“Got Live if You Want It,” the Rolling Stones promised in a 1966 album title. And oh, do we want it, in 2021, when the pandemic has canceled its fair share of shows. Fortunately, we still have access to the thousands of worthy live albums that have been released over the decades in every genre … as a reminder of what we’re missing, yes, but as outstanding works of recorded art in their own right. From the Who to Beyonce to Bob Dylan to John Coltrane to Johnny Cash to KISS (and, yes, to the Stones!), here — in alphabetical order and citing when the recording(s) took place — are 50 live albums so good, you may find yourself wanting to quarantine with them even after concerts resume again.
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The Allman Brothers, 'At Fillmore East' (1971)
Allmans Duane and Gregg, along with the Allman Brothers band, were still fresh to the studio recording game in 1971 and not selling all that well. Yet the guys made and maintained their reputation as gods of the South with their wildly expansive live shows and deeply soulful, jazzy jams. So the renowned Tom Dowd took to the boards to produce a run of March 1971 shows in New York City’s Fillmore East as if he was mixing one of the Allmans’ studio efforts, bringing to the project an extra-added warmth, precision and vulnerability that has made the collection a classic of the format. (ADA)
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The Band, 'Rock of Ages' (1971)
While they peaked early, The Band were one of the greatest groups spawned by the 1960s. This expansive set captures them at their absolute summit, at a memorable series of 1971 holiday shows at New York’s Academy of Music. Less grandiose than their “Last Waltz” farewell concert five years later, it finds the group rocking inimitably through their classics, accompanied by a horn section featuring Howard Johnson and Snooky Young (with arrangements by the great Allen Toussaint). An unexpected bonus came in 2000, when the last night’s encore, which featured four songs with Bob Dylan but was thought to be lost, was discovered on the master tapes and added to the reissue. (RT)
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Beyonce, 'Homecoming: The Live Album' (2019)
The 40-track companion piece to Beyonce’s groundbreaking Coachella 2018 performance, chronicled in superb detail in the Netflix documentary “Homecoming,” was a musical highlight of the decade that exists in its own lane. Rooted rhythmically with a drumline and brass band involving some two dozen musicians, Beyonce, whose credits on the project include live performance direction, executive production and music direction, proves that she’s one of the most innovative and visually arresting artists to exist in popular music — not that it was in any doubt — and that her songs, as sing-along-friendly as they may be, have a more pressing message to the universe. Still, there’s no denying Bey classics like “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and “Crazy In Love” and the three-song Destiny’s Child reunion alone is worth the price of admission. A masterpiece listen hitting all the nostalgia buttons as funk and R&B collides head-on with hip-hop and pop, and a celebration of Black excellence at its finest, this girl rules the world. (JT)
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David Bowie, 'Live Nassau Coliseum '76' (1976)
No one in rock ‘n’ roll ever went through a faster series of changes (with or without the ch-ch-ch alliteration) than Bowie in the mid-‘70s, and this live album, released in 2010, finds him thrillingly at the nexus of all of them — already at a slight distance from wham-bam “Ziggy Stardust” days and the neo-soul of “Young Americans,” now in full Thin White Duke embrace, anticipating the bigger chill of Berlin. All of Bowie’s many ‘70s live albums have thrills to recommend them, but the ones that came out years or decades later generally beat the two that were contemporaneous at the time… not just this but “Bowie Live ’72,” “Cracked Actor,” “Welcome to the Blackout (Live London ‘79” and the just-released “I’m Only Dancing (The Soul Tour 1974).” So why elevate “Nassau”? In large part because of that 12-minute “Station to Station” opener, with guitarist Carlos Alomar taking us to Mars and beyond. There are more thrilling switch-ups just in that performance than most rockers’ entire careers. (CW)
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James Brown, 'Live at the Apollo' (1962)
This set could well be the grandfather — or better yet, the Godfather — of live albums, immortalizing a stellar night from the hardest working man in show business, recorded at Harlem’s venerable Apollo Theater on October 24, 1962. The release was famously made on James Brown’s own dime — his label’s cantankerous boss saw no value in releasing a live album without any new songs — but he certainly got his money’s worth. From Fats Gonder’s rousing introduction to the nearly-11-minute “Lost Someone” and the show-stopping medley book-ended by an aching “Please Please Please,” this live set, barely half an hour long, made Brown into a household name in white America. (He would release two more live albums recorded at the venue, with the funky 1967 redux nearly equaling this one.) (RT)
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Brandi Carlile, 'Live at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony' (2011)
