WELCOME BACK MY FRIENDS TO THE SHOW THAT NEVER ENDS

Prog-rock has produced three of perhaps the top five or six live albums ever recorded: Seconds Out (Genesis), Playing the Fool (Gentle Giant), and Welcome Back My Friends (ELP). Not only is Welcome Back My Friends one of the most cleanly recorded live albums, it is also unarguably the most exciting, as it has a "closeness" that the others lack (especially with headphones, which is the only way to truly assess the quality of a live album). Indeed, the live version of Tarkus is arguably the single greatest, most exciting live prog-rock recording of all time (with the sole possible exception of Cinema Show on Seconds Out). It veritably jumps out of the album, sending chills up your spine. Karn Evil 9 is the other stand-out here. This is the only live album that made my personal DID list when I first created it.