Live Versions Over Studio.

Oh, there are a lot for me. Often I like them better because they are played with more energy, or because they are expanded, or because they are updated. There's lot's of Pink Floyd I like better live, like Comfortably Numb and On the Turning Away on Delicate Sound of Thunder, or High Hopes on Pulse, and in general early Pink Floyd seems to have been much better live (pre Meddle)... the studio versions seem like just teasers of what the real song would be (the live ones). Also Gilmour solo sounds very nice live. I've heard some of his songs from the 80's live and they sound much better (specially Murder)... I wish they would be officially released. And On an Island, as stated before, is much better on it's live version (plus, it's almost a Pink Floyd album on that one, with Richard Wright on board, plus the guys from the backing band being many of them regulars from Pink Floyd tours - including Dick Parry).

Genesis also sounds better live, like Musical Box, Dancing with the Moonlit Knigt, and Cinema Show... much more energy, and Gabriel sounds less annoying, and Collins is just on fire... even many of the pop era songs sound better live... on studio they often sound too plastic, while live it sounds like they are actually played by a band. Jethro Tull is another example that I like live a lot in most cases... even the late 90's and early 00's sounds really cool and updated (actually, I think almost every song from Aqualung I like better in some live version). King Crimson, of course, also has lot's of songs that are really wonderful live, like Schizoid Man played by the Wetton era line-up (with guitar playing the main riff instead of the sax), and Starless too I like much better live, with the main theme played with the violin. And just about everything from the 80's (plus the song Red) sounds much better played live by the double trio in the 90's. Yes is another band that I like better live in many cases, in great part thanks to Wakeman that updates his keyboards on many songs, like Awaken, Starship Trooper, Time and a Word on Keys to Ascension, or Owner of a Lonely Heart from the Union tour. Or the Symphonic live songs, with Close to the Edge and Gates of Delirium being really wonderful. Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree also seem to do very nicely live, Coma Divine being a wonderful album.

There must be many more from this artists, and other's as well, that I'm forgetting, though. I guess that an example of a band that I haven't really enjoyed live so much is ELP. And Dream Theater is nice enough, but they don't do much on the live versions that I would prefer them over the originals.

I prefer the various boots of Triumvirat doing the Illusions On A Double Dimple album live, than the studio album. Even tho the sound quality is not that great, that album sounds great in a live context. And live, Triumvirat elaborate further on some sections of the two IOADD suites, which is an added bonus.


Edited by presdoug - August 17 2014 at 16:59

Quite a lot of Pink Floyd sounds better live than in the studio starting with all four tracks on disc 1 of Ummagumma, the version of Echoes and One of These Days from Live In Pompeii, the RoIO versions of Embryo and Atom Heart Mother that we're not supposed to mention here and everything from A Momentary Lapse of Reason that made it onto Delicate Sound of Thunder.