studio albums:

1) Mother Gong - Fairy Tales (1979). best album ever

2) Peter Hammill - The Fall of the House of Usher (1999 version)

3) Van der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts (1971)

4) Embryo - Rocksession (1973)

5) Nik Turner - Xitintoday (1978)

6) Gong - You (1974)

7) Magma - Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kommandöh (1973)

8) Edgar Froese - Epsilon in Malaysian Pale (1975)

9) Klaus Schulze - Mirage (1977)

10) The Residents - Eskimo (1979)

live albums:

1) Magma - Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie (2001)

2) Van der Graaf - Vital (1978)

3) Gong - Live au Bataclan (1990)

4) Gentle Giant - Playing the Fool (1977)

5) Short Wave - Live (1993)

6) Guru Guru - Live (1978)

7) Peter Hammill - There Goes the Daylight (1993)

8) Grobschnitt - Solar Music Live (1978)

9) Tangerine Dream - Encore (1977)

The Psychedelic Ensemble - The Tale of the Golden King

Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn

King Crimson - Larks Tongues In Aspic

Roy Harper  - Stormcock

Henry Cow - Western Culture

Vezhlivy Otkaz - Gusi-Lebedi

Pikapika Teart - Moonberry

Cardiacs - Sing To God

Pink Floyd - Animals

Alec K Redfearn & The Eyesores - Sister Death

Live

Nik Bartsch Ronin - Live

Hawkwind - Space Ritual

Magma - Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie

King Crimson - Great Deceiver

Deep Purple - Made In Japan

Henry Cow - Concerts

Pink Floyd - Ummagumma

Tangerine Dream - Ricochet

Caravan - Fairfield

Led Bib - Vortex Jazz Club

1. ELP - Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends

2. Roxy - Music - Viva! Roxy Music

3. Tangerine Dream - Ricochet

4. Manfred Mann's Earthband - Budapest Live

5. Steven Wilson - Get All You Deserve

6. Rush - Different Stages

7. Keith Emerson Band Featuring Marc Bonilla - Moscow

8. Big Big Train - From Stone and Steel

9. Yes - Symphonic Live

X. Marillion - Live From Loreley

For the studio albums I'll refer to my list in that other http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=127002&PID=5921753#5921753" rel="nofollow - top 10 thread (I made a top 13, but two of them are live albums...).

And although I often prefer studio albums over live albums, there are some very good ones. My favourites:

- Yes - Yessongs

- Yes - Symphonic Live

- Grobschnitt - Solar Music Live

- Ange - Tome VI

- ELP - Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends

- King Crimson - Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of the Monkey Mind

- Pallas - Live Our Lives

- IQ - Forever Live

- Pink Floyd - Delicate Sound of Thunder

- Manfred Mann's Earthband - Mann Alive

- Deep Purple - Made In Japan

Yeah, we just had a top 10 thread, the interesting thing here is the live album list. To qualify for my list, the album has to be the best of a band. (Yes I prefer all these to all studio albums of those.)

Pink Floyd Ummagumma

Genesis Live

Cardiacs All that Glitters is a Mare's Nest (or Live, to tell the truth I only ever play Mare's Nest as DVD)

Hoelderlin Live Traumstadt

Sonar Live at Bazillus

Renaissance Live at Carnegie Hall

Kraan Live

Yes - Yessongs

Curved Air Live

Anyone's Daughter - Requested Document Vol. 1

Oh man, is this difficult! You want my top 10 studio and live albums now! Let me try to compile something:

a) Top 10 studio albums (prog): Very hard to put these in any order, so don't take this as a ranking, more of a listing; Also, I will include just one album per band because the other way around would not seem so fair to me. Here they are:

1. Steven Wilson - 'Hand. Cannot. Erase'

2. Porcupine Tree - 'Fear of a Blank Planet'

3. Pink Floyd - 'The Wall'

4. Yes - 'Relayer'

5. Marillion - 'F E A R'

6. Van der Graaf Generator - 'Pawn Hearts'

7. Captain Beyond - S/T

8. Steely Dan - 'Aja'

9. Genesis - 'Foxtrot'

10. King Crimson - 'Larks' Tongues in Aspic'

b) Live albums (prog): even harder to compile than the studio albums.

