Customer Reviews

Lee Michaels Live

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

By the time of the release of: "Lee Michaels Live" in 1973, this musician was indeed well known in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lee, migrated from the central valley of California to San Francisco in the mid-sixties, and very quickly became known as: "The B3 Beast" By the end of that decade, Lee was a headliner on two coasts {Lee, was the headlining act at the Fillmore East in 1971 when Humble Pie recorded their: "Rockin' The Fillmore" LP}.

By the early seventies the Lee Michaels Band consisted of Lee on Hammond Organ and a massive drumming army named Frosty. And at the time of this live recording Lee had five albums under his belt and was as popular as Steve Miller {Pre:"Joker"} His white soul was a force to witness in concert and with Frosty on his left side facing him these two men seemed to be having a duel on stage, and enjoying every second of it!

Well, for some reason, this 1973 record is without Frosty, and as Keith Knudsen, {a later member of the Doobie Brothers} is a fine drummer it was Frosty who was the 'Yang' to Lee's 'Ying', and without him: "Live" is the begining of the end.

This CD is a fine document of Lee Michaels in concert, and with "Heighty Hi" "Stormy Monday" "Forty Reasons" and "Day Of Change" it is peppered with Lee's best known songs, performed with all the normal gusto in front of a very happy crowd. The sound is much like the double LP that I purchased in 1973, it isn't great, and this CD does not seem to be tweaked or sweetened from those original tapes. For the spoiled sound children of the digital age, the sound may indeed be a problem but, records of the seventies DID sound like this so for old geezers it's quite nice. The real issue is this: Lee Michaels is all but forgoten today and few remember his greatness 30 Years on And that, is the real crime!

This was a record that meant a lot to me in the early seventies, and as it was always a pleasure to see Lee play live in San Francisco, he would all but disapear soon after this record was in the shops. This is a Great CD, it is too bad that just a very few of us are left to remember the great Lee Michaels, and enjoy this fantastic music.

This CD is a direct reminder of an era, that we will never be a part of again.
Thank You, Lee, Frosty & Keith.
Four Stars !!!

I'd been hoping to see a live album for years and just discovered this. I saw Lee many times in concert back in the day (circa '69-'70), at his best. Amazing, amazing performances. This recording is '72 and was at a time when he was on the downside of his performing career and for anyone who saw him at his best on the Hammond with the big big sound with Frosty, this wasn't it. Too bad one of those live performances didn't make it to us. Missing Frosty is one thing. You can also tell he was burning out to some degree and didn't have the super high energy of the hey day. But all that said, there is still enough of the basic Lee that comes through to make it very worthwhile to have. You gotta have a good sound system that will carry the deep bass of the Hammond organ or you miss out on the experience. There are points where it all comes together and you can re-live the moment. Stormy Monday is the highlight of the album. I recommend it.

Lee Michaels is one of the greatest B3 players ever. I'm glad to see his stuff is moving up into collector pricing! I have all his original LPs and teh CD's when they first came out of one way records, for a short stint. Lee is incredible musician....where is he now?

What a disappointment. The show was recorded in 1973 and the sound is muddy-it's like you've thrown a rug over your speakers. There are no liner notes at all. Frosty has been replaced by an inferior drummer-his drum solo is abysmal. Lee sounds like he's had a rough night and the song selection is minus his ONE hit-"Do you know what I mean". Pass on this one if you want to maintain fond memories of this early 70's fluke.