Unexpected highlights from Alexis Petridis's "30 Best Live Albums" (The Guardian) [Something Interesting #71]

Saw this article from The Guardian listing their choices of the best 30 live albums, expecting to roll my eyes at all of the usual choices found in these kinds of lists. While a number of those do show up (Depeche Mode's 101, Johnny Cash's At San Quentin, Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous, Talking Heads's Stop Making Sense), Petridis (who's usually an astute critic) also threw in a lot of interesting choices I've never really heard about when live albums come up. I recommend checking out the article (posted below) to see what else they've added and am posting some of the ones I enjoyed finding out about today.

Photo by John Matychuk (Unsplash)

While I won't reveal their placements, I'm including some of the write-ups given by Petridis as a taster before you listen to the records:

Miles of Aisles by Joni Mitchell (1974)

"Miles of Aisles captured Mitchell at a moment of flux: at the height of her fame, but about to push her music in more expansive, less commercial directions. It’s a process that might have begun at these shows, as she radically rearranges songs from her earlier career in the company of a flatly incredible band." - Alexis Petridis

Live in New Orleans by Maze (1981)

"Already stars in Black America, Maze became the ultimate if-you-know-you-know band among British fans of underground soul thanks to Live in New Orleans. It perfectly encapsulated their appeal: smooth but not slick, an awesomely tight band making breezily relaxed music, one fantastic song after another." - Alexis Petridis

Live After Death by Iron Maiden (1985)

"Hailed in some quarters as the greatest live metal album full stop, Live After Death offers the sound of Maiden cresting their mid-80s imperial phase: everything you might conceivably want from a Maiden set of the era performed by a band firing on all cylinders, with Bruce Dickinson in full-on ringmaster mode." - Alexis Petridis

Living Proof by Sylvester (1979)

"Disco was not a genre that produced many great live albums, but then Sylvester wasn’t just any disco artist: his joyous performance at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House hurtles from You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) to versions of Billie Holiday’s Lover Man and the Beatles’ Blackbird, his voice incredible throughout." - Alexis Petridis

Live at Carnegie Hall by Bill Withers (1973)

"For a man who was still working in a factory 18 months before this album was recorded, Bill Withers sounds fabulously relaxed and loquacious on stage at New York’s Carnegie Hall: that he’d amassed a set of songs as incredible as the 14 here doubtless helped. It’s all wonderful, but the climax of Harlem/Cold Baloney is something else." - Alexis Petridis

17-11-1970 by Elton John (1971)

"Recorded weeks after his career-kickstarting gig at LA’s Troubadour Club and an education for anyone who only knows the hits, 17-11-70 offers the purest expression of his original vision for the Elton John Band, “a power trio with a piano” big on extended improvisation – even the ballads rock surprisingly hard." - Alexis Petridis