The Who
Live at Leeds

I am convinced that a certain type of rock had its best era between the late '60s and the early '70s. If you think about the albums released in the short period from '67 to '73, you cannot help but be amazed by such abundance and quality. The Doors, Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Stooges are just some of the artists who in that short period of time released practically all their best albums, or almost all. But beyond the mentioned names, which would already be enough to satisfy even the most discerning tastes, there's also the one of the Who, who from 1967 (The Who Sell Out) to 1973 (Quadrophenia) lived their most prolific and important period, establishing themselves in the world as a band of undeniable compositional talent and marked creativity. They were among the pioneers of concept albums with complex, exciting, and majestic works such as "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia", they released practically perfect rock albums, such as the splendid "Who's Next" where the genius of Pete Townshend manages to insert synthesizers into the band's sound without losing a single ounce of rock charge, thus giving life to an album with a modern sound, but at the same time a true classic. But while the Who in the studio were special, the Who live were the ultimate live band, capable of playing pure and powerful rock with no frills, but also the more challenging pieces always with class, vigor, and confidence. In this light, the album that best represents the Who as a war machine on stage is the famous Live at Leeds.

Live at Leeds was recorded on February 14, 1970, at Leeds University and released in May of the same year. The setlist then included a series of tracks taken from the very first LPs and singles, some rock'n'roll covers, and the almost complete staging of their latest album, the rock opera Tommy, released the previous year. The performance that evening was simply extraordinary, incomparable, something unique and unrepeatable. Luckily it was recorded (very well) and put on a record, but it was 1970 and live albums had not yet definitively taken off, they did not have the consideration that instead was given to studio albums; especially a double live LP was still considered a risk (despite a big precedent like "Live Dead" by the Grateful Dead), so at that time the record executives opted for the simplest and, for those times, perhaps most sensible solution: a single vinyl, which however contained the real heart of the concert, a concentrated glimpse of brief but intense Who live. Thus, a record of only thirty-seven minutes soon became one of the greatest classics of live albums. Only six tracks, less than a third of the entire concert, but with devastating strength and impact.

The cover "Young Man Blues" opens the album and is a piece of pure rock blues full of guitar outbursts, punctuated by repeated stop & go with an alternation between the sung verse and the main riff that anticipates what the Led Zeppelin would do shortly after with "Black Dog". The acoustics of the hall are fabulous, the sound is full, big, it seems you can touch those vibrations: it's the rock that materializes, rock that becomes tangible, real, takes shape, takes life. Next is "Substitute", a '66 single, a cheerful piece in pure beat style, but strengthened by the heavy work of John Entwistle on the bass: a hard, distorted bass, played with a pick I believe, a bass that at times seems like a second guitar. Another famous cover is "Summertime Blues", which, literally overturned, becomes a true hard rock, with Keith Moon pounding the skins as if he had four arms and Pete Townshend swirling his crusher riffs. Cover, cover, and more cover, the last one is a tribute to one of the first English rock'n'roll pieces: "Shakin' all Over" by Johnny Kidd; here it's Roger Daltrey who takes the lead, offering an incredible performance that crowns him as one of the best vocalists rock has ever known. Thus ends the A-side, just a quarter of an hour, but an immense quarter of an hour. Turn the record, put the needle back on, and "My Generation" starts: this, ladies and gentlemen, is the best My Generation ever, this is one of the most incredible performances captured in vinyl grooves. It sweeps away everything and everyone, powerful, precise, flawless. Pete leaves the bass solo to Entwistle and supports him with his riffs; it must be said that one of the features of Live at Leeds, but I would say of the Who in general, was precisely this, that every instrument and every member had equal importance and dignity in the economy of the sound, so often it was the bass that did the solos and the guitar that kept the rhythm and then there was Keith Moon who reinforced the riffs and at the same time supported everything. But what a monster was Moon? Hearing him play it seems like a continuous solo, but at the same time he keeps the time: a unique and inimitable style. This performance of My Generation extended to a quarter of an hour is a true infernal cauldron where various quotes find space: from Tommy with "See Me Feel Me\Listen to You", but also from "The Seeker" and the ending of the splendid (and I say splendid) "Naked Eye", plus a plethora of other riffs, rolls, and solos to feed an entire generation of rockers. Shocking, epic, majestic, and if any other qualifying, superlative, laudatory, and worshipful adjectives come to mind, put them in, damn it, put them in! The final track of the record is a real race on "Magic Bus", again, the best Magic Bus ever, sensational and unprecedented. Here the beauty is the dialogue between Daltrey and Townshend, often more than a second voice, but also the interaction between Entwistle's bass and Pete Townshend's Gibson SG Special. Yes, indeed a special devil Gibson, but not the modern special, one from the '60s, with the single coil P90s, the so-called soapbars. Why all these details about the guitar? Because the sound of Live at Leeds is peculiar, because the work Townshend does is amazing, simple and brilliant at the same time. Using the separate volume controls for the two pickups, Pete managed to switch from a lighter, almost acoustic sound, to a more distorted and powerful one simply by moving the pickup selector switch; a univox super fuzz pedal was instead used to further increase the distortion during the solos, and then there was an echo effect used almost to simulate the presence of two guitars on stage. Well, in Magic Bus Pete uses these techniques, and he does it with a mastery that it seems like he's combing his hair in front of the mirror on Sunday morning just getting up at noon. When then the drums and the harmonica played by Daltrey are added, it seems like there is an entire orchestra on stage, but an orchestra that plays in unison, with all the instruments playing together almost as if they were dependent on each other: cohesion and harmony that leaves one dumbfounded. The finale is a real clamor of wild guitar strumming, like the Stooges.

Less than forty minutes, but an actual punch in the stomach, a pure distillation of that thing that someone called Rock and which instead I like to call Rock. It is said or rather, I read on some site, that there are some overdubs, you know what I say to you? Who cares. The Who live in those years were great, and even if there was any overdubbing, this certainly doesn't change the substance of things, because even listening to other live performances from the period, like the one at the Isle of Wight, you can understand how these guys were unrivaled or almost on stage.

The original vinyl was packaged in a bootleg-like cover containing several surprises, gadgets, and memorabilia inside, including twelve inserts and Maximum R&B posters. This is the historical album. Over time, however, the album has "grown" thanks to digital support. In '95 the first abundant addition of tracks from the same concert. In 2001 finally, the complete concert (except for some edits), with the Deluxe Edition in double CD and all of Tommy on the second disc (this to facilitate listening, thus avoiding splitting Tommy in two chunks). The version of the concept performed here is much rawer than the original, guitar, bass, and drums, without the orchestral frills, simple, direct, immediate, I dare not say better than the historical album because it would be disrespectful to that album as it was conceived and wanted, but one thing is certain, the Tommy of Leeds will surely appeal also to those who frowned upon the studio one, to believe try to compare the two "I'm Free". And finally, just a few weeks ago the super deluxe anniversary version, which besides containing the complete concert at Leeds on a double CD, also contains the following one at Hull (same setlist, another two CDs), the original vinyl and the single Summertime Blues\Heaven and Hell. Clearly, even all the other tracks would deserve some words, but they are really too many, so I limit myself to saying that the quality is always the same, very high.

Anyone, for some strange reason (because life is sometimes strange), who does not yet have this record should know that there is still time to get it. So, You who do not know Live At Leeds and have just read this tedious and boring review, rest assured that the record is a whole other thing. Well, still here? What are you waiting for, run and listen to it! And please, do a little windmilling like Pete, because it’s good for body and spirit.