The Masters: 50's & 60's Early Rock & Roll - Best Live Albums

RtBE loves listening to new music and prides itself on keeping tabs on up and coming artists but in 2019 we are also going to have a monthly spotlight on legendary artists who we really love. We are calling this series The Masters. It will focus on the best albums, live records, transcendent shows and other odd ways we appreciate the artists and their contribution to music, culture and our formation.

For October The Masters focuses on Early Rock & Roll

Unlike our previous list this month which was more of a chance to just discuss the legends and their greatest hits, since they never focused on albums during their heydays and were only out for the hits, this list will be official live shows/releases from those artists and others. 

Then again, this list is kind of pointless as EVERYTHING was live back then, so the ripping King Curtis saxophone blare, or Lloyd Price bellow or DJ Fontana snare slap was captured as is. Even though almost all of their studio records were recorded live in the studio, some of the classic concerts from that era are worth revisiting.

We cover a few we left off our list of top studio work, but some of them also pop up. Remember these lists are made to start conversations, so without further ado let's go up, down, down up, any way you wanna let it roll, yeah, yeah, yeah...

Full Show Friday: The Beatles In Australia 1964

We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's. These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...The Beatles!

Our focus this month in our ongoing Masters series are The Beatles and since they stopped touring midway through their career there, isn't a lot of video footage to choose from. Here they are from 1964 as the mop haired quartet play Australia to the crowd of screaming fans.

Info regarding the recording and presentation on youtube is below from the creator of this video. Enjoy:


For those curious, this film Includes footage of most of the concert, with four audio-only bonus tracks at the end. This was not to chronicle the event like a documentary, but an attempt to provide a more impressionistic experience, and highlight enjoyment of the music footage by: -- Removing the intra-song dialogue -- Trying to raise low bass (but it was really too muddy there) -- Bringing up high treble for ease to hear vocals/guitars -- Zooming in slightly to help fill out the frame -- Using analog multi-band compressors to balance the sound. Notes: 1. Including the intra-song dialogue didn't make as much sense since a.) the song order had to be re-arranged anyway .b.) it's already available in other links. c.) IMO it highlights the intense emotional atmosphere -- the attempted goal on this video. 2. A very slight plate reverb was used on the John songs were his vocal was distorting and too forward in the mix. 3. It's a shame that on some of the Paul songs his mic is somewhat low. And John's rhythm guitar sounds great, but mixed a little loud. (It's nice to hear because it's usually more buried, but on this there was no way to easily correct it. I tried to bring up the frequencies a tad where Paul's voice was punching through, but there was a lot of overlap that made it hard.) 4. at 4:54 it appears as though the drummer is gone but that's just a drum kit from the previous band. Ringo is on a platform. 5. On a few songs the audio/video sync is slightly a few frames off -- because the original source was off. Most viewers don't notice or care; but if you watch the 2016 Ron Howard feature you'll see it's off there too. Apparently it was married together about 20 yrs ago from the video and soundboard recording. I just got really tired with working on this and didn't notice. And also I never expected this video to be so popular since other versions have been around. Here's one that's closer to the original source footage: Part I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPZ-A9WJzTE Part II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSiT0HdZ7Tg Unfortunately YouTube doesn't allow for re-posting w/o losing views/comments. Hopefully someday. The back-half of the video is great though. ;) Note: If I post a second update, it'll be on my Beatles channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpSIYxcyFDTe7U7UiKx_l3A [Video+audio] 00:07 -- You Can't Do That 02:42 -- All My Loving 04:48 -- She Loves You 07:11 -- Can't Buy Me Love 09:19 -- Twist and Shout 12:01 -- Long Tall Sally [Mostly just audio] 14:41 -- Til There Was You 16:53 -- Roll Over Beethoven 19:13 -- This Boy 21:29 -- I Saw Her Standing There (If you want to scroll right to the brief video snippets of the last four songs, just run your mouse over the red line thumbnails to find them.) Since the goal was to group together the filmed parts, this is not the actual order of the concert (likely 6/17/64). See this for more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles%27_1964_world_tour

Full Show Friday: Miles Davis Quintet 10/11/64 Milan, Italy

We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's. These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...Miles Davis!

It's Jazzy January again here at RtBE, so get ready to kick off 2018 with some different styled shows every Friday. For this series we skew into new (or more recent) jazz lands. Keeping it current proves there is amazing live jazz still being performed no matter what Ken Burns says.

For January The Masters focuses on Jazz great Miles Davis. 

This week we are breaking with our own rule from up above and skewing old to continue The Masters series. Here is Miles second great quintet early on in their run playing a show at Teatro dell'Arte in Milan, Italy. Trumpet: Miles Davis Saxophone: Wayne Shorter Piano: Herbie Hancock Bass: Ron Carter Drums: Tony Williams are all world class and this hour long television broadcast captures their playing in 1964. 

Playing with classics like "Autumn Leaves" and "My Funny Valentine" the quartet are up to snuff, vamping all over and around the standards with Davis leading the way with his exploratory horn. While the TV sound is not perfect (the bass and drums get short changed) having video of this group is a plus in and of itself. 

Pro shot and Pro Sound (for 1964) Enjoy:

Full Show Friday: The Beach Boys 3/14/64

We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's.  These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week..The Beach Boys!

We wrap up Feb with an eye towards summer, because it has been too damn cold this winter. What better way then with the classic beach crooners, The Beach Boys.

This show is from 1964 and while we personally have never dug all that much on the BB's this show is a fun little jaunt through the past. Pro Shot and Pro Sound, enjoy the brief concert and lets all hope summer is right around the corner.

Enjoy:


Beach Boys The Lost Concert
Intro 0:00-0:46, Fun, Fun, Fun 0:47-2:57, Long, Tall Texan 2:58 - 5:11, Mike Love introduces the boys 5:12-6:00, Little Deuce Coupe 6:00-7:44, Surfer Girl 7:48-10:19, Surfin' USA 10:20-12:36, Shut Down 12:47-14:20, In My Room 14:21-16:38, PaPaOhMauMau 16:40-18:50, Hawaii 19:12-20:48