Live staples that were never recorded in the studio

was thinking about Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Pictures at an Exhibition" and how it was played at nearly all their shows but never actually recorded in the studio. at least not until their final album in 1994 which included it as a "bonus" to entice old fans to buy it. maybe not the best example b/c they did release a live album consisting solely of this track but still made me wonder if any other bands have tunes like this. ELP also had "Creole Dance" which was played at nearly all their 90s shows but never recorded.

similarly you have Magma's "Theusz Hamtaak" which appears on roughly 5000 live recordings but never got its own studio album

was also thinking about Hawkwind's "Born to Go" and "Orgone Accumulator", which are on all the live discs I have but as far as I know don't appear anywhere else

what else is like this

Grateful Dead The Eleven, Dark Star as anything other than a 3 minute single
Birthday party Pleasure Heads , Pleasure Avalanche, Six Strings that Drew Blood though I think the 1st 2 were done as peel Session tracks and 6 strings was revisited as a Bad Seeds b-side

Marjorie Razorblade (Suite) - Kevin Coyne

On the titular album, it's a 1min43 vignette. On the "V" Virgin Records' compilation, it's a 7 minute filled-out masterpiece recorded live.

Black TO Comm the MC5
Fat ANgel the Jefferson Airplane - Donovan cover that namechecks them

The Velvet Underground, "Over You" and "Sweet Bonnie Brown/It's Too Much"

The Fall - Tempo House

There isn't a studio recording of "Kick Out The Jams" is there? At least, not one that's readily available?

Television - "Persia"
Played live many a time (band as well as Verlaine solo), never recorded in a studio. Maybe a demo... tylerw would know...

Leonard Cohen, "Please Don't Pass Me By" and "Passing Through"

Not a staple but Forever by the Cure was a live-only deal I believe

Phish have one of these but it's too hideous to make me bother looking up what it's called.

Pink Floyd had a really good extended piece called Embryo that they would jam on live in the Meddle days. Stylistically it had a lot in common with Echoes. There is an extremely short, stripped down studio version of the song that I think never got released, but even that version bears only slight similarity to the piece they were performing live.

Isn't it Embryo that's their contribution to the Picnic lp Harvest label VA compilation?

Devo have a few but "The Word's Get Stuck in my Throat" is the one that springs to mind.

Beach Boys/Dennis Wilson "You Are So Beautiful"

Embryo showed up on the Harvest sample against their wishes, then again later on the Works compilation.

When "Picnic: a breath of fresh air" got an extended reissue, "Embryo" was still on it.

Elvis Presley, "Polk Salad Annie." Played it live from 1970 to the end of his life, never recorded it in the studio.

^Just came in here to say that.

Janis Joplin - "Raise Your Hand" and "Tell Mama"

Frank Sinatra sang "Maybe This Time" from Cabaret over 200 times live, never in the studio. Maybe he figured he'd already stolen one song from Liza Minnelli.

Isn't it Embryo that's their contribution to the Picnic lp Harvest label VA compilation?

Yes, but it's barely a demo compared to the live renditions.

The Velvet Underground, "Over You" and "Sweet Bonnie Brown/It's Too Much"

... "We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together", "Lisa Says", "Ocean", "I Can't Stand It".

... recorded but not released, of course.

Bruce Springsteen - Jersey Girl

cool thread idea! lemme think.

Most or all of the new tracks on Europe '72 ("Jack Straw", "He's Gone", "Tennessee Jed" etc.)

o yeah there's gotta be a bunch of Dead tracks, see also the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Sister Ray" and "Sweet Rock & Roll", the latter of which is only apocryphal, not even preserved on bootlegs

Sugar Mountain - Neil Young

Can.

Misfits - Mommy, Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight?

^^Studio version appeared as a b-side of Die, Die My Darling.

well I'll be damned, never caught that

A fair bit of Frank Zappa -- the most live-staple-y might be "Black Napkins" but lots of albums had live recordings and once a piece was in his book he might make any band thereafter add it to their repertoire. Sheik Yerbouti and (especially) Roxy & Elsewhere have a lot of songs that became staples.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZwQF1KI4dF0/UNCNQRs4BRI/AAAAAAAAD7s/n6nf1zcxwDs/s1600/185169_10151195699066495_1911762755_n.jpg

I don't think Humble Pie ever addressed "I Walk On Gilded Splinters" or "I Don't Need No Doctor" in the studio.

