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Thread: Collecting The Who Live Recordings

  1. #51
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    So, onto Charlton 1974- another famous live recording. Footage exists of some of this as it was shown on the BBC and a few songs have been released on VHS/DVD. Much of it was broadcast on the radio but not all, hence why the version I heard was a mish-mash of that and parts from an audience recording. Not a great show overall. A truly disastrous version of 'Young Man Blues' and a botched-up ending on 'Won't Get Fooled Again'. The Quadrophenia tracks come across fairly well, though!
    Last edited by JJ88; 07-18-2019 at 05:20 AM.

  2. #52
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    Speaking of Quadrophenia I have been always partial to David Gilmour's tackling of Dirty Jobs at the Hyde Park gig in 1996.



    Are there any CD releases of this gig, or perhaps another one with Quadrophenia material in such a big arrangement with keys, brass, strings, choir et al?
    Last edited by Jay.Dee; 07-18-2019 at 07:02 AM.

  3. #53
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    There was a DVD release covering a show from that tour, but with Gary Glitter edited out and PJ Proby (from another show later in the tour) edited in.

    https://www.discogs.com/The-Who-Tomm.../master/969406

    The Tommy part was from the 1989 tour, Townshend's acoustic-and-shoulder-pads era. The performance of Tommy isn't too bad but the rest of the show doesn't do it for me. Very bad keyboard/drum sounds IMHO.

  4. #54
    Quote Originally Posted by Jay.Dee View Post
    Speaking of Quadrophenia I have been always partial to David Gilmour's tackling of Dirty Jobs at the Hyde Park gig in 1996.



    Are there any CD releases of this gig, or perhaps another one with Quadrophenia material in such a big arrangement with keys, brass, strings, choir et al?
    The thing I remember from the Hyde Park show was Gilmour somehow forgetting what key he was supposed be in during Love Reign O'er Me and thus totally botching his solo. Not since the Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea version of See Me Feel Me have I heard someone mess up so badly on a high profile gig. And they even broadcast it on TV, after the fact!
    The Tommy part was from the 1989 tour, Townshend's acoustic-and-shoulder-pads era. The performance of Tommy isn't too bad but the rest of the show doesn't do it for me. Very bad keyboard/drum sounds IMHO.
    I think we talked about this already in this thread, or at least I did, but I have very mixed feelings about the 89 tour. On the one hand, it was the first time I got to see The Who in concert, having not even been old enough to see them in 1982, never mind what Moon was still with us.

    But listening to the recordings I've heard from that tour, it's mostly "not the droids we're looking for". Horn section on songs that never had horns on them originally, Townshend playing a lot of acoustic guitar (and I still say his hearing had nothing to do with it), a backup guitar who demonstrates a distinctly inability to play lead guitar like Townshend, and don't get me started on the back up singers and their ridiculous choreography. In short, a band that's way over rehearsed and completely devoid of spontaneity. They put a lot of heart into it, but...it doesn't sound like The Who.

    I've got a VHS bootleg of most of the show I saw in 1989, and I just remember watching it, thinking I couldn't believe how I excited I was during the show, and now, I'm thinking, "Why are there horns on Eminence Front and Sister Disco?!" and "Why couldn't they get someone, if not Pete himself, who could actually play a guitar solo that sounds somethign like what Pete might have played". Honestly, the things on that video were A Trick Of The Light (with Entwistle taking lead vocal duties and strapping on a rarely seen 8 string Buzzard bass for the song) and My Generation (where Thunderfingers goes nuts during the bass solo, the one and only instance I'm aware where he didn't perfectly recreate the solo from the studio version).

  5. #55
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    That 1989 tour was very showbizzy- arguably The Who's lowest point as a live act. I suppose it's just as well there wasn't a new studio album in that period!

    Tommy sort of works with the more arranged 'cast of thousands' approach but I'd take the four-piece live versions from 20 years earlier over that, without any question.

    The issues with the Kenney Jones era as a live act were mostly down to a fairly incompatible drumming style. Funnily enough I quite like the late 70s live stuff I've heard by that line-up, such as 'Music Must Change' on the 30 Years... VHS/DVD. I think that was from Chicago. (I see most of that show was released as a bonus disc with the Amazing Journey documentary...sadly in the UK we didn't get that version.)
    Last edited by JJ88; 07-19-2019 at 04:49 AM.

