# Greatest Live Album of All Time? What do you think? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [July 26, 2026, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939 "2026-07-26T20:54:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/21 "2026-07-27T00:28:54Z")
Another vote for the Talking Heads _Stop Making Sense_. It just starts out great and gets even better with each song. And a very honorable mention to the Who on _Live at Leeds_ and to Cheap Tricks _Live at Budokan_. Both of which were very influential to me in my youth. And of course no list would be complete without Neil Young and Crazy Horse performing _Live Rust_. I saw them perform it live and it was as spectacular as the album and the movie. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/22 "2026-07-27T01:05:20Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > I caught that tour at the show at Wente Vineyards. There was a group at a table up front who had a few too many glasses of vino and were talking all throught the set. At one point Peter started to introduce a song and stopped, the show, pointed at the group and said “This is MY concert and I’M talking now, so please SHUT UP!” That got a huge round of applause and resulted in a quiet table for the rest of the show. At our _FCA!35_ show, at the Chicago Theater, in between songs, as Frampton and his band were preparing for the next song, someone came walking onto the stage from the side; I initially assumed it was a roadie (and I think that Frampton did, too). Nope, it was a very attractive young woman, who walked up to Peter, and kissed him, before security caught up to her, and whisked her away. He was stunned for a moment, then laughed. “Does she realize how _old_ I am?”, he asked the crowd. “Though, she _was_ very pretty.” ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/23 "2026-07-27T01:19:34Z")
My answers are going to be hard, and very, _very_ subjective. Most of the time, I’m one of the people who enjoy the more “polished” songs from the studio album. So for me, a live album is usually an inferior format. Not, NOT throwing shade at those who have different preferences, just that mine are based entirely on how a particular live show or album affected me. My _personal_ favorite is from John Denver’s various Concerts at Red Rocks from the mid-70s. Perhaps because those become the core versions found on later Greatest Hit albums that were a big part of my musical life in the early 80’s car trips with my folks. And I enjoy the various jokes and cracks he makes during several of my favorite songs during the live performances. Another favorite (taken from the top 50 list link above) is U2’s ‘Under a Blood Red Sky’ (1983), another Red Rock location, but for very different reasons. I didn’t much get into U2 until the late 80s when I was personally more in charge of my musical playlists, rather than those chosen by my parents, but outside of classic protest songs, these were some of the first that spoke to me. And the visuals from the '83 concert between the brooding weather and lyrics were greater than the sum of their parts. Later yet, one of the few albums where I preferred the Live version to the studio would be “Somewhere in the Stratosphere” by Shinedown (from their 2011 tours). Again, with this particular band and energy, the live just works better and has more energy. And of course, a honorable mention to any number of Broadway cast recordings of various musicals, which probably shouldn’t qualify as “albums” but I wanted to mention anyway! I doubt any of my person mentions, mostly being quite niche and less than timeless should or do qualify for “Greatest Live Album of All Time” (well, unless you’re a big John Denver fan like me), but those are the ones that work best for me. Subjective, after all. 👍 ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/24 "2026-07-27T01:33:43Z")
There are far too many to make a definitive pick as the Greatest, but I’ll throw a couple more out that haven’t yet been mentioned: _Live Bullet_ - Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, 1976 _The Last Waltz_ - The Bank, 1978 ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/25 "2026-07-27T02:03:26Z")
**An Evening With John Denver** is one of my favorites. Thanks for mentioning JD. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/26 "2026-07-27T02:18:28Z")
Only three live albums ever got repeated use on my turntable: **The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl** - a truly horrible recording, but at age 13 I could crank up the volume, pick up my guitar, close my eyes, and pretend I was John Lennon in front of 50,000 screaming girls. **Cheap Trick at Budakan** - actually mostly recorded at a smaller venue in Osaka. A great performance in front of an enthusiastic crowd, the highlight being their cover of Fat’s Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame”. **The Ramones, It’s Alive** - 28 songs in less than an hour, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/27 "2026-07-27T02:39:15Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > _The Last Waltz_ - The Bank, 1978 I was going to also add _The Last Waltz_ , but my version was by The _Band_. I didn’t realize the film version was directed by Martin Scorsese. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/28 "2026-07-27T02:56:49Z")