1. ELP - 'Welcome Back My Friends...'

2. King Crimson - 'Radical Action'

3. Frank Zappa - 'Hammersmith Odeon'

4. Transatlantic - 'Whirld Tour 2010'

5. Pink Floyd - 'Live at Pompeii'

6. The Flower Kings - 'Meet the Flower Kings'

7. Frost* - 'The Philadelphia Experiment'

8. Steven Wilson - 'Home Invasion'

9. Between the Buried and Me - 'Coma Ecliptic: Live'

10. Yes - 'Yessongs'

The day I can figure out which is better/best, is likely the day that I am done listening to all music on this life!

Even for fun, I'm not sure it is possible.

Some things along the way I have loved in no order. Please don't assume the order!

Pink Floyd early bootlegs -- They all told a story that all the books refuse to look at and Roger continually regards a lot of that stuff as bad and cheap. No wonder he's lost his spark 40 years ago!

Tangerine Dream early bootlegs -- They were outstanding. They were all different because none of the equipment at the time was able to get setup the same twice in a row, and on top of it have to deal with different rooms, and venues and temperatures. One of their live albums was record under freezing temperatures because there was not enough electricity to go around to use even for the equipment!

Grateful Dead bootlegs -- In the early days, things were so far and away different in every thing that one actually wondered how this band could play. But they did and made history. The fact that they can not be "considered" progressive is the most shameful thing, because the only thing that is not "progressive" is that the record companies for a long time refuse to allow what they wanted on an album because it had to reach further than just their own audience to grab better money!

Nektar -- Live at the Roundhouse/Live in NY. With a nice thank you to their album SOUNDS LIKE THIS, this was one of the few bands that sounded exactly like the albums all the time, and if you ever set your ears on that album, you already knew what the band was about live. And it delivered where most bands didn't. With a lot of love for Roye and his ability, to drive a band that far.

Carmen -- In a couple of shows they blew out David Bowie and Jethro Tull who ended up sounding very stuffed and overly important. Sadly, the producer of the band left to handle his bigger clients and broke up the band which was never able to recover after losing its bass player, although I am not sure that was the reason ... I think the fact that this was an LA band that showed how good they were and how ignored they were and laughed at ... probably hurt more than anything else. Lack of appreciation.

Grobschnitt -- Two live albums, although we did not hear the second one until almost 20 years later, but SOLAR MUSIC LIVE with at least 2 or 3 different versions is an amazing listen, and it is cleaned up so beautifully. ROCKPOMMEL's also got a live redo later that is excellent but ignored by a lot of the fans because it is TRIP MUSIC and not anywhere linked to just another song for your ears!

Return to Forever -- Always great on the live shows, and I am not sure that there is one show better than the other with or without a violin. It didn't matter. They still could blow out anyone!

King Crimson -- Way too well rehearsed and refined and their shows belongs in the category of "classical music" where every note and detail is well known and directed properly for the music to stand up and look as great as it ever did 30/40 years later, and sometimes even better! As a friend said after the concert (he knew the name but not the music!) ... it puts a new meaning on what music means!

Magma -- Way too well rehearsed to do a bad show. Some stunning performances, and in my book they are better live than in any album. 

The Short Wave album Jean mentioned is very little known but brilliant. Short Wave were a short-lived Canterbury all-star band consisting of Hugh Hopper on bass guitar, Pip Pyle on drums, Phil Miller on guitar and Didier Malherbe on saxes and flute. They never made a studio album, only this live album.

1. Morsefest 2015  Neal Morse

Mike was all over Kevin Ayers as a teenager. 

