Badfinger Live - Day After Day

There is very little, if anything else, available that documents Badfinger in a live setting other than this CD and their contributions to the Concert For Bangladesh album. This 1974 concert was recorded for a possible Warner Brothers live release (that obviously never happened) and somehow guitarist Joey Molland ended up with the tapes before he left the band. In the late 80's/early 90's he overdubbed his guitar and vocals, re-sequenced the songs and re-did the drums (poorly), meaning this is not exactly a "live" album, but it is as close as we get.

Anyone who knows anything about the Badfinger story has hear many horrible things about Molland and this release does seem to highlight his ego - all of his tunes are pushed to the beginning of the CD and, for good or bad, his are the ones that he worked on, leaving Ham's (superior) songs sounding somewhat weaker sonically. That said, Joey does rock out and does provide some fine lead guitar work and Pete's songs still stand out and his singing is strong and vibrant and guitar playing is right-on. Unfortunately, the bad drum sound that Joey added overpowers the tunes a  bit. Still, we get "Baby Blue", "Name of the Game" (which works surprisingly well in a live setting), "Day After Day" and a couple more - so half of the record is Ham, making you wish to hear more!

Far from perfect, but until something else surfaces, this is a good document for fans. As usual, novices should start with the studio records, especially Straight Up.