There’s a handful of songs the Who covered live but never recorded: “Love Hurts,” “C’mon Everybody,” and “Twist and Shout” are the only ones that spring to mind.

Weird Al has a couple I think, where he couldn't get artist approval for recording. "Home Improvement / I'll Repair For You" is the one that comes to mind but I think there are others.

Sleater-Kinney's cover of "Fortunate Son."

With covers this happens a lot.

see also the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Sister Ray" and "Sweet Rock & Roll", the latter of which is only apocryphal, not even preserved on bootlegs

― sleeve, Friday, 7 December 2018 02:14 (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

After some research over the years, I am of the opinion that these are one and the same.

The Doors - “Celebration of the Lizard”

I thought there was a studio recording of that that was added to an extended remaster of Waiting For the Sun.
THough I guess it was 30 years after the fact.

A fair bit of Frank Zappa -- the most live-staple-y might be "Black Napkins" but lots of albums had live recordings and once a piece was in his book he might make any band thereafter add it to their repertoire. Sheik Yerbouti and (especially) Roxy & Elsewhere have a lot of songs that became staples.

― WmC

yeah he mostly gave up on the studio after about 1974

probably the _most_ live-staple song of his never recorded in the studio was "the illinois enema bandit", which zappa played at basically every fucking concert after he wrote it because he was awful.

https://www.setlist.fm/stats/frank-zappa-3d6b52b.html

"City of Tiny Lites" and "Bobby Brown" has it beat, among songs with no studio version.

Stevie Wonder's "Fingertips" is an odd one - there was a studio recording on his debut album. It was basically a flute instrumental with Stevie Wonder playing the bongos. The later live version had Wonder on harmonica and was a big hit, but as far as I can tell he never recorded a studio version of the live arrangement.

I was going to say "Satan" by Orbital - the original doesn't appear on any of their albums, but it was released on an EP.

Tangerine Dream recorded masses of live-only music, and released some of it, except that (a) a lot of it was formless noodling and (b) they essentially gigged with an entire recording studio sitting around them. Logos, which was used in the soundtrack of Michael Mann's The Keep, was a live recording. Encore, one of their most popular albums, had bits of Stratosfear and Sorcerer but was mostly all-new.

sometimes I idly wonder when we'll have a successful band that doesn't record at all and *only* plays things live (while banning recording equipment from their gigs, of course)

given how worthless recorded music is now

That's like the singer in Diva.

I don't know what that is

Satan was on their first album! Though maybe not in the UK...

the Doctor Who remix was the answer for them, for a few years at least...I still remember fans saying, "hey, you can't release that, it's supposed to be a nice bonus for the people who come to see you!"

xp you should watch it! good stuff.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082269/

ah, right, but that's opera which is kinda different.

I was thinking more like recorded music isn't worth anything cuz it's so widely available, what if you increased the economic value of the live performance by making it the *only* way to experience a band/artist's music? there are some basic problems with this (how would anyone know they want to hear this band, for ex.) but I still kinda wonder about it... like, some big band with a pre-established rep could pull it off. Make every show a rare event, charge shit-ton of money etc.

a modern variant of the "one night only!" hook

I think Cake floated the idea of making their new album "live only" but it takes some balls to do that, even in this environment

Fela used to play new songs live, then abandon them once he'd recorded the studio versions.

unwound did that a bunch early on

"You Were Cool" by the Mountain Goats

Did Neil Young ever record a studio version of My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)? In fact, wasn't Rust Never Sleeps pretty much all at least semi-live?

Oh yeah, Neil Young has probably done this more than any comparable figure in rock music.

yeah, no studio version of "needle & the damage done," a bunch of the Rust stuff (though those may have overdubs), a lot of Harvest Moon ...