In the seventies it was standard procedure for a band
to release a Live album from their latest tour. This formed a dual
purpose. One - it was a cheap way for the ever greedy record company to
extort more money from their clients, and the ever gullible public. Two
- it made it more difficult for the pirate recorders to tape the Record
Companies’ artists and put out bootlegs on the ever willing fans, who
wanted to hear their heroes in concert. Whatever. The seventies were a
wonderful era for those of us that loved the “Live Album”, whether
it was a single or a double album, or even a triple in the case of
Chicago. Almost anybody who was anybody had a live album put out and
most of them caught your favorite artist at a defining moment.
To name them all would be impossible. However, here a
few of those gems, not necessarily in any particular order.
Deep Purple - Made In Japan
U.F.O. - Strangers In The Night
Thin Lizzy - Live and Dangerous
The Who - Live at Leeds
Little Feat - Waiting For Columbus
Humble Pie - Performance Live at the Fillmore
Mott the Hoople - Live
Lynyrd Skynyrd - One From The Road
Jethro Tull - Bursting at the Seams
Joe Cocker and a cast of Thousands - Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Peter Frampton - Frampton comes Alive (the biggest selling live double
album ever)
Ten Years After - Recorded Live (which was to be
surpassed by the release of ‘Live at the Fillmore’ when it was
finally released thirty years after the event)
Grand Funk Railroad - Live (oh, come on, admit it you
enjoyed it)
I have to include Hendrix - In the West. Even though
it was released posthumously, it still really cooks and would leave any
present day guitarist’s album in its shadow.
Kiss - Alive - both One and Two (ah, come on, they
were fun)
Lou Reeds - Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal
AC/DC - If You Want Blood You Got It
Free-Live
Aerosmith - Live Bootleg
Fairport Convention - Full House
Neil Diamond - Hot August Night (do not ccoff until you have actually
heard it)
The Rolling Stones - Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out
Allman Brothers - Live at the Fillmore East
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - Welcome Back My Friends
to The Show That Never Ends (now they also had to release a live triple
album just to get half their show on one release)
Ted Nugent - Double Live Gonzo
Hawkwind - Space Ritual Live
Uriah Heep - Live
Rory Gallagher - Live in Europe
Genesis - Live (the first one with the classic five piece)
Derek and the Dominoes (also) - Live at the Fillmore East
Slade - Alive
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young - Four Way Street
And I have to include Nutz - Live Cutz, but I refuse
to include Led Zeppelin’s - The Song Remains the Same. One listen to
the release of ‘How The West Was Won’, released in 2003, will show
you what a pathetic live release that was. I apologize for anybody’s
personal favorite I have missed out, but as you can see, there were
quite a lot of fantastic live albums from this glorious era. One band
that is glaringly obvious is Black Sabbath, who did not get to release
an approved live album until the turn of the millennium.
One person who nearly had his entire career ruined by
the live album was poor old Bob Seger. This album was recorded in Cobo
Hall in Seger’s home town of Detroit in 1975, and unfortunately caught
this very talented band on a bad night. There are so many bad things
about this recording, it is difficult to know where to start. The
selection of songs is as good as any. For such a great songwriter as Bob
Seger, why! oh why! are there so many covers?
The show kicks off by the band butchering Tina
Turner’s ‘Nut Bush City Limits’. What they do to Van Morrison’s
‘I’ve Been Working’ and Bo Diddley’s signature tune ‘Bo
Diddley’ should have the band up for musical murder. Not that the band
does any favors to Bob Seger’s own songs. The version of the moving
ballad ‘Turn the Page’ can give even the hardest cowboy a tear in
his eye. The studio recorded version is taken at such a ridiculously
fast pace that one can only assume that the band members had one thought
in common - going home. Merely the last two songs, Seger’s own classic
‘Get Out Of Denver’ (who Eddie & the Hot Rods covered better
anyway) and the final rave up on E. Anderson’s ‘Let it Rock’, when
the band finally lets it all hang out, give the album any credibility.
The production of this paper thin album is credited
to Bob Seger and Punch. I feel it would have been better off left to
Judy. Anybody having seen Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band live in
concert will know that they can turn in a good show. Anybody having
listened to this album would not believe you. The album cover is also as
rushed and as rubbish as the music within.
Bob Seger - Lead Vocals, Guitar, and Piano
Drew Abbott (probably of Abbott and Costello) - Lead Guitar
Alto Reed (Oh, how witty, well at least something to
laugh about with this collection) - Tenor, Alto, and Baritone Saxophones
Robyn Robbins (you just know his real name is
‘Robin’) - Organ, Clavinet, Melotrone, and more Piano
Chris Campbell - Bass Guitar
Charlie Allen Martin - Drums
A
thriller this week, written by Massimo Carlotto and translated from the
original Italian by Christopher Woodall. The Italian author Carlotto has
experience of Latin America, having been ‘on the run’ there for
several years. He also has experience of the Italian legal and penal
system (from the inside) having spent some years as the guest of the
carabinieri, although apparently he was pardoned after five years behind
bars.
Mott’s CD review: Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band - Live Bullet
Zero
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