Live at Leeds

Na de 4 studioalbums die we voorgeschoteld kregen moet ik concluderen dat The Who wat betreft de albums niet de meest geniale band was. Natuurlijk, er zijn nummers die enorm uitschieten, en best in de top 100 van vele lijstjes mogen staan. Maar daarom heen is het vaak niet heel interessant. Dus waarom, naast die 4 studio-albums, ook nog een live album? Voordat ik het opzet, is daarnaast mijn oordeel al wat beïnvloed door mijn eigen overtuiging. Want live-albums = valsspelen.

Als ik het opzet stijgt de verbazing (ergernis?). Want Heaven and Hell is nou niet erg krachtig gezongen. Komt er nog een opbouw dan? Ik hoop het. Maar de muzikale energie stroomt pas binnen bij nummer 5, Young Man Blues. Niet dat dat een heel origineel nummer is, maar wel lekker.

Die energie krijgen we daarna een tijdje niet meer. Wellicht voelt dat ook zo door de nette aankondigingen van de verschillende nummers. Het heeft ook wat leuks hoor. Altijd geinig om te horen welke andere muziek de band zelf waardeert en wat hen gevormd heeft. Maar het haalt de energie er wel uit.

Ik kom eigenlijk maar net bij een voldoende, totdat ik info ga verzamelen. Ik heb de 1995 versie te pakken. Het echte album uit 1970 skipt de eerste vier nummers en start gelijk met Young man blues. Ik besluit een paar dagen te wachten en dan deze versie te pakken. Deze versie focust op de energie. Er zijn gelukkig slechts 6 nummers. Er zijn geen aankondigingen en de energie zit er, zoals gezegd, gelijk in. Kant 1 biedt een aantal nummers die niet op een eerder groot album stonden, dus iets minder strafpunten voor het 'valsspelen'. Al komt kant 2 gelijk met My Generation, dat al eerder een flinke hit was.

Wat een beetje selectie al niet kan doen. Voor deze versie kan ik wel een sterretje extra geven.

I've never listened to this album start-to-finish before. I'm listening to the 1995 edition which clocks in at about 77 minutes.

I'm not against live albums, but my question is more like: Why _this_ live album? What is so special about this album that justifies it being on this list? It's not bad, but The Who performing this set of songs is just not terribly interesting.

Weird to include a live album make up of songs that will already be on the list
I don't particular care about The Who and this isn't a great way to listen to my first album by them. Doesn't seem like a particularly well recorded album and I can't hear anything special about it but I might be missing something
Just seems very eh

I had to listen to this on YouTube as Spotify had the wrong tracks so I wasted some time.

As for the album, it's a live album by The Who, not much to say about it, It was simply alright.

So this is supposed to be one of the greatest live albums ever? I'm just not getting it. Partly I find Keith Moon's drumming very irritating, but the songs just don't seem like great versions. The 15 min long My Generation just loses interest as it goes on.

I don’t mind The Who but still I only felt like listening to the original track list and it was fine. I’ve definitely heard a few of the other songs recorded at Leeds and I’m sure eventually I’ll listen to the rest.

I've never really understood the reverence for this album. It's merely ok for me.

Townshend knows his way round a chord progression but his widdly widdly scree action is pretty lame.

Their cover of Summertime Blues is fun but once you've heard the Blue Cheer version can you go back? They maul Shakin' All Over with Townshend taking liberties with the riff and mostly ignoring the tremelo chord on the chorus.

Another record that I heard a lot of at the time but didn't have a copy of because I wasn't very interested in The Who.

Blistering, relentless blues rock with lots of jamming noodling guitar stuff. The best part of it is the breakdown with great drumming at the end of the 15-minute track that begins with "My Generation." I still prefer other bands from the period, and am frankly tired of hearing about my generation. But if you're going to listen to The Who, I figure you should be listening to this.

3

Hmmmm I don't think so babes! Just guitars and drums and waiting for things to happen.

Sounds great … but tend to agree with others that live albums are kinda cheating

There are bits of this that are excellent - the My Generation medley, for example, and Substitute - but also a few bits that are lumpen and stodgy - like Summertime Blues. A solidly high three overall.

Greatest live album ever

I kind of forget how cool The Who were at their best honestly, but this really rocks hard. Full disclosure, I listened to the edited, original version of this. While I am glad the unedited concert is available for archival reasons. As a listening experience, the original experience of Live At Leeds is super lean and complements the energy of the performances here. And The Who really sound like they're bursting at the seams on this recording. Keith Moon is really the foundation here: he sounds as sloppy as he does tight, and it sets the pace for the rest of the band, giving a couple of moments here something like a proto-punk feeling. Side A blasts through Young Man Blues, Substitute, Summertime Blues, and Shakin' All Over in a blistering 15 minutes. But the centerpiece here is really the My Generation Medley. Over the course of 15 minutes, The Who dynamically leap from fragment to fragment, capturing everything that rocks about The Who. It's just an onslaught of material that is expertly paced and consistently exciting. And I think stuff like this also captures what is unique about live albums as a whole. The My Generation Medley here could have really only existed live. After this, we wrap up with a chugging, 8 minute long rendition of Magic Bus. It wraps this up perfectly, and really shows how much fun they seemed to be having here. I should probably give this a few more listens, because I could honestly see it growing on me. But, for now, this is still a particularly great live album, and a real showcase of The Who at their most exciting.

I saw The Who live at Glastonbury, and the only thing I really remember about it is Pete Townshend claiming he’d invented the internet. This was clearly a much more memorable gig.

Perfection. Daltrey and Moon in particular steal the show for me, but the whole band sounds absolutely amazing and as powerful as any rock and roll band has ever sounded. One of my favorite live albums of all-time, the original tracklist or the expanded edition.

5/5

Enjoyable, but not repeatable for me.

Yeah this is a good fun album, possibly would've enjoyed it more actually hearing it live Only had the chance to give this one listen through so I might come back to it at some point 3

Pretty solid live record, if anything to me a bit underwhelming considering its reputation

Live albums are generally for proper fans of an artist or a way to get a greatest hits of live versions. Unfortunately whilst i dont mind the who my interest does not extend to a live album on which only Substitute and My Generation really peak my interest.
My patience was already wearing thin before i reached the introduction to A Quick one…. And at that point i was broken.
Their cover of Summertime Blues is frankly atrocious.
Fortunately the last three songs are the album’s strongest, but the damage has been done and the studio versions are far superior

I am still sceptical about the general principle of live albums appearing on this project, no matter how great sounding that live album is. And it's not even that I'm against the idea of live albums in general as I own some (of bands I adore). But *seeing* a band live before you die makes more sense to me than listening to a record of a band live before you die.

This specific album was fine, but I'd much rather have heard some of these songs for the first time in the way they were originally intended to be heard.

2(.5)/5