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The last week has found Billie Eilish using her voice once again to speak about the overlooked and unknown aspects of both herself and the music industry. The Grammy award-winning singer shared a video titled “Not My Responsibility” in which she addressed her body image, clothing style, and more. Continuing this discussion in the upcoming July/August feature of GQ, Billie Eilish touched upon the aforementioned topics while highlighting a double standard in the industry as well.

Eilish pointed out a double standard in the industry after being asked for thoughts on Tyler The Creator’s Best Rap Album Grammy award speech for Igor. “I have always hated categories,” she said. “I hate when people say, ‘Oh, you look like ‘blank.’ You sound like ‘blank.” It was such a cool thing Tyler said. I agree with him about that term.” Eilish would then question why Lizzo was placed in the R&B category when, as she said, “she’s more pop than I am.”

“Look, if I wasn’t white I would probably be in ‘rap’. Why? They just judge from what you look like and what they know. I think that is weird,” Eilish said. “The world wants to put you into a box; I’ve had it my whole career. Just because I am a white teenage female I am pop. Where am I pop? What part of my music sounds like pop?”

In the same GQ issue, Eilish also spoke on her public persona and revealed that she had “never felt desired.” “I am clickbait at the moment. Anything with my name on it or anything I say or do can and will be used against me.”

The July/August issue with Eilish arrives on newsstands June 5th.

[via GQ]

This week, the Top Chef gang traveled to Italy for part one of the season 17 finale, the series’ first in Italy. I was hoping for some incredibly provincial Italian food criticisms, about how you should-a never cook-a this thing in-a this way, and we did get some of that, though not enough. Not that it’s ever enough. Frankly, I could’ve used more hand gestures, too.

Before they went anywhere though, the show had to squeeze in four or five minutes of infomercial content about how great the food is in the American Airlines Admiral’s Club and how comfortable the seats are on American Airlines Business Class while the contestants all smiled and gushed about what a great time they were having on American Airlines Business like some fresh-faced kids on the cover of a course catalog. Aw, see how much ass the show had to kiss in order to afford going to Europe? Basic cable productions are just like us!

Even after they arrived — at the luxurious Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco Resort & Spa — the show had even more generous product placement to do for Birra Peroni. “I love Peroni!” Steph whispered, in what was surely a moment of pure spontaneity.

In the quickfire challenge, “Champagne Padma” from last episode became “World Traveler Padma” in the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro in Lucca, showing off her not inconsiderable Italian skills. Oh, did you not realize that Padma is fluent in Italian? The things one learns when one is an internationally famous model… You know what I learned at my first job? How to nap with my sunglasses on so it looked like I was awake.

The first challenge was to make an “aperitivo,” which we were given to understand is basically the Italian version of a tapa — something small you eat to whet your appetite for more food while putting just enough calories in your belly to provide ballast for your drunk ass to waddle from bar to bar. Ugh, stupid Europeans, always drinking and having a good time. I’m so proud we “won” two world wars. Meanwhile, they all spend three days a week (plus 12 random holidays) getting sloshed and eating cured meats and still live 10 years longer than we do. Wonderful culture we’ve got here. I’d probably resent them for their food, and scenery, and history, and ample vacation days, if we didn’t have so many beautiful cities here like, uh… Scottsdale, and… Topeka. Yeah.

Anyway, the contestants had to cook their aperitivo for 30 people in 30 minutes, continuing this season’s trend of impossibly hard challenges. The locals mostly went easy on them, with no gesturing or crotch grabbing or giving of the evil eye. Which was frankly very disappointing. After that, Tom showed up looking like he was auditioning for a Fellini movie:

Ay, Signor Colicchio, come fa? My man looks like he’s about to say buongiorno to all the bellisima lady and drive off in an extremely small car.

In the elimination challenge, the chefs got to tag along for a truffle hunt. That’s when a team of men in rubber boots and adorable dogs go snuffling around a forest in search of your mother’s panties. Jk, jk. I actually saw an incredible documentary at Sundance called The Truffle Hunters about this very thing — one guy sang songs on an accordion and another got a benediction for his truffle dog at a cathedral. It was incredible. Sony Pictures Classics, get off your asses and release that.

All of this was, naturally, a prelude for a challenge in which the chefs had to create a dish to showcase the flavors of Tuscany’s famous white truffle. Now, if you had “someone shaving $800 worth of truffle onto a dish with more spices than an average mole” on your Top Chef bingo card, you can definitely check that one off. Che peccato, non me piace, why you donna respect-a mama’s a-truffles?

(Don’t look at me like that, you knew this week’s recap would have lots of terrible fake Italian).

—

5. (-3) ((eliminated)) Gregory Gourdet

AKA: Kravitz. Aka Hepcat. Aka Lids. Aka Pollos Hermanos.

Yep, Gregory is out. Can you believe it? This one was both painful and shocking. Not since Stefan in season five have we seen such an odds-on favorite all season stumble in the finale. Gregory was also the second contestant eliminated this season after the end of Last Chance Kitchen — meaning he and Malarkey and the next few eliminated chefs will be the only ones not to get a second chance.

The Dish: Wild boar with tomato, prunes, cocoa, and white truffle polenta.

The Reviews: “The truffle was lost.”

According to some stuff I Googled just now, “cinghiale in dolceforte” is a traditional Tuscan dish made of wild boar and dark chocolate that is often compared to mole. Gregory’s version looks bomb as hell but yeah, I guess I can see how shaving a few hundred bucks worth of white truffles on top of something that resembles mole would be an elimination-worthy offense. Seems like Gregory would’ve been better off incorporating truffles into something Haitian-ish rather than serving the Italians his version of their food. Gotta keep them Italians on their heels, Gregory! You can never let an eye-talian get too comfortable, I always say.

I don’t know what’s worse, a clear favorite going home so early or that we only got half an episode worth of Gregory-in-Italy’s-fashion to enjoy.

4. (+1) Stephanie Cmar

AKA: C-Monster. Aka Underdog. Aka C-Truffle.

I nicknamed Steph “C-Truffle” for totally non-truffle related reasons, and this week it showed. She, like pretty much everyone else, made a dish that didn’t let the truffles shine. The C-Monster was actually in the bottom of both challenges this week, but somehow she’s still hanging on.

First, in the quickfire, she attempted a “venison en carrozza”, with venison stuffed into two slices of focaccia toast spread with gorgonzola and then deep fried. That actually sounded pretty good, though deep frying venison went as badly as you might imagine and the townsfolk nearly broke a tooth trying to gnaw through it.

The Dish: Squash and brown butter mezzaluna, porcini brodo, rosemary, braised radicchio & white truffle.

The Reviews: “Too much going on.” “Truffle gets lost.” “Please don’t make us any more pasta.”

The most Italian moment of the episode was probably when Steph served her elimination challenge dish and an Italian woman walked over to say “please, don’t-a cook us anymore a-pasta, we-a so tired of-a eating the pasta.” Hey, thanks, lady. Great timing.

At first, I thought Steph’s squash ravioli looked pretty good, but then when I read the actual ingredients I get mad that Gregory got sent home instead of her. Rosemary, porcini, and radicchio? What the f*ck? She also served the radicchio even after she tasted it and made a gross face. C’mon, C-Monster! There’s no rule that says you have to serve everything you buy! Was it because Kevin won the quickfire with a radicchio dish? Let this be a lesson, not every radicchio is a winner.

I’m half rooting for C-Monster as the clear underdog but she keeps sabotaging herself with these rookie mistakes. Clean it up, C-Monster.

3. (+1) Kevin Gillespie

AKA: Hops. Aka Oops All Kevins. Aka Thicc Kev. Aka Foghorn Kevhorn.

Thicc Kev screamed into an early lead this week, winning the quickfire with his creamy polenta with radicchio agradolce. In the elimination challenge, the editors would have us believe Kevin was undone by his lack of familiarity with Italian supermarkets, when he accidentally bought ground pork, wild boar, and veal instead of whatever single ground meat he intended to (unclear).

The Dish: Polpette with chestnut honey, roasted onion, pecorino, and white truffles.

The Reviews: “The spices he used are competing with the white truffle.” “It didn’t need the meat at all.”

When Gail asked Kevin why he chose to deep fry his meatball, Kev said “I didn’t want it too saucy, there was already so much fat elsewhere on the plate that I didn’t want to add more.” Which has to be the first time a chef said they deep-fried something in order to make it less fatty. Only a Southern chef…

Say what you will about Foghorn Kevhorn, if he was going to go out, it was going to be the way he came in — atop a shield of deep-fried meat. You gotta respect it. I want to see at least one tater tot dish out of Kevin before this season ends.

2. (+1) Bryan Voltaggio

Linkin Clark couldn’t speak a lick of Italian, but he oozes the kind of raw dadliness that requires no translation. The way the collar of his plaid shirt sticks out the neck of his sweater… it screams “quit messin’ with the dang thermostat!” in any language. Where nü metal meets New Balance, that’s where you’ll find Bryan Voltaggio.

Bry Guy blew yet another quickfire challenge (too many spices in the lamb tartare) but redeemed himself in the elimination challenge with yet another hyper-competent yet slightly boring white tablecloth take on the challenge.

The Dish: Braised veal shank ragu, chestnuts, white truffle, and aerated potato.

The Reviews: “It has the right classic flavors.” “I got the most pure truffle flavor from Bryan’s dish.”

Was this the first foam of the season? Do “aerated” potatoes count as a foam? I don’t know, but I do know that Bry Guy damn near won another challenge and his skill set seems well suited for pleasing these persnickety Italians. Have the editors and judges been sandbagging him all season? Or is he about to become runner up yet again?

1. (even) Melissa King

AKA: Zen Master. Aka Dimples. Aka Shutterstock.

Did you catch Melissa’s fantasy of riding through Italy on a scooter with a beautiful woman on the back? I think that was the first hint at Melissa’s sexuality this entire season and they moved right along. You have to admire the way Top Chef glosses right over the kind of human interest nuggets most reality shows would beat you over the head with in umpteen promos.

With Gregory gone, Melissa is pretty obviously the odds-on favorite to win it all. First she almost won the quickfire with a pickled mussel and then she won the elimination challenge with a rice congee.

The Dish: Truffle congee, salami, fried garlic, parsley, quail egg, and white truffle butter.

The Reviews: “I thought the quail egg was brilliant.” “If we remove the salami she made a really intelligent dish.”

Melissa did her own food with an Italian twist, rather than her own twist on Italian food, which seemed like the right move. She managed to win even as she pissed off an Italian for the unforgivable food sin of cooking salami. Once again, apparently without even breaking a sweat. How could she possibly lose at this point? I guess we’ll find out.

Vince Mancini is on Twitter. Read more of his cooking commentary in UPROXX’s Cooking Battles and Viral Cooking. For past Top Chef Power Rankings, go here.

Following two weeks of police protests, fans began to wonder why some of their favorite — or at least most outspoken — celebrities were rather silent and inactive in the latest round of Black Lives Matter protests. One of the names that came up was Kanye West, who has been very outspoken over recent years in terms of his political stance and support of a certain individual in office. Before the collective mass of social media could fire off their full artillery of jokes and insults at West for his lack of support, news broke that he created a college fund to cover tuition costs for Gianna Floyd, daughter of George Floyd, a Texas native who was killed by Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25.

In addition to the college fund, West also donated $2 million to charities associated with Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Floyd, promised to cover the legal costs for Arbery and Taylor’s families, and committed to donating money to black-owned businesses in Chicago. While this may be quite a lot for one day, West is far from finished as video broke out Friday night that showed him marching with Chicago Public School students.

Fans quickly took to social media to share their thoughts on West with some commending him for showing face at the protest, while others were not so quick to buy into his appearance.

Check out videos of Kanye West at the protest above and scroll down to read some reactions from fans as well.

Live albums have long gotten a bad rap. “Greatest hits played faster” is how the ’80s indie band Camper Van Beethoven once dismissed them. They’ve been caricatured as redundant indulgences best left back in the bygone arena-rock era of the ’70s. But I’ve always loved live albums. I appreciate the music, of course, but I also gravitate to the stuff around the music.

I like to hear the audience — their cheering, their catcalls, their off-beat clapping to the band. Sometimes, you can even hear the low hum of the room that it was recorded in. I like to imagine what it was like to be at the Village Vanguard in 1961. Or the Apollo Theatre in 1963. Or Madison Square Garden in 1969. Or Tokyo’s Budokan arena in the late ’70s. I never had the chance to visit those places, at those times, in real life. I can’t even experience those rooms now, or any other music venue, given the quarantine. But live albums have put me there, time and again.

Right now, we don’t have access to live music. Amid all of the pain our country is currently enduring, this might seem like a minor inconvenience. But for those of us who feel spiritually and emotionally enriched by concerts, these hard times have made the dull ache that comes with being shut off from an essential part of life feel all the more acute. How amazing would it be to once again gather with hundreds or thousands of strangers for a positive communal experience centered on life-fulfilling art? What once was commonplace now seems like science-fiction fantasy.

At a show, you live in the moment, with no idea of what will happen next. Even a terrible concert is unique because it’s fleeting — once it’s gone, you can only hold on to it with your memories. You can capture a video with your phone, but it’s not the same. The music won’t sound as good. You won’t feel the people next to you. It will just be another piece of data to be streamed on demand. It won’t be alive. We don’t have those moments right now, which means we’re not properly living. But we do have live albums.

