What do yo know? My replies were nearly identical!Originally Posted by Mr.Krautman
What do yo know? My replies were nearly identical!
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.
......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".
Not a prog song, but actually I have ONLY ever heard a live version:
Johnny Cash: Boy Named Sue
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.
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…
Grobschnitt - Solar Music
Genesis - Driving The Last Spike (The Way We Walk, Phil's vocals are out of this world)
I’m sure that Frank would agree with you on the live Cruising For Burgers. It’s marvelous. But the Uncle Meat version remains definitive for me in all its percussive thud-like, clarinet and farfisa glory. The last few seconds still send tingles down my spine.
The Great Deceiver is better in the studio.
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.
Camel... just about anything from A Live Record but Never Let Go in particular... just awesome!!
A couple of Genesis tunes mentioned from Seconds Out and 3SL... I think "I know What I Like" from London 1980 is the best version of that I have heard as well as the In The Cage medley with the Supper section that closes it from 86/87. They both are awesome and my favorite versions but not official recordings.
The Helsinki (Vol. 2) Uncle Meat is equally as glorious imo - the playing is effortless and Ruth's live marimba tone with Duke's keys are just gorgeous.
If it isn't Krautrock, it's krap.
"And it's only the giving
That makes you what you are" - Ian Anderson
Agree, that is a killer version of that track.
"Normal is just the average of extremes" - Gary Lessor
Gentle Giant - On Reflection
Neil Young - Like A Hurricane (any live version)
I remember tomorrow
Paul McCartney & Wings - Wings Over America - just about every Wings tune here is better than its studio counterpart.
Someone mentioned Bob Seger Live Bullet. Travelin Man/Beautiful Loser from that album it's gorgeous but then again much of Live Bullet is better than its studio counterpart as well.
Of course just about every live album from the 70s has the caveat that it may not be as live as it should be.
I agree with both of those. Many of the Wings songs especially had more energy live.
A fewof classic rock mainstays that were better live:
REO Speedwagon - Riding The Storm Out
Foghat - Slow Ride
Head East - Never Been Any Reason
Cheap Trick - Surrender
Much better than his later live-recordings, where the brass and wind-instruments are replaced by keyboards.
Shame on me for not mentioning this, as I still think that Solar Music Live is one of the best live albums out there. Get the CD version with the full version of the show, complete with band introductions and whatnot.
Anything from the Helsinki Concert is definitive to my ears. All right, maybe not “Dupree’s Paradise,” the percussion noodling seems to go on for an eternity, but everything else...that band was totally on fire that night! I like how they go from playing a Finnish folk song that everyone’s sight-reading, playing for the first time, back into the regular set without missing a beat! Now that’s a seriously talented band!
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
Although it's missing the piano intro, real flute, and PG, I've always considered the "Second's Out" version of "Firth of Fifth" superior to the original recording. I also prefer the SO version of "Supper's Ready" from "Apocalypse in 9/8" until the end.
Didn't the live version of Paul McCartney's "Coming Up" get more airplay than the studio version for whatever reason? The name of this post made me think of this immediately.
^Yes, a 1979 live version by Wings from Glasgow (the whole show has been bootlegged) was released as a single in America and became a big hit. I much prefer the quirkier solo studio version from 1980 myself, as did John Lennon.
John Lennon weighed in on that song? Wow! Did that happen much in the Beatles solo years?
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