p e n g u i n d e v i l

I’ve never been a fan of live music, which is not to say that I haven’t seen my share of great concerts or got plenty of enjoyment out of Unleashed in the East, but generally it just doesn’t move me. In a similar vein, while I’ve always liked Pink Floyd a good bit, I’ve rarely gone out of my way to listen to them and my familiarity is really limited to the songs of The Dark Side of the Moon to The Wall. What’s become strange is that in the last week or so, my listening interests have really centered on Pink Floyd, including older albums that I hadn’t ever really heard before, especially Meddle and Obscured by Clouds, both of which are really great albums. I must say, I am really enjoying it this new focus. I have probably listened to more Floyd in the last week than in anytime since those nights in the late 1980’s when I would drink a bottle of Night Train and listen to The Wall every night, but that is a different story. What started me off on this kick was seeing the cover of this live Floyd piece.

And so the other, related, odd thing is that I have become fixated on live albums! Starting with listening to some songs from the above Pink Floyd 1972 show in Böblingen, German (which is really great spanning 50 minutes and three songs, I’d like to get the full concert!), I verged into the endless well of greatness that is live Sabbath! I’ve owned a live Sabbath disc for a good while (called “war pigs”) which is alright, but now I’ve heard the Dio-era Live at Hammersmith Odeon, which is great and I’ve begin enjoying other shows from the from the Ozzy Era, more greatness. Though I listened to some AC/DC live stuff, it wasn’t that good as it seems to tend to be poorly recorded (I’m of course not talking about If You Want Blood), but aside from that, this stuff that I’d never really thought much about before is really working for me right now. I even got a live Rainbow Album from 1979, Perfect Roger’s Birthday Party. And it’s pretty damned good too! Where does one stop?