In an age before YouTube and Facebook, the live LP became the gateway to a time and place in an artist’s evolution.
Everything was bigger in the 1970s. Hair, jacket lapels, beer cans, cars and even the size of your dry Salada crackers (“man-size”, anyone?) – everything was huge.
So was the live album.
Double LPs, gatefold sleeves, stadium shows, screaming fans from Brussels to Budokan, The 1970s was the golden age of the live concert record.
As rock emerged from the heady, accelerated growth of the 1960s, the rock ‘n roll industrial complex was born. The production line ran something like this. Record an album, tour, record live show, bang out the live album, wash, rinse, repeat.
At a time when arena rock came of age, the live album brought the stadium experience to a backyard party or teenage bedroom near you.
In an age before YouTube and Facebook live streams, the live LP became the gateway to a time and place in an artist’s evolution, the way to capture the moment where rock star and audience collide and the zeitgeist is distilled into the grooves of a black vinyl disc.
Here are a couple of tickets to my favourite live albums of the ‘70’s.
THE ROLLING STONES – GOATS HEAD SOUP/THE BRUSSELS AFFAIR (1973- 2020 RE-ISSUE )
Often the poor cousin to The Stones’ golden quartet of classic albums that were punched out between 1968 – 1972 (“Beggars Banquet”, “Let it Bleed”, “Sticky Fingers and “Exile on Main Street”), “Goats Head Soup” holds its own.
It’s on the deluxe edition of the reboot of “Goats Head Soup” (which has just been released) where the live gold can be found.
“The Brussels Affair” is a live set recorded in Belgium at the tail-end of the 1973 European tour with The Stones in title-winning form.
It’s a set full of Stones strut and swagger, but where the classic live album “Get Your Ya Ya’s Out” was loose and louche, “The Brussels Affair” snaps and jabs like a prize fighter in the kill zone.
This is Mick Taylor’s show. The wunderkind guitarist is in terrifying form here, ripping it up on a series of Stones gems like “Brown Sugar”, “Gimme Shelter” and a crossfire hurricane run through “Midnight Rambler.”
It’s quite possible that this is the greatest ‘70s live album, and whilst it is nearly 50 years late to the party, it has been well worth the wait.
KISS – ALIVE (1975)
As kids all over the world began enlisting in the Kiss army, “Alive” was their induction kit.
Kiss created a brand of comic book hard rock cabaret that was epic theatre for bored suburban teens – and they understood that bigger was better.
“Alive” cemented their reputation as the scariest sideshow in town. With their iconic costumes and face paint, fire breathing pyrotechnics and levitating drum kit, Kiss rivalled Alice Cooper as the “must have” nightmare spectacle, as the ‘70s became its own horror movie, right there on your TV.
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THIN LIZZY – LIVE AND DANGEROUS (1978)
Nobody, but nobody wore a pair of leather pants and a bullet belt quite like Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy.
The sight of Lynott in full leather “cock rock” pose on the cover of “Live and Dangerous” is one of ‘70s rock’s most iconic images.
Thin Lizzy never quite captured their emotive power in the studio, but on “Live and Dangerous”, it all comes together to immortalise Ireland’s first truly global rock phenomenon.
When the twin guitars harmonise in a soaring stab at “The Boys are Back in Town” on side three, you’ll be crunching out an air guitar solo and sliding down your hallway on your knees in ecstasy.
AC/DC – IF YOU WANT BLOOD YOU’VE GOT IT (1978)
The comic horror image of a school boy Angus Young impaled by the neck of his Gibson guitar whilst a leering Bon Scott flashes a devilish grin on the front cover of “If You Want Blood..” lets you know what you’re signing up for with this fireball of a live album.
By 1978, the rest of the world was just waking up to AC/DC’s thunderclap.
This was a battle-hardened battalion though, one that had played every school hall, pub and shit shack across Australia 10 times over.
Arriving in Scotland in 1978, they had a point to prove. Angus and Malcolm Young had arrived in Australia as migrant kids from Scotland, and Bon Scott’s antecedents are threaded into his tartan name.
Hell may not be a bad place to be, but Glasgow in 1978 sure was, so when AC/DC took the stage at the Apollo theatre on April 30, they were playing for keeps.
From the tornado of the opening track “Riff Raff” to the dirty three card combination of “High Voltage”, “Let There Be Rock” and “Rocker” that close out the set, AC/DC were hot wired, ferocious and untouchable.
They were to become bigger, richer and more famous, but they were never better than this.
NEIL DIAMOND – HOT AUGUST NIGHT (1972)
A human jukebox, Neil Diamond cranked out radio hits in the 1960s and ‘70s as routinely as Chevrolets rolling out of a Detroit car plant.
In August 1972, Diamond did a 10-night stand at LA’s famous Old Greek Theatre. The show recorded on the night of 24 August would become his greatest legacy.
“Hot August Night” was a world-wide phenomena, and here in Australia, it was particularly treasured, spending 29 weeks at number one on the album charts.
Growing up in the ‘70s, my memories are of too many late nights out at parties with my parents, the Blue Nun and Fosters flowing, card games in full swing and “Crunchy Granola Suite”, “Cherry, Cherry” and “Sweet Caroline” pumping out until the sun threatened to come up.
FURTHER LISTENING…
The Who – Live at Leeds.
