Live at Leeds "My Generation": Was this typical?

Just listening to Live at Leeds and wondering about the "My Generation" jam with all the bits and pieces, some from Tommy and some they apparently improvised. Anyone know if the Who in this era did something like this at every show, and did it change much from night to night? For that matter, I always wondered why they did the Tommy bits when they'd already played the whole thing. Anyonw knows, please enlighten me....

 

Yes, every show. The MG medley from the Hull '70 show is quite similar to Leeds.

 

Right down to the "so very long"... bit.

 

Wow ... I was just wondering the same thing about the Leeds My Generation ... cool ...

 

Yes! Starting in '68 all the way to Keith's last show in Toronto in '76. A lot of times Pete would just start a riff and the thunder and tornado would follow him. Great stuff. Naked Eye developed from these jams. They later added other songs like Road Runner, Join Together, and My Generation Blues to the mix.

 

I remember the old cassette version listed Naked Eye as a track on the album.

 

My Generation at Woodstock.

 

This doesn't address your question, exactly, but it reminds me of something. I saw The Who play live at the L.A. Forum during the 1973 Quadrophenia tour. At the show they played "My Generation" twice! Both were long medleys - the first was quite a bit like the LaL version, the second one was quite different, and a bit shorter. It seemed to me that they were introducing a new MG medley, intending to retire the old one.

 

Doesn't the original Leeds 'My Generation' have over dubbed backwards guitar dubbed on to it?

 

Magic Bus, not My Generation.

 

The Live At Hull version is quite different near the end. It seems they had certain que's worked out and room for variation/improvisation.

 

As mentioned in the Hull thread, My Generation is probably the one track that is very noticably better than Live At Leads; more energetic (in contrast to the most of Hull which is a less 'electric' atmosphere than Leeds).

 

They also seem to be heading towards "I Can See For Miles" nearing the end of the MG jam on Hull, but it never quite gets there (frustratingly).

 

Townshend talks about the 'My Generation' "jams" in his book. so it was pretty typical

 

Does anyone find it puzzling that they would choose "My Generation" as the basis for an extended jam? MG always seemed like the ultimate hit-it-and-quit punk song, but they turned it into a 15 minute jam. Always seemed odd to me, but I guess Pete was trying to challenge expectations at the time.

 

Pete used to say the jam was a summing up of their history upto that point.
Another excellent jam is also contained in the Amsterdam '69 show with things like The Ox thrown in.

 

Thanks for the info...

 

The song has two chords and works well as a vehicle for improvisation, plus it's sort of their signature song so ending the show with it and stretching it out makes some sense.