Progressive Rock Live Albums
Progressive rock or as it’s better known prog rock grew out of the 1960s psychedelia as groups extended the length of their songs (compositions?) with longer instrumental passages to create something almost symphonic at times.
Progressive rock was possibly the dominant musical force in the early 1970s with hard rock and the one that the punk rockers objected to most when they staged their revolution in 1976/77.
The big prog rock groups were Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, King Crimson and Emerson Lake & Palmer plus many smaller groups and they loved releasing live albums.
If you’re looking for new ideas, I recommend that you take a look at my readers poll to find the Best Prog Rock Live Albums. Plenty of people have now voted.
Loading ...Prog rock live albums include:
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso – Seguendo Le Tracce 1975
Barclay James Harvest – Live Tapes 1977
Camel – A Live Record 1974 to 1977
Deep Purple – Inglewood Live in California 1968
Emerson Lake & Palmer – Welcome Back My Friends 1974
Emerson Lake & Palmer – Works Live 1977
Genesis – Genesis Live 1973
Genesis Seconds Out 1977
Genesis – Three Sides Live 1981
Gnidrolog – Gnidrolog Live 1972
Hawkwind – Space Ritual Alive 1972
Jethro Tull – Bursting Out 1978
King Crimson – The Night Watch 1973
King Crimson – Absent Lovers Live In Montreal 1984
Pink Floyd – Ummagumma 1969
Pink Floyd – Live At Wembley 1974
Pink Floyd – Is There Anybody Out There? 1980 & 1981
Pink Floyd – Delicate Sound Of Thunder 1988
Pink Floyd – Pulse 1994
Rush – All The World’s A Stage 1976
Rush – Exit Stage Left 1980 & 1981
Rush – In Rio 2002
Van Der Graaf Generator – Vital 1978
Van Der Graaf Generator – Real Time 2005
Yes – Yessongs 1972
Yes – Yesshows 1976-78
Let’s take a step back to rare early seventies progressive rock with Gnidrolog Live 1972 which was recorded in my home town of Birmingham, UK.
The group is best known for the Lady Lake album which is a missing gem of British progressive rock. Think of them as a cross between Jethro Tull and Van Der Graaf Generator but with humour.
This page has two readers polls to find the best live album by Emerson Lake & Palmer and the best studio album.
Emerson Lake & Palmer (or ELP as they are better known) have issued a lot of live albums. Which are the best?
I wish many groups and artists would issue more live albums to show how their concerts have changed over the years. ELP are at the other extreme along with groups like The Grateful Dead.
There are too many for all but the most dedicated of fans.
Unfortunately with so many, it is difficult to pick the best although the former triple album Welcome Back My Friends is probably the obvious place to start.
This is where I hope you can help my other readers who want to get to know more about ELP so please vote in the poll.
Best ELP Live Albums Continue reading Best Emerson Lake & Palmer Live & Studio Albums
Yesshows is the second live album from Yes and captures the group live between 1976 and 1978. This is when Yes and the other dinosaur bands were being challenged by punk.
During the period Yes changed keyboard players with Patrick Moraz leaving and Rick Wakeman returning. Moraz plays on the two very long tracks, The Gates of Delirium and Ritual – Nous Sommes du Soleil with Wakeman on the others.
Ummagumma is the first Pink Floyd live album recorded in 1969 with early psychedelic space rock classics.
It was a double LP with one LP live and the other recorded in the studio and featuring compositions by the individual members of the group. Only one song, Grantchester Meadows is really worthwhile.
Continue reading Pink Floyd Ummagumma 1969Vital is the first live album from progressive rock group Van Der Graaf Generator. It was recorded at the Marquee Club in London in January 1978.
For some reason Generator was dropped from the name and the album is billed as Van Der Graaf.
Real Time is a live album by progressive rock group Van Der Graaf Generator which captures their reunion concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London, England on 6th May 2005.
I think of Van Der Graaf Generator as hard-core progressive rock. If you’re attracted to them by the similarities between Peter Hammill and Peter Gabriel’s voices then you need to be aware that there is none of the Genesis whimsy.
VDGG didn’t play it for laughs and you have to be in the right mood to appreciate the beautiful but depressing music. Then it can be remarkably uplifting.
Three Sides Live is the third Genesis live album, mainly recorded on the 1981 Abacab tour. This is partway on the move from prog-rock to pop-rock.
It’s a confusing background with different versions of the album released in the UK and the USA.
The American version of the album had three sides live and one side of an LP with studio recordings.The British version had extra live songs from earlier, more progressive concerts.
In 1994 the British version of the album was remastered and released throughout the world.
Some of the songs were recorded at the NEC, Birmingham on 23rd December 1981 and I think I was at that gig. I certainly saw Genesis several times at the NEC in the early eighties.
Continue reading Genesis Three Sides Live 1981Is There Anybody Out There? is the Pink Floyd live recording of The Wall concerts from 1980 and 1981 at Earls Court London.
I wasn’t lucky enough to be at these gigs but I had a flatmate who raved about how good The Wall concerts were.
This album was first issued in 2000 and is really the first prime time Pink Floyd live album when the group had conquered the world. (Ummagumma was too early and Delicate Sound Of Thunder and Pulse were a controversial version of the Floyd without the main songwriter, Roger Waters.)
Whether this album has a role to play in your album collection depends on two things:
Continue reading Pink Floyd Is There Anybody Out There? 1980 & 1981
The full title is of this live album by ELP is Welcome Back My Friends, To The Show That Never Ends… Ladies And Gentlemen, Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
When I was a young lad I used to look at this album and Yessongs by Yes and dream about the days when I could afford to buy a triple LP. It seemed so extravagant.
These two bands, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and Genesis were at the very top of progressive rock’s list of dinosaurs.
Welcome Back My Friends was recorded on the 1973/74 world tour to promote the Brain Salad Surgery album. It was ELP’s second live album to be released after Pictures At An Exhibition.
Continue reading Emerson Lake & Palmer Welcome Back My Friends 1974
All the World’s A Stage is the first live album by Canadian heavy progressive rock band Rush from 1976 concerts promoting their 2112 studio album. It was recorded at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada.
This is a different sounding group than the one that appears on the second live album Exit Stage Left.