  6. #56
    ^^^ but the 1989 tour drummer was not Kenney Jones, it was Simon Phillips, who was a better match for the Who (but not for what I think of, these days, as the Keith Moon Memorial Orchestra).
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  7. #57
    Member Jay.Dee's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveSly View Post
    Join Together: A lot of people seem to hate this one, but I have always liked it. It was the version of The Who that had Pete Townshend mainly playing acoustic guitar due to tinnitus problems and the band was augmented by backup singers, extra musicians and a horn section. The first disc is “Tommy” live and the second disc a “Best Of” set. I seem to like this one a lot more than most people.
    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    There was a DVD release covering a show from that tour, but with Gary Glitter edited out and PJ Proby (from another show later in the tour) edited in.

    https://www.discogs.com/The-Who-Tomm.../master/969406
    That's what I need to get then. I totally absolutely entirely reject the whole rock orthodoxy of always playing the material the way God wanted it (read: as on the sacrosanct original studio album).

    I dig Allman Brothers with saxophone (Fillmore East '71), Grateful Dead with horns (Fall '73) and Jimi Hendrix with flute (Winterland '68), so the Who with brass, choir and keys may be up my street too.

  8. #58
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    ^Well, surely the 1969/70 period didn't treat the studio album as sacrosanct, because it was just the four of them. Arguably this 1989 tour was more about replicating the sound of the original album than the album's original tour ever did.

    Quote Originally Posted by Sturgeon's Lawyer View Post
    ^^^ but the 1989 tour drummer was not Kenney Jones, it was Simon Phillips
    I know- I already posted about Phillips in this thread two years ago. My point was that the problems with this 1989 tour IMHO ran deeper than just the drumming. They slicked up the sound too much.

  9. #59
    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    That 1989 tour was very showbizzy- arguably The Who's lowest point as a live act. I suppose it's just as well there wasn't a new studio album in that period!
    They should have 86ed the horn section (except on songs that had horns to begin with) and the backup singers. Supposedly, the reason they had all that was because they had to "turn down" because of Pete's hearing issues. But I think having a second guitarist, keyboardist, and percussionist would have filled the sound out just fine. They didn't need to have the horn section blasting away on Sister Disco and Won't Get Fooled Again.

    I think a much better take on that style of performance was on the 1996 Quadrophenia tour. I saw that one, and I thought they did a much better job of actually sounding like The Who. My only complaint was that I wished Pete had played more electric guitar, and his brother had Simon had been relegated to the acoustic guitar. I still maintain that Pete going acoustic so much during that 89-96 era had more to do with him trying to divorce himself from the "gravity defying guitar god" archetype he had created during the band's first 15 years. I don't actually blame him, as I imagine that style of performance becomes harder and harder as one ages, and by 89, he was already 45, I think.

    I've heard talk that as that tour wore on, especially when they did the second leg of the tour the following year, Pete was playing more and more electric guitar. But the show I saw, in September 96, I think, he only played electric guitar on a couple songs.

    Tommy sort of works with the more arranged 'cast of thousands' approach but I'd take the four-piece live versions from 20 years earlier over that, without any question.
    I actually kinda liked the portion of Tommy they played in Cleveland in 89. I gather they rotated through a few different setlists throughout the tour, in Cleveland, they chose to forgo the traditional I Can't Explain/Substitute show opener (or even the My Generation/I Can't Explain combo that kicked many of the shows on the 82 tour) and instead began with about 30-40 minutes of Tommy material.

    I remember they started with the Overture/It's A Boy, complete with Pete's acoustic guitar solo, after, I'd have to check the bootlegs I have from the show, but I know they basically did all the songs they typically on tour during the post-Tommy years, e.g. Amazing Journey, Sparks, Pinball Wizard, See Me Feel Me, etc. I think they also threw in Acid Queen, We're Not Gonna Take It and probably a few others I'm forgetting. We certainly didn't get the full Tommy treatment, and we certainly didn't get any of the guests that were on the pay per view concert from LA, which was subsequently released on VHS and DVD.

    That LA show, I dunno. The Tommy set's not bad. I dug Patti LaBelle as the Acid Queen, and Billy Idol made a good Cousin Kevin (early example of an actual mic drop, too, as I recall). Steve Winwood was decent on Eyesight To The Blind, and I think Phil Collins did his best to channel Keith as Uncle Ernie. Elton John, though...what can I say? I've never liked his version of Pinball Wizard in the first place, and I don't think I liked him on this occasion either. But I still think Sparks might have been the best part of it, with Entwistle's flanged bass solo and Steve Bolton not quite pulling a full on Blackmore number as he slides his Strat across the lens of a camera.

