My guitar teacher recently loaned me a Cream boxset with two CDs of studio cuts and two CDs of live performances. Don't recall exactly which songs and have already returned the CDs, but there was some awful-sounding stuff on the live CDs, like a totally out-of-tune bass, and players not keeping together in rhythm, etc. I couldn't bear to listen to a few of them. JMHO, of course.
Margaret
When my mind is free, you know a melody can move me
And when I'm feelin' blue, the guitar's comin' through to soothe me ~
Here is an awesome clip of Alice In Chains performing "Sludge Factory" for MTV's Unplugged.
Layne starts singing a few verses early and the song breaks down. Layne and Jerry play with the crowd about it.
"That’s what takes place when a song is written: You see something that isn’t there. Then you use your instrument to find it."
- John Frusciante
All I want to hear is some samples of humanity.
Ha. This is exactly what I love about rock music. The fact that when it's live, there are plenty of tiny weeny mistakes and buzzes and hums and so on which makes it sound completely un-studio generated.
Hendrix is thought to have once said that he couldn't believe that people liked his mistakes so much and that he must have made 5 huge ones every time he played.
Thing is, sometimes mistakes were just the note you're looking for.
"Today is what it means to be young..."
(Radiohead, RHCP, Jimi Hendrix - the big 3)
Here's a classic - the intro to the live version of "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple
How in the world can you mess that up! :P
Don
The live King Crimson set "The Great Deciever" has a couple of humourous recordings that I wonder sometimes if the release was intentional. The song "Fracture"; one time they can't get anything right but the ending, another is flawless, but the ending is totally botched.
One of my favorite things to pick out lately is bass drum peddal squeaking. The first time I ever noticed it was on Mott the Hoople "No Wheels To Ride" off "Mad Shadows" Then Led Zeppelin's "Houses Of The Holy" from "Physical Grafitti" stood out. There is a Beatles song with a squeek. I'll have to remember for the next post.
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Also, the great thing about live recordings is that you don't know what's going on. When I saw Rush in 1979, during "Cygnus X-1" Pat Travers came out in his underwear and did an air guitar in front of Geddy Lee. Geddy started laughing so hard he couldn't finish the song. I wonder how that would have gone over on a live album.
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ok, I've got two for you;
1) Jeff Buckley on his Live at Sine cd box set. Can't remember the song but about 20 seconds in just hits completely the wrong note. It's a delicate song with just the guitar and his voice, so it is blindingly obvious. He stops, laughs and starts doing a miles davis scat impersonation with his voice.........which is pretty amazing in itself.
2) Very popular Aussie band called Regurgitator. Saw them live and it was their first show in a while. Middle of the song they stop and start laughing, the lead singer/guitarist had forgotten the chords to the chorus. The bass player showed him and they started again - only to stop again in the chorus as he forgot again. The best bit though, and i think this is the important lesson to take from this, is that they really didn't care and were just laughing about it. Because of their attitude to it, instead of the crowd going "well, that was pretty lame" it was actually one of the highlights of the gig and the crowd just started cheering and laughing with them.
you guys gotta remember, clapton, page, hendrix, cobain, richards, all those guys were infamous junkies, i mean, i dont think they ever did a
show straight. but thats rock-n-roll 8)
even god loves rock-n-roll
What i was amazed by was how Eddie Van Halen can jump around so much and play the song perfectly at the same time...
And I saw this bass solo by Micheal Anthony - at one point he just falls over and throws the bass away from himself?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPafbJqAb58&mode=related&search=
I dont' know if he's drunk or what.
John Frusciante mucks up seeingly a lot live. He did a bit when I saw the Chilis in 2006, and the Live at Slane Castle DVD has a mistake within the first few minutes of the intro-jam.
Just shows the best of us do it wrong sometimes.
Although I havn't seen that much live Zeppelin, I didn't realise Jimmy Page mucked up so much as you say he does...I'll have to check that out.
i think that van halen thing with him throwing away the bass was just part of the show...
dylan, on his bringing it all back home album, on his talking blues number about sailing over on the mayflower, starts singing solo, and when the band forgets to come in, you hear hysterical laughing for a minute, then they start again.
What i was amazed by was how Eddie Van Halen can jump around so much and play the song perfectly at the same time...
And I saw this bass solo by Micheal Anthony - at one point he just falls over and throws the bass away from himself?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPafbJqAb58&mode=related&search=
I dont' know if he's drunk or what.
John Frusciante mucks up seeingly a lot live. He did a bit when I saw the Chilis in 2006, and the Live at Slane Castle DVD has a mistake within the first few minutes of the intro-jam.
Just shows the best of us do it wrong sometimes.
Although I havn't seen that much live Zeppelin, I didn't realise Jimmy Page mucked up so much as you say he does...I'll have to check that out.
I caught Zep in 1977...towards the end of their touring career. Talk about horrible...Page was intoxicated to the point of embarrassment. The entire show was one huge mistake. Waste of time and money...it's at the top of my 5 all time bad concert list.
I may grow old, but I'll never grow up.
thats what that heroin will do to ya, if your lucky and not die from it like so many have, its sad, such a waste :(
even god loves rock-n-roll
I wonder if Wolfie's gonna do a bass solo? :? :roll:
Probably...I read something about old Wolfie coming out and playing guitar with his dad on stage. Wouldn't be suprised if he did...
I believe that Clapton forgot his count and went into his solo all wrong. What resulted was one of his classic and much lauded solos.
Now, if only I could remember which song................................ :? :? :oops:
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
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There's a Dylan song on New Morning where the drummer stops playing for a bar half-way through, it's excruciatingly obvious.