Live Albums

Emerson, Lake and Palmer – Pictures at an Exhibition

More Emerson, Lake and Palmer

  • An original UK Island pressing of this ELP Classic live album with a STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to a seriously good Double Plus (A++) side one
  • Both of these sides are amazingly Tubey Magical and exceptionally spacious, with a massive bottom end and plenty of Rock and Roll (and classical) energy
  • Pictures at an Exhibition is yet another in the long list of recordings that really comes alive when you turn up your volume
  • “…it worked on several levels that allowed widely divergent audiences to embrace it — with the added stimulus of certain controlled substances, it teased the brain with its mix of melody and heavy rock, and for anyone with some musical knowledge, serious or casual, it was a sufficiently bold use of Mussorgsky’s original to stimulate hours of delightful listening.”

This British Island LP has real weight and heft, so when Emerson lays into the organ, it’ll rattle the walls. It has that big, fat, rich, smooth sound that we love here at Better Records. It’s warm and full, not thick and sludgy. It’s on the right end of the “tubey-transistory” spectrum.

Listen to how GIGANTIC the organ is that plays the fanfare opening of the work. Honestly, I have never heard a rock album with an organ sound that stretched from wall to wall like this one does. It sounds like it must be seventy five feet tall, too.

No, I take that back. The first ELP album has an organ that sounds about that big, but that’s a studio album. How did they manage to get that kind of organ sound in a live setting without actually having to build one inside the concert hall?

The domestic copies are a bad joke as you may have guessed.

You might think that you could just pick up any old Brit pressing to get this kind of sound, but that has not been our experience. Many of them are thick, dull, smeary, veiled, congested and/or just plain lifeless.

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Paul McCartney – Unplugged

More Paul McCartney

  • A true Demo Disc and superb sounding import pressing with solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • A strikingly intimate document of a live show, fronted by one of the greatest performers in history, Sir Paul McCartney
  • You get more extension up top, more weight down low, and more transparency in the midrange, than on most other copies we played
  • 4 stars: “… it remains one of the most enjoyable records in McCartney’s catalog. McCartney is carefree and charming, making songs like ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula’ and ‘Blue Moon of Kentucky’ sound fresh.”

Superb sound for this amazing recording! On the better copies, the sound is warmer, richer, and sweeter, or in a word, more analog sounding. You get more extension up top, more weight down low, and more transparency in the midrange. It’s surprising how veiled and two-dimensional so many copies can be, considering that this is a live recording (by the legendary Geoff Emerick himself) with not a lot of “messing around” after the fact.

Finding The Best Sound

This isn’t your typical rock record that sounds crappy on eight out of ten copies. Most copies of Unplugged sound pretty good. We did hear quite a few that had a somewhat brittle quality to the top end, with no real extension to speak of. It wasn’t ever a dealbreaker, but the copies with a silky openness up there are much more enjoyable — and, unfortunately, fairly uncommon.

There are copies that lack warmth, copies that never fully come to life, and copies that are a bit dark. Some that we auditioned didn’t seem to get the breath in the vocals, and others lacked weight to the piano. Again — not one of the pressings we played sounded bad, but many of them definitely sounded dry, boring and lifeless.

Just for fun, check out Linda’s percussion and tambourine work in the right channel of the first track on side one, “Be-Bop-A-Lula.” Since that’s one of our test tracks, we had the opportunity to hear her ‘contribution’ to the song about twenty times or so, and it became a source of — to be charitable — ‘entertainment’ in its own right as the shootout progressed.

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Eric Clapton – E.C. Was Here

More of the Music of Eric Clapton

  • Outstanding sound for this UK import pressing (only the second copy to hit the site in years), with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER
  • Forget the dubby domestic pressings – here is the energy, the dynamic power, the low end WHOMP, and the Clapton-live-in-your-listening-room presence you’ve never experienced on the album before, guaranteed
  • “E.C. Was Here makes it clear that Clapton was and always would be a blues man. The opening cut, “Have You Ever Loved a Woman,” clearly illustrates this, and underlines the fact that Clapton had a firm grasp on his blues guitar ability, with some sterling, emotionally charged and sustained lines and riffs… [the album] remains an excellent document of the period.”

