“LIVE AND HEAVY” CASSETTE FROM EARLY 80’S STILL ROCKS HEAVY!
LIVE AND HEAVY – I bought this cool cassette sometime back in the early 1980’s. (See the pic of my cassette copy below). I cannot for the Metal life of me, remember if it was 1983 or 1984. It doesn’t really matter. The important thing about this cassette is it still plays! A mixture of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal bands are showcased on Live And Heavy… from Status Quo to Motorhead. (See complete track and band listing below). Each song is a live recording, (of course, why else is it called Live And Heavy?) A very fine aspect of this cassette is the vintage sound of the bands… these songs were recorded almost three decades ago!
I know for certain however, that I bought this cassette while I was in high school. The store where this cassette was found and subsequently purchased you may ask? Why, Bradlees of course. Bradlees was a department store, in the town where I grew up in. A large department store for it’s time was Bradlees, with two floors. The record department had a decent selection of mainstream Rock, Hard Rock and Heavy Metal for the day. Imports and underground Metal were not the norm at this department store. A vast selection of 45 rpm’s were always stocked at Bradlees, I bought a few there, that’s for sure. Still, it is this particular Bradlees where I landed this Live And Heavy cassette… and it is an import!!
Live And Heavy gets started in a fabulous way with track one: Smoke On The Water by the impeccable Deep Purple. I just can never resist classic Deep Purple, especially this song, which really encapsulates all the free spirit and sound of 1970’s Hard Rock. A lifetime favorite song of mine is Smoke On The Water. Sometimes I wonder to myself, just how important and influential Smoke On The Water was/is within the history of Rock and Hard Rock Music.
Whitesnake appears with their song – Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City and David Coverdale’s vocals sound classic. This Whitesnake song can be considered as Rock or Hard Rock… it’s not the Heavy Metal side of Whitesnake, which is still all very good with me. UFO is caught live here too, with Light’s Out In London, a kickin’ Traditional Heavy Metal song if there ever was one. Gillan Rocks out with Unchain Your Brain… a classic live Gillan song to have at that. Ian Gillan is an incredible legend of Rock period. After all of these years, I have never heard any singer sound remotely close to Ian Gillan’s vocals. Ultra Unique are Ian Gillan’s vocals, in my Metal opinion.
Def Leppard cranks out Rocks Off, from their 1980 – On Through The Night debut album. Two more lifetime favorites of mine are on Live And Heavy as well, with Motorhead bashing out White Line Fever and Rainbow playing All Night Long from their 1979 album – Down To Earth. Graham Bonnet is the lead singer for Rainbow on this live version of All Night Long. A supremely vintage and live version of Paranoid from Black Sabbath is the last track on Live And Heavy. Just hearing a younger Ozzy Osbourne sing on this live track is a Metal treat in itself.
Overall, the sound production is not of the highest caliber, still it is good enough for my Metal ears. As I stated earlier, this cassette of Live And Heavy is an import, with “Made In Ireland” printed on both sides of the cassette itself. The only logo to be found on the liner notes designating a record company is EMS. I can barely make out a line of type on the liner notes that reads: “All tracks recorded live on stage”.
If you happen to still collect and listen to cassettes as I do, don’t pass over Live And Heavy if it ever crosses your Metal path. I cannot verify if Live And Heavy was ever released on CD. This vintage live album for certain must have been released on vinyl… I just have never seen one.
Here it is… my cassette of Live And Heavy:
* I find the artwork of Live And Heavy to be Old School. There is a line of type on the liner notes that barely reads: “Design and Artwork: Cream”.
* The printing on this cassette reads below the words Live And Heavy: “See Inlay For Details”.
* Made In Ireland is printed on the left, while legal mumbo jumbo about copying rights are printed at the bottom side of this cassette.
Track & Band Listing For Live And Heavy:
Side One:
Deep Purple – Smoke On The Water
Nazareth – Razamanaz
Motorhead – White Line Fever
Def Leppard – Rocks Off
Rainbow – All Night Long
Side Two:
Status Quo – Roll Over Lay Down
Whitesnake – Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City
UFO – Lights Out In London
Gillan – Unchain Your Brain
Black Sabbath – Paranoid
LONG LIVE VINTAGE HEAVY METAL AND HARD ROCK CASSETTES!
Stone.
Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog 
April 6, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Awesome compilation and import! A true collector’s item but that cover kind of creeps me out. Looks like one of the Garbage Pail Kids’ more disturbing trading cards. 😀
I can’t find anything any info on a CD release either.
April 6, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Garbage Pail Kids Rock! Osaka Popstar inserted a topps Garbage Pail Kids trading card in their CD release – “Rock’em O-Sock ’em Live!”, with the band in the foreground of the picture. I understand what you mean though. I like the cover, due to the fact this was a taste of “whoa” for back in the early 80’s. Corn dog now? Sure. Back then… “whoa” again.
I really cannot find any info about this “Live And Heavy” album anywhere… I will continue my search on the internet.
Definitely drop a comment, (if you want to), if you find info/links about this album!
The Def Leppard song “Rocks Off” is not your post “High ‘n’ Dry” stuff of legend. It’s a young and heavy Rockin’ Def Leppard, nonetheless… and I always liked that early Def Leppard sound. “On Through The Night” is a very decent Def Leppard debut album.
April 6, 2012 at 2:55 am
I got the vinyl, all the tracks on the album can be found on different CD so you can make you owne LIVE AND HEAVY CD
HEAVY HEY from John.
April 6, 2010 at 10:49 pm
Metal buddy Curt over at Demolish Fanzine – 1980’s Heavy Metal Revival, has sent me this link –
http://hearrockcity.blogspot.com/2009/06/live-and-heavy.html
It validates that there was a vinyl album of “Live And Heavy” as well!
Thanks Curt!
April 7, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Yep — RYM has a listing too: http://rateyourmusic.com/release/comp/various_artists_f2/live_and_heavy/
April 7, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Thanks for the link! That site states the release date as 1981… sounds good to me.
April 7, 2010 at 9:24 am
The guy on the cover looks like a cross between a younger Lane Smith and Mick Jagger only being tortured.
April 7, 2010 at 9:29 am
Hey that’s funny – (:
The cartoonish blood running out of the dude’s eyes is corn dog. Old school corn dog.
April 7, 2010 at 11:54 am
Metalodyssey,
Wanted to ask you about something, but didn’t see a contact. If you want to contact me through my site contact and leave an email address and I can reach you by.
Mark
May 21, 2011 at 7:07 am
Hi,
I have that same tape. I got mine at the grocery store (In Canada), back in the first half of the 80s. I don’t think this exists on CD, but it does on Vinyl. If I had the Vinyl, I could make a digital version using my Technics SL-1200 Turn table.
Here is the link: http://www.vinylrecords.ch/L/LI/Live-Heavy/live-heavy.html
May 21, 2011 at 8:59 am
Thanks for this link Daniel. \m/ Man, I never saw “Live And Heavy” on vinyl (in the real) through all my travels. It’s very cool to know it is out there on vinyl. Eventually (I hope) I’ll get one of those turntables that burn CD from vinyl.
A grocery store you say? Now, that is old school. I do have a couple of grocery stores near me that sell CD’s… and their selection is not shabby either. (It’s mostly Classic Rock yet I won’t complain… especially when “Big Chains” like Hot Topic only sells their “top 10” titles and Best Buy’s selection shrinks by the minute at their stores.