Originally Posted by 3RDegree_Robert
Yes; the Live version of "Coming Up" got more spins on the radio than the studio version (and it's the version of the song that was placed on the Wingspan Hits & History 2CD set). For me it got the nod it's So Much Better than the studio version.
Can't forget about these Live Gems:
Weather Report; "Black Market", "Teen Town", "Freezing Fire", "Cucumber Slumber" (from Live And Unreleased) and "8:30", "Sightseeing", "Gibraltar", "Scarlet Woman" (from The Legendary Live Tapes).
Plenty of Floyd to choose from but Embryo always caught my ear as one that improved with the 10+ min version I've heard on several boots..
Um, isn't Rust Never Sleeps a live album also...
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
There's a ton of Who songs that were better live but one that I always insist on is the version of "Won't Get Fooled Again" off The Kids Are Alright soundtrack. It's just ANGRY!
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Little Feat-Waiting For Columbus
I rarely bother with the studio albums, except for Sailin' Shoes.
"The Knife" from Genesis Live is obviously the definitive version as that Hackett solo is absolutely amazing!!!
The Prog Corner
Loggins and Messina--Angry Eyes.
The older I get, the better I was.
TARKUS - WBMFTTSTNEL&GELP All others are imposters, especially the studio version.
Much of U2s canon are better live, especially the Wide Awake in America EP; A Sort of Homecoming, from their Unforgettable Fire album, is a dirge but on WAiA its transformed into an anthem. Excellent sound quality as well.
Slightly OT: just noticed that the liner-notes from Three Sides Live from the Box-set 1973-2007 doesn't mention Steve Hackett playing on It/Watcher Of The Skies.
I also have the Japanese Toshiba-version which does mention him playing on this 1976 recording.
Townshend was pissed that Jeff Stein made them do a second take (seriously, the version in the movie is stitched together from two takes, and Stein tells on the DVD commentary how upset Pete was when he asked for them to "do it again"). That's why it's "angry"!
Definitive larks 1 and red for me come from the current lineups live in Toronto album -just searing aggressive play from the band and all parts fire on all cylinders. The addition of double bass drumming to red just makes it utterly ferocious even more so than it already is!
You're Not Alone from the same album blows the 'Images at Twilight' studio version away. For me it's the main reason for owning that album. But yeah, agree with also on No Regrets and Humble Stance. Damn Tight Band!
As some ancient Chinese philosopher once said "Just dig a hole that's deep enough, and everyone will want to jump into it."
The greatest rock musician at the peak of his career...
Always the definitive versions for me. Never liked the speeded up chipmunk vocals on the album. Led Zeppelin was a LIVE band. So visceral and powerful, yet could be just as sensitive and nuanced in a live situation. I hadn't visited this in a long time... Bonzo and JPJ, I mean what a rhythm section for Page to just go off over it. Pure magic.
The 70s were The era of classic live albums.
A few to add:
Wishbone Ash - Live Dates
BeBop Deluxe - Live in the Air Age
Santana - Moonflower ( most of it)
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
801 Live
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
The best version of "Games Without Frontiers" has to be on the PG Live in Athens BluRay. So much fire & energy from that band of then 30-something musicians and a strutting, goose-stepping PG to lead them.
Another track from the same run of shows that didn't make it onto Live/Dead that was also better than the studio version is Cosmic Charlie. It has much more grit and pow! than it does on the studio version.
Another interesting point about Live/Dead is that scrap of improv you hear at the very beginning of side one, before they launch into Dark Star proper, is actually the very end of Mountains Of The Moon. They do this, I think on all four of the Fillmore West shows from this run, and they did it at least one other occasion, in Boston a few weeks later, where they play a quasi-acoustic version of Mountains Of The Moon (with Garcia and Weir on acoustic guitars, and TC on electric organ) which then segues into a jam that in turn segues into a fully electric Dark Star.
May have already been mentioned but listening to Moonflower (Santana) today and you gotta give Carlos props.. he brings a whole different level to his songs in a live setting.. Europa stands out for one..
There's a great version of Europa on the Viva Santana best of, where he sustains a single note for something like 90 seconds. Not feedback, he hits one note and holds it with the most amazing sustain you've ever heard in your life.
They did that Mountains of the Moon->Dark Star transition a few other times in early 1969. One Dick's Picks has a show 4/26/69 where the Mountains outro leads to China Cat Sunflower instead of Dark Star.
Yeah, you're talking about Dick's Picks Vol. 26, with that particular combo being from the Chicago show, which also had the 40 minute Viola Lee Blues/Feedback/What's Become Of The Baby/We Bid You Goodnight encore which has remained unreleased (Viola Lee Blues appears on a compilation called Fall Out From The Phil Zone, but the last 20 minutes of the sequence reputedly exists only on a tape that's not considered good enough quality for release, or some similar excuse).
There's a really good Mountains Of The Moon/Dark Star/St Stephen/The Eleven suite on one of the shows from The Ark, in Boston, from 4/22/69, which is really good too. That's actually the first version I heard of that Mountains.../Dark Star combination as I didn't get to hear the unedited 2/22 show until sometime in the internet era.
Not to mention a hot version of Dance Sister Dance.
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