Just an epic moment in rock music at maybe the "all time" iconic concert venue.
"The recording took place in January of 1970 but wasn’t released until late in 1980 and it actually charted pretty high for a live record at the time."
November 5th, Welcome back from the weekend all you live vinyl lovers! This morning on “Live Vinyl Lovefest” let’s kick the week off right with a little CCR. This is a nice little live diddy with an interesting back story on the release. This album was originally titled — in big bold letters — on the front of the sleeve “THE ROYAL ALBERT CONCERT”. The problem, as it turned out, was that it was actually recorded at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland California and was subsequently retitled "THE CONCERT". Given my many years of touring, this actually makes sense to my ears, especially after you know it, because the crowd recording sounds distinctly American, not British.
You can still find copies of the “ROYAL ALBERT” version, but they are pretty rare and frankly a little over priced today for such an oddity.
The recording took place in January of 1970 but wasn’t released until late in 1980 and it actually charted pretty high for a live record at the time.
This release offers the quintessential Creedence set list and the performances are simply fantastic. The sound quality of this release is also excellent given the era that it was recorded, but also leads me to a bit of suspicion about the post production on it. The crowd balance feels pretty low overall, yet the echo and ambience is mixed relatively high and sounds a bit “phony” to my ears which might lead one to believe some overdubs may have taken place on it during mixing.
All that said though, don’t let my nit picking spoil the party. This is a solid live recording at it’s core and one that makes regular appearances in my listening rotation.
Recorded by Russ Gary and remixed by Danny Kopelson at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley.
Good stuff!