Three Dog Night - Captured Live at the Forum

Screaming At Dogs

By 1969, Three Dog Night {along with Creedence Clearwater Revival} were the kings of the pop charts in America. This record is a document of one of their live shows from late 1968. And it is one of the best live recordings we have of a working rock band of that fantastic decade, the sixties.

With frontmen Danny Hutton, Cory Wells and Chuck Negron, these three vocalists were about the finest of their day. But the band of players that included drummer: Floyd Sneed, guitarist: Mike Allsup, bass player: Joe Schermie, and keyboard wiz-kid: Jimmy Greenspoon, really shine on this record. The Dogs had a really great rock band that held it's own along side anyone else on the stages of the 1960's.

Three Dog Night, knew which songs to pick and present in the: "Dog Fashion" of Rock/R & B/Funky style that would bring them millions of fans and tons of million selling singles and albums worldwide. All of the members of this group already had years of experience in the Music Business as Producers/Arrangers and Performers. On this record at the Los Angeles Forum, in front of thousands of fans, Three Dog Night, delivered the Show.

With two songs from Traffic: {"Heaven Is In Your Mind" & "Feelin' Alright"} to open the show, The Dogs do indeed prove they are just as cool as the British Bands of the day, as these versions are really nice. "Chest Fever" from The Band, features a great opening solo from the organ of Jimmy Greenspoon that really rocks. "Eli's Coming" is a few notches above it's studio cousin as a classic 60's rock song. "Easy To Be Hard" throws out the slow soul style of ballads that this group could perform in their sleep. This record contains some great music that is performed even greater. These guys knew how to ENTERTAIN, in the American tradition of Frank or Bing or Elvis, Three Dog Night loved the Stage.


The Band's big number: "Try A Little Tenderness" is the record's closing number, and it builds and builds, and explodes as the finale. All the fans inside The Forum are happy and the screams prove it all through this recording. Three Dog Night, was never considered as cool as Jimi or The Cream, but they were just as great.
Capture this.
Four Stars!!!
October 31, 2008

THree Dog Night in a different context

I had this on vinyl back in the day. Great group album.
The other 3DG I have is a greatest hits and is mostly the pop stuff from a 3 singer group.
This album from early in their career they sound more like a boogie band with 8 members.
Yes there are a few hits here, but so much more ( just listen to Chest Fever ). September 17, 2008

Alot of sound from 5 dudes

Alot of energy from the group *and* from the audience. The young ladies' joyous squeals in the near-silent intros. to "Eli's Comin'" and the incredible closer "Try A Little Tenderness" bring this ol' rock & souler back to a different time - it was late 1969 and R & R was going back to basics - 4 or 5 guys playing their brains out - playing stuff for Top 40 *and* FM! And Three Dog Night actually had....talent. Taking nothing away from those big, horn-driven, jazz-inflected groups like B, S, & T and Chicago and Chase, the new era had TDN and CCR...and you name 'em. (Where's Casey Kasem?.........).
Back around '68 a High School classmate enthused over this great group doing "Try A Little Tenderness". Never heard of the group or the song. Well, the great *live* rendition is here, the best track on the album. The pandemonium has built to a point of impossible tension tempered with artistic control.
Problem is...now go easy on me....I still don't know who's singin'? Chuck?
No liners with that kind of detail. Another issue is that the CD does not sound "clean" - sounds like it was drawn from vinyl. Bass is still prominent but has a stereo to mono sound. (Gotta listen on the phones to confirm that, though).
This album-to-CD is a little more about the live experience (in 1969) than about great live "versions*.
Note that not all the l. p. graphics made it over to CD. Including the photo of that California girl in the front row. jk. June 14, 2008

hard to believe

I have the LP and I also bought the CD of this concert. It is great fun to listen to this band. The part that is hard to believe is that Three Dog Night was the warm up act for Steppenwolf this night. To me "Chest Fever" is my favorite song of the show which features the whole band and shows how good Three Dog night really was. By the way Three Dog Night made alot of great LP's with with alot of hits and very little filler. August 25, 2007

live and alive

This Three Dog Night album is interesting for a couple reasons. One, it shows the world that the band was more than just a vocal harmony band, and two, only one song featured here is played on the radio anymore ("One").

If you grew up listening to this band and expect to hear unique vocal harmonies, think again. While the vocals here are definitely good, it seems to me Three Dog Night wanted to prove that they could also stand tall with all the hard rock bands around at the time. "Nobody" and "Chest Fever" proves this for example. Songs that can rock convincingly.

"Heaven Is In Your Mind" is another great song, and a fantastic way to open this set. I don't know if I'd prefer this version over Traffic's, but you know, the Traffic version sounds pretty old, while the boys in Three Dog Night give the song an updated sound with plenty of energy. Check out that guitar solo in the middle. In fact, check out the guitar work throughout the entire album. Yes that's right- there's PLENTY of guitar on this album (for all you people out there who might think the band was too weak to hang with the big boys, like Zeppelin and Sabbath- think again!)

This version of "Feeling Alright" is quite good too. Again, it's about rocking out with some funk thrown in for good measure. This version is probably just as good as Grand Funk's. Joe Cocker's version can go... in the back of the closet.

For those missing some of Three Dog Night's softer and prettier numbers, "Easy to be Hard" might fit the bill. It's a shame most people will probably write off Three Dog Night without giving some of their albums a chance. That is, most people who grow up today, under the assumption that Three Dog Night was all about old and dated vocal harmonies. Wrong! Pick this album up for proof of that. May 25, 2007

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