Original artists performing their studio recordings

[Roburt]

CHANGING THE SUBJECT A LITTLE ... On the other 'busy' topic it was stated that only the original artists performing their studio recordings in the same way that they were originally recorded is acceptable on the NS scene.

No singers / acts doing covers of those songs or orchestras having a go with guest singers. 

BUT BACK IN THE DAY, no act performed their hits / studio tracks as they were recorded ... they upped the energy level to add to the excitement of the show ... an example from RSG .. 

In addition to the tempo change; visiting acts (apart from the Motown & Stax packages) had to accept UK backing bands. So once again, their performances were much different to their studio work. Lots of soul folk don't like the LIVE albums released on visiting soul acts (Garnett Mimms, Major Lance, etc) coz of this. 

Lots of backing bands were quite inexperienced/ far from top class musicians (Roy Tempest's backing bands for instance, whereas some visiting acts were better served (Mary Wells having Sounds Incorporated as her band on the Beatles tour she did here -- she also brought a Motown guitarist with her to lead them). 

[Shinehead]

When I have been to see live acts and I have seen many , I have never expected a exact duplicate of the recorded songs and mostly I have never been disappointed, I think to see your idols in the flesh and giving their all has always been suffice for me .

 

[Chalky]

It's pretty hard for any artist or band to replicate the studio on stage.  I've seen some who were extremely good on stage with some very close to the studio.

[Kev Cane]

Let's say you had the luck to have recorded your stuff at Muscle Shoals and then released, unless you take them with you on tour, you'll have a hard job getting any where near replicating the sound, for instance, listen to Bobby Womacks Home is where the heart is album, for all Bobby's greatness, you'll never be able to bring that backing to a venue, seen clips of Sam and Dave live, they had Booker T and the guy's backing, they were pretty damn close to replicating it  

[Hooker1951]

Sounds incorporated always did a good job backing top artists ie, Little Richard , Jerry Lee, Gene Vincent etc etc  always  sounded strong backing artists without stealing their Glory obviously in Britain 

ML

[Monny1916]

I was on stage with the 4 Tops 75 , they didn't need backing singers , they had ME , magic moment 

[Roburt]

Lots of prog rock & blues rock acts in the 70's would extend their recordings when on stage. They'd add in solo's by some / all the members of the band; a rock guitar break, a drum break, etc. so a 6 minute long LP track would last 12+ minutes on stage. Some bands, I seem to remember the Incredible String Band being one, would show just how versatile / avant-garde they were by adding totally unrelated bits into songs and reciting a poem halfway through another. Other bands would swop instruments on stage to show that every member could play each individual's main one; again to show off how 'gifted' they were. Emerson, Lake & Palmer would do long rock versions of classical numbers. Excess seemed to be the order of the day.

THANKFULLY, that never really happened with many black soul / blues acts, they were on stage to entertain their audiences, not show off (the 'showing off' element came in their clothes & dance moves). The likes of Isaac Hayes would extend tracks & alter them on live shows, but he was already doing 12 minute long tracks in the recording studio. Blues guitarists would add in an extended guitar break & other singers would add in a 'rap' (old skool talkin rap, not hip hop style rap). Most times the story told in the rap would be relevant to the storyline in the song being performed. You had singers such as Millie Jackson who would have one theme to her whole show (sex in her case), so again tracks would be changed to fit in with her theme..   

But if you had 20+ musicians backing you up in the studio, you had to adapt the way it was played when on a live show with 4 / 5 less versatile guys behind you. But, that said, the NORM for soul acts was just about always to really speed up the song when doing it live. Very little or no effort was made to reproduce the track as recorded. I'd say that Motown acts would be required to stick closer to the recorded version when playing live but that was made much easier on Motown Review shows (a staple touring format for the company's acts in the 60's) as they took their own backing troupe with them on tour (that band being led by Popcorn Wylie, EVD, Choker Campbell, Hamilton Bohannon at different times). Of course, if each act only had a short section of a much longer show, you had to stick to short versions of songs done in a pre-planned way -- that meant each section of the show could be tightly controlled (time wise) and therefore the whole presentation would fit neatly into the required time slot. 

When the Stax / Volt ensemble toured the UK & Europe, they also brought their studio musicians with them, but they didn't try too hard to stick close to the recorded versions of songs. Sam & Dave always performed in more of a gospel way, incorporating call & response sections into most songs. In fact, lots of soul shows were run more on the lines of the famous gospel caravan shows that had been doing the rounds in the US since the 50's.   

But in the US, if you didn't hold up your part of the show, you wouldn't get selected to join the package tours that did the chitlin circuit. The circuit of chitlin theatres were great though, as most had their own resident orchestra. As you'd play around 15 times over a 7 day period (only doing a 15 minute slot), they  learn all your songs and perform them well on each show. So they'd have listened the the recorded versions and you'd have to tell them if you were sticking close to that on the live show or how you wanted to change it (speeding it up or whatever).

Unluckily for us Brits, such backing ensembles weren't often available when soul acts visited the UK. In the 70's, more soul acts became self-contained (playing their own instruments), so touring the UK / Europe didn't present as big a problem to them.   

Edited July 29, 2023 by Roburt

[Neil Austin]

Thank you roburt,

what a treat to see these posters and. Write up ,

 

[Autumnstoned]

One of my favourite live versions of a song. 

 

[Autumnstoned]

A perfect example of the extended live version and why sometimes you can’t beat the live experience. 

 

[Roburt]

The Jnr Walker clip was recorded @ the Ram Jam, Club in London of course. It was the club that gave Geno Washington's band their name. Otis Redding also played a gig there & he was able to bring his full 14 piece US band with him. But he had just been voted top world male singer by UK music mag readers, so I guess he knew he had to impress when playing live here.

From my post 3 above; the middle two adverts are for 2 shows in Baltimore around the Xmas period 1964; one at the Royal Theatre, one at the Stanton Theatre. There was only 4 days between the 2 shows & Xmas is an expensive time anyway -- If I'd only had the money to go to one of them, I think my $2 would have been spent at the Stanton.

Edited July 30, 2023 by Roburt

[Fiftyboiledeggs]

In reply to Roburt, at least at those concerts, you got the original singers.

The proms you didn't. They could have invited Eddie Holman over for one

They missed a good opportunity for the BBC there.

 

[Neil Austin]

On 29/07/2023 at 14:00, Autumnstoned said:

A perfect example of the extended live version and why sometimes you can’t beat the live experience. 

 

Wow jr walker , fantastic, still got my demo ,