WANNA KNOW WHAT IT WAS LIKE BACK IN THE DAY?

LIVE AT LEEDS by The Who (Decca, 1970)

The Who was one of the greatest live bands of all time, bar none, and this document proves it. In 1970 they were at the height of their powers, having just pulled off the coup of creating the first “Rock Opera” Tommy. They followed that miracle up with a massive US tour with the intention of recording the performances in order to put out a killer live album next. However, a burnt out Pete Townshend was reportedly not in the mood to be sorting through all those recordings to choose the best cuts, so he regrettably told the engineer to “burn all the tapes”. 

As a compensatory gesture, it was decided to schedule a two night gig in northern England, at The University of Leeds, to record those concerts (without audience noise), and release the results. And, wow. This momentous outing, combining their hit singles, cuts from Tommy, and old rockabilly has been preserved for the ages, a portrait of the original lineup of one of Rock’s most exciting combos at their absolute pinnacle. The original 1970 release distilled the results into 6 supersonic cuts, culminating in a scorching 16 minute collage of “My Generation.” For my generation this record, with its sly facsimile of a stamped bootleg cover, captivated every nerve ending in our bodies. 

All during my freshman year at the University of Iowa Pete Townshend’s power chords, leaping off of his SG Gibson, in “Summertime Blues,” reverberated throughout my dorm hallway, day and night. Every fledgeling guitar player, dreaming dreams of Rock n Roll glory, tried to jam on that riff, as we had, 4 years earlier, on the Trogg’s “Wild Thing” or Van Morrison’s “Gloria.”

Although those halcyon springtime days of youth are long past, those power chords still resonate with the same immediacy - forever fresh, forever torrid.