LIVE

A rare beast is a live album that actually surpasses all studio recordings for a band, and is the best place to start one's exploration for that band. I submit that this is the case with "Anyone's Daughter Live", and I know whereof I speak, for it was my introduction to this Stuttgart group, and I consequently became a huge fan. Anyone's Daughter played a sophisticated brand of symphonic prog with all the suspect influences but with a penchant for melodic inventiveness rarely heard before or since. All the instruments sizzle and the vocals, although uncommon, are ideally suited to the music.

Some have argued that the song selection is not the best, being somewhat skewed toward their later period, when the earlier albums are often considered their best. First, I do not agree and I think AD music remained of the highest quality right through their 4 studio albums. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the versions presented here are generally better than the original studio workings as well as the subsequent live renditions which appeared on the two Requested Document albums which were released back in the early 2000's. In particular, the gentle essence of "Sundance of the Haute Provence" simply screams classic ballad, while "Adonis Part 1" and "Anyone's Daughter" contain far more pointed soloing by Uwe Karpa. The one two punch of "Der Plan" and "Moria" belongs together, and the keyboard/guitar exchanges of the latter far surpass the original. Yes, "Der Plan" is in fact included in spite of what the liner notes say, appearing as track 12 of 14, one of the most adept blendings of prog and pop ever conceived.

Plenty of space is left for experimentation, including a few pieces that never appeared on a studio album, such as "November", "Sambucca" and "Land's End", which all reveal a slightly jazzy more improvised tendency and enhance the whole effect of the album. True, there is the obligatory drum solo, but some like it and, although I would have rather heard part 2 of Adonis in its place, I cannot punish the band for doing what was expected. "Carrara" contains little segments of the outro to the "Neu Sterne" album but with embellishments, and reminds me very much of classic Camel, but then AD was often called the German Camel. While I love Camel, I have to say that AD had a lot more pizzazz, without showboating, and some of that may have come from other German influences such as Grobschnitt and Eloy, with more than a little John Wetton in Harald Bareth's excellent voice. They also presaged the whole neo prog movement.

Too little known, Anyone's Daughter would make anyone's mother proud, and this one gets my highest recommendation.

After getting all Anyone´s Daughter studio albums I was quite curious about hearing them live, since my PA colleague Ken Levine regarded them as a band that plays better in front of an audience. And I must say he is right. Although I wouldn´t call Live a masterpiece, there is no denying that the performance here is quite more powerful than their studio counterparts. It is always good to find a bunch of musicians who actually do their best and need no recording trickery to show how fine musicians they are and how special their chemistry works. This CD is clearly the case.

Ok, some people would say their repertoire is not exactly their finest, since it is focused primerily on Anyone´s Daughter last album, the more commercial leaned, Neue Sterne. But since I liked that record (it is still prog enough to convince me) it´s alright. Besides, their sound was always towards the lighter side of the progressive rock scene (some say it actually open the road for the upcoming neo prog movement). And they never let the quality factor down. Some tracks are specially strong like the live renditions of Moria and Der Plan, real outstanding. I was a bit disapointed that only the first part of Adonis is present, It would be great to have it all since its version here is also better then the famous studio track.

The presence of three unreleased tracks are a bonus and adds a lot to the overall effect of the album. The down side of the tracklist is the inclusion of a drum solo (under the name of Peterchens Mondfahrt). Drum solos are ok during the shows: you have time to go to the bar to get a bear and relax a little before goind back to watch the rest of the show. The inclusion of such display of self indulgency in place of a ´real ´ song (specially when so many AD fine tunes could be here) is unforgiving. 5 minutes and 41 seconds of lost time. The album ends with an excellent, 11 minute, version of the track Anyone´s Daughter.

Live is a real treat for fans of the band. And a good starting point for the ones who still don´t know this rather underrated classic german outfit. An excellent live document that would deserve a five star rating if they had included a complete version of Adonis and dropped the useless drum solo track. As it is, 4,5 stars.