Favorite Live Album
One person's version of the Top 100 live albums. My favorite, Seconds Out by Genesis, is not on the list.
I know this choice is semi-blasphemy for other old Genesis fans, as this was in the early days after Peter Gabriel left and Phil Collins had just taken over as lead singer. I like a lot of the old Gabriel-era work, but for me this was the band at its peak, still playing all of its original prog-rock work but with a little more polish and less, uh, wackiness with Collins out front rather than Gabriel. The band was at that inflection point before it slid downhill from rich, complex, challenging music to polished but thin and mediocre pop songs (roughly the same transition we have had to watch Springsteen go through), a transition that is certainly related to Gabriel's departure.
Update: By the way, the purpose of this post was not to try to establish some musical moral high ground. In looking back on the post, I fell in the trap of snobbily turning my nose up at certain works. Shouldn't have done that. I don't grok Bob Dillon and get irritated with those who look down their nose at me for that, and I try to avoid doing the same. So I will say it is perfectly OK if you don't "get" early Genesis and prog rock. In fact, it probably makes you normal. 70's prog rock can be, frankly, inaccessible for those who did not grow up on it.
However, if you like old Yes, Jethro Tull, ELP and the like and haven't ever heard Seconds Out or some of the albums it is based on (Trick of the Tail, Wind and Wuthering, Lamb Lies Down on Broadway) it might reward you to check it out.
