Swish
02-02-2009, 11:34 AM
So here is the week you've all been waiting for, yawning with excitement. Sad to say, but Davey guessed this # 1 selection, although he knows his way around Google so I'm not certain is was a guess. :22:
) Live At The Apollo--James Brown: The classic live album that shows why some music (certainly not all) should be recorded live in its intended habitat. Brown could work it out in the studio, but he fed off a live audience. He interacted and the band could stretch out and work the groove until they exhausted the crowd. Listening to this in a room on headphones is so fundamentally wrong that listeners should be forced to dance no matter how stupid they look doing so--and then forced to broadcast the results on the net. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours
I can't argue with this choice as J.B. was best known for his dynamic live shows, and this also appears on many top 100 'best records' lists aside from being live. I would submit that he was in his prime when this was recorded, waaaaaaay back in 1963, so it was certainly ahead of my time.
The author of this 'List of the Day' is Rob O'Connor, and here was his foreword to his list;
I’m told John Mayer has a new live album and Sheryl Crow a new live DVD. If history repeats itself, the Rolling Stones and the Who will each issue three live albums within the next 10 years and Pearl Jam, Tori Amos and all jam bands worldwide will issue several hundred live collections for our amusement. Nothing says entertainment like the sound of a thousand hands clapping--out of time.
Oddly, however, rock 'n’ roll doesn't yield many great live albums. You’d think for a music known for its visceral impact that it would benefit from the live treatment. Yet, most of rock’s finest moments have come from studio albums where each note has been carefully redone. Just compare it to jazz where for years it was all about the performance. If I was doing a list of the best live jazz albums, I’d have a headache on my hands. Most studio albums were cut live. And then there are those legends like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and Kenny G (no, no, just kidding, take your blood pressure medicine, old jazzman, I’m not completely senile) who have boxed sets of what was really just a weekend gig. But that’s the best way to experience jazz. As overdose.
But Hendrix aside, rock--and we use the term to include a folkie like Tim Hardin, a doomsayer like Nico and a country guy by the name of Johnny Cash--has been best left to the bootleggers who--since they issue anything and everything--have given us some of the best performances worth saving, as any Rolling Stones fan can tell you. Bob Dylan finally got around to acknowledging this and while Columbia Records / Sony isn’t the quickest to issue old live tapes, they at least have gotten around to opening their vaults and sharing at a faster clip than Neil Young, who is finally showing signs of reissue life.
That said, Merle Haggard’s Okie From Muskogee and Cheap Trick’s At Budokan belong on this list, but 25 is 25. As does Tim Buckley’s Dream Letter, but the hour is getting late.
Overall, his list is a bit lame, but I thought it was worth doing this little exercise. I want to do another list soon, but I'm going to take my time and come up with something a little more interesting perhaps.
Swish
) Live At The Apollo--James Brown: The classic live album that shows why some music (certainly not all) should be recorded live in its intended habitat. Brown could work it out in the studio, but he fed off a live audience. He interacted and the band could stretch out and work the groove until they exhausted the crowd. Listening to this in a room on headphones is so fundamentally wrong that listeners should be forced to dance no matter how stupid they look doing so--and then forced to broadcast the results on the net. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours
I can't argue with this choice as J.B. was best known for his dynamic live shows, and this also appears on many top 100 'best records' lists aside from being live. I would submit that he was in his prime when this was recorded, waaaaaaay back in 1963, so it was certainly ahead of my time.
The author of this 'List of the Day' is Rob O'Connor, and here was his foreword to his list;
I’m told John Mayer has a new live album and Sheryl Crow a new live DVD. If history repeats itself, the Rolling Stones and the Who will each issue three live albums within the next 10 years and Pearl Jam, Tori Amos and all jam bands worldwide will issue several hundred live collections for our amusement. Nothing says entertainment like the sound of a thousand hands clapping--out of time.
Oddly, however, rock 'n’ roll doesn't yield many great live albums. You’d think for a music known for its visceral impact that it would benefit from the live treatment. Yet, most of rock’s finest moments have come from studio albums where each note has been carefully redone. Just compare it to jazz where for years it was all about the performance. If I was doing a list of the best live jazz albums, I’d have a headache on my hands. Most studio albums were cut live. And then there are those legends like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and Kenny G (no, no, just kidding, take your blood pressure medicine, old jazzman, I’m not completely senile) who have boxed sets of what was really just a weekend gig. But that’s the best way to experience jazz. As overdose.
But Hendrix aside, rock--and we use the term to include a folkie like Tim Hardin, a doomsayer like Nico and a country guy by the name of Johnny Cash--has been best left to the bootleggers who--since they issue anything and everything--have given us some of the best performances worth saving, as any Rolling Stones fan can tell you. Bob Dylan finally got around to acknowledging this and while Columbia Records / Sony isn’t the quickest to issue old live tapes, they at least have gotten around to opening their vaults and sharing at a faster clip than Neil Young, who is finally showing signs of reissue life.
That said, Merle Haggard’s Okie From Muskogee and Cheap Trick’s At Budokan belong on this list, but 25 is 25. As does Tim Buckley’s Dream Letter, but the hour is getting late.
Overall, his list is a bit lame, but I thought it was worth doing this little exercise. I want to do another list soon, but I'm going to take my time and come up with something a little more interesting perhaps.
Swish