Rory Gallagher / _Irish Tour ’74_ If you haven’t heard of Rory before, after listening to this or seeing the video from the tour, you may end up re-ordering your list of best live guitarists. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/29 "2026-07-27T02:59:07Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > _he Last Waltz_ , but my version was by The _Band_ Dammit!! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/30 "2026-07-27T03:08:15Z")
“Cheap Trick At Budokan” is great, as is Rush’s first live album, “All The World’s A Stage.” ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/31 "2026-07-27T03:34:20Z")
Always fun to find a fellow fan, both of the artist and album! ---
**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:** [July 27, 2026, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/32 "2026-07-27T03:37:01Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Another vote for the Talking Heads _Stop Making Sense_. Which is also the answer to “ **Greatest Live Concert _Movie_ of All Time? What do you think?** ” Then I’d add _The Last Waltz_ as well… ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/33 "2026-07-27T03:50:07Z")
1. _Get Yer Ya-yas Out!_, Rolling Stones 2. _Live at Leeds_, The Who 3. _The Last Waltz_, The Band and others 4. _Bursting Out!_, Jethro Tull 5. _Europe '72_, Grateful Dead Yes, I’m aware that the Dead album and (to a much lesser extent) the Stones album had some studio fixes. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/34 "2026-07-27T06:55:26Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Rory Gallagher / _Irish Tour ’74_ Oh, yeah - Rory was a great live act. Not an awesome lyricist, I don’t think he had the best songs in the world. But he was always entertaining, especially on an acoustic IMO. His early power trio Taste also had a pretty decent live album from their performance at the [Isle of Wight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDlxNgm1J1A). ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/35 "2026-07-27T08:30:58Z")
Looked for Cheap Trick, Peter Frampton and Talking Heads on the list, which is good (although I think Frampton deserves a higher ranking). I also love the Fela Kuti one with Ginger Baker, although it’s not remotely my favorite Kuti material. Keith Jarrett at Koln is also great. Missing from the list: [Laurie Anderson’s **United States Live**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Live). It was perhaps too niche for this list but it was absolutely groundbreaking stuff. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/36 "2026-07-27T08:40:39Z")
IMHO, one of the best live albums ever was **Leonard Cohen – Live in London** at the O2 Arena in 2008, which was recorded and filmed and released as both an album and a video. IIRC at that time Cohen was more or less retired but had to go on the road again when it turned out that his manager had embezzled most of his retirement funds. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/YrLk4vdY28Q/maxresdefault.jpg "Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah (Official Live in London 2008)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/37 "2026-07-27T09:54:16Z")
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds : _Live Seeds_ The Cure : _Show_ Both 1993 releases. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/38 "2026-07-27T12:06:20Z")
A couple not mentioned yet that hold a dear place in my heart: - _One More from the Road_, Lynyrd Skynyrd - _One for the Road_, The Kinks - _Live_ and _Blow Your Face Out_, J. Geils Band ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/39 "2026-07-27T12:49:54Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > **The Ramones, It’s Alive** - 28 songs in less than an hour, IIRC. If you listen to each of their live albums, you can see their progression of tempo. Faster, and faster, and faster. The **1 2 3 4** was yelled in record time at the end. I’ve never been that enamored of live albums but one I have listened to a lot is KISS _Alive!_ . I would never claim this is the greatest and I also know they did a lot of studio work on it (I’m guessing that isn’t unique for “live” albums), but if you like early KISS, this live album is great. Pretty funny coming from a guy with an avatar of Bob Dylan and a couple of live albums mentioned above that he is part of. I do like them as well. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939/40 "2026-07-27T13:01:13Z")
I have to say that I think that Cheap Trick _Silver_ is one of the best filmed concert performances ever. The album of it is good, but not great. Now, give me a chance to pick a live album that always brings a smile to my face and I’m going to go for _The Mothers - Fillmore East June 1971_. Always makes me feel 60 years younger. I would have lots more love for The Allman Brothers’ album if my drunk roomie didn’t ALWAYS come back late and put “Whipping Post” on at 120 dB. That song has been ruined for me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-live-album-of-all-time-what-do-you-think/1031939.md?page=3)