Is three studio albums into a career too soon to record a live album? Not if you’re Brandi Carlile, who — while then known nationally mostly just for the “The Story” — was already a superstar-equivalent in her hometown, and ready to revisit those three albums and a slew of covers besides with the help of a 35-piece orchestra. Any fear that she and her not so huge band might be overwhelmed by the augmentation is quickly supplanted on record by the reminder of her nearly threshold-free vocal range and power. But it would also fail to take into account the arranging mastery of Paul Buckmaster, who made his name on the early recordings of Carlile’s hero, Elton John, and who reaffirmed his mettle not just with her cover of Elton’s “Sixty Years On” but early original songs that made it clear she was well on her way to becoming the preeminent power balladeer of the 21st century. (CW)
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Johnny Cash, 'At Folsom Prison' (1968)
Facing the aftermath of drug addiction and a faltering commercial career, in January 1968 Johnny Cash sought — and found — inspiration at the namesake of his 1955 country hit, “Folsom Prison Blues.” The resulting album, released less than four months later, topped the country charts and reinvigorated Cash’s career, re-establishing his outlaw bona fides for a whole new generation. This was not the first time Cash recorded behind bars, nor would it be the last: Some prefer 1969’s “At San Quentin,” Grammy-nominated for album of the year and a winner of best male country vocal performance (for “A Boy Named Sue”), but it was “Folsom” that set the standard. (RT)
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Cheap Trick, 'At Budokan' (1978)
Cheap Trick were one of the best rock bands to emerge in the 1970s but also one of the most confusing, both musically (a combination of power pop and hard rock) and visually (two dreamboat rockers and two ridiculously attired outcasts). Thus, it makes perfect sense that their global breakthrough came via this 1978 live album initially released only in Japan — and its scarcity actually made the buzz bigger. Unlike Cheap Trick’s debut album (which many felt was too heavy) or its follow up “In Color” (which many felt was too wimpy), “Budokan” presents the group in its best light: killer pop songs played by a world-class rock band, with Robin Zander’s versatile vocals and Rick Nielsen’s blazing guitar work front and center. (While the original 10-song album remains a classic, the reissue rolls out the entire 19-song set and a DVD of the complete performance.) (JA)
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John Coltrane, 'Coltrane "Live" at the Village Vanguard' (1962)
Though it wouldn’t have been obvious to anyone but him, John Coltrane was at a major crossroads in his career when he played this four-night New York residency in 1961. Not only was he still cementing his chemistry with newer collaborators like drummer Elvin Jones, pianist McCoy Tyner and bassist Jimmy Garrison – soon, those three would complete Coltrane’s greatest quartet — he was also already beginning to outgrow the style he had honed through years of collaboration with Miles Davis, and even his own more intense solo releases like recent breakthrough “Giant Steps.” This release, particularly the anarchic saxophone showcase “Chasin’ the Trane” that takes up the entire second side, was controversial in jazz circles at the time, with some critics considering it little more than aimless noise. But we all know better now. Coltrane had already taken dazzling technique as far as it would go, and for the rest of his life he would set his gaze toward more distant galaxies — consider this a test launch. (AB)
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Sam Cooke, 'Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963'
Soul music pioneer Sam Cooke released a single live album in his lifetime, 1964’s “Live at the Copa,” and while its buttoned-down renditions of dusty standards and then-trendy folk songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” might have helped broaden Cooke’s appeal to white audiences, it wasn’t much of a testament to his raw power as a performer. For that, one had to wait until 1985, when his wild set at Miami’s Harlem Square Club was finally released. At once emphatically spiritual and undeniably sexual, “Harlem Square” is every bit the equal of James Brown’s “Live at the Apollo” in its humid, reckless abandon, and there are moments here – especially the delirious rendition of “Bring It on Home to Me,” one of the most electrifying R&B performances ever committed to tape – where Cooke almost makes Otis Redding seem tame. (AB)
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Daft Punk, 'Alive 2007'
One of the few instances in the modern era where a single live appearance could turn a whole career around, Daft Punk’s light-up-pyramid performance at Coachella in spring of 2006 put the French house duo’s then-flagging trajectory on a whole new course, setting the stage for its Grammy-winning comeback album, and lighting the fuse for the Stateside EDM craze that would break the banks at Vegas casinos for years to come. (This is the part where I get to humblebrag that I was there, and it was just as revelatory as you’ve heard.) Recorded a year later in Paris, “Alive 2007” captures a virtually identical show — easy to do with no acoustic instruments or live vocals to worry about — as the two robot rockers mash up their catalog in a variety of clever, cheeky, and infectious ways. The clear highlight is “One More Time/Aerodynamic,” on which DP toss two of their biggest tracks into a particle accelerator, creating a single, arena-annihilating monster. (AB)
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Miles Davis, 'The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965'
