Live or studio?

[kenny mac]

Ok guys and girls.
Open for discussion,have you ever heard a song live for the 1st time but when you hear the studio version it  is not anywhere near as good?
This happened to me recently on a public image limited song off the new album called corporate.
On the Jools  holland show it was as ballsy and full of attitude as it gets but a totally different animal on the studio recording.
Just wondering if any of you can name a song you have had a similar experience with?
This off course could apply the other way around but I think it's the mark of a great live band when they trample all over the studio version and harness the raw energy that the song has lost in the recording process.

[Geir]

"Man on the silver mountain" by Rainbow. The "On stage" version is so much better than the" Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow" version !!!  And every song on Deep purple's "Made in Japan" is just so much more fun to listen to than the studio versions !

[Oldrottenhead]

Frank Black always preferred his demos. So when he started frank black and the Catholics. All their songs where recorded live to one stereo tape. So he couldn't or anyone else couldn't remix or faff about with the recording.

[bruno]

"Man on the silver mountain" by Rainbow. The "On stage" version is so much better than the" Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow" version !!!  And every song on Deep purple's "Made in Japan" is just so much more fun to listen to than the studio versions !

Yip - agree with that Geir - I saw Rainbow at the Rainbow in London :-)

UFO "Strangers In the Night" - always (Pete) way better than the studio album, Lights Out, Doctor Doctor - hell yeah! First band I ever saw, at the Hammy Odeon, lovely ....  
B


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xAn_MZfCTI

[alfstone]

Yes, for instance IMO most of live Cream recordings are so much better than the studio originals...

Alfredo

[chapperz66]

I also go with Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water/Highway Star/Strange Kind of Woman on Made in Japan rather than the studio versions.  Can't really recall which I heard first but still play Made in Japan and can't recall when I last played Machinhead.

Blackmore's lead guitar tone on MIJ is a dream to which I can only aspire.

[IanR]

Back in the 1980s I used to see lots of bands here in Melbourne that sometimes went on to have a recording career.  They almost never captured the energy and excitement of their live performances on their records.

The odd exceptions, I think, were that bands who were recorded playing live in the studio, rather than the overproduced over-dubbed recordings.  They sometimes did this because they only had limited studio time. Other times, that was how they wanted to be heard.

Ian

[Blooby]

Bruno, I had always thought UFO's Strangers was somewhat famous for being reworked in the studio. Perhaps you can set the record straight for me.

Just depends on the song for me.  While live versions have more energy, I sometimes like the production of the studio version (Zep's "Kashmir" and "Ten Years Gone" spring to mind). Being an improvisation whore usually make me default to live versions, though.

I remember taking my older brother to a Steely Dan concert, and he was disappointed that it didn't sound just like the albums.  To each his own I guess.

Blooby

[chapperz66]

Bruno, I had always thought UFO's Strangers was somewhat famous for being reworked in the studio. Perhaps you can set the record straight for me.


Blooby

I remember reading allegations that Strangers in the Night had had some studio dubbing  - but is still an incredible album.  I'd forgive them if there was a little doctoring  .

Paul

[Johnny Robbo]

Sometimes a live album ends up containing the definitive versions of some songs. I reckon Frampton Comes Alive has to be a classic example of this... Baby I Love Your Way & Show Me The Way are both way better on the live album. Same with Thin Lizzy's Live & Dangerous (although much studio re-touching was done this album), it contains the ultimate versions of Jailbreak and Boys Are Back In Town.

Some live albums just don't quite make it, though... SRV's Live Alive just sounds a little "flat" somehow, for example. Also, one of my favourite bands from the '70s, Camel produced a really sterile live offering simply entitled "A Live Album".