Check out Clapton’s superb arrangements and performances of two of the best songs from his short-lived Blind Faith period: “Presence of the Lord” and “Can’t Find My Way Home.” They’re two of the highpoints on an album filled with good material that does not seem to get the credit it is due. I bought this album when it came out in 1975 and never really got into it. Of course I had an inferior domestic pressing and a stereo that couldn’t have done the album justice anyway, but in my defense I would have to say that there really wasn’t any such stereo system on the face of the earth; we still had a long way to go.

Eric Clapton has made very few consistently good albums, considering his career is going on 50+ years. Slowhand, Unplugged, and his first album come to mind. After that it’s pretty slim pickin’s. Now you can add this one to the list. This concert album shows Clapton at his bluesy best.

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Peter Frampton – Frampton Comes Alive

The Music of Peter Frampton Available Now

  • All FOUR sides of this vintage copy were giving us the big and bold sound we were looking for, earning seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Mixed and mastered so that the guitar solos soar the way they do in live music – what a thrill it is to hear them finally sounding the way they should (particularly on sides one and three)
  • An excellent copy like this one is a potent reminder of why we all went so crazy for this album back in the 70s – at least I did anyway
  • 4 1/2 stars on Allmusic, which agrees with us that many tracks here are “much more inspired, confident, and hard-hitting than the studio versions.”

On the better copies, the guitar solos are the loudest parts of some of the songs, which, as everyone who’s ever been to a rock concert knows, is exactly what happens in live rock music. Fancy that.

Not many live albums are mixed to allow the guitar solos to rock the way these do. (Other records with exceptionally dynamic guitar solos can be found here.)

Since Frampton is one of my favorite players, hearing his work get loud on this album is nothing less than a thrill. It’s hard to turn up the volume on most copies — they tend to get aggressive in a hurry — but that simply doesn’t happen on our hottest Hot Stampers. They sound right when they’re loud.

A Reminder

It’s ridiculously hard to find good sound for this record. Most copies are thin, dry and transistory. And it’s time-consuming to clean and play as many copies of this double album as it takes to find enough Hot Stampers to make the endeavor worthwhile. When this album doesn’t have the sonic goods, it’s nobody’s idea of a good time.

A great copy like this one will remind you — we hope — what made everybody so crazy for this music back in the 70s.

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Jimi Hendrix – Hendrix In The West

More Jimi Hendrix

  • Hendrix in the West is back on the site for only the second time in over three years, here with incredible Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound throughout this early UK import pressing, just shy of our Shootout Winner – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • This is a fun live album with stellar performances by Jimi – the best of his many posthumous releases
  • The awesome version of “Little Wing” is just killer on this copy – it’s Jimi’s best performance of the song
  • 4 stars: “…it’s a hodge-podge, made of live tracks largely from 1969 and 1970. But it’s a bunch of great live tracks, including some real rarities… In the West is a great sampling of Hendrix’s late-period live material (and his sense of humor) making its long awaited appearance.”

We’re still surprised at how well recorded the album is. It takes a pressing like this to really show you the live Jimi Hendrix magic Eddie Kramer got onto tape. Drop the needle on “Little Wing” and you are going to be floored.

The size and space here are really something, miles beyond most. The resolution and clarity of the open live sound of this copy bring out all the instrumental textures and details of the recording like few we played. More importantly, the extended top keeps the highs from getting hard or harsh the way they do on so many pressings we’ve played.

As these performances are culled from different concerts, the sound varies a bit from track to track, but every track on here sounds good and the best tracks sound amazing.

Almost Famous

It’s hard to understand why this album isn’t more widely known. The performances are great and the sound is excellent for a vintage live recording.

Naturally not every copy sounds as good as this one. We heard a lot of pressings with too much grit and grain, and many that badly lacked presence. When I play a live album, I want to feel like I am there at the show (and to do that I set the volume accordingly, of course) but with most copies that just isn’t possible.

Thanks to Eddie Kramer’s amazing engineering, this album will have Jimi playing live in your listening room, and what a thrill it is to hear it all these years later (and on dramatically better equipment).