Calling any album from Miles Davis “transitional,” goes without saying as damned-near every collection released found the trumpeter-composer in a state of fluidity, ready to move to the next thing. In Chicago before Christmas ’65, Miles, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock and bassist Ron Carter — at the urging of their drummer, Tony Williams — played every note by feel, the incendiary opposite of how the ensemble rendered these songs previously. Thankfully, this brilliant experiment, unreleased until 1995, was captured for posterity. (ADA)
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Bob Dylan, 'Live 1966: "The Royal Albert Hall" Concert' (1966)
If you love Dylan, you love his playfulness and elusiveness — qualities that are somehow symbolized in the very title of this live album (released in 1998), which has “the Royal Albert Hall” in ironic quote marks because that’s where bootleggers had mistakenly identified the show as taking place for decades. The concert, which actually took place in Manchester, was famous under any misidentification for being the one where an audience member shouted out “Judas!” in response to Dylan going electric, a schism that briefly tore apart a fan base that expected the bard to forever be the exemplar and protector of all things acoustic and protest-ant. On this tour (which is further documented, to a fault, in the 36-disc box “The 1966 Live Recordings”), Dylan did give the people what they wanted in the solo-acoustic first half. But hearing him take the stage with the Hawks (aka the future Band) for part two still feels like experiencing a revolution in which torrents of dazzling words met their match in brainy and brawny rock ‘n’ roll. You could, and should, watch Martin Scorsese’s “No Direction Home,” a documentary about Dylan’s and the world’s whole paradigm shift during this period. Or you could just listen to this album; without any filmmaking annotation, it still tells nearly the whole tale. (CW)
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Eagles, 'Hell Freezes Over' (1994)
There’s a reason this live recording of an MTV special has sold 9 million-plus copies in the U.S. Featuring the “Long Run” lineup of Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Don Felder, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit, the Eagles greatest hits (a collection of which was another top seller of the album and CD era) are well represented in this 1994 performance which followed more than a decade after Henley famously declared the band would no longer play together. Fortunately for fans of easy, breezy country rock, the 15-track collection stands the test of time, cycling through classics like “Tequila Sunrise,” “Hotel California,” “Take It Easy,” “Life in the Fast Lane” and “Desperado” with aplomb. Henley solo hit “New York Minute” never sounded better and Walsh’s “In the City” is also delightfully divine. (JT)
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Duke Ellington, 'Ellington at Newport' (1956)
It’s hard to overstate the importance of Duke Ellington’s 1956 Newport Jazz Festival performance on the great bandleader’s career, or on jazz in general. In the years prior to the show, Ellington’s big band music seemed to have grown hopelessly passé, and the band no longer even had a record deal. A short while after it, his face was on the cover of Time magazine, and the renewed public interest in Sir Duke’s catalog that followed would last for the rest of his life and beyond. Give this live recording one listen, and you’ll understand why. Despite a chaotic start, once the band gets rolling its momentum is almost frightening to behold; all of Ellington’s old classics sound brand new here, and Paul Gonsalves’ marathon sax solo on “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue,” which sparked a genteel riot on the part of the audience, is simply one of the landmark instrumental performances of the 20th century. (AB)
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Fleetwood Mac, 'The Dance' (1997)
Featuring the core five lineup of Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac’s “The Dance” doubled as a reunion and a finale. It represented the group’s first official release in a decade, bringing back together Nicks and Buckingham after a several year absence. And it would go on to be the last recording to feature Christine McVie, who left the group the following year, though she would return to further touring. Indeed, over the band’s 50-year career, they’ve fine-tuned their hit-heavy set and “The Dance,” recorded as a TV special, is as good an example of that as any. From the march of “The Chain,” which kicks off this 17-track collection and symbolizes the band members reconnecting, to Nicks’ powerhouse vocals on “Silver Springs” to Buckingham’s guitar skills on “My Little Demon” and McVie’s understated “Say You Love Me” and “You Make Loving Fun,” there’s a lot to love on this 1997 performance. (JT)
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Peter Frampton, 'Frampton Comes Alive!' (1976)
Rarely has an exclamation point been so richly deserved as in this 1976 monster double-live album, which ushered in an era of similar releases with blurry cover photographs. Peter Frampton was a rather obscure U.K. rocker at the time of this album’s release, but within weeks the lead single, “Show Me the Way,” combined with Frampton’s looks and hooks had vaulted him to superstardom: The set charted for almost 100 weeks and sold 11 million copies worldwide. It was a tough act to follow, and Frampton’s career never approached a similar peak, but even 40-odd years later, its impact is undeniable. (RT)