He played bass in Kevin's band The Whole World before Tubular Bells

There are few live albums I really enjoy. To fully appreciate a live performance, you have to be there at the concert. The experience I have with many live albums is that they often lack the production subtlety of the studio recordings. I very much prefer to listen to studio records with my headphones on so that I can enjoy all the details.

There are of course exceptions.

Some bands live work is their definitive document, I'm thinking of Hawkwind, Deep Purple, King Crimson.

but studio versions can be overproduced , I think ELP (bar the debut) fell into this trap and also Yes at times (how good is Relayer live compared to the studio version? - Yesshows and Symphonic versions)

True. There is also the Allman Brothers Band of course.

Can - The Peel Sessions

And Magma!

Hi,

The one thing that folks don't know about, or seem to understand about those days, is that those bootlegs were recorded on the simplest of things, and that they "survived" to be heard by more folks is a testament to the QUALITY OF THE MUSIC in them, not the quality of the recording.

I think we fail to understand and realize that. A bad recording can not EVER destroy a superb concert, and this was the case in a lot of Led Zeppelin concerts. Lousy quality on the bootlegs, but the feeling and quality of the shows was insanely strong! Bands nowadays can't even do that other than play loud!

For me, music has always stood out first, and if you get the "feel" for it, it won't matter how different, remixed or remastered it can get done ... the "feel" will always be there, and this is the thing that surprised me when I heard some of the redone material on KC and GG and what I found was ... the original "feel" was still there, and it didn't matter that this was "digital" and the original was "analog" ... which to me suggests that the listening is being done on a technical level, not on an emotional level that all arts (specially music!) want you to live and flow and fly with and by!

Live

Triumvirat-Live at Ultrasonics Studios, Oct. 1st, 1974

Triumvirat-Live at Chalmette, Louisianna, USA, Nov. 1st, 1974

Colosseum Live (1971)

Gentle Giant-Playing The Fool

Passport-Live at My Father's Place, Roslyn, NY,  May 26, 1979

Wishbone Ash-BBC Radio Live in Concert, Paris Theatre, 1972

Rush-All The World's A Stage

Budgie-Live in Los Angeles, 1978

Nucleus-Live in Bremen, 1971

Nektar-USA Live 1975-77

Triumvirat-many do not think of live albums when thinking of Triumvirat, as there was never anything officially released, but the Ultrasonics is a real experience of the Koellen, Fritz and Bathelt lineup "firing on all six cylinders", believe you, me! Things are magical at Chalmette, as well.

Colosseum and Gentle Giant-some albums very much "in the know" by fans.

Passport-Live in the USA! And featuring songs from the late seventies period, which is kind of a sadly overlooked era of the band. Wonderful.

Wishbone Ash-I like this one much better than the more heralded and official  "Live Dates"

Rush-you know, you know, it is a great live document

Budgie-another band without a truly legit live album released from the 70s, but here it is, with lots of tracks from the then brand new "Impeckable" album, one of their most prog records

Nucleus, an album released from an archive, and well worth the wait, it is!

Nektar-from the mid seventies in the USA, taken from when Recycled, what I feel is their best album, was brand new; some of the later material is minus Roye, who is missed, but live the band is still great, live!

Mostly agree I think. You reminded me that I forgot Led Zeppelin's How The West Was Won when I made my selection. Not technically a 'bootleg' but a fantastic document of them playing in the States 1971. It does have the 'feel' that you talk about. Very few live albums by modern bands are worth jack but both of us are of course fully paid up members of the 'old farts' club!

Hi,

HTWWW was taken from several bootleg recordings and was changed and cleaned up by Jimmy to make it clearer and better and take out "mistakes". As such, it took some of the energy out of it all and destroyed a bunch of great bootlegs, but Jimmy/LZ/Atlantic wanted an album that took away the sails of the bootlegs, and HTWWW did not even come close to the real thing. It was crap, and very obvious to my ear that it was meddled with and came out with the intent of showing that LZ was great in concert, at a time when they were already slowing down their touring for various reasons.

