Seven live albums from the 1970s that should be ignored

Two more albums you can ignore

Rolling Stones - Love You Live

Released in 1977 the Rolling Stones looked like a band heading for a breakup. Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were at loggerheads. They had major disagreements over which tracks to include on this double album record. In the end, the content was taken from tour dates in 1975 and 1976, plus a special gig at El Mocambo in Toronto in 1977. The latter gig had an album side allocated as the band went back to their blues roots. 

They should have stuck with that theme or devoted more of the album to it. An extended version from El Mocambo released in 2022 is worth a visit, though. The rest of Love You Live reflects tired and sloppy performances that just don't hit the mark. It’s quite a thought to reflect that the band sounds far better on tour today than back then, well over 40 years ago, on this record. If you want to hear Mick and the rest live then Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!, or the later Live at the El Mocambo record, are the go-to’s.

10CC - Live And Let Live

It’s all about the timing of this 1977 album. Recorded in London and Manchester earlier that year, it reflected significant band lineup changes. Kevin Godley and Lol Creme had left the band in 1976. The new album Deceptive Bends came from the pens of Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman. Live and Let Live featured that new album very heavily, all bar one song from it. That meant they left out many of the previous tunes from Godley and Creme. 

It’s an acceptable album with some good songs on it. But it's lacking the breadth the band had when they had four great songwriters in those two pairings. It also sounds slightly overproduced, reworked, overdubbed, and lacking some live rawness. This all makes you think how sad it is that they hadn’t been able to capture the band at their full-member prime a year or two earlier.