My purchase and listening habits were dreadfully conventional as a teen and collegiate: a nearly exclusive diet of studio albums or "best of" comps {{shudder}} based on mainstream media coverage or airplay.
However, after I began listening seriously to the Dead following grad school about 5 years ago, I underwent a paradigm shift toward live performance, which now comprises an overwhelming majority of the music I play daily.
In fact, while seriously growing my collection over the last couple years, I've looked to live releases over studio work when I find a band or performer I like - and in this age, that can often mean "deluxe" or "expanded" re-releases containing additional live material.
For example - and as I look over my shoulder at the bookshelves behind me - My entire
ABB library (Live vols.1-5, Atlanta '70, Ludlow, and - a collection cornerstone -the complete Fillmore East, in addition to the Super Deluxe Bros/Sisters, for which the original album is (to me) a secondary consideration to the mind boggling demos and '73 Winterland show;
The Who (Isle of Wight; Who's Next Deluxe ('71 show included); Live at Hull/Leeds (check out Deluxe releases to ensure complete sets!);
Canned Heat (Montreaux '73, Europe '70 - though Livin' the Blues has a vibrant live feel);
Ten Years After ("Recorded Live", Fillmore East, Undead);
Pixies (I've got 8 of their 2004 reunion shows (go w/ the Final XII editions if possible) and the '90 show included in the otherwise superfluous "best of" comp from "Death to Pixies");
Rolling Stones (Vault series '75/'81, Brussels Affair, and Ya-Yas (get the YY deluxe for a smoking BB King set and sultry performance by Tina (w/ Ike));
REM (wow! I've got so many boots it's not funny! recommended - Red Rain; Adhesion; Live Germany '85; Live at the Olympia (official); The Dream; and all Demos and Live performances variously released with the box sets of Green, LRP, Murmur, Fables, Reckoning, and Document);
Stiff Little Fingers (Hanx!) - a.w.e.s.o.m.e.;
Dead Boys (Night of the Living..., and Liver Than You'll Ever Be);
Zeppelin (How the West was Won; Destroyer; Celebration Day; and the '69 Paris show released incident to the most recent remastering of Zep I);
Velvet Underground (Live '69 and the more complete set release with the Super Deluxe eponymous album; The Quine Tapes (on order); Max's; and White Light/White Heat Deluxe (or Super) for the Live component);
Jethro Tull (Isle of Wight '70, Bursting Out '77, and the '70 Carnegie Hall show released with the Stand Up box);
The Kinks (One for the Road and the uber essential To The Bone (!!!));
CSNY (The Complete Fillmore Tapes '70 (possibly one of the greatest boots ever!), yet all that the 24x192-obsessed Young would officially approve was a cobbled together 'ideal' show from '74, which was years over deadline?!);
Hendrix (Winterland '68; Monterey; Miami Pop; Berkely);
Cream (check out the Those Were The Days box set, which gives you all studio and a healthy dose of live performance (Cream should've just written new stuff and toured in a perpetual cycle w/o ever stepping foot in a studio!)); and my beloved
Doors (GET FELT FORUM!, but also Boston, Detroit, The Bowl '68, Pittsburgh, and - to a MUCH lesser extent - Vancouver)...
...the Dead goes w/o saying and I've got just about every show officially released plus a few dozen favourite unreleased AUDs and SBDs - doubt I'd ever pick up a studio album there again...
...yikes! I could go on for awhile (notable omission: Neil Young (yeah, the same one I just bashed
), but you get the picture. As I get a bit older, I have an increasing aversion to the interference of studio techs and engineers with the underlying artistic product (that's not to say that live stuff is tamper proof!; indeed, even the Dead's revered original Europe '72 tour compilation suffered considerable post-production blasphemy).
So while some might think it incredulous - especially with bands like the Stones or Who that have a esteemed studio discography - I still vastly prefer the live releases listed to their studio brethren./peace, K
EDIT: Holy Cow! How'd I forget
Clapton...like Cream, I think his live stuff is infinitely superior due to the potential for amazing improvisation onstage; check out Just One Night, Unplugged (pretty staid stuff here, but a fine acoustic complement to a collection), and the brass ring / blue ribbon / Grade A / USDA Prime release Derek & The Dominoes at the Fillmore. Wow./buh-bye (again), K
EDIT II: I'm burning time until heading out to a UK NCAA viewing party...GO CATS! How about those earlier upsets! My brackets are already a shamble after the Ga.Southern and UAB wins...