I have not looked, but I had in my collection for a long time, the three LA shows around Bonzo's birthday, "Live on Blueberry Hill", and a couple of others, one in NY. For some reason the shows in LA had better energy than NY, and I think that in LA they felt more comfortable and free. Hard to say, because the 3 members left don't really remember these things, probably intentionally so because of their well known orgies and what not! To me, that's not a big deal, but I think that insanity added to the reality of the great shows, knowing they would be having fun somewhere. But I can't speak for NY very well, only that the two bootlegs I heard from there were not half as good as the ones from the West Coast.

You gotta love their opening to one show ... "nice to be back ... " kaboom kaboom ... if you weren't ready for it, here it was!

Hi,

The only sad things about "bootlegs" is that the record industry tried hard to bury them ... except when it came to The Grateful Dead who encouraged it, and guess what? People still trade shows today, which says something about the band's material and appreciation in concert which was not the same experience as the band on the record!

But with the "boots" taken out, a lot of history is thrown away, and I suppose that these "direct" memories might show a side or two that many folks don't like. 

Roger still talks trash of the early days. PF's story is very different from the books (which likely were "approved"!)  in that you get to see the use of the sound vignettes that were a MAJOR part of their "QUADRAPHONIC" concert experience that went on for a while, and eventually a couple of years later developed into DSOTM. And the use of visuals became more important, and eventually became THE story (TW).

The LZ folks won't discuss those days much, likely to avoid getting questions they don't want to answer. But there were very well known stories that have been circulated that were much different than the simplified BS that Ms. PdB has given us as some kind of matron and important member of an exclusive club! I doubt that we will ever realize how much some of those things were important to what LZ did, or Robert's movements and singing of their earlier material is really meaningless ... c'mon ... right down to orgasms and slightly out of breadth! Today, we can't even imagine that about so many singer rock stars that are trying to get you to "imagine" the real thing. With LZ and you can see it on some videos, it was raw and right out front. With the majority of rock bands since, it's been plastic by comparison. Even my girlfriend said that LZ was "sexy" and for her it meant it had a lot of the feeling many of us want to feel!

Some bootlegs were not very good. FZ's were always different and the band was great. I don't think I have ever heard a bad one in boots or actual recording, and sadly this was the side of things that Dweezil did not understand! Their getting blown out by RTF is inexcusable, and you know what Frank would say about that!

The worst bootlegs ... Genesis sounded awful. YES did not sound very good on the boots, and other than the TFTO concert, anything else I have heard from them, including the record releases, is not as good as the original. The TFTO is one for the ages, were it not for the fans that only wanted the hits and couldn't give a damn about the rest of the music! Bob Dylan's boots were always the treat because in the early days he was known for changing the lyrics and say things differently. In later years, his attitude is partially there, although we don't get to see it as much! Chicago bootlegs were a bit on the odd side, and if they were "on", it was really fine. If they were not, it was not fine! One bootleg from Big Brother was not very good, but that would be one that I really think the recording quality was awful to the point of making it difficult to make a good distinction about the show. Quicksilver was known to trip out big time. Hot Tuna had more bootlegs than albums sold! Jefferson Airplane and later Starship were not very good and as usual the mechanics of the egos was a problem.

One last issue ... someone complaining about the fans and the noise. There would not be a show without it, and someone is complaining because the person next to you sneezed and ruined the show for him/her. I find that selfish and not exactly about the show itself. AND THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FACT OF THE BOOTLEGS. It's about the show itself. This is rock music and THERE WILL ALWAYS BE FANS, despite too many LIVE albums making a point of hiding the audience! But the main difference? In those early days, hearing the sound vignettes by PF, would cause you to be quiet and listen since there was so much going around in the Quad system, which went around the whole venue, not just a quick show in front of the stage which is the case in almost all concerts.

It's all about the REALITY of it all ... and these live shows give us more of the reality than the synthetic and Clorox version that we find in most albums!

