Re: LAL

["Gary M. Gillman" <garyg@inforamp.net>]

At 00:03 20/03/96, you wrote:
>
>>>I say: take
>>>all your 1971 SF Bargains, 1969 London Coliseum`s YMB, and even the
>>>Woodstock performances, and they don`t hold a candle to the original or
>>>expanded LAL (although careful listening has convinced me that the "new"
>> LAL
>>>tracks are slightly inferior to the tunes on the original album, thus
>>>explaining no doubt the original track selection)......... Any thoughts?
>
>Oh please, that's a pretty naive statement.  You're saying the Who aimed for 
>or prepared to make Leeds the best live show of their career.  You can hold 
>1000 candles to Leeds' Heaven and Hell and it won't compare to the 
>incredible Townshend solo at Tanglewood five months later.   Sparks also 
>doesn't compare to the Woodstock version, because John has his bass solo set 
>perfectly (plus the Townshend showmanship before the bass solo, not like 
>Leeds).  Summertime Blues from Woodstock is also the best version recorded, 
>without question.  Not only is the band locked tight, but Keith accents 
>Pete's solo near the end unlike any other.
>
>
>
>
>
>The truth to this is that since the Who were one of those magical live 
>bands, it's hard to say "yeah that was THE night".  Leeds is certainly in 
>the top five, but please don't limit yourself because I've heard better.
>
>
>The soloing Pete does on Heaven and Hell at Leeds OR Tanglewood was
rudimentary - the term sluggish - used by PT himself at the time to describe
his lead playing, comes to mind.  Sparks is better played, possibly, at
Woodstock than at Leeds, but the Leeds sound quality is far superior, and
makes the difference for me. To say that Summertime Blues at Woodstock is
better than at Leeds strikes me as odd - it doesn`t sound nearly as good or
tuneful - and you`ll note that my encomium on LAL focuses a lot on the
pristine sound of the LAL concert. I rather suspect the Who agree with me on
this point more than you, as the Woodstock version wasn`t commercially
released by the band(nor did it appear on the Woodstock soundtrack, not the
first one anyway). It finally appeared on a video, whereas the Leeds version
was released in edited form as a single in 1970.......Gary M.