The first LP I ever owned (age nine) was the sublime Stones album Get Yer Ya-yas Out (live in 1969). So, I have always been MUCH more familiar with the live versions of these songs:
Jumpin’ Jack Flash emphasizing just one of the two intertwined riffs
Stray Cat Blues slow, with a very different riff, and no coda
Midnight Rambler without the annoying slide guitar, and loads more simmering energy
Sympathy for the Devil — totally different, guitar-based vibe, no congas, etc.
Love In Vain - electric …
… etc.
As I gradually encountered the studio versions in subsequent years, I was fascinated. Mostly I like the live versions better (and not JUST because I heard them first)…especially Midnight Rambler.
Mainly I was impressed at how they experimented live (especially with Sympathy and Stray Cat)…mainly the influence of Mick Taylor, I’m pretty sure.
For me the two obvious ones are “Live At Leeds”, head and shoulders above anything else The Who ever recorded IN MY OPINION
and
The Duane Allman Brothers “Live At Fillmore East”. Duane Allman’s masterpiece.
The live version of Barenaked Ladies’ “Life, In a Nutshell” is so much better than the original. No matter which version you prefer, it’s a great demonstration of the amazing difference a simple rhythmic shift can make.
Interesting. For years, Barenaked Ladies refused to sell their studio tracks digitally, so I was forced to buy the live version of “Alcohol.” It’s fun and energetic, but the coda is too manic and over-the-top for my taste.
Eric Clapton’s Unplugged set produced some nice gems that were not necessarily better, but interesting alternate acoustic takes. Take ‘Layla’. The studio version we all know and love is, I’m sure, on a lot of lists of one of the greatest rock songs in history. And I would tend to agree. But, I always kind of felt there was something just a little bit screechy and hysterical about Clapton’s vocals, especially in the chorus. Which, I mean, is not inappropriate to a song about a young man in anguish about a woman he’s in love with who’s messing with his mind.
The Unplugged Layla is a slow Blues shuffle; Claptons’ voice is a mellow croon-- the Layla of an older, maybe wiser man resigned to his fate, not a younger man screaming in mental anguish. Again, not better than the studio Layla, just different in an interesting way.
Except that liking Kiss is perfectly socially acceptable. (I was never much of a fan, but plenty of musicians I know – punks, metalheads, rock and rollers – all seem to unashamedly like Kiss.)
Nowadays people do seem to revere KISS as rock legends but I do remember back in the 80s and 90s a lot of people seem to think of them negatively–as a purely commercial act with no artistic merit.
I remember thinking this in High School, but then I had a lot of strong opinions of bands I hated because I thought they were too ‘commercial’. Not that I really knew what I was talking about. I seem to remember saying back then that Kiss was a band for 12 year olds to listen to and think they were badass.
Yes, Rush’s ‘‘Exit Stage Left’’ was the one I was going 2mention; all tracks are from their "Permanent Waves’’ and “Moving Pictures” tours [late’70s/early '80s] & there just seems 2b extra fire in these live performances. Special high*points are ESL’s versions of “Jacob’s Ladder” and “La Villa Strangiato”; even friends of mine who don’t like Rush have had OMFG reactions when I’ve played these songs 4them & to me that simply confirms the epic musicianship of Rush.
Where We All Belong - Marshall Tucker Band. Its a double album. Two sides studio, two sides live. This was my introduction to MTB so I can’t really say it changed my views on their studio stuff. It just made me appreciate the live material even more. As I’ve mentioned in other threads, 24 Hours at a Time is my favorite ‘recorded live’ song of all time. Probably favorite song, period. Its a shame that there is no video. (Sultans of Swing-Alchemy Live is a close second and best live video-recorded performance I’ve ever seen)
The live version of “Bad” on U2’s “Wide Awake in America” EP crushes the studio version like a grape, IMHO.
I concur with all the above praise for Zappa. The trilogy of live albums recorded on the final ill-fated tour are all brilliant, though I’m partial to “Make a Jazz Noise Here.”
The Ramones’ “It’s Alive” is magnificent, basically recreating the first three records but only more intense. Later live discs like 1991’s “Loco Live” weren’t nearly as good, because by then they were really just punching in for a shift at the office.
The latest Waterboys box set “The Magnificent Seven,” which documents the incarnation of the group that recorded “Room to Roam,” has a lot of live material in it, and it’s pretty glorious.
Hehe, I haven’t gotten through the thread yet, but I have to mention that their live records have more overdubs than most live records of the time. They’re really best considered live-ish, or one of my favorite class of studio records: a live in-studio recording with the vocals overdubbed and enough overdubs of the other instruments to smooth out the rough spots. However, the first record apparently only kept the drum track completely live.
I wouldn’t say it makes the KISS live stuff bad, but I personally barely consider their live records live recordings.
And hey, I’ve edited a recording of one of my bands where we stopped in the middle of a song and argued about how the song went. The result was so seamless none of the members could pick it out, and what I edited was basically how that song was arranged after that. Studio tricks are for everyone now. But I’d never release that recording as “Live”, and that’s why I have little chance of making it in the music business.
Not an entire album. But compare the high energy live version of “Coming Up” (Paul McCartney & Wings) to the studio version (which McCartney recorded in his basement with an old track recorder). Like 2 entirely different songs.
Yeah, that’s what I thought of first when I read the thread title. Any time I hear someone play the studio version on the radio, I wonder what the hell they were thinking.
Totally agreed.
NOMEANSNO’s live album Live + Cuddly is ruling, and it was made the way I prefer live records to be made. It was recorded over a series of shows, and they used the ones they liked the best. If a song appears on that double LP, it’s probably my favorite version. The studio versions usually seem weird and sterile by comparison.
It was one of the first albums I bought (3 discs!) and some of the songs (Starship Trooper, Yours is No Disgrace) are livelier than the originals.
Also, Genesis “Seconds Out”. I recently saw Steve Hackett play the whole album in order and entirety live. Yet the 1976 album also has Bill Bruford on drums.
Given the amount of studio “sweetening” that went into Stop Making Sense it really doesn’t much qualify as a “Live” album. IMO. YMMV.
My positive contribution: Any live album by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. No matter the song, it will be better than the studio version, or at least different enough to make you look at it again with newish eyes. Especially when he either takes a rocker acoustic (“Thunder Road” as a solo piano/voice piece) or something from Nebraska scored for the whole band (“Atlantic City”).
