Best Live Release?
 

What Official Live release do you think was the best thus far?

Me: MEAT LOAF LIVE 1987

My poll never showed up!!! AAAAgh

audio: LATW
video: MSO

I already wondered why I didn't see a poll. :))

1. My favorite is Live Around The World. It's a double album, the performances are great and it is a very good, interesting selection of songs.

2. Live (at Wembley) is also cool, due to the outstanding performance but suffers a little from being a 1980s release.

3. Bat Out Of Hell Live With The MSO: I like the idea of playing with an orchestra. I wish the CD would be as entertaining as the DVD. On the DVD you can see how fantastic the show was, unfortunately the CD doesn't manage to capture all those great moments properly.

4. The Casa De Carne CD is a nice reminder the good shows I saw during the last tour, though I wish they would have chosen a better version of Anything For Love. I also don't recall the audience noise being that intense. He played rather small venues but on the CD it sounds as if the shows took place in large arenas with tens of thousands of people screaming all the time. I liked the atmosphere at the 2008 shows and that noise spoils it a little for me.

5. Can't say anything about 3 Bats Live as I haven't bought it and have no intention to do so but since the recordings are apparently taken from the DVD, I suspect it would be my least favorite live album.

I have to say that mine is the '93 show from Cardiff. Absolutley brilliant in every concievable way. Apart from not being on sale to the general public >.<

Live Around The World. It has its faults, but on the whole it's better than anything else.
Meat Loaf Live could have been amazing but suffers from poor production. It's about time it was remastered.
I think the Storytellers CD is better than the DVD, but that's probably because many of the songs come from a different show.
The MSO DVD is great, the CD not as good for the reasons Sarge stated above.
I also haven't bought 3 Bats Live CD and also suspect it would be shite.
The Casa De Carne CD is very good. Anything For Love sounds a bit shaky, but the rest is all above average.

Not mentioned so far are the old Bat 1 live promo LPs. I think El Mocambo is really good, probably the best example of Meat live from that era. Live At My Father's Place on the other hand sounds poor and there's a constant smash, smash, smash of cymbals all the way through that gets very annoying.

i love live around the world... but i'd love to know what songs were going to be on the other 2 discs!!!

Thing thats stand out about MFP is meat's vocals. the fact that FCOL is cut off at the end of the album sucks.

Also all Revved up from that show got real screwed up.

Live 1987 has a special place in me liver coz it was the 1st live album I bought although it was edited to ~~~~~~y and that audience sound to me sounds like the sea!! Woooshh! Bought Live At My Father's Place at a second hand record shop in York not long after buying Live and I totally preffered the more authentic live sound which led me into a dubious world of live recordings....

In regard to Live I understand that the songs were edited in such a way as to fit onto a double LP album. It doesn't explain the random bursts of volume though.

It was supposed to be a double live album but Arista (wanted to swear there!) wouldn't do it or something that's why on vinyl it was an album and a 12". Total downer that 1 like coz even though the setlist from back then was about 2 and half hrs if cleverly edited we could've got the entire show (including Burning Down and Dead Ringer and Execution Day et al) rather than just 2 songs from the then current album. Then there's that bloody horrible 'live' sound from Wembley 'Stadium'. Arena more like.

And Masculine

I wondered about the 12" single. If there are two 12" records anyway, why couldn't they put more songs on the second record? By the way, does anybody know why the title on the labels of the vinyl isn't Live but Masculine?

Pretty much agree with that although Storytellers ranks a close second on both fronts.

Does anyone remember '93's Alive in Hell CD?

with the lightening on the cover??? (and non live surfs up tacked on the end)

yep basically Live at Wembley (Minus the medley) with a few of the 80's releases

Yes. It has all the tracks from Meat Loaf Live in a different order (minus the Rock 'N' Roll Medley) and a couple of Bad Attitude studio tracks.

One minute too slow!

Blah compilations like that those companies have access to the entire unedited soundboards from wembley and refuse to release them :(

BEST LIVE RELEASE
 

I PERSONALY THINK IT HAS TO BE LIVE AROUND THE WORLD CD I LOVE TO LISTEN TO PARADICE BY THE DASH BOARD LIGHT THAT IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS LIVE APART FROM BAT OUT OF HELL

CAN YOU POST ANY LOUDER?????? :D

i could give Lisa a megaphone and ask her to come over to your house and deliver the message personally if you like?

there's worse things than typing a message out in CAPS...being a westlife fan for instance:D

What's worse: ALL CAPS or a bdly msipellt messs? Shall we have a poll? :twisted:

For me it's LATW and I like the fact that it plays like a concert with no fading out in-between songs.

Yup! That is something I totally agree with you about. Motorhead's 'No Sleep 'til Hammersmith' is a case in point. The original release was taken from 3 shows and edited down to fit on a single album. Then a few years back it was re-released with the full set included; unedited, un-mucked-about-with and raw as hell. As live albums should be (sez me!). That's what I like about the Meat Loaf radio promos compared to the official live releases. So what if you can hear the feedback screaming and the bum notes etc. If you were at the shows stuff like that couldn't be edited out so why disguise it for a release?!? It's a live album forgodsake!!!

Maybe we all could get together and campaign to whoever owns the recordings of various shows to release them as a download...?

I don't have a problem with feedback being edited out and the overall product being polished. Otherwise you end up with Bad For Good on 3 Bats Live which is a bit poo. What does irritate is the fact that there are many bootlegs that contain better material than the official releases.

lol, yeah you did... but meat kept it constructive and positive :-P

or attacking and personal... i cant rem

Did you think Meat's vocals were shaky on AFL? Patti sounded better than ever. The Casa cd isn't my favorite because Paul's guitar is mixed too loudly over the backing vocals. And some of the best songs were omitted from the cd- Bad For Good, Dead Ringer, Bible and a Beer, Paradise.

