On the other side of the coin, were there bands who in your opinion, released a number of great studio albums and were very important within the movement who, for one reason or another either didn't release a live offering or did, but through under-rehearsing, muddy production, poor track choices, unnecessary brevity, or simply a 'going through the motions' performance lacking passion, failed to reach anywhere near their potential?

 1989: ABWH - An Evening of Yes Music Plus -  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLesS8G23t0LHpei-6jCPfuB-mgxHzvbYW" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLesS8G23t0LHpei-6jCPfuB-mgxHzvbYW

 1974: Barclay James Harvest - Live -  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kyrBzeN9N2cOnVYVoGdMmc3uBfrU6iPtI" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kyrBzeN9N2cOnVYVoGdMmc3uBfrU6iPtI

 1978: Camel - A Live Record -  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m4-adu0ifiojsm-vz-PLACrpKN_AwxEXI" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m4-adu0ifiojsm-vz-PLACrpKN_AwxEXI

 1973: Genesis - Genesis Live -  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoIDt_C5y1Lus98yp-GOfBWcQfVmPP6L1" rel="nofollow -  1976: Renaissance - Live at Carnegie Hall -  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lBZgxdlejr_LlB6XiCdeCOmx4vZarpprU" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lBZgxdlejr_LlB6XiCdeCOmx4vZarpprU

ELP - Pictures At An Exhibition

Gentle Giant - Playing The Fool

Not in order

Yessongs

Genesis Live

Hawkwind Space Ritual

Gong Est Mort? Vive Gong!

Steve Hillage Live Herald

Hi,

Outstanding choices.

Would like to include:

Frank Zappa - Roxy & Elsewhere

ELP - Pictures At An Exhibition

Amon Duul 2 - Live in London

Grobbschnit - Solar Music Live

Guru Guru - Some of the very early stuff with Ax Gernrich doing his crazy stuff, which gave us some stuff in a few albums

Can - Hard to not mention this band live, with Damo ... but sadly, so much of the stuff that is shown up in the past few years, is not complete, so you don't really have a nice view. But the special TRIBUTE to Jaki is a must see for anyone ... it was excellent and it got better with Damo towards the end.

Ange - Tome VI ... fantastic live album!

Some jazzy stuff:

Gismonti, Haden and Garbarek - Magico 

Return to Forever - The Mothership Returns

Miles Davis - The recent bootleg series that was released of Miles in France, has some incredible stuff, and you can see why he liked playing in Europe ... he never had to worry about a hit ... he could just show up and play ... and DID!

Some other stuff:

Tangerine Dream - So many great concerts live, in their last 20 years since Jerome left, and even the shows with him were good. It was just strange that some folks disliked it because it was about the music, and not the "show" as rock fans insist. In one show I saw them, Edgar Froese stopped a show to ask that a fan be removed ... he shouted rock'n'roll for a long time ... before Edgar blew his fuse, and deservedly so!

Klaus Schulze - The Live stiff with Lisa is excellent, and courageous, but it shows how good he was as a live performer, and while I never met anyone that saw any of his shows (never made it to America I don't think!), the few that are shown on video are incredible. 

Kate Bush - The Live show in London which is available on CD but she has said that the video is not a priority. I think she is overly critical of her stuff, but I bet that the personal appearance was not what she wanted to show most, as her history was very strong in that area. But the music in the show, per CD's, was magnificent.

Mississippi Charles Bevel - He was a singer and songwriter that quit the music business and was working as an engineer at the PBS station in LA. He had a 30 minute video done at the station that was out of this world, and one of the prettiest and tuneful voices ever, singing his own material. The station has not replied to my email inquiring about that video, in 4 tries over 3 years. The material was outstanding and it was about "freedom" ... the kind that we don't always see or follow! Best concert I have ever seen! Also saw him in Santa Barbara with Chick Streetman and they were fabulous together.

