The live version is the definitive version

[JJ88]

^Similarly I don't like the whole band playing on the instrumental parts of 'I Get Up I Get Down'. Too over-dramatic for me, worked better as a vocal/keyboard thing. If we're talking Yes I think 'Ritual' on Yesshows.

The Rolling Stones, 'Midnight Rambler', Brussels 1973. My favourite ever rock live recording.

I love that version of 'Little Wing' the Jimi Hendrix Experience did at the Royal Albert Hall 1969. This is the one on albums like Experience, Hendrix In The West etc. Exceptional.

Bob Dylan's infamous 'Judas' Manchester Free Trade Hall 1966 recording of 'Like A Rolling Stone'. History.

Thin Lizzy- 'Still In Love With You', Live And Dangerous. The studio original is quite a low-key thing really, this is epic and the centrepiece of the live album for me.

Genesis Live - Watcher of the Skies

Have to say, there are particularly ferocious versions of this and 'The Musical Box', played as the encore numbers at the Shrine 1975 show which have still never been officially released.

[Progatron]

Have to say, there are particularly ferocious versions of this and 'The Musical Box', played as the encore numbers at the Shrine 1975 show which have still never been officially released.

Absolutely. Both of those songs have a fiery edge to them in just about any recorded live rendition. The studio versions are nice, but the band is right when they say they were unable to capture the raw energy they wanted on those songs on record.

[Mr.Krautman]

FYI, I started a similar thread some time ago (2015) and had many interesting reactions:

http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...tudio-versions

[bigjohnwayne]

FYI, I started a similar thread some time ago (2015) and had many interesting reactions:

http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...tudio-versions

Oops, and I even posted at least once on that thread!

I knew the topic seemed vaguely familiar....

[tormato]

FYI, I started a similar thread some time ago (2015) and had many interesting reactions:

http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...tudio-versions

What do yo know? My replies were nearly identical!

[Gladiator1634]

Lou Reed Sweet Jane on Rock'n'roll Animal

[SteveSly]

Lou Reed Sweet Jane on Rock'n'roll Animal

I would also nominate "Heroin" from that album as well.

[GuitarGeek]

Lou Reed Sweet Jane on Rock'n'roll Animal

As well as every other song on that album. The Hunter/Wagner guitar team lit a fire under Lou and the rest of his back up band, even if Lou ended up feeling upstaged.

[yesstiles]

Yesshows - Ritual

[Lopez]

"Midnight Rambler" on the Rolling Stones' Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, especially when they go into that Canned-Heat-boogie riffing at the end.

[chalkpie]

Most Magma live albums. Some Cardiacs too.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

(Umm. Really? You like the Second's Out IKWIL better than the one from the first archive box?

Well, no accounting for tastes.)

As mentioned above, almost anything by Krimson.

"The Knife" from Genesis Live.

"Montgomery Clift" from the tour Random Hold did supporting Peter Gabriel, except that the damn thing fades out on the record, where live it built ... and built ... and built the tension that is kind of deflated by the fadeout.

Speaking of PG, "In Your Eyes" from Secret World Live

[yamishogun]

Speaking of PG, "In Your Eyes" from Secret World Live

For me, even more striking is "Secret World" on that album, now the only version I listen to. Runner up, "Come Talk to Me" but of course "In Your Eyes" is very good as well.

[Prehensile Pencil]

Led Zeppelin: "THANK YOU" from Live At Blueberry Hill.

[starless and bible black]

Here we go:

Yes: "Perpetual Change", "Long Distance Runaround/The Fish" (from Yessongs)
Gentle Giant: "The Runaway", "Experience" & "Excerpts from Octopus" (from Playing The Fool)
King Crimson: "Becascon/The Talking Drum/Larks' Toungues In Aspic Pt. 2" (from Cirkus-The Young Persons Guide To King Crimson Live) also "21st Century Schizoid Man" (from Epitaph)
Frank Zappa: "Catholic Girls" & "Zomby Woof" (from Cheap Thrills)
Emerson Lake & Palmer: "Aquatarkus" & "Toccatta" (from Welcome Back My Friends...) also "The Old Castle" & "The Curse Of Baba Yaga" (from Pictures At An Exhibition)

[bigbassdrum]

Emerson Lake & Palmer: "Aquatarkus" & "Toccatta" (from Welcome Back My Friends...)

