# Favorite live albums **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 16, 2020, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929 "2020-05-16T16:13:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/81 "2020-05-19T18:34:39Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Maybe because (IMO) most of the performances aren’t very good? Blasphemer! Admittedly some of my favorite performances (The Who, Sly/Family Stone) are more impressive visually than aurally. But I wore the grooves out of that album. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/83 "2020-05-19T19:26:07Z")
My "obvious"choices: Led Zeppelin. How the West was Won and The Who Live at Leeds. On the obscure side I submit H.P. Lovecraft Live May 11, 1968. This surfaced in the early Nineties. The sound quality is exceptional and the performance is full tilt. These guys opened for Pink Floyd during their first performances in the SF Bay area and I feel they may have influenced PF’s post-Barrett work. ---
**Author:** ![wahsahzii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@wahsahzii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wahsahzii)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/84 "2020-05-19T22:33:02Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > _Allman Brothers Band Live at Fillmore East_ Ditto, also Live Evil by Miles Davis. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/85 "2020-05-19T22:51:53Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > MTV Unplugged in New York by Nirvana I’m also fond of MTV Unplugged by Alice in Chains. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/86 "2020-05-19T23:04:09Z")
I remember seeing Pearl Jam doing an MTV Unplugged in the early 90s and it was stunningly good. But I’ve never seen it again - anyone else remember it? ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/87 "2020-05-19T23:09:46Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > I remember seeing Pearl Jam doing an MTV Unplugged in the early 90s and it was stunningly good. But I’ve never seen it again - anyone else remember it? https://www.youtube.com/embed/0csYYDUVnR8?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=PLiVZXPlIQSYgb-b_Nd5BZr4n-JsXpQQJ2 ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2020, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/88 "2020-05-19T23:56:35Z")
> [@Snake\_Plissken](#): > > ‘Reach Up and Touch the Sky’, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. Really? Hey, there are live albums from bands I didn’t even know had made them! Lots of ‘homework’ ahead… I’ll never forget getting in my friend’s sports car and he popped in an 8-track (hey, music that wasn’t AM radio in a car, cool!). Now he and I were prog-rock fans, and I expected something Yes/Rush-ish. Instead it started with a staccato beat on a cowbell, and then… Hammond organ? No, some kind of virtuoso slide guitar. And then came… energy. The band’s and the audience’s… here’s that opening: “[I Guess You Made It](https://youtu.be/Wokt14ii3c0?t=48)”. From Poco’s _DeLIVErin’_ album. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/89 "2020-05-20T00:23:39Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > In case anyone wanted to know the greatest live album of all time, it’s John Coltrane’s _Live at the Village Vanguard_. Nah. If you want to talk jazz, I’d go to **Stan Getz and J.J. Johnson Live at the Opera House,** Chicago, 1957. But I have plenty of other suggestions. > **[Stan Getz and J. J. Johnson at the Opera House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Getz_and_J._J._Johnson_at_the_Opera_House)** > > Stan Getz and J.J. Johnson at the Opera House is a 1957 live album by Stan Getz and J. J. Johnson. They were accompanied by the Oscar Peterson trio and Connie Kay on drums. Two different versions of the same material, one recorded in Chicago and one recorded in Los Angeles by the same musicians, were released by Verve under the same title. One recording was mono and the other was stereo. > The original album liner notes apparently misidentified which recording came from which location on which d... ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/90 "2020-05-20T00:55:30Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Allman Brothers: **Fillmore East** (Duane Allman’s masterpiece) > Zappa:\*\* Just Another Band From LA\*\* (Zappa’s greatest band; Howard Kaylan delivers the best male vocal performance in rock, with great support from Mark Volman) > Whom: **Live At Leeds** (Keith’s isolated drum tracks would be an equally great record) > Simon and Garfunkel: **Concert in the Park** (too good to last but what a reunion. Perfection, if only for one night.) > **The Concert For George** (George getting the tribute he deserved) > Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks **Where’s The Money?** Perfection. Dan Hicks had somewhat of a comeback in the early 2000s. He had a live album around that time called “Alive and Licking” that was pretty darn good. (I’m pretty sure I have a copy of Where’s The Money? somewhere… I need to go dig that up.) ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/91 "2020-05-20T01:54:41Z")
I love both Roxy and Elsewhere and Live at Leeds (especially the extended version that came out on CD). I will also submit Dylan and the Band: Before the Flood. It was out of print when I first heard about it in high school, but a teacher had it and let me record it. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/92 "2020-05-20T02:45:32Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Dan Hicks had somewhat of a comeback in the early 2000s. He had a live album around that time called “Alive and Licking” that was pretty darn good. (I’m pretty sure I have a copy of Where’s The Money? somewhere… I need to go dig that up.) The “comeback” album was “Beatin’ The Heat” and it was VERY good. To those of us who’d been following him since 1970, it wasn’t so much a comeback as it was his finally getting the recognition he’d been deserving for such a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/93 "2020-05-20T08:11:37Z")
Motörhead _No Sleep Till Hammersmith_ seconded, Talking Heads _Stop Making Sense_ seconded too. Bob Dylan’s _At Budokan_ was important to me at the end of the 70s/beginning of the 80s, still think it is a respectable Best Of live. On the more obscure side I love Carolyn Mas _Mas Hysteria_ ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/94 "2020-05-20T09:17:59Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Bob Dylan’s _At Budokan_ was important to me at the end of the 70s/beginning of the 80s, still think it is a respectable Best Of live. It was a strange one as I recall it. All the musical arrangements were so drastically different from the originals, you had to listen for the words to know which song was playing. The Budokan “Maggie’s Farm” sounded more like Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff.” ---
**Author:** ![Hook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@Hook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hook)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/95 "2020-05-20T14:54:55Z")
I don’t think I saw **Slade Live** mentioned yet. A band much better live than in the studio. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/96 "2020-05-20T15:31:26Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > It was a strange one as I recall it. All the musical arrangements were so drastically different from the originals, you had to listen for the words to know which song was playing. The Budokan “Maggie’s Farm” sounded more like Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff.” My first Dylan show in New Haven, 1978, was part of that tour and featured that huge band (and _chorus_). I would not call it…an optimal Dylan experience. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/97 "2020-05-20T15:49:56Z")
Marshall Tucker Band - Where We All Belong Well, half of it anyway. There was one studio disc and one live. The live one had only four songs but they all (southern) rock. 24 Hours at a Time is, in my opinion, one of the best live jams to come out of that (or any) era. I’ll second Waiting for Columbus - it was my first thought when I saw the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/98 "2020-05-20T16:05:49Z")
I’d forgotten, Yessongs, the first album I ever bought, is pretty great. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/99 "2020-05-20T19:06:57Z")
I would have included _Yessongs_, but the audio quality isn’t up to par. I do like to play Steve Howe’s “Mood for a Day” on guitar with the variant stylings heard on _Yessongs_, though. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/100 "2020-05-20T19:43:01Z")
Oops. I just realized I’d forgotten MC5’s Kick Out The Jams was live. That definitely belongs on my list. ---
**Author:** ![ynot49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b782af/32.png) [@ynot49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ynot49)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929/101 "2020-05-21T12:19:59Z")
Ted Nugent - Double Live Gonzo (although that was then) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-live-albums/853929.md?page=6)