Classic rock live albums that aren't largely, mostly, or all FAKE

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Can you count them all on the fingers of one hand? Or are there more?

Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out sounds pretty real to me, but I don't know. Ever since someone told me that most of Cheap Trick's Budokan was faked in the studio (and maybe I've been misinformed here...?) I haven't been the same person.

Virtually ALL "live" rock records released in the 60s and early 70s sound fake to me.

I guess (obviously, perhaps) only vintage releases count. Maybe a live record released 20 or 30 years after the fact is a lot less likely to be polished up with studio overdubs (unless you're Peter Gabriel putting new 21st century vocals on a 30 year old Genesis concert) then one released during the prime of a band's popularity (or budding popularity).

― Peter Porker, Saturday, 6 August 2005 20:04 (twenty years ago)

theres been great debate over the thin lizzy one.

― huell howser (chaki), Saturday, 6 August 2005 20:06 (twenty years ago)

Beach Boys' Party is sorta fake, but it's not really trying to be live.

― Zed Szetlian (Finn MacCool), Saturday, 6 August 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

KISS - Alive! is almost entirely fake...

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Sunday, 7 August 2005 02:32 (twenty years ago)

I think the Beach Boys' In Concert from 1974 sounds pretty real to me. But what do I know?

― donut ferry (donut), Sunday, 7 August 2005 02:56 (twenty years ago)

(I'll also add the previous two.. Live In London (1969) and that first one.)

― donut ferry (donut), Sunday, 7 August 2005 02:57 (twenty years ago)

theres been great debate over the thin lizzy one.

Not to my knowledge. Tony Visconti was on the record saying the band reworked it thoroughly in the studio.

I'd say a good many 70's and 80's live albums sound fairly stepped on in the studio post facto if you know the band really well. To fans, they sound perfectly acceptable and I have no problem with it. Judas Priest's "Unleashed in the East" was worked over. UFO's "Strangers in the Night" was cleverly altered. If you listen really closely, you can hear some guitar parts that couldn't have been played live unless the band had someone else hidden behing the stacks, which they didn't.

The trend now is the reverse for 70's and 80's bands making all their old live tapes available that their labels weren't interested in. Now
it's just released as is, even if it's shit. If you, for example, buy King Crimson's early live recordings, you get what the crappy tape machine recorded in the hall mostly. Some it sounds good, some of it like cack, but it's pretty real.

― George Smith, Sunday, 7 August 2005 03:02 (twenty years ago)

I have a classic FAKE live Crack the Sky record that was originally released as a promo only to radio. It's amusing because the crowd noises are quite obviously and embarrassingly a loop, and a badly chosen and spliced one. It never made it to real vinyl release but now you can pick it up on CD as part of their back catalog, or you could a few years ago.

Kiss "Alive" would have been real hard to do live in the barns the band was playing in when it allegedly went down. The crowds were enthusiastic but not as over-the-top on the actual record. And they didn't sound quite the good onstage, although usually no one noticed, it being a magic visual show, after all. Gave 'em a chance to do over the best of the first three records in hopes that it would save the sinking ship, which it did.

― George Smith, Sunday, 7 August 2005 03:09 (twenty years ago)

And although I haven't listened recently, I'd say Blue Oyster Cult's "On Your Feet Or on Your Knees" got a lot of help from the studio. If you compare to some of their other very -live- recordings, there are some major discrepancies. It's still a good record, the best BOC live recording, "For the Heavy Metal Kids (the foreign title of it)," perhaps being way too raw. Even some of that sounds tricky.

― George Smith, Sunday, 7 August 2005 03:13 (twenty years ago)

Fake Live Track

― todd (todd), Sunday, 7 August 2005 04:17 (twenty years ago)

the grateful dead own this thread.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Sunday, 7 August 2005 05:54 (twenty years ago)

neil young's classic live ones, like time fades away and live rust, don't sound worked over at all.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Sunday, 7 August 2005 05:59 (twenty years ago)

elton john, 11-17-70, maybe.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Sunday, 7 August 2005 06:04 (twenty years ago)

The myriad of Zappa live albums usually announce exactly the amount of 'overdubbage'. Stuff like 'Make a Jazz Noise Here' and 'Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life' from his 1988 tour are almost totally free of tinkering IIRC (i.e. can't be bothered to check the sleevenotes!). Don't know about the six 'You Can't Do That On Stage Any More' CDs but I would imagine they're pretty faithful to the original performances, though imaginatively sequenced in places (1969 Mothers of Invention segues into the 1982 touring band, for example).

― avery keen-gardner (avery keen-gardner), Sunday, 7 August 2005 08:48 (twenty years ago)

what about "No Sleep Till Hammersmith"?

Not that I've heard it.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Sunday, 7 August 2005 09:57 (twenty years ago)

someone told me that most of Cheap Trick's Budokan was faked in the studio (and maybe I've been misinformed here...?)

I don't think this is true. Budokan was meant as a souvenir for Japanese fans and sold so well as an import that it was eventually released in North America. The band didn't spend much time putting the record together - hated the cover art etc. - and didn't want a 'greatest hits' record out as it meant they had to delay releasing Dream Police. There may have been some minor touch-ups in the studio, but that's probably it. If it sounds overly tight - well, that's Cheap Trick live. In addition, the full concert has since been released - surely they wouldn't fake an entire concert and leave half of it unreleased for twenty years.

― Kent Burt (lingereffect), Monday, 8 August 2005 03:27 (twenty years ago)

the grateful dead own this thread.

how?

also, the first half of James Brown's Sex Machine, from 1970, is hilariously badly faked studio-as-live; the second half is real-deal live. the whole thing is utterly magnificent.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 8 August 2005 04:53 (twenty years ago)

i take it for granted that the grateful dead did a lot less postproduction/overdubbing on their live discs than a lot of other bands did. but i may be taking it a bit too much for granted. quick research shows that europe 72 had plenty of overdubs, and that dead set and reckoning featured edited-down versions. i still take it for granted that their live discs are more faithful to their live performances than most other live discs. whether you think that's a good thing, that's up to you. but in any event, i hereby reduce them from owning this thread to leasing it.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 8 August 2005 06:13 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe the tuning problems on Get Your Ya-Yas Out were faked in a studio.

― frankiemachine, Monday, 8 August 2005 08:58 (twenty years ago)

Is calling an overdubbed live album "fake" a rockist thing to do?

― shookout (shookout), Monday, 8 August 2005 18:15 (twenty years ago)

Ya-Ya's overdubs. mainly vocals.

― justsaying, Monday, 8 August 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

the Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl has no overdubs.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 8 August 2005 18:27 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.