[Unfrankie Valli]

Seriously struggling to think of definitive live versions apart from Frampton's 'Show Me the Way', already mentioned. EDIT: Maybe 'Still In Love With You', Lizzy?

Fair enough if you prefer any live version over the studio track, perhaps because you heard it first, but that isn't the same thing. I'm a massive Yes fan, and I love Yessongs, but I can't agree that anything on Yessongs (especially CTTE, SK, YIND, HOTS, all cited in this thread) is definitive.

[yesstiles]

......every single King Crimson song from the Bruford/Wetton era except for "Larks' One" and "Starless."

[bigjohnwayne]

......every single King Crimson song from the Bruford/Wetton era except for "Larks' One" and "Starless."

Yeah, you are pretty close.

Of the stuff they played live, the only ones I'd add to that list are "Book of Saturday", "Great Deceiver", and "The Night Watch".

[arabicadabra]

The Great Deceiver is better in the studio.

......every single King Crimson song from the Bruford/Wetton era except for "Larks' One" and "Starless."

[Mythos]

Not a prog song, but actually I have ONLY ever heard a live version:

Johnny Cash: Boy Named Sue

[Miciah]

Mountain - Dreams Of Milk And Honey from Flowers of Evil

I’m totally with you. Dreams Of Milk And Honey / Variations / Swan Theme may be my favorite all-time Mountain recording. If you’re a fan, try to track down a copy of the original FM radio broadcast. It has a richer, fuller bottom end that the vinyl just doesn’t have. If you’re a Pappalardi fan, it makes a big difference. It makes the original vinyl sound wimpy.

The best version of the broadcast I’ve come across has a tape flip during this track, but it’s plugged with an edit from the album version, so all the music is there.

I believe I’ve talked about this before, but I am very familiar with this track and still play it on a regular basis. When I first heard the FM broadcast I was just banging along as usual. Then, about 4 minutes into it, when Leslie and Felix start their back-and-forth guitar/bass dialogue, I am expecting to hear Leslie start the exchange, but it’s Felix! There are a few seconds edited from the official release.

You know those movie shots where they zoom a subject while moving the camera so the background appears to move away while the foreground subject is stationary? That’s exactly how I felt. Unlike, say, Hammer’s keyboard solo on Sister Andrea from Mahavishnu’s Between Nothingness and Eternity, where something like 20 plus seconds was removed and the edit can be clearly heard, I had no clue about this one. It was a reality shift.

I would also nominate "Heroin" from that album as well.

That’s another one that jumped to mind for me as well.

One that I don’t think has been mentioned is Robin Trower’s live version of Daydream from the 1975 live album. As great as the studio version is, I find that live version to be more emotional. Those last couple of minutes where Trower’s incredible sense of touch comes to the forefront and he is sculpting every note are particularly eloquent.

Another great overall live album is Lotus by Santana. I don’t think of it in terms of comparisons with studio recordings, but rather as an elegant experience in it’s own right. It’s something different from just the sum of the studio albums.

Then again, I also have the reinforcement of having seen that tour. To my memory, Lotus is essentially the show that I saw. It was outdoors, at night, and during the end of the set there were around 10 minutes of fireworks over the stage. Based on their reactions, I think it was unexpected for the band and they really got a kick out of it. I still remember Carlos soloing while he watched the sky.

Another unexpected and lucky thing that day was that I was standing at the front of the stage waiting for the show to start, and Flash walked on. They were an unannounced change in the lineup. But when Peter Banks walked out on stage, I recognized him immediately. Which reminds me of another outdoor festival where ELP was touring Brain Salad Surgery and an unscheduled/unannounced PFM opened the show.

Yeah, those were good days. Sorry for the self-indulgence and rambling…

[Rarebird]

Grobschnitt - Solar Music

[pianomankd]

Genesis - Driving The Last Spike (The Way We Walk, Phil's vocals are out of this world)

[SteveSly]

Genesis - Driving The Last Spike (The Way We Walk, Phil's vocals are out of this world)

Agree, that is a killer version of that track.