Disco de Status Quo: “Live”

If you have fond memories of being up front at concerts by the likes of Humble Pie, Black Oak Arkansas, Rory Gallagher, Foghat, the Faces, BTO, Thin Lizzy, Skynyrd, etc...then you'll love this one from the Quo. It's been remastered, the sound quality is outstanding, the tracks are in the right running order, and the bottom line is that it's good enough to make you wish you were there at the Apollo in Glasgow the night they recorded it!

I first bought this on vinyl when it originally came out and I still think that one of the best things about Quo was that they did a decidedly better job than most bands of that era at knowing when to take a full on rocker of a song and throttle it back just long enough to make you sit up and listen closer...just in time for them to slam right back into the rocking!

For me, the first disc of this set is worth the price of admission alone - I love every last glorious second of "Forty-Five Hundred Times"!. The second disc tends to get a mite repetitive before it's all over, but that's a very small quibble.

Heretical or not, this tends to find its way into my changer more often than even Skynyrd's "One More From The Road".

Buy it, turn it up, it'll make you smile!

Taped over three nights at Scotland's leading live venue, the Glasgow Apollo, these classic 1976 recordings finds Status Quo at the top of their game.

The band had tentatively moved from psychedelia to hard rock and boogie rock a few years earlier, and they were touring in support of their latest LP, "Blue for You", so a standart concert would probably have included more than two songs from that particular album. But when you make a live album you want it to reflect more than just the sound of your latest album being played on stage, right? At least that's what the Quo did, and they succeeded, too. There have been several live albums since this one, and good ones, too, but none of them capture the power of early Quo quite as well as this one.

"Live" is 83½ minutes of tough, fiery, exciting hard rock from just before Quo went soft in the 80s and became a pop-rock band rather than a hard rock band. (Yeah, sorry, but that's what happened, and you know it!)

The 70s was the decade of the double live album, and this one is one of the more succesful ones for sure. I'm not a huge Quo fan, I'm too young to remember them in their 70s prime, but to me, this is a good as they ever got, and they're very, very good indeed!

The drums bite, the bass rumbles potently, and the guitars churn out one heavy blooze-n-boogie-riff after another. And it's all impressively tight, never once does the band sound like they're about to go off the rails or trail off into meaningless improvisations. Even on the 14-minute "Roadhouse Blues" and the 16-minute "Forty-Five Hundred Times" they stick together like glue.

On this 2005 CD reissue that I'm listening to, the playing order has been corrected to reflect the original set list, so disc two opens with "Roll Over Lay Down" and closes with "Bye Bye Johnny", and the original show closer, "Forty-Five Hundred Times", is now the last track on disc one.

And what a "Roll Over Lay Down" it is! The lyrics are trite, yes, and the band's singers weren't that great either, but you won't care. Not when the music is this exhilarating.

And there are plenty of other highlights, of course. "In My Chair" is one of the finest blues-rock numbers the Quo ever did, a dense, powerful grind, and it is followed by (or juxtaposed by) "Little Lady", a joyous up-tempo romp which then bleeds into the swaggering riff-rocker "Most of the Time" with its scorching guitar solo.

"Is There a Better Way" is here as well, as is the driving "Don't Waste My Time" and the pure blues "Junior's Wailing", and you can just imagine the crowd going wild to this thundering rendition of "Caroline".

Nowhere else is the power of the original Status Quo so well captured. There may not be as many radio-friendly pop songs as on their 80s albums...no "You're in the Army Now" or anything like that. But seriously - this is so much better!

This album rocks like very few others, and whatever else they might have become later on, "Live" showcases the mighty Quo in all their swaggering, hard-rocking glory.

What was it about the 70s that resulted in so many great live albums? Whatever it was, let's celebrate rather than question, because this is one mighty fine little body of work.

I shudder to use the word, but this CLASSIC Quo lineup of Rossi, Parfitt, Lancaster and Coghlan laid the foundation of a remarkably resilient and successful formula. As a band they've been around almost as long as the Stones, but have never hinted at degenerating into parody as has happened to the Stones. And while Quo's sound and arrangements might sometimes be repetitive, they have always managed to regenerate freshness with each new release. And when all is said and done - if you find THE three chords, why mess with perfection?

This recording comes from back in their first decade and what this album provides is solid, heads down, driving rock, roll, and boogie. That was good enough for me in the 70s - and it's good enough for me in the 21st century.

So if you remember when rock'n'roll was the real stuff, when r'n'b was still related to the blues, and when boogie really got the feet tapping, do yerselves a favour and check this one out. You can never have too much rock, roll and boogie - trust me, I know what I'm talking about.

LIVE is a great album by Status Quo, a British hard rock band who've racked up more hit singles than the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The second disc contains most of the best songs, but the first disc has its moments, too. The fact that band leaders Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt believe that the young Australian tourist jailed in Indonesia since 2005 for drug smuggling was wrongfully convicted makes LIVE an essential purchase for both your ears AND your conscience.

A must purchase for any Status Quo fan. Just the fact that you're reading this means you gotta be one. First, the songs are put into there original running order, which is a real bonus for Quo purists. It really gives the listener the feel of the original concert. Second and most importantly, the remastering job is superb. A definite upgrade over the previously available import versions (and even the vinyl). Lancaster's bass and Coghlan's drum kit get the biggest boost here. The clarity of the instruments, vocal nuances, "sonic subtleties" etc., etc. are all brought to life. Truely amazing remastering job by Mr. Tim Turan over in the UK!! Lasty, the music...the "Frantic Four", 'nuff said!!! Do I really need to elaborate? So, add to cart ASAP, I swear on my vinyl copy of "Blue For You" you will not be disappointed!

Oh, and by the way....where the riduculously high "list price" came from is beyond me. I advise going over to zShops and purchase this at a much more reasonable price from one of the sellers there.