Lee Michaels Live [Live]

Lee Michaels | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 20, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: One Way Records Inc
• ASIN: B000002R8F
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,499 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes the Hammond organ scream., November 30, 2002

By 

M. Schiks "blues523" (Bethel, MN. USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lee Michaels Live (Audio CD)

To me, nothing is more exciting than a keyboard player who knows his or her way around a Hammond B-3. There is no other instrument like it and no other keyboard can copy it. It screams, growls and Lee Michaels knew how to play. Not all the cuts are my favorites...but what he does with intro to Stormy Monday stil makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Other tracks are from fair to great. Michaels was best live. He was a two piece band (played bass with the footpedals)when I saw him. Had a drummer named Frosty. He was incredible. This recording captures that.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rock organ, the way it was "back in the day"., April 18, 2004

By 

Mike Kahrs (Fullerton, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lee Michaels Live (Audio CD)

For me, this double-album reminds me of how concerts sounded in the '70s - loud, distorted, powerful. This album, recorded in a primitive fashion by today's standards, is a benchmark in the evolution of rock keyboardists. Bill Beer of Keyboard Products (LA) fame modified Michaels' Hammond to the extreme, as Beer did for most of the '70s rock bands such as Santana, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, etc. No Hammond organ on any live album sounds better. This album is not one I listen to regularly, but Lee Michaels is on any top-ten list of rock organists main influences, whether they will admit it or not, or whether they even know it or not. I value my copy highly.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars transcendent and trite, October 27, 2007

By 

Don Schmittdiel "running_man" (Clinton Twp., MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lee Michaels Live (Audio CD)

Lee Michaels was a favorite on my play list as a college student at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan in the mid-1970's. By 1973 when 'Lee Michaels Live' was released as a double-LP, Lee was able to draw tunes from five of his six studio albums, and he added an unreleased track, 'Forty Reasons' for good measure. 'Forty Reasons' may be one reason, along with 'Heighty Hi', why Lee's big hit, 'Do You Know What I Mean', didn't make the setlist. All three songs are cut from the same mold, being medium tempo, funky rock tracks with relatively trite lyrics. 'Heighty Hi' talks repeatedly about everyone being stoned, "...and so am I...", while 'Forty Reasons' keeps it just as superficial with a chorus of, "I have nothing to say, and I'll call it a day". What's to be gained by hearing Lee repeatedly ask, "Do you know what I mean"? Should the track be included just so we can say we have a live version? Of course another possiblility is that a suitable version of the track was never captured in concert for inclusion on the album.

One of the remarkable things about Lee Michaels lies in the dichotomy between his trite recordings, and his transcendent recordings. Ascending above the shlock are some of the most challenging lyrics of the Vietnam War era. Consider this from Recital's 'War': "How would you like to see a baby burn? Could you march on and kill one more"? And then there is the effective chorus from Barrel's 'Thumb': "I wonder how far they will go?", a rumination on the depths of depravity among America's leadership. Combine these dramatic lyrics with Lee's powerful performance on the Hammond B3, and his soaring, high-end dominant vocal delivery, and you can see why Michaels could hammer out seventy-six minutes of first-rate entertainment backed only by drummer Keith Knudson.

Other highlights on the disc include the opener, the rousing 'Hold On To Freedom' from 1972's 'Space and First Takes', a blusy cover of 'Stormy Monday', a studio version of which appears on Lee's self-titled third LP, three solid renditions of tracks from 1970's 'Barrel', the funky blues-rocker 'Mad Dog', the rock ballad 'UMMMMMM My Lady', and Lee's tretise on unrequited love, 'Day of Change'. 'Oak Fire' is an undistinguished selection from 'Fifth', which also produced 'Rock Me Baby'. The latter track is infested with a brief audio fart, which is not representative of the fine audio quality of the rest of the CD.

As with many of Lee's officially released discs, limited production has led to a situation where demand far outpaces supply, driving the price of a digital copy to unrealistic levels. Fortunately, technology has now caught up with the on-line opportunists, and MP3 downloads of Lee's rare recordings are now being made available. Unfortunately with 'Lee Michaels Live', you'll notice that downloads of two tracks, 'Hold On To Freedom' and 'Heighty Hi' are not being made available. These tracks run 10:55 and 10:12 respectively, so almost a third of the disc is not being offered for sale, and these tracks are hardly expendable. Hopefully better minds will prevail, and this long out-of-print disc will be made available to the masses in its entirety soon. Life is too short not to download what is available already, however, so step up to the modem and click, click, click.