I recently listed my top 10 prog albums http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=127002&PID=5921409#5921409" rel="nofollow - HERE albeit with 9 studio albums and one live album, followed by my top 10 crossover albums, so I'll list a top 10 of live prog albums now. In no particular order:

1. Pictures at an Exhibition - ELP

2. Welcome Back My Friends... - ELP

3. Ummagumma live disc - Pink Floyd

4. Live at Pompeii - Pink Floyd [album exists unofficially at various sources]

5. Delicate Sound of Thunder - Pink Floyd

6. The Song Remains the Same - Led Zeppelin

7. Curved Air Live

8. Live at Carnegie Hall - Renaissance

9. At the Rainbow - Focus

10. Space Ritual - Hawkwind

Hi,

The CAPS were not used to scream, but to accentuate something that we have either not seen or do not wish to see.

Music, in the end, like all the arts, is not about a fantasy, or someone's idea. It's about the visceral and REAL reaction that you and I have for it, and many times LIVE recordings are better at showing that as something slips out that we did not expect or knew about.

I have no worries whatsoever about the recorded material, but it is a much more interesting to feel like you "KNOW" the artist when you see/hear some things happen. One guy throwing up and it's in the end of the album. Another guy taking a pee at the end of the album. A guy asking for more chips and beans. And many more. You finally get the feel about something real having to do with this artist that you don't in many other places where the music and ideas are, supposedly, more important and you/I (the audience) are supposed to suspend any belief of anything except what you are being told. You know that the majority of the lyrics/music is not an idea or just fake. They are real. And it is the reason why so many rock bands (progressive included) don't turn me on. They must think that the majority of the audience doesn't know anything, and honestly, I find that silly and sometimes very boring. It really is more about ... I'm famous and can do this, and you are not and can't besides the point that the social media will think you are an idiot.

What took place, or happened in life, is not always something that needs/can be hidden and thrown away, and the best artists do not look at their old days as a waste. Many of them knew what they were doing and how. David Bowie is a good example. He might say they were "naughty", but at least he is being forward instead of crapping around.

This is the "reality" ... and often the truth behind the closed door. And my question is, why does the art have to be about the ideas you have, instead of showing us your true colors and not liking it when someone puts a mirror up to you, or see things very differently.

I can listen to most everything in whatever quality if I find the music interesting enough, but I'm also somewhat "into sound" in ways I get the impression you dissapprove of. I couldn't care less really. It's who I am and I'm certainly not you. I'm often completely indifferent to whatever words are sung, or what kind of message the artist is trying to get across. I prefer not to find out-or know, really. Wordless singing is always welcome. I get these ASMR-like braingasms listening to several 1960's jazz recordings (often "perfectly" engineered by Rudy Van Gelder - and it doesn't hurt if a young Tony Williams is the one sitting behind the drumkit). I like patterns, the breaking of patterns and puzzles for my braincells, as much as being all emotional about art. Of course you can't really seperate one from the other, and needless to say I enjoy both. The soundspaces created with abstacted tones from vibes, bass, percussion, pianos, horns, flutes... etc on various Grachan Moncur III, Andrew Hill, late Eric Dolphy, early Cecil Taylor records etc... sends tingly sensations from brain to my spine - in a way that I won't get from someone in the audience farting over an overlong and overindulgent guitarsolo somewhere further back in the soundtrack:) At least it hasn't happened yet.

-It doesn't matter if the music isn't conventionally beautiful. Quite the contrary. I suppose sterile and cold will do just fine too. I mean why would anyone not have their Klaus Schulze or Kraftwerk more or less crystal clear - if they can choose? Anyways, a similar sensation may also happen when I listen to say Gentle Giant, Univers Zero, Weather Report and several other bands and artists under the prog umbrella. I get none of that from the very real audience recordings I've heard. At best it makes me wish I was there, but more often it simply makes want to turn it off and reach for that synthetic Clorox version (if such a thing exists) instead.  

Hi,

I'm not questioning that at all ... like saying that DSOTM was not better on the album than it ever was live! (No kidding! It made better sense in the album).

