"Livestock" Album Description:
I file "Livestock" under jazz fusion first, prog second, and “play it loud enough to scare the dust off the shelves” always. It landed in late 1977 (UK release on Charisma), and it still feels like a band daring the room to keep up — not politely entertaining it.
You can hear the places in it. Not as tourist postcards — as actual air and pressure. Bits were captured at Ronnie Scott’s in London (back in September 1976), then later at the Hammersmith Odeon and the Marquee (August 1977). The Manor Mobile was there, doing the hard work while the band did the risky work: stretching, snapping back, stretching again.
The drumming is the sneaky twist people forget while they’re busy name-dropping: Kenwood Dennard bookends the album on the first and last tracks, and Phil Collins takes the middle run (tracks 2–4). That switch isn’t trivia — it changes the body language of the record. Dennard hits like he’s shoving furniture around. Collins locks in, then slips sideways with that annoying natural ease he has when he’s in the zone.
And the sleeve? Hipgnosis. Of course it’s Hipgnosis. It’s got that late-70s “this is art, deal with it” stare, where the photos and design feel like a dare more than decoration. I’m a sucker for that — partly because it makes the whole thing feel bigger than five tracks, and partly because I like my records with a little attitude baked into the cardboard.
I don’t put "Livestock" on to “understand the era.” I put it on when I want a room to feel alive and slightly uncooperative — the way live music is supposed to be.
