The BEST EVER Live Recording

[SMC Productions]

Go ahead and chuckle at me all you want, but I'm gonna go wholeheartedly with Kiss Alive. A childhood favorite of mine, and to this day it kills me. I really don't give a flying shit how much Eddie Kramer went in a polished after the fact (neither does he, he's actually extremely proud of that record in interviews), and besides, I challenge anyone to find what really went down and what was overdubbed. The end result to me is still the most exciting live rock experience ever put on vinyl.

I'm glad you said it...I have MANY favorites...but Kiss - Alive is still the best to me. It's NOT that technically the best, it's NOT 100% live (not many are), but it's still my favorite. Too bad they 'peaked' with it, and nothing following it, ever came close to me...

 

[ukenstein]

Band Of Gypsys

It's funny; I'm not a live recording sort but find myself still listening to this album alot. The guitar tone on it still blows me away.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

The Alan Lomax field recordings. *Everything* else just derives from that masterpiece.

G.

 

[rayc]

OOOH,
Southside Glen certainly hit on something I'd forgotten about. I have a Library of Congress recording of Ledbelly - essentially a field recording & it's pretty fabbo.
Kiss Alive did set a high standard for energy & post prod as did Slade Alive before it.
How about Horslips' The Belfast Gigs? Really exciting & well played. Having discovered just how dangerous those gigs were for them I now know why they had so much electricity crackling through the air.
Jacqueline du PRE's StSaens/Dvorak Cello Concerto is great - esp as it's mono - the odd shuffle or cough as well as her bow banging away at the body of the beast give it a grounding.

 

[Benreturns]

Im gonna go with the Beatles first album - Please Please Me. Basically recorded in takes. Absolute minimal overdubs and a couple of tracks (Boys/Twist and Shout) captured in one great take.

 

[ofajen]

I'm still really fond of Yessongs from about 1973, IIRC. Yet another truly terrible Atlantic pressing in vinyl. I'm not sure whether the original recordings sounded decent and I've not bothered to track it down on CD. I don't care, it's the playing and singing that makes it great. I seriously doubt there are any overdubs on that one. I recall Bruford quit the band about that time and complained that no one else in the band ever made a mistake.

I also have a special fondness for Peter G's "Plays Live" because I was at the Kansas City show that was one of the recorded gigs. An absolutely horrid warmup band called "The Electric Guitars" which Peter noted had been "compared unfavorably to human excrement" by some. I think I fall in that class. But he totally made up for it. There's some cheating on that one and it sounds pretty darn good.

Cheers,

Otto