But some bands, were very special in concert and they were not afraid of experimenting like PF was in their early days with Gilmour when they were (more than likely) trying to figure out how he was going to fit into the band! PF, due to their specially constructed DSOTM setup, stopped having free moments to trip around in concert, and while they were very nice, I would not choose a single LIVE album of theirs over the studio versions. I would have chosen the Gdansk one more if they had given Mr. Zbigniew Preisner more volume, instead of keeping him below it all as if his ability was like a mouse ...  Mr. Preisner's is precious and his works (specially film for the director Kieslowski) is outstanding, and he did not deserve to be in the background and should have given a little more up front. But he wasn't, even in the DVD. They likely did not want to pay him more!!!!

-Your sister lives and works as an artist in good ol' Europe. Just like me then. Yeah, it's so sad that I wouldn't enjoy that two hour televised live painting show. Really SAD. But I wouldn't just not enjoy it - I would hate it! It's exactly the kind of gimmicky crap I loathe. Artsy angels drawn in 30 minutes sounds like something tourists get tricked into buying while on vacation. I don't think you have a clue really. Your sister probably does.

1) King Crimson-Lark's Tongues in Aspic

2) Supersister-Spiral Staircase Sass

3) Pink Floyd-Meddle

4) Soft Machine-Seven

5) Zappa-Hot Rats

6)Genesis-Foxtrot

7)Captain Beyond-1st

8)Barclay James Harvest-Baby James Harvest

9)Gentle Giant-Octopus

10)Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band-Trout Mask Replica

  live albums:

1) Pink Floyd-UMMAGUMMA

2) King Crimson-Mainz

3) Short Wave-Live

4) National Health-Live at BBC

5) Soft Works-Live in Osaka,Japan

6) P.F.M.-Jet Lag

7) Nucleus-Bremen

8) Caravan-And the New Symphonia

9) Hatfield and the North-Live at BBC

10)Dixie Dregs-Bring 'em Back Alive

Studio albums:

----------------

Camel - Mirage  

Emerson Lake and Palmer - Trilogy  

Genesis - Selling England By The Pound  

Gentle Giant - Three Friends

Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King  

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon  

Soft Machine - Volume 2  

Van der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts  

Yes - Close to the Edge  

Live albums:

-----------------

Camel - A Live Record

Colosseum - Live

Deep Purple - Made in Japan

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Welcome Back My Friends

Genesis - Live

Gentle Giant - Playing The Fool

Jethro Tull - Bursting Out

King Crimson - The Great Deceiver

Magma - Live/Hhai

Yes - Yessongs

2. Meddle-Pink Floyd

3. Nightingales and Bombers-Manfred Manns Earth Band

4. Hall of the Mountain Grill-Hawkwind

5. Hergest Ridge-Mike Oldfeild

6. Trilogy- Emerson, Lake and Palmer

7. Hounds of Love-Kate Bush

8. In Search of the Lost Chord-The Moody Blues

9. Blows Against the Empire-Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship

10. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway-Genesis

Not so into live recordings but I do have to give props to:

Yessongs-Yes

Space Ritual-Hawkwind

Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends- Emerson. Lake and Palmer

Made in Japan-Deep Purple

I do recall spending a lot of hours absorbing these releases.

1. Marillion - Brave

2. The Flower Kings - Stardust We Are

3. Genesis - Foxtrot

4. Echolyn - As the World

5. Galahad - Following Ghosts

6. Kate Bush - Aerial

7. Arena - The Visitor

8. Pendragon - Not of This World

9. Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element, Pt. I

10. Phideaux - Doomsday Afternoon

1. Genesis - Seconds Out

2. Yes - Yessongs

3. Rush - Different Stages

4. Peter Gabriel - Live Blood

5. Pendragon - Out of Order Comes Chaos

6. Marillion - Made Again

7. Led Zeppelin - How the West Was Won

8. King Crimson - Absent Lovers

9. Kate Bush - Before the Dawn

10. Galahad - Solidarity (Live In Konin)