Live version better than the original?

[tenohtwo]

Do you have a list of songs where you prefer a certain live recording to the original single/album version? I have a few..

Simple Minds - Promised You a Miracle (Live In The City of Light)
I always preferred this recording to the album version. The arrangement and power of this version is just amazing. One of the best live versions of any song I've heard.

Siouxsie & The Banshees - Painted Bird (Nocturne)
The energy and clearer sound quality of this live track gives this one the edge over the recorded version for me.

Talking Heads - Once In a Lifetime (Stop Making Sense)
I love the tempo and 'beefed up' sound, and Byrne's vocals are just fantastic on this particular recording. This one gets way more spins than the album cut.

Gang of Four - He'd Send In The Army (URGH! A Music War)
One of my favorite songs of theirs, and I just find myself listening to this version a lot more.

Front 242 - Take One (Back Catalogue)
The live version at the end of this compilation is crude, but really thumps, and the well-mixed bass lines and sweet-sounding synth leads puts this one on top

Revolting Cocks - We Shall Cleanse The World (Live! You Goddamned Son Of a Bitch)
Al Jourgensen's delivery of this song is much preferred to the Richard 23-sung album version. The heavier drums and live bass guitar is better, too.

1002

[zill]

The Plimsouls - How Long Will It Take
One of my favourite new wave tunes of all time, but it is so much more straight forward and exciting live.

That, and just about anything live by the Damned

[rotator]

The Specials : "Too Much Too Young / "Guns Of Navarone"

[Frau_Blucher]

Love the Gang of Four and Plimsouls opinions - completely agreed. My alltime favorite is Joy Division's "New Dawn Fades" from Still - blows the doors off the album version from Unknown Pleasures. If I can include radio studio versions like Peel Sessions stuff, my recent turn-on has been the Chameleons "View From a Hill" from the Radio 1 Evening Sessions - even more ethereal than the album version.

[scramjet]

The obvious one: Cheap Trick - I Want You to Want Me (does anyone really like the wussy studio version with the Vaudeville piano?)

A few others:

U2 - Bad, (Trash, Trampoline and the)Party Girl
Talking Heads - Girlfriend is Better, Making Flippy Floppy
Bad Manners - Lip Up Fatty
Echo & the Bunnymen - Do It Clean

[tenohtwo]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
<br>If I can include radio studio versions like Peel Sessions stuff, my recent turn-on has been the Chameleons "View From a Hill" from the Radio 1 Evening Sessions - even more ethereal than the album version.
[/quote]

I'm glad you brought up The Chameleons' sessions. I can think of two personal examples - "Dust to Dust / Return Of The Roughnecks" from The Peel Sessions comp, and "Home Is Where The Heart Is" from Here Today...Gone Tomorrow (Picadilly Radio Sessions). Both superior in sheer rawness to the re-recorded album cuts, in my opinion.

1002

[New Wave Dave]

From U2 at Red Rocks:
An Cat Dubh/Into The Heart
Surrender
Seconds
I Threw A Brick Through A Window
40

From U2's Elevation Tour:
Elevation
Beautiful Day
Until The End Of The World
Kite
Gone

Most everything from Depeche Mode's 101.
The songs I never really cared for are tolerable here (sorry, DM fans!), but the songs I already liked are that much better.

And if you've never heard Missing Persons' Noticeable One recorded live at Magic Mountain from 1981, well, let me tell you... it kicks ass! [:)]

[Ollie Stench]

DEVO - Be Stiff

Maybe its because I heard the DEVO LIVE EP before I ever heard the single version of Be Stiff, but to me the live version has alot more energy, and the song is much better at a quicker pace.

[djcraig]

U2- Peace on Earth / Walk On

(Live from London, September 21, 2001) from The AMERICA: A TRIBUTE TO HEROES album.

Recorded in the wake of 9-11, this version of "Walk On" is way superior to the studio version. The presence of Edge's ringing guitar and earnestnest of Bono's vocals are a cut above.

This performance of the song garnered U2 a Grammy nomination for "Best Rock Performance by a Duo or a Group" at the 2003 awards.



<a href="http://www.djcraig.net/los_angeles_dj">DJ Craig</a>

[dcappe]

Yes definitely U2's Bad from the Wide Awake In America EP

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[Jefe]

Even though I like the original a lot, I always liked the live version of Crocodiles by Echo and The Bunnymen off the Shine So Hard EP.

[KYYX4ever]

early Duran Duran did an AWESOME live version of "Come Up and See Me (Make Me Smile)" ( a Cockney Rebel cover) that is blistering ! It's pretty rockin' with Andy's guitar and has a lot of balls. However, I do not know if they ever did a studio version. This may have been one song that they only performed live. Therefore, maybe it doesn't really count in this question.
But I don't care....this is a fabulous live song, the epitome of good live music !

[Mechi]

I like the version of Joy Division's "Exercise One" featured in the BBC recordings album. I think it's better than the one in Still.

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[drsevrin]

Great topic. The Chameleons came immediately to my mind as well. As for "live in the studio" tracks I've always been totally blown away by their Peel Sessions disc, especially "Fan and the Bellows", "Looking Inwardly", and "Intrique in Tangiers". On their Live at the Academy disc, "Up the Down Escalator" kicks ass, as do most of the other tracks.

New Order's "Temptation" (any recent recording) and "Regret" (esp. Finsbury Park DVD) almost always sound fantastic live. I also love Echo & the Bunnymen's live versions of "Silver" and "Lips Like Sugar" on the Live in Liverpool disc.

Joy Division's "24 Hours", "These Days" and a few others on the Preston 28 live disc.

I also think James is much better live - and prefer almost all of their tracks live.

[Bitter Almonds]

<p align="justify">- Those BBC1 NewOrder recordings pretty much add new life to the recorded songs.

- "Everything Counts" by Depeche Mode. I had heard a lot of Depeche Mode prior to hearing this song, but this is one of their songs that got me interested into buying their music.

- "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus.