Live At Leeds

Live At Leeds (1970) is The Who's first live album, and indeed is their only live album that was released while the band was still recording and performing regularly.

Related Topics:
1970 - The Who

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After releasing Tommy in mid-1969 The Who went on an extended world tour to promote it, and returned to England at year's end with a desire to release a live album from the tour. However, they balked at the prospect of listening to the hundreds of hours of accumulated recordings to decide which would make the best album, so they ritually burned the tapes (to prevent bootlegging) and scheduled two shows at Leeds University for the express purpose of recording and releasing a live album. In the event it was the Valentine's Day concert that made it onto the recording.

Related Topics:
Tommy - 1969 - England - Bootlegging - Leeds University - Valentine's Day

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Perhaps because of these circumstances, or perhaps because The Who were hyped up due to their international success with Tommy, or perhaps simply because The Who were good at the time, Live At Leeds turned out to be an astonishing recording. The music is loud and brash, but never sloppy; delicate studio tunes such as "Tattoo" and "Happy Jack" are carried just as well as the proto-metal sound of such rocking tunes as "Substitute" and "Summertime Blues". The listener is never treated to the feeling that the band is rushing through pro forma renditions of old warhorses.

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The album cover looks like the simple cover of a bootleg LP of the era: it is of plain brown cardboard with "The Who | Live At Leeds" printed on it in plain blue block letters as if stamped on with ink. The original LP's cover opened out, butterfly-style, and had a pocket on either side of the interior, with the record in a paper sleeve on one side and facsimiles of various memorabilia on the other, including a photo of the band from the My Generation photoshoot, handwritten lyrics to the "Listening to You" chorus from Tommy, a receipt for smoke bombs, and the early black "Maximum R&B" poster showing Pete Townshend windmilling his Rickenbacker in mid-leap. The label was handwritten (apparently in Townshend's hand), and included instructions to the engineers not to attempt to remove any crackling noise (the recording is in fact very clean, except of course for the deliberate electronic distortion of the amplified instruments).

Related Topics:
Bootleg - LP - My Generation - Pete Townshend

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