Editor’s Note: The Albumism staff has selected what we believe to be the 50 Greatest Live Albums of All Time, representing a varied cross-section of genres, styles and time periods. Click “Next Album” below to explore each album or view the full album index here.
VARIOUS ARTISTS | The New York Rock & Soul Revue: Live at the Beacon Theatre
Giant (1991)
Selected by Libby Cudmore
In 1991, Donald Fagen put together a series of shows bringing together his friends—including Boz Scaggs, Phoebe Snow and Michael McDonald—to perform solo work and covers of the music that inspired them, culminating in the Live at the Beacon Theatre album. McDonald and Snow bring the house down early with their cover of “Knock on Wood,” while Scaggs Kermit-croons his way through Joe Simon’s “Drowning In the Sea of Love.”
With Walter Becker occasionally joining in, the Revue paved the way for the Steely Dan reunion that gave us the Grammy-winning Two Against Nature and the final Everything Must Go, not to mention the inspired concert tours that continued up to Becker’s death last September. But the once stage-frightened Fagen is continuing the band’s live-show legacy this summer with concert dates alongside the Doobie Brothers and a residency, once again, at the Beacon in October.
The show also gave us the collaborations that would later morph into the Dukes of September Rhythm Revue, featuring Scaggs and McDonald, which produced a concert DVD and a track listing on Spotify, but no physical album. The tour was also detailed down to the grouchiest of details on Fagen’s memoir Eminent Hipsters, and the Revue itself was recently honored with a vinyl re-issue.
LISTEN:
