Good album songs that aren't good live

[Anxiety35]

Hard to give this thread a short but adequate title. Here's the question...

What are songs that sound great on a studio release but are not good played live?

Here's an example. "One" by Metallica. The studio version is awesome. I've seen Metallica perform it live in person 3 times. I've heard it a lot "live" in video/audio format on the Live Sh*t Binge & Purge box set, Cunning Stunts, and many a video on YouTube. I don't think any live version, no matter 1988 to now comes close to the awesomeness of the studio version.

What's are songs you would include?

[bosk1]

Angry Again (Megadeth).  It is one of my all-time favorites from them, but it sounds terrible life.  It just doesn't translate well.  I think that's because there are so many layers on the studio version that it can't really be replicated.  For some reason, Symphony of Destruction doesn't come off all that well either.

For completely different reasons, I don't think Another Day works live either.

[Dave_Manchester]

Perhaps a controversial pick but Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd. I just don't think the beauty of that song can be fully conveyed live.

And my 2nd pick is my favourite song of all time: Telegraph Road by Dire Straits. I've stalked Mark Knopfler around the globe, and whether through concerts, live albums, or bootlegs, I've heard this song played live literally dozens of times. None of them comes close to the studio version. No live performance gets the tension quite right, as the studio version does.

[DTA]

I'm going to go ahead and say pretty much the entirety of The Flower Kings' music. Their studio output is so layered with additional keyboard, percussion, vocal, and guitar parts that without additional musicians, every song sounds much emptier and the big, epic moments are minimized. The live vocal mixing usually favors Hasse which is problematic when he's harmonizing over a Roine vocal part (Church Of Your Heart's chorus is an example of this - Roine's voice is overshadowed by Hasse's harmony). Lastly, they seem to slow their tempos down which changes the feel of certain tracks. Yes does this with their 70's stuff and it's painful sometimes. This is all especially true for their albums from World Of Adventures through Space Revolver. They seemed to reduce the extra instrumentation from then on possibly because it was hard to replicate live.

[pg1067]

Interesting subject.

One certainly fits the bill, although I'm not sure I'd have thought of it on my own.

The other one that comes to mind is Fight the Good Fight by Triumph.  That song is one of the greatest songs of the 80s, but it never sounds anywhere near as good live.  Part of that is because the studio version has overdubbed guitars, and that problem was solved to some degree when Triumph started touring with a second guitarist on the Sport of Kings tour.  Perhaps the biggest problem, though, was the way they butchered the final chorus.  It would just piss me off every time I heard the song live, and I could never figure out why they did it.

[425]

Here's an example. "One" by Metallica. The studio version is awesome. I've seen Metallica perform it live in person 3 times. I've heard it a lot "live" in video/audio format on the Live Sh*t Binge & Purge box set, Cunning Stunts, and many a video on YouTube. I don't think any live version, no matter 1988 to now comes close to the awesomeness of the studio version.

Huh, I would very much disagree with this one. As a whole, I find that the studio recordings on MOP and AJFA really just sound pretty sterile, lacking a lot of the life and energy of the live performances. The live versions of those songs are worth it to me just for the sake of getting Hetfield's vocals outside of that overly processed studio sound he was using in the late 80s. And One is a song that I'm inclined to think benefits more than others from the energy of an audience and James's ad libs.

My initial answer for this would be Iron Maiden's Caught Somewhere in Time. It's a huge, high-energy number that is a great opener for the Somewhere in Time album, and on paper it seems like it should do great live, but it really just doesn't come off that well, which is why the band has not played it since the SiT tour.

[pg1067]

Huh, I would very much disagree with this one. As a whole, I find that the studio recordings on MOP and AJFA really just sound pretty sterile, lacking a lot of the life and energy of the live performances. The live versions of those songs are worth it to me just for the sake of getting Hetfield's vocals outside of that overly processed studio sound he was using in the late 80s. And One is a song that I'm inclined to think benefits more than others from the energy of an audience and James's ad libs.

James's ad libs have annoyed the snot out of me for years.  They always come across to me about the same as a child saying his/her first curse word because mom and dad aren't around to wash his/her mouth out with soap.  "Cut this SHIT out from me!"  Huh huh huh....

[KevShmev]

Here are a few that come to mind:

Dream Theater - Take the Time
Awesome song, one of their 2-3 best in the studio, but between the inability of the band to do the titular harmonies and it being an extremely difficult song for JLB to sing, it has never come close live to matching the studio version.

U2 - Until the End of the World
U2 songs usually sound better live, or at least they used to back when Bono could bring it live almost every night, but this is one where the live versions have never quite matched the greatness of the studio version, for whatever reason. 

[Crow]

Literally any atmospheric black metal band I can't imagine being nearly as effective live, but then I haven't ever actually seen one live yet so I dunno

[TAC]

My initial answer for this would be Iron Maiden's Caught Somewhere in Time. It's a huge, high-energy number that is a great opener for the Somewhere in Time album, and on paper it seems like it should do great live, but it really just doesn't come off that well, which is why the band has not played it since the SiT tour.

Yeah I would agree. Those guitar harmonies never sounded right. The boots from that tour bear that out.

[MirrorMask]

I disagree with One; the coreography for that song makes it really come to life, with all the explosions. Ok, some fireworks don't make a song, but the show they put up along with it is very enjoyable.

