''A Live One'' is a live

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by the American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

Phish Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman, and keyboardist Page McConnell, all of whom perform vocals, with Anastasio being the ...

, released on June 27, 1995, by

Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the ...

. The album was the band's first official live release, their first album to be certified Platinum by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

and one of the best-selling releases in their catalog.

Background and contents

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 regularly performed by the band in concert. ''A Live One'' marked the first time all five had appeared on an official Phish release. Of those songs, only "Slave to the Traffic Light" would subsequently be released in a studio version, when a recording of the song from 1986 appeared on the 1998 Elektra reissue of the band's demo release '' The White Tape''. The track "Montana" is a two-minute excerpt from the longform improvisation that followed "Tweezer" during the band's show in

Bozeman, Montana Bozeman ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States. The 2020 United States census put Bozeman's population at 53,293, making it Montana's fourth-largest city. It is the principal city of the Bozeman, Montan ...

. On ''A Live One'', "Montana" serves as a prelude to the epic " You Enjoy Myself", one of the best-known versions of that song. Two of the concerts that were excerpted on ''A Live One'' were later issued in their entirety by Phish: July 8, 1994 (featuring the ''A Live One'' version of "Stash") and November 28, 1994 (which is the source of the aforementioned "Montana").

Tracklist selection

The track-listing for ''A Live One'' was selected by the four members of Phish, each of whom reviewed the concert tapes from their 1994 fall tour and drafted a list of personal favorite performances. The band then compiled a master list of 560 song performances that had received mention by at least two of the members, which was further narrowed down to a shortlist of 30 songs, from which the final tracklist was selected. In addition to utilizing their own selections, Phish involved their fanbase in the compilation of the album. The band posted an official thread on the rec.music.phish

Usenet Usenet (), a portmanteau of User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose UUCP, Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Elli ...

newsgroup, in which the message board's users were encouraged to suggest performances they believed should be included. The July 8, 1994, version of "Stash" was brought to the band's attention through the thread, and was ultimately chosen for inclusion on the album.

Sales

In July 1995, ''A Live One'' peaked at number 18 on the ''Billboard'' 200 album chart in the United States, and was their first album to reach the chart's Top 20. The album sold nearly 50,000 copies in its first week on sale. "Bouncing Around the Room" and "

Gumbo Gumbo () is a stew that is popular among the U.S. Gulf Coast community, the New Orleans stew variation being the official state cuisine of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Gumbo consists primarily of a strongly flavored stock, meat or shellfis ...

" were both issued as singles, but neither appeared on a ''Billboard'' chart. Phish received its first

(RIAA) award for the album. The RIAA certified the album gold on November 10, 1995, for sales of 500,000 copies, and platinum on October 9, 1997, for sales of over 1 million copies.

Track listing

Personnel

Trey Anastasio Ernest Joseph "Trey" Anastasio III (born September 30, 1964) is an American guitarist, composer, and singer-songwriter best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Phish, which he co-founded in 1983. He is credited by name as composer of 152 ...

– guitars, vocals *

Page McConnell Page Samuel McConnell (born May 17, 1963) is an American multi-instrumentalist, most noted for his work as the keyboardist and a songwriter for the band Phish. McConnell joined Phish in 1985, and is the only member of its long-standing quartet li ...

– keyboards, vocals *

Mike Gordon Michael Eliot Gordon (born June 3, 1965) is an American bass guitarist and vocalist most recognized as a founding member of the band Phish. In addition to bass, Gordon plays banjo, piano, and guitar. He is a filmmaker ('' Rising Low'', '' Outs ...

– bass guitar, vocals *

Jon Fishman Jon Fishman (born February 19, 1965) is an American drummer and co-founder of the band Phish, which was, in part, named after him. He is credited with co-writing nineteen Phish songs, eight with a solo credit. Early life Fishman was born in Ph ...

– drums, vocals with The Giant Country Horns (on "Gumbo") * Peter Apfelbaum – tenor saxophone * Carl Gerhard – trumpet * Dave Grippo – alto saxophone * James Harvey – trombone * Michael Ray – trumpet

References

External links

Phish's official websiteThe Phish.net: ''A Live One''
- fan site album page {{DEFAULTSORT:Live One, A LivePhish.com Downloads Phish live albums 1995 live albums Elektra Records live albums Albums recorded at the Boston Garden Albums recorded at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium