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IOW & LAL



The Who Mailing List Digest wrote:
> 
> Actually, I'm surprised that there hasn't been more discussion
> contrasting Isle of Wight with Live At Leeds. My feeling is that,
> although I am delighted to have Isle of Wight, it is inferior in almost
> all respects to Leeds. The big difference seems to be Keith: at Leeds he
> was on the top of his game, propelling the music forward, whereas on the
> Isle of Wight recording he is sloppy and seems to lag behind the rest of
> the band (drunk, sleepy or both). One of the charms of Isle of Wight is
> that it contains all sorts of botched harmonies and minor guitar
> screw-ups which haven't been edited out.
> Isle of Wight ( wow I spelled it correctly, instead of letting my mind
tell me it was "wright", which was wrong...ok...anyway..) is indeed 
almost the same as LIve at Leeds as far as song content, sans the
whole Tommy on Leeds. As much as I am in favor of having some live
material released from another time in their career ( they certainly
sounded pretty good in 1979, even with Kenny, from what I can tell
from boots and what's on the 30 years video ) I have to deal with 
what is put out. So, I must say that Heaven And Hell is a little more
raw on Wight, but I like the "Wahhhhh" in the LAL cut - the part where
Pete plays that one long note right before the last solo before it
calms down and John sings again...I like having the "Spoonfull -
Twist and Shout" addition to the end of Shakin all Over..I like the
Young Man Blues cut on Wight only because of how I can visualize 
Pete standing with the guitar just hanging there while it sort
of JImmi Hendrix's and Pete grimaces and does a couple windmills
(from the video also)..I can do without 2 My Generations. The cut
on LAL is obviously much better...Especially when they ad-lib at the
end and go into the Sparks routine...Wight contains Water...I am not
a big fan of that song, live or in studio..I Don't Even Know Myself
is a good song, but I sometimes wonder how the audience reacted to
hearing it for the first time, what with the breaks in the middle
( what I call the Happy Trail breaks ) I dont mind if you try, once in a
while,..."...The thing that is so different with The Who was that
they could go into a rock song and add a middle like that, then come
right back and explode into the end...Naked Eye is in my opinion, one
of Pete's strongest compositions, but I like the later 80's versions
that I have heard...something with the mellower twist and wind ending..

Just some of my thoughts on the two...I will have to listen closer to
catch on to Moons "state of mind" night, but something tells me that
3 of the 4 guys were a little un-sober.... ;)

And finally....You've hit on something that I always wondered...
Why they would do the entire Tommy, then strike it up again in 
other songs....Perhaps Pete just liked to jam and with force of
habit, just enjoyed going into the raw sound of Sparks...I don't 
mind hearing it again....there is something different in hearing
it at the end of MG on LAL, perhaps because I don't hear any Tommy
except for the actual cut Sparks...as weird as that sounds..I think
what I mean is, I may be more disturbed with more Tommy sounds if
LAL went ahead and put it into the cd...by the time I got to MY
I may be a little tired of Tommy....

Oh well...
Just some thoughts...
Now back to our little Sugar Coated stories...I didn't mean to
interupt....