Description
The Live Experience is a compilation album of various live recordings by the late American singer, songwriter, and pianist Keith Green, released by Sparrow Records in 2008, manufactured by EMI CMG Label Group, distributed in the US by EMI CMG Distribution. Featuring 16 never before released solo performances by Keith Green recorded between 1978 and 1982. Comes with a hype sticker on the front, stating: “CD includes: 70+ minutes of music. All previously unreleased. Just Keith & his piano! DVD includes: 4 Hours of content: Live Performances, 60 min documentary & more!”
Keith Green’s The Live Experience is perhaps one of the most effortless fables about a music legend’s unreleased treasure trove. Story has it Melody Green, the late singer’s wife, got a call from EMI’s Christian music arm inquiring whether she had a few exclusives to share for a future retrospective celebrating her husband’s career. Matter of factly, she said yes, but she didn’t just have a few exclusives; she had a truckload of stuff – hundreds of hours’ worth of audio and video culled from cassettes, reel tapes, and whatever the singer’s estate got a hold of at the time – that was just waiting to be picked up. Ministry-minded as Melody Green is, she turned it all over to EMI and eventually ended up overseeing what would become The Live Experience, the first-ever collection of concert recordings from the iconic singer/songwriter. There was so much material to be poured over, EMI couldn’t quite meet the deadline of compiling and releasing it in time for the 25th anniversary of Green’s death, but that didn’t matter much: what saw the light of day was simply unheard of – 16 of Green’s biggest hits, collected from a cornucopia of concert performances, festivals, and television appearances spanning Green’s entire short-lived trajectory. Thanks to masterization, the sound of The Live Experience is loud and clear, but its message remains as raw and unpopular as anything Green delivered in the prime of his youth: “We need to live like Jesus.” This clarion call is made all the more urgent by Green’s show itself, an unadorned spectacle consisting of just him and his piano. The almost living-room feel is the real revelation of The Live Experience: for the first time, the world is privy to what really went down at Green’s revivalist gigs, for decades a mystery since all that was available were his four lone studio albums. These in-studio, highly polished piano-pop recordings fit the spirit of ’70s and ’80s CCM well, but Green’s Jesus-centric lyricism didn’t always jibe well with the music’s clear Elton John and Billy Joel affectations. In contrast, The Live Experience shows Green in his element: sitting at the piano, bantering, and preaching the word, often all at once, to anyone with ears to hear, always careful not to let the music become the be all and end all, but merely a conduit for the greater calling that God had placed on his life. [Andree Farias, AMG]
The Live Experience, Special Edition, CD + DVD
No less than 26 years after the premature death of Keith Green, we get the release of a set of live recordings. It is not of course the first thing to be released since Green’s passing. Over the years there have been a number of releases of unfinished recordings, live songs, numerous compilations and the excellent ‘Your Love Broke Through’ DVD documentary. For all the wait, for me this has to be perhaps the one which more than anything else catches the essence of Keith Green. 16 songs with nothing but Keith Green and a piano from 1978-1982. Green improvises on his instrument and delivers the vocals with all the passion you’d expect. Indeed, the 1982 version of «Asleep In The Light» which was recorded as Green shared his missionary vision at Jesus West Coast makes for uncomfortable listening, as his voice adds a whole new depth to the challenging lyrics. There is at least one recording here we’ve heard before – «Piano Prelude/Create In Me A Clean Heart», which originally appeared on ‘Jesus Commands Us To Go‘. The liner notes then described the first part as spontaneous, even though there appeared to be a full orchestra playing! Well on the original recording there are no superfluous strings or overdubbed vocals, and it’s all the better for it. «Oh Lord You’re Beautiful» includes previously unheard verses. «My Eyes Are Dry» benefits from a full outing, after it was inexplicably faded out during the verse on ‘No Compromise‘. Also in the set is a DVD containing many of the same performances as on the CD. Fascinating to see extensive footage of someone who many of us have hardly seen in action. There is a lot of humour which perhaps didn’t always come across on studio recordings. Inevitably there is some hard hitting talk, which touches a spiritual nerve even over a quarter of a century later. Speaking of hard hitting, that piano really suffered! As another greatest hits collection hits the shelves, ‘The Live Experience” is one release you need to add to your collection. [Anthony Longville, Cross Rhythms, July 2008]
The biggest problem with Keith Green’s music was Keith Green’s music. Not the singing, or the piano, or the songwriting. But the production was often uninspired in a late-70s soft rock way that covered over Keith’s playing instead of enhancing it. This album is the perfect antidote to that: a selection of Keith’s most compelling songs, totally unadorned and live.
This album works on two levels: For those not familiar with Keith’s music, it’s the perfect place to dive in and see why he’s a central figure in CCM history. You get great songs, presented pleasingly. You get samples of his speechifying: the humor, the passion, the preachiness, all of it. Plus, on the DVD, lots of other material to give context to his life and work. And for those who already know and love Keith, you get to hear neat variations on familiar songs, like the extra verses of «Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful» that turn it from a song of adoration into one of confession. This album is a no-brainer for anyone interested in either CCM or piano-based power pop in the Elton John/Ben Folds department. [R. Berman, 2009]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-live-experience/716575112)
CD tracklist:
01. You Put This Love in My Heart (The Daisy Club – LA 1978) – 3:26
02. Because of You (Jesus Northwest – 1979) – 2:44
03. Soften Your Heart (Estes Park, CO – 1978) – 3:13
04. Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful (ORU – Tulsa, OK – 1979) – 5:22
05. Your Love Broke Through (World Vision Benefit Concert – LA 1979) – 3:31
06. Asleep in the Light (Jesus West Coast – 1982) – 4:55
07. How Can They Live Without Jesus? (Jesus West Coast – 1982) – 3:52
08. Piano Prelude/Create in Me a Clean Heart (ORU – Tulsa, OK – 1979) – 5:39
09. Easter Song (The Daisy Club – LA 1978) – 7:14
10. I Can’t Believe It (The Daisy Club – LA 1978) – 3:26
11. If You Love the Lord (Tulsa, OK – 1979) – 4:17
12. When I Hear the Praises Start (Houston, TX – 1982) – 2:52
13. There Is a Redeemer (Houston, TX – 1982) – 4:31
14. I Want to Be More Like Jesus (Jesus West Coast – 1982) – 5:30
15. Make My Life a Prayer to You (World Vision Benefit Concert – LA 1979) – 5:14
16. My Eyes Are Dry (ORU – Tulsa, OK – 1979) – 10:22
DVD
* Over 2 Hours of Live Concert Performances from: Jesus ’77, Estes Park ’78, Jesus Northwest ’79, Jesus West Coast ’80, Jesus West Coast ’82, & Live From The Daisy Club – LA.
* 60 Minute Documentary (Your Love Broke Through)
* Bonus Features Include: Keith’s Testimony and Make My Life A Prayer To You (from 100 Huntley Street), and More…
Note: The Special Edition includes the Live Experience CD as well as a DVD featuring almost 4 hours of content. (“Coded for all Regions. Approximate Program Lenght: 4 hours.“) The DVD includes never before seen live performances from TV appearances, festivals, concerts and more, including Keith sharing his own testimony. Also included is the 60 minute documentary Your Love Broke Through which tells Keith Green’s life-story from his early days as a child recording star to the spiritual journey that led him to faith in Christ.
Keith Green Documentary: Your Love Broke Through
The Live Experience DVD
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