# Best (and worst) live albums **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 25, 2002, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781 "2002-07-25T16:27:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/1 "2002-07-25T16:27:40Z")
I’m a huge fan of live albums – when they are actually good that is. A few of my favorites: **Barenaked Ladies - Rock Spectacle** : Great concert band, and this album really captures the experience. Plus the recording quality on some of the songs is most excellent. **Underworld - Everything Everything** : Aren’t electronica bands supposed to suck live? Some of the songs on this are SO much better than the album versions. Maybe the fact that it’s live is incidental (just some cheering at various points), but it’s still a great album. **Billy Idol - VH1 Storytellers** : The “new” Billy Idol. Mostly acoustic, excellent quality. I didn’t even like him the first time around, and this album made me a fan. So what are your favorites? And on the flipside, how about ones that really suck? ---
**Author:** ![ElwoodCuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/edb3f5/32.png) [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/2 "2002-07-25T17:13:51Z")
Billy Joel’s live album is terrible because it’s not really live. They cut out a LOT of the New Year’s Eve concert (the bootleg is 3 CDs, the release is 2) and because the album was quite obviously engineered in the studio after the actual recording was done. ---
**Author:** ![taggert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/96bed5/32.png) [@taggert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taggert)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/3 "2002-07-25T17:21:07Z")
Eric Clapton, Just One Night Allman Brothers, Live At The Fillmore East Grateful Dead, Live Dead I am so old. ---
**Author:** ![WavyDavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3da27b/32.png) [@WavyDavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WavyDavy)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/4 "2002-07-25T17:43:12Z")
Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus **taggert** - you’re not the only old one 'round here 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/5 "2002-07-25T18:09:38Z")
Best Live/Dead (Grateful Dead). The first 16 track live recording. Clear as a bell and a high energy set. Fillmore Concerts (Allman Bros.) The Tom Dowd commentary on the liner notes is a bit self-congratulatory, but this re-working of the material on Live at the Fillmore East is still stunning. “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” is actually from two different performances but the production and engineering make it flawless. Live at the Apollo (James Brown) Soul Brother Number 1. The Godfather of Soul. The Hardest Working Man in Show Business. Guaranteed to make you break out in a cold sweat. Travels (Pat Metheny) “Are You Going With Me?” to open the disc is perfect. Sort of a samba beat to lead things off, then swirling up and up and up. Worst Steal Your Money (er…Face) (Grateful Dead) Hands down the worst. ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/6 "2002-07-25T18:26:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by taggert \* > \*\*\ > > Allman Brothers, Live At The Fillmore East > > \ > \*\* Amen. Preach it Brother/Sister. Preach it. ---
**Author:** ![ScriptAnalyst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@ScriptAnalyst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScriptAnalyst)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/7 "2002-07-25T19:24:33Z")
The Who, Live at Leeds – great sound, great performances. ---
**Author:** ![Fibonacci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df788c/32.png) [@Fibonacci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibonacci)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/8 "2002-07-25T19:28:42Z")
I have to agree with **Little Feat** Waiting For Colombus, and **Allman Brothers** Live At The Fillmore East. I’d also include **The Who** Live At Leeds. Conversely, **The Rolling Stones** Get Your Ya-Yas Out sounded pretty awful. I guess the grey in my beard is showing too. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/9 "2002-07-25T19:41:24Z")
**Dire Straits** , _Alchemy_. ---
**Author:** ![Oblong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c0e974/32.png) [@Oblong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblong)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/10 "2002-07-25T20:10:09Z")
Bob Seger’s Live Bullet and Just about any J. Geils live album. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/11 "2002-07-25T21:25:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Alessan \* > \*\*Dire Straits, _Alchemy_. \*\* Yup, that one’s certainly among my favourites. The absolute number one in my book is **Rush** ’s _Different Stages_. Double live album with an excellent production, a great mix of old and new material, **and** an extra CD with a 1978 concert at London’s _Hammersmith_ that completely knocks you off your feet. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/12 "2002-07-25T21:29:58Z")