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Aretha Franklin, 'Aretha Live at Fillmore West' (1971)
As part of a scheme to promote Lady Soul to a younger, whiter audience, Atlantic Records assembled a killer band (featuring saxist King Curtis and organist Billy Preston), pulled together a setlist combining her hits with then-current radio favorites, and booked her for three nights into the hippie mecca, San Francisco’s Fillmore West. While we definitely could live without her Bread cover, Aretha Franklin shines with soulful takes on songs like Stephen Stills’ “Love the One You’re With,” a gospel “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” — and brings the house down when Ray Charles joins her for “Spirit in the Dark.”(JA)
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Grateful Dead, 'Europe '72'
Ask a hundred Deadheads to name the band’s best live recording, and you’ll probably get 101 different answers. But ask anyone to name the band’s most emblematic live recording, and this triple-album will surely be the standard-bearer. There was evidently something truly special about the Dead’s ’72 tour (see also: the looser, sweatier Oregon set released as “Sunshine Daydream”), and for those of us who were too young to see Jerry & Co. in their prime, this is the album that introduced us to some of the band’s signature onstage magic tricks: the ecstatic extended coda to “Sugar Magnolia,” the alchemical way “China Cat Sunflower” eases into “I Know You Rider,” the band’s ability to turn old country standards like “You Win Again” into molasses-thick jams. You could probably spend a lifetime exploring every nook and cranny of the Dead’s live archives, but this is the gateway drug that sets you on the path. (AB)
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Humble Pie, 'Performance Rockin' the Fillmore' (1971)
There’s much to say and admire about Steve Marriott’s scuffed-up vocals and his depth-diving personalization of the blues via Humble Pie covers (Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ Stone,” Ray Charles’ “Hallelujah I Love Her So”). Add to that Marriott’s own rough edges, applied to self-penned tunes such as “Stone Cold Fever,” and taking in Humble Pie’s blistering 1971 performance at the Fillmore East has become a rite of passage for many a rock frontman. And for good reason: though its bleak blues predates satin pants, it’s a hard rock monster. (ADA)
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Jay-Z, 'Unplugged' (2001)
While it wasn’t the first time that hip-hop went “unplugged” for the former music video network MTV — of note: 1991’s epic “Yo! Unplugged Rap” episode featuring LL Cool J, MC Lyte, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul) — Jay-Z’s 2001 intimate gig with the live instrumentalists of The Roots gave the rapper’s crispest material a slack, grooving punch. Credit Philly’s finest for bringing out Jay’s brand of soulful, rocking swing that, in turn, allowed the usually-guarded artist the rare opportunity for relaxed-fit rhymes. (ADA)
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Joni Mitchell, 'Shadows and Light' (1979)
If you’re mostly familiar with Joni Mitchell from her songs that wind up in films and YouTube cover videos, her first live record, “Miles of Aisles,” offers plenty of pleasant renditions of that material. But if you really want to understand why she’s properly regarded as one of greatest musical minds of the 20th century, it’s her later, headier, more jazz-inspired albums that really stake the claim, and this 1979 live run-through of some of those highlights is an excellent place to start. Backed by a who’s-who of fusion greats, from Pat Metheny and Michael Brecker to tragic bass guitar god Jaco Pastorius — whose lyrical fretless basslines are prominent enough that he’s as much Mitchell’s co-star as her sideman – Mitchell proves herself just as sharp a bandleader as a songwriter. Her earlier material is largely absent here, but when she does dip into her folk catalog — such as the radically reworked “Woodstock” that closes the show — it’s less a concession to her fans than a challenge, and a warning that she’s not looking to get herself back to the garden anytime soon. (AB)
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The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 'Live at Monterey' (1967)
For all his virtuosity, Jimi Hendrix’s concerts could be maddeningly inconsistent, and few of the many live recordings out there are solid from end to end. So we’ll go with the performance that put him on the map, from the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967. The Experience had 45 minutes to make an impression — and did they ever, blazing through nine songs, ranging from a fiery “Killing Floor” to a tender “Wind Cries Mary” and climaxing, of course, with Hendrix setting his guitar on fire at the conclusion of “Wild Thing.” And with a galaxy of pop royalty in the audience, it’s safe to say that rock and roll was never the same after this concert. (JA)
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Kiss 'Alive!' (1975)
As Kiss became an arena phenomenon by the mid-1970s, previous studio albums failed to capture the excitable vibe of their fantastically fevered live shows. So the band cobbled together the boldest of concert cuts and loudest crowds (possibly enhanced in heft) from Cleveland, Detroit and Wildwood, New Jersey and a hot-blooded hit collection was achieved. Between Gene Simmons’ bass lines, Paul Stanley’s guitar riffs and Ace Frehley’s high-minded guitar solos — equal doses of Mick Ronson-like glamour and Jimmy Page-esque thunder — this was the stuff of real zeal, making “Alive!” its own zeitgeist moment. (ADA)