Luckily, there have been some really good live albums that have already come out this year, from Father John Misty, Hiss Golden Messenger, Drive-By Truckers, and others. But I’ve also been digging into the classics. And I’ve been happy to discover (and rediscover) just how many great live records there are.

There are so many, in fact, that many live albums I absolutely love did not make my list of the 50 greatest live records. I was bummed to leave off Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Live!, Santana’s Lotus, Queen’s Live Killers, Iron Maiden’s Live After Death, AC/DC’S If You Want Blood You Got It, Bob Seger’s Live Bullet, Black Lips’ Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo, and so many more. But if you’re going to undertake a task as serious as this one, you must have rules.

1. Only one album per artist. I’m doing this in the interest of including as many different artists as possible, even if punishes those with multiple classic live albums, including the Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, and Nina Simone.
2. No “half-live” albums. I refer to albums that include both studio cuts and live recordings, like Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma, U2’s Rattle & Hum, Willie Nelson’s Honeysuckle Rose, The Byrds’ Untitled, The Kinks’s Everybody’s In Show-Biz, and Cream’s Wheels Of Fire.
3. No egregiously overdubbed live albums. (This means you, Kiss’ Alive.)
4. No bootlegs. If it’s not officially released, it wasn’t considered for this list. (Trust me, it gets complicated otherwise.)
5. No “bonus disc” live albums included on the umpteenth “special” edition of a classic album. (Even when they’re great, inlacing these would make this process really complicated.)
6. No Frampton Comes Alive. (Pretty good album but still.)

More than anything while compiling this list, I treasured the live albums with the best moments — a funny anecdote shared before a song, a spontaneous scream in the midst of an intensely emotional performance, the sound of an audience held in thrall (or disgust) by what they’re hearing. I miss the music, but I also miss those one-of-kind fragments of time. So many have been lost already, due to all the canceled gigs we were supposed to see this year. I pray that more await us all.

50. Television — The Blow-Up

By the end of the ’70s — a time when lavish, multi-disc live albums became the norm for many artists — critics were bemoaning the medium as a facilitator of excessive, self-indulgent displays of show-offy musicianship. Put another way: There were too many damn guitar solos. And yet, around that time, one of the great live-album showcases for righteous guitar playing came in the delightfully gritty form of The Blow-Up by the legendary NYC band Television. While they came up in the same punk scene that fostered the Ramones and Talking Heads, Television wasn’t averse to classic rock-style guitar heroics, as evidenced by the extended, mind-blowing jams on “Little Johnny Jewel” and “Marquee Moon,” featuring the all-time two-guitar tandem of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, Gotham’s answer to Duane Allman and Dickey Betts.

49. Willie Nelson — Willie And The Family Live

At my house, this album is required listening every Fourth Of July, preferably while brats and hamburgers are simmering on a grill. What is Willie Nelson if not the sound of America? Willie And The Family captures Nelson’s eclecticism at the height of his fame in 1978 — there’s beer-chugging honky-tonk, jazzy ballads, stoner country rock, and laconic blues, all delivered with an off-handed casualness that feels like a warm body buzz. Some might say this album is too casual — Willie never seems to be trying all that hard — though the relaxed vibe of Willie And The Family ultimately feels inviting, like hanging out at the world’s biggest (and best) backyard barbecue.

48. The Runaways — Live In Japan

The woefully underrated “queens of noise” — which include future solo stars like Joan Jett and Lita Ford — were a pivotal segue band between the glam and hard rock scenes of the early ’70s and the punk explosion of the late ’70s. Their four studio albums released between 1976 and ’78 are perfect for anyone who wishes Kiss wasn’t made up for four hairy knuckle-draggers from the East Coast. But the best entry point into their righteous and ridiculously fun catalogue might very well be Live In Japan, which functions as a de-facto greatest hits album punctuated by the screams of adoring Japanese teenagers. Turns out their sleazy Sunset Strip swagger translates perfectly internationally, with classics like “Cherry Bomb” and their tremendous cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Rock N Roll” functioning as screamingly effective arena rock.

47. David Bowie — Live Nassau Coliseum ’76

While there is practically a live album for each of David Bowie’s many guises, the one I always go back to is Live Nassau Coliseum ’76, which captures his foxy, coked-out “Thin White Duke” period. At the time, Bowie was caught at a fascinating nexus point between art rock, prog, and funk, an ungainly mix that he was somehow able to communicate to thousands of people in arenas as relatively straight-forward rock music. Even a song as complicated and epic as “Station To Station” hits with tremendous power thanks to Bowie’s incredible band, including the virtuoso guitarist Carlos Alomar and the powerhouse drummer Dennis Davis, who provide a smoking instrumental bed for Bowie’s beguiling vamps.

46. Warren Zevon — Stand In The Fire

While he is associated with the same laidback ’70s L.A. rock scene that fostered the Eagles and Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon set himself apart by being anything but mellow. The barbed-wire humor of his lyrics comes through on his studio albums, but it wasn’t until Stand In The Fire that Zevon’s bonafides as a rock ‘n’ roll wild man came to the fore. Recorded in 1980 and featuring material culled from his first three albums, Stand In The Fire more than lives up to the self-immolation imagery of the title, with Zevon energetically (if also drunkenly) howling amped-up versions of his songs for a festive audience at the Roxy in LA. In the book I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life And Times Of Warren Zevon, a Zevon associate says he saw Tom Waits and John Belushi wrestling on the floor in the bathroom at one of these shows. You feel that energy on the record.

45. Pearl Jam — 10/20/00 — Las Vegas

Of the dozens of live albums that Pearl Jam released from their 2000 tour, this one stands out as an especially emotional and moving performance. Set up as a 10th anniversary concert in the midst of a tumultuous period in the band’s history, the Las Vegas show essentially feels like a “friends and family” gig, with loads of rarities (including a cover of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love” and a snippet of Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive”) and shoutouts to luminaries like band manager Kelly Curtis and record producer Brendan O’Brien from a surprisingly loquacious Eddie Vedder. But the real highlight of this LP is the debut performance of “Crown Of Thorns,” the Mother Love Bone oldie that Vedder revived in order to honor the long-time partnership between Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard. The gesture, and the inspired performance, is a real tearjerker.

44. Neko Case — The Tigers Have Spoken

While Neko Case is one of the great singer-songwriters to work in the Americana genre in the past 20 years, what really sets her apart from her peers is her excellent ability to interpret songs by a wide range of artists. This skill is spotlighted beautifully on her stunning 2004 live record, which leans mostly on traditional songs and well-chosen covers by acts such as Buffy Ste.-Marie (“Soulful Shade Of Blue”), Freakwater (“Hex”), Loretta Lynn (“Rated X”), The Shangri-Las (“The Train From Kansas City”), and The Nervous Eaters (“Loretta”). Of the originals included on the album, the haunting title track stands out as one of Case’s finest songs, thanks in part to the steady backing of the great unsung Canadian surf-roots band, The Sadies.

