Best official live album?

[David]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

I like the Live '80 album because it's the real deal. The kids had been touring for 18 months... so you hear that in Stevie's ragged Rhiannon vocals.

36 months, if you count all the time represented by the performances the album included. Rhiannon, Over My Head, Say You Love Me, Don't Let Me Down Again, Don't Stop, Dreams, & Monday Morning all were recorded before the Tusk tour.

In retrospect -- that is, after hearing so many (what seems like) hundreds of audience recordings from those years -- I'd have preferred a 1980 live album with different cuts or different performances. For example, I mentioned the December 1979 performances of Tusk with the Trojan marching band. Imagine the album with THAT on it! What a missed opportunity for some maximal fun. And where the hell is The Chain of a two-disc live album? There's something perverse about some of the tracks chosen for the actual album. Again, to confound expectations? Ok, but witty surprises generally only work once & tend to annoy on repetition.