Top 10 Live Albums!

Let’s have some fun here, Folks! Here as of today that this is posted are my Top 10 all-time Fav-o  Live Records! To keep things fair I’m only picking one live album per band as many bands have multiple live releases.

Feel Free to tell me what your favs are!

Without further ado …

1- Aerosmith: Live Bootleg(1978)– Steve and Joe are higher than two kites on this album that was recorded at various stops on there 1977/1978 Draw The Line Tour! 20 tracks that feature a band cooking on all cylinders live and keeping it rough around the edges. A sense of danger when you listen to this album as you know Aero was indeed Livin on the Edge so to speak!

2-Iron Maiden: Live After Death(1985)– Best Metal Live album Ever! Double Vinyl/Gatefold Sleeve/Booklet included filled with all the tour statistics/dates/pictures. Look at the artwork!  It’s here! Maiden deliver it in spades,  the musicianship and 18 songs performed live is beyond brilliant! Dave Murray and Adrian Smith are the best one-two punch ever to prowl the 6 string’s together!  Scream for me Long Beach! Nuff Said!

3-KISS: Alive (1975)– I always joke that KISS Alive has the distinction at any given moment being my favorite KISS live or studio album considering much of it was recorded in the studio. Who cares says I! KISS was still broke and going for it when this album was released! 16 tracks of pure sonic greatness! You hear the pyro blasts and must also mention this was the first album I had ever listened to a drum solo and a guitar solo for that matter!

4-Cheap Trick: Budokan(1979)- Budokan was my introduction to CT back in 1979! I was blown away immediately by it. Robin Zander has and still does one of the best rock voices going. Mix Zanders voice with the writing chops of quirky guy Rick Neilsen and bam winner winner gets the chicken dinner! Tons of Japanese fans shrieking in the background takes you right there to the Budokan! 10 songs that are beyond greatness!

5-RUSH: Exit Stage Left(1981)– CanCon at #5. Exit Stage Left is a monster of a live album. Neil Peart quickly became my favorite drummer just by his solo on this album. Considering I only had Moving Pictures back then (1981) Exit featured a bunch of songs I had never heard before. The Trees/Jacobs Ladder/Xanadu and La Villa proved to me that Rush must have been high writing this stuff, so perhaps drugs, after all, aren’t that bad!

6-Judas Priest: Unleashed In The East(1979)– Like Cheap Trick Unleashed in the East was my first time hearing Priest.  9 songs of pure British Metal. Rob Halford had a singing style that I had never heard! Love that operatic vocal wail that Robbo lays down at the end of the Green Manaleshi. KK Downing and Glenn Tipton form one of the best dual leads in the business at the time, and they lay down riffs of glory on tracks like Sinner and Victim of Changes! Les Binks who drummed on this album and proves he was and is the best drummer Priest ever had!

7-U.F.O: Strangers in the Night(1979)– UFO were a great band, and this double live set proves that in spades! From opening track Natural Thing to end of album closer Doctor Doctor. UFO means business in their boozed upstate in the late ’70s! Solid performances even though I have no idea what the fuck Phil Mogg is going on about from the stage before Love To Love. Great live album.

Now a tie for 8th Place!

8-AC/DC: If You Want Blood. You’ve Got it(1978)– This AC/DC album holds the distinction of being the second-ever AC/DC I purchased( Back In Black is the first) back in early 1981. Bon Scott sounds menacing throughout and along with Angus Young who provides some stellar ax manship on the Gibson SG! This is barroom brawl rock at its finest!

8-Scorpions: World Wide Live(1985)- ‘Ze Gonna Rock You Like A Hurricane’ says Scorps Lead Throat Klaus Miene! The Scorps put out a dazzling display of power rockers aided by the fine 6 stringings of Matthias Jabs! One Fantastic release from 1985 that kinda gets forgotten about because of Maidens Live After Death release!

9-Nazareth: Snaz(1981)-  Man I sure love this album and Nazareth rip n roar through this double vinyl release. All the hits are played, and for an added bonus it was recorded live in Vancouver!

How’s about 1 more tie:

10-Saxon; Eagle Has Landed(1982)– Like Cheap Trick/Priest and UFO before them, Saxon’s Eagle Has Landed was the first-ever album by Biff and company I had ever heard. My pal Muc bought this on import back in 82, and I was taken aback at how good these guys were, and the 10 songs that make up this album prove that point! My personal opinion is that Saxon never came close to this kind of greatness again. Sure some decent stuff followed (Power & The Glory being one), but Eagle has landed is a whole different ball game. Finally got this on vinyl from my buddy Deaner at work! So good to finally own!

10-Whitesnake: Live in Glasgow(1984)– The newest entry on this list. Live in Glasgow was included in the brilliant slide it in a box set from earlier this year and its a superb live album. David Coverdale is in fine form while Cozy Powell and Neil Murray drive the rhythm bus. Jon Lord lays down some wicked keys while guitar duo Mel Galley and John Sykes are superb! , Galley is the old school 70s guitar guy while Sykes brings that 80’s hotshot style and it works! Before Cougars rode the hood of Cov’s Car, Whitesnake was a dangerous hard rock act!

Whadda think?

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