As a teenager, I never expected much from live albums. I think it was because other than mainstream touring Canadian rock acts, we never got many bands that stopped through our town as they traversed the country on their way from Vancouver to Toronto. Live albums were a bit of a curiosity to me and my friends - at best, a stopgap with some interesting reinterpretations of much loved classics, to keep us happy as we waited for a batch of new songs on the next studio album; at worst, a terrible attempt to reproduce an experience on vinyl that we'd likely never experience ourselves - I mean, really - as if The Sensational Alex Harvey Band was ever gonna get to within a thousand miles of us.

But I've been listening to some classic reissues from the '70s, and many of them have been expanded and sonically remastered in recent years so that they make sense as documents of a band's overall career. But some haven't been much more than a simple conversion from LP to CD format. So here's some oldies and how they compare to their newer editions:

1. The Who - Live at Leeds (originally released: 1970). Originally a single disc of six songs, of which three were covers, this album helped cement The Who's reputation as a powerful live act. Starting with a blistering "Young Man Blues" and concluding with an extended "Magic Bus," it was pretty much the definitive statement of how rock and roll ought to be played at 140 dB's.

But the reissue is chock full of older Who oddities like John Entwhistle's "Heaven and Hell." "And Tattoo." And the mini opera "A Quick One." And the entire Tommy. All of which are fine, but they connect the reissued Live at Leeds more to the 60's version of The Who than the 70's version. In fact, much of this material was dropped by the time they played the Young Vic about a year or so later. In any case, those people who want to remember the live album that promised "Noises OK - DO NOT CORRECT!" should maybe leave this be for a bit.

2. Free - Live! (originally released: 1971). Better sound than the original, and additional tracks for real fans, but like The Who's Live at Leeds, I think the original captured the essence of the performance the first time around.