The live albums listed in this section have been awarded a review rating of 28 out of 30.
My reviews are scored on the basis of:
Set List – 10
Performance – 10
Authenticity & Atmosphere – 10
but when I review I also have an overall rating in mind and I have to reconcile the two scores. I refuse to follow the logic of 110% success and giving any album 11 out of 10 but it does mean the occasional compromise.
These are listed in alphabetical order rather than any preference:
James Brown Love Peace Power
Joe Cocker Mad Dogs & Englishmen Live
Sam Cooke Live At The Harlem Square Club 1963
Deep Purple Made In Japan
Genesis Seconds Out
BB King Live At The Regal
Al Kooper Live Soul Of A Man
Van Morrison It’s Too Late To Stop Now
Van Morrison Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Bill Nelson Live In Concert At Metropolis Studio
Graham Parker Live In San Francisco
The John Renbourn Group Live In America
Bruce Springsteen Live In Dublin
Supertramp Paris
Traffic The Last Great Traffic Jam
The Who Blues To The Bush
Wings Over America
Yes YessongsNeil Young Live Rust
The biggest surprise to me was the Bruce Springsteen album with the Seegers Band. I’d been ignoring this for years because I expected it to be full of dreary acoustic songs but it’s an eclectic collection of roots music which is a lot of fun.
Very few albums will get a higher score of 29 out of 30 and I don’t believe the perfect 30 out of 30 live album exists.
Wings Over America was a triple album by Paul McCartney and Wings from his North American tour in 1976. In fact Macca wanted to be part of a group again and had dropped the Paul McCartney name from the billing.
The group were promoting the Wings At The Speed Of Sound album with the hit singles Silly Love Songs and Let Em In.
After a dodgy start when he first left The Beatles, Paul McCartney was on a solid roll from Band On The Run through Venus & Mars and to this album.
Blues To The Bush is a live album by The Who that was recorded at the House of Blues in Chicago on 12 and 13 November 1999, and at the Empire Theatre, Shepherd’s Bush, London on 22 and 23 December 1999.
It’s one of my favourites although it’s hard to get because it was exclusively released through MusicMaker.com. I got my copy from eBay.
My Rating – 28 out of 30 (10 + 9 + 9)
Live At Monterey is a reworking of the Jimi Plays Monterey recording of Jimi Hendrix live at the Monterey festival in June 1967 with the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
It’s the same set but with different mixing.
This concert is famous for the time during the last track – Wild Thing – Hendrix sets his guitar on fire and then smashes it. That explains the album covers.
My Rating – 28 out of 30 (9 + 10 +9)
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Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl is the controversial reworking of the classic album Astral Weeks in concert in November 2008 by Van Morrison.
Morrison took a big risk.
How do you improve perfection?
Astral Weeks is a magical record that lives up to Van’s promise…
“We are goin’ to heaven. In another time. In another place.” He sings and he delivers.
So why mess with it?
He told Rolling Stone contributing editor, David Wild…
“It received no promotion, from Warner Bros.—that’s why I never got to play the songs live. I had always wanted to play the record live and fully orchestrated—that is what this is all about. I always like live recording and I like listening to live records too. I’m not too fond of being in a studio—it’s too contrived and too confining. I like the freedom of live, in-the-moment sound.”
OK. I can see his point and I totally agree with his point about live albums versus those recorded in the studio.
But what do you want from Astral Weeks played live?
A note for note impersonation of the studio album… even though Van Morrison is forty years older and more experienced?
Or do you want him to play with the Astral Weeks songs so that you can hear different sounds, interpretations and inflexions?
You need to answer that question before buying Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl.
If you want the studio album… stick to the studio album. You won’t like Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl.
Continue reading Van Morrison Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl 2008
It’s Too Late To Stop Now is the first live album by Van Morrison.
It was recorded in 1973 and it catches him paying his dues to his influences.
It collects the best of the tracks from concerts at The Troubadour in Los Angeles, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and at The Rainbow in London between May and July 1973.
It’s difficult to categorise an album like this – is it rock, soul or blues? It even has a jazzy feel to it.
This amalgamation of styles is what makes Van Morrison such a special artist and he had a golden period in the late 1960s and early 1970s when he made some of the greatest music ever recorded. Astral Weeks, Moondance and St Dominic’s Preview are amongst my most favourite studio albums and I believe that each is essential.
Which is the best? Well that keeps on changing depending on my mood but St Dominic’s Preview fits neatly between the others in style.
In 2008, a bonus track was added – a live version of Brown Eyed Girl.
My Rating – 28/30
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Continue reading Van Morrison It’s Too Late To Stop Now 1973
Graham Parker Live In San Francisco 1979 captures Parker live in concert with his great band The Rumour on the Squeezing Out The Sparks tour.
Graham Parker should have been huge with his high energy, caustic R&B inspired songs. Even though it was the time of punk rock, few acts could match the intensity he built up in concert.
Graham Parker & The Rumour really were “the best kept secret in the West” as he sings in Mercury Poisoning as he rants against his previous record company.
I believe this album was only released in 2010. I bought it as soon as I saw it.
My Overall Rating – 28 out of 30 – an excellent live album that should not be overlooked.
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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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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)
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BB King recorded Live At the Regal in 1964 in Chicago and created one of the most famous and well regarded blues albums.
If you have an interest in the blues from rock artists like Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin and you want to delve back into the original masters, Live At The Regal is a great place to start.
My Rating – 28 out of 30 – this is one of the best live albums ever released
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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.