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'The Long Goodbye: LCD Soundsystem Live at Madison Square Garden' (2011)
LCD Soundsystem was among the acts to make the most inventive dance music of the still-young 21st Century and instantly became a critic’s favorite. Credit LCD frontman and producer James Murphy, whose musical vision combined with a business acumen made the New York act beloved internationally upon its 2005 debut. The live experience was a big part of LCD’s formula for success — forceful and frenetic like their studio albums — which is why fans were shocked by the band’s announcement that this 2011 Madison Square Garden show would be LCD’s final performance. The retirement didn’t last, but the document of that night — three hours and 28 songs of thorny No Wave and Murphy’s snark-smart lyrics — lives on. (ADA)
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Led Zeppelin, 'How the West Was Won' (1972)
For decades, “The Song Remains the Same” album and film was the only concert document of Led Zeppelin, one of the world’s greatest rock bands — and it was a subpar (for them) and self-indulgent performance. “How the West Was Won,” recorded over two Los Angeles shows in 1972 and finally released 30 years later, crushes it into little tiny pieces: The band is in top form, soaring through 14-odd songs (including an acoustic set and snippets of several covers) over the course of two and a half hours. There are several great live Zeppelin performances officially available (particularly the 1971 BBC concert and the songs collected on the self-titled 2003 DVD), but this is the best one-stop shop. (JA)
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Bob Marley and the Wailers, 'Live!' (1975)
Originally rush-released in December 1975 less than five months after it was recorded, this set captures reggae legend Bob Marley before a rapturous London crowd while touring behind his “Natty Dread” album. While cofounders Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston had left the Wailers by this point, the show finds Marley rising into the icon he would soon become: part shaman, part prophet, all rock star. (RT)
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MC5, 'Kick Out the Jams' (1968)
What band begins its recording career with a live album? The politicized, proto-punk Michigan marauders of the MC5. Released early in 1969 after two raw recorded gigs at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom (in October 1968), the band’s revolution rhetoric and liberation idealism is pretty much shrouded, still, by the controversy of having to edit the phrase “motherf–er” from the final product. Shame. It’s a great rocking relic, and the sludgy apex of the MC5’s career. (ADA)
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Metallica, 'S&M' (1999)
Before Metallica found therapy in 2001 — as documented during the highly emotional “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster” — the quartet was hot-wired for raw, nervous, hyper-energized angst the likes of which make for the best, pile-driving moments of 1999’s “S&M.” What makes Metallica’s brutal brand of rock so potent here is the cinematic sweep and manic panic of the San Francisco Symphony conducted by (the now late) Michael Kamen, to say nothing of it being Jason Newsted’s last blast as Metallica’s bassist. (ADA)
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Motörhead, 'No Sleep 'til Hammersmith' (1981)
In a sense, Motörhead were the purest rock band in history: Its music consisted of nothing but power — riffs, beats and frontman Lemmy’s hoarse roar. Not surprisingly, that sound is in purest form in a live setting in its hometown: 1981’s “Hammersmith” finds the group in top form, blasting through the best songs from its classic early years. Motörhead were the rare band equally accepted by punk and metal audiences — and the Beastie Boys even paid tribute to this album with their song “No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn.” (JA)
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Nirvana, 'Unplugged in New York' (1993)
Sure, this 1993 concert is truly legendary, capturing an iconic Nirvana acoustic set, recorded just months before Kurt Cobain’s death (and released just a few months after). Its 14 songs include several band classics, a stunning Bowie cover, a Meat Puppets cameo and the requiem of “All Apologies.” But for all that, it doesn’t capture the power and intensity of an electric Nirvana show, which, as those of us lucky enough to see them multiple times can attest, always felt like it was moments away from erupting into genuine chaos. For that, we’d recommend “Live at the Paramount,” recorded in October 1991, just as “Nevermind” was exploding, and “Live at Reading,” from just a few months later, but with the band proving to a massive festival audience exactly why they became superstars so quickly. (JA)
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Buck Owens and His Buckaroos, 'Carnegie Hall Concert' (1966)