I agree with Radiomaster. Best live cd-LATW; Best live dvd-MSO
However, if The History of Meat Loaf Live, Live in the Neighborhood, and Hard Rock Live were ever released on dvd, I might have a new favorite dvd.
With 3 Bats Live, I wish I had saved my money.

I guess I can't mention b--tl--gs but I wanna agree with Evil One about how they do contain better stuff than the official releases. Look at the tracklist for Live then compare it to the setlist from the actual shows. It does not compare at all. It's like how long have I (we) waited for something official from the original Bat tour? It's not just about being a completist to hunt out every version of a song but about actually getting full shows on either audio or video as a pure document of Meat Loaf's music career. Speaking of which I think I'll start a thread about the '88 tour....

I agree with this.

This sort of behaviour could get you into all sorts of trouble! :twisted:

what meat needs to let happen is let me, Andy, Neil, RJ, and evil one go through his stash of soundboards and video recordings.

He should give us a chance to produce/edit them the way we see fit.

Bottom Line: You wont be disjointedness in what we decide to release :cool:

Most likely we'd cut BOOH, 2/3, Paradise, and AFL from these shows to make room for some grade A quality performances of uncommon treasures.

Gotta say a real real real good version of took the words has yet to be officially released.

i'm gonna question youre judgement...

Everyone does :spit:

I agree about the guitar, although it's still better than the one Kasim produced for CHSIB.

mabey cause his bass was mixed to high above everything else and made the cd sound like crap.

Nevertheless this recording appeals to me in a different way, but it definitely does. :-)

That's why band members shouldn't produce or mix live cds. Whatever instrument they play is always mixed too loudly. I also agree that whoever mixed the backing vocals on the Casa tour cd did an awful job. Even on Why Don't We Do It In the Road, when Patti's singing, what happened to her "why" at the beginning of her solo? And where are her backing vocals on 2 Out of 3 and Bat? I saw those shows and you could distinctly hear her backing vocals.

The person who really needs to produce or mix live CDs is the guy they had running the sound at the shows, someone who likely helped record one or more of the gigs for archiving or potential release. He's the person who knows which shows sounded better vocally, which ones had awesome-tastic guitar solos, where the drums did a better fill on a certain night, because he has to regulate the sound mix and pays attention to every element during a given show. For the ultimate live experience on a CD, we need to start letting the sound crew assemble it, and if the band has to go back in and re-do some stuff it doesn't like, they will know how best to insert it.

[/end mini rant]

and I agree with what you're saying in theory but a lot of live albums are not fully recorded live but have studio overdubs worked on in the studio afterwards.

I would say it's cheaper for the likes of Kasim and Paul to mix and produce a live cd then the likes of David Thoener and when this is a free gift (as such) as an add on for HCTB then they will do it with a minimum budget and timeframe.

Which is what happened with the CdC Live disc ... George being that man ;-)

So why involve a band member in the process as well if (as we've seen with Kas and Paul) they'll mix their contributions to the fore? Just let George do it.

"Dead Ringer For Love" at the Ohio show was one of the best vocal performances I heard on the CDC tour. I'm surprised the song wasn't included on the live album.

This will always happen when you do compilations, IMO. The key is to find the best show, and release it intact.

Of course, you are a diehard, so you would say that. To cut those songs would destroy the integrity of the setlist (not to mention the legacy). Again- best complete show*. Then tack on your rarities as "bonus tracks". ;)


*Edit to say that I think this is one reason why, um, you know, "footwear" often sounds better.

While I agree with you, Julie, crowd noise is just the same as any other crowd noise. Let's say that this is a recording of the tour's best gig, but there were three other shows where he did a song that never appeared again. Shouldn't we be able to edit that in?

As long as everything sounds roughly the same I see no issue with compiling the best from each show on a tour. For example I would rather have the 'best' Dead Ringer as opposed to an average version from an otherwise great show.

I'm a perfectionist nut job, but I dare say I'd even go back to all the tapes of the tour and select the best guitar solo, the best drum track, etc., for each song. Piecemeal it may well be, but it will kick some righteous ass to hear a meticulously assembled live track.

You'd lose the essence of "live" though, there's nothng wrong with fixing the major flaws, but a live recording should capture the feel of the live show, warts and all in my opinion.

Absolutely agree; which is why I say I prefer a complete show as opposed to a compilation, although I see your points about picking the best performances. And yes, while crowd noise is crowd noise, some shows just have a certain "vibe" that is unique to that show, if you know what I mean.

And no, we shouldn't be deprived of exceptional performances, so again- bonus tracks. :-)

It probably would kick ass, but it's not really live anymore, it's Memorex. ;)
Frank Zappa used to do stuff like that. Some of his "studio" tracks were actually live performances with lots of overdubs, or he'd pick out a drum part here, a guitar solo there (from completely different songs), and put them together. Cool stuff! :cool:

I couldn't agree more. It's fine to fix a missed note here or there, but don't remix entire songs. I want to hear the true live experience.

I think there would be a lot more negative reviews for live albums if that were the case (not that I'm saying I wouldn't like to see more of it)

A case in point of how we've been conditioned to live albums sounding, for me anyway, was the stereophonics live from dakota which didn't have any additional mixing bar the soundboard there and then and to be honest I thought it sounded very poor overall.

As I say it's something we've been conditioned to and most artists really want a live album to sound near perfect so that it'll attract listeners to come and see them on the next tour.