Live Rock Albums With Saxophone – With A Wide Definition Of “Rock”
I have a huge weakness for a mixture of lead guitar and saxophone in albums and especially live albums.
I also like flute, oboe and some of the other brass instruments.
But in the main it is saxophone.
I thought I’d include this “live rock albums with saxophone” to help others like me find music to hear and buy.
Sometimes, the presence of the saxophone is obvious. Clarence Clemons, The Big Man was such a large part of the sound that made the E Street Band make the songs written by Bruce Springsteen sound fantastic. Roxy Music have always featured Andy MacKay and his oboe and sax.
Sometimes it is a surprise. David Bowie’s live album called David Live is drenched in sax thanks to David Sanborn (alto sax and flute) and Richard Grando (baritone sax and flute).
The Fox Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia 30th September 1978 is a live recording by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
I think this is another radio broadcast that can legally be released in Europe because of a loophole in the copyright laws. This recording is on the Echoes label and was released on 15th December 2014.
Continue reading Bruce Springsteen The Fox Theatre Atlanta 1978
Live 1988 is a live album by Supertramp.
It was recorded by the band without founder member Roger Hodgson in the spring of 1988.
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Live is the first official live album by George Thorogood and the Destroyers.
It was recorded at the Cincinnati Gardens in Ohio on 23 May, 1986.
A 2010 archive release of Live In Boston 1982 means that this is no longer the earliest example of Thorogood live.
It is however the best known and most successful as it has been awarded platinum disc status for album sales in the USA.
Agora Ballroom 1978: The Classic Cleveland Broadcast is a live recording by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
It is released on the Left Field Media label in November 2014 and takes advantage of the lower copyright protection in the European Union for live recordings that were broadcast on the radio.
If Passaic 1978 was disappoint in terms of sound quality, this is better. I should warn you that these are addictive because Springsteen varied the setlist over the tour so it’s not a case of just getting on great 1978 live recording.
These 1978 Darkness tour recordings are the holy grail as far as many Springsteen fans are concerned.
Just before Christmas 2014, Bruce Springsteen released an authorised version of the Cleeveland 1978 concert – for details see 1978/08/09 Cleveland Ohio – that is the one that you should really buy and it’s reported that it has superior sound quality.
Winterland Night 1978: The Classic San Francisco Broadcast is a live album by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
It was recorded in San Francisco on 15th December 1978.
This is another radio broadcast that creeps through the European copyright laws. There are several different versions of this concert but this one is on the Left Field Media label.
This is not an official Springsteen approved release… we are still waiting for those.
It Was The Best of Times is a live album by Supertramp with Rick Davies but without Roger Hodgson.
It was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in London over two nights, the 19th and 20th September 1997.
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Is Everybody Listening is an archive released live album by Supertramp.
There is disagreement about where and when it was recorded.
According to the sleeves notes, it was recorded in Cleveland, Ohio, USA in 1976 but John Helliwell’s website says that it was recorded on March 9th, 1975 at the Hammersmith Odeon in London.
“The gig was a last minute add-on to the end of the tour and has become famous or rather perhaps infamous as an illegal bootleg beloved amongst Supertramp fans. It was also briefly commercially released in 2001 as “Is Everybody Listening”. For some bizarre reason the original bootleg erroneously gave the venue for this show as Cleveland, Ohio rather than London, England, a mistake which the 2001 commercial release unfortunately replicated on its own cover notes. ” http://www.johnhelliwell.com/bio2013.php
The 1975 concert at the Hammersmith Odeon has been included in the Deluxe edition of the remastered Crime Of The Century.
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On The Night is a live album by Dire Straits.
It was recorded at Nîmes in France and Rotterdam in Holland in May 1992 while the group were promoting their final studio album On Every Street.It was released in May 1993.
Their first live album, Alchemy built on the success of the first four very goo studio albums. Then came the over-rated but immensely popular Brothers In Arms in 1985 and then a long wait before On Every Street was released in September 1991.
By then Dire Straits had lost their “coolness” if that’s the right word for what made them special. The On The Night live album has slipped into almost obscurity… an afterthought.
Set List
Four songs from On Every Street and four more from Brothers In Arms means that there are only two of their old classics that were also on Alchemy featured. It’s a shame that more songs weren’t added when the album was remastered to make it more representative of their concerts.
The band at this stage was:
Mark Knopfler – lead guitar, lead vocals
Phil Palmer – guitar, backing vocals
Paul Franklin – pedal steel guitar
Chris White – saxophone, flute, backing vocals
Alan Clark – keyboards
Guy Fletcher – keyboards, backing vocals
John Illsley – bass guitar, backing vocals
Chris Whitten – drums
Danny Cummings – percussion, backing vocals
This is a highly professional band and I particularly like the addition of saxophone and flute to the songs but then I do have a bias this way.
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To help you to find the album quickly and easily, I’ve given you the following links:
It’s still worth checking around on the websites to make sure that there isn’t a more up-to-date or less expensive option.
Do you think this album is the best live album by Dire Straits or Mark Knopfler?
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This album is NOT included in the poll to find the best classic rock live albums but Alchemy is. Do you think On The Knight should be there as well?
Loading ...My aim is to help you to find the best live albums through readers polls, my own reviews and from bringing in Amazon reviews.
You can see the complete list of readers polls at Live Album Polls.
Welcome To The Canteen is a live album by Traffic. It was recorded at Fairfield Halls, Croydon and the Oz Benefit Concert, London in July 1971 and released several months later.
The band had released the John Barleycorn Must Die studio album the previous year and a few months later recorded The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys.
In fact, originally it wasn’t recognised as a Traffic album… just the names of the musicians as you can see from the album cover.
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Live At The Capitol Theater, Passiac NJ, September 19th 1978 is a live recording of a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band.
It’s not an official live album approved by Springsteen but I understand that it’s issued legally from a loophole in the copyright laws that lets live recordings appear after 25 years.
In many way, a live concert from the 1978 Darkness On The Edge Of Town tour is the Holy Grail for Springsteen fans. And where better to record Bruce than New Jersey.
This is a radio broadcast that became one of Springsteen’s most famous bootlegs sold under names like Passiac Nights and Piece De Resistance.
Bruce Springsteen has started to release his archive live recordings including the Agora, Cleveland concert from 1978. These are available on his own website.
Continue reading Bruce Springsteen Live At The Capitol Theater, Passiac NJ 1978
