Top 10 Live Albums

Final "+11" shoutout for Santana-"Moonflower"

I have 2 I listen to regularly as I am not a live album aficionado- sinatra at the sands and rust never sleeps.

Joan Baez in Concert, V1 and V2

And on a completely different note, the first full length stereo recording still extant:

Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto, The Emperor, performed in Berlin during an air raid, by Gieseking and conducted by Artur Rother, or Varese Sarband.

An historical note: I understand that the Telefunken tape recorder was ’liberated’ and shipped to the USA for reverse engineering, which formed the backbone of the modern recording industry. But I could be wrong.

2 live sides of Eat a Peach, my favorite Duane solos, phenomenal range and emotion 

Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1972

Bill Evans, "The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961"

John Handy Quintet, "Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival, 1965"

David  Bromberg Band, "How Late’ll Ya Play Til?"

Max and Dizzy

I can't resist adding a few more...

Santana Lotus

M. Orchestra Between Nothingness and Eternity volumes I, II

J. Hendrix The J. Hendrix Concerts, Albert Hall Experience

Assembly of Dust The Honest Hour

Pentangle Sweet Child

Neil Young Masey Hall, Carnegie Hall 1970

Ry Cooder Show Time

Otis Rush So Many Roads

Bob Dylan (with The Band) Live 1966

Richard Thompson Live From Austin, TX. plus a bunch more live shows available on his website

Dire Straits Live at the BBC

John Prine Live On Tour

Joni Mitchell Archives box sets all include previously unreleased live material

Free Live

Atlanta Rhythm Section "Are You Ready!"

Dire Straits "Alchemy"

Supertramp "Live in Paris"

 

Outlaws "Bring it Back Alive!"

Rush "All the World’s a Stage"

REO Speedwagon "You Get What You Play For"

 

Here are more favorites I forgot to add.  Couldn’t keep my list to just 10.

Lou Reed - Rock N’ Roll Animal

Jefferson Airplane - Bless Its Pointed Little Head

Grateful Dead - The Closing of Winterland: December 31, 1978

Cowboy Junkies - Long Journey Home

Bob Dylan / The Band - Before The Flood

Miles Davis - Agharta

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Live At Monterrey 

The Yardbirds - Five Live Yardbirds 

Cat Power - Sings Dylan (The 1966 Royal Albert Hall)

 

 

 

 

I would add the live portion from Cream's Wheels of Fire.  Crossroads and Spoonful make one amazing side of an album, remembering there was nothing in it's class when released

Pentangle---"Finale"

Cheap Trick - at Budokan 

Santana  'Lotus'

 

Uriah Heep 'Live'

 

 

Stones - Ya Ya’s 1970

Stones - The Brussels Affair 1973 (Great extended version of You Can’t Always Get What You Want)

Humble Pie - Performance Rockin’ The Fillmore 1971

Allman Brothers - Fillmore East 1971

Allman Brothers - An Evening With The Allman Brothers Band - 2nd Set 1995 (Later version of the band with Warren Haynes)

Genesis - Genesis Live 1973

Lou Reed - Rock N Roll Animal 1974

Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris - Real Live Roadrunning 2006

Graham Nash - Live: Songs For Beginners/Wild Tales 2022

Sia - Lady Croissant Live 2007. Great early Sia.

Traffic - On The Road 1973

Steve Winwood - Winwood Greatest Hits Live 2017

Leonard Cohen live in London
Ella Fitzgerald live in Berlin

Johnny Cash at Folsom prison

Katie Melua, Live in Concert. Beautiful recording 

I listened to my two faves last night back to back..."Live at Leeds" and "Rock and Roll Animal". And I hadn't seen this thread, either.

Can't add much to this list, but I can add votes for several:

Eva Cassidy "Live at Blues Alley"

Jackson Browne "Running on Empty"

Rory Gallagher "Irish Tour '74"

The Band et al "The Last Waltz"

Neil Diamond "Hot August Nights"

Joni Mitchell "Miles Of Aisles"

Diana Krall " Live in Paris"

Oregon "1974"

Eric Clapton "Unplugged" 

Eric Clapton (And many others) Crossroads 2010 BlueRay DVD If there was ever a case for a kick-ass home theater The Crossroads Festival 2010 (or any other year, for that matter) are it.

Clapton live is excellent.  Live in the 70s, a 4 CD set, is great too.  

@relayer101 , Thanks for mentioning the Graham Nash live CD. I didn't know about that one and I've already ordered myself a copy of it.;

J. Geils: "Five Card Stud"

My problem is, since I listen to 3 main genres (prog, jazz and classical, and subgenres within each), I have more than 10 favorite live albums in my top 10.

