The GREATEST LIVE Albums In the History of Popular Music Jun 02 '06    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music The Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1 by The Prodigy From $11 Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 The Bottom Line Is that a musician in your living room, or are you just glad to see me? These are the live albums that bring the show to you! There's something about a great live album. The noises and energy of the crowd and the ephemeral quality of a moment in time and an artistic interpretation that's unpolished and moody, free of the sanitized interpretation of rehearsed mixing and blending and post-production polish. Live performances can be very special things indeed. I usually prefer my live music, well, live. I like to be in the arena or the bar or the concert hall where and when the music is being created. No live album can entirely capture the mood, the smells, the sights, and the atmosphere of a live performance. Some albums though, do a better job than others. I've been thinking about which are my favorite live albums of all time, and I put together a short list of which five are the ones that I think best convey all that is special about live albums. ########################### THE LIST! So, without further ado, here's my five favorite live albums of all time. Enjoy 'em! 1. Live At Leeds - The Who (1970) What can I say about Live at Leeds that wouldn't seem trite or already done. This is, quite simply, the greatest live album in rock and roll, of any period, by any artist, in any country. Everything a great rock album should be, this album is. Everything a great live album should be, this album is. It captures the spirit of an event (it was recorded at a single concert at Leeds University in the U.K., February 1970, and released the same year). The sound of the album captures energy and the spirit of a hometown crowd. Best of all, it's got some of the Who's greatest stuff, like My Generation and Magic Bus, plus all the intricate artistry of Tommy --- but live. If I could have only one single live album, this would be it. My favorite, as it has been since I bought my copy on good old-fashioned vinyl, almost 30 years ago. (Has it really been that long? Has nobody been able to do better since?) 2. Frampton Comes Alive - Peter Frampton If there was ever a bigger wanker in pop music than Barry Manilow, it must be Peter Frampton. I generally can't stand Peter Frampton, and when this album came out in 1976, it nauseated me to think how every ditzy teen girl was lining up to buy the thing. Frampton didn't rock, he didn't roll. At least I didn't think he did. So how the heck can I be picking Frampton Comes Alive as one of my top live albums of all time? Grudging admiration, that's how. My negative stereotypes of Frampton in general still hold. He looked like a girl, sang like a girl, probably even dressed in pantyhose, for all I know. But, good Lord almighty! That girly-boy shore did put out a live album that packs a power punch!! I swear, looking back on those glory days of 1976, the live versions of tracks like Do You Feel Like We Do and Show Me the Way got far more airplay than their studio counterparts ever got. But it was really the raw electricity crackling through the entire album that gave every a track a passion and vitality that marks this album as a simply outstanding live album. 3. Live/1975-85 - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band I've never made any secret of my passion for Bruce Springsteen, and it's the period 1975 to 1985 when he was at his most relevant. Some people think his creativity withered and died sometime in the 1980s, some don't, but I think pretty much all fans regard the late 70s and early 80s as the Boss's "glory days" (to quote the Boss). Slice it as you will, say what you will about his recent work, but at one point, Springsteen was inarguably one of the greatest live rockers the rock world will ever know. Sitting in on one of his concerts wasn't just an evening out. It was an event of staggering proportions. Yet, for many years, the Boss didn't do live albums, even though everyone else did. So Boss fans did what Grateful Dead fans did --- they recorded Boss concerts and traded the tapes. At least until Live 1975-1985 came out in 1986. I like that the album includes some subtly great pieces, like Seeds, and a genuine Springsteen interpretation of his song Fire, which was a huge hit for Patti Smith, but that the Boss hadn't released on his own. Of course there's stories and tracks that go off on 20-minute tangents, but that's part of the Boss concert experience. If there's a flaw in this album, it's the discontinuity of having songs pieced into the album from many different performances at many different venues. It's like looking at an assembled jigsaw puzzle of the Mona Lisa compared to standing in the Louvre, gazing at the genuine article. There's cracks and gaps, but there's still spirit and soul, and with 3 discs, the album is almost as long as a real live Springsteen show... 4. At Folsom Prison - Johnny Cash There are actually three live albums recorded in prisons that I thought could have made my "top" list. Two are by Johnny Cash, and both reflect a very raw kind of energy and feel to them. Perhaps that comes from Cash's own experience running afoul of the law, and a certain rapport of "tough love" being shown here between performer and jailhouse audience. When the original album was released, it had a couple tracks from his Live at San Quentin album, but when the remastered CD was done, those tracks came out and the original Folsom Prison show tracks were put back, making this a true single-show live recording. Naturally, the material focuses squarely on squaring off against the man, and dealing with the consequences. As if Cash's rock-hard tough tenderness wasn't enough reason to snag one of his live albums, your ears also get treated to the guitar work of none other than Carl Perkins. An awesome classic live album, beginning to end! 5. Waiting for Columbus - Little Feat Some folks miss Elvis, some miss Jim Morrison. Some might even miss Kurt Cobain. I miss Lowell George. I'm a huge fan of the southern rock sound, and I dearly love Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers, but for some reason, it's Little Feat that I often turn to when I want to hear all that's right with the southern style of great boogie rock. I know, I know, Little Feat aren't even real southerners...but their sound sure is! Waiting for Columbus is my favorite of the southern boogie sounding blues-rock albums, and the reason I rank it last among my top 5 is that, again, it's a disjointed live album, pieced together from many performances, and in front of many audiences far from the group's home power bases (it wasn't just the Californians who supported the Feat in their early years). Two discs though, featuring outstanding live versions of Fat Man in the Bathtub, Oh Atlanta, Dixie Chicken, and Sailin' Shoes. Disjointed? Yes, but the strength of the individual tracks overcomes my natural aversion to compilation live albums. ########################### SO CLOSE! So many great live albums to choose from, so few slots for the true cream of the crop. There's a few that I know a few of y'all would have picked over my top 5....like maybe the Rolling Stones Get Yer Ya-Yas Out or James Brown's Live at the Apollo. I thought about these, as well as the Allmans' Live at Fillmore East and even some oddities like Cheap Trick's Live at Budokon, but when push came to shove, I always felt those albums came up a bit short --- sometimes with too few tracks, or too little crowd dynamic. I love me some comments though, so if you have some thoughts about better live albums than my top 5, I'd love to hear 'em...

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