Sad to hear of her passing. I really enjoyed seeing her with the rest of Fleetwood Mac a number of years back.
Tough for me to pick also. The IT tour in Toronto was my first Genesis concert and had that "wow" moment of the first beats of Apocalypse in 9/8. The We Can't Dance tour was also memorable as I was lucky to have great seats and it was a great setlist. One of those two.
For Peter Gabriel, possibly the So tour with the vari-lights, the great setlist, and one of his best touring bands.
The only other member I've seen live is Steve Hackett on one of the Genesis Revisited tours, which was lots of fun.
For live recordings, I think it is a complex issue. I don't mind minor fixes and sometimes wish it were done for glaring errors. For example, on Secret World Live, Gabriel comes in too early for a section of an otherwise wonderful In Your Eyes. I wouldn't have minded if this was fixed so that the proper lyrics were sung at the proper time. It wouldn't have needed much re-recording. The part he sang could have been shifted to match the section and one line would have to be imported from another recording (or added from in studio). I know many mistakes can "make" a live performance, but this one doesn't for me.
Another fix I can live with is on The Who's Live at Hull. The bass wasn't recorded for the first few songs. However the performances were close enough to Live at Leeds (the previous night) that they could patch in the bass from that performance and do a bit of fixing to make it work. I prefer that than listening to the first few songs with no bass track.
Obviously I'm not big on a live album where much of it isn't live at all. That's fixing too much and you are no longer getting a live performance.
And there are fixes that are just plain unnecessary. The crowd noise mentioned above is one example. Live at Leeds has very little crowd noise and yet it is probably my favourite live album.
I have never been a fan of this band. I respect for their talent. Certainly Mercury is a gifted vocalist and performer. And assembling the vocals for Bohemian Rhapsody shows incredible craft and musicianship. May is a distinctive guitarist, who sounds like no one else and is instantly recognizable. And Deacon and Taylor form solid support.
As for their songs, I find them melodramatic and excessively over-the-top. I don't mind some of them if they come on the radio, but I don't seek them out. The songs that have more restraint often seem derivative of other artists (e.g., Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Another One Bites the Dust). I have tried investigating a few albums to see if the non-singles are more interesting, but I haven't found anything that really works for me.
Sounds like a Rammstein gig.
And that's where the comparison ends.
Just saw The Who in Toronto with a symphony orchestra backing them. The orchestra provided lots of interesting depth and texture to some of the grander songs, but some spontaneity and fire was lost in the process. Roger is still in incredibly fine voice for 78, nailing lots of high notes with passion and authority. Pete did catch fire at one point, jamming in the middle of 5:15. He also gave another great performance of Eminence Front. The treat of the night was a version of Behind Blue Eyes with violin, cello, and double bass providing sensitive accompaniment.
Reading up on Concord, it looks like they are mainly a company that has been acquiring record labels and publishing rights. So it sounds like that they focus on continuing to sell an artist's catalogue to new audiences. This would most likely focus on the material that has been popular in the past. I highly doubt they would have much interest in getting archival material out there, where the financial return is likely small compared to the investment in acquiring/restoring/mixing the material.
I like Pink Floyd first and foremost for their music. Gilmour's guitar and Wright's keyboards (and to a lesser extent, Waters's bass and Mason's drums) combine for some wonderful passages in many songs. I don't mind Waters's lyrics through Wish You Were Here and as mentioned, there is some sarcastic humour in songs such as Have a Cigar. From Animals onward, I'm less engaged with his lyrics and thus the songs.
According to setlist.fm, the Supper's Ready segment was performed 32 times in 1986. 30 were on the US/Canada portion of the tour and then there were 2 performances in New Zealand.
I quite liked the IT setlist. As mentioned, Abacab was great - fast and furious. The ITC sequence was awesome - I saw it in Toronto and thus got the SR version. The drum duet was fabulous and Los Endos kicked ass. And the IT songs were well served, particularly the full TTT and The Brazilian.
Welcome to the forum danielbravo!
I agree that it is totally fine for an artist to be choosy about what gets released. If they are not comfortable with it, then they don't need to release it. I also agree that there is a fair bit of stuff being released that might satisfy curiosity for one or two listens, but does not maintain interest over the long term. It's the sort of stuff that might be nice to have available for streaming or download, but is not essential for a box set or something more formal.
What is unclear to me is whether the lack of any other material being released is due to the band actively not wanting it released or simply not caring about getting it out to the public. Are the outtakes for Seconds Out really poor and they would be embarrassed to release them? Or is the band simply not that interested in figuring out if there are any outtakes worth adding on to some kind of Seconds Out deluxe edition?
Maybe on Duke's Travels (album version). What about the intro, before the drums fade in ?
He is playing keyboards in that section, so it is unlikely he also overdubbed guitar.
These I know for sure as you can see/hear Tony playing guitar, not keyboards for the initial sections:
The Musical Box
Supper's Ready
The Cinema Show
Entangled
Good call. Anything the Hoff touches becomes cheese, kinda like the Midas touch in reverse.
Anyway, another chunk of aural brie came to mind: Islands In The Stream by Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers. Although maybe that one is more schmaltzy than cheesy?
I think of schmaltzy as being sappy and overly sentimental. I think of songs like You Light Up My Life by Debbie Boone or Feelings by Morris Albert. Or anything by Air Supply.
But Paradise By The Dashboard Light isn't meant to be taken seriously. It's funny. It's meant to be over the top.
I get that it is supposed to be humourous. But the humour is so obvious that it is not funny and just makes the song even cheesier.
Cheesiness does not mean I end up hating a song. Rasputin by Boney M is pretty cheesy to me and yet kinda irresistible at the same time.
Last week I saw Elvis Costello at Toronto's Massey Hall. It was a great gig. He was backed up by The Imposters, who are two-thirds of the Attractions (Steve Nieve on keyboards and Pete Thomas on drums) plus Charlie Sexton on guitar and Davey Faragher on bass. The setlist was a nice mix of classics plus a selection from recent albums, all performed with lots of verve and enthusiasm. He engaged very well with the crowd, telling stories and chatting with the crowd. New Jersey singer Nicole Atkins joined him for 4 songs, trading lead vocals and providing sweet harmonies. The opening set by Nick Lowe was also excellent and then Nick joined Elvis for a couple of songs, including (fittingly since Nick Lowe wrote it) What's So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding. Having front row seats also didn't hurt the experience.
Here is someone else's video from the show:
I interpret cheesy to imply that something is very overtly of bad quality and in bad taste. There is usually something bordering on cringe-y about a cheesy song, most often in the lyrics or in the overall premise. However the music can also be cheesy, usually by being overly dramatic and hackneyed.
One example for me is much of Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell album, particularly Paradise By the Dashboard Light.
I too am suffering the regrets of who got left off my first list, so here is another 31:
has anyone been to Solsbury Hill, Is it as magical as the lyrics suggest ?
Going to Cardiff next month and didn't realise its not far from there
Haven't been. You'll have to tell us if you can see the city lights, what the wind was like, and if you saw an eagle...