Dream Theater - Take the Time
Awesome song, one of their 2-3 best in the studio, but between the inability of the band to do the titular harmonies and it being an extremely difficult song for JLB to sing, it has never come close live to matching the studio version.

I'd have to agree on this one. They always seem to cut short the mentioning of title of the song in the chorus - the "it's time to taaaake the tiiiiime" part gets shortened to a more generic and decreasing "Take the time" that just doesn't work.

[Kwyjibo]

Dream Theater - Take the Time
Awesome song, one of their 2-3 best in the studio, but between the inability of the band to do the titular harmonies and it being an extremely difficult song for JLB to sing, it has never come close live to matching the studio version.

I'd have to agree on this one. They always seem to cut short the mentioning of title of the song in the chorus - the "it's time to taaaake the tiiiiime" part gets shortened to a more generic and decreasing "Take the time" that just doesn't work.

But then the sometimes extended instrumental jam at the end of it makes up for some shortcomings earlier.

[Fritzinger]

Two Genesis songs come to mind:

Misunderstanding - I have no idea why, but this one just doesn't work live. The Three Sides Live version is pretty bland. The band seemed to have noticed this too and excluded it on following tours.

Dance On A Volcano - no one can play those awesome hihat offbeats like the master Phil.

[Phoenix87x]

I will chalk this up to an off night, but when Peter Gabriel played my favorite song of his Family Snapshot, it was not very good. Probably just an off night though.

[King Postwhore]

Interesting subject.

One certainly fits the bill, although I'm not sure I'd have thought of it on my own.

The other one that comes to mind is Fight the Good Fight by Triumph.  That song is one of the greatest songs of the 80s, but it never sounds anywhere near as good live.  Part of that is because the studio version has overdubbed guitars, and that problem was solved to some degree when Triumph started touring with a second guitarist on the Sport of Kings tour.  Perhaps the biggest problem, though, was the way they butchered the final chorus.  It would just piss me off every time I heard the song live, and I could never figure out why they did it.

I remember thinking this when I saw them on the Thunder 7 tour but on the Sport Of Kings tour they had a backup guitarist/keyboardist that helped that incredible outro in that song.

[Stadler]

Dance On A Volcano - no one can play those awesome hihat offbeats like the master Phil.

Yeah, you are right, but hearing Phil live (he's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better live, in my opinion) sing "On your left, and on your right, crosses of green and crosses of blue... your friends didn't make it through!  Oh OH!  Oh Oh-o-oh!!" gives me shivers just thinking about it.

Perhaps a controversial pick but Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd. I just don't think the beauty of that song can be fully conveyed live.

This is quite right.  Though if you're willing to go along for the ride, the versions played on the 2006 Gilmour solo tour (with Rick Wright) were good in their own right.   They didn't achieve the epicness of the original 28 minute gem (these versions were about 12, 13 minutes long) but they were good in and of themselves.

For me:  Anything other than Awaken from Going For The One.  It's my favorite record, and live they just lose much of the delicateness and beauty of those studio tracks.  I love love love Chris Squire, but he's a rock bassist, and Yes live is (was?) so much more heavy than on record, and what makes GFTO special to me is the delicateness of that material.

Also, a lot of Ozzy Sabbath after Vol. 4.   Some songs, like Spiral Architect (one of my favorite Sabbath songs) just need more than bludgeoning riffology, and it never translated live for me.   

[Evermind]

I agree with Stadler here, Shine on You Crazy Diamond on Remember that Night (Gilmour's solo live DVD) is magical, even though it's a shortened version or only the first part.

And Then There Was Silence by Blind Guardian. Too many harmonies to pull off and the result is quite lackluster, in my opinion. While some of the songs from A Night at the Opera work fine, this one didn't work for me at all. Also if you don't know how it goes before you see it in concert, you're screwed and won't be able to follow shit.

I wish I could contribute on the Telegraph Road pick, but I've never heard it live in person, don't own any live recordings from DS/Mark and I can't quite judge a song like that by YouTube videos. It's a shame if it doesn't quite work live, because it's one of my favourite songs ever too.

[pg1067]

For me:  Anything other than Awaken from Going For The One.  It's my favorite record, and live they just lose much of the delicateness and beauty of those studio tracks.  I love love love Chris Squire, but he's a rock bassist, and Yes live is (was?) so much more heavy than on record, and what makes GFTO special to me is the delicateness of that material.

Parallels on Yesshows would probably be in my top 5 of songs that sound WAY better live than on the studio album.  I got Yesshows before GFTO and really loved Parallels -- especially Wakeman's solo.  When I eventually got GFTO, I thought Parallels sucked.

Wonderous Stories also seems fine on Yesshows.

Of course the caveat here is that I have no idea how "live" Yesshows actually is.

And I don't care much for the title track studio or live.

The one time I saw Turn of the Century live (with Davison in 2013), I thought it was very good, but the studio version is still better.

[Kwyjibo]

Re: Telegraph Road, that version on Alchemy is really good imo, not as good as the studio version, but still really enjoyable.

And I heard that song live in 1992 and have very fond memories, but that may be in part nostalgia and excitement for hearing Dire Straits live for the first (and sadly also last) time.