Live albums with lousy sound

[GuitarGeek]

The Chicago At Carnegie Hall thread got me thinking about things. The members of Chicago, or some of them, anyway, have always maintained that the sound on that album wasn't terrible, because the "Carnegie Hall wasn't built for electric music". In particular, James Pankow said the horn section "sounded like kazoos". I don't agree with that assessment, but I did make me wonder if there are any live albums out there that have genuinely bad sound quality. The only one I can think of is King Crimson Earthbound. Anything else I think of sounds more or less great.

Note: I'm not talking about bootlegs, or archival things where whichever band decided to put out an audience tape as an archival release (as occurred with some of the King Crimson Collector's Club things), I mean a regular live album, that was released at the time of it's recording, or soon thereafter. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[progcd54]

I'll cast my vote for a couple of Yes releases. Yessongs was not too great and has never been improved. And 2nd, though not released on LP or CD...originally on laserdisc then on DVD (IIRC) Yes-QPR was abysmal.

[Lopez]

If I remember it correctly, the Kinks' Live Kinks. The girls screaming made the rekkid almost unlistenable.

The audience noise on the Yardbirds Live featuring Jimmy Page is distracting.

[Mister Triscuits]

The Stones’ Got LIVE If You Want It was the hottest of messes.

[Scott Bails]

Yessongs was not too great and has never been improved.

This was my first thought.

[pb2015]

Welcome Back.. by ELP had disappointing sound.

Maybe "lousy" is going too far, but the Mothers Fillmore East 1971 was surprisingly grungy for a multitrack recording at a good hall, especially since Zappa tended to prefer polished recordings. I'm curious how the new release will compare.

[Dave (in MA)]

The Stones’ Got LIVE If You Want It was the hottest of messes.

And some of it is studio recordings with screaming girls overdubbed.

[GuitarGeek]

The Stones’ Got LIVE If You Want It was the hottest of messes.

I forgot about that one. Isn't that effectively an audience recording? I thought I read once they just hung a couple mics from the balcony. At any rate, the band apparently disowned it.

[GuitarGeek]

Welcome Back.. by ELP had disappointing sound.
.

That's what happens when you skip doing a proper stereo mix, and simply fold down the quad mix into stereo.

[Mister Triscuits]

Welcome Back.. by ELP had disappointing sound.

The King Biscuit release had some of the same recordings used for WBMFTTSTNE (one giveaway is the doofus in the audience who yells "Get crazy!" before "Lucky Man") in superior sound.

[JJ88]

The Stones’ Got LIVE If You Want It was the hottest of messes.

There's a fan edit around of the original mono album mix (cutting the two fake live tracks) and I actually enjoy it! The version on CD, which is some sort of remix, not so much.

A few of those 60s 'live' albums are weird composites. Beach Boys Concert is another one.

I'm not sure if it's just the CD but Black Sabbath's Live Evil really sounds weird. Very odd mixing choices made, in places.

I don't like the typically 80s mix of John Lennon's Live In NYC. Crappy drum sound.

[GuitarGeek]

The King Biscuit release had some of the same recordings used for WBMFTTSTNE (one giveaway is the doofus in the audience who yells "Get crazy!" before "Lucky Man") in superior sound.

Yeah, those were probably the only tracks that got a proper stereo mix.

And you remind me, I totally forgot about ELP In Concert/Works Live. That's got pretty terrible sound too, in particular, Lake's infamous "bedspring" bass sound.

[3LockBox]

It would be easier for me to name live albums I didn't think sound like shit. And the ones I do like were probably "sweetened" anyway.

[JJ88]

Yes Works Live is a sonic disaster. And it's bizarrely sequenced- ending with 'Tank'?- whilst leaving off 'Pirates'.

I believe there are issues with the multi-tracks. From memory the mono video of the Montreal show didn't have the same issues.

[pb2015]

That's what happens when you skip doing a proper stereo mix, and simply fold down the quad mix into stereo.

This is supposed to be a reason for the poor sound on the Grateful Dead's Steal Your Face too.

[moecurlythanu]

On Your Feet, Or On Your Knees by BOC had the vocals intentionally down in the mix, because they didn't think they were good singers. At least that's what they said in a magazine interview around the time of release. Did they ever go back and remix it?

[the winter tree]

EARTHBOUND.

[SteveSly]

On Your Feet, Or On Your Knees by BOC had the vocals intentionally down in the mix, because they didn't think they were good singers. At least that's what they said in a magazine interview around the time of release. Did they ever go back and remix it?

I have the B.O.C. complete album collection box set that they came out with a few years ago and I thought the CD sounded better than the original LP that I have, but maybe it is just my imagination. Not sure if it was re-mixed or not.

[Fracktured]

EARTHBOUND.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!


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[MudShark22]

As noted in Post #1 [emoji854]

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[GuitarGeek]

This is supposed to be a reason for the poor sound on the Grateful Dead's Steal Your Face too.

I've never actually heard Steal Your Face, so I don't know how bad it sounds. But I remember Owsley talking about working on that project, talking about how frelled up the master tapes were, there was stuff missing on the tapes, and they had to do a lot of overdubs, etc.

[Zeuhlmate]

This was my first thought.

Seconded

[Zeuhlmate]

EARTHBOUND.

True - but the lousy raw sound has a certain charm.

[polmico]

Every album released during the various UK reunions, but I’m pretty sure that’s due to my faulty sound system and not a fault of anyone involved with recording, producing or releasing said albums.

[Enidi]

If I remember it correctly, the Kinks' Live Kinks. The girls screaming made the rekkid almost unlistenable.

The audience noise on the Yardbirds Live featuring Jimmy Page is distracting.

I remember it being an audience at a bullfight mixed in to the original live recording..which Page disliked..and so he released Yardbirds 68' without that kind of noise in the mix ...and it sounds much better overall except for Keith Relf singing off key along with his voice cracking. I believe that could be attributed to drink. His voice sounds fine with Renaissance.