Art Rock is clever music where the musicians are trying to do something different by combining various art forms and musical styles. It’s not prog rock but it may be close, it’s not normally a big commercial success although some artists like David Bowie and Peter Gabriel are the exceptions.
Wikipedia says “Art rock was a form of music which wanted to “extend the limits of rock & roll”, and opted for a more experimental and conceptual outlook on music. Art rock took influences from several genres, notably classical music, as well as experimental rock, psychedelia, avant garde, folk, baroque pop, and, in later compositions, jazz.” I’d add in the influences of world music as well.
Art Rock Live Albums Recorded In The 1970s
Barclay James Harvest Live 1974
Barclay James Harvest After The Day The Radio Broadcasts 1974 to 1976
Barclay James Harvest Live Tapes 1977
Be Bop Deluxe At The BBC 1974-1978
Be Bop Deluxe Tremulous Antenna Radioland 1976 &1978
Be Bop Deluxe BBC In Concert 2nd October 1976
David Bowie Live Nassau Coliseum ’76
David Bowie Stage 1978
Kate Bush Live at Hammersmith Odeon 1979
City Boy BBC In Concert 1975
Electric Light Orchestra The Night The Light Went On 1974
Electric Light Orchestra Live In Winterland ’76
Family Live 1971
Fripp & Eno Live in Paris 1975
King Crimson Ladies of the Road 1971 1972
King Crimson Earthbound 1972
King Crimson The Night Watch 1973
King Crimson The Great Deceiver Part 2 vols 3 & 4 1973 1974
King Crimson Live in Central Park NYC 1974
The Moody Blues Live At The BBC 1967-1970
Procol Harum Live In Concert With The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra 1971
Procol Harum BBC Live In Concert 1974
Queen Live At The Rainbow 1974
Queen Live At The Hammersmith Odeon 1975 video
Queen Live Killers 1979
Roxy Music Viva 1973 to 1975
Roxy Music Concerto or Ladytron 1979
Supertramp Is Everybody Listening? 1975
Supertramp Live At Hammersmith Odeon 1975 (with Crime Of The Century Deluxe Edition)
Supertramp Paris 1979
Supertramp Live In Paris 79
Supertramp Live Tracks With Breakfast In America Deluxe 1979
Talking Heads The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads
Talking Heads Real Live Wires 1978
Talking Heads The Boarding House San Francisco 1978 (TAJ)
Talking Heads Performance 1979
Talking Heads The Boston Tea Party 1979
Television The Blow Up 1978
Television Live At The Old Waldorf 1978
10cc In Concert 1975 (King Biscuit Flower Hour)
10cc Live And Let Live 1977
10cc Live In Concert 1977
Frank Zappa You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 1 – 1969 to 1984
Frank Zappa You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 2 – The Helsinki Concert 1974
Frank Zappa You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 3 1971 to 1984
Frank Zappa You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 4 1969 to 1988
Frank Zappa Carnegie Hall 1971
Frank Zappa Zappa In New York 1976
Frank Zappa Baby Snakes 1977
Frank Zappa Sheik Yerbouti 1977 1978
Frank Zappa Hammersmith Odeon 1978
You can get these albums from Amazon.com – Amazon.co.uk
The All Time Best Live Art Rock Albums
I don’t have a poll to find the best art rock live albums of the decade but I do have a poll for the all time best art rock live albums which will help guide you:
Loading ...You can get these albums from Amazon.com – Amazon.co.uk
Art Rock Live Albums By Decade – 1960s – 1970s – 1980s – http://www.bestlivealbums.com/tag/1990s-art-rock/ – 2000s – 2010s
Live Killers is the first live album by Queen, recorded and released in 1979 from concerts promoting the Jazz studio album.
Long terms fans have been wanting a live queen album from the mid -seventies on their tours to promote A Night At The Opera or A Day At The Races. Nothing has yet appeared, making Live Killers the best souvenir of Queen as a live rock band before they went soft.
Live Nassau Coliseum ’76 is a live concert recording of David Bowie performing in 1976 issued as a bonus to Station To Station Special Edition.
This is a legal version of one of the most famous and best David Bowie bootleg live albums.
It was recorded live at the Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York on 23 March 1976. Chronologically, it fits neatly between David Live from 1974 and Stage in 1978.
It also acts as a transition of Bowie moving into from his plastic soul days to the Brian Eno inspired Berlin based albums.
BBC In Concert 2nd October 1976 is a live concert broadcast by Be Bop Deluxe at the Hammersmith Odeon, London from the Modern Music tour.
It is one of a series of BBC in concert recordings that are available on Amazon.
Unfortunately they seem to be tucked away because it doesn’t appear on the Be Bop Deluxe page.
Their popular Live In The Air Age album was recorded on this tour but it didn’t feature any songs from Modern Music. This one does.
Two Be Bop Deluxe In Concert recordings have also appeared on another live album – Tremulous Antenna – but this is a new one or at least it has some different songs. There is also a Be Bop Deluxe In Concert recording from 15th January 1976 which I think is the basis for Tremulous Antenna but it seems to have been cut down.
Be Bop Deluxe BBC In Concert 2nd October 1976
Continue reading Be Bop Deluxe BBC In Concert 2nd October 1976
The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads is a live compilation album from Talking Heads spanning the years from 1977 to 1981.
This represents the time when Talking Heads were at their most innovative, coming out of the punk movement at the CBGBs club but sounding nothing like punk. In my classification system I’m treating talking Heads as both a new wave band and an art rock band.
This album represents Talking Heads at their brilliant, quirky best and in my opinion is even more exciting than Stop Making Sense.
If you’re wondering about the title, the group were often incorrectly called The Talking Heads. David Byrne would often introduce songs with the phrase “The name of this song …”
My Rating – 29 out of 30 – an outstanding live album
Average Amazon Customer Rating – %%AVERAGERATING%% Stars
Continue reading Talking Heads The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads 1977 to 1981
Tremulous Antenna and Radioland: BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert are basically the same album which brings together two radio broadcasts by Be Bop Deluxe from 1976 and 1978.
Continue reading Be Bop Deluxe Tremulous Antenna Radioland 1976 &1978David Bowie Stage is a live album of the 1978 tour promoting Low and Heroes from his Berlin phase with Brian Eno.
It was his second live album after the disappointing reception to David Live from 1974’s Diamond Dogs tour.
I’ve bought Stage twice – first as a double LP when it first came out and then much later as a CD when I really wanted at least one David Bowie live album in my collection. It seemed to an obvious album to buy because I struggle to like his Berlin studio albums.