It’s a long way from the streets of Bakersfield to 7th Ave., but Buck Owens made it seem not so far when he released what stood as the preeminent live country album of the 1960s… at least until Johnny Cash went to prison, voluntarily, a couple of years later. In Buck’s case, there was no trying to meet any solemnity of the moment. “Carnegie Hall Concert” is a beginning-to-end blast, taking off airs and taking the Manhattan tiger by the tail. What’s most memorable about the show has less to do with the “hillbillies meet the highbrows” incongruity that was clearly intended to grab LP buyers’ fancy than it does to do with how great a band album this is. Among the country intelligentsia, guitarist Don Rich is really as much of a legend as Owens. Rich died in 1974, decades before his boss did, but it will never get old hearing them “Together Again.” (CW)
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Parliament, 'Live: P-Funk Earth Tour' (1977)
If you were lucky enough to snag the double vinyl release of this Parliament classic when it dropped in 1977, you got a giant poster of George Clinton as “Dr. Funkenstein” and an iron-on decal reading “Take Funk To Heaven in ’77!” Whether consuming the 70-minute collection at home or in the world — preferably at maximum volume — you instantly sensed why the fluidly funky late ’70s-era Parliament (Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Bootsy Collins, Garry Shider, Eddie Hazel, Bernie Worrell) was Clinton’s raunchiest, hardest-rocking crew. For those who never got to see the Mothership land live, this may be as close as they get. (ADA)
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Tom Petty, 'The Live Anthology' (2009)
If you buy only one seven-record set in your lifetime, it should probably be Tom Petty’s career-spanning live collection. It’s also available in more compact four-CD form, but where’s the fun in not having a septet of LPs fold out, accordion-style, as you scan the no-longer-ephemeral results of 35 years of road work? (Or in having Shepard Fairey’s cover illustration of Petty not writ large?) The 48 tracks are not arranged chronologically, yet somehow they add up to the feeling of one long show — okay, at four hours, an inhumanly long one? For anyone who ever wanted to hear a Petty set list with deeper tracks amid the “I Won’t Back Downs” and “Refugees,” this fan-focused compendium hit the spot, with covers of the Grateful Dead, early Fleetwood Mac, James Brown, Willie Dixon, Van Morrison and a Bond theme in among “Angel Dream (No. 2)” and “Spike.” Yet you’d be co-opting a phrase from Petty and singing “too much is enough” if the Heartbreakers weren’t the most effortlessly fluid American band rock ‘n’ roll has ever seen, always leaving ‘em wanting more. And (sigh) man, do we want more. (CW)
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Queen, 'Live at Wembley '86' (1986)
As Queen was hitting its 1980s apex, Wembley Stadium practically became the band’s second home — no wonder the London venue is used as the opening scene for the Oscar-winning 2018 film “Bohemian Rhapsody.” That movie’s performance was at Live-Aid in 1985, but a year later, Queen would headline its own show — and what a transcendent 2 hours and 10 minutes it was that July in 1986. With frontman Freddie Mercury is top form, he belts out classic after classic — “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” “Under Pressure,” “Another One Bites the Dust” — as Brian May’s delivers a succession of epic guitar solos (a highlight: “Brighton Rock”). Mercury’s stage presence is undeniable, but the groove of a band fully gelling (with credit also due to under-appreciated bassist John Deacon) will give you the shivers. Sing — and clap — along to “Radio Ga Ga” to feel the idol worship of Queen at its prime. (JT)
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The Quintet, Jazz at Massey Hall (1953)
Charlie Parker. Dizzy Gillespie. Bud Powell. Max Roach. Charles Mingus. Name a more iconic quintet: We’ll wait. Captured at Toronto’s Massey Hall in 1953, this concert was the only time those five legends all recorded together, and the last known occasion that longtime foils Parker and Gillespie would ever share the same stage. That alone is enough to make it bebop’s version of “The Avengers,” but the recording is so much more than just a historical landmark. Freed from the pressures and time restraints of their studio sessions, this recording allows us to hear Bird and Diz relax into a groove and stretch out at length, and all at once the sort of quasi-religious rapture these two inspired in their contemporary audiences starts to make perfect sense. (AB)
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Radiohead, 'I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings' (2001)
After the kinetic one-two punch of “Kid A” (2000) and “Amnesiac” (2001), Radiohead, then new gods of spooky art rock, could do no wrong. Except, that is, until they pissed off critics and fans by releasing an all-together too-brief live album such as this that holds back more than it reveals. Ultimately, however, that is the true beauty of Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and company: that most of what makes Radiohead dramatic is that which lies in the (sonic) shadows, especially when it came to the bone-chilling “Like Spinning Plates” and the deeply ruminative “Idioteque.” (ADA)
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Ramones, 'It's Alive' (1977)
Even these maestros of minimalism caught the double-live ‘70s bug with their very first concert album, which in many ways is delightfully redundant: At the time it was recorded — at London’s Rainbow Theatre on New Year’s Eve 1977 — the Ramones had released just three albums of unvarnished songs that rarely broke the two-and-a-half minute mark, so any live album would basically be just like the studio albums, with some crowd noise added in. But the two-LP set captures the punk pioneers at their 120 mph peak, with the original lineup playing many songs even faster than their studio versions, tearing through 28 songs in less than an hour. (RT)
