All live albums show. My track-by-track tales follow this bare-bones list.

1. Deep Purple, Burn (from Made In Europe)
2. The Rolling Stones, Out Of Control (from No Security)
3. The Byrds, This Wheel’s On Fire (Live at the Fillmore February 1969)
4. Free, Fire and Water (Free Live)
5. George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Bottom Of The Sea (from Live, 1986)
6. Blue Oyster Cult, Kick Out The Jams (from Some Enchanted Evening)
7. Thin Lizzy, The Rocker (Live and Dangerous)
8. Black Sabbath, Neon Knights (Live Evil)
9. The Who, Shakin’ All Over (Live at Leeds)
10. David Bowie, Moonage Daydream (David Live)
11. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Crossroads (from One More From The Road)
12. The Beatles, She’s A Woman (Live At The Hollywood Bowl)
13. Pretenders, Boots Of Chinese Plastic (Live In London)
14. Concrete Blonde, Mercedes Benz (live, issued on hits compilation)
15. The J. Geils Band, Chimes (from Blow Your Face Out)
16. Ten Years After, I’m Going Home (at Woodstock)
17. The Allman Brothers Band, Mountain Jam (from Eat A Peach/Fillmore East)

    My track-by-track tales. 

    1. Deep Purple, Burn (from Made In Europe) . . . Made in Europe is not nearly as celebrated as Purple’s Made In Japan but it’s as terrific an album in my estimation and one I also played a lot – and still do – in high school and subsequent days. It’s the so-called Mk. III version of the band at work here, David Coverdale on lead vocals and Glenn Hughes on bass/vocals replacing singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover, still teamed up with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, drummer Ian Paice and keyboardist Jon Lord. I’ve always loved the intro to this title tune from the Burn album. Noodling and doodling instrumentally and then, at approximately the 52-second mark of what will be a 7-minute rendition, Coverdale mouths a simple ‘rock and roll’ and the band kicks in in blistering fashion.
    2. The Rolling Stones, Out Of Control (from No Security) . . . One of my favorite latter-day tunes by the boys, a great live vehicle and a highlight of the No Security album which was a document of the Bridges To Babylon 1997 album tour but a live album, No Security, done in a more interesting and welcome way, at least to Stones’ deeper cuts aficionados in that it was comprised of mostly album tracks, not singles. Naturally, it sold poorly, relatively speaking. So what? At least in the Stones’ case it wasn’t as if their career depended on the record’s success or lack thereof. A great live album, latter day or otherwise.
    3. The Byrds, This Wheel’s On Fire (Live at the Fillmore February 1969) . . . From an album whose tracks laid in the vaults until being released in 2000. It features the great guitar playing of latter-day Byrds member Clarence White. The Byrds to me are a great and always fascinating example of a band that splintered, membership wise, as time passed yet always had the constant leadership of founder member Roger McGuinn involved and always released quality, yet also different, music influenced by lineup changes, whether in the original configuration that included David Crosby of Crosby, Stills and Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young fame, the Gram Parsons country period, or the later Clarence White period which actually was long-serving, five albums worth, after he replaced Parsons following the Sweetheart Of The Rodeo album.
    4. Free, Fire and Water (Free Live) . . . Keeping in tune with the early ‘fire’ theme of the show.
    5. George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Bottom Of The Sea (from Live, 1986) . . . Another artist, along with as I often mention, The J. Geils Band (I’m playing them later) who are arguably best heard live. This is from Thorogood’s first live record.
    6. Blue Oyster Cult, Kick Out The Jams (from Some Enchanted Evening) . . . Kick-ass version of the kick-ass MC5 tune.
    7. Thin Lizzy, The Rocker (Live and Dangerous) . . . Like Judas Priest’s Unleashed In The East, which over the years has been jokingly derided as actually being Unleashed In The Studio due to overdubs and other fixes, Lizzy’s Live and Dangerous has been similarly accused of doctoring. But, in the end, so what, really. Not excusing it but especially given we’re in and long have been in an era where such fixing has been accepted, as have been backing studio tracks used in live concerts, etc. maybe much ado about relatively nothing? Milli Vanilli’s career was destroyed when they were found to be lip-synching yet nowadays nobody bats an eye at such things. Not saying it’s right, one could argue that going to a concert these days is, in many ways, virtual reality, but so be it. Live and Dangerous, like Unleashed In The East and many other such live albums, are great listens.
