Frampton Comes Alive! is the worst recorded music ever.

You could argue Running on Empty is Jackson's Browne's best album - it is probably his best known - and it is the rare live album featuring songs he had never released before.

 

What's most amazing about "live" albums is how "live" they actually aren't.

On Thin Lizzy's "Live and Dangerous," the only things live are the drums and some of the vocals, at least according to producer Tony Visconti. I can understand why a lot of 70s live albums were overdubbed, though -- the on-site recording wasn't always so hot, and if you're going to listen to an album again and again, you're going to be distracted by all the bum notes and mistakes that volume and your own fan enthusiasm cover up in the moment.

 

Frank Zappa released six volumes of "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore" live albums, but only one (Volume 2) is an actual, single live show.

The rest of them are compilations from a bunch of different shows spliced together.

 

Foghat Live (1977) was Foghat's best-selling album.

 

Free Bird sort of is a running joke with the way fans react to it, but when he stops singing and those guitars start moving, that is almost perfect rock music.

 

I went to see Cheap Trick play sometime around 1993 or '94. It was at a Six Flags, where I worked and got let off early because it was pouring down rain. Had to wait on a ride home and most of the rides in the park were closed, so I went to the concert to kill time.
It was like the amusement park concert scene from "This is Spinal Tap" come to life.
Me and about 25 other people stood in the rain while they played their set. I remember there was one guy in a Cheap Trick T-shirt rocking out, dancing and screaming requests for songs no one else in the audience ever heard of; a few others kind of grooving; and more than half -- most likely including the band -- saying to themselves, "What the fuck am I doing here? How did my life get to this point?"

 

Cheap Trick seems to have been benefited from some critical revisionism these last few years. I haven't seen them live, but they did Austin City Limits and really sounded good. Much better than most 70s and 80s bands dragging their corpses around from county fair to county fair these days.

 

As the noose loosens on mid-70s pop/arena-rockers due to the pool of potential inductees at the other end of the eligiblity window drying up, I would expect Cheap Trick will probably get in within the next several years, along with Styx, Journey, Steve Miller, and Chicago (just a few names pulled at random).

BTO, from the early 70s, and the Cars, from the late 70s to late 80s, would fit in this classification too.


The R&RHOF is in the process of stratifying much as the Baseball HOF did in the sixties and seventies; as a result there will be different levels of Hall of Famers in the eyes of fans and critics -- 'legit' HOFers and 'catchup' HOFers put in by the veterans committees.

 

No way on Styx.

They destroyed anything they once earned. Damn Yankees should have a better shot.

 

It helps that Cheap Trick, unlike Styx and Journey, still has the same lead singer.

"Can you honestly tell me you forgot? Forgot the magnetism of Robin Zander?"

 

I could still listen to "Lovin Touchin Squeezin" five times a day. Especially the final part.