43. Jay-Z — Jay-Z Unplugged

In 2001, pairing Jay-Z with The Roots didn’t seem nearly as obvious as it does now. Back then, the chasm between underground and mainstream hip-hop seemed insurmountable, especially for those in The Roots’ circle. “We had a two-day summit meeting with our friends and our peers and everything. It was like the riskiest move I ever did in my life: ‘Shall I take this call from Jay-Z?’” Questlove recalled in 2011. Of course, such concerns seem silly in retrospect, given how well the MC and his backing band worked together on transitioning Jay’s Blueprint era hits to the Unplugged format. While Jay’s slight discomfort is apparent at the start — “Welcome to Jay-Z’s poetry reading,” he drolly announces — by the time they’re tearing into a transcendent “Heart Of The City (Ain’t No Love)” (featuring a tour-de-force vocal by Jaguar Wright) they sound like the greatest band in hip-hop.

42. Lou Reed — Live In Italy

With apologies to the unimpeachable 1969: Velvet Underground Live albums as well as memorable solo Reed joints like Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal and the uproarious Live: Take No Prisoners — one of the great “profane stage patter” records ever — I have to give the nod to this feral beast recorded during Lou’s 1983 tour. The main attraction here is Reed’s violent guitar interplay with the great Robert Quine, a valuable collaborator and eventual enemy who nevertheless pushed his patron to some of his most fiery playing ever. As good as those live VU albums are, I’m not sure they can quite top what Reed and Quine do during Live In Italy‘s positively apocalyptic 15-minute “Some Kinda Love/Sister Ray” medley, which sounds more like a switchblade duel than music.

41. Fela Kuti And The Africa ’70 With Ginger Baker — Live!

One of rock’s most notorious curmudgeons — as depicted in the scarifying documentary Beware Mr. Baker — Cream and Blind Faith drummer Ginger Baker was driven to googly-eyed ecstasy in the presence of the great Fela Kuti, the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and composer who was in the process of inventing Afro-Beat when this cross-cultural classic was recorded. After traveling to Africa to research the continent’s rhythmic traditions and music culture, Baker installed Kuti and his band in Abbey Road studio for this infectious jam session for a small audience of 150 people. While Baker was an acknowledged master in the rock world, he more than met his match on two tracks with Kuti’s drummer, the late Tony Allen, whose grooves on Live! demanded that even the most sedentary listeners get up and shake it.

40. Otis Redding — Live In Europe

If you like live albums that are impeccably recorded and performed in a nice, orderly fashion, you will not enjoy Live In Europe. If, however, you appreciate the sound of the best R&B singer ever dragging the best American R&B band ever, Booker T. And The MG’s, through a brick wall at 100 mph, you will definitely love Live In Europe. Released just five months before Redding’s untimely death in 1967 at the age of 26, Live In Europe finds the icon sounding more alive than he ever has on record, bounding through a selection of originals like “Respect” and “I Can’t Turn You Loose” as well as covers of the Beatles’ “Day Tripper” and The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” that fiercely reinvent those British Invasion hits as fire-breathing soul bangers.

39. Built To Spill — Live

Fans and detractors alike have long accused Built To Spill of being a jam band, given their proclivity for stretching out on very long instrumental flights of fancy in concert. Thankfully, the band also known as “the other BTS” leaned into this on their first official concert album, 2000’s Live, which was recorded during their 1999 Keep It Like A Secret tour. The central tracks here are the two epics that add up to nearly 40 minutes— a faithful cover of Neil Young’s “Cortez The Killer” that might very well top any version of that song that Neil himself has officially released, and a similarly jammed-out version of “Broken Chairs” that climaxes with several minutes of blissful feedback. It speaks to how well Built To Spill pulls these songs off that the other seven tracks feel slightly disappointing for not also going on for 20 minutes each.

38. Joni Mitchell — Miles Of Aisles

Prior to the tour captured on Miles Of Aisles, Joni Mitchell had never played regularly with a band. But in the wake of Court And Spark, she hooked up with Tom Scott and L.A. Express, a supple and soft-rockin’ jazz-pop group, to make the era’s defining singer-songwriter music. The full-bodied and highly musical sound of Miles Of Aisles points toward Mitchell’s adventurous and polarizing work later in the ’70s, in which she fully backed away from the confessional folk she was synonymous with. While Miles Of Aisles does also include several solo performances, including classics like “Blue” and “A Case Of You,” Mitchell clearly was already looking forward. “You know, a painter does a painting and that’s it. He’s had the joy of creating it,” she says at one point. “No one ever said to Van Gogh, ‘Paint another ‘Starry Night’ again, man.’” Well said, Joni.

37. Wilco — Kicking Television

Kicking Television arrived after an extended period of upheaval for Wilco, when the band nearly fell apart while cycling through a series of lineups in the wake of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. With Kicking Television, however, Jeff Tweedy landed on the version of Wilco that remains in place to this day. Listening to the live album, it’s easy to see why this Wilco was the one to stick with, as vital contributors like drummer Glenn Kotche and guitarist Nels Cline prove adept at playing whatever style Tweedy’s songs require, whether it’s the pastoral folk soul of “Jesus, Etc.” or the shredding post-rock excursions of “Spiders (Kidsmoke).”

36. Jimmy Smith — Root Down

Herbie Hancock is rightly celebrated for merging keyboard-centric jazz licks with hard funk on his landmark 1973 album Head Hunters. But it’s worth noting that the great organist Jimmy Smith was also working in this vein slightly before Hancock on his brilliant 1972 live record Root Down. While Smith’s work in the ’50s and ’60s was known for being fairly middle of the road, Root Down runs hot from beginning to end, with Smith’s infectious riffs playing off wah-wah guitars and hyperactive drums. Root Down also connected with future generations thanks to the Beastie Boys, who sampled the smoking title track on 1994’s Ill Communication.

35. MC5 — Kick Out The Jams

There is no better song introduction on a live album than “kick out the jams, motherfuckers!” John Denver could have said that on 1975’s An Evening With John Denver before playing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and the gentle-minded hippies in the audience would have reflexively shivved each other to death. For the MC5, however, it was simply yet another invitation to chaos amid one of the most raucous stage shows in rock history. If Kick Out The Jams has a weakness, it’s that the songwriting never comes close to the amount of energy and spit exuded on stage. But what energy and spit! More than 50 years later, Kick Out The Jams still sounds like the most aggressive and freewheeling live record you could ever hope to hear.

