Let's Live For Today

Live recordings oftentimes feel unnecessary, like a contract fulfillment from the artist, leaving one yearning for the original studio versions. That said, there's a clutch of live albums that take songs to the next-level — from stunning reinterpretations to unadulterated live'n'loud raw power — leaving ones mouth agape and equaling, and at times transcending, the original studio takes.

So with no further ado, here is Achilles In The Alleyway's very subjective list of the top-25 greatest live albums of all-time:

1. Sam Cooke - Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963

2. Bob Dylan - Genuine Live 1966 / Hard Rain / Live 1975 [tie]

3. Frank Sinatra - Sinatra At The Sands

4. John Coltrane - European Impressions *

5. The Who - Live At Leeds

6. Jerry Lee Lewis - Live At The Star Club, Hamburg

7. Grateful Dead - Live/Dead

8. Otis Redding - Live At The Whisky A Go Go

9. Thin Lizzy - Live And Dangerous

10. The Band - Rock Of Ages

11. James Brown - Live At The Apollo

12. Hawkwind - Space Ritual

13. Muddy Waters - At Newport 1960

14. Judas Priest - Unleashed In The East

15. Velvet Underground - The Complete Matrix Tapes

16. The Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!

17. Jefferson Airplane - Bless Its Pointed Little Head

18. Yardbirds - Five Live Yardbirds

19. MC5 - Kick Out the Jams
20. The Jam - Dig The New Breed
21. Motörhead - No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith
22. Georgie Fame ‎– Rhythm And Blues At The Flamingo
23. Spacemen 3 - Live In Europe 1989
24. The Ramones - It's Alive
25. Black Flag - Live '84

* This entire list could easily be made up of jazz releases, so I limited

it to just one, which happens to be one of my all-time favorite live recordings.