The Shadows Of Knight - Live 1966 (2015/2018)

Live 1966 is essentially an expanded edition of Raw 'n Alive at the Cellar, Chicago 1966!, a 1994 archival release that unearthed 13 tracks the Shadows of Knight recorded in their hometown stomping ground of the Cellar. Live 1966 boasts three extra tracks, rejiggers the running order to approximate the group's two sets, and has better fidelity and artwork all sterling additions to what is one of best live American rock & roll recordings of the mid-'60s. Granted, there's not much competition in this category. Apart from a handful of British Invasion souvenirs (the most notable were by the Rolling Stones and the Kinks), live albums weren't common among rockers until the '70s, and the tapes that make up Live 1966 weren't intended to be a proper release: they're just tapes Paul Sampson, the owner of the Cellar, happened to make while the Shadows of Knight headlined at his club. This casualness is what makes Live 1966 not just a great document of the band and their era, but a flat-out great rock & roll record. As Jeff Jarema points out in his liner notes, the Shadows of Knight were on a slight decline from their peak Chicago popularity (their rivals the Cryan Shames were on the rise), and there's also evidence in these late 1966 tapes of the shifting times. "It Takes a Long Time Comin'," an original that never made it to the studio, makes extensive elastic allusions to the Beatles' "Taxman," Frank Zappa is quoted elsewhere and, most impressively, the group pushes "Hey Joe" toward the stratosphere, finding a comfortable intersection between a Yardbirds rave-up and proto-psychedelic drone. Flashes of this trippy progressiveness pop up throughout Live 1966, including a long closing take on "Gloria," and the band stumble slightly when they attempt a folk-rock jangle on "Willie Jean," but by and large the group is firmly planted within the garage, with the Shadows of Knight finding their own voice through the styles of the Stones and the Yardbirds. All this is evident on their studio records but these live tapes, taken from what's presumably a regular night at their regular haunt, are high-octane dynamite, as invigorating a live album from the '60s as you're likely to find.