Nektar - Live ... on the first American tour and at the Santa Monica Civic ... they tore up the place. Incredible all around, and it was never shown at all despite there being a lot of video cameras around the floor. My guess is that the material was not quite as close to the albums as it could be, and thus a live album was not done, to prevent the fans from seeing something they did not quite recognize. A bad, very bad, decision. Otherwise "Sounds Like This" is a LIVE album!

Hawkwind - (first) Space Ritual tour, also at the Santa Monica Civic ... insanely good and strong, though it was very loud and roomie had a hard time with it for a week or so.

AND, best of all ... the 1972 Pink Floyd show at The Hollywood Bowl ... IN QUADRAPHONIC sound, which you had a chance of hearing if you saw the original THE WALL, or the first set of movie shows of THE WALL that were done in QUAD. After that, the band went downhill for me. The sound, and those first notes of "One Of These Days" going around the whole venue at the start, was, by itself ... insane and far out. The other excellent moment was in THE WALL ... when the girl said ... look at all those guitars ... and you hear her walk from the back of the audience to the front of the audience to the guitars ... if you can visualize ... that could only be done in QUAD, and RW murdered that moment in his own version. 

Triumvirat-Live at Ultrasonics Studios

Colosseum Live

Rush-All The World's A Stage

ELP-Pictures At An Exhibition

Badger-One Live Badger

5 Classic Prog Groups I Wish Had Left A Proper Live Album

Dzyan

Dedalus

Wallenstein

Beggar's  Opera

Libra

Van der Graaf Generator: Vital

Henry Cow: Concerts 

Caravan: The Best of Caravan "Live"

The Soft Machine: The Peel Sessions 

Mahavishnu Orchestra: Between Nothingness & Eternity

Hi,

Caravan and the New Sinfonia ... which had on the remastered album all the music that the LP did not have and the order of the material was done correctly ... it is a magnificent concert, when you factor in that the orchestra, originally did not want to do the encore (no extra pay!) and Pye told them to f**k off. And the orchestra folks ... kinda swallowed it and went on ... and they sounded excellent. By very far, one of the best things CARAVAN ever did.

Hi,

Strange ... because the music added for it was actually composed for it, to augment the band, and within the concert, you can hear them playing with the orchestra really well, be it the conducting, or the creation of the orchestra side of the music. Either way it works.

Caravan, is actually an excellent symphonic band, and the keyboards in it, almost always are adding a nice symphonic side to their music ... witness the side 2 of the "For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night" album. 

the combination is excellent. "For Richard", even as heard by the Daily Doug is more on the solo style Canterbury thing, as in the first days, it was pop'py (if you will ... early Caravan was very much pop music ... witness first album and parts of the 2nd), and the soloing was not designed to be symphonic at all. But within the confines of the orchestra in the Neu Simfonia, it works really well, as the orchestra takes on the solo side of the original.

It's sad that the Neu Sinfonia is not liked as much as other works ... it is an excellent piece of work and way better than so many bands just using the orchestra for giggles and to make them look like they are better than they really are, and they still "solo" over the orchestra, which sounds good, but it doesn't really add anything to the band's composition ... the orchestra is there to kiss and lay the melody, nothing else. This is not quite the case with the Neu Sinfonia album, and I think that Pye and the rest of them were extremely aware of that, and probably were quite aware of it going way back to The Moody Blues album. 

Hi,

MAGMA, for me, is best when you see them live ... a recording is nice, but not really as far out as the experience of being there and feeling it ... the three times I saw them here on the West Coast (SF in 1999) and later twice in Portland, verified that really well ... I would not trade any of the live experiences for any live albums of theirs.

I guess seeing Magma must be one of the most impressive experiences for almost any progressive rock fan (or music fan, why not). Magma came to Argentina only once, in 2017, as part of a small tour through Latin America. They played at the ND Ateneo, a venue with about 250 seats (approximately), a concert I couldn’t attend because I didn’t know the band. Unfortunately, they only filled half of the place.

