Originally Posted by
kenneth
Wasn't the original "At the Copa" album a rerecording in the studio with the audience dubbed in? I think in the Expanded Edition it talks about that.
I'm sure there are others, but thankfully Motown seemed less inclined to do this than many other artists. I think it's great hearing, for example, the early Marvelettes live, even though sometimes they are way off key. It's still a fun recording.
James Brown seems to be the most well known of those who would create fake "live" albums. His "Sex Machine" album had 2 sides truly live and 2 sides fake live. The "Sex Machine" track on the album was exactly the same as the single but for the dubbed in applause and crowd noise.
But I remember one album [[I just wish I could remember whose it was) where even on the live album, the songs faded out! Anyone would have known that was fake! Of course this often happened on "American Bandstand" and "Soul Train" because they were mostly [[I believe) lip synced performances.
So glad Motown didn't do this that often. It's great hearing the truly live performances, warts and all.