To help you to find albums that you like, I have organised this website around genres of music with the general guideline that albums should only belong to one or two genres.
My classic rock section consists of albums that are generally successful and don’t belong in one of the more specialised categories. Often groups will start in one category and as they become more successful, they broaden out their sound and become classic rock.
Classic Rock Live Albums From The 1970s
Alice Cooper The Alice Cooper Show
Bachman-Turner Overdrive BTO Live Japan Tour
Bachman-Turner Overdrive King Biscuit Presents
Bad Company Live in Albuquerque
Badfinger BBC Live In Concert
The Band The Last Waltz
The Beach Boys In Concert
Blood Sweat & Tears Live And Improvised 1975
Tommy Bolin Live at Ebbets Field 1974
Tommy Bolin Live In Albany NY 1976
Tommy Bolin First Time Live
Boston Feeling It In Cleveland 1976
Boston Live At The Agora Ballroom 1976
David Bowie Bowie At The Beeb 1968 to 1972
David Bowie Bowie At The Beeb 3 CD version 1968 to 1972 2000
David Bowie Live Santa Monica 72
David Bowie Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture
David Bowie David Live
David Bowie Live Nassau Coliseum ’76
Cheap Trick At Budokan
Chicago At Carnegie Hall
Chicago Live in Japan 1972
Chicago XXXIV Live in 75
Eric Clapton Crossroads 2 Live In The Seventies
Eric Clapton Just One Night
Creedeence Clearwater Revival The Concert
Creedence Clearwater Revival Live In Europe
Crosby Stills Nash & Young 4 Way Street
Crosby Stills Nash & Young CSNY 1974
Dire Straits Live At The BBC
The Doors In Concert (American Nights) 1968 & 1970
Bob Dylan Before The Flood
Bob Dylan Live 1975 The Rolling Thunder Revue
Bob Dylan Hard Rain 1976
Bob Dylan Shelter From A Hard Rain 1976
Bob Dylan At Budokan
Electric Light Orchestra The Night The Light Went On 1974
Electric Light Orchestra Live In Winterland ’76
Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac Live 1977 to 1980
Peter Frampton Frampton Comes Alive
Genesis Archive #2 1976-1992
Ian Gillan Band Live At The Budokan
Grateful Dead Europe 72
Grateful Dead One From The Vault 1975
Grateful Dead Live At The Cow Palace New Years Eve 1976
Grateful Dead Closing of Winterland: December 31 1978
The Guess Who Live At The Paramount
Hall & Oates Ecstasy On The Edge 1979
George Harrison Concert for Bangladesh
Hookfoot Live In Memphis USA 1972
Ian Hunter Welcome To The Club
The Jam Dig The New Breed
The Jam Live Jam
The Jam At The BBC 1977 to 1982
The Jam Fire & Skill The Jam Live 1977 to 1982
The Jam Live At The Brighton Centre December 1979 (sold with Setting Sons Super Deluxe)
Jefferson Airplane Thirty Seconds Over Winterland
Jethro Tull Bursting Out
Elton John 17-11-70
Elton John Here And There
Kansas Two For The Show 1978
The Kinks At The BBC (Double CD) 1964 to 1977
The Kinks Everybody’s in Show-Biz 1972
John Lennon Live In New York City
Little Feat Waiting For Columbus
Nils Lofgren Back It Up 1975
Nils Lofgren Live Sausalito 1975
Nils Lofgren Live At The Tower Theatre Philadelphia 1976
Nils Lofgren Live On The Test 1976 to 1979
Nils Lofgren Night After Night 1977
Nils Lofgren Hanging Tough 1977
Lone Star BBC Live In Concert
Dave Mason Certified Live
John Miles BBC Radio One Live in Concert 1977
Frankie Miller Live At Rockpalast 1976 1979 1982
Frankie Miller’s Full House BBC In Concert 3rd May 1977
Frankie Miller BBC In Concert 21st March 1979
Steve Miller Shake Your Tree 1973
Steve Miller Live 1973 – 1976
Steve Miller King Biscuit Hour Presents The Steve Miller Band In Concert 1973 1976
Mink DeVille Live At Rockpalast 1978 1981
The Moody Blues Live At The BBC 1967-1970
Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes Survival Of The Fittest Live
Paice Ashton Lord BBC Radio 1 In Concert
Paice Ashton Lord Live 1977
Tom Petty Official Live ‘Leg 1976
Tom Petty The New York Shuffle 1977
Tom Petty Anything That’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Live At My Fathers Place Roslyn New York City 1977
Pink Floyd Live At Wembley 1974
The Police Live
Queen Live At The Rainbow 1974
Queen A Night At The Odeon 1975
Queen Live Killers
Rainbow Denver 1979
Lou Reed Ultrasonic The New York Broadcast 1972
Lou Reed American Poet 1972
Lou Reed Live Extended Versions
Lou Reed Thinking Of Another Place 1976
Lou Reed Live Take No Prisoners 1978
The Rolling Stones LA Friday 75
The Rolling Stones From The Vault LA Forum 1975
The Rolling Stones Love You Live
Roxy Music Viva
Todd Rundgren King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents in Concert
Todd Rundgren Back to the Bars 1978
Boz Scaggs The Lost Concert 1974
Seals And Croft Sudan Village
Bob Seger Live Bullet
Bob Seger Live Boston 1977
Spirit Rock and Roll Planet 1977-1979
Bruce Springsteen Live At The Main Point, Bryn Mawr
Bruce Springsteen Hammersmith Odeon London 75
Bruce Springsteen Tower Theater Pennsylvania 1975
Bruce Springsteen Live 1975 – 85
Bruce Springsteen 1978/08/09 Cleveland Ohio – OFFICIAL
Bruce Springsteen Agora Ballroom, Cleveland
Bruce Springsteen The Fox Theatre Atlanta
Bruce Springsteen Winterland Night
Bruce Springsteen Live At The Roxy 1978
Status Quo Live At The BBC (2 CD Version) 1966 to 2005
Status Quo Live Boxset 1974 1976
Status Quo Status Quo Live
Status Quo Live In Japan aka Tokyo Quo 1976
Steely Dan Going Mobile 1974
Steely Dan Ellis Auditorium Memphis April 30th 1974
Rod Stewart & The Faces Coast To Coast
Rod Stewart Live In London
Rod Stewart Live 1976 – 1998 Tonight’s The Night
Supertramp Paris 1979
Supertramp Live In Paris 79
