I will always think of 1977 as the year of punk rock. The first singles and albums by the Sex Pistols, The Clash and the The Damned were released and from the USA, Talking Heads and Television appeared to help turn punk into new wave.
Live albums were still thriving thanks to the amazing popularity of Frampton Comes Alive which was the big hit released (not recorded) in the year.
Classic live albums are led by Live & Dangerous by Thin Lizzy and there are plenty of much less well known albums to enjoy.
Live albums recorded in 1977 include:
AC/DC Live From The Atlantic Studios
AC/DC Cleveland Rocks
AC/DC San Francisco ’77
Albion Band Vintage Albion Band On The Road
The Albion Band Live at the Cambridge Folk Festival
Alice Cooper – The Alice Cooper Show
Average White Band Live At Montreux
Barclay James Harvest – Live Tapes
Be Bop Deluxe – Live In The Air Age
Elvin Bishop Raisin’ Hell
Blondie The Old Waldorf San Francisco
Jackson Browne – Running On Empty
Jack Bruce Spirit Live at the BBC
Burning Spear Burning Spear Live
Buzzcocks Live at the Roxy Club April 77
Camel – A Live Record
Alex Chilton Ocean Club 77
Commodores – Commodores Live
Sandy Denny Gold Dust Live At The Royalty
Ian Dury On The Stiff’s Live Stiffs
801 Live At Hull
Elvis Costello – Live At The Nashville Rooms
Dr Feelgood Down at the BBC In Concert
Emerson Lake & Palmer – Works Live
Emerson Lake & Palmer The Original Bootleg Series from the Manticore Vaults vol 2
Foghat – Live
Generation X Radio 1 Sessions
Genesis – Seconds Out
Ian Gillan Band Live At The Budokan
Grateful Dead To Terrapin Hartford ’77
Grateful Dead Winterland June 1977 The Complete Recordings
Hall & Oates Livetime
Harmonium En Tournee
Steve Hillage Live At The Rainbow
Steve Hillage Live Herald
The Jam Fire & Skill The Jam Live
The Kinks At The BBC (Box Set)
Kiss – Kiss Alive 2
Lindisfarne Magic In The Air
Locanda Delle Fate Locanda Delle Fate Live
Nils Lofgren – Night After Night
Nils Lofgren Hanging Tough
Lone Star – BBC Live In Concert
Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush Live
The Marshall Tucker Band – Stompin’ Room Only
The Marshall Tucker Band Carolina Dreams Tour 77
John Martyn BBC Live In Concert
John Miles BBC Radio One Live in Concert
Frankie Miller’s Full House BBC In Concert 3rd May 1977
Muddy Waters Breakin It Up Breakin It Down 1977 with Johnny Winter and James Cotton
Ted Nugent – Double Live Gonzo
Ohio Players – Jam
The Only Ones Darkness And Light The Complete BBC Recordings
Outlaws – Bring It Back Alive
Paice Ashton Lord Paice Ashton Lord Live
Paice Ashton Lord BBC Radio 1 In Concert
Graham Parker BBC Live In Concert
Graham Parker Live On The Test
Graham Parker Official Bootleg Box
Graham Parker Not If It Pleases Me
Parliament – Live P-Funk Earth Tour
Parliament Funkadelic Live 1976-1993
Dolly Parton Live At The Bottom Line
Tom Petty Anything That’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Live At My Fathers Place Roslyn New York City
Tom Petty The New York Shuffle
Planet Gong Floating Anarchy Live
Poco The Last Roundup
Iggy Pop TV Eye
Racing Cars In Concert
Radio Stars Something for the Weekend
Rainbow Live In Munich
The Ramones – It’s Alive
Lou Reed Transmission Impossible
Renaissance The BBC Sessions
Jess Roden – Live At The BBC
The Rolling Stones – Love You Live
Otis Rush Live in Europe
The Saints – Live At The Hope & Anchor
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson – Live At The Bottom Line Aug 20, 1977
Bob Seger Live Boston
The Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks Live
Slade – Alive Volume 2
Spirit Rock and Roll Planet
Stephen Stills Live in Concert
The Stranglers Live at the Hope and Anchor
The Stranglers BBC In Concert 23rd April 1977
Streetwalkers Streetwalkers Live
Talking Heads – The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads
Tangerine Dream Encore
10cc – Live And Let Live
10cc – Live In Concert
Thin Lizzy – Live And Dangerous
Thin Lizzy Still Dangerous
The Tubes What Do You Want From Live
Tom Waits A Small Affair In Ohio
Van Der Graaf Generator After the Flood Van Der Graaf Generator At The BBC
Various Artists Live At The Roxy
Grover Washington Jr – Live At The Bijou
Wire Live At The Roxy London April 1st & 2nd 1977
X-Ray Spex Live At The Roxy
Yes – Yesshows
Frank Zappa Sheik Yerbouti
Frank Zappa Baby Snakes
You can get these albums from Amazon.com – Amazon.co.uk
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.
Live In The Air Age is the first live album by seventies art rock band Be Bop Deluxe led by the great guitarist Bill Nelson. It was released in 1977.
Some say that Be Bop Deluxe are progressive rock. I don’t agree and include them in my art rock category along with David Bowie, Roxy Music and King Crimson.
Be Bop Deluxe are one of my favourite groups that captured my imagination as a 15 year old that no one else at school knew about. That changed a little bit when Ships In The Night was a minor hit.
Although this was recorded on the Modern Music tour, there aren’t any songs played from that album. It’s a shame. I saw them and it was a very good gig.
Continue reading Be Bop Deluxe Live In The Air Age 1977One 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.
