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Classic Albums, Live!

11:14 AM GMT 23/03/2010

Classic Albums, Live!

Doolittle: yes please. Metal Machine Music: no thanks. The current vogue for "heritage" acts delivering their best albums live, in their entirety, is a double-edged sword, says Martin Aston.

NEXT WEEK, THE WHO (or Who's Left anyway) perform Quadrophenia at London's Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust charity, while Primal Scream revisit Screamadelica at Olympia in November. At this rate, it's quite possible that every single famous act will have showcased their undisputed "classic" album by the end of 2010. Should we be worried? When I read the headline "Lou Reed Brings Controversial Metal Machine Music To Life" I certainly was.

Actually, Reed's shows aren't exact reproductions of his four-sided electronic squall mass from 1975 (thank f__k). Rather, it's an evening of what Reed terms "no songs and no vocals" under the title Nights Of Deep Noise, with his demonic-sounding colleague Sarth Calhoun on "live processing and Fingerboard Continuum" (oh, yummy). But he's been here before, touring the entirety of Berlin (1973) in 2007 with a large ensemble that swamped much of the original's fragility and opulence.

Does the 'classic album live' phenomenon, initiated by Arthur Lee's Forever Changes and the Don't Look Back series in 2005, deliver less than it appears to promise? Shudder To Think's Craig Wedren argues that "there's something wax-museum, mausoleum-esque," about the experience. Milwaukee writer Keith Brammer, anticipating Steely Dan's performance of Aja and The Royal Scam last year, added, "I don't want to see some cobbled-together band with a substitute bass player and drummer. I don't expect to see it replicated exactly. Why see the band live if they're up there sort of miming to the record?"

Critics and fans like their artists to look ahead, and to be spontaneous, but we also like them to play their hits, so why not their hit albums? Surely, some albums are so structurally sound and filler-free that brand-new live versions can only amplify their magnificence? And with the perceived value of recorded music plummeting so drastically of late, it's as if music fans would rather consume their classic albums at a gig than in their sitting rooms.

Ironically, former Reed cohort John Cale's recent orchestral version of Paris 1919 (all 30 minutes of it!) was a joy. The Stooges' Fun House and Pixies' Doolittle shows were incendiary experiences; Sparks' canonical 21-album canon run in London 2008 was an unrivalled event - and a ton of fun. Forever Changes and Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds brought tears to my eyes and raised the hairs on my neck.

And yet there are other records so inimitably set in aspic that reproduction is far too risky. Take Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. Its autumnal fug is so site-specific, its narrator pitched so exquisitely between spiritual agony and sexual ecstasy, that one daren't imagine the music's now sixtysomething creator overhauling it for stage purposes (the trailer looks painful enough). Likewise, ABC's Lexicon Of Love live show may have shone light on a record that even fans have in mothballs, but did we really need Martin Fry's turn as a holiday camp entertainer?

The fact is, for various reasons, some classic albums should be left well alone. Would Yes's Tales From Topographic Oceans be endurable in one dense sitting? Could every single song from The Magnetic Fields' sublime 69 Love Songs be bearable? There are even bits of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation you could live without (although not this bit, obviously)?

And while some albums are too long, too complex, or simply too rubbish to tolerate live, others just wouldn't fit the environment. For instance, while Bruce Springsteen may have played Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge Of Town in one night (7 May, 2008), Nebraska would never work in an arena - which means he'd have to play 40 club nights to satisfy ticket demand.

Proof that the genre can go too far is encapsulated by www.classicalbumslive.com, a concert series based in Toronto but exported across North America. According to the website, Led Zeppelin II, Abbey Road, The Joshua Tree and Dark Side Of The Moon are among recent recreations - by tribute line-ups, of course.