Very few live albums by my favorite bands are terrible- but most of them are unnecessary. Too often, a live album is little more than a Greatest Hits album with clapping between the songs. But hey, if the band is good enough and has enough good songs, that can be enjoyable, too. The only really LOUSY live album I’ve ever owned was Led Zeppelin’s “The Song Remains the Same.” Robert Plant’s voice was in very bad form that night, and while John Bonham was a greta drummer in many respects, he was a godawful soloist (which made “Moby Dick” a crashing bore). - As for GREAT live albums? Well, my favorites are The Clancy Brothers Live at Carnegie Hall Renaissance Live at Carnegie Hall The Who Live at Leeds (the Who completely reinterpreted their songs for this one; most bands’ live albums feature note for note recreations of the studio versions of their songs… which means there’s no real reason to buy the live albums!) Deep Purple’s “Made in Japan” (yeah, I know I’m a 70s classic rock dinosaur- wanna make something of it?). ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/13 "2002-07-25T22:08:46Z")
Oooh, _Alchemy_ is awesome… good call, guys. Some of my other favorites are Tangerine Dream’s _Ricochet_, and Joe Satriani’s _Dreaming #11_. Though the latter only has about 25-30 minutes of live concert stuff (along with one studio track), it captures the experience of a Satriani concert perfectly. Probably the most disappointing live albums I know of are Alanis Morrisette’s _Unplugged_ album (yuck), and the surprisingly-bad Police _Live!_ double-CD released in 1995. I’ve never heard the Police sound worse, honestly. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/14 "2002-07-25T22:21:51Z")
Worst? The Rolling Stones _Still Life_. It was recorded sometime in 1981 and it sucks hot donkey sack. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/15 "2002-07-26T00:01:34Z")
I still like Warren Zevon’s “Stand in the Fire.” Has some of his hits (“Excitable Boy” “Werewolves of London”) and some other good tracks, like the Bo Diddly song. ---
**Author:** ![Dragon\_Phoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@Dragon\_Phoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragon_Phoenix)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/16 "2002-07-26T00:17:41Z")
Peter Gabriel plays live (early eighties), hands down the best live album I have ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![Semp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Semp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Semp)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/17 "2002-07-26T00:21:47Z")
**Stop Making Sense** by the Talking Heads, especially the new longer version, is the best I’ve heard (and yes, I do mean it’s better than **The Name Of This Band is The Talking Heads** ). Second would probably be **Curiosity Anomalies** by the Cure. Also, the live tracks on the three **Satan Live** singles by Orbital are quite good. Oh, and Jane’s Addiction’s self-titled first album also bears mention. The worst? Um… The Orb’s **Live '93** disc doesn’t do much to improve the album tracks. ---
**Author:** ![Roadwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@Roadwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadwalker)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/18 "2002-07-26T00:25:04Z")
Bruce Springstein’s live compalation album the Best. ---
**Author:** ![koawala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bb73d2/32.png) [@koawala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koawala)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/19 "2002-07-26T00:44:07Z")
Blue Oyster Cult - ETL Iron Maiden - Live After Death Dead Can Dance - Toward The Within The Good Rats - Live At Last I like,like,like,like. ---
**Author:** ![WSLer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781/20 "2002-07-26T02:38:39Z")
Semp, **Stop Making Sense** is essentially a studio album, what with all of the post-“live” production and overdubbing that went on. Fibonacci, One of the funniest record reviews I ever read was for **Get Your Ya-Yas Out:**"Very muddy tapes of teenagers screaming. The Best: Bruce Springsteen & The E. Street Band: Live 1975-1985 85-75\<-----This was a 2cd bootleg set. A number of the Pearl Jam “official bootlegs” are excellent. The decent: Guns N’ Roses: Live Era 1987-1991 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-and-worst-live-albums/120781.md?page=2)