live-rock-pop-blues

David Bowie – David Live

More of the Music of David Bowie

  • A David Live like you’ve never heard, with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on all FOUR sides
  • One of our favorite live recordings – a great overview of Bowie’s career through 1974
  • “1984,” “Rebel Rebel,” “Sweet Thing” and “Rock and Roll With Me” come alive in performance like you have never heard before
  • A-List players of the day deliver sonic treats, including multiple horn players, multiple percussionists, all-male chorus background vocals, the searing fuzzed-out guitar leads of Earl Slick, piano and Mellotron by Mike Garson, and the amazing Herbie Flowers on bass
  • We’ve recently compiled a list of records we think every audiophile should get to know better, along the lines of “the 1001 records you need to hear before you die,” with an accent on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life. David Live is a good example of a record audiophiles may not know well but we think might benefit from getting to know better
  • If I were to compile a list of Must Own rock and pop albums from 1974, this album would definitely be on it

When you listen to an outstanding copy of this Bowie classic, you will have no trouble picturing yourself in the audience with a front row center seat. And the great thing about a record like this is that you can be in the front row of this very concert whenever you want!

The other top live album is, of course, Waiting For Columbus, and the two have much in common. Most importantly, the songs played live on both albums are consistently better than their studio versions. (This is especially true on the Little Feat album. Little Feat was not a studio band and their live arrangements — with the Tower of Power horns — just murder the studio ones.)

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Goodbye Cream Has Some of the Best Live Rock Sound Ever Recorded

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Eric Clapton Available Now

When you get a good side one of Goodbye Cream you’ll hear exactly why we are calling it one of the best sounding live rock albums of all time.

Goodbye has the Big Rock Sound that we go crazy for here at Better Records. The top copies just plain ROCK HARDER than all the others. Yes, they’re bigger. Yes, they have more weight and whomp down low. Yes, they are smoother and more natural up top. But what really sets them apart is the tremendous Energy they contain in their grooves. The music EXPLODES out of the speakers and comes to life on the best copies like practically nothing you have ever heard.

This link will take you to some of the hardest rockin’ albums we currently have in stock.

All the titles that have earned a place on our none rocks harder list can be found here.

It’s clearly one of  Bill Halverson‘s engineering triumphs, along with Deja Vu and Steve Stills’ first album (now that’s a trio!). Live rock music on record just does not sound better than a White Hot Stamper side one of Goodbye.

When it’s all working, you’re front and center for a fiery Cream concert with these guys delivering one heckuva performance. And where else are you gonna get that these days?

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Eric Clapton – Unplugged

More of the Music of Eric Clapton

  • STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it brings Clapton’s latter day Masterpiece to life on this vintage Reprise pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • The sonics of this superb import are rich, full-bodied, lively, and warm, with solid bass and breathy, clear vocals
  • There are a number of records that Eric Clapton has made over the years that are Must Own titles, and we would have no problem putting this album on that list
  • Consistency has never been the man’s strong suit, but you will simply not be able to find a bad track on this live album from 1992
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Unplugged is the concert and album that established the MTV program as a classy, tony showcase for artists eager to redefine themselves via reexamination of their catalogs, which is what Clapton cannily did here.”

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Cream – Wheels Of Fire

More of the Music of Cream

  • Cream rocks on these vintage UK import pressings with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it on all FOUR sides – remarkably quiet vinyl too
  • The power and energy of these live sides is off the charts — punchy, open, and spacious with bass and WHOMP you have never experienced for this music, guaranteed (particularly on side three)
  • Everything you’d want sonically from a live Cream recording is present on this copy – big-time presence, an abundance of life, tonal correctness, and loads of Tubey Magic (also particularly on side three)
  • 4 stars: “…[Eric] Clapton is at a peak here, whether he’s tearing off solos on a 17-minute ‘Spoonful’ or goosing ‘White Room’ toward the heights of madness. But it’s the architect of ‘White Room,’ bassist Jack Bruce, who, along with his collaborator Peter Brown, reaches a peak as a songwriter…. [I]n many ways Wheels of Fire is indeed filled with Cream’s very best work.
  • If you’re a fan of Clapton and the band, this RSO UK import from 1968 belongs in your collection.

It’s exceptionally difficult to find even decent sounding copies of this album. We’ve played SCORES of original domestic copies, original imports, and all kinds of reissues over the years, and it’s very rare to find a copy that sounds this good on all four sides. (more…)

Joni Mitchell – Miles of Aisles

More of the Music of Joni Mitchell

  • This Joni Mitchell classic (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in close to five years) boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it on all FOUR sides of these vintage Asylum pressings
  • Henry Lewy brings the analog richness, smoothness and clarity he achieved on Court and Spark to the recording (particularly on sides one, two and four) – it’s some of the best live sound we’ve ever heard
  • Joni reworks some of her best-loved songs for this concert, with five tracks from Blue alone(!), and the new arrangements show us just how vital her early 70s work has turned out to be
  • “It’s a strong album of her best songs performed mostly informally… Much of the material here is beautiful, replete with the patented Mitchell tension. And a word for engineer Henry Lewy—the sound is terrific, the best reproduced concert album I’ve heard.” – Rolling Stone
  • If like us you’re a big Joni Mitchell fan, then this killer live album from 1974 belongs in your collection.

We recently had a chance to do another shootout for this album, and when you find a great copy the sound is out of this world. Not many live albums have this kind of “you are there” immediacy. Turn down the lights, crank up the volume, and you’ll be right there in the crowd as Joni and the LA Express (Tom Scott, Robben Ford, and the crew) knock out jazzy versions of some of her best material.

The brass sounds great — you can really hear the breath moving through the horns, with the all-important bite that really brings their various characters to life.

