LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL

I don't like giving live albums 5 stars, but this may have been the finest live album I eveer heard. I don not have this yet on CD, but to this day still have the original vinyl edition. Before I heard this album, every live album I had ever purchased I found dissapointing because either the sound was too muddy, or the performance wasn't as good as the studio release, or both. This was the first clear sounding live album I ever heard. The performances are magnificent, and in most cases better than that of the studio recording. It was very unusual how I got into Renaissance. At the time, in the mid 70's, GENESIS was my favorite band. I had heard of, but had never heard RENAISSANCE before. While in Florida with my parents on vacation, my Mom was watching the Merv Griffith show on TV (maybe it was Mike Douglas), and RENAISSANCE was on performing Midas Man. I loved it and went out and bought their newest album, Novella, which I loved. I wanted to hear more Renaissance, so this live double album seemed to be a good introduction to their earlier releases. As much as I loved Novella, Live at Carnegie Hall, blew Novella away. Many of their classic songs are on this, and as stated above, many are even better than the studio releases (which I subsequently picked up). The live version of Prologue blows away the studio version from the album of the same name. The performances of Can You Understand, Running Hard and Mothere Russia are all incredible. The highlight however is the 23 minute plus performance of Ashes Are Burning. This would be the perfect place for someone new to RENAISSANCE to start. One of the few live albums I would give 5 stars too.