Live albums are moments preserved forever on vinyl/in amber, snapshots with a goldmine of cultural and temporal shrapnel embedded in their metadata. Listen close enough and you might catch an atom splitting, an evolution occurring, a change that’s gonna come. And if you’re an aficionado of those junctures when zeitgeists morph into what will follow, … Continue reading The Isley Brothers, The Isleys Live (T-Neck, 1973)
Of all the crimes the internet has committed, perhaps the most heinous is the fact that there are millions now living who only know Millie Jackson as that women straining on a toilet as featured in countless clickbait ‘Worst Album Covers Ever’ lists. There’s a case to be made that her 1989 album Back To … Continue reading Millie Jackson, Live And Dangerous (Polydor, 1979)
In the Autumn of 1961, the debut issue of The Fantastic Four crash-landed at newsstands all over America. The series – which, starting with its fourth issue, would feature the not-entirely-hyperbolic claim “The world’s greatest comic magazine” emblazoned across its covers – marked the birth of Marvel Comics, a publishing company that would, under the … Continue reading Curtis/Live! (Curtom, 1971)
The best live albums are often more than just an artist’s greatest hits recreated in concert: they can offer glimpses of vulnerability beneath an artist’s PR-upholstered surface, illuminate a chapter in their existence, tell a story all their own. And so it is with Fleetwood Mac’s 1980 live album, gleaned from the global tour in … Continue reading Fleetwood Mac Live (Warner Bros, 1980)
To some, live albums are the worst kind of fan exploitation, playing upon the dedicated fan’s completist impulses, labels reselling the kids songs they already own as superior album versions without even having to pay for studio time (indeed, the artist probably got paid for the live performance itself). Not a bad gig: you bet … Continue reading “This next one is the first song on our new album…”
The Foghat Principle 