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Music CD - The Who: Live at Leeds
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Music CD: Live at Leeds
Artist: The Who
List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $4.86
Your Save: $ 7.12 ( 59% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Mca
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. Heaven And Hell
2. I Can't Explain
3. Fortune Teller
4. Tattoo
5. Young Man Blues
6. Substitute
7. Happy Jack
8. I'm A Boy
9. A Quick One, While He's Away
10. Amazing Journey/Sparks
11. Summertime Blues
12. Shakin' All Over
13. My Generation
14. Magic Bus
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0008811121525
Format: Live
Label: Mca
Manufacturer: Mca
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Mca
Release Date: 1995-02-28
Studio: Mca
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A tad overrated but still great.
Comment: The Who were a popular band of the mid to late 1960s. They wrote songs ranging from R&B to proto punk to pop. This album captures them on a good night playing energetic versions of many of their best songs to a small crowd at Leeds University in 1970. Thank you for reading my review of The Who Live At Leeds.
Oh, you want more? Hmmmm, well I thought that summed it up quite well myself. The album itself has gathered an almost fearsome reputation as probably the greatest live album *ever* With such high expectations disappointment is almost inevitable, the question is more *how* disappointing. With Live At Leeds, happily, it's "not very". The band are playing tightly and manage to inject songs with an energy sometimes lacking in the studio version. Happy Jack on record is actually quite a lightweight poppy song, here it's a bit more rocking. However I've read comements in the past about the "FURY" of Live At Leeds, and about at first it just sounds like a cacophony of feedback. When I first put this on I was half expecting to have my head blown off by the sheer ferocity. But really, it's not *that* extreme. In fact some songs don't sound all that different from the studio version, such as A Quick One.
At the same time though, the whole point of this album is to rock and roll. With the albums The Who Sell Out and Tommy, The Who had stepped away a bit from their raw early sound into more experimenta areas and this was meant to remind the public what a visceral, raw band they could be. The guitar tone is heavy yet sharp, but at this time BLack Sabbath were the heaviest band around.The stage banter is not so much " ARE YOU READY TO RAAAWKKK?????!!!!" as Townshend politely announcing "We'll play our some of our hit singles for you now", and the audience are not people seemingly in awe of Gods, but instead chuckling to the bands comments and some clapping and cheering. If you're expecting somic mayhem with the infamous guitar smashing routine you'll be disappointed too; in the pre concert interview Townshend said in effect that he had ougrown that routine. Live At Leeds is a concert above all, not a spectacle where people gawp at a guy going nuts and smashing his guitar.
I don't view what I wrote above as criticisms as such but more a caveat to those who haven't heard this album yet. So I view this album perhaps not as the ultimate live album or the Holy Grail of musical ferocity, but as an enjoyable glimpse at The Who giving a fresh yet assured performance in their heyday. Worth buying? Of course.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Deep, Heavy R&B
Comment: The Who was an enigma with a psycho-genius at the song writing front. In other words, Pete Townshend is well...Pete Townshend. He is leader, guitar god, poet, drive, focus, chief cook and bottle-washer of one of the truly great rock bands of all time. They used to hold the Guiness World Record for the loudest concert. Their music is raw, heavy yet pop-ish, silly and at the same time deeply serious. They are pure English with some heavy American R&B influence. John Entwistle (along with John Paul Jones of Led Zep and Jack Bruce of Cream) is the quintessential bassist. Rogery Daltrey's vocals are phenomenal and are an instrument in it's own rite. Keith Moon, arguably the best drummer in rock history, is fanatical; playing in series of riffs and is mesmerizing to watch.
This is an excellent live album. Do NOT be fooled or taken in by bad reviews. The cd is essential along with the primarly essential 'Who's Next'.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Who,
Comment: Let me sart off saying that this is probaly the best live album you can pick up by The Who. First off this is the Who at there finest and best. Everyone is really enthusiastic about peforming. The songs they play on here are great( subsitute, my generation, i cant explain and MANY MORE. Plus the quailty of the recording is amazing, if you turn it up full blast and close your eyes and you can imagine the Who playing live in 1970. Summertime Blues was a cool song on here also... Now though with a version with the whole concert, though if you dont want to spend[...]dollars than i would recomend this CD on amazon. First of its only $[...] so its a great deal. Buy it today, great for any Who fan, buy it today.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Most. Overrated. Live album. Ever.
