Live Albums Are The Next Best Thing To A Concert Ticket

Welcome to the latest edition of All the Music of All the World, our weekly series where we aim to share music worth being passionate about. Consider us a guide who can help you get the most out of your Victrola by giving you new music to listen to, or new ways to think about music you already know.

This week is the official starting gun for the collective madness we’ve all agreed to call “Holiday Shopping.” It’s the time of year where we show our loved ones we love them, we were listening when they talked about needing a new bookshelf, when seemingly every podcast is underwritten by Aura Frames, when every email you’ll receive—except this one!—promises a discount, a once-in-a-lifetime price, a chance at that perfect gift to show someone you care.

I think we can all agree that the best gift for a music fan—that is NOT a Victrola turntable (check out our deals this week, we need to pay the bills here at All the Music of All the World!)—is a concert ticket to see their favorite music. The live experience is the most unfiltered expression of music; it is only happening that way that time in that room you’re seeing it in. Sure, bands have concrete setlists, but no set is exactly the same, unless you’re paying to see an electronic act that just plugs in a playlist. The music you experience live at any given concert is something only you and the people in the room at that concert will ever get to experience. There’s nothing you can get a music fan that is more unique than that.

But, as we all know, not every act is touring actively, and some of your favorite musicians might be playing in that proverbial house band in the sky. Which is where the live album comes in. It’s the next best gift you can get a music lover: the live experience, sandwiched between a few sides of vinyl. So this week’s All the Music of All the World is devoted to a handful of live albums that are worth checking out for the music lover in your life.

The best live albums capture moments that happened once, and never again, placing the album listener in the room with the lucky few who got to experience the performance. Two of the best live albums in this regard are Johnny Cash’s legendary At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin. Recorded as part of a series of performances Cash did at prisons in the ‘50s and ‘60s, these albums capture Johnny’s outlaw status, as his songs of regret, crimes, fast lives and fast times resonate most with the men on the inside of the pens he performed in. You can hear them hoot and holler and generally lose it at every song, turn of phrase, and shoutout to their predicaments. Cash is in top form, snarling, raw, perfect. Fun fact: Merle Haggard decided to become a country performer in the early ‘60s thanks to seeing Cash perform while he was locked up due to general delinquency.

Recently discovered in the Coltrane estate in a box, Alice Coltrane’s Carnegie Hall Concert is an important artifact of spiritual jazz. Recorded during a 1971 concert shortly after the release of her landmark Journey in Satchidananda and featuring contributions from Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp. You can hear them form into a jazz monolith as this album goes on, and if you listen on headphones, it’s like you’re sitting in the back right corner, in the most famous room in NYC.

Arguably the best live album of all time, the Grateful Dead’s Europe 72 is considered by many to be the best officially released Dead release. Crafted during their legendary run through the continent, it captures the Dead at the peak of their powers. The “China Cat Sunflower” into “I Know You Rider” moment feels like a sunrise on a mountain, like you’re sitting on Everest watching the earth crest in front of you. Sure, this album was cleaned up in the studio afterwards, but it’s as good as the Dead ever sounded, as great a live rock band has ever been.

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Sublime were a short-lived band, all-things considered. The original lineup was together for under eight years, as their time crashed down when Bradley Nowell died. But their impact on rock music has been enduring, because the sense of humor and blending of genres and styles set them apart from a lot of the dour alt-rock bands of the era. They were well-known as a live act in California, but they never really got to spread their shows across the country. $5 at the Door allows all of us who never got to see them live to have the experience of a Sublime show; shaggy, genre-hopping, fun, wild and something to behold.

The MTV Unplugged experience isn’t as “live” as the other albums on here, but they always allow for moments you don’t get on studio albums. The two most iconic moments in Unplugged history are Nirvana’s and Eric Clapton’s. Clapton was fresh off the death of his young son and was appropriately wounded; playing re-arranged versions of his songs and “Tears in Heaven,” which he wrote for his son, and which would become one of his most enduring songs. It’s rumored Martin acoustic guitars were saved because of Clapton’s work on the album; everyone rushed out to match his setup, in an era where electronic guitars were kings. Nirvana’s is special for a different reason: It’s one of the last public appearances by Kurt Cobain before his death in April 1994. It’s tempting to paint a retrospective story onto his performance here, but either way, he’s magnetic, and you feel yourself trying to get closer to him while listening to this album.

James Brown’s Live at the Apollo is one of those live albums that is a time capsule. At the time—1962—Brown was on the cusp of being the biggest name in Black music—a title he’d take off Ray Charles—and was in New York on a barnstorming trip through the East Coast. In those days, touring acts were often in package deals, where they’d be expected to play for just 30 minutes or so, before another band or artist would take the stage. So you get Brown ripping through his early singles, the very definition of killing them and leaving. But the highlight is the 10+ minute take of “Lost Someone,” stretched to its maximum, decadent height.  

You get the point. You can’t always get your music fan a concert ticket. But at least the live album is the next best thing.

-- Andrew Winistorfer