Review Summary: Six songs, three are covers, and The Who make rock 'n roll legend out of almost nothing at all.
Forget deluxe editions and lost tapes and all that crap. That's not where the magic is. The magic is in the mystery, the scrap, and the wonderment. It's in the imagination. Where the listener wonders just how goddamn awesome the rest of it must have been if just this little bit kicks your ass so hard you just keep coming back for more. Again and again and again.
Live At Leeds is not Tommy, or rarities, or anything that came after the original release of these six songs. Well, one of the six is really long and has some Tommy stuff thrown in, but it's called My Generation so I'll just go with it. But Live at Leeds is meant to be a really good, fast, hard *** of the kind that leaves you exhausted and spent and gloriously alive and in awe of just how great it was, and is, in spite of its apparent brevity. Who needs foreplay before and cuddling after the fact? Why not just get to the point and leave it at that? That's what Live at Leeds does. And loud, hard, fast rock 'n roll needs nothing more. This album get's to the point and stays on point. And it doesn't get much better then this. Ever.
The first four songs of the album contain three covers, and they are given the sort of treatment that only a band like The Who can give them. Young Man Blues kicks things off and singer Roger Daltrey is in top form here. He becomes this song, the angry young man, the disenfranchised and scorned youth of the world, and you know what? He's just gonna scream about it while the band behind him is going to bang and bash about it, and that is that. Townshend sounds like he is ripping his guitar to shreds, bassist John Enwhistle is every bit his equal, and Keith Moon is all in. If this music were something physical, it would rip your guts out.
The Townshend original Substitute comes along next and it continues the assualt with its outsider lyrics and straight forward musical attack, but it's the cover tunes which force the issue on Live At Leeds, set the tone, and deliver the message. And that message is one of Maximum R&B. And that wasn't just a band slogan, folks. It was a fact. And here it is delivered in full.
Eddie Cochran's Summertime Blues and Johny Kidd's Shakin' All Over close out what used to be known as Side 1 way back when albums had sides, and The Who just kill it on these tracks. I mean, why cover tunes unless you're going to *** 'em all up, right? And The Who *** up these songs real nice. It's like a good date gone horribly wrong in the best sort of way. You thought it was going to be a beautiful night at the prom but you ended up face down in your own puke in a strange bed with your clothes on backwards and your car parked outside with two flat tires and only one spare. That's what these songs sound like. And in the end, you just feel free.
I mean, obviously I am at a loss for words. How does one describe this album? I once heard of another review of a favorite band of mine where the headline was "It Sounds Like Murder." Well, that's what Live At Leeds sounds like. Sort of. Only instead of just plain murder it's a triple homicide and one victim was pregnant. It is just that horrible.
Side two is just as grand what with My Generation and all that comes with it. Which in this case is a 12 minute Tommy jam of sorts. What is great about this piece and the entire six song album is that in many ways it sounds as if it's being improvised. It's sounds as if the band is making it up as they go along. It is spontaneous and dangerous, unpredictable even after repeated listenings. One of the reasons this album became and is a timeless classic is because it sounds like something which could not possibly be duplicated. It has the sound of "one special night." Something which could not be reproduced. But of course now we know that is not true. One band could do it, and one band only. And as other recordings since have shown it's not the album or performance that was special, but the band itself. Which could in fact pull this *** off again and again and again, and night after night. It boggles the mind.
This album is in fact Quadrophenic, as Jimmy once said he was. And crazy never sounded so good. Ever.
