Has anyone found their opinion of a song they didn't like reversed after hearing the song live?
I'm curious as I found my opinion of The End of The World vastly improved after hearing it live the other day in Sydney. It's not a bad song.
Is it the production that ruined it?
that's interesting because i've maybe had more experiences the other way round. and also interesting because 'the end of the world' would have been my first example. i've always thought it pretty much fails when played live (the same could be said about several other tracks on 'the cure' too). i think robert really can't pull the vocals of 'the end of the world' well enough in live setting. and i've always thought that the fact that they sometimes changed the key of that song in live versions for 2005 (which they never have done otherwise in the past or present, really) is some kind of symptom that they realized they were having problems with it. but i think i've said this elsewhere several times already so i'm just boringly repeating myself here now.
anyway, even if i'd disagree about the studio/live superiority i should say i'm happy if it made you like the song more - because i think it is a good song!
'wendy time' is better live than on the album. but then again i never really hated that track as much as many people seem to do.
and then i guess i could easily write a long list of cure songs which i originally thought were great anyway but which got even better after hearing certain live versions, starting from 'the kiss'....
it is most definitely a production thing...hahaha
"the Kiss" on Trilogy is one of the best live songs I've ever heard.
Speaking of Trilogy, One Hundred Years at the opening is a blast!! :rocker
Amen to One Hundred Years! honestly, the Trilogy set is in my opinion the best produced live set the Cure has. while i pretty much enjoy ANY video i see from the Cure, Production is always a plus. I'm sure it can be difficult when producing live shows, but these guys are on top of their game. absolute perfect sound. Simons Bass is thunder!
God Bless u guys!!
Yea, some coolness is always refreshing after Cure's oh so dark minimalism :P
Credits say that Robert mixed the sound, so no mistake there I can tell ya that :smth020
I really like Trilogy.
Fascination Street is one song that I thought was pretty good, but it wasn't until I heard it on Trilogy that I thought it was great. Then I heard a recording of it from Glastonbury 1990, and if you skip past the interruption (someone in the audience was crushed -- a helicopter had to get him/her out), then you get this really fantastic, but shorter, version; it made the song not great in my mind, but incredible.
I thought Bare was an incredible song when I first heard it closing Wild Mood Swings, but then I started looking for bootlegs of it, and I found that it's better still live; the last 'movement,' so to speak, when the drums and the guitar and keyboards all kick back in is better live than on the record itself.
Does anyone know if there is a soundboard boot from the Swing Tour? I've only found audience recordings, and none of them have been fantastic....
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kqMCLvFjlvU (http://youtube.com/watch?v=kqMCLvFjlvU)
I just love the vibe it gives...Robert gives it a different twist than the album version...
They're amazing live...
Oh! And Why Can't I Be You?, A Forest, and Faith as well, of course. All are much, much, much better in their extended versions. How I could forget this is beyond me....
Why Can't I Be You? with the Aristocats stuff, Sinatra, and a bit of The Lovecats is fantastic.
A Forest with improvisations and extra lyrics is easily the best thing about the Wish Tour. Same goes for Faith on the Prayer Tour.
A Forest at Auburn Palace in 1992, Faith at third night at Wembley in 1989....
The Kiss for sure, don't like it too much on the album, but that was a real winner on the Dream Tour. Another good example is Push - works way better live than on the album
Alt.end is another song that seems to be improved with Porl added to it. Even Wrong Number rocked a lot more the other night than I expected.
"Secrets" live made me fall in love with this song, 'cause I didn't like the album version (because of too quiet vocals) :smth020
Songs that made me take notice after seeing/hearing them live :
Plainsong - when i saw them back in 2004, they opened with it, best opening to a concert ive ever seen.
Labyrinth - the bass kicks in much more, i thought it sounded much better, brought it to life.
100 years - listened to this so many times.... but i when i first heard it live, its blew me away.
The Kiss - of course. ;)
A forest - again and again and again....... :rocker
When talking about The Kiss, I do agree that the live version is a lot better..
By the way, The Drowning Man...oooohhh...damn scary when i heard it being played live.. :rocker
I really enjoyed the version of Fascination Street that they played in Adelaide, sounded so much better than the Album. I really noticed Roberts vocals on alt.end that night also, and I thought Grinding Halt really went off and The Walk stood out. Us or Them sounded pretty good also, much thicker and heavier than before, and The End Of The World was worthwhile.