    The issues with the Kenney Jones era as a live act were mostly down to a fairly incompatible drumming style. Funnily enough I quite like the late 70s live stuff I've heard by that line-up, such as 'Music Must Change' on the 30 Years... VHS/DVD. I think that was from Chicago. (I see most of that show was released as a bonus disc with the Amazing Journey documentary...sadly in the UK we didn't get that version.)
    I think the issues with the circa 79-82 Who were much bigger than just "incompatible drumming style", which I still maintain is a well overstated point. I think they often times sounded great in that era, if a little different. But Entwistle still had a killer bass tone, Townshend still had a killer guitar tone (and he had that awesome looking black Schecter he used most of the time during that era), and Daltrey could still scream with the best of them.

    I can't remember if it was earlier int his thread, or another one where we talked about The Who, but I think Cincinnati really took the wind out of their sails, as it were. I think they were ready to prove they could still do it, and that just sort of must have been a hard thing to have to cope with.

    Also, I thikn the three of them were already started to get disenchanted with The Who. Townshend's songwriting was going in a different direction. They'd all made solo albums, and Daltrey's acting career was starting to...well, I dunno if it ever really took off, but this was when he was starting to increase his profile int hat field, doing stuff like McVicar and Legacy (I still can't believe that quite possibly the first time I ever saw Roger Daltrey was in the latter, where he plays a rock star who sells his soul to the devil, and then chokes to death on a chicken bone).

    Oh yeah, and Pete was starting to having issues with drugs during that era. I guess he, Entwistle, and Moon were always heavy drinkers. Entwistle even famously added a contraption to his mic stand to hold a couple sports bottles full of whatever his beverage of choice was, gin or scotch or whatever. But I think Roger said that when Keith went, none of them dealt with it well, and Pete's answer to go off and start doing hard drugs. I think Daltrey specifically mentioned that Pete started doign heroin, and Pete said he was also doing cocaine in the early 80's, too.

    So I think all of those tihngs contributed to a situation where they weren't playing up to par with the Moon era band. But the bootlegs suggest to me they were still a credible live act with Kenney on board.

  10. #60
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    I do not think claims about Jones' style at this point being a bad fit are overstated, actually. Compared with Moon, Jones leaves a lot of space in the sound- a more conventional 'time-keeping' style of playing that doesn't fit the old songs IMHO. Daltrey in particular was very unhappy with this. And yet Jones' playing in The (small or otherwise) Faces is quite different, so I can see why it looked good on paper.

    I like what I saw of that Chicago 1979 show, though. I find 'Music Must Change' rather fussy and overworked on Who Are You, but it has much more impact live.
    Last edited by JJ88; 07-20-2019 at 03:03 PM.

  11. #61
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Taking a break from my Crimson binge, I've finally dived into the 3 DVD boxset The Who , comprising of Wight, Houston/Texas 75 and the "around Who's Next album" documentary

    Of course, I've had Leeds ever since the middle of the 70's and I waited to upgrade until the 2 Cd set came along, but that was the only Live Who album I ever owned until that Eagle Record boxset.
    I did view a couple of time TKAA, but never planned to make space for it, as I'm not big on pre-Tommy Who (and I've got what I need on Leeds anyways), and I'm not interested in posdt-76 anyways (since The Loon wasn't in shape to drum his usual storm)
    Wight is a bit too similar for my taste in set list contents, but it's nice to have the pictures along with the music.

    Soooo, Houston 75 is fine with the band on a relatively good night (Townshend is spectacular), though Keith gets mixed up when snatching the microphone, but I'm not of fan of the studio image effects at the end of the set (during the call for encore and the encores).
    My main gripe with that show is that six years down the line, they're still doing a Tommy rundown (accounting for 45% of the show), and neglecting Quadrophenia (one track) and Next (the usual Baba-Eyes-Again trilogy), and given By Numbers almost the same importance (well it was their latest).
    On the whole, the show has a feeling of "greatest hits" feel for the first and last quarter and Tommy for the second & third quarter, which I find a bit frustrating


    Did they ever play Quadrophenia in its entirety back in the early-mid 70's and/or also feature a lot Next tracks in the set list??