Here my favorite prog live recordings:

Yes - Yessongs

Genesis - Seconds Out

Univers Zero - Relaps 2009

Jethro Tull - Bursting Out

Gentle Giant - Playing the Fool

Renaissance - Live at Carnegie Hall

King Crimson - The Great Deceiver: Live 1973-1974

Magma - Live/Hhaï (Köhntark)

Änglagård - Prog På Svenska - Live In Japan 2014

 

Jazz:

John Coltrane - Live in Seattle

Return to Forever - The Mothership Returns 2012

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Between Nothingness and Eternity

Oregon - In Performance

Pharaoh Sanders - Live!

Arti e Mestieri - Live 1974/2000

Steve Coleman and the 5 Elements - Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. I (The Embedded Sets) 2018

Brand X - Timeline

Allan Holdsworth I.O.U. - Live in Japan

 

 

@simonmoon

You might enjoy Oregon’s live "1974".

@relayer101 

I'd forgotten about "Rock n' Roll Animal" -- some great guitar playing on that one! 

Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense

Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus

Lynyrd Skynyrd - One More From/For The Road

MTV Unplugged - 10,000 Maniacs, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Florence & The Machine

Bob Seger - Live Bullett

Rolling Stones - Bridges to Babylon (Get the DVD version)

Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush - Live

Supertramp - Live Paris

Atlanta Rhythm Section - Are You Ready?

There are so many albums on this list I need to download. A lot of the list I've heard and enjoy but quite a few I haven't heard before. Absolutely love live albums. A couple of my favorites are as follows:

Alice In Chains - MTV Unplugged. 

Opeth - Live At Albert Hall. 

Bill Withers - Live At Carnegie Hall. 

Earth, Wind & Fire - Gratitude.

 

Thanks for this thread. Good stuff! 

What, no Rolling Stones Get Yer Ya Ya's Out! Also Quicksilver Messenger's Happy Trails.

Billy Joel - Songs in the Attic

Bruce Hornsby - Intersections/ 1985-2005

and another thumbs up for:

ELP - Brain Salad Surgery

Agree I have to check a lot of these albums out.  Something to do on these long winter nights. Thanks for all the posts.  

Steve Goodman Live Wire, and The Easter Tapes

Marshall Tucker Band Carolina Dreams Tour ‘77

Chuck Mangione Live at the Hollywood Bowl

Claire Lynch Crowd Favorites

Mark O’Connor Band Live

Chicago IV

Tommy Emmanuel Live One

Great Ceaser’s Ghost What’s Done is Done

Al Kooper:  Soul of a Man

Umphey’s McGee December 31st, 2004

New Grass Revival Live

Jerry Jeff Walker Live at Gruene Hall

 

So many great suggestions!

I didn't see Chicago Live at Carnegie Hall

Bonamassa has some great live albums

Judas Priest Unleashed in the East

Chris Cornell Songbook

Some mislabel Chicago "At Carnegie Hall" as Chicago IV.

You guys that may want to test out your bass- Play "Essence" track From The Lucinda Williams Live At The Fillmore 2003

Subterranean bass...

ozzy

1. Grateful Dead Closing of Winterland, 12/31/78. My first SF dead show on my 24th birthday (I was living in Anchorage AK at the time)!  The Dead didn't start till midnight and played 3 sets! Breakfast was served at dawn after the show ended.  The night started with the showing of the movie Animal House, followed by the Blues Brothers backed up by Joni Mitchell's Band Tom Scott and the LA Express followed by New Riders of the Purple Sage. Then the Flying Karamazov Brothers entertained the crowd and at midnight Bill Graham rode a giant joint from the balcony down to the stage and then they dropped a zillion ballons at midnight and the Dead started with Sugar Magnolia!  Quite the evening!  The show was issued on DVD a few years back.

2. Little Feat Waiting for Columbus

3. Leonard Cohen Live in London

4. GD Europe 72

5. The Band The Last Waltz & Rock of Ages

6. Joni Mitchell Miles of Aisles

7. Bob Marley and the Wailers Live

8. Talking Heads Stop Making Sense

9. Renaissance Live at Carnegie Hall

10. Grateful Dead Live Dead (1969)

 

I will also second Gentle Giant Playing the Fool!

An incredible band that a lot of people haven't connected with.

They are incredible.