Over in Australia, a promoter assembled four singers and a 17-piece band to tour The White Album because, like everyone else, he'd never heard his fave Beatles album live. And possibly because he could make money at the same time. Ultimately, the concept is a guaranteed cash cow, giving the audience what they want instead of what they might need and helping musicians feel safer looking back at what helped make them famous. But 60 years after Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock, is this really where rock'n'roll has found itself? Rocking the clock backwards, into seeming perpetuity?

Martin Aston

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 11:14 AM GMT 23/03/2010

Related MOJO content:

Beatles , John Cale , Led Zeppelin , Lou Reed , Primal Scream , The Who

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  • When Yes first toured Topographic Oceans, they were playing the whole damn thing live, leading to many fans walking to save themselves dying of sheer boredom.
    The band later cut the album by half.
    Also don't forget the daddies of playing full albums are Pink Floyd. From Dark Side Of The Moon to The Wall - all performed in full. Oh yes!!

    Posted by Alexander Meerkat at 1:54 PM GMT 23/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • Personally, I like this trend of playing classic albums live these days.. I agree the concept suits some albums more than others. I saw John Martyn do solid air which was great!

    I'd like to see some less obvious 'classic albums' played live, Ernest Ranglin's 'Below the Bassline', Ben Harper doing 'fight for your mind' , JJ Cale doing 'naturally'?

    Posted by Matt at 3:55 PM GMT 23/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • There was a live "Songs for Drella" film by John Cale and Lou Reed that was great. Not sure it ever came out on dvd. I have it on vhs.

    Posted by wrecksracer at 5:51 PM GMT 23/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • If Roger Waters (ideally with David Gilmour) wanted to tour The Wall, I'd be there.

    I'd love to hear Dylan play any number of his albums from start to finish, but Time Out of Mind is at the front of the list.

    Portishead could play all of Dummy, and I'd feel no pain at all. (A bit glum, perhaps, but no pain.)

    Leonard Cohen played most of it in his recent tours, but a sequential performance of all the songs from I'm Your Man would be lovely.

    Neil Young could play all of Tonight's The Night, On The Beach, Rust Never Sleeps and Sleeps With Angels. Ideally at the one concert.

    I think watching REM play Murmur, Document, or Automatic For the People from start to finish would be very nice indeed.

    And lastly, I've long admired The Proclaimers' Born Innocent album. A set-list comprised of that album alone would make for a fantastic night out.

    Posted by Mike Mueller at 1:24 AM GMT 24/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • Also, Arthur Lee didn't start anything in 2005, when you consider that Pink Floyd toured (and recorded and released on PULSE) Dark Side of the Moon on the Division Bell tour in 1995. Given the album was 22 years old at the time and (if memory serves) still on the US charts (after some 700 plus weeks) then I think it ticks all the boxes for what constitutes the touring/playing of a classic album. Not saying definitively that they were first, but certainly a good decade before Arthur Lee.

    Posted by MIke Mueller at 1:30 AM GMT 24/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • Did Bowie do this first? Performing Low and Heathen back to back in entirety at the Roseland Ballroom, then Meltdown, in 2002. Anyone know who did the full album performance before that of note?

    Posted by LT at 1:57 PM GMT 26/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • RE: wrecksracer

    Songs for Drella has not been released on dvd...Laserdisc in Japan and vhs video only

    Posted by gazatthebop at 8:33 PM GMT 26/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • Oh boy, I'll finally get to hear His Bobness do the entire Self-Potrait lp in its entirety ! !

    Posted by Harvey at 5:17 PM GMT 11/04/2010 Report Abuse

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  • Over in Australia, a promoter assembled four singers and a 17-piece band to tour The White Album because, like everyone else, he'd never heard his fave Beatles album live.

    I look forward to seeing their version of Revolution 9 on Youtube.

    Posted by J Neo Marvin at 7:41 AM GMT 26/04/2010 Report Abuse

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  • RE: J Neo Marvin What?

    Posted by Julie Portugal, Spain at 2:58 AM GMT 01/05/2010 Report Abuse

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