Elvis Presley – ‘Having Fun With Elvis On Stage’

Can you technically call this a live album if there’s not actually any music on it? It’s tough trying to work out what the point of this album was. There are a few false starts here and there, but for the most part, it’s an album of snippets as Elvis Presley tries to have banter with an imaginary crowd. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.

What you’re hearing with this record is most likely one of the first instances of people becoming too obsessed with an artist, to the point that they’ll buy anything. To the casual observer, this record is a complete rip-off, but to Elvis fans, it was a way they could get closer to their musical hero. A rip-off or a great marketing move, that’s your call, but there’s no escaping it’s a rubbish album.

Suicide – ’23 Minutes Over Brussels’

There are very few moments that document the punk movement as well as this live album. While Suicide might now be hailed as one of the greatest synth punk groups of all time, the crowd in attendance when they recorded 23 Minutes Over Brussels disagreed, and in an opening slot for Elvis Costello, the audience is already booing, chanting for Costello before the band has played a note, and things only escalate from there.

The boos ring out around the stadium, the microphone gets pinched, and when Alan Vega tries to sing an acapella version of ‘Frankie Teardrop’, you can hardly hear the band because of the sheer number of boos. Suicide left the stage, and the crowd went wild as Elvis Costello, the musician they’d been waiting to see, finally began. However, to show his disdain for those in attendance, cut his set short, and a riot erupted afterwards.

It’s harsh to call this live album truly bad, as it’s probably one of the greatest punk records of all time; however, it’s no good to listen to, and the hostility of that crowd will put you off ever going to a gig again.

Bob Dylan & the Grateful Dead – ‘Dylan & The Dead’

Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead toured together frequently, as they stumbled upon two very unique approaches to live music that should have complemented each other greatly, and were both big believers in not sticking to a setlist too much, but rather being tied to the specific moment in which a show was happening. There was a lot of improvisation, and this overlapping ethos should have led to the recording of one of the greatest live albums out there. Unfortunately, we wound up getting the opposite. 

The timing of the record was pretty poor, as Bob Dylan found himself in a real creative slump. His lack of excitement for his music is audible in his performance, as, alongside the Grateful Dead, who are in a great form, he just falls completely flat. A lot of people now label the live album as a money-making scheme more than anything else, which may well have been the case, but it’s a real shame, given that it had such great potential.

Lauryn Hill – ‘MTV Unplugged 2.0’

Look, when you release an album like The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, you’ve basically earned the right to do whatever you want, and that’s a privilege that the Lauryn Hill exercised to the fullest extent, particularly during her live shows. She would pine over tracks a great deal in the studio, so it’s interesting then that when she took to the stage to perform them, they sounded more like first drafts.

There is a real inconsistency when it comes to Lauryn Hill’s live shows, where it’s really hard trying to work out what version of the star you’re going to get. Her musical mind and talent are undeniable, but it doesn’t translate as well to the stage, and that can be heard in what is undeniably a pretty poor live album.

The Rolling Stones – ‘Got Live If You Want It!’

Some of The Rolling Stones’ biggest influences were those artists who thrive on live recordings. R&B superstars such as Muddy Waters helped people like Mick Jagger understand what kind of music they wanted to make, and so The Rolling Stones have always been keen on putting on a great live show. For the most part, that’s exactly what they’ve done.

Find me anyone who has been to a gig of theirs and not loved it; it’s a pretty difficult task, and their status as a great live band, for the most part, can be heard in their live albums. However, an exception to this is 1966’s Got Live If You Want It! There are a few factors at play here, though, like the band doesn’t sound up to the same standard which they usually do, then the recording quality is very poor, and finally, you can hardly even hear the band in the first place, thanks to the noise of the audience climbing way too high. All in all, this is one of Jagger and co’s worst offerings.