HW: Live 79 (An invitation to a 1 minute hate)

[Andrew Apold]

>Why do people love Live 79 so much? I have *never* been as embarrassed
>listening to HW album as i am listening to the clumsy synth ploddings on
>Shot Down in the Night. No, to be accurate, i am not embarrassed by any
>other HW release. From this low it does at least rise to mediocrity with a
>few fairly innocuous versions of old faves. To my ears though the whole
>thing (with the exception of Lighthouse which really does shine brightly -
>and would do so whatever it was surrounded by) is as eventful as anything
>released during the ratheer irksome New Wave Of British Heavy Metal.

I like just about everything on it *except* Lighthouse.  I like most of the
Levitation material (though prefer it with Ginger Baker).

>        If previous releases had been utterly dire, the maybe it could be
seen as
>being a return to form of sorts. But we're talking about a sequence that
>saw Quark -> PXR5 -> 25 Years On which had the Hawks continuing the

I have to agree that it's not as good as the height of the Calvert era....
but then what is?

They botched the lyrics on 'Spirit of the Age', but I still love this version,
if they'd nailed the lyrics right it would be my favorite version.

As for Brainstorm....  how can I put it... originally I didn't like
Brainstorm,
despite having a number of versions, including the one on Space Ritual.
The first
time I liked it was when listening to Live '79.  Once that one broke the
barrier,
so to speak, I went back and listened to other versions and saw what I was
missing.
Not quite sure why that one did the trick...

>        That's how i see it anyway, so convince me please. What is so
great about
>Live 79?

(shrug).  I like it.  I probably listen to it more than anything else they
would come
up with until Live Chronicles.  I ain't gonna try to convince you, if you
don't like
it then you don't and that's that.


=============================
"To dwell within Samsara, however, is to
 be subject to the works of those mighty
 among dreamers."

 - Mahasamatman, in Zelazny's "Lord of Light"

Andrew Apold