Supertramp Live Tracks With Breakfast In America Deluxe 1979
10cc In Concert 1975 (King Biscuit Flower Hour)
10cc Live And Let Live
10cc Live In Concert 1977
Thin Lizzy Live And Dangerous
Thin Lizzy Live At The BBC Super Deluxe Box Set 1971 to 1983
Thin Lizzy Live At The BBC 1971 to 1983
Traffic Welcome To The Canteen 1971
UFO Strangers In The Night
Joe Walsh You Can’t Argue With A Sick Mind 1975
West, Bruce and Laing Live ‘n’ Kickin’
The Who Young Vic Theatre London 1971
The Who The Kids Are Alright 1965 to 1978
The Who View From A Backstage Pass
The Who Greatest Hits Live
Wings Over America
Wishbone Ash BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert
Wishbone Ash Live Dates
Wishbone Ash Live In 1976
Wishbone Ash Live In Tokyo
Wishbone Ash Live Dates 2 1976 to 1980
Neil Young Live Rust
There are some fantastic albums in this list but it’s not a surprise. The 1970s was the peak time for live albums.
You can get these albums from Amazon.com – Amazon.co.uk
The All Time Best Classic Rock Live Albums
I don’t have a readers poll on finding the best live classic rock albums from this decade but I do have a poll to find the best all time classic rock live albums.
Loading ...Because there are so many excellent classic rock live albums I have split the poll into two and you may find some of your favourites in the second division. Albums will be promoted when they get enough votes.
Loading ...You can get these albums from Amazon.com – Amazon.co.uk
Live classic rock albums by decade – 1960s – 1970s – 1980s – 1990s – 2000s – 2010s –
Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture is a live recording of David Bowie in concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, London on 3 July 1973.
This was the final time that David Bowie performed as Ziggy Stardust and is a legal version of the bootleg recording, His Masters Voice – Bowie and the Spiders From Mars’ Last Stand.
Continue reading David Bowie Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture 1973
The Alice Cooper Show is a live album by Alice Cooper recorded at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas in August 1977.
This is quite late in his career for his first live album and much of his success was in the early seventies.
Alice Cooper is a showman and any live album is going to fail to capture the full experience of his live shows because the “shock-rock” visual antics were such an important part of the entertainment.
The emphasis on death and dying is not to my tastes but he does have some great tunes.
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.
Live Bullet is a live album by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band in 1976 in his home city of Detroit, Michigan.
This album turned Seger from a big name locally into a well known international rock’n’roll singer thanks to the intense, energetic performance captured here. After Live Bullet he went on to release best selling studio albums like Night Moves and Stranger In Town.
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band Live Bullet
Live and Dangerous is the famous first live album by Thin Lizzy. It was recorded on the 1976 tour promoting the Johnny the Fox and and the 1977 tour for Bad Reputation.
The album has a great rough, tough live sound but it’s well known that it was extensively touched up in the studio although the exact amount has been disputed by the band and the producer, Tony Visconti.
In 2011 it was remastered and two bonus tracks were added – Opium Trail and Bad Reputation.
The Who concert at the Young Vic Theatre on the 26th April 1971 was recorded and released as a bonus on the deluxe edition of Who’s Next.
The Who Young Vic Theatre London 1971
This is the set list. Continue reading The Who Young Vic Theatre London 1971
Frampton Comes Alive, a live album by Peter Frampton recorded in 1975 and released the following year to become the best selling album of 1976.
I have to confess to being mystified by its success.
I didn’t get it when some of the other kids at school were raving about it in 1976 and I still didn’t get it when I finally bought it a couple of years ago when I realised I was going to base my album collection on live recordings.
It’s one of those albums that so many people like that makes me think I must be wrong.
Live Rust is a live album by Neil Young recorded in 1978 and some of the songs were used in the film Rust Never Sleeps.
I get confused with how Live Rust fits in with the Rust Never Sleeps album which was also partially recorded live at San Francisco’s Cow’s Palace and later had the audience noise removed.
Live Rust starts with an acoustic set and climaxes with an all-out electric rave. That worked particularly well on a double LP where you could choose which version of Neil Young you wanted.
Controversially the album was squeezed on to a single CD by editing out about 90 seconds of guitar from Cortez The Killer. This horrifies purists but I don’t think it is noticeable when you listen to it.
My rating – 28 out of 30 (9 +10 +9)
Average Amazon Customer Rating – %%AVERAGERATING%% Stars From %%REVIEWCOUNT%% Reviews
Just One Night is a live album by Eric Clapton recorded at the Budokan Theatre, Tokyo, December 1979 when he was promoting the Backless album.
Claton had got into a groove in the late seventies with his easy listening blues albums like No Reason To Cry, Slowhand and Backless but he could still get excited when playing live.
Eric Clapton Just One Night Overall Review Rating – 26/30
Continue reading Eric Clapton Just One Night 1979
