Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Love You Live

The bonus version of Some Girls made me think of this album.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Pulse

76 minutes of Pink Floyd here.



And 70 more minutes here.

It's unfortunate that the only official Floyd live albums are from the latter Gilmour-Mason-Wright era, and that Pulse is the only Floyd album on spotify.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Live 1967

Next live album: Hey Hey, it's the Monkees



The Live 1967 album came out during the mid-80s Monkees revival, and showed that they really could sing and play, and really were in the young generation, and really did have something to say.

Really. Just like a real band. And hopefully, someday, they'll be inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, over Jann Wenner's dead body.

Monday, November 21, 2011

How The West Was Won

I borrowed this album from the library a few years ago, and disc one still slays me.

Friday, November 18, 2011

One For The Road

Today's live album is One For The Road, which was my gateway to the Kinks.



OFTR was my first Kinks album, so I learned most of these classics from the live versions. I knew them from the songs played on the radio like "Lola" and "Superman", but discovered many new favorites that turned out to be old favorites because they were all from the mid-60s. A few months later, I picked up Spotlight On The Kinks with the original studio versions of these songs and never looked back. Rock bands will come, rock bands will go, but rock and roll will go on forever!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

One Night In November

Next live album: Gotta Let This Hen Out



This was my second exposure to RH (after Fegmania!) and the first time I heard most of the Soft Boys songs. I still don't know the studio version of "Listening To the Higsons" as well as this live version.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Dead Reckoning

My next live album. One of my all-time favs, even after thirty years.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

That Striped Sunlight Sound

My next live album is this one from the Go-Betweens. I've always liked the Dylan quote during the chorus.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

At Town Hall

Today's live album is Eels with Strings: Live At Town Hall.



I borrowed the DVD from the library after it came out, but never picked up the album, even though it had my favorite versions of E's best known songs ("The Only Thing I Care About" and "Novacaine For The Soul") and a few choice covers. The one song I grabbed from emusic was the cover of "Pretty Ballerina".

Sunday, November 6, 2011

At The Matrix

This weekend's lost live album is the Doors at the Matrix in SF in March 1967.



I tried to find Absolutely Live on spotify, but couldn't find it. Instead they had a bunch of live shows from the 1970 tour as part of the Bright Midnight series, and one show from the Matrix in SF in 1967, just after the release of their debut album and before they broke nationally.

The Matrix is a tiny little club in the upper Fillmore with a capacity of under 200 that's featured some of the best live performances ever, by the Jefferson Airplane, the Flamin Groovies, and others. It was the first place the Doors ever played outside LA, before anyone knew who they were, and it sounds like there's almost no one at the club. They played almost everything from their first two albums, without any teenybopper screaming or poetry breaks, sounding like a band on the way to bigger and better things. Which they were.

Friday, November 4, 2011

At Budakan

My second live album for November is Cheap Trick's At Budakan.



This record was the soundtrack to my first year of high school, but I never bothered to upgrade my original cassette copy with any of the CD reissues (Budakan II or Budakan: The Complete Concert). I created a spotify playlist from the latter album that just had the ten tracks from the original album (starting with "Hello There" and ending with "Clock Strikes Ten") with "Southern Girls" in the place of "Need Your Love". I'm not sure why my favorite CT song wasn't on the original At Budakan, but it definitely should be there.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

In Concert

For the month of November, I'm going to reconnect with some live albums that I haven't heard in awhile, courtesy of spotify. First up is the Beach Boys In Concert. This double live album came out in 1973, when the Beach Boys were a major live concert draw but their albums weren't selling that well, so the solution was a double live album.

It was recorded on the 1972/73 Holland tour, before they became an oldies revue, so it features songs from the late 60s and early 70s that only diehards know, plus a handful of songs from Pet Sounds (which had just been reissued). Brian wasn't touring with the band at this point, but they had Carl, Dennis, Al, and Mike with Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar as prominent members. Chaplin's "Leaving This Town" (from the Holland album) was one of the highlights of the set, as well as being one of the only tracks on youtube.


I have this album on vinyl, but hadn't played it in a long time and never picked up the CD reissue. It's hardly essential, but definitely a fun listen.