    EDIT= (sounds like I'm going to track down the Young Vic bonus reissue of Nrxt for that last one)
    Last edited by Trane; 08-09-2019 at 10:18 AM.
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    Isle Of Wight is good but a bit rough compared with Leeds, IMHO. Some then-new songs were added to the set, none of which were used on Who's Next.

    Houston is a perfectly solid performance, from memory. Not the greatest footage (and what the hell is all that post-production 'backwards' crap about?) but it's a full show and those are few and far between. I've always been confused by 'Substitute' being the opening track...this isn't right, surely? 'I Can't Explain' always opened the set but for some reason it's the second track here. Some in the band thought this 1975/6 represented their live peak. But it's hard to get away from the fact that they were already turning into a nostalgia act with these set-lists.

    There has never been an official release from the Quadrophenia tour. Two shows were multi-tracked- Philadelphia and Largo. Apparently the Philadelphia show was planned for CD release in the 90s, but this didn't happen. The 'circulating' Philadelphia recording lacks 'Love Reign O'er Me', which is very unfortunate. I don't think either show is great individually but a good live album could be compiled from the two shows. This sort of thing is now anathema to purists but whatever.

  13. #63
    Quote Originally Posted by Trane View Post
    My main gripe with that show is that six years down the line, they're still doing a Tommy rundown (accounting for 45% of the show), and neglecting Quadrophenia (one track) and Next (the usual Baba-Eyes-Again trilogy), and given By Numbers almost the same importance (well it was their latest).
    On the whole, the show has a feeling of "greatest hits" feel for the first and last quarter and Tommy for the second & third quarter, which I find a bit frustrating
    Yeah, I think they were fully exhausted by the experience of doing Quadrophenia (more on that in a second), and just didn't want to have anythign to do with it for a few years. I think they really didn't get back into paying Quadrophenia until, unfortunately, after Moon went home. During the Kenney Jones era, they played quite a few songs from Quadrophenia: The Real Me, Punk Meets The Godfather, 5:15, Drowned, Love Reign O'er Me, and I'm One. I think during the post 82 era, they whittled that down to just Love Reign O'er Me and 5:15 (except of course when they did the full album in the mid 90's).

    Did they ever play Quadrophenia in its entirety back in the early-mid 70's
    Yes, they did on the Quadrophenia tour, at least at the start of the tour. After the first few UK dates, they dropped several of the songs from the setlist. They had a lot of trouble dealing with playing to tapes at the start of the tour. There's a story of a show in Newcastle, I believe, where the tape for 5:15 started late, and Pete grabbed Bob Pridden, who was apparently in charge of the tape machine, dragged him onstage, yelled obscenities at him, then kicked over his amp and walked offstage. About 20 minutes later, the band came back on, and finished the show with a bunch of their older songs. I can only imagine what it must have been like for Moon to have play along to a click track for that much of a show, especially since some of those songs have tempo and feel changes throughout, so it must have been torture having to follow all of that.

    One suspects one of the problems was that they had only set aside two days for rehearsing with the tapes, one of which was abandoned after Daltrey literally knocked Townshend flat on his ass. Apparently, as the US tour wore on, they got more comfortable with the tapes and things went smoother after awhile.

    So if you're looking for a Moon era show that's heavy on Quadrophenia material, you're looking for something from '73 or the February '74 French tour, which was the last time during Keith's life that they went heavy on the Quadrophenia material. After that, they did, at best, only 2 or 3 songs.

    They didn't really start going back to Quadrophenia until 1979. During the Kenney Jones years, they regularly did 5:15 and Drowned, and also sometimes including I'm One, Dr. Jimmy, Punk Meets The Godfather, and/or Love Reign O'er Me.

    Then of course there were the big mid 90's tours where they played the entire album (which they hadn't done since the first few days of the 1973 UK tour) and I know they've done another tour more recently, where they had Chris Stainton (who had actually played on Quadrophenia) on keyboards, and they played to the video of Keith singing Bell Boy.




    and/or also feature a lot Next tracks in the set list??
    In '71, they played quite a bit of the Lifehouse related material live, including Love Ain't For Keeping, Water, Pure And Easy, Bargain, Baba O'Riley, Won't Get Fooled Again (sometimes in the middle of the set!) and Behind Blue Eyes, but that's about it. After '71, I think only Baba O'Riley, Behind Blue Eyes, Won't Get Fooled Again and My WIfe were played on a regular basis from Who's Next. They also occasionally did Bargain, and in 1982, some of the shows they did Love Ain't For Keeping (which, I know, is beyond the scope of what you're asking about).

