[Eee Pee]

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MTV unplugged in New York - Nirvana

Excellent choice, in my opinion much better than the studio versions, if they're even comparable.
 
Except Pennyroyal Tea, that song is just straight up annoying.  

 

[pigmode]

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I would also say "Child in Time" from that performance eclipses any other recorded version I've heard.
Made in Japan is just an awesome live document!
 
 

Absolutely!! In fact one could also say the same for Strange Kind Of Woman, Lazy, and every other cut on that album. 
 
 
If including MTV Unplugged, the one with Steve Howe was imo the most amazing.

 

[shabta]

Grateful Dead, nearly anything live is better than studio, but Live Dead is a good place to start...

 

[BluFalcon]

Peter Frampton - Do You Feel Like We Do

 

[Redcarmoose]

 
 
Good one!
Quote:

Peter Frampton - Do You Feel Like We Do

 

 

[Kukuk]

Bob Dylan's Maggie's Farm is definitely better live.
 

 

[aroldan]

It may be a cliché, but there's to be a mention to Hotel California (live) - Eagles
 

 

[Ouspensky]

Every single song in the Alive! album by Kiss is the definitive version of it. That double live album is basically the reason every artist includes a live album in their catalog IMHO.
Also who can forget the live album in its entirety by Grand Funk Railroad....that is some serious rock n roll.

 

[Redcarmoose]

interesting?
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It may be a cliché, but there's to be a mention to Hotel California (live) - Eagles
 

 

 

[KneelJung]

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I've always been a "studio album" listener.  And moreover, I appreciate the craft that goes into the studio album.
And I also feel that this craft most often produces the "definitive version" of a given song.
 
Sometimes, though, a particular song might reach a new level of power and resonance in live performance.  This might be the result of experimenting with a new musical arrangement (Clapton's unplugged Laya, for example), or a moment of cathartic performance, or even both.

I'd say a more apt description of the studio version is...it's the progenitive version rather than the definitive version.
 
For instance the album version of Woke Up Dreaming by Joe Bonamassa versus the Royal Albert Hall Performance of the song. Which blows the album version away. Then there is the live version of Woke Up Dreaming on Live From Nowhere in Particular, so it's entirely possible that it's hard to quantify the definitive live versions of a particular song. I bought this CD though after seeing Bettye Lavette perform it on one of those Kennedy Center Awards. The defifinitive version still belongs to the progenitors but Bettye Lavette's version:
 

 
And here is a live cover of a Neil song that is more epic than definitive.
 

 
Nothing like a great song to turn into some living breathing entity when performed live by great musicians.

 

[pigmode]

Quote:

Peter Frampton - Do You Feel Like We Do

 
 

 
For myself Frampton Comes Alive was almost a revelatory live album. Imo its production values, especially in terms of sound quality raised the bar from what it had been at the time. 

 

[tjohnusa]

Also must add ELP Live At The Royal Albert Hall

 

[baka1969]

Pink Floyd's Ummagumma Live album. Every song on there is better than the studio version. But then again, Floyd was always a stellar live band.

 

[Cinnabar]

Ballad of a Thin Man - Bob Dylan

 

[baka1969]

Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" I believe is live and is the definitive version.