Re: New Orleans '71

["Mark R. Leaman" <mleaman@sccoast.net>]

> I have been looking for some early performances of Lifehouse songs to
> compliment the 2000 Lifehouse tracks.  New Orleans '71 and Brussels '72
have
> been the two best shows for this purpose.  They are a bit more obscure (to
> me) than the obvious Young Vic recordings.  This is a very interesting
> period in the evolution of the Who's sound.  Thanks Mark Leaman for
pointing
> me there.

Jeff:

More than any other period of Who live history save their pre-US
performances, the `71-73 era has not been well bootlegged. Which is quite
strange, considering the `69-70 period is probably the most bootlegged, and
the others at least heavily bootlegged.
I've heard of good shows, traded for "good shows," bought LPs and CDs only
to be disappointed again and again. As you know, in my Stages live boxed set
I include the two best tracks from Young Vic (other than what's been
officially released), but the others are hardly worth bothering with. I then
used the three live tracks released (but currently out of print) from Two's
Missing, all reportedly from a `71 San Francisco show, and the B side
version of Baby, Don't You Do It also currently out of print. At this point
I had no choice but to "move on" to 1975, with the Join Together/MG Blues
not included on the CD release TKAA soundtrack, which in keeping with the
unreleased quality of the set will now be switched over to the 1976 version
where I also got Baba, BBE and WGFA to accurately cover this period.
But it would have been nice to have these songs from the period when they
were fresh. It would also have been great to have rarely played songs like
Pure And Easy, Relay and Let's See Action.
This set IS available for trade, BTW (especially for great `71 material!).
The first disc covers 1964 (starting at the Scene Club) to 1968 (3 tracks
from Fillmore East remastered). Disc 2 is 3 tracks from Tanglewood followed
by Tommy LAL. Disc 3 has been discussed here, disc 4 is as much of the Largo
Md/Philly `73 QUAD show as has been released to date, and disc 5 a bunch of
tracks from `79 to `00, all without Keith Moon.

> Out/MG enough for them at the time?  It made me think of the bitching
we've
> had to endure this year about how Pete in thin, John is trebly, Roger's
lost
> range, Zak is not Keith, and Rabbit doesn't even belong in the mix with
his
> Hammond.

I can't believe anyone complained about the last Who tour. It was MUCH
better than anything after `76, although I'd give the recent QUAD tour high
marks as well.

> - Could it be that the 2000 sound is the bridge between Who's Next and the
> next great Who work?

That's a long damned bridge! But I still hope for something like the WAY
Townshend did on the Lifehouse boxed set.


"I suspect that had my dad not been president, he'd
  be asking the same questions: How'd your meeting go
   with so-and-so? How did you feel when you stood up in
    front of the people for the State of the Union Address
     - state of the budget address, whatever you call it."
          George "stupid enough to suspect this" Bush

               Cheers                 ML