The Positive Spin on Drums by Chris Belin
Live Album Awareness There is something about a live album that has always captivated my interest. Whether it’s a typical album opening with crowd cheers, or the fact that a live album usually captures a specific moment in time for an artist, they’ve always been an extremely integral part of my music collection. Sometimes live albums have been my intro to a new group or genre of music. Other times they’re just a more raw in-the-moment interpretation of songs from a band I’m interested in. Above all the most important influence I get from listening & absorbing live albums is the desire to be a part of a live concert experience, as a performer or attendee. I started playing drums along to live albums as a kid. Back then my music collection was mostly cassettes & some vinyl. So i’d play through the first side & when complete I would flip it as fast as possible, pretending that I was playing a real concert. Even though I was an energetic 11 year old I would get tired after a few tunes, especially since the gap between songs is approximately 2 seconds on a album! Regardless I would trudge through usually completing every song. Over time it got much easier to finish. This helped me tremendously when I started really playing live.
As I got older & started to drive, the live album, now on CD, became a great soundtrack to a road trip. Just like playing I still loved listening from beginning to end. Nowadays I still play live albums in my car via the iPod. I usually tend to shuffle them, especially with one artist, listening to tracks that span portions of their career. The following is a list of what I feel are the quintessential live albums for all the major musical genres. Do yourself a favor and check some of these out. They are in alphabetical order as there is NO way I could pick a “best live album of all time”. I would love some comments, your lists, reviews, recommendations, etc. Hope I didn’t forget any!! AC/DC-Live Aerosmith-Live Bootleg Allman Brothers-Live at Fillmore East Anthrax-Live, the Island Years Average White Band-Person To Person Erykah Badu-Live The Band-The Last Waltz Blink 182-Mark, Tom, & Travis show Clifford Brown / Max Roach-Live at Basin Street James Brown-Live @ the Apollo Dave Brubeck Quartet- Live at Carnegie Hall Jeff Buckley-Mystery White Boy Johnny Cash-At Folsom Prison Cheap Trick-Live at Budokon John Coltrane-Live at the Village Vanguard Miles Davis-Live Evil Deep Purple-Made in Japan Eric Dolphy Live at the Five Spot Bela Fleck & the Flectones-Live Art Peter Frampton-Frampton Comes Alive Genesis-Seconds Out Dizzy Gillespie-A Night in Tunisia Grand Funk Railroad-Live Album Grateful Dead-Europe ’72 Jimi Hendrix-Band of Gypsy’s Iron Maiden-Live in Rio B.B. King-Live at the Regal Jack Johnson-En Concert Kiss-Alive Led Zeppelin-The Song Remains The Same Lynyrd Skynyrd-One more From The Road Bob Marley-Babylon by Bus Dave Matthews-Live at Red Rocks Medeski Martin & Wood-Tonic Thelonious Monk Quartet w/ John Coltrane @ Carnegie Hall Nirvana-Unplugged in New York Maxwell-MTV Unplugged Ted Nugent-Double Live Gonzo Pearl Jam-Live on Two Legs Phish-A Live One Poison-Swallow This Live Portishead-Roseland NYC live Prince-One Night Alone Live Rage Against The Machine-Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium The Ramones-Loco Live The Rolling Stones-Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out The Roots Come Alive Rush-Exit Stage Left Jill Scott-Experience Jill Scott Shleigho-Live @ Ho-Down 2000 Slayer-Decade of Aggression Spin Doctors-Homebelly Groove Steely Dan-Alive In America Tower Of Power-Soul Vaccination Live! U2-Rattle & Hum Stevie Ray Vaughan- Live Alive WASP-Live...in the raw The Who-Live at Leeds Widespread Panic-Light Fuse Get Away
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