I’d be remiss not to mention the amazing bottom end on this copy. The best sides have big, note-like bass that sets an unusually strong foundation for these great songs. You don’t usually get much bass on Joni’s studio albums, so WHOMP-aholics like myself will find a copy like this to be quite a treat.

Just check out the songs on here: “You Turn Me On I’m A Radio,” “Big Yellow Taxi,” “Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire,” “Circle Game,” “People’s Parties,” “All I Want,” “Woodstock,” “The Last Time I Saw Richard,” and on and on. Those are many of our very favorite Joni songs, and the versions on this album do not disappoint.

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Dave Mason – Headkeeper

More of the Music of Dave Mason

  • An early Blue Thumb pressing with solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Some of the best sound Dave Mason ever managed, so let’s give credit where credit is due: to the amazing engineer Al Schmitt
  • If you’re a Dave Mason fan, this is one of the better albums he’s put out and it deserves a place in your collection
  • “The spare, acoustic solo performance of ‘Can’t Stop Worrying, Can’t Stop Loving’ heard here, for example, makes the undistinguished full-band studio version instantly obsolete. And the live version of ‘World In Changes’ is one of the best pieces of early 70s rock, period.”

This is some of the best sound Dave Mason ever managed, so let’s give credit where credit is due, to the amazing Al Schmitt. He recorded and mixed this album and he sure knocked it out of the park.

We know his work well; he happens to have engineered many albums with superb sound: Aja, Hatari, Breezin’, Late for the Sky, Toto IV – the guy’s won 13 Grammies, which ought to tell you something.

Side one of the album is recorded in the studio, side two live from the Troubador. Many of the songs on side one would be recorded again by Mason, and not as well in most cases. Mastered at Artisan (where Kevin Gray got his start, what the hell happened to that guy?) by none other than the owner, Bob MacLeod, this record got the A Team treatment from start to finish. (more…)

Chuck Berry – The London Chuck Berry Sessions

More Live Recordings of Interest

  • This original pressing boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it from start to finish, and plays about as reasonably quiet as any copy ever will, Chess vinyl being what it is
  • Side two is rich, full-bodied and Tubey Magical with a lovely musical quality that was missing from most other copies we played, and one is not far behind in all those areas
  • “This 1972 release is Chuck Berry’s bestselling album in nearly 50 years of hot-wax work. Buoyed by the playfully lewd No. 1 hit single ‘My Ding-A-Ling,’ one of three live recordings here, the success of these sessions marked a comeback for the mercurial Rock and Roll Hall of Fame immortal…” – Alan Greenberg

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Johnny Cash – At San Quentin

More of the Music of Johnny Cash

  • Here is an original Columbia 360 pressing of Cash’s legendary live album with solid Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom
  • What made these sides really stand out from the pack was their combination of richness and clarity – take it from us, it’s not easy to find a pressing that gives you both the way this one does
  • Forget the 70s reissues and whatever dead-on-arrival Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – if you want to hear the Tubey Magical you-are-there immediacy of Johnny Cash live in concert, this is the only way to do it
  • So many great songs: “Wanted Man,” “I Walk the Line,” “San Quentin,” “A Boy Named Sue,” “Folsom Prison Blues” and more
  • If you only have one Johnny Cash album, wouldn’t it have to be this one?
  • 5 stars: “…listen to ‘A Boy Named Sue,’ … rescued by the wild-eyed, committed performance by Cash, where it sounds like he really was set on murdering that son of a bitch who named him Sue. He sounds that way throughout the record…”

We had a blast listening to this album. Cash’s banter between the songs is practically as good as the music itself!

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The Doors – Alive, She Cried

More of the Music of The Doors

  • An original copy of the 1983 release of The Doors’ second official live album, here with STUNNING Shootout Winning Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • This pressing has the kind of powerful low end that lets the wild music of the live Doors really take off
  • “Gloria” and “Little Red Rooster,” in particular, sound exceptionally good – big, lively and immediate
  • Recorded at concerts from 1968 to 1970 in Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, Boston and Copenhagen

The recordings here come from different concerts, so naturally some songs sound better than others. “Gloria” and “Little Red Rooster” are probably the best sounding songs on here, and that works out well because The Doors are on fire for those two numbers!

Many copies we played lacked bass in a big way, but this one’s got a strong bottom end that lets the music work. The sound is richer and fuller than most of what we heard elsewhere. Many copies were so clean that they sounded like CDs.

This pressing really communicates the energy of a Doors concert, which is exactly what we want from a live album. The clarity, presence, transparency, and energy are all outstanding on this original pressing.

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Humble Pie / Performance – Rockin’ The Fillmore

More Classic Rock

  • These original pressings on the custom A&M label are rockin’ with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER on all FOUR sides
  • Performance is one of the best sounding – perhaps even the best sounding – Hard Rock concert albums we’ve ever heard
  • As you can imagine, finding clean, quiet vinyl for a title from 1971, on A&M no less, explains this album is rarely on the site
  • Engineered by the legendary Eddie Kramer, what other live rock record sounds this good?
  • 4 1/2 stars: “… [O]ne of the classic double-live albums of the 70s: a two-LP set from a band that were earning a reputation as in-concert monsters, grinding out a living on a circuit that brought them from coast to coast in America… this was heavy, improvised blues rock where live moments trumped the studio… “
  • This link will take you to more of the hardest rockin’ albums we currently have available

Can you imagine if Frampton Comes Alive sounded like this? If you want to hear some smokin’ Peter Frampton guitar work from when he was in the band, this album captures that sound better than any of their studio releases, and far better than Comes Alive on even the best copies.

Grungy guitars that jump out of the speakers, prodigious punchy deep bass, dynamic vocals and drum work — the best pressings of Rockin’ The Fillmore have more live FIREPOWER than any live recording we’ve ever heard. Who knew?

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