34. B.B. King — Live At The Regal

B.B. King’s career was so long and enduring that multiple generations came to know him long after he become an icon, when he was a kindly old man who rarely left his stool on stage. But in 1964, when this album was recorded at Chicago’s Regal Theater, King was one of the great live acts of his era, a master with a seemingly endless array of the sweetest guitar licks on Earth, supported by a crack band with a punchy horn section. Live At The Regal captures this period beautifully, showing King at the height of his charisma and musical potency. It goes without saying that this is some of the finest live blues you’ll ever encounter, but what I love is the excited squeals of the audience. Before he was a national monument, B.B. was one hell of a sex symbol, and his interaction with the adoring Regal crowd is practically erotic.

33. Beyoncé — Homecoming

Beyoncé’s 2018 Coachella performance is likely the most famous single concert of the last decade, though it is remembered primarily as a visual extravaganza. The soundtrack, however, shows that even when you strip the concert of the eye-popping spectacle, the music more than enough stands on its own. Much like the Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense, Homecoming in many ways is structured like a greatest hits album, taking the listener through the many phases of Beyoncé’s career for the purpose of articulating the overall greatness of the artist. Though what ultimately makes Homecoming a defining live album for a generation is its sense of scale — truly no other artist right now has the ability to sound this enormous without feeling any need to justify or explain that grandiosity.

32. Led Zeppelin — How The West Was Won

For many years, the best way to hear Zeppelin at their live peak was via bootlegs. The soundtrack to the trippy, excessively lemon-squeezey concert film The Song Remains The Same is a fascinating curio, but it doesn’t quite deliver the goods. It wasn’t until the early aughts that How The West Was Won offered an official (and great-sounding) representation of Led Zeppelin at its finest, compiling performances from two LA area shows in June 1972. While the many Zeppelin bootlegs that continue to circulate are in some ways preferable — I highly recommend doing a casual Google search for “Led Zeppelin Supreme Destroyers” — you can’t really go wrong with this era of the band, in which they deftly balanced pure excess (the 25-minute “Dazed And Confused”) with delicate melodicism (the acoustic set featuring sparkling versions of “Going To California” and “That’s The Way”).

31. Nina Simone — Nina Simone In Concert

Nina Simone doesn’t sing songs so as much as inhabit them, digging deep into the text and subtext and manifesting its heart and soul with her one-of-a-kind voice and spirit. On her albums, the orchestrations occasionally get in the way of that voice. But on her many live albums, including this 1964 classic, Simone’s ability to become whatever her material requires and make the audience feel every single word is spellbinding. Recorded over three different performances at Carnegie Hall, Nina Simone In Concert is celebrated as a civil rights protest record, in ways that are both direct and devastating (“Mississippi Goddam”) and subtle and slyly funny (her absolutely titanic version of “Pirate Jenny,” from The Threepenny Opera). But what this album also asserts is the supreme singularity of Simone’s talent. There’s nobody that sounds like her on this record.

30. John Prine — John Prine Live

The late, great John Prine (of course) wrote many incredible songs, a good number of which are featured on this delightful album released in 1988. But how magical is it, not long after his death earlier this year, to hear the man simply tell stories, which he does often on John Prine Live? The between-song patter on this album is as good as the tunes, like the winding anecdote about how he wrote “The Oldest Baby In The World” based on a tabloid headline or the brief overview of Sabu Dastagir’s cinematic career that precedes “Sabu Visits The Twin Cities Alone.” For those who loved Prine’s music and mourned his passing, this album somehow brings him back to life.

29. The Roots — The Roots Come Alive

It’s hard to think of an active live band more versatile than The Roots, who as the house band on The Tonight Show is tasked with supporting every kind of musical act there is. The Roots Come Alive documents them at a relatively early point in their history, when they were just starting to build a national audience in the wake of the landmark 1999 LP Things Fall Apart. While that album was acclaimed as an ambitious and panoramic work that bridged hip-hop and old-school soul, The Roots Come Alive feels like the full blossoming of their warm, elastic live sound, with keyboardist Kamal Gray and drummer Questlove shining especially bright as Black Thought slays it over their impossibly funky instrumental beds.

28. Townes Van Zandt — Live At The Old Quarter, Houston, Texas

Back in the pre-Covid 19 days, every town had at least one bar in which lonely troubadours sang sad songs on their acoustic guitars for minuscule audiences. Most of the time, those performances were forgettable. Live At The Old Quarter, Houston, Texas, however, captures the single greatest example of that kind of show. It’s impossible to fathom walking into a Houston dive and hearing a genius play one perfect song after another for a fitfully interested audience, but that’s exactly what this album is. Van Zandt is in great form, playing nearly all of the tunes that he later became famous for: “Pancho And Lefty,” “If I Needed You,” “Rex’s Blues,” “Don’t You Take It Too Bad,” and many more. But what’s most striking about Live At The Old Quarter is how empty the bar sounds. You can literally hear the beer bottles clank between songs. The feeling of intimacy is incredible, if also a tad depressing. If success was determined solely by talent, Townes would have been playing the Astrodome.

27. John Coltrane — Live At The Village Vanguard

In 1961, John Coltrane set about alienating much of his audience by pursuing a musical direction that to many seemed abrasive, atonal, even headache-inducing. You can hear that shift happen in real time on Live At The Village Vanguard, particularly the 16-minute track on side two, “Chasin’ The Trane,” in which Coltrane tears off long, wild solos that completely upended the conventional view of proper jazz at the time. Critics were divided on whether this represented the sound of the future or merely noise. Hearing the album now is to appreciate an acknowledged classic by one of jazz’s biggest icons without dampening the fire or forward-thinking ambition of the music, which still has the power (depending on your point of view) to bedazzle or befuddle.

26. Bill Withers — Live At Carnegie Hall

If Bill Withers was nervous about recording a live album at a venue as hallowed as Carnegie Hall, he doesn’t show it on the masterful Live At Carnegie Hall. What makes this album so captivating is how utterly cool Withers is, even when he’s leaning into the hard funk of “Use Me” or delivering the hard truths of “Grandma’s Hands.” There’s never a moment here when he’s not in complete control of the music or, more important, the quiet. The most powerful performance on Live At Carnegie Hall, “I Can’t Write Left Handed,” is a deep and gutting song about war that Withers never oversells, because he doesn’t have to.

25. My Morning Jacket — Okonokos

“We are the innovators, they are the imitators,” Jim James sings at the start of Okonokos. It might seem like a strange boast — My Morning Jacket, after all, was a southern rock band who put out a double live album at a time in the aughts when southern rock and double live albums seemed like the opposite of innovative. But the power of Okonokos is how MMJ was able to take something that might have appeared anachronistic, and execute it so well that a whole new generation could appreciate the form. Drawing mostly from the band’s best albums — particularly At Dawn, It Still Moves and Z — Okonokos is unapologetically expansive and epic, demonstrating beyond a shadow of a doubt that MMJ ranks among the very best live bands of their generation. On Okonokos, they bring together the operatic emotionalism of classic rock with the exploratory weirdness of the era’s best indie music.

24. Phish — Amsterdam

A box set collecting three concerts performed by one of the top jam bands ever in the weed capital of the world? The jokes practically write themselves. But true believers know that some of the most adventurous rock music of the ’90s is contained on this album, which was recorded during one of the greatest years in Phish history. Few bands have ever improvised with a higher batting average than Phish on Amsterdam. Even when they venture impossibly far into the sonic wilderness, like on the 30-minute marathon version of “Stash,” they always maintain a firm grasp on coherence. In spite of their goofy hippie image, Phish has the ability to take their jams into dark and unforeseen places, like the incredible 21-minute debut performance of “Carini” that quickly devolves into an all-out noise meltdown that’s far closer to Sonic Youth than the Grateful Dead.

23. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers — The Live Anthology

Most live albums are about documenting one great night in an artist’s career. The Live Anthology, meanwhile, covers many great nights spread out over the course of 30 years. In the process, an argument is made on behalf of Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers being the most consistently great live American rock band of the late 20th century. Listening to The Live Anthology, it’s awfully hard to disagree. The hits (“American Girl,” “Free Fallin’,” “The Waiting,” literally dozens more) are predictably awesome, whether they come during the band’s punk-ish prime in the ’70s or their more laidback era as wizened southern-rock vets in the aughts. But there’s also a bevy of killer songs that never made it on albums, including two all-time greats: The Allman Brothers-like “Melinda,” and the fever-dream talking blues “Lost Without You.” The result is a reliable comfort listen that reveals fresh nuances with each spin.

22. Miles Davis — Black Beauty: Miles Davis At Fillmore West

By the late ’60s, rock ‘n’ roll and funk had stolen the musical thunder from jazz, marginalizing many of the genre’s greatest artists. Miles Davis, however, actually grew his audience by absorbing rock and funk and demonstrating that he could reinvent that music just as surely as he had jazz. Black Beauty: Miles Davis At Fillmore West documents this period at its height, on a night when he was opening for the Grateful Dead. He had just released Bitches Brew and recorded Jack Johnson, and was making his first forays into rock venues. Black Beauty shows that Miles had been studying the Dead and other jammy rock bands almost as closely as they were studying him, though the excellence of his band — including Jack DeJohnette and keyboardist Chick Corea — as well as Miles’ own peerless vision keep this from being merely an act of bandwagon jumping.

21. Little Feat — Waiting For Columbus

When live albums were at their height in the ’70s, they were actually a way for mid-tier bands to vault to the superstar level. It was especially helpful for acts who never could seem to make studio albums that had the same vitality as their live shows. This gambit worked for arena-rockers like Kiss, Cheap Trick, and Peter Frampton, and it also worked for the LA band Little Feat, a critical favorite who finally scored a platinum album with their 1978 live set, Waiting For Columbus. While the band’s studio work during the ’70s was strong, Waiting For Columbus is infused with a party-hearty vibe that made it the go-to album for their growing audience. Mixing jammy rock with New Orleans funk and left-field prog flourishes, Waiting For Columbus also synched with the sound of FM radio like none of Little Feat’s previous releases, making it one of the era’s most recognizable live records.

20. Neil Young And Crazy Horse — Live Rust

No boomer-era fave responded to the punk revolution of the late ’70s as shrewdly as Neil Young. While most of his peers were either mired in career doldrums or preoccupied with looking back at the ’60s, Neil cut his hair and cranked the amps to 11, proving with a vengeance that he could actually play louder and harder than any of the snotty kids who followed in his wake. He emerged with this tougher, contemporary guise on his classic 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps, and reiterated it on Live Rust, blowing out older songs such as “The Loner” and “Cinnamon Girl” along with newer, pure amphetamine rockers like “Sedan Delivery.”

19. Waylon Jennings — Waylon Live

When Waylon Jennings became one of the breakout stars of the “outlaw” country movement of the early ’70s, he made a point to play venues far removed from the traditional country circuit, like the notorious Max’s Kansas City in New York City, the site of many historic Velvet Underground shows. That’s because in many ways what Jennings was playing was not conventional country music, but rather a twangier take on rock ‘n’ roll. You can hear that mentality come through loud and clear on Jennings’ hit 1976 LP Waylon Live, in which he and his band, The Waylors, come on like Texas’ answer to the Rolling Stones. Jennings’ sneering bravado on rockers like “T For Texas” and “I’m A Ramblin’ Man” and his brooding sensitivity on ballads such as “Good Hearted Woman” carries the album, but a vital supporting actor is Ralph Mooney, the pedal-steel wizard who lifts tracks like “Rainy Day Woman” straight up to the sky. “Pick it, Moon!”

18. Cheap Trick — At Budokan

Just when you think live albums have become predictable, here comes a bar band from Rockford, Ill. who somehow have become as big as The Beatles … in Japan. So they go to one of the country’s most famous arenas — where the actual Beatles once performed, along with countless sumo wrestlers — and record their concerts in front of thousands of screaming Japanese teenagers. And then that album is what ends up also making them stars in the U.S. Even now, more than 40 years after it came out, Cheap Trick’s At Budokan is one of rock’s oddest underdog stories. It would be impossible to believe if the music didn’t happen to be incredible — after this album, the American public couldn’t believe that a band capable of writing “Surrender” and “I Want You To Want Me” wasn’t already famous.

17. Aretha Franklin — Live At Fillmore West

Aretha fans will be justifiably peeved that I didn’t put Amazing Grace here. While that album is undeniably stirring — both as a showcase for Franklin’s unparalleled voice as well as her religious intensity — I tend to put on this secular album recorded around the same time at one of the most iconic hippie-era venues more. While Amazing Grace finds Aretha returning to the comfort of the church, Live At Fillmore West shows her venturing into the less certain environs of the early ’70s rock world. She covers Stephen Stills’ “Love The One You’re With” and Bread’s “Make It With You,” as well as delivers her definitive rendition of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” In the end, Franklin is able to exist in both the rock world and the church, bringing it all home with a rampaging, uplifting performance of “Spirit In The Dark” with special, surprise guest star Ray Charles.

16. The Rolling Stones — Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert

When this album opens with Sam Cutler’s announcement that The Rolling Stones are “the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band,” you have about two seconds to be incredulous. Then “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” kicks in and removes all doubt. Recorded during a multi-night stand at Madison Square Garden — just about a week before their infamous Altamont concert — Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! first and foremost is a testament to how quickly Keith Richards locked in with Mick Taylor on their first tour together after the termination (and eventual death) of founding guitarist Brian Jones. The way they weave in and out of each other on “Midnight Rambler” and “Sympathy For The Devil” helped to define what two-guitar rock bands would sound like for the next several decades.

