Top Live Albums

(PLEASE NOTE THIS WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THE SUDDEN DEATH OF RONNIE JAMES DIO)


I was on the train and I'm rocking out to The Guns of Brixton by the
Clash and made me think about live albums. So here are some of my
favorites.

"I heard they suck live" - NOFX

The answer to that statement is no, they don't suck live and of the
albums I'm listing they are the only band I actually saw live. Six or
seven times. But the album has a lot of their classics from their
earlier albums (punk in drublic, longest line, ribbed). They really
enjoy their live show and it shows on the album, there is crowd
interaction. Its fun just like a NOFX show but without all the 13 year
olds.

"Black Sabbath Live at the Hammerstein Odeon" - Black Sabbath

This live album features the Ronnie James Dio led Sabbath and what is
really cool they play most of the songs from the Dio years but play
Ozzy era songs like "Iron Man" which is totally different when Dio
sings it. Honestly there are words you couldn't understand when Ozzy
sings it that are now perfectly clear.

"Live at Shea Stadium" - The Clash

I'll be the first to admit it that I bought this on ITunes because it
was a concert recorded at Shea stadium. But it is so much more than
that. The Clash were so great and tight live, they played some
favorites "London calling" and "Rock the Cassbah". It was 1982 and the
Clash were the only things rocking Shea Stadium that summer.

Other great live albums:
Unplugged in New York - Nirvana
Live at Folsom Prison - Johnny Cash
Under Great White Northern Lights - The White Stripes
Unplugged - Eric Claypton

#89

#89
Immagrant Song
Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin has mad a lot of really good music but for my money nothing is better than Immagrant Song. Seriously name one other serious song about vikings. You can't.

When the song begins you can imagine viking long-boats approaching an unsuspecting coastal village on a moon less night. And then from out of no where they attack. Just thinking about the song makes my blood boil.

Then you hear the war cry. Robert Plant may have looked like a efeminant flower child but he was every bit the viking warrior he sang about.

#90

#90
Love Song
The Cure




I'll say it now, this should have been mama and my wedding song.
Unfortunately I heard it for the first time after the wedding. But
nonetheless it is a great song.

I never listened to the cure, growing up. Honestly Robert Smith in a
bunny suit during the "Friday I'm in Love" video was the extent of my
knowledge of the band and their work. But this song really turned me
onto their music (well their old music).

The song is about missing your soul mate, particularly while on tour.
But it make being apart sound so horrible and dreadful "You make me
feel fun again". This is one of those songs that I begin to tear up
when I listen to it. Because I really understand that kind of love.

Musically it is typical Cure fare but, the juxtaposition of anguish
and joy in Smith's voice are what truly make this song remarkable.

#91

#91
CE LA LUNA
Lou Monte

I can’t imagine hearing the song Take Me Out to the Ball Game without it being immediately followed by Lou Monte’s Ce La Luna (Lazy Mary). Honestly it is so ingrained in my mind, when we saw the Mets in Toronto a few years ago and when the TMOTHBG ended it seemed wrong that there was nothing after it.

The song which is in Italian and English (or British as Lou Monte says) is kind of dirty, but its such a great song. The music makes you want to bounce around and clap your hands. And yes the beginning is the same as Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey, which Monte also recorded.

With baseball returning on Monday I couldn’t think of a better song to think about. Go Mets!

#92

#92

Jolene
Dolly Parton
The White Stripes

Several years ago I downloaded a live performance of the White Stripes from a British TV show (actually it may have been a Japanese TV show) and they played their hits of the time and some B-sides. The only song I remember from that performance was a cover of Dolly Parton's Jolene.

The song which is about an enchantress who the singer thinks is going to steal her man. From the description in the song I'm pretty sure Dolly was talking about Reba Macentire.

What is great about the song is the desperation in the singers words "you could have your choice of men / but I will never love again". Its so rare to see such vulnerabilty in a song. Its refreshing.

As for Jack White it seems he is in hysterics as he pleds to Jolene. "Jolene / Jolene / Please don't take my man / Even though you can". The White Stripes have such a distinctive sound they can really make any song there own. And they have done this with Jolene.

Ummm

Its been crazy. So next week there will be two new songs posted.

#93

#93
Catholic Block
Sonic Youth
Sister



I think most of Sonic Youth’s music is ostentatious and art for the sake of art. Which I find obnoxious, but through all the feedback and mumbling I found a gem. It is listenable which for Sonic Youth and me is a plus.

Musically it is passionate and turbulent. And is the first song on this list with a curse word in it. But I’m not one to censor a song. It’s just a word. The song makes me think of someone who is religious finds a world outside of the church he’s been raised in and is now at odds with everything he has ever known. And yes that interpretation is ostentatious in itself, but it is a really good song.

