Rank the Who's Live albums?

Sound quality isn't great, but I really like the performance.

 

And if we're getting into unofficial stuff - while I haven't actually heard all that much of it - the 1989 radio broadcast of the Tommy performance from Radio City in NYC blows away the officially-released star-studded end-of-tour extravaganza from LA

 

I like the 2014 Live At Leeds for the main set and Isle of Wight for Tommy. The rest of the Isle of Wight set is great too, but nothing beats Live At Leeds for loud, unadulterated rock and roll.

 

Fillmore East 1968
Amsterdam 1969
Fillmore East 1969
Live at Hull 1970
Live at the Isle of Wight 1970
Tanglewood 1970
San Francisco 1971
Tales From The Who 1973
Charlton 1974
Houston 1975 (the Texas show above - I was there)
Pontiac Stadium 1975
Swansea 1976

 

So I went back and listen to Live at Isle of Wight this morning and realized it should probably be higher on my list.

My personal dislike of the songs Water & Naked Eye left an impression that the entire show was filled with endless jamming that caused it to drag, but that is not the case.

 

The ONLY version of Live At Leeds to get, these days, is the HDTracks version of the Deluxe Edition. The sound is great (they fixed the horrible "boxy" sound found on the Tommy portion of the CD-released Deluxe Edition) and it's (mostly) the full show... IN ORDER!

Plus the BBC CD is "live," people seem to have forgotten that one.

Not seen this mentioned, yet, but I like the Live at Kilburn Blu-Ray. And, there's also the DVD of the 2002 show "Live In Boston" (if you want to count post-Entwistle Who)

And, better than Blues from the Bush, there's also "The Vegas Job" DVD from the concert right before the Hard Rock Chicago shows.

 

The London Coliseum '69 show would be the bomb if it had better sound quality.

 

On a scale of "Leeds" to "Who's Last", where would "Woodstock" be? If released officially of course.

 

On one of my posts I said Knebworth but should have put Kilburn. Hurple is correct, that one is a keeper.

 

Top 4

 

I did a bit of an investigation of live versions of "My Generation" and I didn't find a better one than the 1967 live one at the Marquee. I don't think the drumming ever got more perfect than that on this track. Especially about 1min 50sec "Why don't you all" drums "fade away". Moon didn't do it this way much.

 

Live at Leeds..

the end..

 

I am fond of -
Leeds (unfortunately, the second disc of the deluxe has bad sound IIRC, read about it here years ago.)
Wight
Tommy Deluxe disc 2
Hull

 

Isle of Wight 1970 is great!

I will throw in another vote for The Kids Are Alright as a fantastic album, albeit a rather scattered compilation of stuff.

Fillmore East 1968 is also fantastic.

Agreed that Hull is too similar to Leeds to be of real interest outside of diehards.

 

1.) Landover 1973
2.) Philly 1973
3.) Leeds 1970
4.) Hull
5.) View From the Backstage
6.) Fillmore East 1968
7.) IOW 1970
8.) Royal Albert Hall 2000
9.) Chicago 1978
10.) Essen 1981

You have to go out side the commercial market to get some of their best right now

 

One I didn't see mentioned as it's not a whole Who album but just one side, is the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea album. There were other performances from other bands on this double album. We were also happy to have some James "Honeyman" Scott era live Pretenders as well! There was alsoPaul McCartney and Wings and Rockpile with A Robert Plant appearence....A great line-up.

The Who had 4 songs on the album. This filled a big void of Live Who for a few years. This album, Leeds and The Kids Are Alright were the only official Live Who we could get our hands on not counting The King Biscuit Flower Hour recordings if you taped it off the radio. So we spun the Who part of this album a lot!

1. "Baba O'Riley" (Pete Townshend) – 5:12
2. "Sister Disco" (Townshend) – 5:16
3. "Behind Blue Eyes" (Townshend) – 3:46
4. "See Me, Feel Me" (Townshend) – 5:49

For those of you who aren't familiar with this album here is the wiki Concerts for the People of Kampuchea (album) - Wikipedia

There was also a video compilation of The Concerts For The People of Kampuchea that played on Night Flight on the USA Network and HBO.

 

IMO, Woodstock has the worst sound quality of all the 1969-70 soundboards. It's also a shortened set. It is however the classic lineup. For me, it would be my least favorite release of the original band.

 

It’s still the bomb to me - it’s my very favorite Who concert to watch, despite the sound. It’s simply a night in the life of The Who in their prime and I love it!

 

The '69 London Coliseum and Electric Factory shows are a notch above Leeds for me, at least for the Tommy material.

Amazing Journey/Sparks from the Electric Factory show is simply the most thrilling rock and roll I have ever heard.

 

For me, the live shows to start with (that are officially released) are the following.

1. Live at Leeds
2. The Kids Are Alright
3. Live at the Fillmore 1968
4. Live at the Young Vic 1971 (From Who's Next Deluxe)
5. Live at the Isle of Wight 1970

If you get through those and find yourself looking for more you can dig into Hull, Toronto 1982, and some of the better bootlegs, but that list would be a good start.

 

Official CDs:

Live At Leeds
Live At Hull
Live At The Fillmore 1968
Live At Young Vic 1971 (from Who’s Next Deluxe Edition)
Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970
View From A Backstage Pass
Live In Ottawa 1969 (from Tommy Super Deluxe)
Quadrophenia: Live In London
Live At The Royal Albert Hall
Blues To The Bush
Live At Isle Of Wight Festival 2004
Live At Hyde Park
Who’s Last
Join Together
Tommy Live At The Royal Albert Hall

 

Oh nice, I just pulled the trigger on a Criterion Quadrophenia DVD for like, $28 CAD. I also bought the 1995 Leeds CD to accompany my LP copy.

 

Oh that's quite good, at least as good as Leeds' version.

 

This is killer!

The Who - Concert for New York City 2001 (TV broadcast) - Video Dailymotion

 

Water goes for at least 8 minutes too long and to make matters worse Roger sings it again during the My Generation medley a couple of hours later.