  14. #64
    <nerd hat>

    (1) In addition to the tapes, one of the reasons songs were dropped from the '73 Quadrophenia tour was because they involved lots of guitar changes.

    (2) The recent-ish Quad tour featured not only video of Moonie singing "Bell Boy" but also Entwistle "bringing the thunder on (if I remember correctly) "Real Me".

    (c) For really good shows with Who's Next/Lifehouse material, you want two shows. One of them is the "Young Vic" show included on the deluxe Who's Next that also has the first failed attempt at recording Lifehouse. The other is really two: they did two shows at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York at the end of July '71 that include "Love Ain't for Keeping", "My Wife", "Bargain", "Behind Blue Eyes", and WGFA, as well as otherLifehouse songs: "Pure & Easy", "I Don't Know Myself", and "Water" (and, on the second show, "Naked Eye"). Both shows are available as torrents.

    (4) Probably your best bet for a nearly-complete Quadrophenia with Moon is Wolverhampton, 1973. Off the top of my head the only missing songs are the instrumental "Quadrophenia" (though "The Rock" is played) and "The Dirty Jobs". Also torrentable.

    </nerd hat>

    Happy hunting!
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  15. #65
    Quote Originally Posted by Sturgeon's Lawyer View Post
    <nerd hat>

    (1) In addition to the tapes, one of the reasons songs were dropped from the '73 Quadrophenia tour was because they involved lots of guitar changes.
    Hmm, interesting. I didn't know that. I know Townshend used a capo on some of those songs, I think he has it at the third fret for 5:15 and, I think, the fifth fret for Drowned. Would be interesting to see a rundown of exactly what was required for each song, i.e. capo positions, alternate tunings, etc.

    I know in the early 80's, Townshend used something like 5 guitars onstage. He had one main guitar that he used for most of the set. Then he had a guitar capoed at the first fret for Baba O'Riley (I still don't understand that one, other than that it made it easier to do windmills in the key of F), then he'd have a guitar for 5:15 and one for Drowned, and on the 1982 tour, he capoed at the 2nd fret, I believe, for Dangerous. And then he'd have a couple back up ones, one for the main guitar, and one for the capoed guitars, in case he broke a string during a given song.

    I also read once that Alan Rogan (Pete's long time guitar tech, who just recently passed away, I believe) liked to carry extra necks on tour, just in case Pete had one of his fits.

  16. #66
    Quote Originally Posted by Sturgeon's Lawyer View Post
    <nerd hat>

    (2)...but also Entwistle "bringing the thunder on (if I remember correctly) "Real Me".
    Entwistle did a lengthy bass solo during 5:15 in the band's later years.

  17. #67
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    Isle Of Wight is good but a bit rough compared with Leeds, IMHO. Some then-new songs were added to the set, none of which were used on Who's Next.
    But those were part of the Lifehouse project that aborted

    their Woodstock performance (I heard that one is not good sonics) was more akin to Leeds than Wight, then?

    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    Yeah, I think they were fully exhausted by the experience of doing Quadrophenia (more on that in a second), and just didn't want to have anythign to do with it for a few years. I think they really didn't get back into paying Quadrophenia until, unfortunately, after Moon went home. During the Kenney Jones era, they played quite a few songs from Quadrophenia: The Real Me, Punk Meets The Godfather, 5:15, Drowned, Love Reign O'er Me, and I'm One. I think during the post 82 era, they whittled that down to just Love Reign O'er Me and 5:15 (except of course when they did the full album in the mid 90's).

    So if you're looking for a Moon era show that's heavy on Quadrophenia material, you're looking for something from '73 or the February '74 French tour, which was the last time during Keith's life that they went heavy on the Quadrophenia material. After that, they did, at best, only 2 or 3 songs.

    They didn't really start going back to Quadrophenia until 1979. During the Kenney Jones years, they regularly did 5:15 and Drowned, and also sometimes including I'm One, Dr. Jimmy, Punk Meets The Godfather, and/or Love Reign O'er Me.
    I can see that they had more of a problem than Genesis did with their Lamb tour.