    8. Black Sabbath, Neon Knights (Live Evil) . . . Killer version of the opening cut to the first Black Sabbath album, 1980’s Heaven and Hell, with Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals replacing Ozzy Osbourne. It’s one of the albums that really got me deeper into hard rock/metal and for that I’ll always credit Gord, the pot-smoking DJ at the Oakville bar, The Riverside, at which I worked during my 1978-80 college days. Gord would play music between live band sets in the pub and he played the ever-loving shit out of five albums: Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell, AC/DC’s Highway To Hell and Back In Black, then just out, Ted Nugent’s Double Live Gonzo and Judas Priest’s British Steel. Thanks, Gord.
    9. The Who, Shakin’ All Over (Live at Leeds) . . . Cover of the Johnny Kidd & The Pirates classic which I played, original version, recently on a “old classic rock and roll’ show.
    10. David Bowie, Moonage Daydream (David Live) . . . Earl Slick whaling away on guitar, as opposed to the late great Mick Ronson who played on the Ziggy Stardust studio album. David Live was Slick’s first release with Bowie, leading to a long association that included the 1970s studio albums that followed, Young Americans, Station To Station and, in the new millenium, Heathen, Reality and The Next Day. Slick also played on John Lennon’s 1980 return to recording, Double Fantasy, and the posthumously-released Milk and Honey album among many other sessions plus solo work.
    11. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Crossroads (from One More From The Road) . . . The ‘Cream treatment’ of the Robert Johnson tune, from Skynyrd’s definitive, pre-plane crash, live album.
    12. The Beatles, She’s A Woman (Live At The Hollywood Bowl) . . . The energy, the fans screaming, is amazing on early Beatles’ live recordings. And this is a great one, redone, remastered, etc. for the 2016 CD release coinciding with director Ron Howard’s film Eight Days A Week: The Touring Years, a film well worth watching.
    13. Pretenders, Boots Of Chinese Plastic (Live In London) . . . Chinese plastic used for weather/surveillance/whatever balloons. Sorry, couldn’t resist. 🙂 My favorite and it’s arguably the best song on the band’s 2008 studio release Break Up The Concrete. The album did reasonably well on the charts, top 30 or better, depending on chart and there are so many these days including digital only. Interestingly, to me, I wonder whether the band might have had a crisis of confidence about the album. The version I bought and admit I was enticed by, was it turns out the UK version double disc that in addition to Break Up The Concrete included a best-of CD. In any event, a solid song done well live by Chrissie Hynde and friends.
    14. Concrete Blonde, Mercedes Benz (live, issued on hits compilation) . . . Singer Johnette Napolitano, and what a singer she is, channels her inner Janis Joplin on this cover, issued on the 1996 Concrete Blonde compilation Recollection.
    15. The J. Geils Band, Chimes (from Blow Your Face Out) . . . Spooky sort of tune. Geez these guys were great, particularly in their earlier days, before the big commerical succuss of songs like Centerfold from the Freeze Frame album. Good songs for sure, but the best Geils to me and many is the earlier Geils and in fact the later success divided the band. Lead singer/frontman Peter Wolf wanted to stick to the previous, less commercial rock/blues/soul/R & B foundation while the others wanted to continue to embrace pop and one can see, of course, being in favor of ever-increasing bank accounts. So, Wolf either quit or was asked to leave, moving on to a relatively successful solo career. J. Geils issued one more album, without him, it of course bombed and that was that, but for some later live reunions but no new studio work.
    16. Ten Years After, I’m Going Home (at Woodstock) . . . They’re so much more than this song but it remains the classic version, from the 1969 festival, that made Ten Years After a household name.
    17. The Allman Brothers Band, Mountain Jam (from Eat A Peach/Fillmore East) . . . Filling a request from a few weeks ago for this 33-minute track and, as discussed then, demonstrates that wonderful ability the Allmans had of being able to do extended pieces like this while maintaining the flow of a song and never being boring or tedious. This live version, recorded at Fillmore East in New York in 1971, did not appear on that original live album but rather on the combined studio/live album Eat A Peach a year later, although this version of Mountain Jam has appeared on later reworkings/expanded versions of the classic At Fillmore East live album.