So why is The Who’s Live at Leeds on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
While I’ve really dug The Who’s sound for as long as I can remember – and as the inclusion of Who’s Next (#705), Tommy (#398), and My Generation (#392) on the best 1,000 albums ever can attest – and I’ve long registered, if vaguely, that the band was legendary for its live performances, I was nonetheless blown away by the visceral thrill and overall entertainment factor that Live at Leeds delivers.
Bruce Eder at All Music has a nifty way of putting it:
Here, the Who sound vicious — as heavy as Led Zeppelin but twice as volatile — as they careen through early classics with the confidence of a band that had finally achieved acclaim but had yet to become preoccupied with making art. In that regard, this recording — in its many different forms — may have been perfectly timed in terms of capturing the band at a pivotal moment in its history.
Every moment on Live at Leeds is somehow electric, loose, brimming with confidence and swagger, and yet intimate at the same time.
The album kicks off with “Heaven and Hell,” which could have easily stood in as one of the highest points on Tommy. It’s immediately evident that not only are these guys master hard rock craftsmen, but the vocal harmonies are exquisite and the overall performance is buoyant, triumphant, and all kinds of glorious.
“I Can’t Explain” may well have been the first Who song that I truly flipped out for when I was a kid, and I’m pretty sure that I dig the Live at Leeds version far more than the studio version at this point. It’s swinging and rocking and great.
And here’s more fantastic live swings at early career big hits in “Substitute” and “My Generation,” the latter a Led Zeppelin-esque 15-plus-minute epic journey into sonic lands (that also brings in more Tommy-ness in a perfect way).
It’s really cool and even remarkable that there’s a nearly eight-minute-long medley (“Amazing Journey/Sparks”) pulled from Tommy and it works perfectly well in the middle of the concert. And in a way, it’s fun to simply enjoy and marvel at the incredible music of Tommy without torturing oneself (I’ll speak for myself here!) by trying to figure out What It All Means.
Bonus: look out for the very “Foxy Lady” section in the middle!
There are several cover songs on Live at Leeds – I’m really partial to the boisterous and tongue-in-cheek naughtiness of “Summertime Blues” (though I’d never sleep on the Eddie Cochran original for sure).
Some stats & info about The Who – Live at Leeds
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Live Rock, Live Albums, Album Rock, British Bands, Blues Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – #327
- All Music’s rating – 5 out of 5 stars
- When was Live at Leeds released? 1970
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #116 out of 1,000
The Who’s Live at Leeds on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Who’s Live at Leeds that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Shakin’ all over, quivers down my backbone.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.