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Rolling Stones, 'Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!' (1969)
Nearly every Rolling Stones tour since 1965 has been documented with an official live album, not to mention thousands of bootleg recordings, so how do you pick just one? You can’t — but this one is arguably the most essential. The Stones’ legendary 1969 U.S. tour captures the band’s laid-back uptightness better than any other recording — but there’s also the sense that it could all fly off the rails at any moment, and if that doesn’t make for great rock and roll, what does? From “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” through “Sympathy for the Devil” and the closing “Street Fighting Man,” the world’s greatest rock and roll band is in peak form here, and a 2009 reissue presents the complete setlist. (Also recommended: the chaotic but wildly exciting 1966 collection “Got Live If You Want It,” and the companion album of the film from the 1972 U.S. tour, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones.”) (JA)
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Simon & Garfunkel, 'The Concert in Central Park' (1981)
It took a crisis in their native New York City — the deterioration of the city’s parks and recreational areas in the wake of budget problems and years of neglect — to bring together Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel following a decade of individual solo careers. And what a triumphant reunion it was. Some 500,000 filled Central Park in 1981 to cheer on Simon & Garfunkel’s pitch-perfect vocal blend on classics like “Homeward Bound,” “America,” “Scarborough Fair” and “The Sound of Silence” — the result of some tense rehearsals in the days leading up to the concert. In the spirit of harmony, Simon’s solo fare was also well-represented via his “American Tune” and “Still Crazy After All These Years” (featuring stellar solos by sax players Dave Tofani and Gerry Niewood on the latter) but ultimately it was the magic of the two old friends from Queens that reached far beyond the boroughs and to future generations. (JT)
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Frank Sinatra, 'Sinatra at the Sands' (1966)
It’s only Frank that gets his name above the title. But equal credit for the immediate success and 55-year endurance of Sinatra’s first live album goes to Count Basie, whose orchestra joined him on the desert trip, and Quincy Jones, the conductor and arranger. Well, let’s make it a quartet of greats and toss in Bill Miller, the singer’s eternal pianist, too. Sinatra and Basie were old hands at collaborating at this point, having worked together on a couple of studio albums at this point, and however much we might love the elegance of the singer’s work with Nelson Riddle, hearing a sound that truly jumps, in a way that could make grown men tingle like Tommy Dorsey-era bobbysoxers, is just as much the apotheosis of Frankdom. The always memorable concert commentary is another great reason to reach for a Sinatra live album before a studio set, with the feeling that you are being let in on some great joke… no Pack membership required. (CW)
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Spiritualized, 'Royal Albert Hall October 10 1997'
Jason Pierce’s hypnotically dreamy and noisily neo-psychedelic Spiritualized turns his live document of a night in the life (his own) into one long spell-weaving epic. The collection finds most of its tracks from the British band’s holy, rolling 1997 album “Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space,” and with such song titles as “Medication,” its focus is squarely on the narcotic ooze of Pierce’s melodies and lyrical eclat. With the album’s producer listed as “J. Spaceman,” it’s no surprise that Spiritualized in its home court would be a psilocybin-laced delight. (ADA)
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Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, 'Live 1975–85'
The Boss has been cranking out high-quality live albums from all across his career for several years now (available on his website), but for an overview of his peak years, it’s hard to beat this 40-song boxed sampler. Recorded throughout the decade, from 1975 to 1985, at venues ranging from Los Angeles’ intimate Roxy to New Jersey’s aptly titled Giants Stadium, the varied nature of the collection eliminates the classic structure of a typical Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert, but fans didn’t seem to care: From “Rosalita” through “Cover Me” (and a killer live version of Edwin Starr’s “War”), this 13-times-platinum collection, released in 1986, remains the second-best-selling live album in U.S. history, second only to Garth Brooks’ “Double Live.” (RT)
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Talking Heads, 'Stop Making Sense' (1984)
The conceit of this concert was simple in approach but stunning in execution: Starting with frontman David Byrne performing the Talking Heads’ first hit, “Psycho Killer,” nine band members gradually joined in, one song at a time, presenting a mini-history of the band. But of course, that’s just one element of the show: From Byrne’s famous “big suit” and crazed “Once in a Lifetime” dance to him singing the love song “Naïve Melody” to a lamp, this remains one of the most musically and visually innovative tours in history (check the concert film if you’re not convinced). (JA)
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U2, 'Under a Blood Red Sky' (1983)