#94

#94
I Don’t Wanna Hear It
Minor Threat
The Suicide Machines









The best thing about live performances is that you hear bands do cover songs and sometimes you can discover a band you end up liking more than the band you are into at the moment.

That happened when I went to see the punk/ska outfit The Suicide Machines. I loved their first album Destruction by Definition. I was a real neophyte when it came to older Punk Rock music. But I had gone to see the Suicide Machines, perhaps with the Might Mighty Bostones at New York City’s Webster Hall. The Machines were the opening act and for my money, despite the Bostones efforts, they stole the show. They finished the show with a blistering short song called “I don’t wanna hear it”. It was a rawkus, and intense expression of frustration and angst. It was only later on did I learn that this song (which is a hidden track on their album) was originally by US punk pioneers Minor Threat.

Minor Threat, is the American Sex Pistols. They built the sound that American styled punk bands emulated. It makes sense that Brian Baker one of the original members of Minor Threat now plays with Threat disciples Bad Religion.

It’s a simple song. Someone has been lied to too much. Too many empty promises to count. Pushed to hard. For too long. And they had it up to here with it. Just thinking of this song, and its cool bass line and then frenetic guitars, makes me want to jump into a mosh pit. Which admittedly is not my favorite place to be at a punk show.

I think there is a special place in my heart for bands with a short but meaningful shelf life. Minor Threat recorded less than an hours worth of music. Its fast they have a lot of short songs, this one is no more than minute and a half. Its all complied on their complete discography CD. This song is like their career, fast, smart, driven and completely unrelenting.

#95

#95
Plateau/Lake of Fire
Nirvana
The Meat Puppets



I first heard Plateau and Lake of Fire when I saw Nirvana Unplugged on MTV. It came out near the time that Kurt Cobain committed suicide. When MTV was doing these ”unplugged” shows, bands would put away their electric guitars and plays an intimate acoustic set.

When listened to in its entirety, ”Nirvana Unplugged in New York” seems like the most natural fit, they seemed as comfortable in sitting around in a small theatre playing their guitars as they did tearing up arenas and traditional rock venues. I don’t know perhaps even more. During these shows the bands expanded their play lists by doing cover songs and slowed down versions of their hits. Nirvana brought up the Kirkwood brothers who were better known as the Meat Puppets. Well they really were unknown until that point. They played three songs from their album Meat Puppets II, including the unremarkable Oh Me. But surrounding it were these two haunting songs.

Being included on the album gave the Meat Puppets a short-lived surge, but now they are only referenced as a footnote when talking about this concert.

These two songs are such standouts because they are so different lyrically to the rest of Nirvana’s repertoire. Most of Nirvana’s lyrics were very straight forward, but the Puppets words have a lot of layers to peel through. If you listen to the instrumental portions of Lake of Fire you could swear they were about to jump into a mellower Doors tune.

Kurt Cobain killed himself a few months after these recordings, how eerie is it that he is singing a song that asks, “Where do bad folks go when they die.” It gives me chills.

This sounds weird but when I listen to these songs, I imagine the cozy orange glow of a nice campfire. What is also great is that the recordings of these songs were in a live setting and you could hear the warm swell of applause at the end. Which makes it feel just right.

... I probably could list 25 Doors songs ...

1. Five to 1
2. Not to touch the earth
3. Peace Frog
4. Wintertime Love
5. People are strange
6. Riders on the storm
7. Stange days
8. LA Woman
9. Break on Through
10. The End
11. When the Music's Over
12. Touch me
13. Roadhouse Blues
14. Backdoor Man
15. Light My Fire

Ok so maybe 15 songs of the top of my head, but that is a lot of quality music from a band that only released 7 albums. And like all of my lists this is in no particular order.

#96

The Doors
LA Woman
LA Woman (1971)



I was listening to the best of The Doors the other day and realized that I probably have 25 Doors songs that could be put on this list. I think I will only put two or three on, just so I can spread out the net of knowledge further out.

On a blog I read they made reference to the new Doors documentary narrated by Johnny Depp. They said everyone goes through a Doors stage. I know for myself that s true. I discovered the Doors around the time the Oliver Stone movie came out. Me and one of my buddies from scouts got into at the same time, I remember the two of us scouring the record sellers at the Scout Flea market for any Doors records, but alas there were none. I think the first Doors record I owned was the sound track for the movie. Which is a nice beginners course on the Doors. From there I went on to buy most of their albums. All these years later, and I am still rocking’ out to the Doors in the car.

The first morning when we were in Los Angeles, I was driving along the high way going towards the office. And the song LA WOMAN popped into my head. The sunshine, the mountains, and the traffic everything seemed right. It stayed with my as we drove around Hollywood that night. I don’t think you can understand someone’s words until you can really picture where they are setting those words. Seattle was like that for the music of Nirvana, and Los Angeles is like that for The Doors.

