live albums

subvert47

I don't fight, I run away
As a rock-reared listener listening to jazz records, I tend to automatically hear whichever performance is captured in the studio recording as the definitive version

Me too. Though in a sense it is definitive, in that the particular jazz musicians will likely have recorded several versions live to tape before deciding, yes, that's the one for the album. In these days of massive box set reissues you get all sorts of alternate takes and they're hardly ever as strong as the original release.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
yeah the Dead are one of those rare examples where the studio albums are way way less important and valued than the live official releases - and then there's the massive fan economy of tapes

the Dead compensate for lack of record sales by selling every kind Dead-insignia-ed merch imaginable - skateboards, surfboards, you name it.

Branding madness overload

Even if you only explore early years Merl Saunders and J Garcia live 71-74, you’ll find magic. Same for Legion of Mary with a horn section for further flourishing, mid 70’s JGB even more so. Soundboards with a life and dynamic all their own, see handover from Owsley S and Alembic to Betty Cantor-Jackson’s tenure

The external cultural attachments are painful. Flips are Saunders worked on The Twilight Zone and a gent called Ned Lagin‘s synth/keys might interest noise lovers amid all the ambient recently for frequency experiments (live and Seastones). Not your atypical Dead reference for sound design amid new age bollocks
 

version

Well-known member
The live stuff Autechre released a while back is good. A bunch of cool fan recordings and bootlegs too.

 

Leo

Well-known member
Roxy Music studio albums are some of my all-time favs, but "Viva! Roxy Music" is cool because it's them sounding louder and rougher, more adrenalin flowing. Same could be said for "Rock'n Roll Animal": Lou Reed/Velvets songs on steroids, pumped up by the dueling guitars of Alice Cooper Band stalwarts Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter. Neither are better that the studio versions of the bands, but they document another side of the band as opposed to just being a band live trying to replicate their studio sound.

"Metallic KO" has lousy audio quality but is a classic snapshot in time capturing the insanity of a Stooges show in 1973.
 

william_kent

Well-known member
Les Rallizes Dénudés are a band whose reputation is almost wholly based on live bootlegs, there's almost a consensus that the studio didn't really work for them ( although there are some cracking studio takes.. )

anyway, this is one of my favourite live albums :


Les Rallizes Dénudés – Le 12 Mars 1977 À Tachikawa ( Most Violence Version )

the Rallizes catalogue consists of maybe seven to ten tunes, but it is the radical reworkings of them when playing live that are part of the appeal, they never played them the same way on any given night
 

william_kent

Well-known member
Same maybe for "No Sleep Til Hammersmith". Motorhead doing a greatest hits from their best period, louder and more blistering than they could ever get in a studio.

the Golden Years Live EP reached number 8 in the UK single charts in 1980, something I don't think could happen today...


Motörhead - Stone Dead Forever ( Golden Years EP ) ( 1980 )
 

martin

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“Live & Dangerous” is good but, overdubs aside, it’s so like the studio recordings I don’t really get the point of it except as a souvenir of the gig, or as a ‘greatest hits’ package. But an 8CD box set + book reissue is fucking preposterous, what a waste of resources.

Here are some of mine. No Throbbing Gristle or ragga clashes, or I’ll be here all night.

JOY DIVISION - Ajanta Cinema, Derby 1980: Ajanta Cinema’s become this mythical entertainment complex in my mind (I have a bootleg of TG playing here too). Apparently, it was very run-down and used to put on Bollywood and Eurosmut flicks whenever post-punk acts weren’t making a din on stage. I still have a fascination with those sorts of places. Audience recording, good atmospheric gig just a month before he ended the joke. On a related note, it’s insane to me that New Order never officially released their NYC Taras Shevchenko set as a live album.

SUICIDE – 23 Minutes Over Brussels: some inspired booing on this…you can hear the crowd’s disdain for Suicide intensify as the set goes on, nearly drowning out the band with what sounds like a coordinated football chant at one point. Wonder where that microphone ended up.

EIRE OG – Live At The Brazen Head: can see the wall of Celtic shirts through the haze of cigarette smoke right now. Recorded in Glasgow but could so easily have been mid-90s Kilburn. Not much point pushing this one on Dissensus, you’ll hate it. Similarly…

TOMMY MAKEM AND THE CLANCY BROTHERS – Freedom’s Sons / In Concert / Live At Carnegie Hall: inherited all 3 from my parents, this is unashamed childhood nostalgia. The Clancys were at their best live, making Irish Republican dad jokes and arseing around in front of the audience one minute, before launching into tearjerker ballads that sound like ghosts are serenading you in the snug of an old pub (they are now).

WHITEHOUSE – Live Action 22 / Live Action 23 / Tokyo Halogen: the live action tapes have their moments, most memorably the cops bursting in during LA22 (“Turn the noise down, lads!”) and some of Kevin Tomkins’ unhinged vocal performances on the first US tour. Unfortunately, the band meet their match when they come up against the jobsworth soundman (LA23) who refuses to turn up the volume (“You’re gonna go deaf…it’s a medical fact!”) despite the band’s desperate pleas (don’t think snapping “Did she pay to get in?” about one of the complaining bar staff was ever going to work). Also, great comment from the pub guv’nor: “Would it sound any better if they turned it up?”

