Thanks, I am in luck as I have them all including my old Join Together single. Anyone know when the Two's Missing My Wife overdubbed vocals were done and why?
It kind of does though, more the mixing than the volume that bothers me. However a lot of these performances aren't available anywhere else and for that reason alone it's worth picking up. Not unlistenable by any means.
Not entirely sure but I've always assumed John could have redone the vocals while they (or whoever was in charge) were assembling the abandoned live album, so sometime in early 1972, perhaps during the May/June 1972 recordings of the "Long Live Rock" album (i.e. the follow-up to "Oooo's Next". Just my two-centic speculation, of course...
A couple of quotes by Richard Evans: 1 We put a teaser out about this last week and I can now officially confirm that this historic recording will be released by Polydor / UMC on April 20 this year as a 3-LP set and as a 2-CD set. Both formats carry the same amount of tracks and include detailed sleeve notes by noted Who writer, Andy Neill. I know there has been a lot of discussion on the forum and on social media about this release. First off let me tell you that I've been listening to this album for the past few weeks and can tell you that it sounds truly fabulous. It's right up there with Live at Leeds and yes, it IS in stereo. 'My Generation' occupies the whole of CD2 and LP3 and sounds fantastic. And in case you're wondering, between each track there is plenty of chat from Pete and Keith. Bob Pridden and Richard Whittaker have done an amazing job on restoring the tapes and we're very proud to be bringing them into The Who's official body of work on the 50th anniversary of the recording. 2 The 3-LP set has colour liners with Andy Neill's sleeve notes and photos. The 2-CD edition is an eight-panel digipak with a 12-page booklet (with Andy's sleeve notes).
You can't deny the scope of his Who collection, it's more with his attitude....he's always right and your always wrong. And I always found his own take on Who history to be a bit skewed. Others here would be more adapt to talk about his audiophile skills.
@lukpac Have you ever heard of the above mentioned Richard Whittaker and are familiar with any of his work? If so .............is it any good? IIRC he has worked on Who releases before?
Quickly searching, it looks like he’s an engineer at FX Copyroom and has worked with Pridden before on Who remixes. My semi-educated guess is Whittaker handles the more technical aspects of the engineering while Pridden is more of a producer. Who stuff has been Tommy and Quad 5.1, My Gen remix, Hull, etc. "Richard Whittaker" pridden - Google Search
This has reminded me of something I've been meaning to find out for 40 years - earlier in that medley just after the Join Together bit they go into what seems like a semi-rehearsed riff and Townshend sings some definite lyrics, all I can make out is the line "get your ticket here" (?) - I've never heard this riff or these lines in another medley from this tour, and would love to know what the song is? Townshend sings the lines at 1.32 :
I used to be in an email group with that guy (I think it was called Odds & Sods). Yeah he used to go at it with other members.
This sounds great - if they follow suit and it lives up to these claims, this will easily take its place as one of the band's most significant releases ever. Keeping my fingers crossed...
To me this sounds like they dropped hints at releasing this album and if there was no reaction (like the one on this site), then they may have just decided against it. I wonder how common that practice is? Maybe that's the reason the 50th Anniversary box never came out, although the response here was pretty positive (at least by some ).
I disagree that the entire ‘View From A Backstage Pass’ cd set sounds like crap. I think disc one sounds great, especially the San Francisco ‘71 tracks. It’s on disc two where the problems begin, at least for my ears. The set of songs from both Philly ‘73 & Charlton ‘74 sound flat, especially compared to other sources I have for both shows. The Swansea ‘76 tracks sound about the same as what is on the ‘By Numbers’ deluxe edition cd to me, which are “ok” sounding to me (I never much cared for the tone of Townshend’s guitar on those Swansea recordings, though).
The overdubbing would've had to have been done in 1972, since the overdubbed vocal appears on the mix used on the five-song tape that comprised the aborted live album. Also, in his comments in the Two's Missing liner notes, he says "This is probably the only live recorded version with me actually singing in tune" which indicates that by 1986 he'd forgotten he'd done the overdub. His comment also provides a hint as to why he did it... he likely considered his original live vocal to be out of tune.
To me, his live vocals always had a "rough" feel to them. When I heard TKAA version of the Kilburn "My Wife" and the Kilburn DVD, John's vocals made the two versions sound almost like two different recordings/shows. His live singing voice and studio singing voice were quite different. Also on KAA soundtrack, Roger's intro sounds like it came from an audience-recording bootleg (it was sped-up, too), while the DVD sounded like what was on the actual multitrack.
The SF tracks are (IMO) poorly mixed, with everything except Pete's vocal crammed in the middle. They seem virtually mono. Contrast that with the well-done mixes of the same material on the Missing albums, which employ a classic Leeds-style mixing approach (Pete right, John left, Keith and Roger in the middle).
Beyond his attitude, his claims that there are vast differences between discs that are digitally identical, and his inattention/unawareness of mix differences call into question any of his audiophile recommendations.
I put an order in for Who Came First as a test to see how amazonit processes pre-orders. So far, no credit card funds pre authorization check for The Who items or the Townshend. When I place an order with amazon.couk, I usually see a small charge, approx a dollar or so. Therefore, I still have hope the amazonit orders will be honored.
I've always been curious about that too. There was a discussion on the "Long Live Rock" Facebook group a year or two ago where the idea that it was something by Traffic came up, I think. I still don't know for sure though. Live, it's almost like he's shouting half the time.
