Your 10 favorite live albums

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 gliss bliss wrote:

 BaldJean wrote:

I know some people don't like live albums, but I just love them. nowhere else can a band be free of the restriction to try to sound perfectly but simply let the music flow. what are your favorite ones? here are mine, counting backward from10 to 1. please try to give s short explanation why you include the albums too.

10) Frumpy: "Live" (1973). Inga Rumpf and company put on a great show; she
definitely has the blackest voice of all white singers. an excellent introduction
to this band which deserves more attention.

9) Kraan: "Live" (1975). a stunning classic with highlights like "Holiday am Marterhorn including Gipfelsturm", "Sarah's Ritt durch den Schwarzwald" or "Nam Nam". Helmut Hattler definitely is one of the best bass players in prog; something you can hear here.

8) Guru Guru: "Live" (1976). with a lot of previously unreleased tracks
(some of which had been a live favorite already though), like "Medicine
Man's Overdose", "Herzflimmern" or "Transylvanian Express", and great
versions of "Moroso", "Der Elektrolurch" and "Ooga Booga". the album
shows what a great live act Guru Guru must have been (I never saw them
live myself). one can actually see Mani Neumeier hopping around in his
wrestling suit when hearing him. it helps if you understand some German
to get some of the jokes they make, like when Neumeier sings "Santa Fu,
raus bist du" ("Santa Fu, you are out",  that song was recorded at Santa
Fu, a prison in Hamburg) in "Ooga Booga" and talks about the prisoners getting new
uniforms after the concert that look like his wrestling suit.

7) Hawkwind: "Space Ritual" (1973). what can I say? a classic. Hawkwind re-released the album with uncut versions of "Time We Left" and "Brainstorm" (they had been shortened for the original release because they were too long). too bad this is not a DVD; Stacia would have been a nice addition 

6) Gentle Giant: "Playing the Fool" (1977). Gentle Giant show that their complex compositions can be played live without sounding sterile; on the contrary, they make them sound really alive. highlights are the "Octopus Medley", "On Reflection" and "Funny Ways".

5) Steve Hillage: "Live Herald" (1978). this one originally came out as a 3-sides live, 1-side studio vinyl; unfortunately the studio material sounded bloodless compared to the live material (with the exception of "1988 Activator"). it was in my opinion a good decision of Virgin to release this as a single CD live album and add the studio material to the CD-version of "Open". at 69 minutes the album is still long enough. great versions of classic Hillage songs.

4) 801: "Live" (1976). Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera and friends play a collection of songs associated with former projects of them as well as some classic. one of the most interesting releases of that time; the beginning of punk can be felt in songs like "Third Uncle". unfortunately a single album only.

3) Magma: "Live / Hhai" (1975). featuring a 17-year old Didier Lockwood on
violin who (almost) steals the show; just listen to his seven and a
half minute solo in "Mekanik Zain". great version of "Köhntark". a
friend of mine once commented: "sounds like a holiday in hell".

2) Gong: "Live au Bataclan" (1990). this album was recorded in 1973 and shows the "classic" band line-up (Daevid Allen, Gilly Smyth, Pierre Moerlen, Didier Malherbe, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Tim Blake) in top form, performing some of their classics. don't get irritated by the strange titles on the album; you will recognize these classics quickly.

1) Van der Graaf Generator: "Vital" (1978). since I follow my usual policy of best lists (naming an artist twice or more in such a list is behaving like a fan boy/girl; pick your gender) I was torn between "Vital" and "Real Time". I settled for "Vital" because it adds new aspects to the songs; also because it includes some previously unreleased material. the general treatment of all songs was: give 'em a raw brushing up! Nic Potter's bass truly is a monster!

again this list may change at any moment, depending on my mood, but "Vital", "Live au Bataclan" and "Live / Hhai" will always be in it

You've not heard Gong Est Mort or Gong Live Etc yet, some of Hillage's finest moments with that other prog rock keyboard wizard Click Switch Doctor Aka Hi T Moonweed Aka Tim Blake

oh, but I know "Live etc." by heart; it was the first live album by Gong I had. and I really love the wacky version of "Radio Gnome" "...Lllllllladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you the only gnome who wears habitually a 1912 bathing costume. the formidable biceps and the x-mas cake ice-cream cone of Bloomdidoo Bad de Grasse, who will now let forth a few happy ditties...". but there is one thing I do definitely NOT like about "Gong Live Etc.", and that is the way at least 2 songs have been tampered with, "You Can't Kill Me" and "Zero the Hero". both had parts of the solos cut out of them. it so happens that both songs were taken from the Bataclan concert that the "Live au Bataclan" album was recorded at; I recognized them immediately. you can, however, imagine my surprise when in the middle of the solos in the 2 named songs they suddenly started playing something else than I was used to; these parts which I expected appeared a few bars later. so on the "Live Etc." album these bars before the ones I expected had been cut out.

Edited by BaldJean - December 26 2007 at 23:01