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Eric Clapton / Just One Night – An Exceptionally Good Album of Classic Blues Rock

More Eric Clapton

More Live Albums

  • With superb Double Plus (A++) grades on all FOUR sides, we guarantee you’ve never heard Just One Night sound this good
  • This one is bigger, bolder and richer, as well as more clean, clear and open than most of the other pressings we played
  • Sure to be the best live Clapton sound you’ll hear on vinyl – and the music is wonderful as well
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The most notable difference between Just One Night and Clapton’s other live albums is his backing band. Led by guitarist Albert Lee, the group is a collective of accomplished professionals who have managed to keep some grit in their playing. They help push Clapton along, forcing him to spit out crackling solos throughout the album.”
  • If you’re a Clapton fan, this title from 1980 is surely a Must Own live rock album

With so many bad sounding Clapton albums from the mid- to late ’70s out there in the bins, it’s refreshing to hear this material sounding lively and clear for a change. The performances seem to hold up as well. If you like the “Tulsa Time” era, this record is going to be hard to beat.

Many of his best songs are here, including Lay Down Sally, Wonderful Tonight, After Midnight, Blues Power, Cocaine, Further on Up the Road and plenty more.

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The Weavers – At Carnegie Hall, Vol. 2

More Live Recordings of Interest

  • The Weavers At Carnegie Hall, Vol. 2 appears on the site for only the second time ever, here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them throughout this original Stereo Vanguard pressing
  • These are just a few of the things we had to say about this stunning copy in our notes: “tubey and 3D and weighty”…”very full and detailed vox”…”sweet and tubey and present”…”so much space and bass”
  • Both of these sides are rich and full, Tubey Magical, and tonally correct from top to bottom
  • The sound is big and open, with the performers front and center (as well as left and right)
  • Our notes for the early red label mono pressing we played noted that it was “crude, congested and awful.”
  • There are plenty of mono pressings on Vanguard with excellent sound, but this is not one of them
  • 4 1/2 stars: “By April 1, 1960 [at the time of the album’s recording]…the Weavers had overcome the loss of Pete Seeger and fully integrated his replacement, Erik Darling, who proved a banjo virtuoso and exuberant humorist (listen to his kazoo solo on “Bill Bailey Come Home”). They had an excellent act, mixing old favorites dating back to the days of the Almanac Singers (“The Sinking of the Reuben James”) and newer songs that would become standards of the folk boom (“Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream).”

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Billy Joel / Songs in the Attic

More of the Music of Billy Joel

  • Demo Disc live rock concert sound on this vintage Columbia pressing, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • The sonics have so many wonderful analog qualities when you get a good copy — the hardness of the typical pressing just disappears, leaving surprisingly transparent and sweet sound on virtually every track
  • The WHOMP factor here is off the scale. There are few studio recordings that have these kinds of dynamics. We forget how compressed most of them are. It takes a record like this to show you how much life there is in live music
  • 4 stars: “Songs in the Attic is an excellent album, ranking among his very best work… even if Joel wasn’t a celebrity in the early 70s, his best songs of the era rivaled his biggest hits.”

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The Beatles – Let It Be

More of the Music of The Beatles

  • This vintage UK pressing boasts INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “big and punchy and breathy”…”sweet and spacious”…”jumping out of the speakers”…”weighty and rich and 3D”…”very full vox”
  • There’s no studio wizardry, no heavy-handed mastering, no phony EQ – here is the most realistic, natural Beatles sound you can get outside of the first album
  • Copies like this one make good on the promise that Let It Be captures the greatest rock band of all time playing and singing their hearts out
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The album is on the whole underrated… it’s an album well worth having, as when the Beatles were in top form here, they were as good as ever.”

At its best, Let It Be has the power of live music, but it takes a special pressing such as this one to show you that sound. It’s a bit trickier trying to find good sound for this album than it is for some of the other albums in the Beatles’ catalog.

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Simon and Garfunkel – The Concert in Central Park

More of the Music of Simon and Garfunkel 

  • S&G’s live reunion concert from 1982, here with superb Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it on all FOUR sides – remarkably quiet vinyl too
  • This copy is clean, clear, open and spacious with lovely breathy vocals and plenty of Tubey Magic (particularly on side one)
  • Side one is richer, smoother yet still very clear and highly resolving in precisely the way so few pressings are, and sides two, three and four are not far behind in all those areas
  • 4 1/2 stars: “This two-record set presents some of the duo’s biggest hits in a live context, and also allows listeners a chance to hear what many Simon solo numbers could sound like in S&G mode.”

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