I mentioned brfore that the Seventies were the decade of live albums. However, when compiling my live album Mt. Rushmore I realized this phenomenon spilled into the Eighties and had been a thing in the Sixties as well. My contenders were mostly from the Seventies though. I wanted to get The J. Geils Band's Blow Your Face Out on because I love Peter Wolf's classic tale of Reputa the Beauta, but I couldn't do it. Likewise, I wanted to honor The Pat Travers Band's iconic live version of "Boom Boom, Out Go the Lights", but it wasn't to be. I was also conflicted whether to consider all the great live albums or just the one I actually own. I chose to consider all of them and my Mt. Rushmore is 50-50, but I will eventually acquire the ones I don't have. Needless to say, I had to leave off some classic live albums. They are RUSH Exit...Stage Left, Neil Young Live Rust (amazing just for "Powderfinger"), Johnny Cash Folsom Prison, KISS Alive I, The Who Live at Leeds and Miles Davis Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965. Miles Davis was the last cut. His second quintet of Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams is the greatest band of all-time.
My well documented number one is Cheap Trick At Budokan. It wasn't until Heaven Tonight that Cheap Trick were able to translate their live energy to the studio. The studio and live versions of "I Want You to Want Me" could be no more different. The original At Budokan was great, but since then there have been many reissues of the complete show, which is the much have version. The standout for me is "Come On, Come On". I have a fantasy of creating a anime series about Cheap Trick being secret ninjas that live underground in Tokyo, but doing live shows every night. In their prime they were kind of cartoonish with the two good looking guys, the weird guy and the guy who looked like an old chain smoking accountant. Speaking of which, Bun E. Carlos is the MVP of At Budokan. He should still be in the band.
Number two is Live Bullet by Bob Seger. I'm not a huge Seger guy, but Live Bullet is tremendous; and really the only Seger a normal person would need. His live versions of "Nutbush City Limits", "Get Out of Denver", "Katmandu", "Beautiful Loser" and "Ramblin', Gamblin' Man" are incendiary. They easily make up for the criminally overplayed "Turn the Page" (pronounced Paaaaaaaaja).
Number three is the omnipresent Peter Frampton Comes Alive. Everybody had it and there's a reason for that...it's great. Frampton is possibly the most underrated guitarist of the guitar god era. HIs dad was David Bowie's music teacher and Peter was life long friends with him. Unfortunately, he was never able to translate his talent to the studio. He also has the greatest vocoder performance of all-time on "Do You Feel Like We Do", which is something.
Number four is my surprise pick and it's from the Eighties; Under a Blood Red Sky by U2. Early U2 is my wheelhouse. Even though they are a great studio band, I love the live versions of "Gloria", "I Will Follow", "40", "The Electric Co." and "11 O'Clock Tick Tock". This came out a couple months after I started college. Perfect timing.
I just went to my first live show since covid the other night. It was Guided by Voices at the Rock Hall for almost three hours. They were on fire. Pollard's current band is great. My wife and I are going to see two Crowded House shows next month. The best show we have ever been to was Kasabian at the House of Blues in Chicago. The second best was the RUSH show in Cleveland that was released on DVD, CD and LP. Third best was Midnight Oil at the Cleveland House of Blues. We love going to shows. Peace.
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