    Of course, resorting to tapes (I suppose they thought that the sea and breeze was important for the live renditions too) is something you don't really expect from such an exuberant band

    Thanks for the ever-precise answers, but yeah, the only times I ever saw them was with Jones (two occasions on the same tour - their supposedly last one), and TBH, I didn't feel the excitement one stage of the Quad track of the album version

    Quote Originally Posted by Sturgeon's Lawyer View Post
    Happy hunting!
    Young Vic is easily doable, but I'll probably pass up on the Quadro live that I wish for
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  18. #68
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    Little from their Woodstock set has ever been released. It will be in that big box of every performance from the festival....one hopes it has a separate release.

    Watched a bit of Texas to refresh my memory...Daltrey flubs the end of 'Substitute' (lyrics the wrong way round) but yes, a perfectly good performance, for the most part. I look at it as an 'official bootleg'...the footage is far from professional, but it captures them in the raw, as it were!

  19. #69
    Quote Originally Posted by syncopatico View Post
    Entwistle did a lengthy bass solo during 5:15 in the band's later years.
    That was it!
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  20. #70
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Trane View Post
    Soooo, Houston 75 is fine with the band on a relatively good night (Townshend is spectacular), though Keith gets mixed up when snatching the microphone, but I'm not of fan of the studio image effects at the end of the set (during the call for encore and the encores).
    My main gripe with that show is that six years down the line, they're still doing a Tommy rundown (accounting for 45% of the show), and neglecting Quadrophenia (one track) and Next (the usual Baba-Eyes-Again trilogy), and given By Numbers almost the same importance (well it was their latest).
    On the whole, the show has a feeling of "greatest hits" feel for the first and last quarter and Tommy for the second & third quarter, which I find a bit frustrating
    Yeah, I think they were fully exhausted by the experience of doing Quadrophenia (more on that in a second), and just didn't want to have anythign to do with it for a few years. I think they really didn't get back into paying Quadrophenia until, unfortunately, after Moon went home. During the Kenney Jones era, they played quite a few songs from Quadrophenia: The Real Me, Punk Meets The Godfather, 5:15, Drowned, Love Reign O'er Me, and I'm One. I think during the post 82 era, they whittled that down to just Love Reign O'er Me and 5:15 (except of course when they did the full album in the mid 90's).
    But the sensse of frustration I have about Texas 75 is a bit of a lack of progress some five years (and two double album's worth of material) later is that they're still running a big part of Tommy (which was getting relatively stale, IMHO)...
    I mean, don't shy away from Tommy, FFS, but they could've done one big meddley, starting with Overture (which announces already a few tracks, including Pinball - just sing a verse and a chorus), then you do the finale (relatively unavoidable) and move on, instead of ignoring tracks like I Can See For Miles (the Sell-out which had them moving into Tommy's direction) and Bargain, Getting In Tune or two more cuts from Quadro.

    These guys seemed like they were purring along, living on their laurels after Quadrophenia. Of course WAY would change the setlists a bit, but Looney was on the way out.
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  21. #71
    Quote Originally Posted by Trane View Post
    But the sensse of frustration I have about Texas 75 is a bit of a lack of progress some five years (and two double album's worth of material) later is that they're still running a big part of Tommy (which was getting relatively stale, IMHO)...
    I mean, don't shy away from Tommy, FFS, but they could've done one big meddley, starting with Overture (which announces already a few tracks, including Pinball - just sing a verse and a chorus), then you do the finale (relatively unavoidable) and move on, instead of ignoring tracks like I Can See For Miles (the Sell-out which had them moving into Tommy's direction) and Bargain, Getting In Tune or two more cuts from Quadro.
    .
    I don't think I've seen the Houston footage, but I have a VHS bootleg of the Richfield Coliseum show, the one that the Dreaming From The Waist that was used on the 30 Years Of Maximum R&B video came from. n the Richfield video, they do:

    Amazing Journey
    Sparks
    Acid Queen
    Pinball Wizard
    I'm Free (then there's a weird glitch in the video that cause I'm Free to morph into...)
    See Me Feel Me

    And I have a couple cassettes of other shows from 76 (Madison Square Garden and Boston Garden, the latter being the makeup date for the night Moon collapsed onstage), that have We're Not Gonna Take It in there and maybe one or two other songs also.

