Fake Live Albums

As you are probably already aware, there are many live albums that are faked to various degrees - overdubs, re-recordings, completely faked in the studio, fake crowd noise etc... What are some that you know of?

Here's what I am aware of:

Kiss - Alive, Alive II
UFO - Strangers In The Night
Judas Priest - Unleashed In The East
Halford - Live Insurrection
Slayer - Live Undead
Paul Dianno & Killers - South American Assault Live (This is completely fake. They even made up a fake tour in the liner notes!)
Guns 'N Roses - Live Like A Suicide
Blitzkrieg - Blitzed Alive (demo) - rumored to either have the crowd added or be completely fake
Megadeth - Rust In Peace Live - vocals overdubbed
Black Sabbath - Live Evil

I have heard about this but had no idea whether they really existed or not. I can't think of any off the top of my head, though, as I avoid live albums like the plague.

I'm not really comfortable with calling an album with minor changes "fake". To me that would be reserved for bands that just recorded the entire thing in the studio and slapped on some crowd noise.

Sometimes it's purely technical considerations. Crowd mics didn't pick up the audience well enough, feedback, equipment failure, bad mic placement, etc. Hiring mobile recording trucks isn't cheap, often bands didn't have the budget to record more than 1 or 2 dates and if they discovered afterward that certain things didn't work out there's no option but to fix it in the studio.

Sometimes it could be a single performance element like Rob Halford being sick during the recording of Unleashed In The East that needs to be replaced. I've heard no convincing evidence of tampering beyond vocals on that particular album. The engineer admitted that they hired a mobile recording truck and re-did the vocals at Halford's house.

Here's one:

Thin Lizzy - Live and Dangerous.

There is conflicting information about this one, the band has indicated that the album is about 75% live, which based on comparisons I've heard sounds about right to me. Some of the performances on that album are readily available in soundboard format (Live At The Tower) and yes, the mix is better and some of the harmony guitar parts are a little more perfect and everything has been sweetened...but it's not radically different and most of the original parts are there. The producer Visconti said that he believed a live album should offer more than a radio broadcast. He told the band they could release the recordings as-is, or they could tweak stuff here and there to create a memorable, professional live document. They decided to follow his advice and since the album is still considered a classic I can't argue with the decision.

I love the authenticity of soundboard mixes and have a bunch of them. But I also have great admiration for an expertly produced live album.

Kiss Alive should probably be called "Eddie Kramer saved our asses".

I think we would save time by listing the authentic ones. Especially post 1990.

I love many "fake" live albums. I remember Glenn Tipton saying they fixed a few bum notes here and there on Unleashed. Not that it matters because the album is phenomenal.

Obviously there's a continuum from fixing a few bad notes and a completely faked album like South American Assault.

It seems many classic 70s live albums had some amount of studio magic applied to them.

Temple of Blood wrote:

I think we would save time by listing the authentic ones.  Especially post 1990.

TOB, do you know if Exodus Another Lesson In Violence was legit or not? I've heard rumors that it was not a true live album.

I doubt it is. I think good friendly violent fun is.

I've known folks in name bands who've had to go back and re-record their parts for their live releases.

Really that's what the fans want.

Ozzy Osbourne - Tribute - Ozzy re-recorded all the vocals.

Of course there are 70s live albums that don't have overdubs as well:  Made In Japan, On Your Feet Or On Your Knees, Band of Gypsys, etc.

In the Rush documentary Beyond The Lighted Stage Geddy discusses their earlier live releases.  He said that All The World's A Stage is completely live with no overdubs.  He then states that they thought it was a little rough so when it came to Exit...Stage Left they fixed some things with overdubs. But Geddy felt they went too far with it and ended up neutering the power of the live performance.  He said they learned from their mistakes with that one and going forward they would always record multiple nights so they could pick and choose songs if there were disastrous mistakes or technical errors.

It kinda defeats the purpose if something is supposed to be live and isn't. Why bother?

I believe the ones from Pantera and Prong are truly live, especially Pantera. You can tell they're drunk and don't give a crap. Slayer's Decade of Aggression sounds legit too, but who knows...

I have a live album by a k-pop group that clearly says on the cover, "No dubbing. No retouching." Alas, it's a pretty wimpy performance compared to the studio versions, too. I can therefore understand this phenomenon, but I had no idea it was so prevalent. Pointless, to say the least.

Not an album, but the "Jump In the Fire" E.P was a studio recording with crowd overdubbing.

Sebastian Bach - ABachalypse Now

Vocals completely redone. And in the video version you can see they hardly even tried syncing it to the footage.

Troublezone wrote:

I believe the ones from Pantera and Prong are truly live, especially Pantera. You can tell they're drunk and don't give a crap. Slayer's Decade of Aggression sounds legit too, but who knows...

Agreed with those.

Along with:
TESTAMENT - Return to the Apocalyptic City

Temple of Blood wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

I believe the ones from Pantera and Prong are truly live, especially Pantera. You can tell they're drunk and don't give a crap. Slayer's Decade of Aggression sounds legit too, but who knows...

Agreed with those.

Along with:
TESTAMENT - Return to the Apocalyptic City

What about Overkill's Wrecking Your Neck album from '95? I think it may have had some studio touch ups.

Dark Angel's Live Scars is definitely 100% live. And horribly recorded.

Back in the 90s I posted somewhere online that I didn't believe Babylon A.D.'s Live In Your Face was truly live, and then Derek Davis showed up and gave me a verbal thrashing. Haha.

Troublezone wrote:

Dark Angel's Live Scars is definitely 100% live. And horribly recorded.

Yeah.

I think Wrecking your Neck was touched up.

Never knew about the Paul DiAnno. Sounds live to me! To completely fake it is actually kind of cool! If you're gonna do overdubs anyway, just make the whole thing up!



Shortly afterward, a live album called Assault on South America was recorded, featuring a number of Iron Maiden and Battlezone tracks and covers of "We Will Rock You" and "Smoke on the Water". This was funded by Rock in Rio promoter Carlos Genesio and to be released primarily for the South American market.[11] "Recorded in Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela in Summer of 1993" is splashed on the back cover. However, according to John Gallagher, the South American tour fell thorough so the entire album was recorded on a mobile recording truck in New York.[12] Later, a Canada-based record company called Magnetic Air Productions issued a pirate (bootleg) release worldwide, under a different cover, with no royalties being paid to the band.

So, let's speak hypothetically for a minute.

You just spent $10,000 hiring a mobile recording unit.
When you start mixing you realize that the snare drum mic was cutting in and out during the entire performance.

Do you...

A) Scrap the recording entirely and eat the $10,000.
B) Invest another $10,000 for recording an additional night?
C) Punch in a snare drum in the studio for a fraction of the cost and release the album?

C is the only intelligent answer.

These bands are doing a lot more than punching in snare drums. I think in most cases they are punching in everything except maybe the drums.

Temple of Blood wrote:

These bands are doing a lot more than punching in snare drums.  I think in most cases they are punching in everything except maybe the drums.

"most cases".  Show us some proof if you're going to throw sweeping generalizations around.

I would say it's a case by case basis.

S.D. wrote:

Temple of Blood wrote:

These bands are doing a lot more than punching in snare drums.  I think in most cases they are punching in everything except maybe the drums.

"most cases".  Show us some proof if you're going to throw sweeping generalizations around.

I would say it's a case by case basis.  

He also said "I think" right before that.

And people wonder why ToB thinks this isn't the super-friendly forum many say it is.

What do we think about AC/DC If You Want Blood? It's a great record but it doesn't sound completely live to these ears.