The only album that was officially released in Argentina was the inaccessible Kohntarkosz, in 1975, shortly after its first release in September of '74. For that same reason, it's understandable that the band didn't have much exposure. If they had at least released MDK, Hhaï/Live orÜdü Ẁüdü, they might have had a small fanbase.

For me, Five examples of live albums which elevated the bands music to another level would include:

Colosseum: Live, ELP: Welcome Back, Grobschnitt: Solar Music, Renaissance: Carnegie Hall & Hawkwind: Space Ritual

MMEB did a couple of live albums during the 70's/ 80's, but are unexceptional, as with Nektar's Live In New York and Moodies' Caught Live +5. I wished ELO had made a better live album of their earlier material, say after Eldorado. I'm not a big fan of VDGG's Vital; too aggressive and Punk for me, without Jackson's sax, and I suppose I wish Focus had held back until after Hamburger to release a live cut, because Rainbow is too slight.... just a few thoughts.

However I love a good live album, and here are five, three classics and two dark horses:

Genesis - Live

Yes - Yessongs

Renaissance - Live at Carnegie Hall

Kraan - Live

Hölderlin - Live Traumstadt 

Last letter typed and already some others come to mind, but I leave it at that. 

Curious whether a Can Live album released in the seventies would've sounded different than all the material that was made available much later. I agree with Jared that we didn't get a proper 70s Manfred Mann's Earth Band live album, and I also imagine VDGG could've given us something more than Vital.

Off the top of my melon, five that I love... (Prog, prog-related, and close enough for me)

Song Remains the Same

Yessongs

All the World's a Stage

Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack

Arriving Somewhere But Not Here

Allman Brothers Fillmore East (Honorable Mention)

Can't think of five letdowns right now, but Yesshows would be one. My track selection for that album would have been radically different and I'd want it as long as Yessongs (3 vinyls).

Be Bop Deluxe - Live In The Air Age

Rush - Exit Stage Left

Manfred Mann's Earthband - Live In Budapest

Genesis - Live In London 1980 *

The last choice is not an official release and was a BBC recording but to this day is my favourite live recording of a classic prog band. Much of that is to do with the set list as they play the so called 'Duke Suite' which rivals Suppers Ready. I don't particularly like the more revered Seconds Out because of sound quality issues (no dynamics) but mainly because of set list. I don't need a live version of Suppers Ready as the album version is perfect imo.

Yes made good live albums and were probably the greatest live band I ever saw. I would pick a later live album as showcasing that personally and for me Yes Symhonic was the perfect realisation of what they were about.

Pink Floyd seemingly don't have a great live album other than Live in Pompei which like the above was a visual experience and not just a live album.

Jethro Tull were obviously a great live band but I'm not aware of a live album that captures them in their classic era. 

King Crimson seem to have a sh*t ton of late career live albums. Seems to be saturation. Classic era no idea.

PFM - I don't like Cook that much. They were fast turning into a jazz rock combo even by 1974 and the majesty of the band on Per Un Amico and Storia Di Un MInuto is largely missing imo.

Gentle Giant- I'm not keen on their live albums to be honest. Perfect in the studio band if ever there was.

ELP were the ultimate improvisonal live band. Although I can respect people picking Pictures At An Exhibition I would rather enjoy the evolution of that peice of music through their many live versions such as the Works tour version from 1977. I find that interesting in itself. The original performance back in 1970 at the Isle Of Wight festival provides a rough and ready template from which to go from.

I would love to have seen Be Bop Deluxe and Manfred Mann's Earthband during the seventies. They were bands that I reckon were better at playing live than producing studio albums. I had the opportunity as both bands came to the newly opened Swindon Oasis around about 1977 but I was still feeling my way into music and didn't have someone to appreciate that that was the thing to do like say an older brother.

