My Best Live Rock Albums

By ej hughes on
Most of my top live albums don't even rank on Rolling Stone's 50 best live albums of all time. That's ok, I have my own favorites. The following albums are the absolute best live albums of all time, to me. There are only eight albums listed here. I know there are many more live albums. Many I have never even heard. I only know the albums I know. So, if there are other live albums you love, please let me know so I can check them out. I will only bore you with my commentary on my top two live rock albums and why I think they beat out the rest.

8. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band - Live Bullet, 1976 - (Photo by Robert Markliwitz) - 
 Check it out on Spotify: "Live Bullet"


7. Grand Funk - Live Album, 1970 - (Photo by Mark Amerling) -  Spotify album link: Grand Funk "Live Album"


6. Deep Purple - Made In Japan, 1972 -  (Cover Design by Roger Glover, Photo by Fin Costello) - Spotify album link: "Made In Japan"


5. J. Geils - Full House, 1972 -  (Album Art by Peter Wolf and Stephen Jo Bladd) - Spotify album link: "Full House"


4. The Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya Ya's Out, 1970 (Photo by David Bailey) - Spotify album link: "Get Yer Ya Ya's Out


3. Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains The Same, Recorded 1973, Released 1976 -  (Cover Art George Hardie and Hipgnosis) - Spotify album link: "The Song Remains The Same"


2. The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East, 1971 -  (Photo by Jim Marshall) - Spotify album link: "At Fillmore East"


1. Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive, 1976 -  (Photo by Richard E. Aaron) - Spofity album link: "Frampton Comes Alive!"


My number 2 live album: The Allman Brother's "At Fillmore East"
The Allman Brother's band with Duanne Allman "live" is absolutely incredible. His sense of melody, phrasing and slide playing was phenomenal. Let alone playing it live. Jesus, the guy was only 24 when he died. How do you become such a master of the instrument so young? I thank the heaven's above that we all got to hear his genius on this record. At Fillmore East was released on July 6th, 1971 and Duanne died October 29th of 1971. About a month short of his 25th birthday on November 20th. Please listen to this album if you have never heard it. On the Album cover, the band is laughing because Duanne ran over and grabbed some contraband from a dealer he knew and raced back to sit down and take his place for the photo. He's hiding the contraband in his lap as the photo was shot. 

My number 1 live album: Peter Frampton "Frampton Comes Alive"
At number one is Frampton Comes Alive! Why? Because I had no idea who this guy was before this album. None of his studio versions of the songs on this album come close to his live versions. I know he was in Humble Pie but only after this album came out. Would I ever buy a studio album by him? No because it simply could never be this great. It just couldn't. Why it is so good I don't know. Perhaps it's his talk box on "Do You Feel Like We Do." All I know is that you feel part of the crowd. The whole "live show feel" puts you right there. As if you were at the show itself. Great live album. 

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