This is my favourite Ms Mas - a 13 minute scorching live version of “Sitting in the dark”.
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I love live albums, often more than the studio versions of tunes.
Favourite is the box set of Live in the Airage by Be Bop Deluxe. A fabulous record demonstrating how each performance can be different.
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The good and the great here picked this deluxe set up on Qobuz for a jaw dropping price of about £6 for the 16 bit 15 CD version. As I mentioned at the time - bargain of the century.
Now the record company has got wise and it’s listed twice at £90 and £135.
Yes I got the box set and then got the downlaod off Qobuz for that crazy price…saved me ripping the box set.
The price has now shot up as you say took them ages to do that.
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I agree with you with regards the version of “Sitting in the dark” Andy, it is the version that I have on a multi artist Tidal playlist. I will stick with my original choice of album though as I feel it is a bit more extensive and just has the edge for me. Also of note, and available to stream on Tidal, is the four disk set “Somebody like me”. Disks 3 and 4 consists of live recordings including an 18 minute “Sitting in the dark”, and many other gems. Perhaps all Christmas playlists tomorrow should be substituted with Carolynemas ones? Finally, you may find this 2006 interview interesting. Perfect Sound Forever: Carolyne Mas
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An unfortunate and dated cover but this is a fantastic (very lo-fi) record of late period Velvet Underground doing what they did. If any Lou Reed live album fans above haven’t heard this please give it try, utterly different to the early 70s treatment he gave to some of these (unsurpassable) songs. “Pull up your cushions or whatever else you have with you that makes life bearable in Texas”
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I’ve said many times that if I could get in a time machine, this is one of the very first trips I’d take – to be in this audience. It’s a fantastic performance and recording, both.
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Interesting! I’ll give it a listen…
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Raw, destructive, visceral Lewis at his magnificent, imperious best. My, that poor piano sounds like it’s being dismantled with an axe… but what a sound.
EDIT: From the first note The Killer never lets go, the band struggling at times to keep up. At one point Lewis can be heard shouting at them, “play that thing right, boy!” It’s an almost manic, crazed performance verging on complete breakdown. By comparison Punk, Heavy Metal et al is lame, tame and weak. What an awesome performance. One of the, if not, THE greatest live albums ever released.
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I couldn’t agree more… it is absolutely brilliant and in my top 5 live albums. The atmosphere and energy is fantastic.
I would imagine on a very traditional Naim amplification this Jerry Lee Lewis live album would be literally flying through the speakers…! 
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It’s stunning! 
Once played it full-on in a mate’s Jag, in which he’d modified and upgraded the speaker system. Damn near made our ears bleed and almost blew out its windows! 
A couple great live recordings arrived in the mail yesterday.
Hugh Masekala - Hope
Tough to find on vinyl but I was able to secure an Analogue Productions double album from Acoustic Sounds. Wonderful music and fantastic recording!
The second was an album I always wanted on vinyl but again one hard to come by until I found it was reissued for the 25th Anniversary. I had the performance on DVD but you can’t beat hearing it on a nice 2 channel system! Really enjoying this too!
Both are reference quality recordings and belong in any music lovers collection.
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Years ago my routes into both Pink Floyd and Iron Maiden were via their live albums (DSoT and Live After Death), then only last week, Dream Theatre (live in Paris). I must get around to the famous Talking Heads and Portishead concerts at some point.
Anyway, more grist to the mill, as it were, with some obvious and some less obvious ones, courtesy of the Guardian and its readers (in the article comments):
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thanks for that post! Interesting list, and although I wouldn’t put it at no1, I completely agree with the high rating of Jerry Lee in Hamburg. It’s fantastic, raw, powerful, energised! It’s what rock n roll should be. It could be the granddaddy of my personal no 1… AC/DC “If you want blood…”
2 questions about these lists of livE albums.
- Is The Who Live at Leeds really that good?
- Why does there always have to be a Bob Dylan album in them? I just don’t get him… but that’s just me.
Thanks for the list though and I must now listen to them all and extend my collection no doubt!
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This is true. The Dean Martin story still gets me every time.
Great stuff - thanks!
