Coming Attractions...

Live Recordings Are Almost Always Better, Except When Thery're Not

When I began writing for All About Jazz in the late 1990s, I had the opportunity to indulge myself in naming what I considered the top ten best live rock recordings.  Then, several years later, I was allowed to recapitulate that list.  Having left the magazine and while cataloging my extant writing, I plan to revisit this list and several more related to live recordings.

I am older than I once was and younger than I’ll be; that’s not unusual.  Twenty-five years after my first consideration is ample time to reconsider my list.  First, I am expanding my top ten to 25 recordings, allowing me to address recordings I either left out of the original top ten (but included in The Best Of The Rest) or criminally neglected the first time around.  While my original top ten remains mostly intact, their order does not, particularly in the top five.

I always found live recordings significant because, at least in theory, they captured an artist at a time when they could be inventive with their music played on the radio.  Invention and intention can drive the critical and financial success of a live recording.  Live recordings were programmed by producers and engineers, often changing original setlists into something with better performance pacing or dramatic flow.

This often involved excluding songs considered subpar sonically, too long, short, or poorly performed.  Often the songs were selected from different shows (and venues) altogether.  Likewise, the producer’s and engineer’s roles included rerecording and overdubbing perceived mistakes in performance or splicing together two otherwise imperfect performances to make a “perfect” one (at least in the ears of those in the sound booth).  

With this paradigm of producing live recordings, a facsimile of performance was often presented that did not represent the actual flow and experience of the concert.  In the last few years, record companies have emptied their vaults of live recordings presented as the bands performed them with some reengineering and mastering.  The results have been more fresh and authentic listening experiences.  This delayed hindsight offers an opportunity to reaccess a list like my top ten best live rock recordings.

I look forward to taking exactly that opportunity.  I will include only commercially released recordings, supplemented, where necessary, with unauthorized recordings.  There are examples of bootlegged recordings that are superior to the commercially available ones and I have no reluctance in presenting them in discussion, but only in a secondary capacity.  But necessarily, the commercially available recordings are what I had at my disposal when I originally experienced them.

This is just the beginning of a process I hope will morph into something much larger, more entertaining, and increasingly informative.  It should be fun.

P.S.  For those wanting to know, yes, Waiting For Columbus remains.