Unpopular Opinion...

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

I remember the day I bought Live. At K-Mart. Walking through the parking lot, and I couldn't get the shrink wrap off quickly enough! God, I miss getting that excited about things. And that was the first time(that I remembered) hearing Oh Well(I'd actually heard it on the Tusk tour, but didn't know the song, so I didn't remember it). I never understood why Live didn't sell better. I was at the height of my fandom, and I thought the whole thing was FANTASTIC.

I remember buying LIVE in 1983, a couple years after it was released. Other than the HBO special, I had never seen or heard FM live. It was a shock. I thought the album was noisy, messy, and generally poorly-played. Years later, I listened to it again and had a VERY different reaction. I though some of the material was great. And where it wasn't great it was at least engaging. But a live album without YMLF or "The Chain" is strange to me. To this day, the songs I listen to the most on it are the five you can't hear elsewhere from this iteration of the band.

For me, the recorded performances of the live shows for the 75-76 tour hold a distinct edge over anything recorded in 79 and 80.