Back to LA Woman, the song is a love song to a city. Personified as a lover. The music was made for riving around on the high way, it rambles on like smooth asphalt never getting in the way of Jim Morrison’s words. All the while never giving up any ground to the vocals.

Like most of the Doors music there is a heavy blues influence on the music. I could imagine a song like this being played at a rock club jam-packed with the beautiful people or some small out of the way blues club with the local drunks. On a slight tangent the "MR MOJO RISIN" portion of the song became a rallying cry for the 1999 Mets team that made a run into the playoffs as a wild card.

#97

Vanilla Ice

Ice, Ice Baby

To The Extreme (1990)





Much like my pick from last week, this week’s is pick is very polarizing. I’ll admit it love the song Ice Ice Baby, even though most people hate it and the performer that performs it. From the moment I first heard this song it captured something within me.

Ice Ice Baby is very appropriate, as it popped in my head while I took Olivia out to the park on President’s day and we broke out the sled. And more snow was in the forecast. Perhaps this pick should have been Informer by Snow. Anyways.

Ding Ding Ding Dee Dee Ding Ding. Every time I hear that opening tune, I hope its Ice Ice Baby, but it’s usually Under Pressure by Queen, where the beat was stolen from and is a pretty great song in its own right. I don’t buy that there is an extra ding somewhere in there to make it different. But I digress.

During an era when rap was about being hard and dangerous, this song is about being a Guido in Miami, which in itself was welcoming. “Rolling in my five point oh, with the roof put down so my hair can blow” Ok the worst thing that this song did was give a terrible haircut to Guido’s everywhere. The song was about having a good time, not shooting up some guys wearing a different color hat than you are wearing.

Seriously how can you not love a song that has this lone “cooking MCs like a pound of bacon”.

I remember buying the tape of To The Extreme at Sears while in high school. It somehow lasted though college, where I used to play it in a radio that we had in the newspaper office. The tape was stolen, because some people were not ready for a return of Vanilla Ice. Even today 20 years later when I hear Ice Ice Baby, I smile. And sing along.

“Yo word to your mother!”

#98

Gotta Serve Somebody
Bob Dylan



I'll admit it I don't like a lot of things that other people like. On
of those things is Bob Dylan.

I never found him to be a genius or whatever, he just outlived his
contemporaries. He doesn't really do anything for me. Seriously, this
great songwriter sings in a way that you can't understand his lyrics.
That being said one of his songs is on this list.

I first heard Gotta Serve Somebody on an episode of the Sopranos. Its
true no matter who you are or where you are in the pecking order there
is someone (or something) above you. In terms of the Sopranos, "the
Boss" Tony has to answer to the boss in New York, to his wife and to
his own conscience.

But I digress, the musically the song flows along like a walk in the
park. A real cool bass line. The lyrics are so great, he knows that
even though he is a huge rock star that he has to listen to the record
company executives. Its a good lesson to learn.

Songs that are not on the list but are stuck in my head while I'm making the list - Part 1

Tik Tok - Ke$ha
Tubthumping - Chumbawumba

#99

You Know You're Right
Nirvana
Nirvana (2002)

\

You never know how much you love something until its gone. Done. Finished. Dead and bloated (as Stone Temple Pilots might say). This is how I feel about Nirvana. They may not have created Grunge Rock, they would probably say they were more of a heavy punk band anyway, but they brought it to the masses. More on that in a future posting.

But for a few years in the early 1990s the biggest and most relevant band in the world was Nirvana. And in thew spring of 1994 it all ended. When lead singer Kurt Cobain shot himself in a back room in his Seattle home. I remember being stunned. Though they would release a few more live albums. It was over. There was nothing more to hear.

Until almost 10 years after the angry voice of my generation silenced himself, they released a Best of Album simply called Nirvana. It is a really great mix of pre-mega stardom, and peak. On the album was one new song. You Know You're Right. When I first heard it on the radio I was blown away. I practically wore out my copy of the cd.

Even though it was written and recorded in the 90s it was fresh, innovative and relevant nearly a decade later. That made me happy.

The lyrics much like many of Nirvana's lyrics bring two opposite emotions together. On one hand Kurt is singing about giving up and being ok with it. Then in his guttural yells he exclaims that "things have never been so swell!" The chorus reeks of being fed up, with being a rock star, being a big business and everything else Kurt was going through. I know when I'm frustrated and don't want to argue a point anymore I'll just concede that the other person is right just to end it.

Musically it was way ahead of its time. It probably wouldn't have been a hit when it was originally recorded. But compared to everything else that was flooding the market when this gem was finally released, it was probably one of the best songs released that year.

I'm sure you don't remember this Olivia when we played it on the stereo you were dancing around. You have good taste.