Rock and Roll: The live album

Here I am in my mid-forties, pretty much an old fogy now (heck, the Bank of Canada governor is younger than me and if that isn't a signal you're over the hill, I don't know what is), but I still try to keep an eye on what the kids are listening to nowadays.

One of the differences that struck me about music today compared to when I was a kid growing up in the late 70s and early 80s was the whole concept of the “live album.” DJs nowadays do sets and move them around the Web the way Grateful Dead fans used to trade cassette tapes of any one of the 200 or so live shows the Dead used to play every year. And that's fair enough.

But back in my day, the big 'live album' set, usually a double- or triple-LP set complete with fold-out sleeves was a Very Big Deal.

I ran across a few of those collections tonight — the original vinyl editions — as I continue the long process of digitizing my records. One of those collections I consider one of the finest live rock records ever made: Ian Hunter's Welcome to the Club. Hunter was the dude that put Mott the Hoople on the map and, on this record, released in 1980 and recorded over seven sold-out nights in beautiful, downtown Cleveland, he resurrects Mott the Hoople's most famous track “All the Young Dudes” (right, with a version that seems, to me, a lot like the one on the record. I love the knee-length leather boots), the David Bowie-penned anthem that speaks to all of us who think we're just too hip to be cool.

Mick Ronson, the guitarist who played with Mott, is on this record and absolutely shines with a George Gershwin's “Slaughter on 10th Avenue”, played, on this live set, right after dudes.

Welcome to the Club also rocks out with “Cleveland Rocks”, “All the Way to Memphis”, and “Just Another Night”. If you've never heard the record, get thee to the nearest online music store and spend the $10. As for me, though I'm trying to cull some of the vinyl in the basement, this one's staying with me even if I never own another turntable.

So other tremendous live records?

Strangely enough, for someone who thinks The Clash is, in fact, the greatest band of all time and prefers, say, the 1980s smart white funk of The Talking Heads or The Gang of Four to, say, long-haired white guys in Grand Funk Railroad and The James Gang, I'm hard pressed to identify a terrific live record that wasn't made by, well, long-haired white guys. The Talking Heads even had two “live” records neither of which make my list. Stop Making Sense was a better movie than a soundtrack and The Name of this Band Is … seems, like so many live efforts, an excuse to throw out a greatest hits package.

So here's my list of best live rock on vinyl. Throw yours in the comments section:

• J. Geils Band : Live! Full House! – J. Geils in mid-70s with Magic Dick at his most magical. If you're a big fan, you could try the other live sets they put out on Blow Your Face Out but for my money, this is the better live album and one of the all-time greats.
• Rolling Stones: Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out: “You wouldn't want me trousers to fall down now, would you?”, a very young Mick Jagger drools in this outstanding 1970 live set notable for the best recorded live version of “Jumpin' Jack Flash”, “Midnight Rambler”, and “Sympathy for the Devil.”
• Allman Brothers Band – At Fillmore East – OK, like how cool is this — two songs on this landmark live set — “Whipping Post” and “”You Don't Love Me” take up two of the four sides the double-LP vinyl release. The Allmans would later release a 34-minute version of “Mountain Jam” which, believe it or not, sounds like it's too short! Here's rock critic David McGee writing about this in 1979: “…there are no wasted notes, no pointless jams, no half-realized vocals — everything counts …” McGee, I think, sums it up nicely and also sets the standard that another top-seller from my teen years, Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive, fails to meet 30 years on. There are some great tracks on Alive but Frampton's double-LP sounds too bloated.
• Cheap Trick : Live at Budokan — The energy in “I Want You To Want Me” and “Surrender” alone make this one an all-time great — whether you're talking “live albums” or just “greatest albums.”
• Paul McCartney and Wings : Wings Over America — John Lennon once witheringly dismissed the Tin Pan Alley-esque tunes like “Martha My Dear” that Paul kicked into the The White Album as “Paul's Granny Music.” Well, post-Beatles, Paul seemed to wallow in “Granny Music”, if you ask me. But on a couple of nights in America with his band, Wings, Paul actually rocked out and this is the result. Many will dismiss this effort and that's fair enough. But “Jet” and “Band on the Run” have never had so much power. And there's no getting around the fact that when it comes to ballads like his “Blackbird” or Simon and Garfunkel's “Richard Cory”, Paul could sing a song. Oh – and this one gets bonus points because it's a triple LP!!!
• The Who : Live at Leeds — My second favourite band after The Clash cuz, like The Clash, there's a lot of brains behind their electric brawn. On this record, there was way too much power for my tiny stereo when I was growing up and now, nearly 40 (that's right, 40!) years later, there's still nothing that touches it for its energy and Daltrey's howls.