At the thursday and friday shows in Sydney I really got into the bass of Close To Me. It was simply Huge.
I'll be adding 'The Cure' album back onto the playlist shortly. There's a lot more that I need to get out of that album.
EOTW is definitely better live than the recorded version.
But then having it not playing at all is an improvement(http://www.myheartland.co.uk/images/smiles/icon_whistlehalo.gif).
Not sure my opinion has ever been reversed though. Enhanced I would say is a better word.
I guess the closest I've come is Piggy In The Mirror.
On the LP it's fairly crappy, but I love the guitar break live.
Another "sort of" candidate is A Night Like This. The Cure & saxaphone solo's (or any brass instrument sounds) simply don't do it for me, so to get a guitar break live is just perfect.
Quote from: Sussex on August 22, 2007, 04:25:50
By the way, The Drowning Man...oooohhh...damn scary when i heard it being played live.. :rocker
Good call. I've always liked the song, but when I first heard it played live on the Curiosity tape (tape - so it was a while ago!) it really blew me away. It was so stark and fragile..and that guitar line Robert plays so simple and haunting.
One of my Cure highlights hearing it played during the Dream Tour.
(And hearing The Big Hand this time round was THE moment for me on the current tour).
for me...the kiss...after heard in live concert the kiss really hit me....the starting of the kiss song always made me thinking about someone.......crazy... :smth020 :smth020
i never like so much many song on bloodflowers album when i listen to this record first. but some get better when live. like watching me fall.
but some other song they play so many times live already that im sick to hear these songs either on record or live version, like inbetween days. not bad song but too many live-playing destroy it. it is shame. i was in a shop yesterday and this song come from radio and i not even realize its a cure song for long time! because too familiar, too much over-play.
I really like the live version of 'Pornography' on Trilogy.
The loud background keyboard really adds to the song, which is not as evident
in older versions
Quote from: FarFar on August 25, 2007, 05:46:29
for me...the kiss...after heard in live concert the kiss really hit me....the starting of the kiss song always made me thinking about someone.......crazy... :smth020 :smth020
can i guess who is the person.. :smth047
Quote from: Sussex on August 26, 2007, 19:57:02
Quote from: FarFar on August 25, 2007, 05:46:29
for me...the kiss...after heard in live concert the kiss really hit me....the starting of the kiss song always made me thinking about someone.......crazy... :smth020 :smth020
can i guess who is the person.. :smth047
ya you definitely can guess...the guy who were the orange shirt....still remembered???? unfortunately.........
Just heard How Beautiful You Are from the Melbourne gig & it knocks the kmkmkm version into a cocked hat.
Yes definitely it has.
'TEOTW' for sure was the one i never really liked as an l.p. version ,but it sounds a lil better as a live version.
As I have said elsewhere, I am not an "expert" on all of the Cures' music, can't reel of oh so many titles like lots of people here...and some of the stuff I had heard on C.D.s etc was, a mixed bag to me, some I liked, some I didn't.. BUT we saw them live in Adelaide this year and I can truthfully say, I was blown away by the whole concert, every song. My son felt the same way...seeing them live is just a whole experience that engulfs every sense one possesses...seeping into every pore and leaving you elated. :smth051
wow! i'm not sure if it's because i'm getting older or what. it just seems like whenever i see or here the Cure live (and when i say see, i mean in DVD as the Chicago show will be my first live)i get all emotional...hahaha like Melly says, their music engulfs you. to me, like in a state of dark, joyful bliss. i've been to about 75 concerts in my life, seen all kinds of music from Iron Maiden to the Crystal Method, Pink Floyd to Moby. believe it or not, i've actually seen Menudo, with i might add an itty bitty Ricky Martin. the Cures music just gives off a burst of what i like to call "so happy". i'm thinkin' the chicago show will be the best of any live music i've ever heard and i' know i'll definitly be SO HAPPY.. :-D
guys, I have never seen a live concert before I saw The Greatest Band (Our Band), my first and ever gig, in Melbourne. I will always remember that concert, HOW LOUD IT WAS and just how amazing an experience!! :smth023 I am only 13!! Other gigs I go to will have to live up to The Cure. I really don't think they can. I am going to Crowded House in November, I'll post back here then, and compare the two then. :smth023
:rocker
Yes, "Plainsong" during "Prayer Tour" and then "Holy Hour", "Drowning Man" and "All Cats Are Grey" in Paris ... 1989 as well.