Comment: The Who were a great band. To be precise, they were definitely one of the top three or four British beat groups of the Sixties. Pete Townshend wrote great pop songs (as long as he was depressed by the size of his nose) and they delivered them with fire and flair. But then, by means of a combination of drugs, alcohol and transcendental meditation, Pete became reconciled to his nose and the band fatally lost momentum. It didn't help that he wasn't a very good guitarist. A superb riff-maker, which is a major gift in itself, but not someone you can trust to carry you through an extended live jam with a ceaseless flow of musical invention. (The phrase 'ham-fisted' comes to mind.) Meanwhile, the rest of the band ('this ****ing sausage machine' as Pete once called them an in interview) were all full-on monsters of mayhem, but were equally little-known for their subtlety and sparkling imagination. When in doubt, they riff like mad and hope that nobody will notice that it's still the same song.
The unfortunate result of this combination of factors is that 'Live at Leeds' has a reputation far in excess of its listenability. I've gone through two copies now; the second one I got recently, just to see if it was still as boring in its extended edition as it was when it was just an audio cassette. The answer is yes. This is an album that I just cannot listen to all the way through, and I have an appetite for noise and sonic devastation, from Hendrix and Sonny Sharrock to Black Flag and Sonic Youth. The problem is that The Who live were just...boring.
The shorter songs are fine, but somewhere in the middle of the 15-minute (!) version of 'My Generation', the eyelids start to droop. Townshend's gifts as as a composer are at their strongest when writing hits, which is why the best Who albums are compilations. Live, he and his mates could think of no better way to hold the audience's attention than to turn up louder than anyone else, which was far from the most inspired way to do it.
I foresee that my CD of 'Live at Leeds' will, like its tape cousin, sit on the shelf unplayed until I either sell it or give it away. The meat-&-potatoes tedium of their live assault has once again not done it for me.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Who: Live and at Their Best.
Comment: Possibly the greatest live rock album of all time, Live at Leeds (1970) is one of my three favorite Who albums (the other two being no surprises: 1969's Tommy and 1971's Who's Next.) The Who's February 14, 1970 Leeds University gig was part of the Tommy tour, recorded while the band was in its prime. Released in a simple album cover that could be mistaken for a bootleg, Live at Leeds was quickly recognized as "the best live rock album ever made" by the New York Times. In its classic version, the original 1970 album only offered six tracks:
1. Young Man Blues (4:45)
2. Substitute (2:05)
3. Summertime Blues (3:22)
4. Shakin' All Over (4:15)
5. My Generation (14:27)
6. Magic Bus (7:30)
As a teenager, I played the classic version of Live at Leeds LOUD enough for my entire neighborhood to enjoy (heh, heh). Improving upon the classic album (in my opinion), the digitally-remastered 1995 CD expanded the original setlist to include:
1. Heaven And Hell
2. I Can't Explain
3. Fortune Teller
4. Tattoo
5. Young Man Blues
6. Substitute
7. Happy Jack
8. I'm A Boy
9. A Quick One, While He's Away
10. Amazing Journey/Sparks
11. Summertime Blues
12. Shakin' All Over
13. My Generation
14. Magic Bus
In addition to these two versions of Live at Leeds, I also own the Live At Leeds [Deluxe Edition] of the remastered CD (yet another improvement, in my opinion), which includes more stage chat between the songs, as well as a nearly complete performance of Tommy on a second disc:
Disc two (Tommy)
1. Overture
2. It's a Boy
3. 1921
4. Amazing Journey
5. Sparks
6. Eyesight to the Blind
7. Christmas
8. The Acid Queen
9. Pinball Wizard
10. Do You Think It's Alright?
11. Fiddle About
12. Tommy, Can You Hear Me?
13. There's a Doctor
14. Go to the Mirror
15. Smash the Mirror
16. Miracle Cure
17. Sally Simpson
18. I'm Free
19. Tommy's Holiday Camp
20. We're Not Gonna Take It
All three versions capture the energy of The Who when the band was at its best.
G. Merritt
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Editorial Reviews:
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Anyone who owned the vinyl copy of Live at Leeds will barely recognize its digitized namesake. While the 1970 record offered a mere six selections, the 1995 CD reissue is fleshed out with a full 14 tracks. Reveling in the augmented Leeds prompts one to wonder why in the name of "Heaven and Hell" they didn't put out a double record in the first place. No matter. This Live at Leeds is actually superior to its revered predecessor. The Who are at their Maximum R&B peak here, bringing an almost proto-metal aggression to supercharged covers of "Young Man Blues," "Summertime Blues," and "Shakin' All Over" (all from the original record) and treating fans to originals familiar ("I Can't Explain," "My Generation," "Magic Bus") and less known ("Heaven and Hell," "Tattoo," "A Quick One"). An improved-upon classic. --Steven Stolder
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