Essential Live Albums

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No. Original release. It worked well because I had exactly enough time for both of those on my commute in.

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Perfect

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Santana - Live at the Fillmore 1968

This may be full of Latin rhythms and sweeping guitar solos, but largely this is a jazz fusion display, with the band setting grooves over long periods of time and Santana, when the moment seems just right, sweeping in and slicing his guitar straight through, like a beam of sunlight pushing through the clouds. To that end, this is nearly all instrumental save for a few perfunctory choruses to break things up. One could question, however, whether Carlos Santana is really the star of the show since we hear so little of him but get a nonstop run through drums and percussion that keep the engine going.

The Essential Performance: Persuasion

Next Up: Grateful Dead - Skull and Roses

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Grateful Dead - Skull & Roses

This one hardly feels like a live album in that it features nearly all songs that haven’t appeared on a Grateful Dead studio album, save for The Other One (a part of a suite of songs off Anthem of the Sun). That said, it seems to seek out to do the opposite of its immediate predecessor, Live/Dead. Whereas Live/Dead explores the outer reach of their ability to search their songs for new spaces and feels like an exploration, Skull & Roses is more akin to a first set - where the band really tears through Americana and blues with only tiny spaces for improvisation in spots where it’s barely noticeable. The first part of this goes at a knee slapping pace - Bertha, Mama Tried, Big Railroad Blues, and an extremely brief Playing in the Band go by in a flash. The Other One is then sort of misplaced (would have been killer right before Wharf Rat) and then back to it with Me & My Uncle. Big Boss Man is a killer bluesy version, Wharf Rat is of course phenomenal and possibly tops on this one, though I give the essential performance on this one to Not Fade Away/Going Down the Road Feeling Bad as it encapsulates all of the sounds they jumped around here in a tidy package.

The Essential Performance: Not Fade Away/ Going Down the Road Feeling Bad

Next Up: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Creation - Fillmore East

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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 4 Way Street

Switch up at the last moment. I had to find a block of time for this, which is mostly unlistenable on Spotify, through YouTube and found the moment, so it skipped in. This is such a great live document. The acoustic set and electric each providing nonstop gems, though sorry Crosby Stiils and Nash, but mostly it’s the Young that is so great. Here though, I’ll pick a couple non-Young tracks to highlight (you know, since Young’s acoustic medley and Southern Man are really tops).

The Essential Performance: Love the One You’re With (acoustic), Carry On (electric)

Up Next: Frank Zappa and the Mothers - Fillmore East

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Frank Zappa and the Mothers - Fillmore East

When one takes in an album of this sort, live or otherwise, the immediate question when this sort of orchestrated chaos goes from straddling the line of insanity to completely jumping the shark. Do You Like My New Car? Jumping the shark. The mostly instrumental songs quite good. The points where they just hit that balance and create some real excellent fun (I mean this has got to be part comedy show) - Tears Began to Fall and What Kind of Girl Do You Think We Are?

The Essential Performance: Tears Began to Fall

Next Up: Humble Pie - Performance Rockin the Fillmore

[tragabigzanda]

[liebzz]

Clearly over my head.

[liebzz]

Humble Pie - Performance: Live at the Fillmore

From the orchestrated chaos of Zappa to the vanilla ensemble of Humble Pie. Having zero background in Humble Pie, this release is the first jump in, and it feels like an early entry into the 70s rock excess that comes later in the decade. They seem like a less brilliant Grand Funk Railroad, or a less jagged Zeppelin. Certainly they are going for that heaviness but I wasn’t as sucked into the songs as I’d like to be. There’s nothing wrong with them per se, but nothing that got me particularly excited either. Perhaps they were revolutionary for their time and I missed it, but they seem to me much like Mountain. They’re there.

The Essential Performance: Stone Cold Fever I guess

Up Next: George Harrison - The Concert for Bangladesh

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Frampton was in that band. I wonder if he was still in it when that was recorded.

[liebzz]

Frampton was in that band. I wonder if he was still in it when that was recorded.

Yes. I looked on the internets. He left the band soon after this was recorded. His guitar work is pretty good here. I mean, it’s like listening to Daisy Jones and the Six or the fictional band from Almost Famous - kind of meant to be generic 70s.

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I admit to being aware of the band but not being able to name a single tune by them.

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I admit to being aware of the band but not being able to name a single tune by them.

This I think is exactly right.

[oasisfan35]

I admit to being aware of the band but not being able to name a single tune by them.

30 Days in the Hole but really only because a local rock station has been playing basically the same songs for decades and it was the only station anyone ever tuned in to growing up.

Mule also closed with it at the first show I caught of theirs at The Beacon.

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Mule covers are wonderful. I’ve seen Creep by Radiohead twice and both times Mule did it.

I never knew that tune was Humble Pie.

[oasisfan35]

Mule covers are wonderful. I’ve seen Creep by Radiohead twice and both times Mule did it.

I never knew that tune was Humble Pie.

Damn skippy. Their catalog is fairly large by this point (new album in June too) but the endless possibility of covers at their shows always kept things pretty fresh.
This was a damn fun show and just look at the breadth of covers.

[liebzz]

Yeah I saw them do a cover of Come Back. We were pretty much ready to leave after that since it wasn’t going to get much better than that, and we’d been there more than 3 hours already.

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George Harrison - Concert for Bangladesh

Get a bunch of rock superstars together for a concert for charity at Madison Square Garden and stuff’s gonna happen, as well as another show in Britain. In any event, this is a phenomenal document from those shows, George Harrison sounds great and his friends are quite the performers here. Hearing George play with Ringo for the first time since the Rooftop Concert, hearing Dylan perform for the first time since the motorcycle accident. Clapton playing While My Guitar Gently Weeps…it’s all happening. And with all of that, Leon Russell leading the band through a Jumping Jack Flash medley really tears the house down.

The Essential Performance: all of it, but for these purposes let’s go with the reason they were there: Bangladesh.

Next Up: Grateful Dead - Veneta, OR 8/27/72: The Complete Sunshine Daydream Concert

[Captain Termite]

Gov't Mule (with guest Marc Ford) doing Cortez the Killer is one of my favorites.

[wease]

Mule covers are wonderful. I’ve seen Creep by Radiohead twice and both times Mule did it.

I never knew that tune was Humble Pie.

Damn skippy. Their catalog is fairly large by this point (new album in June too) but the endless possibility of covers at their shows always kept things pretty fresh.
This was a damn fun show and just look at the breadth of covers.

That was one of the shows leading up to the New Years show where they did Temple of the Mule.