Roger on new Leeds, sorta

["Brian Cady" <cadyb@home.com>]

Roger got interviewed about the new Leeds in LiveDaily. Let's go to the tape:
http://www.livedaily.citysearch.com/news/3845.html

LiveDaily Interview: The Who's Roger Daltrey
by Don Zulaica
LiveDaily Contributing Writer,
OCT. 24, 2:41 P.M. ET
In the more than three decades since the concert was recorded, the Who's "Live at Leeds" has taken on legendary status. But despite
its reputation as one of rock's best live albums, the original release contained only a small part of the band's February 1970
performance at England's Leeds University.

The album--which first featured only six tracks--was expanded in subsequent reissues, but until now had been missing major pieces of
the performance. The new "Live at Leeds: Deluxe Edition" format, which was released last month by MCA, fills in most of the gaps.
Among the previously unavailable music contained in the "Deluxe Edition" is a whole disc of songs from "Tommy" that were unavailable
in previous versions of the album.

Singer Roger Daltrey talked with LiveDaily about the latest version of "Live at Leeds."

LiveDaily: How come it's taken so long to get the entire show out?

Roger Daltrey: I really don't know. I really can't answer that.

What are your recollections of that evening?

In my opinion, it wasn't one of the best shows we ever did. Out of a scale of 1 to 10 it was about a seven. It made a great record.

What kinds of things did you feel kept it from being a 10?

It wasn't a very good hall, acoustically. There were a lot of sound things to deal with on stage. I'm speaking completely
personally, by the way. And when [the first version of] "Live at Leeds" came out, it [consisted of] a few songs from the beginning
of the show and a few from the end of the show. Until now, there was that huge chunk of "Tommy" missing.

It always bugged me on the original "Live at Leeds" [that] my voice sounds a little bit tired on some of the songs. If you hear the
whole thing you understand why--I'd been singing for three hours.

Listening back, what are the highlights for you?

I just love the Who. I'm a Who fan. It's all highlights for me.

How representative do you feel that show is of the Who's live act at that time?

Very. It was an incredible period of growth for the band, especially for me as a singer. At first, I was uncomfortable with finding
a voice for some of the songs.

I've read where you've said that you gained a lot of confidence from singing the "Tommy" songs live on the American tour at that
time.

Yes, it was that it was all kinds of things. I mean, I was a blues singer before that, James Brown stuff. When Pete started writing
all those quirky songs like 'I'm a Boy' and all that, really, I found it very difficult to find a voice for them. So, through this
period of "Live at Leeds," I was actually starting to get confidence, like, "Yeah, I know what to do with this now."

I wanted to see how you felt about "Tommy." I've read quotes where John Entwistle said some people think the name of the band is
"Tommy" and the album is the Who. I wanted to see how you felt about that, especially because "Tommy" is such a big part of this new
edition.

Obviously, "Tommy" was very helpful to our career. It's a very interesting piece of work. But I don't think it's anything more
important than "Who's Next," or even any of the music from all our career. It was something that developed as something different at
the time--it had a concept to it. It was more than three-minute pop songs. I think it tackled a very brave subject for the time. And
it was theatrical for that period.

I take it for what it is--it's a really interesting record. I think the film is an interesting film. I don't really give it much
thought.

-Brian in Atlanta
 The Who This Month!
 Go to: http://members.home.net/cadyb/who.htm