Three Dog Night - Live at the Forum

Tonight's album is going to be a little scattershot. I have thousands of things to say, but they trip all over each other in my brain.

In front of an audience of over 18,000 people on September 12, 1969 in Los Angeles, Three Dog Night was Captured Live at the Forum (i'll talk about that later). If you knew absolutely nothing about Three Dog Night and this was the first album you ever heard from them, you would probably say something like "wow these guys are fantastic! How come i haven't heard of them?"

Answer: because they literally became a band in 1968, the two albums they recorded in 1968/69 were practically still hot off the presses, and the fact that this album even exists at all is completely fortuitous.

It's a dirty little secret that live albums exist for basically 3 reasons: 1) they won't be together much longer and live albums count toward fulfilling your contract, 2) they ran out of ideas for their next real album, but they still have to generate new revenue to pay back the advance from the last album, or 3) both 1 and 2 at the same time and it's cheaper than real studio time.

Amazingly, none of those apply to this album. It's not actually a Three Dog Night recording. Obviously it's them, but the band is OPENING for Steppenwolf. They are recording Steppenwolf's tour, but since they are label mates and both bands are using the same production crew, why not? And, since the undercard is starting to kill it with their first couple singles on the airwaves, it certainly won't hurt to show everyone that it isn't an act; these guys really do rock that hard.

That wacky long title? Well, in subsequent retellings of the band's history, it's not exactly set in stone that this is that actual concert (memories get fuzzy, you know?). I personally adore the notion that they unintentionally created a live concept album about how famous the band would become in the next couple years. That's delicious and I don't care what the real truth is. I will point out, though, that after this first run they completely eliminated the date and crowd size from the cover (bummer).

Three Dog Night is pretty freakin' awesome. Unlike Sonny Oh-no, they knew the true value of buying their stuff from legit dealers (sorry, everything from the 60s was somehow about drugs, and i can't resist). Oh look, it's Harry Nilsson. Is that Laura Nyro in the big dark sunglasses? I swear, that guy looks just like Paul Williams.

These guys deserved every bit of fame and fortune they got, and they certainly weren't afraid to say "we couldn't have done it without these talented people you haven't heard of yet either."

To recap, this album is magic. It's one of the best live albums ever recorded, it's an unintentional greatest hits, it exists by pure coincidence, and if that doesn't make you feel warm and fuzzy inside then pour yourself another rum and coke and spin it again. You'll get there, i believe in you.

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