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
Inglewood: Live in California is the only live album available from Deep Purple Mk1 which shows their progressive rock style.
Deep Purple at this stage consisted of:
Rod Evans – Lead vocals
Ritchie Blackmore – Guitar
Nick Simper – Bass, backing vocals
Jon Lord – Keyboards, backing vocals
Ian Paice – Drums
At Inglewood in October 1968, they supported Cream on their farewell tour.
Continue reading Deep Purple Inglewood Live in California 1968
Yessongs was the first live album by progressive rock group Yes in 1972 and it was a triple promoting the Fragile and Close To The Edge studio albums. It is now a double CD.
This album challenges the idea that progressive rock live albums aren’t exciting. I’ve even wondered myself whether some groups are better in the studio than live but Yes show they are terrific.
My Rating – 28 out of 30 (10 + 9 + 9)
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Delicate Sound Of Thunder by Pink Floyd is a live album recorded in 1988 on the A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour without Roger Waters.
Could the Floyd cut it without their former band leader and main song writer?
Genesis Live is the first live album from Genesis featuring charismatic lead singer Peter Gabriel from the Foxtrot tour in 1973.
One of my favourite progressive rock live albums is Seconds Out by Genesis. It was recorded in 1976 and 1977 in Paris on the tours for A Trick Of The Tail and Wind and Wuthering.
I must admit to an element of bias in favour of this rather than Genesis Live.
I was first introduced to Genesis through a review of A Trick Of The Tail in a weekly music paper called Sounds and bought both Wind and Wuthering and Seconds Out as soon as I saw them. I also saw Genesis live in Stafford in 1976 or 1977.
This means I never had any trouble with the move from Peter Gabriel to Phil Collins as the lead singer and have a mixed opinion of the Gabriel era Genesis.
For some reason the Trespass and Nursery Cryme studio albums have made little impact with me and I believe The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway is both overblown, over-complicated and over-rated.
Do prog rock live albums work and if so, what is the best prog rock live album ever?
For a genre or music built on studio perfection and concept albums, there is a debate on whether there has ever been a truly great prog rock live album to rival class leaders from other fields like The Who Live In Leeds or Sam Cooke Live At The Harlem Square Club. Continue reading The Best Prog Rock Live Albums Ever
This page has readers polls for you to vote in to find the best live albums by Pink Floyd and the best studio albums by Pink Floyd.
You can also see the results so far.
Please vote in my poll to help find the best Pink Floyd live album.
In the “greatest live album” listings, if a Pink Floyd live album appears, it is usually Pulse with its full version of Dark Side Of The Moon but do you agree? Continue reading What Is The Best Pink Floyd Live Album & Studio Album?
Pulse is a live album by Pink Floyd when they were promoting The Division Bell studio album. It was recorded in October 1994 released in 1995.
It raises some challenging views on what you want from a live album?
I think I’m going to upset a few people on this review although Pink Floyd are one of my favourite groups and I’ve owned nearly all their albums.
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