Toadcast #58 – The Livecast
Live recordings – in fact, specifically, live albums – came up in a recent post on Song, by Toad and the idea of doing a podcast composed entirely of live recordings really appealed to me because there are so many great ones.
That said, on the post in question there arose a debate, one voice expressing my deepest hatreds of the genre, and another being perhaps over-generous in the other direction. Frankly, I despise the vast majority of live albums. Mostly they are shit recordings of songs we already know, released for the sole reason of fleecing fans whose devotion has already been established, and whose wallets can clearly be plundered for a few more empty sheckles.
Despite that, of course, there are some truly stunning live recordings. In fact, I’d argue that some of the most memorable, legendary recordings of all time are in fact live ones. Bob Dylan live at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester in 1966. Bruce Springsteen pretty much any time in the seventies. Basically, for all live recordings are mostly rip-off bollocks, there are some truly phenomenal live albums, ones which open your eyes to the artist, ones which fill in that artist’s musical upbringing, and some which are just genuinely amazingly wonderful recordings in their own right. Therefore we bring to you the Livecast. Enjoy, Toadlings…
Toadcast #57 – Production Values
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01. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – 10th Avenue Freeze Out (04.09)
02. Andrew Bird – Why (11.47)
03. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Papa Won’t Leave You Henry (16.22)
04. The Moulettes – Country Joy Song (25.29)
05. Colin Meloy – Blues Run the Game (32.49)
06. Quasar Wut-Wut – The Partisan (35.45)
07. Jeff Mangum – Two Headed Boy (43.04)
08. Tom Waits – Diamonds on My Windshield (54.37)
09. Billy Bragg – Days Like These (DC Remix) (56.46)
10. Ben Folds Five – Satan is My Master (60.15)
11. Bob Dylan – Like a Rolling Stone (64.16)
I can’t quite get over how much the Country Joy Song reminds me of Fabrizio de Andre’s “Geordie”.
The Who’s Live At Leeds remains one of my favourite albums, fucking unbelievably intense. But having said that, The Who were always much more of a life experience than on record. I actually quite like live albums, hearing the extra noises and the sound of the crowd, all the little intricacies and mistakes. Get Yer Ya Yas Out by the Stones and If You Want Blood by AC/DC (obviously) along with all the Dylan bootlegs are great.
It seems I essentially love classic rock.
PS. Might come watch you “DJ” tomorrow night Matt….
ac/dc if you want blood. omg. the best.
and stop already, firstly go borrow Hanx from Mrs Toad. that’s an unforgivable omission. And lets get a bit of perspective on the whole dj thing. Read the Kris Needs book, its a classic of the genre (a bit shit) BUT it does throw a bit of light on why all dj’s are shit.
whatever they say TOAD they are all chancers, anyone can play someone else’s hard work. Chancers the lot of them, walk away say fuck off don’t fall for it.
not even once.
chancers
We do have Whole Lotta Rosie and a copy of Gangsters by the Specials. So fuck you Westwood. DJ tastic.
We buy vinyl in a weird crazy shop in Stirling. Anyone who has been there knows where I mean. A shop that ostensibly sells bongs and second hand good but has a shed with 7,000 pieces of vinyl outback.
Have you ever heard Patti Smith’s live performance of My Generation? Total shit, but fucking enjoyable as hell.
i’m going out to buy the Live Seeds album after work today…..sounds awesome…..hey Toad you better be careful else i’ll start listening to all your podcasts…..this was another good one…thank you
“whatever they say TOAD they are all chancers, anyone can play someone else’s hard work. Chancers the lot of them, walk away say fuck off don’t fall for it.”
Good grief. Such sweeping statements. And all folkies sing in silly voices, have woolly jumpers and beards. With bits of twig in them. And remains of their last two meals. The blokes aren’t much better.
I couldn’t go in the end, because I wouldn’t have got to bed before 4.30am and I had to get up at 6.30am to go to a last minute meeting in Inverness with Proper Job. Two hours is nothing like enough sleep, especially when they are already getting a little tetchy about how much time I spend on this already.
In any case, Ted and Cogstar, it wasn’t going to be a ‘Wacka wacka give it up yo!’ sort of a DJ set. Really it would just have been a case of playing lots of records one after another, with no more complication than that. So just a playlist really, just chosen live. I’d have been doing it for my own enjoyment, rather than kidding myself that I was massively improving anyone’s evening by being clever at something.
Chutters – haha!
The whole playlist thing I get, its just an extension of mix tapes and mix cd’s. Maybe the Kris Needs thing got to me, it’s the ‘then I played my punk set and had the audience ready for the band’ stuff.
I’ll send you the book Ted and you too can be annoyed at the chancers. Learn a bloody instrument not you Ted, the Needs chap and his bigged up mates.