Top 5 Live Albums Currently In My Collection (With attached justificatory ramblings)
1a.)Portishead-PNYC. (The orchestra works very well with virtually every song, and some are changed quite radically, particularly Mysterons, which gains a rather cool oppressive outro..Or the strings on 'Only You', etc
1b.)Talking Heads-Stop Making Sense (Re-released version is great, even if it has 'Genius Of Love' on there. Noice versions of 'This Must Be The Place', 'Crosseyed And Painless', 'Psycho Killer', 'What A Day That Was' and 'Life During Wartime' among others.. Tied with PNYC in my liking.)
3.Jeff Buckley-Live @ L'Olympia (Love the version of 'Dream Brother' on here..
Asleep in the sand, with the ocean washing over, dead in the ground, with your family, weeping over... Also has 'Kick Out The Jams', a duet of 'What Will You Say' and 'Thats All I Ask'.)
4.Nirvana-Unplugged in New York. (An important recording, and the real talent of Nirvana is revealed without the grungy sheen.. Also highlighted is their talent for cover songs.. 'Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam', 'The Man Who Sold The World' and 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" all stand out. Also the last live performance of 'Something In The Way', and the timing gives it all added significance. Cobain apparently wanted to continue in this direction, colloborating with Michael Stipe and so-on.. If only it had happened..)
5.Radiohead-I Might Be Wrong (Some excellent versions, particularly the beautiful piano version of 'Like Spinning Plates', but more songs would be nice.)
Ranking these was very hard.