    You could argue that a lot of bands could been have helped by the "big medley" approach, but I think maybe it wasn't viewed as "rock n roll". It was the kind of thing pop singers and Vegas style cabaret performers did, not "rock n roll bands". Now, Queen did a medley as part of their set from 1974 onwards, but they were always "different", weren't they?
    ignoring tracks like I Can See For Miles (the Sell-out which had them moving into Tommy's direction) and Bargain, Getting In Tune or two more cuts from Quadro.
    If I'm not mistaken they never did I Can See For Miles during the Moon years. I'm not up on the late 60's stuff, but the bootlegs I've seen from the 70's don't have anything from The Who Sell Out, now that you mention it. Once again, they did I Can See For Mile and Tattoo during the Kenney Jones era, but I don't remember those songs being with Keith.

    But I do think it's unfortunate that they mostly ignored Quadrophenia on that last tour, and even mostly neglected the newly released The Who By Numbers. I don't know whether it was decided that those songs "didn't work" onstage or what. So it does kinda make them look a bit like a "nostalgia" act, or like what bands do now, where they play all their stuff from 30-50 years ago, one or two new songs, and then ignore everything in between.

    It was bad enough when MCA put out a double live album that made them look that way (I'm talking about Who's Last, of course) but in the case, the band did it to themselves. (shrug)

  22. #72
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    My feeling is that big slab of Tommy re-appeared in the 1975/6 set-lists because of the success of the film.

    After a while, 'However Much I Booze' (played in Texas) was dropped from the set, so they were down to just two songs from By Numbers. 'My Wife' was added to the set later so there were four songs from Who's Next.

  23. #73
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post

    But I do think it's unfortunate that they mostly ignored Quadrophenia on that last tour, and even mostly neglected the newly released The Who By Numbers. I don't know whether it was decided that those songs "didn't work" onstage or what. So it does kinda make them look a bit like a "nostalgia" act, or like what bands do now, where they play all their stuff from 30-50 years ago, one or two new songs, and then ignore everything in between.

    It was bad enough when MCA put out a double live album that made them look that way (I'm talking about Who's Last, of course) but in the case, the band did it to themselves. (shrug)

    for Houston 75, you can add the Tommy tracks of Fiddle About and Holiday Camp. (We're Not Gonna Take It, isc AFAIAC part of the finale See Me and includes Listening To You)
    As for By Numbers (which I never owned, but heard many times), but Waist , Friends and Hands are from far the three best tracks (IMHO... and not ) and left out from stage sets.
    Their previous Odds & Sodds is a recognized "unreleased track compilation" will resemble much the official following studio release the tedious By Numbers and in some ways the excellent Who Are You, by mixing songs from years gone by. All three albums have a scrape the bottom of drawers feel thrown in with new tracks (let's count the Lifehouse tracks on O&S as "new" for that album), and IMHO, the weakest is BN - WAY being the best of those three.



    But yeah, it's as much the band as the label that undid their legend (at least Zep, didn't survive the death of their drummer)
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  24. #74
    Quote Originally Posted by Trane View Post
    for Houston 75, you can add the Tommy tracks of Fiddle About and Holiday Camp. (We're Not Gonna Take It, isc AFAIAC part of the finale See Me and includes Listening To You)
    As for By Numbers (which I never owned, but heard many times), but Waist , Friends and Hands are from far the three best tracks (IMHO... and not ) and left out from stage sets.
    Dreaming From The Waist was played regularly in 75-76. Unfortunately, the only other song from The Who By Numbers that was played on a regular basis was Squeeze Box. As far as I know, the only other songs from that album to be played at all were Slip Kid and However Much I Booze, each of which only got played a handful of times. The Madison Square Garden show i have has Slip Kid on it, but it's not a particularly distinguished performance. When they get to the breakdown, where Townshend's volume pedal guitar solo is on the studio version, he just sort of strums chords on the MSG version, like he has no idea what to play during that bit. I gather they've been playing Slip Kid more recently, as in since Entwistle passed away, but at the time, it wasn't really given the shot it deserved.

    As for How Many Friends and In A Hand Or A Face, I think Pete said once that he found those songs too depressing to play night after night. I kinda wish they could have done Imagine A Man, which has always been one of my favorites from that album. It might have made a good change of pace from Behind Blue Eyes.

    And Success Story is another that would have been good for the live show. I honestly wish they could have done more of John's songs live. Usually, they did just Boris The Spider and, at best, one other song, typically My Wife or The Quiet One. On the 1982 song, they also did Dangerous, but Daltrey sings that one. Maybe Roger didn't want to let either John or Pete have too many lead vocal turns onstage, I dunno.

  25. #75
    Member Jerjo's Avatar
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    the band did it to themselves
    This is pretty much the story of The Who.
    I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart

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