Other Voices, All Cats Are Grey, Funeral Party, A Strange Day (Orange 86 version !), The Walk, Dressing Up, Piggy In The Mirror, The Top, Push, The Kiss, Torture, Like Cockatoos, Fight, Homesick, Untitled. :)
I was thinking about this and the recent versions of "Wrong Number" were absolutely magic for me - much better than the single alone (I never really liked the lyrics much). I think the Melbourne version had the best solo but the Auckland one (which I was at) has a better outro.
Nice for The Cure to have a Guitar God in their midst again....
Actually, I never really got into the recorded version of The End of The World, until Melbourne gig, and of course watching the MTV recent preformance. So I really adore this song now.. :smth023
PUSH... I love the live recordings coming out now... was never near my top songs.
I think "A short term effect" is much more better live than on Pornography album: I like all version playes, from '82 to actual period. This song played live is much more involving on my opinion.
Quote from: Secrets on August 13, 2007, 13:25:17
Has anyone found their opinion of a song they didn't like reversed after hearing the song live?
Yes, this happened to me listening the live versions of "end" and "wrong number"... I like these two songs, but live they're more "exciting", especially the second one! :smth001
Push
The Baby Screams
THe Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
Prayers For Rain
A Letter To Elise (Well, I always liked it anyways. XD)
and most of all..... "Dressing Up"
And the complete opposite, a song I love, which they do horribly live... "High"
I'm suprised to see how many people don't like 'the end of the world'. :shock:
I have always liked that song. In fact, I like all of The Cure songs. Live or not. They are all perfect with the exception of a few from the TIB album (subway song, object etc, YUK!)...
With that said, seeing 'Open' live is unbelievable as it was the first song I saw them play live and I love it when the guitars kick in.
'The Blood', 'A Night Like This', 'Killing An Arab' and 'Why Can't I Be You' are also very good to see live.
Seeing The Cure live is always going to be better than listening to a CD :smth035
New one..
Lovecat :smth020
Really change my mindset when i listen to the live version! damn cool.. 8)
For me it's the case with the entire 'The Top' album. Every song on that album except for The Caterpillar sounds better in a live setting with heavier guitar, drums and a more normal voice in Robert than on the record itself. Shake Dog Shake really hits hard live, Piggy In The Mirror doesn't have Robert messing around with his voice, Dressing Up just has that kinky feel live and Give Me It sounds great with the Saxophone live. Really great stuff. As great a record 'Pornography' is I feel some of the songs have a livlier feel on stage as well, songs like Cold, Pornography and Figurehead. They really are one of those bands that's so good live that they can challenge their studio sound. Sometimes surpass it. :D
I tried listening to Pornography a few times because so many seem to rate it as the best, but I always found it to be just depressing. I love the melancholy songs, but Pornography always seemed just too miserable for me.
Just recently listened to a concert recording and was blown away by the beauty of A Strange Day (and even more Charlotte Sometimes which wasn't a favourite either)... will have to give the album another chance.
I also have to agree with everyone on the live versions of Push being amazing when it never really stood out to me before.
'Wrong Number'
I haven't heard it before as a live version ,till i did in Berlin this year.
It is so cool!
Hmm,i guess Porl is doing his job well!
:)
Quote from: Secrets on August 13, 2007, 13:25:17
I'm curious as I found my opinion of The End of The World vastly improved after hearing it live the other day in Sydney. It's not a bad song.
Is it the production that ruined it?
Yeah, same experience with that song here. Could be because they played it in a different scale, if those are the words I'm looking for...well, check this video out and tell me I'm right ;)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dqjn_pxsx8
Definitely, and a cool topic:
In the category of "even better live" I'd have to agree with those of you who named Dressing Up, and Push, and prayers fror rain
I'm going to add 39. I really didn't like it on Bloodflowers, but live, it really came alive.
Sinking live is quite amazing, and then the obvious are the Faith performances. I could see myelf writing words like that, but never sing them to others - that gives me shivers no matter how it's performed!
Erik
Absolutely!!!
I must admit that i was never fond of "Wish" mainly because that was the first album by The Cure I bought and I was not even a teenager when it was released. Sad to say, but I only listened to Friday I'm in Love (gimme a break, i was a kid). When I saw The Cure for the first time in 2000, they played Open and From The Edge of the Deep Green Sea. Because of how phenomenal and hauntingly beautiful those songs sounded, I vested more time in the album, thus giving me more of an appreciation for it. ;)