. Churchill, are proof that the success of Frampton Comes Alive! was not some pretty-boy fluke. The man can play!

Jeff Beck – Performing This Week: Live at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club (2007) – Several years ago I saw Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival on TV. One of EC’s guests was Jeff Beck and his band. After having heard Beck’s set I was hoping that sometime in the near future he would record a live album. For once my musical wish was granted. This album is an excellent overview of Jeff Beck’s career since leaving The Yardbirds in 1966. This set includes Beck’s Bolero, an outstanding Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers [from 1975’s Blow By Blow], some great live versions from songs off of 1976’s Wired, including Led Boots and Goodbye Pork-Pie Hat. To top it off, included is Beck’s take on The Beatles’ A Day in the Life. Beck doesn’t sing – he lets his guitar be his voice. In his hands, a Fender Stratocaster can laugh, cry, sing, moan, wail – it can express any emotion a human voice can express. Joe Satriani and Steve Vai have nothing on this guy.

Stevie Ray Vaughan – Live at Carnegie Hall (1997) – Recorded October 4, 1984, the day after SRV turned 30, released posthumously. Joining SRV and Double Trouble on this occasion were SRV’s big brother Jimmie Vaughan (from the Fabulous Thunderbirds), Dr John, and the Roomful of Blues horn section. The band and the guests turned Carnegie Hall into a Texas roadhouse that night. There was lots of great blues played on this night. The track listing:

Scuttle Buttin’/Testify/Love Struck Baby/Honey Bee/Cold Shot/Letter to My Girlfriend/Dirty Pool/Pride and Joy/The Things That I Used to Do/C.O.D [sung by Angela Strelhi]/Iced Over/Lenny/Rude Mood

The Sky Is Crying and Voodoo Child [Slight Return] from the same show are on the SRV box set. Live at Carnegie Hall is SRV’s best live album and is an essential part of his discography.

Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison (1968), At San Quentin (1969) – two recordings from two different California prisons, same result – electrifying! It’s pretty chilling when you hear a bunch of cons cheering wildly when The Man in Black sings I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die [Folsom Prison Blues]. The reaction from the cons is the same when they hear My name is Sue/How do you do/Now you’re gonna die! [A Boy Named Sue] and I can’t forget the day I shot that bad bitch down [Cocaine Blues]. The Man in Black definitely connected with captive audiences that were starved for entertainment, and herein lies the greatness of these two live albums.

Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert (1998) – don’t let the title fool you. Yes, this started out as a bootleg, and it was originally thought to be from the Royal Albert Hall. A bootleg of this show, incorrectly labeled as being from the Royal Albert Hall, has been making the rounds for over thirty years. Contrary to legend, this concert was recorded in Manchester. To put the show in its proper context, the year before recording it Bob Dylan had shocked his folk audience by “going electric” at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. This move in a more commercial direction so angered the folk faithful that they bought tickets for Dylan shows for the expressed purpose of booing him. The first half of the show was Dylan alone and acoustic. The audience sat silently and hung on his every word. The second half of the show was an electric set with a full band, The Hawks [who later became The Band]. Considering this was recorded in 1966, the audio fidelity is pretty good. The performance from Dylan and The Hawks was intense. Between songs during the electric set there were catcalls from the crowd. Finally, between Ballad of a Thin Man and Like a Rolling Stone you can hear the famous cry of “Judas!” After hearing that, Dylan turned to the band and you can hear him tell them to “play it fucking loud!” The Hawks obliged, and when Like a Rolling Stone was finished, there’s nothing but stunned silence. How's that for greatness?

UFO – Strangers in the Night (1979) – this one is like a “greatest hits live” recording taken from shows recorded in Chicago and Louisville. All the best UFO songs are here. The band, with German guitarist Michael Schenker, is in peak form. Here you will find the best version of Lights Out. Also included is a mind-blowing 10-minute version of Rock Bottom. UFO did several studio albums with Michael Schenker, all of them very good. But this live album is the best album they ever did or ever will do.

