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From the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

A Live One

Phish

1995

A Live One
Album Summary

This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.

A Live One is a live album by the American rock band Phish, released on June 27, 1995, by Elektra Records. The album was the band's first official live release, their first album to be certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and one of the best-selling releases in their catalog. Although tapes of concerts recorded from the audience had been distributed among Phish's fanbase for several years by the time of A Live One's release, the album marked the first time that the band had officially released live recordings directly from their soundboard masters. The album was named after a question that the band members were often asked by fans: "When are you gonna put out a live one?". Each track on the album was recorded at a different live show in the United States with one track taken from the 1994 summer tour and the rest from the fall tour. Although recorded at different venues, the songs are noted in the liner notes as having been recorded at "The Clifford Ball", a reference to aviator Clifford Ball that the band would use again as the name of their 1996 festival. This decision was made because the band's management could not secure the recording rights from every venue featured on the album at the time of its release. Five of the songs—"Gumbo", "Slave to the Traffic Light", "Wilson", "Simple" and "Harry Hood"—had never appeared on any of Phish's studio albums, but all of them were and are regularly performed by the band in concert.

Wikipedia

Rating

2.43

Votes

126

Genres

  • Rock

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Reviews

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Oct 30 2023
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1

"You know what this list really needs? A live Phish album." Please.

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Jan 30 2024
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3

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (Disney, 2003). Timestamp: 1 hour, 33 minutes, 40 seconds.

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Jan 07 2024
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2

Phish has always sounded like incredibly intricate, highly technical children's music to me.

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Oct 04 2023
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2

Ok so what kind of sick FUCK, after sitting through 3 years of albums that generally go too long, then chooses a 2-hour live album to foist on everyone else? Bad form. Also, this jam band stuff really didn't do it for me today. 2/5.

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Mar 10 2024
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2

4/10. I always try to believe the best of people, so I have to assume that whoever added this was trying to add a Reel Big Fish album to the list, but due to an honest misunderstanding we ended up with a real big Phish album instead.

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Jan 08 2024
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2

Fun plus exhaustion minus interest. There are touches of dynamic range, neat solo work, and strangeness throughout, but it's truly an undifferentiated bag of directionless jams. Notable as a seminal recording, I guess, but long long long.

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Feb 18 2024
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1

I really can't fathom listening to all of these stellar albums and thinking this album belongs among them.

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Jan 08 2024
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4

All I knew about Phish was the culture around their concerts and I’ve always kind of assumed they were a bit of a joke-y band, but this music kind of rocked.

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Oct 08 2023
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3

It's...fine I guess. Nothing remarkable, and I don't think I'll ever re-listen to this ever again. Phish just does nothing for me. Very talented and the recording is super crisp for a live album. Just not into their music or jam bands in general. I found myself skipping around the 15+ minute tracks searching for interesting licks and sections. My favorite tracks were the "normal" (5 min) tracks, but I couldn't name them if I tried because this album was forgettable to me. Not hating if you like this band or genre. I totally understand why they're relatively popular (although I imagine their core audience is rapidly approaching retirement age). Super talented musicians.

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Jan 07 2024
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3

Not into Phish much at all, they are talented but the super long jam band thing ain’t my cup of tea. Also 2hrs oof.

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Jan 30 2024
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2

Yeah, Phish deserves a mention, but man 2 hours is a whole barrel of Phish I didn't need.

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Feb 20 2024
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2

Phish workflow breakdown: Step 1: Strap on guitars and go wild: Wiiieeee wieeeeeeehhh, widily widily wieeeeehhhhh! Step 2: Repeat until timestamp of 2 hr 11 min has been reached. Step 3: Job well done. Step 4: Move on.

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Mar 11 2024
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2

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Phish gave the deadheads somewhere to go so they're not just out wandering the streets, but 2+ hours of pointless canoodling? No thank you. I'm sure it would be fun to see them live, but listening to this is not fun. 2 stars.

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Feb 20 2024
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1

I know I have to give every album a fair chance, but this was making too much demand on my ears. Endless jams are just not my cup of tea.

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Jul 24 2024
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1

The person that chose this album for the list is either one of two things: a person who loves phish and most likely several drugs as well or an absolute sicko who wants to watch people suffer listening to a 2 hour live jam sesh after completing a list of albums where so many of them also sucked. I was not on drugs and most definitely suffered. 2.5/10

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Jan 26 2024
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4

Un peu long mais vraiment ça rock. J'avais entendu parler de l'album mais jamais écouté au complet. Je suis pas sdecu. 4

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Mar 08 2024
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4

Incredibly long album. But it's with good, funky and sometimes jazzy music.

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Feb 07 2024
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3

Never listened to Phish before and now I've listened to over 2 hours of it. I liked it more than I expected. It sounded at times like Barenaked Ladies, a band that I like a lot that is nowhere on the real list (or, so far, on the user list). But I'm still not sure I "get" it.

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Feb 07 2024
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3

It certainly sounds like Phish live

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Feb 23 2024
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3

Never actually listened to any Phish at length. I've got nothing against this, solid jam-bandy rock, and some interesting material in the lyrics.