VAGINA DENTATA ORGAN – Triumph Of The Flesh: subtitled The Pagan Drums of Calanda as The Catholic Drums of Calanda probably wasn’t edgy enough for Psychic TV fans. Two sides of live Semana Santa drumming, sadly without the spectacle of flagellants, priests togged up like the KKK and a giant statue of the Blessed Virgin trundling down the street on a Carnival float. I used to play this a lot when I went to the gym, to drown out that fucking “Like A G6” song.

THE GEROGERIGEGEGE – Greatest Hits Live: old Japanese man wanks to a Poundstretcher drum machine and whips audience into a frenzy, what else do you need really?

SHAM 69 – Tell Us The Truth: the live side’s the birth of Oi! (Cock Sparrer and Skrewdriver would disagree) The bit where Jimmy Pursey announces “You’re gonna go on the LP with us – cos you’re us!” and the crowd explodes into cheers is one of the greatest moments in musical history. You can hear Lou Reed sobbing into a bottle of wine and whimpering “It’s over”.

DAVID TOOP/PAUL BURWELL – Wounds: any time I’m unlucky enough to end up in Café Oto, I find myself wishing I was watching these goofballs instead of whoever’s on. Arty improv racket. From ‘Eurock’ magazine: “In early 1979, Burwell believed he was being stalked by the Greek god Pan. For the LMC performance, he surprised the audience by emerging from a curtain in a furry chicken outfit, complete with an extra-large, soiled diaper. Toop, meanwhile, was obsessed with his hair loss and sporting an increasingly bizarre assortment of unrealistic wigs, while reportedly studing ‘chaos magic’ to ‘meet pretty ladies’. The performance (so bad that Iancu Dumitrescu shouted “Shit!” and attempted to punch a hole in the wall, only to wind up in St Guy’s Hospital with a broken thumb and cracked knuckles) saw Burwell and Toop manipulate squeaky bird toys while up-ending several dozen boxes of cookware over the stage and pushing buckets of tacks around with the floor with their foreheads. Later that night, Burwell was sectioned.”
 

william_kent

Well-known member
VAGINA DENTATA ORGAN – Triumph Of The Flesh

I used to own this, although it wasn't the limited edition with the blood baked into the vinyl

I must of sold it, along with the sampled wolf snarls "Hashishins" LP, to buy drugs, because it's not on my shelves anymore... slight regrets now, to be sure

edit: did they ( and by "they", i mean Jordi Vallis, ever release that promised "orgasm and death rattle" album?
 
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martin

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I used to own this, although it wasn't the limited edition with the blood baked into the vinyl

I must of sold it to buy drugs, because it's not on my shelves now... regrets, to be sure

edit: did they ( and by "they", i mean Jordi Vallis, ever release that promised "orgasm and death rattle" album?
He did the orgasm one, it's "Cold Meat". He was going to record another one in a burns unit, but think he got distracted by dad duties or just got bored with the idea - though @john eden may know different?
 

william_kent

Well-known member
now that Throbbing Gristle have been mentioned, it has sparked off a train of association, due to Chris Carter being a huge connoisseur of Velvet Underground bootlegs, which has led me to the "The Complete Matrix Tapes" which contains the definite, live, version of Sister Ray


Velvet Underground - Sister Ray ( Set Three )

36 minutes of fire
 

william_kent

Well-known member
despite having one of the worst album covers of all time, The Velvet Underground's Live 1969 album is an LP I play more than the studio albums, although it's been superseded by the "Complete Matrix Tapes" as far as I'm concerned

the version of Ocean on "Live 1969" is stunning, but I can't find it on youtube, so here's the take as featured on "Complete Matrix Tapes"


Velvet Underground - Ocean ( Set Three )
 

Leo

Well-known member
I was thinking about official live albums, but if we're including bootlegs, then the Velvets "Live at the Gymnasium" is worth a mention. "Live 1969" is really good, this one rocks too.
 

william_kent

Well-known member
I was thinking about official live albums, but if we're including bootlegs, then the Velvets "Live at the Gymnasium" worth a mention. "Live 1969" is really good, this one rocks too.

opinionated reasoning: I think bootlegs count, otherwise my "Les Rallizes Dénudés"selection fails to make the grade
 
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william_kent

Well-known member
I was thinking about official live albums, but if we're including bootlegs, then the Velvets "Live at the Gymnasium" is worth a mention. "Live 1969" is really good, this one rocks too.


Live !969 is a favourite of mine ( despite the cover art) , but nowadays I put on the "Complete Matrix Tapes' because it just "rules" ( previously I'd put on the "Quine Tapes" but... superseded )

no need for VU studio albums anymore....
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
Used to love these but not so much now. Not heard it in years but james browns love power peace might be his best album, with his best band. And there are live versions of songs on the last Hendrix album that are better than the studio versions which are comparatively duller. And i did used to prefer grime radio sets to the albums or mixtapes.
 
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