LiveR Than You'll Ever Be

November 9, 2009 6:59 AM

40 years ago today, The Rolling Stones played two concerts at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. In the darkness of the audience was a man known to history only as "Dub"... [audio auto-plays]

His recording of the later show was in stores by Christmas as LiveR Than You'll Ever Be. Reviewing it in Rolling Stone, Greil Marcus wrote:

It is the most exciting record I have heard all year, fully the equal, in its own way, of Let It Bleed, and in some ways better. All qualifications aside, it is the ultimate Rolling Stones album.

In addition to its unprecedented audio fidelity, LiveR made history by its influence on the Rolling Stones discography. Demand for the title pressured Decca into releasing an official live album from the tour - though some considered the eventual Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! spoiled by excessive overdubbing.

Both the early and late shows can be heard in best-available sound here . And an extensive history of rock bootlegging can be found in Clinton Heylin's Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry. ( previously)

posted by Joe Beese (13 comments total)

I guess sometimes you can always get what you want and what you need. thanks for sharing this!
posted by hector horace at 7:11 AM on November 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Historical Context: less than a month before the Stones' free concert at Altamont where everything went horribly wrong.
posted by philip-random at 7:24 AM on November 9, 2009

Weird, I just happened to grab a fresh rip of this show off a torrent site the other day.

But there's gotta be a better version of the complete show than that Tarantura version, right? So much goddamn noise reduction...
posted by anazgnos at 7:24 AM on November 9, 2009

I've heard at least one version of LiveR Than You'll Ever Be and I don't remember being particularly impressed with the sound quality of it. But I haven't heard this version yet, and it looks a lot more complete than anything I've seen before so I'll certainly be downloading it and listening to it ASAP.

I'm not sure that history supports the assertion that this bootleg forced Decca's hand with regard to Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! Are we to believe that the band brought along multitrack recording equipment and made a special effort to record their concerts at Madison Square Garden in October as well as other dates on the tour on the off chance that maybe some bootlegger was going to shame them into releasing a live album?

I don't care how much overdubbing is present on Ya-Yas, it's still a great live album, and for bootleg sound quality, I think Brussels Affair and Get Your Leeds Lungs Out might just edge out LiveR.

That being said, thanks for posting and sharing this.
posted by wabbittwax at 7:28 AM on November 9, 2009

Are we to believe that the band brought along multitrack recording equipment and made a special effort to record their concerts at Madison Square Garden in October as well as other dates on the tour on the off chance that maybe some bootlegger was going to shame them into releasing a live album?

Well, they were making a movie at the time. The recording gear was probably part of that enterprise.
posted by philip-random at 7:35 AM on November 9, 2009

If anyone finds a torrent of this to share, please do. As a 'free user' Rapidshare cut me off after the first file.
posted by acro at 7:43 AM on November 9, 2009

I think I busted a button on my trousers.
posted by punkfloyd at 7:45 AM on November 9, 2009

The Brussels Affair is still the gold standard for me. That was the last time they were truly one of the most dangerous bands out there. I wish that Mick would get off his golden throne and give us peasants an official live release from the early 70s. Or better yet, get Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones out on DVD. Surely he saw how much Zep made off their DVD. I'd wish the same for The Who but there's no hope for that.
posted by Ber at 8:34 AM on November 9, 2009

From what I understand, LiveR Than You'll Ever Be was one of the earliest audience of significant quality of a significant rock concert. From what I recall reading in Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry, prior bootlegged shows were really poor quality recordings and pressings, and TMoQ (Trade Mark of Quality) were the first folks to make a go at doing an impressive job on all their recordings.

The book is really a fun read, maybe more so for fans of music history.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:53 AM on November 9, 2009

This reminds me of Young Man's Fancy, a bootleg of a concert I attended.

Young took several decades to release a recording done on that same tour. Young Man's Fancy was of outstanding quality also. I swear that whoever recorded it was sitting in my row, it sounded to good.
posted by Danf at 9:10 AM on November 9, 2009

It was a great show. I have heard a great recording of it so the links are probably worth it even if you might have to wait several days to get the whole thing with a free account.
posted by caddis at 10:12 AM on November 9, 2009

This was one of the first bootlegs I ever owned. I picked it up in the late 70's, it was a boot of a boot and had a copy of the Greil Marcus review tucked inside, which was nice. It's a strong show, with killer versions of Gimme Shelter, Sympathy for the Devil, and Midnight Rambler; Mick Taylor kicks some serious ass. I especially liked the version of Love in Vain, which really showcased them as a blues band.

Sort of funny to contrast this Oakland show with Altamont a month later. They seem like they were held on different planets.
posted by mosk at 11:05 AM on November 9, 2009

acro: Rapidshare makes free users wait between downloads, but you can get the whole thing. Just give it twenty minutes or so.
posted by stinkycheese at 11:06 AM on November 9, 2009