My Fave Songs (3) Live Epic Performances

I am sure that I missed a few, but here is my first-edition list of favorite song performances. Of course, many epic performances occurred before the digital age—most notably Rollins Band’s many tours in Europe, some of the audio/bootlegged copies of which are epic. Actually, now that I think about it, I have a good impression of seeing Barry Manilow in Houst0n in about ~1980 and I remember that as being an excellent show…but hey I was only about 10 years old… same with Kenny Rogers.

What do we learn from epic live performances?

What is the use to the modern man of this "monumental " contemplation of the past, this preoccupation with the rare and classic? It is the knowledge that the great thing existed and was therefore possible, and so may be possible again.

Friedrich Nietzsche

My Fave Songs: Live Epic Performances

1. John Mayer—Covered in Rain:

• Epic, amazing, and perfectly accompanied by the rest of the band. Whether he knows it or not, the song is mostly about love/relationship addiction. The guitar “solo” is a historic event.

• See video embedded above; also archived elsewhere.

2. Nirvana—David Bowie’s Man who Sold the World (from MTV Unplugged):

• Epic, amazing, and perfectly accompanied.

3. Jesús Adrián Romero—Princesas Mágicas:

• If you don’t get emotional with this song, it’s because you didn’t listen, won’t listen, or have no heart.

• I have two excuses in my mind to cut my day short and go home early. They are a pair of magical princesses, with pajamas and ponytails, playing at being mothers.

• They know my weakness, and that with a smile, they can get anything they want, they have become the owners of my heart and they make me happy by just thinking of them.

• Between gymnastics and homework, they grow up too fast—I wish I could keep them. But one day they will move out of the house and take their things along with a piece of my life that will never return.

• Meanwhile I want to give them so many things. I want to give them so much love and so much attention, and show them each day of their importance and worth, I want to guard their hearts.

• They are like a garden in spring that dresses itself each day in beauty and splendor; they are like messenger doves that the Lord sent from heaven to speak of His love.

• But one day they will move out of the house and take their things along with a piece of my life that will never return. Meanwhile I want to give them so many things. I want to give them so much love and so much attention, and show them each day of their importance and worth, I want to guard their hearts. Ay, ay, ay I wish I could stop them (from growing up)

4. Carlos Santana and Michelle Branch—The Game of Love(2002):

• A few different versions of this song performed live are available; a few times that I have watched this I think “She was born to sing that song.”

5. Prince—"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

• I’ve got nothing for Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, or Eric Clapton—this performance is about bucking the system. Prince was denied the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and then he was snubbed at the practice session. His solution was to perform the final guitar solo that overshadowed all of the other melbatoast performers.

6. Andrés Cepeda—No Me Acostumbro (I can’t get used to it”

• Andrés Cepeda is a classic appropriately-famous Colombian singer with many talents, an excellent voice, and clear pronunciation—typical of people from Bogota. For me, too many of his songs are about love and relationship addiction, but of course this is also typical of too much American music. If you want to train your ear to excellent Spanish, then his songs are an excellent choice, especially his album “lo mejor que hay en mi vida” (the best there is in my life) linked below in video.

• We went to his concert in Miami in 2023 and it was excellent—one of the best performed, playful, and most coordinated concerts I’ve ever seen.

Andrés Cepeda—Tú eres parte de mí (you are part of me)

• If you listen to a good copy of this song and/or with good speakers/headphones, you will be able to pickup a rich background of accompanyment that creates a different experience from what is heard without those details.

Andrés Cepeda—Para dar contigo

What do we learn from epic live performances?

What is the use to the modern man of this "monumental " contemplation of the past, this preoccupation with the rare and classic? It is the knowledge that the great thing existed and was therefore possible, and so may be possible again.

Friedrich Nietzsche