Recordings

Best Classic Bands offers smart, informed and unbiased assessments of the latest rock album releases and reissues to offer readers guidance on what sounds they might enjoy.

Carly Simon’s Surprise Concert, ‘Live at Grand Central’: Review

Considering that this is a 28-year-old recording made in a train station, the sound quality is impressive.

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‘Elvis on Tour,’ a New Box Set, Offers an In-Depth Look at a 1972 Concert Series

The new seven-disc box set offers a close look at a 1972 concert series, although the repetition of tracks may appeal only to completists.

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Marvin Gaye’s ‘Greatest Hits Live in ’76’: Review

The Amsterdam concert features the late Motown star delivering many of his hits, including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”

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Bob Dylan’s Brilliant ‘Time Out of Mind’ Gets the Box Set Treatment: Review

The 17th volume of the Bootleg Series dives deep into the 1997 album that many see as Dylan’s best since the 1970s.

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Bob Weir’s ‘Ace’ Revisited: ‘It Sounds Like a Dead Album Because It Is One’

The original 1972 LP featured most of the Grateful Dead members, and the new bonus live version recaptures the energy of that classic.

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Frank Zappa’s ‘Waka/Wazoo’ Box: The Jazz-Rock Side of the Master

Along with ‘Hot Rats,’ the recordings in this box underscore Zappa’s strengths as a jazz-rock fusion composer, arranger and bandleader.

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A Hot Concert Highlights the Beach Boys’ ‘Sail on Sailor—1972’ Box

Six years removed from their last big hit, the group was unsure how to move forward. A new collection focuses on what they came up with.

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Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1970 Royal Albert Hall Show Finally Surfaces: Review

Though the group would begin to splinter less than a year after the Royal Albert Hall show, you’d never know it from that performance.

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Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Alternate Collection’: Fascinating Variations on 6 Best-Selling Albums

Some of the recordings (especially many of the concert tracks) are as good as—or arguably even better than—the familiar ones.

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Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Only the Strong Survive’: A Soulful Side Trip

The new album—more a heartfelt tribute to the music Springsteen grew up with than an attempt to reinvent it—is a home run.

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