Rock’n’Roll and Early R&B Live Albums
This is quite a hard category to define neatly but it refers to good time, high tempo music that was around in the 1950s and 1960s. Some acts endured from the 1970s to the present day.
I have a poll to help find the best live albums in this category.
Loading ...I’ve already discussed the original release of the live album Stupidity by Dr Feelgood.
Stupidity is the 1975 recordings with bonuses added from live concerts through to 1990.
I fear that this is a case where, for some Dr Feelgood fans including me, more is less.
Dr Feelgood Stupidity +
Blowin’ is a live album of the Jess Roden Band. It was recorded at the Birmingham Town Hall and Leicester University in November 1976.
Earlier in the year, the Jess Roden band had released a live EP with three songs – Can’t Get Next To You, On A Winner With You & You Can Leave Your Hat On.
I remember hearing this on the John Peel late night show on BBC Radio 1 and my love affair with the music of Jess Roden started. I never tracked down the EP but I bought Blowin’.
Jess Roden Blowin’
Rocks The House is the first live album by blues and soul singer Etta James. It was recorded in September 1963 at the New Era Club in Nashville, Tennessee.
I find that some of her later recordings were drowned in strings but here you get to listen to a young, raucous Etta James backed by a small R&B band in an intimate club.
Stupidity is the first live album by Dr Feelgood. It compiled songs from two concerts – Sheffield in May 1975 and Southend in November 1975.
The album went to #1 in the UK album charts in October 1976 as British rock fans were waking up to a grittier experience.
At this stage, Dr Feelgood had only recorded two studio albums but it was felt that neither captured their true sound. While I’ve classified them as a pub rock group, this is energetic, sweaty R&B.
Beware there is also a Stupidity + with later bonus tracks.
One of my very favourite live albums is Live At The BBC by Jess Roden. This man should have been a huge star.
Anyway there is a Jess Roden anthology coming out called Hidden Masters and CD5 is packed with previously unreleased live tracks by Jess Roden from 1966 (with Alan Bown) to the glory days of the mid seventies to his come back in 1996. Continue reading Jess Roden Hidden Masters
The Parkerilla is the first live album by Graham Parker & The Rumour released to the general public from the Stick To Me tour in 1978.
It had three LP sides live and an alternative studio version of Don’t Ask Me Question on the fourth side. This made it controversial and following the disappointing Stick To Me album, there was a critical backlash against Graham Parker in favour of Elvis Costello.
In 1991, Rolling Stone ranked The Parkerilla number 64 on its list of 100 greatest album covers.
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Blow Your Face Out is the second live album recorded by the J Geils Band and catches the group in concert at Boston Garden, Boston on November 15, 1975 and at Cobo Hall, Detroit on November 19, 1975.
As their 1972 live album, Full House showed, the J Geils Band were best experienced live.
Reach Up And Touch The Sky is a live album by Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes which was recorded in 1980.
It’s hard not to immediately think about Bruce Springsteen when you think about Southside Johnny and that’s a shame because he’s produced some great albums on his own.
Continue reading Southside Johnny Reach Up And Touch The Sky 1980
Full House is the first live album by the J Geils Band, recorded at The Cinderella Ballroom, Detroit on April 21-22, 1972.
If you love full blooded, R&B based rock you need to hear the first two live albums by the J Geils Band – Full House and Blow Your Face Out. Both do a great job of capturing the excitement of their live shows.
Live At Marble Arch is a rare live album by Graham Parker and The Rumour recorded in London in 1976.
It was recorded as a promotional album and sent to music journalists and DJs to show off the raw pub rock/R&B style of the group. It has been a popular bootleg.
It was included in its entirety on a Graham Parker compilation – Vertigo: The Best of Graham Parker – which I was lucky enough to buy when it came out in 1996. At that stage it was also the only way to get the classic Squeezing Out The Sparks album.
Live At Marble Arch has also appeared on That’s What You Know, a double CD with one disc of acoustic demos and the second has this live album.