Neil Young – Live Rust (1979) – recorded with Crazy Horse at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, this is the album that got me hooked on Neil Young. Here you will find definitive versions of Powderfinger, Cortez the Killer, Like a Hurricane, and very good renditions of Cinnamon Girl, Tonight’s the Night, and Hey Hey, My My (Out of the Blue). The recording starts off with the early song Sugar Mountain, includes I Am a Child from Buffalo Springfield, and then reviews NY’s career as both a solo acoustic performer and as an electric guitarist with Crazy Horse. This is a well-done recording of an excellent performance.

Gov’t Mule – Mulennium (2010) – Gov’t Mule has a tradition of ringing in every New Year with a show. For Mule fans a NYE show is the musical highlight of the year. Mule NYE shows tend to go on all night (4-hours plus), feature many guests, and they play anything and everything they can think of. The show recorded on 12/31/99 [never intended for release] was no different. The show started out with six Mule originals, and then right after midnight they launched right into King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man, followed by The Who’s We’re Not Gonna Take It and Led Zeppelin’s Dazed and Confused. The second CD features a six-song set with blues legend Little Milton. After the blues set, Black Crowes guitarist Audley Freed joined the Mule onstage for Alice Cooper’s Is It My Body, Jimi Hendrix’s Power of Soul, the best cover I’ve ever heard of the Beatles’ Helter Skelter, the Black Crowes’ Sometimes Salvation, Humble Pie’s 30 Days in the Hole, and the Allman Brothers’ End of the Line (which Warren Haynes wrote with Gregg Allman and Allen Woody). Guitarist Johnny Mosier and pedal steel player Mark Van Allen (both from the Blueground Undergrass) join the Mule for the encore of Tony Joe White’s Out of the Rain, Bob Dylan’s I Shall Be Released, and finally Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man. They had recorded and released two other live albums, Live at the Roseland Ballroom (1995) and Live…With a Little Help From Our Friends (2001). Both of those shows are very good, but Mulennium is better. It’s also the last NYE show to be recorded before Allen Woody’s death in August 2000. This set is a “must have.”

Motörhead – No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith (1981) – despite the title, this album was recorded at shows in Leeds and Newcastle. Motörhead’s sound is unique – Lemmy Kilmister plays the bass like it’s a rhythm guitar. He’s the only guy I’ve ever seen to play chords on a bass. He uses open string drones and power chords. On his amps, the volume is set at the 3 o’clock position, the bass and treble on his amps are turned all the way down while the mid-range is all the way up, while the tone and volume knobs on his Rickenbacker are all the way up. His Rickenbacker basses [4001 and 4003] are outfitted with Gibson Thunderbird pickups at the bridge position. Lemmy has a very distinctive, gruff voice, as if he gargles with gasoline and Jack Daniels and smokes four packs of Marlboros a day. Lemmy once said that if Motörhead was to move in next to your house, your lawn would die. If I wanted to kill my grass, this album would probably do the trick. The track list:

Ace of Spades/Stay Clean/Metropolis/The Hammer/Iron Horse-Born to Lose/No Class/Overkill/(We Are) The Road Crew/Capricorn/Bomber/Motörhead – The songs Bite The Bullet-The Chase is Better Than the Catch/Fire, Fire/Shoot You in the Back/The Hammer, recorded at the same shows, appear on The Best of Motörhead collection as well as a deluxe version of No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith.

No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith is a high-energy album, and very loud too. The production is fairly raw – no feedback is edited out. Lemmy wouldn’t have it any other way. The band played at such a breakneck pace that it would put punk bands to shame. If you want a good review of early Motörhead, this is a good place to start. All of the early classics are here. My favorites: (We Are) The Road Crew, Overkill, Capricorn.

That's my list. Do you have a list of great live albums?