Wednesday, April 19, 2006
The Opposite of Suck City
After being thoroughly depressed and demotivated by Tori Amos, I popped in my newly-acquired Bruce Springsteen Live 1975-1985 box set. I forgot how great this album is! It's rock and roll as it's meant to be played, and it's live music as it's meant to performed. Now I'm totally motivated. (Between emails to The Wife and blog posts, I really haven't done anything "productive" today. So much for being busy, huh?)
What I like about Bruce Springsteen is how great he is live compared to on-tape. I generally don't like live performances because they're sloppy and sub-par to the originals. There are a few instances, though, where I much prefer the live version. Bruce is one. Another is Johnny Cash, which I mentioned before. Husker Du is easily at the top of my list, though.
For those who don't know, Husker Du (I'm not including the umlauts over the u's because I don't know how) was a seminal punk rock band in the 80's. Chances are, you've never heard of them, but they were a BIG influence on the Pixies, who later were a HUGE influence on Nirvana. One of Husker Du's frontmen, Bob Mould, later formed Sugar, another one of my favorite bands. That's actually how I got interested in Husker Du.
So I eventually decided to buy a Husker Du album in college. It sucked. I mean, it was complete crap. For years, I didn't really understand why people liked this band. Then they released a live album, The Living End, (long after they broke up). For some reason, I decided to buy it. Then I began to understand why people like Husker Du so much.
There's really no comparing them live and on-tape. For one thing, the recordings are of piss-poor quality. It sounds like the producer asked Husker Du to perform inside a tin cup. The other problem is that Husker Du actually wrote the songs to be performed live. They would experiment with them at concerts. And once they'd achieved the right sound, they'd record them. Only the recording couldn't possibly capture the adrenaline and emotion of the live show. Thus, the recordings sucked.
I really can't think of any other artists where I prefer the live version. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE going to concerts, but that's more about being in the crowd and feeling the music. I have no desire to listen to their live recordings. But for Bruce, Cash, and Husker Du, please just give me the live versions and toss the studio crap.
What I like about Bruce Springsteen is how great he is live compared to on-tape. I generally don't like live performances because they're sloppy and sub-par to the originals. There are a few instances, though, where I much prefer the live version. Bruce is one. Another is Johnny Cash, which I mentioned before. Husker Du is easily at the top of my list, though.
For those who don't know, Husker Du (I'm not including the umlauts over the u's because I don't know how) was a seminal punk rock band in the 80's. Chances are, you've never heard of them, but they were a BIG influence on the Pixies, who later were a HUGE influence on Nirvana. One of Husker Du's frontmen, Bob Mould, later formed Sugar, another one of my favorite bands. That's actually how I got interested in Husker Du.
So I eventually decided to buy a Husker Du album in college. It sucked. I mean, it was complete crap. For years, I didn't really understand why people liked this band. Then they released a live album, The Living End, (long after they broke up). For some reason, I decided to buy it. Then I began to understand why people like Husker Du so much.
There's really no comparing them live and on-tape. For one thing, the recordings are of piss-poor quality. It sounds like the producer asked Husker Du to perform inside a tin cup. The other problem is that Husker Du actually wrote the songs to be performed live. They would experiment with them at concerts. And once they'd achieved the right sound, they'd record them. Only the recording couldn't possibly capture the adrenaline and emotion of the live show. Thus, the recordings sucked.
I really can't think of any other artists where I prefer the live version. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE going to concerts, but that's more about being in the crowd and feeling the music. I have no desire to listen to their live recordings. But for Bruce, Cash, and Husker Du, please just give me the live versions and toss the studio crap.
