and I am notorious for saying "fuck the archives" before I post so if this has been done before my apologies. . . not really.

Poll question: Do you prefer the studio recording or the live version/rendition?

Poll result (12 votes) Recording (2 votes) Vote Live (0 votes) Vote depends on the genre (1 votes) Vote depends on the song (6 votes) Vote depends on the artist/s (3 votes) Vote

I voted artist but should've voted genre. Something like jazz where the compositions change every night, where different personnel might be there... I'm only really interested in one studio take--whichever one they decided to make the master--but I can listen to tons of different live nights of the same playlist, especially for someone like Miles who would totally transform a song over and over.

But most music I couldn't care less about a recording of a live performance. Like I wanna track down a bootleg just to hear Nas yell extra loud into the microphone for the audience? Or hear Radiohead play the song exactly the way it is on the album but with shittier acoustics?

some artists are better live, some are better in the studio, very seldom do i hear an artist who gets it right both ways.


Stevie Wonder is one of the few that adds more to an already great studio track and he will go musically in a whole different direction.