15. Jimi Hendrix — Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts

If I could include multiple Jimi Hendrix live albums on this list, I would have definitely also added Live At Monterey, which documents his star-marking performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. However, if I have to pick one, I’m going with this box set covering his Band Of Gypsys concerts at the Fillmore East as New Year’s Eve 1969 turned to New Year’s Day 1970. Ejecting The Experience in favor of bassist Billy Cox and “fatback” drummer Buddy Miles, Songs For Groovy Children is remarkable both for the music it contains — I can never hear enough versions of “Machine Gun” — and the lost potential it hints at. Had Hendrix lived, the funky hard-rock sound of these shows suggests he would have had a pretty amazing run in the ’70s.

14. Van Morrison — It’s Too Late To Stop Now

For decades, Van Morrison has cultivated a reputation as the surliest rock legend on the planet. This often extends to his live performances, which he treats with the enthusiasm that most of us save for visiting the dentist’s office. However, in the past, Morrison has recorded several memorable live albums, the most celebrated being It’s Too Late To Stop Now, from 1974. Supported by an 11-piece band dubbed the Caledonia Soul Orchestra, Morrison threw himself into his most famous songs with messianic gusto, singing the likes of “Gloria,” “Domino,” “Caravan,” “I’ve Been Working,” and especially “Listen To The Lion” like he was about to retire permanently from the stage. In some ways, in terms of this Van Morrison, he was right. When Morrison later accused Bruce Springsteen of stealing his mojo, he probably had this album in mind.

13. Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band — Passaic 9/19/78

There are number of shows that Bruce Springsteen performed on the Darkness On The Edge Of Town tour that started out as beloved bootlegs and how since been released via Nugs.net, including performances from Los Angeles, Houston, and Cleveland. All of those shows — or the bootleg from Winterland in San Francisco on that tour — are absolutely dynamite. You could also go with other treasured live albums like Hammersmith Odeon London ’75 or the mammoth Live/1975-85 box set. But for me, Passaic 9/19/78 gets the edge as the definitive Springsteen live release, because it captures Bruce and his band at the absolute zenith of their powers when they still had something to prove. For all of the grandeur of Hammersmith Odeon London ’75, the sense of purpose and very real fury that powers Passaic 9/19/78 comes through loud and clear when Springsteen cuts loose his guitar, especially on the best-ever version of “Prove It All Night,” which opens and closes with his extended soloing. You can find killer shows from any Springsteen era, but no album rocks as hard as this one.

12. James Brown — James Brown Live At The Apollo, 1962

James Brown’s Live At The Apollo is the Fast/Furious franchise of live albums. There are four of them in all, recorded at different points in his career though with an underlying unifying theme of deathless funk. But is as often the case with franchises, the original from 1963 is the most iconic. For those who hadn’t yet seen The Godfather of Soul in person, Live At The Apollo testified to his boundless energy and his band’s mathematical precision, all of which drove audiences into a frenzy. A relatively scant release clocking in at just 31 minutes, Live At The Apollo feels like it blows by in half that time, though Brown does slow things down considerably for the slow-burn scorcher “Lost Someone,” in which the women in the audience scream as loud as James himself.

11. Johnny Cash — At Folsom Prison

Here’s a live album in which the audience is as much a part of the show as the performer. When Johnny Cash sings in “Folsom Prison Blues” that he shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, and a bunch of inmates sitting in the actual Folsom Prison spontaneously cheer, well … let’s just say that dozens of narratives could be discerned in that reaction. And yet, in spite of the foreboding setting, At Folsom Prison sounds like a performer connecting with an audience with uncommon empathy. Cash sings hard-luck songs (“Cocaine Blues,” “25 Minutes To Go”) and jokey asides (“Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart”) with that same “voice of God” baritone, somehow making it all seem conversational. He makes prisoners feel like free men, and the listener at home like an outlaw.

10. Donny Hathaway — Live

This troubled soul genius took his own life in 1979 at the age of 33, cutting short what promised to be one of the great careers in R&B history. Hathaway’s talents as a songwriter, musician, and interpreter of popular songs are on full display on Live, one of the most ecstatic and joyous of all live records. Recorded at The Troubadour in LA and the Bitter End in New York City, Live has the feel of an intimate club show that positively explodes with a performer’s talent and infectious personality. In terms of covers, Hathaway boldly takes on the likes of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” and somehow manages to make them his own. But the centerpiece is the absolutely blazing rendition of Hathaway’s own “The Ghetto,” which features an extended keyboard solo by Hathaway that you wish would never end.

9. The Allman Brothers Band — At Fillmore East

You remember back when you used to go to concerts, and someone in the audience would inevitably get snarky and request “Whipping Post”? This album is the reason why. Only nobody can actually play “Whipping Post” like the Allman Brothers Band. The staggering 23-minute version from At Fillmore East is justifiably celebrated for the blazing guitar work of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, the best two-guitar team in rock history, but what really makes that track (and the entire album) cook is the two-drummer tandem, Jaimoe Johanson and Butch Trucks. While the Allmans taught a generation of southern rock bands to get freaky with their guitar solos, the band’s secret was always that they swung harder than anybody in the game, then and now.

8. The Band — The Last Waltz

Purists will insist that Rock Of Ages is the better live album by The Band, and they’re not wrong — based purely on how well The Band plays, that’s the LP to go with. But The Last Waltz isn’t just about The Band, nor is it even just about music. The Last Waltz might as well be called Classic Rock: The Album, given that features so many boomer monuments in one place: Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Mavis Staples, Neil Diamond, and Eric Clapton, along with the biggest legend of all, Muddy Waters, who sounds like he played this gig right before passing permanently into the realm of myth. Sure, cynics can call it bloated and overdubbed within an inch of its life. But can you really hold on to your cynicism after hearing Van warble “ray-dio” in “Caravan,” or Rick Danko’s heartbreaking tenor on “It Makes No Difference”? Why would you want to?

7. Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense

Like The Band, Talking Heads have a less famous live album, The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads, that is arguably better than the more famous one. I came very close to putting the less famous one on this list, but come on! You can’t deny Stop Making Sense, the most ingeniously constructed live album ever, especially the complete version that was released in 1999. Starting with David Byrne playing “Psycho Killer” by himself, then adding the essential bassist Tina Weymouth, and then slowly growing in sound as more band members join in with each song, the performance creates an incredible sense of anticipation, like an unforgettable party that somehow keeps adding cooler and cooler guests. Actually, there’s no party that’s ever been that fun, except for Stop Making Sense.

6. Nirvana — MTV Unplugged In New York

MTV Unplugged In New York in some ways is the depressing flip side of Stop Making Sense — both albums are thoughtfully constructed, with each number feeling like a chapter in a larger narrative that builds to an overwhelming climax. But whereas Stop Making Sense is very much an expression of life, MTV Unplugged In New York dwells on death and the afterlife, concluding with the harrowing howls at the end of the heart-stopping “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.” The short breath that Kurt Cobain takes before concluding the song hints at his exhaustion, but his voice has never sounded better on record than it does here, a perfect balance of defiance and resignation that stands at his most eloquent epitaph.

