At the outset, let me confess I am not a huge fan of live albums. Live DVDs are another story, I get to watch the band in action, there's interviews appended as add-ons, so it's a fun package. But what's special about listening to live renditions of a band's studio songs has eluded me and being that most rock fans seem to dig live albums, I am in a lonely minority here. Essentially, my grouse is that unless there's something substantially different about the band's live experience as opposed to the studio experience, there's nothing to be gained for me. Additionally, live albums rarely, if ever, sound as good as studio albums, so you are buying a live album only to hear the crowd noise, to put it bluntly. So, yeah, I am telling you now that I don't dig Exit Stage Left all that much and if it weren't for the novelty value of Dio singing Ozzy's songs, I wouldn't particularly care for Live Evil either. Blasphemy...yeah, right!
So what makes me dig this particular live album so much? Nothing that would distinguish it from the above description, for sure. Renaissance made vocal-centric music, so though there are changes on the instrumental front - I will come to this later - it's not striking and immediately evident. The only thing that could have changed in the band's live experience was Annie Haslam's vocals, but there's no way she could have possibly sounded MUCH better live and thankfully she doesn't sound any worse either. Two songs were debuted here but both made their way to Scheherazade and Other Stories, the songs being ‘Ocean Gypsy’ and ‘Songs of Scheherazade’. So no material exclusive to the live album either. The sound quality is pretty good for a live album, has to be said and it fares much better than the King Biscuit Flower Hour albums of the same band's performances at Royal Albert Hall two years later. But not an incentive by itself to go for it, no!
The reasons are two-fold: there can be no better introduction to Renaissance because the setlist is well chosen. It so happened that the band peaked with Scheherazade and other Stories, so though a few songs from the later songs are more than worthy, not much is missed here. From the albums released at that point, I miss Sounds of the Sea, Black Flame and Things I Don't Understand, but I cannot deny that whatever has been chosen is the most essential material of the band, the Haslam incarnation, anyway. It's as if Iron Maiden made a live album right after Seventh Son... or..wait...there's two actual examples, Unleashed In ‘The East’ and ‘Strangers In The Night’. Yeah, you heard me, Unleashed In The East doesn't miss much as far as Judas Priest goes, but that's a different band, different review.
The second reason is that it's, simply, Renaissance. They were rather unlike most of the prog rock bands of their time. I said earlier they were vocal-based. Well, make that singing-based. Gabriel, Ian Anderson and Fish had formidable vocal presence too, but that's because they adopted a rock theater approach and brought their personality to the fore in their vocal parts. Annie Haslam, on the other hand, is a singer, pure and simple. I know of no other prog rock band which relied so heavily on a pure singer, even King Crimson with Greg Lake doesn't come close. While the band's instrumentalists were no pushovers, they all chose to be the support cast to Haslam's vocals and my word, what vocals she lent! Exquisite, charming and heartfelt, backed by a large range, a powerful yet sweet voice, incredibly clear diction and immaculate delivery. It's a treat to behold by itself but it's also rather unique in prog, because prog rock hasn't particularly favoured plain, old school, accomplished singing - there has to be something quirky about the vocals, is the general rule. When I am feeling particularly irritated with the severe persecution complex some prog fans go around with, I like to quip that Annie only became a part of Renaissance because she was too naive to know in '71 that she would have become a star in expert pop hands. But it's only in jest that I say so, I revel in the unique style of prog her singing helps present.
Ah, you see, I said "helps". The other aspect worth noting of Renaissance is their use of orchestral instruments in their songs. In this live album, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra was employed to ensure that none of the Renaissance songs would lose any of their splendour merely for want of orchestral backing. The classical meets rock thing - ok, calling a band without electric guitars rock is a bit much but what else do I call them then? - is rare in the rock world and doesn't come off too well at the best of times. Yeah, you are saying S&M. Funnily enough, it was while thinking of S&M that I felt like writing this review. You see, I have always felt that S&M would have worked better had Metallica written more new songs meant to be played with an orchestra instead of fitting the orchestra into their existing songs. And here's my proof! The reason Live At Carnegie Hall never sound awkward for a moment is the songs were already written around orchestral embellishments and the band had employed them at performances prior to this one, as far as I know. So, there's nothing daunting or experimental about it, it's a smooth, refined finished product.
I said I would allude to the changes in the instrumental department. Well, there's a long-ish Tout(keyboard)/Camp(bass) jam in ‘Ashes Are Burning’ which, together with vocal improvisations at the close from Haslam, stretch the 9 minute song to a whopping 24 minutes. That apart, while the band don't jam all over the place and play completely different interludes, they do play a lot of things differently. Maybe minor changes, but they are there all the same and I have listened to live albums where songs were reproduced without one different note. So to suggest it's a rank copy of the studio cuts is far fetched. It sounds too similar to be a wholly different experience. But as I have said above, why do something to alter the Renaissance experience, it was just fine and deserved replicating in the live setting simply because it was so unique.
There's one problem to address: it's a double album, so is it worth the time? It depends....on the effect Annie's booming voice has on you but chances are it will ensure you don't regret it for a minute. As for the rest, you know not what you're missing!
Author – Madan