Deep Purple – Made In Japan.
Aretha Franklin – Live at the Fillmore West.
Joe Cocker – Mad Dogs and Englishmen.
Bob Marley And The Wailers: Live!
AVOID…
Peter Frampton – Frampton Comes Alive! (nostalgia has its limits!)
Kiss Alive! Righto then, here’s a short story:
Anyone born in a 20-year period up until the late 70s and grew up in suburban Australia there’s a definite possibility you in to Kiss. For the rest, it was some kind of secret shame. They’ll tell you they were in to Tom Waits or Bo Diddley or Nico, or that they were a jazz snob. Nothing wrong with any of this but here’s the key point: they’re lying. Lying out of their arses. They would have eaten for breakfast whatever they thought Gene Simmons would have eaten for breakfast.
This, along with “Changesonebowie” (the only Bowie you will ever need), and the Doors was the first music I ever heard, courtesy of much older siblings. When I’m 3 years old, they’re aged 16 to 22 sitting on the back veranda, switching between the two aforementioned cassettes, smokin’ durries (them, not me), partaking in pizza from the aptly named The Pizza Place where Bedford and Dianella meet and downing a now non-existent beverage called Citrus Spring. How the cripes do I remember this? Probably because of what I did to that tape.
We (that is, my eldest sister) owned the tapes and the Australian releases were an oddity. Yellow banners for the studio albums, green banners for “Alive!” and “Alive II”. “Alive!” was the crown jewel (this was long before “Smashes, Thrashes and Hits”). This release had a different running order to the double vinyl album. On side one of the tape (sides 1 and 4 of the vinyl) you got all the upbeat stuff. Flip the tape over and you got the darker stuff (sides 2 and 3 on the vinyl). Later releases of the cassette corrected this. Or “incorrected” as far as I was concerned. Side one of that version was the business. Took me years to twig that Peter Criss actually sang all but the intro to “Black Diamond”. I always thought it was Paul Stanley and due to the running order of the tracks I was accustomed to, I figured he’d just burned his throat out after what seemed to be a fairly marathon gig.
My favourite memory of listening to this was when my sister and I would get packed off to my maternal grandfolks’ place out in Hamilton Hill. She’d go out the back for a smoke and I’d follow. She’d sit on the chair that my grandad made, have the fag going and the Walkman cranked. I’d sit on the paving taking in the stars, nagging the shit out of her for at least a couple tunes off side one. Not ’til smoke’s butted. My turn now. Any given tune plus that live version of “Rock and Roll All Nite” which was the centrepiece. Why? Because Ace got a solo and the tune didn’t do that thing where it fades out like on the “Dressed to Kill” record. I always felt cheated when any song on a record fades out.
Fast forward to one fateful day in ’84, possibly in ’85. We’re at home in the brothers’ room and I fancy a listed all on my ownsome. From what I recall there was a particularly foul tempered Walkman that loved nothing more than eating cherished tapes. I was not to use this one. I did anyways. It ate the tape, so both tape and Walkman were thrown under the bed. Out of sight out of mind. Damned if I recall who made the discovery. I just remember feeling very unwelcome down that end of the house for some time.
Getting a replacement was a nothing short of a pain in the rear. There was one for a time in the public library which disappeared. Found another in 78 Records circa ’89-’90 but had that tracking order redone to match the double vinyl. Got the double vinyl sometime in the late 90’s from some dirty old record store that used to exist on Beaufort Street in Inglewood a few doors down from Ankara Kebabs. Got “Alive II” on double vinyl there also. Finally, in the midst of some weird nostalgia pang during the early 2000’s where I probably needed a break from the Frank Zappa and John Coltrane that an early 20s smartass feeds himself, I found the old tape on eBay. Green border, preferred tracking order. Circle complete. When I used to do this thankless little DJ gig at this small bar/eatery dealie in Fremantle a couple years back it was my go-to listen on the tape deck on the way home.
Look, most of us know that the “live” albums from this era were pretty much studio jobs with added crowd noise (which makes one wonder why they couldn’t replicate the sound sans crowd noise that they were trying to aim for on their first three releases). Precious few of us give a damn about this detail. If the end product projects a fun vibe who really cares?
On the cover, I thought for years that Paul Stanley’s guitar was some kinda reverse Vox Teardrop that you’d expect Brian Jones to play. Hard to focus when all you’ve got is the tiny picture on the cassette cover. Got the vinyl and a-ha! Gibson Firebird (which Brian Jones also played).
Fun facts for people who don’t like Kiss: Nirvana loved Kiss. They covered “Do You Love Me” for the “Hard to Believe” tribute album. I remember hearing it on Triple J at this kitchen I used to work at and the presenters were desperate to reassure themselves that it was a pisstake. Nope. Melvins loved them too as did The Replacements.
Charles Bradley covered Black Sabbath tunes. Had he lived long enough I reckon he would have got around to performing the “Hotter Than Hell” album in its entirety. He woulda killed it too.
Points off for Hot August Night (Zappa’s Roxy & Elsewhere can butt it out nicely) and the segue from “Cowboy Song” and “Boys Are Back In Town” on Live (?) and Dangerous: seamless!
Aw Frankie, whaddabout Yessongs or Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends, triple album prog at its, er, um, “finest”