LIVE DATES

i have always been rather wary of live albums for obvious reasons: poor sound quality, audience intrusion/singalong, over-indulgent solos etc., and i have very few in my collection, but "live dates" is one of the best live albums you will find, in my opinion almost up there with "made in japan", "live at leeds" and "yessongs". the sound quality is spacious, clear and full, the playing is faultless, this mca double lp contains some brilliant solos and has tracks taken from each of their first four albums. the album was recorded during dates at croydon, newcastle, reading and portsmouth during june 1973 on the rolling stones mobile (..now who else used that?? ). side one disc one kicks straight into "the king will come", "warrior" and "throw down the sword" from "argus". on side two i wish they'd included "errors..." and "handy" instead of "rock'n'roll widow" and "ballad of the beacon", but actually these sound better on this live album than the studio versions, so there you go i suppose. this side ends with the blues song "baby what you want me to do" which includes great blues/slide guitar solos. disc two starts with tight versions of "the pilgrim", boogie- style "blowin' free" and "jailbait" (really cookin' now) and side four has great versions of "lady whiskey" and a beautiful 17 minute long version of "phoenix" from the first lp, other than that track no long improvisations, just excellent renditions of some their best songs. excellent addition!