Live at Leeds is
The Who's first
live album, and is their only live album that was released while the group was still recording and performing regularly. Initially released in the United States on 16 May 1970, by
Decca and
MCA and the United Kingdom on 23 May 1970, by
Track and
Polydor, the album has been reissued on several occasions on formats. In 2003, the album was ranked number 170 on
Rolling Stone magazine's list of
the 500 greatest albums of all time.
It is thought by many to be the best live rock album of all time and is included in the book
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It is also included in
Q magazine's list of
Loudest Albums of All Time.
Background
thumb|left|University of Leeds commemorating the album/" class="wiki">Blue plaque at the
University of Leeds commemorating the album
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 approximately 80 hours of accumulated recordings to decide which would make the best album; it was rumoured that Townshend burned the tapes (to prevent
bootlegging), a rumour squashed later by Daltrey in an interview.
Two shows were consequently scheduled, one at the
University of Leeds and the other in
Hull, for the expressed purpose of recording and releasing a live album. The shows were performed on February 14 (Leeds) and 15th (Hull) 1970, but technical problems with the recordings from the Hull gig — the bass guitar had not been recorded on some of the songs — made it all the more necessary for the show from the 14th to be released as the album. Regardless of great approval of the Leeds gig by many fans and critics, the band members believed the recordings at Hull sounded better, as the acoustics projected better in the more spacious venue.
Perhaps because of these circumstances, or perhaps because The Who were hyped up from their international success with
Tommy, or perhaps simply because The Who were in their prime at the time of recording,
Live At Leeds turned out to be a wildly popular recording.
Packaging
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 or red block letters as if stamped on with ink. The original LP's cover opened out, gatefold-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.
The label was handwritten (apparently in Townshend's hand), and included instructions to the engineers not to attempt to remove any crackling noise. This is probably a reference to the clicking and popping on the pre-remastered version (notably in "Shakin All Over") which was from John Entwistle's bass cable. Modern digital remastering techniques allowed this to be removed, and also allowed some of the worst-affected tracks from the gig to be used also.
Accolades
Live at Leeds became a critical smash, with
The New York Times acclaiming it as "the best live rock album ever made." Its reputation as such continues to this day with
Q magazine recently putting it at the top of its list of the greatest live albums of all time.
The album's reputation has become so lofty that the venue at which it was recorded, the
University of Leeds refectory, has been named a national landmark in the UK, commemorated with a
blue plaque.
Release history
In 1995, the album was reissued for the first time on
Compact Disc. The remastered CD includes more songs than the original vinyl edition, as well as song introductions and other banter that had been edited out of the original release. At some points, notably "My Generation", the original vocal parts were replaced by new overdubs by Daltrey.
"Fortune Teller" and "Young Man Blues" are
R&B tunes that were a standard part of The Who's stage repertoire at the time. "Shakin' All Over" is a cover of a hit by pioneering early 1960s British rocker
Johnny Kidd and "Summertime Blues" is a cover of an
Eddie Cochran song. (The Who's cover of "Summertime Blues" is similar to
Blue Cheer's version, which had recently been a hit single.)
"
My Generation" is drawn out into an almost sixteen minute medley including "See Me, Feel Me" / "Listening To You", "Underture", the instrumental riff from the end of "Naked Eye", "The Seeker," and a number of other mostly unfamiliar themes. "Magic Bus" is drawn out to seven and a half minutes (9:42 on the un-edited recording). The rest of the tracks are fairly straightforward renditions of the original songs, albeit with a consistent hard-rock
power trio sound rather than any attempt to re-create the various studio sounds of their original recordings.
A similar concert from later the same year was released in 1996 as
Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970, along with a film of the same event titled
Listening to You: The Who at the Isle of Wight Festival.
In 2001, the album was released again as a part of the Universal Deluxe Edition series. The Deluxe Edition includes more chat between the songs, and a near-complete performance of
Tommy on a second disc, which features every song except "Cousin Kevin", "Underture", "Sensation", and "Welcome" which were not played at the concert. At the concert
Tommy was performed between "A Quick One, While He's Away" and "
Summertime Blues"; the Deluxe Edition of the remastered CD moves "Amazing Journey/Sparks" to their appropriate place during the
Tommy performance, and includes everything that was performed at the concert albeit edited.
An excerpt from this recording of "We're Not Gonna Take It"—titled "
See Me Feel Me/Listening to You"—was also previously released on
Thirty Years Of Maximum R&B.
During the concert, "
Summertime Blues", "
Shakin' All Over", "
My Generation", and "
Magic Bus" were played after the Tommy set, but for easier listening the Deluxe Edition devoted the entire second disc to the
Tommy set, and moved "
My Generation" and "
Magic Bus" out of order to the end of the first disc. During 1970, the regular Who concert set was set up this way, but an album with a 1970 concert in true order wasn't available until 1996 when the official
Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 album was released.
Original LP Track listing
Side one
Side two
1995 Compact Disc reissue Track listing
- "Tattoo" (Townshend) – 3:42
- "Substitute" (Townshend) – 2:06
- "A Quick One, While He's Away" (Townshend) – 8:41
- "Amazing Journey/Sparks" (Townshend) – 7:54
- "Summertime Blues" (Capehart and Cochran) – 3:22
- "My Generation" (Townshend) – 15:46
- "Magic Bus" (Townshend) – 7:46
Deluxe Edition Track listing
Disc one
- "Heaven and Hell" (Entwistle) – 5:09
- "I Can't Explain" (Townshend) – 2:26
- "Fortune Teller" (Neville and Spellman) – 3:22
- "Tattoo" (Townshend) – 3:00
- "Young Man Blues" (Allison) – 5:56
- "Substitute" (Townshend) – 3:04
- "Happy Jack" (Townshend) – 2:13
- "I'm a Boy" (Townshend) – 2:45
- "A Quick One, While He's Away" (Townshend) – 13:41
- "Summertime Blues" (Capehart and Cochran) – 3:34
- "Shakin' All Over" (Kidd) – 4:34
- "My Generation" (Townshend) – 15:24
- "Magic Bus" (Townshend) – 8:21
Disc two:
Tommy- "Overture" (Townshend) – 6:53
- "It's a Boy" (Townshend) – 0:31
- "1921" (Townshend) – 2:26
- "Amazing Journey" (Townshend) – 3:18
- "Sparks" (Townshend) – 4:23
- "Christmas" (Townshend) – 3:19
- "The Acid Queen" (Townshend) – 3:35
- "Do You Think It's Alright?" (Townshend) – 0:22
- "Fiddle About" (Entwistle) – 1:13
- "There's a Doctor" (Townshend) – 0:23
- "Smash The Mirror" (Townshend) – 1:19
- "Miracle Cure" (Townshend) – 0:13
- "Sally Simpson" (Townshend) – 4:01
- "I'm Free" (Townshend) – 2:39
- "We're Not Gonna Take It" (Townshend) – 8:48
Personnel
Sales chart performance
Album
Singles
Sales certifications