U2 had yet to scale the heights of stadium shows when they recorded their 1983 tour, but their place in rock history was quickly cemented with the release of “Under a Blood Red Sky.” Spanning eight songs and a running length of just over 35 minutes, you can hear the ambition of a band on the precipice of worldwide stardom and the urgency of its message — particularly on the politically-charged “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” which benefitted from a live video filmed at Red Rocks that became a MTV music video hit. Elsewhere, “New Year’s Day,” “Gloria” and “I Will Follow,” early career successes for U2, helped launch Ireland’s biggest-ever music export. (JT)
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The Velvet Underground, 'Live 1969'
For all the adventurousness and aggressive noise of their first two albums, by 1969 the Velvet Underground had settled into being a fairly straightforward rock band in concert — albeit one with a wildly innovative catalog of more than 50 songs, many of which had arrangements that changed from night to night, often stretching past the 10-minute mark. This stellar collection, recorded at shows in San Francisco and Dallas, shows just what a powerful force the Velvets had become, ranging from the anthemic “Rock and Roll” and the driving “What Goes On” to the narcotic haze of “Ocean” — and “The Complete Matrix Tapes” box rolls out all four sets from San Francisco, sprawling 42 songs over more than four and a half hours. (JA)
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Thin Lizzy, 'Live and Dangerous' (1976-77)
Forget about all those dumb “Boys Are Back in Town” Twitter memes — Thin Lizzy were one of the absolute greatest bands of the 1970s, and this double-album set (recorded in 1976 and ’77) captures the Irish foursome at the very peak of its powers. Led by one of the decade’s most slyly charismatic frontmen in bassist-vocalist Phil Lynott, Lizzy’s performance here is both impeccably rehearsed and comfortably loose, and the setlist shows just how profound an influence the band was on the next ten years of rock music, from its proto-Iron Maiden thrashers (“Emerald,” “Massacre”) to soft rock-adjacent R&B (“Dancing in the Moonlight”) to lighters-in-the-air power ballads from which Bon Jovi would so blatantly crib (“Cowboy Song”). And yes, “The Boys Are Back in Town” is on here too, and it blows the studio version out of the water. (AB)
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White Stripes, 'Under Great White Northern Lights' (2007)
Fell in love with a duo — yes, we did, wholly unexpectedly, given the previous dearth of bands that had declared that two is enough and still managed to test the sonic limits of theaters, amphitheaters and even arenas. At the time, few could have guessed this White Stripes live release would be a swan song for Jack White and Meg White as musical partners, following on the heels of what turned out to be their final studio album, “Icky Thump.” Many other live recordings surfaced before and since, of course, with the Third Man label and its Vault being about nothing if not the sense that vaults are bottomless treasures. But this 16-track set remains the definitive live document, regardless of whether you consider it a soundtrack album to the Canuck-philiac documentary film of the same name or its own thing. It encompasses blues, country and Bacharach/David covers but mostly it gives us a kind of rock ‘n’ roll we hadn’t quite heard before the duo’s debut just shy of a decade earlier: the warm, mysterious, ingratiating, earsplitting sound of the world’s tiniest army. (CW)
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The Who, 'Live at Leeds' (1970)
The Who are a classic example of a band adding up to much more than the sum of its parts, and by February of 1970, they were arguably the most powerful live act on the planet. This album explains exactly why Roger Daltrey’s soaring vocals, Keith Moon’s avalanche drumming, John Entwistle’s virtuoso bass playing and Pete Townshend’s stellar songs and blistering guitar work made for a uniquely explosive combination, and the group tears through its early singles, several old-school rock covers and songs from “Tommy.” “Live at Leeds” has been reissued, remixed and added to multiple times — you can now get not just the entire original Leeds set but an almost identical one from the following night — but the original six-song version has long been considered by many to be the best live rock album of all time. (JA)
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Woodstock: Music From the Original Soundtrack and More (1970)
Between the vast traffic congestion of the original event and the X-rating of the original film (due to its bounty of nude hippies), this triple album, released in 1970, was the closest most people could get to the proverbial garden that was the fabled 1969 festival. While it is perhaps even more famous for its between-song “Don’t take the brown acid” banter from Chip Monck, Wavy Gravy and the like, it also features stellar performances from Sly & the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix (his iconic “Star Spangled Banner”), Joe Cocker (his soulful reimagining of the Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends”), Santana, Ten Years After, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and even Sha Na Na. And for anyone who really wants to go back, there’s Andy Zax and Steve Woolard’s completist 38-disc, $800 box set, “Back to the Garden,” which captures every single note of music from the festival, and lots more besides. (RT)