Treasure Hunting: Live, Best Of, and Ugly Albums

Paul Simon is one of my favorite musicians. I have slowly acquired nearly every album he has recorded. Today I purchased what I think was (aside from several compilation albums) the last piece of my Paul Simon collection. The album is called “Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin. I avoided it in part because I usually hate live albums, and partly because of the dated suit that Paul is wearing on the cover. Even at $1.50 for the vinyl in excellent condition I hesitated. When I got home and put it on the turntable, I quickly realized that my prejudice had kept me from discovering a treasure.

I have always avoided three kinds of albums: best of compilations, live albums, and albums with extremely dated or ugly album covers. I have been burned on several occasions, and have (perhaps mistakenly) closed my mind to them. Live albums often sound muddy and poorly produced. The crowd can be distracting, or the artist can sound stupid between songs. They try to reproduce the original recording rather than improving them. Best of albums cherry pick the songs and you end up with a made for radio selection with no cohesion that fails to capture the range and depth of an artist. Ugly or dated album art just makes you not want to look at it. In the hope of discovering some more treasures, I would love to hear some recommendations for some really good live, best of, or just plain ugly albums. What music have you enjoyed that often gets overlooked? For example, I bet there has to be a really good compilation of Bob Dylan songs. Suggestions?

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 1st, 2006 at 11:10 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

http://www.kadavy.net kadavy

I think that your prejudice against “best of” compilations is a very wise one! It is much better to enjoy a song in its original context…imagine going to view a painting of just the head of the Mona Lisa.

I think some often-overlooked gems are pre-”Uptown Girl” Billy Joel albums, more specifically, “Piano Man,” “Cold Spring Harbor,” “52nd Street,” “Turnstiles,” “Glass Houses,” and “The Stranger.” Listening to those albums, and also old Rod Stewart albums, makes me understand why people still put up with them today.
http://www.bohemianalps.com Simanek

I only buy best ofs when I’m curious about something new to my collection. They aren’t exactly the ‘best of’ but they are a collection of recognizable songs. I think best ofs live in the land of ‘Popular Music’. We’re all familiar what letting a committee make decisions is like.

Kadavy, did I ever give you that Rod Stewart album that I digitally recorded from vinyl? “Blondes Have More Fun”? It’s right up your alley. You’re definitely right about putting up with their latter-day shit.

I’m going to recommend Stevie Wonder: Talking Book, the Best of Jimmy Cliff and Ladies and Gentlemen:The Best of George Michael. For live albums try Led Zeppelin at the BBC and any live recordings of Earl Hines. Boy, I can’t say enough about Earl Hines. Jimmy Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn have many excellent live recordings. Have you listened to Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ album? It’s not live, but you should listen to it.
http://www.beadesigngroup.com Adrian

Thanks for the advice!

Kadavy, I picked up Billy Joel’s Piano Man last week but haven’t listened to it yet.

Jason, I am going to have to work up some courage before I can pick up a Springsteen or Rod Stewart album. Earl Hines? I will have to check into that. I miss sharing a studio with you and picking through your eclectic collection of music!

Pssst. Over here…

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Treasure Hunting: Live, Best Of, and Ugly Albums