Hi,

I think they could have some excellent live albums ... IF ... large IF ... they would have been able to bottle up their QUADRAPHONIC setup. This was done, at least, at the Hollywood Bowl in 1972, and on the first shows of THE WALL, both on the film premiere before its regular release (we saw one of those shows in SF ... and it was QUAD. The live show of THE WALL, was also in QUAD in LA ... where a lot of very neat things were done in the setup ... as I mentioned before, the example, was the girl saying "look at all those guitars" in the back of the theater, and she literally walked to the front ... let's say to touch the guitars ... it was a neat moment, but something that RW ruined for his version of the shows. DSOTM, was almost too much about the movie screen and lasers ... and if it had QUAD, I didn't notice it, though the dialogue and fun stuff was all over the theater itself, in LA ... but nowhere near the quality and touch of The Hollywood Bowl show a couple of years earlier.

SW is testing some parts of his new album in very experimental locations around London ... I bet he is trying to see if he can duplicate the QUAD experience, so the music appears to be more important and less of a show ... it would become a sensory experience, as the QUAD thing was then.

But these days, the thing is getting as many people into the large venue as you can and use the cheapest lights and sound possible. When I saw KC a few years back in Seattle, their sound was fine, and nice ... but you know what? If it had the sonic boom of QUAD it would have made the whole thing even better. Instead, it was just another rock show, albeit with a much better line up and music!

I suppose the Sphere in Las Vegas is the nearest one can get to the quality of the QUAD ... and I bet SW would love to be there and design a show, although I bet that he already knows and thinks that the sound system in there is stupid, and only sounds good because there are thousands of speakers everywhere ... but I am betting that the mixing side of it is cheap and ridiculous, and you can not see it with any of the bands they have had so far. You would need a Tangerine Dream, a Pink Floyd (not just RW) and a band that is not just raising the volume to make you think this is great stuff. Like DP used to do in the old days, as well as BS.

I walked out of both of those shows, btw .. it was impossible to enjoy the shows as loud as they were. Same with the Rolling Stones ... I lasted 20 minutes there!

Hi,

For a band so well known for their live shows, and one of the best sound systems ever for any band, the GD has never really featured a great live album ... and I think this is so, because of 10K recordings of the band live, and we have no idea which of those was a great show or not!

Kinda sad, really, because when you see some of it on the toob, or eve hearing the Daily Doug talking about it, he's impressed by the quality and the musicianship in a lot of the shows he has featured. And I wish that PA would really bring them home ... they are the only one band, that I would love to see here, and respected by the so-called progressive music fans, instead of ignoring them and consider a lot of the work they did ... just crap ... musically they had more than most progressive bands do in their whole show, without the egotistical soloing to show how great the folks were. The GD did not need to show off ... they knew what they were about and doing it!

^

I share your opinion that they should be here now. This is not a purist site as one can tell by looking at our list of bands....but I'm in the post-agitation phase of my PA career.

Hi,

The Live in America album that followed it, and had pictures of the lasers on the trees at the Greek Theater (the Observatory famous for Laserium is right above the Theater btw!!!), is also a very good show ... were it not that many of the pieces were cut down and not shown properly ... the show was way longer than the 4 sides of a LP that measured nearly 79 minutes or so.

If, the Live album in America was complete, and I'm positive that the TD folks have the tapes for it, they taped everything just like Frank Zappa did!, it would show how valuable and important it was ... and how difficult it was for Christopher Franke to get his equipment to come up and be ready for it to work properly, which took over 20 minutes. It was well known, then, how difficult a lot of the early synth stuff was and how it behaved differently on the open air stages, where the equipment, eventually had to warm up ... not that it was an issue in Southern California, but one nonetheless.

It made for a lot of bootlegs in those early days ... because the equipment could not exactly duplicate things, for at least 3 or 4 more years, when things got better, but it almost took Christopher Franke leaving to make it happen, which was a suggestion (for a time) that Christopher was a slight problem, even if Edgar would not state that in the book. Edgar made it look like he was specially patient with Christopher for a long time, but before the end of the decade, it was over and things changed, and TD started using more efficient equipment, instead of the behemoth old stuff.

Hi,

To my knowledge "Encore" is the same as "Live in America"