5. Keith Jarrett — The Köln Concert

Music is not sports, in that it’s not a competition. But audiences do flock to live music, in part, because we want to see talented people perform incredible physical and mental feats that just don’t seem humanly possible. Take this scenario for example: Imagine sitting behind a piano on stage, by yourself, in front of an audience of paying customers and having no idea what you’re about to play. An anxiety dream for most of us is the set up for The Köln Concert by the incomparable jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, arguably the most downright awe-inspiring live album ever. Composed of four improvised solo piano pieces, ranging in length from seven to 26 minutes, The Köln Concert was preceded by a comedy of errors portending disaster: Jarrett (a veteran of Miles Davis and Art Blakey’s bands) was tired by the long drive to the gig in Cologne, Germany; he was provided with a substandard piano that took several hours to tune; even his pre-show meal arrived late. And yet, Jarrett still connected with his mystical muse, and produced music of astonishing power and beauty, all while softly grunting and moaning as his fingers moved across the keys with the deftness of angels traversing the clouds.

4. The Grateful Dead — Sunshine Dream [Veneta, OR, 8/27/72]

The Dead have officially released more live albums than anyone on this list, along with the thousands of bootlegs of practically every concert they ever played. But this show — played on a scorchingly hot late summer day for an audience of naked, drugged-out hippies who apparently couldn’t keep tabs on their kids for more than two seconds — deserves serious consideration as the best gig they ever played. Fresh off the overseas tour documented on the classic Europe ’72 LP, The Dead was suddenly blessed with the best songs of their lives, including “Jack Straw,” “Playing In The Band,” “Bertha,” and “He’s Gone.” But it’s the improvisations that truly make Veneta a standout even amid one of the Dead’s most storied periods, including what is considered by many the best ever version of “Dark Star” and an effortlessly beautiful “Bird Song” that feels like one of this band’s finest mind melds.

3. The Who — Live At Leeds

Let me be specific here: The 14-track version issued in 1995 is the one you want, not the (too short) six-track original from 1970 or the (too long) 33-track “deluxe” edition from 2001. The 1995 one is the greatest hard-rock live album ever made, and possibly the best hard-rock LP of any kind. Recorded on Valentine’s Day 1970, Live At Leeds captures The Who when they were in the midst of their non-stop post-Tommy tours. They were playing two-hour-plus heaters nearly every night, before drugs and alcohol slowly rotted away the feral intensity of the band’s engine, drummer Keith Moon. Given how aggressive The Who were at this time, it’s amazing how melodic and even light-hearted this album seems. (“A Quick One While He’s Away” manages to be both hilarious and almost unbearably spiritual.) They truly were having the time of their lives murdering a different audience every night.

2. Sam Cooke — Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963

In the fall of 1964, not long before his death, Sam Cooke released Sam Cooke At The Copa, a velvet-smooth live record composed of standards done in the style of mainstream pop stars like Perry Como and Nat King Cole. The album was intended to make in-roads with a white audience, which made it preferable at the time to another live album that Cooke recorded the previous year at Miami’s Harlem Square Club. The much grittier Harlem Square Club recording was actually shelved by Cooke’s record label for sounding too rough; it wouldn’t see the light of day until 1985, at which point it immediately overshadowed Cooke’s Copa album … and most other live albums. On Live At The Harlem Square Club, Cooke claims his rightful place as one of the best and most influential singers of the modern pop era. He is equally capable of delivering romantic ballads like “Cupid” and barnstormers like “Feel It (Don’t Fight It)” with a mix of soulful rasp and sly charisma that sounds like the blueprint for every significant pop star who followed, for an audience that gave him the rabid response he deserved.

1. Bob Dylan — The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert

What sets this album apart from all the others on this list — aside from its quality — is that the other live records captured performances in which audiences appreciated what they were hearing. (In some cases, the cheering might have even been sweetened a bit in post-production.) But the “Royal Albert Hall” concert — actually recorded in Manchester, England in May of 1966, and not officially released until 32 years later — is infamous precisely because people hated what they were hearing, so much so that they booed the musicians and even called the guy out front “Judas.” (Weird note: When you play this album on streaming services, the booing is mistakenly edited out, because the jeers were tucked on the CD as “pregap” tracks.) The fact that the electric half of this concert, in which Bob Dylan is joined by the Hawks, sounds absolutely incredible makes the jeering all the more dramatic and the performance actually courageous. (I don’t want to give the acoustic half short shrift because it’s also fantastic, but the electric portion is the main attraction here.) Along with capturing wonderful live music in real time, no other live album that I can think of puts you in the middle of an historic moment quite as vividly as this one. You are there, witnessing Dylan change the course of rock history, and staring at your fellow audience members in disbelief: What is wrong with you? How can you not love this?! Play f*cking loud, Bob!

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Alternative clothing company Dolls Kill is under fire after their recent actions in response to Black Lives Matter protestors in Los Angeles. The company’s owner, Shoddy Lynn, shared a picture to her Instagram page that depicted over two dozen police officers blocking off a street that was in front of the Dolls Kill Los Angeles location with a caption that read, “Direct Action in its glory.” She was quickly called out for her failure to acknowledge and stand by the Black Lives Matter movement and the criticizing was delivered by celebrities, which included SZA and Rico Nasty, along with their everyday fans. Responding to the criticism, Dolls Kill posted an apology to their Instagram that read:

You are right to be upset with us — we were slow to show our support of BLACK LIVES MATTER and we should have done more. Dolls Kill is a company, but first _ foremost a collective of misfits who work 2 make this brand what it is & we need to make some things clear. WE @ DOLLS KILL CONDEMN RACISM, POLICE BRUTALITY, VIOLENCE, BIGOTRY AND HATE. In the past, we haven’t been outspoken on issues. When customers have spoken out, we’ve responded by fixing it from the inside. Cutting ties with vendors, pulling items from the site and being more inclusive. We’ve never spoken publicly, because as a fashion brand, it never felt like our place. But we’ve learned that silence is complicit. It’s not excusable. WE HEAR U. WE WILL CHANGE.

The responses to this apology poured in by the boatload, one of them coming from SZA. Posting a comment under the apology, the “Love Galore” singer said, “You called the cops on protestors???? … wow.” Rico Nasty also chimed in on the brand’s actions on Twitter saying, “Dolls kill owner unfollowed me… Not surprised. See y’all at hot topic.”

In their apology Dolls Kill also pledged $1 million to purchase products from black-owned fashion brands and designers to feature on their site and asked their followers to suggest brands in the comment section.

Check out the apology and comments from SZA and Rico Nasty above.