Is Everybody Listening? [Live, Original recording remastered, Import]

Supertramp | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 22, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live, Original recording remastered, Import
• Label: Pilot/Big Daddy
• ASIN: B00005QZ6Z
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #336,769 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. School

2. Bloody Well Right

3. Hide In Your Shell

4. Asylum

5. Sister Moonshine

6. Just A Normal Day

7. Another Man's Woman

8. Lady

9. Dreamer

10. Rudy

11. If Everyone Was Listening

12. Crime Of The Century

Editorial Reviews

UK digitally remastered release recorded live in 1976 in Cleveland Ohio, by their most well known line-up on the 'Crisis What Crisis' tour. 12 tracks including a wealth of material from their hit 1974 album, 'Crime of the Century' including 'Dreamer' & th

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Supertramp in top form on early live recording, August 6, 2006

By 

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Is Everybody Listening (Audio CD)

Recorded at the cusp of their international break through, Is Everybody Listening finds the band lean, mean and hungry. The subsequent live albums Paris (1981), Live (1988) and It Was The Best Of Times (1999) were more polished and musically accomplished but lack the fire demonstrated on Is Everybody Listening. It's not the ideal collection for new fans (Paris is probably the slickest and most representative of the band at their best) but there is an edginess here missing on later albums. Perhaps it's due to the fact that the band was on the cusp of breaking through to a larger audience but, more than likely, it's due to the leap in quality of the Davies/Hodgson compositions. IEL is far from their best sounding recording (in fact it doesn't sound much better than a very good bootleg), but this snapshot of the band prior to international stardom captures them in good form and with a handful of solid, catchy tunes.

Like all the releases from Burning Airlines, IEL is more than a historical document. It presents Supertramp still trying to find their footing as artists. It also presents the band willing to experiment and play with their sound in such a way that each track sounds fresh and different from their studio counterparts. Although I would have liked to see comments from Davies, Hodgson or the other band members on the recording, the brief history of the band and insights in the booklet are interesting. It's curious that Hodgson isn't pictured on the photos taken from roughly the same time frame (only Davies and Helliwell are featured) as it was their unique songwriting partnership that allowed the band sound to gel at this time.

The fact that there was no overdubbing and the band limited song selections to two albums (they performed only songs from Crime of the Century and the unfinished Crisis? What Crisis? Ignoring their first two albums and recent single Land Ho!) makes IEL a niche album for hard-core fans. There's also a handful of instrumental/vocal mistakes which would probably been fixed if this album had originally been intended for commercial release. The mistakes only add to the album's charm and honesty. The visual image used for the last Davies/Hodgson album Famous Last Words showed each band member performing a high wire act without a net. IEL is the band living that moment in time; you get the distinct impression that Supertramp is taking considerable risks but the results are most rewarding.

All of the above criticisms add to the charm of the album. It's about as naked as Supertramp ever got in public. It's fun to see many of these songs reduced to their basic arrangements. Since Crime hadn't been finished at this stage, IEL is almost like sitting on the rehearsal for that album. Whatever these songs may lack in slick production touches, are more than made up for by the feeling that Supertramp is making up the material as they're going along. This is where the band plowed the ground and planted the seeds for their unique progressive pop sound. Although their rein at the top of the charts was short lived, IEL conveys the very qualities that made the band so appealing.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is anybody still listening?, February 22, 2002

By 

D. Leonard "dnecolt" (Kansas City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Is Everybody Listening? (Audio CD)

I only found this disk by accident -- amazing that only about a decade ago these guys were all over the place. Given the fact that this disk features the "classic" lineup (i.e. with Roger Hodgson), I of course could not resist.

The disk is good, it's a neat document of a time before this band became huge. The sound quality is suprisignly mediocre, though, given Supertramp's usual attention to sound quality (seems like they considered their concert sound guy, Russell Pope, a member of the band). There's distortion on some of the "louder" passages, which is distracting.

Overall, this is nice, if bittersweet record, since it reminds how good they were when they were good, and how much they're missed today (by me, at any rate).

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Travel back to 1975, not 1976!, February 20, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Is Everybody Listening? (Audio CD)

First of all the date and location of this disc is all wrong. Recorded in London on Sunday, March 9th in 1975, this disc sees Roger, Rick, Bob, Dougie, and John perform a well put together set that manages to put the whole "Crime Of The Century" LP and 4 songs from the highly under-rated "Crisis? What Crisis?" LP into one great show. The sound might not be the best, and that's due to the original of this show being a bootleg called "Dreamers." It shoud be noted that John Helliwell's rendition of "A" (You're Adorable")is uncredited on this disc.