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Feb 27 2024
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3

I really liked about half of it.

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Feb 26 2024
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2

A two-hour-plus jam session that went on forever, with a few potential great tunes here and there

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Mar 23 2024
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2

2 hours live??? Music is OK, but: two hours? No...

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Jul 24 2024
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1

Phish appear to be proficient musicians, and the crowd seemed to be enjoying the performances, but this did nothing for me. Lots of long, meandering jams as intros and outros to not very memorable songs. As an example, 4 minutes into 'You Enjoy Myself' I was starting to get bored of the track, only to discover it had another 17 minutes left to run. Fair play if you enjoy the musicianship, but as a musically-challenged person with things to do, this was not for me. Rating: 1.5 Playlist track: Bouncing Around the Room Date listened: 23/07/24

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Aug 14 2024
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3

Some good bits amongst the meandering, over long jams. There's pleasant pop, jazz, funk rock, light rock, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s styles. But way, way too long. For fans only.

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Sep 02 2024
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3

For a live album, this was recorded very well. Phish sound great and the musicianship is outstanding. The biggest drawback of course is that this album is over two hours long. Despite that, it wasn’t as much of a slog as I was expecting. I’m generally not a fan of jam bands, but this was much more tolerable than most.

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Apr 02 2024
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2

You can’t tell me this isn’t the drug-fueled, adult-facing front for The Wiggles

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Oct 11 2024
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5

I love Phish and this is from the era that I discovered them. I'm not big on convincing people why something I love is good, if you don't get it, it's okay, if you hate it, that's fine too. I will say that Trey, Gordo, Page and Fishman are four of the best musicians working today and this band is tight as fuck. A lot of people feel that their studio material is vastly inferior to their live stuff but I think that's over-stating it, they actually have some pretty great studio albums (Rift, A Picture of Nectar, Hoist, Billy Breathes and The Story of the Ghost are all good) that are maybe a better starting point than this. But this is kind of like Phish's Europe '72 (if you'll excuse me for making an over used comparison to the Dead) in that it's not a recreation of the live Phish experience but a good compilation of great performances from a certain period in the band's career. When I first heard this it was soon after my first show (it literally was released a week later) which had blown my mind and I was hungry for more. Eventually, I got into tape trading (the band allowed people to record their shows and some tapers would make copies for anyone who sent them blank cassettes and postage, this is a more fair comparison to the Dead who's fans pioneered this early form of viral marketing) but for a time this was my only way to hear live music, on demand from my new favorite band and hear great versions of Harry Hood, Gumbo, Chalkdust Torture, You Enjoy Myself and The Squirming Coil.

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May 20 2024
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3

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Bouncing around the room

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Sep 06 2024
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3

Okay, then. So, this was fine, not a bad album per se. It's well executed as live albums go and the musicianship is solid. It's one of the better live albums I have heard, production-wise. And I get it that Phish is one of those bands that's better experienced through their live music. But you know what, for all the apparent talent the band has, only a true believer would want to sit through 2+ hours of them. If you're not already a fan, this album will absolutely not win you over. Much of it ended up being a blur in the end. Fave Songs: Bouncing Around the Room, Gumbo, Montana

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Nov 05 2024
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3

After to listening to the first half, i thought i was going to be okay with Phish. Unfortunately then you hit Tweezer and eventually Harry Hood, and it is exactly the jam band noodling that is a pretty strong turnoff. Still, there's enough here that is just a cool rock album that was interesting, but there are also some dark corners that i don't want to visit again.

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Nov 11 2024
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3

It's 2 hours of live Phish. Buckle up, it's all of the trappings of a concert without any of the common extracurriculars associated with Phish.

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Aug 28 2024
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2

30 minutes long song is a little bit excessive

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Nov 04 2024
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2

This is a band that people discover and then turn into their entire personality. We get it, you went to college and smoked some weed! The Grateful Dead is far superior as jam bands go, but Phish is prolific and do inspire a cult following in the same way. I just can't listen to over 2 hours of people clapping for someone farting into a trumpet.

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Nov 07 2024
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2

Jam rock, jazz fusion. Al principio gusta, luego aburre. Mucho. Un 2.

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Dec 04 2024
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2

I listened to this for the entirety of one balatro run then tapped out. Didn’t need to listen to another hour of some of the blandest music ever. I get why the Grateful Dead has a huge live following but I don’t really get this. Like it doesn’t sound bad and would probably be fun to hear live but idk man, listening to it on my couch sucked.

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Jul 30 2024
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1

Pish. Is it really talent if you don't use it to good effect. Just middle of the road jams. And 2 hours of it? I would have given 2*s, but 2 hours... Man...

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Nov 02 2024
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1

He was better as the lead singer of Marillion.

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Nov 05 2024
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1

Such a shame. A live album. As mentioned before, these tend to be a "best of" that's interspersed with background noise that isn't what the artists intended.

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Dec 03 2024
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1

Truth be told: I did not listen to this whole album, nor did I expect to. I cannot listen to this wanky jam band stuff. I gave it about 30 minutes and then skimmed the rest. It's pretty much everything I thought it would be. I know people who live for this stuff. That's fine. Just keep it far, far away from me.

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