Grateful Dead 12/31/1978

Track listing

[edit]

Disc one

[edit]

First set:

1. "Sugar Magnolia" > (Bob Weir, Robert Hunter) – 7:21
2. "Scarlet Begonias" > (Jerry Garcia, Hunter) – 11:55
3. "Fire on the Mountain" (Mickey Hart, Hunter) – 15:05
4. "Me and My Uncle" (John Phillips) – 3:11
5. "Big River" (Johnny Cash) – 7:05
6. "Friend of the Devil" (Garcia, John Dawson, Hunter) – 10:48
7. "It's All Over Now" (Bobby Womack, Shirley Womack) – 8:23
8. "Stagger Lee" (Garcia, Hunter) – 8:03
9. "From the Heart of Me" > (Donna Godchaux) – 3:49
10. "Sunshine Daydream" (Weir, Hunter) – 3:15

Disc two

[edit]

Second set:

1. "Samson and Delilah" (traditional, arranged by Weir) – 9:17
2. "Ramble On Rose" (Garcia, Hunter) – 9:35
3. "I Need a Miracle" > (Weir, John Barlow) – 11:19
4. "Terrapin Station" > (Garcia, Hunter) – 12:23
5. "Playing in the Band" > (Weir, Hart, Hunter) – 13:06

Disc three

[edit]

Second set, continued:

1. "Rhythm Devils" > (Hart, Bill Kreutzmann) – 19:23
2. "Not Fade Away" > (Norman Petty, Buddy Holly) – 19:34
3. "Around and Around" (Chuck Berry) – 9:19

Disc four

[edit]

Third set:

1. "Dark Star" > (Garcia, Hart, Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Weir, Hunter) – 11:53
2. "The Other One" > (Weir, Kreutzmann) – 4:55
3. "Dark Star" > (Garcia, Hart, Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, Weir, Hunter) – 1:09
4. "Wharf Rat" > (Garcia, Hunter) – 11:08
5. "St. Stephen" > (Garcia, Lesh, Hunter) – 7:52
6. "Good Lovin''" (Rudy Clark, Arthur Resnick) – 13:57

First encore:

7. "Casey Jones" > (Garcia, Hunter) – 5:17
8. "Johnny B. Goode" (Berry) – 7:14

Second encore:

9. "And We Bid You Goodnight" (traditional, arranged by Grateful Dead) – 4:13

These seem to have been missed:

The Dream Syndicate: Live at Raji's - An absolutely stunning album featuring a fantastic band at the peak of its power.  Truly a magical, enthralling thing to behold.

Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert - The electric half is legendary for very good reasons.

Peter Green has several live albums that are amazing.  Live at Ronny Scotts I believe also some albums under Peter Green's Splinter Group. A totally underappreciated artist. He put out some incredible music after he left Fleetwood Mac.

Can't leave out The Living End by Husker Du.

Alice in Chains - 

Pop/Rock

Unplugged (Live at the Majestic Theatre, Brooklyn, NY - April 1996)

A lot of great titles so far!  I'll add these:

John McLaughlin Trio: Live At the Royal Festival Hall

McLaughlin, Di Meola, De Lucia: Friday Night In San Francisco

Abercrombie/Erskine/Mintzer/Patitucci: The Hudson Project

Cannonball Adderly: Mercy Mercy Mercy (Live). Had this in reel to reel back in the stay. Still listen to it on Qobuz.

Clifford Jordan: Live at Ethell’s. Maybe there is something to the Mapleshade approach. This proved to me that CDs can sound perfectly real if recorded properly. Love the clinking of glasses in the opener, Summer Serenade.

Rolling Stones - Love You Live

The Do - Live at l'Olympia

Hugh Masekela - Live at the Record Plant

BB King - Live at the Regal

Rodrigo y Gabriella - Live in Japan

Fania All Stars - Live at Yankee Stadium

Cream - Wheels of Fire (disc 2)

 

Hidden gem & great recording quality—Nils Lofgren: Acoustic Live

(Really enjoyed the responses on this thread.)

Great stuff here for sure. I would like to add:

Loggins and Messina - On Stage

Niks Lofgren - Acoustic Live

Neville Brothers - Live On Planet Earth

Tower of Power - Soul Vaccination

Stevie Ray Vaughn - Live Alive

Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin, Paco DeLucia - Friday and Saturday Night in San Francisco (2 albums)

 

 

 

 

More great albums.

I will add one I just started listening to.

Pete Townshend - Live in Concert 1985-2001.  14 CD set streaming online. 

Ramones - It’s Alive 

Johnny Winter - Captured Live

Black Flag - Who’s got the 10 1/2

AC/DC - If you want blood..