New Vinyl Release : The Who Live in Philadelphia 1973

Out now from http://www.1960s.london and released over two vinyl LPs

The Who  – Quadrophenia Live 1973

Tracklisting

Side One

1. I Am The Sea
2. The Real Me
3. I’m One
4. Sea And Sand

Side Two

1. Drowned
2. Bell Boy
3. Doctor Jimmy

All songs written by Pete Townshend

Recording Details

All tracks recorded live at The Spectrum, Philadelphia on 4.12.73 and broadcast on The King Biscuit Flower Hour US FM radio

Personnel

Roger Daltrey – lead vocals

Pete Townshend – guitars, vocals

John Entwistle – bass, vocals

Keith Moon – drums, vocals

Sound Quality

All tracks sound exceptional

Sleevenotes

“Abetted by a much clearer sound than on the last tour Quadrophenia was, in a word, stunning. The concert rendition supplied all the raucous power seemingly latent in the storyline, and the added dimension invested the monolithic Quad with the true rock’n’roll excitement missing in large parts from the album. The Who, especially Townshend, seemed genuinely enthusiastic playing the new material. At their best, The Who are still, simply, the best.”

Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record

Quadrophenia came about in part because Townshend was desperate to add new material to The Who’s live show. His cherished Lifehouse project had been heavily edited to form the Who’s Next LP but only three of its songs were regularly played live. As a result the band onstage still depended heavily on Tommy, now four years old. Quadrophenia was a double LP song cycle about a mod called Jimmy, which allowed Townshend to write about the relationship between the band and its fans. Ken Barnes was not the only reviewer to feel there was something missing from the original studio recording. The initial mix was heavy and dense with Daltrey’s vocals lost in Townshend’s synthesisers and orchestrations. Subsequently the record was repeatedly remixed and remastered in an attempt to make the sound sharper and clearer.

For the autumn 1973 UK tour the band included in their set a segment of twelve Quadrophenia songs from the just-released LP. Unfortunately Townshend’s artistic ambition ran ahead of what was then technically possible. When played live the Quadrophenia tracks relied heavily on taped synthesiser tracks which were prone to malfunction. This happened most dramatically at the Newcastle Odeon on November 5^th. According to The Who Concert File (Joe McMichael and Jack Lyons) “Pete exploded into a furious rage. He screamed at soundman Bob Pridden, smashed his guitar onto the stage and began tearing down the backing tapes and equipment. Roger, Keith and John stared on in disbelief.” Veteran keyboard player Chris Stainton had played on the studio sessions. Had he been invited to join the band on tour many of the technical problems might have been avoided.

By the winter US tour the Quadrophenia segment was down to ten songs and many of the technical issues had been resolved. Because the album had only just been released in the US both Roger and Pete took it upon themselves to give lengthy song introductions in an attempt to explain the plot of the LP, impeding the momentum of the early US gigs. However by the time the band played their penultimate gig at Philadelphia the Quadrophenia sequence was working well. The opening I Am The Sea is highly atmospheric, relying heavily on taped effects to portray the four recurrent themes. Townshend comes in too early at the start of The Real Me but the band recover well and deliver a tough version of the song with Daltrey singing a verse over just bass and drums, guitar crashing in for the chorus. I’m One is a duet between a reflective and uncertain Townshend and a brash, blustery Daltrey, effectively portraying two very different sides of Jimmy. There is more light and shade in Sea and Sand, again effectively sung by Townshend and Daltrey taking alternate parts. The backing by Entwistle and Moon mirrors this, moving from sparse understatement to full-scale rocking out as Daltrey recalls The High Numbers by singing “I’m The Face if you want it…”

Drowned is a showcase for Townshend’s playing, enhanced by close support from the rhythm section and some powerful vocal improvisation from Daltrey. Keith Moon, manages to sing and drum at the same time on Bell Boy. By changing the lyrics to “Remember the place in Canada that we smashed?” Moon alludes to the after-party that followed their Montreal date on December 2^nd, where some post-show renovations to the Bonaventure Hotel resulted in the touring party spending the night in jail. The final track is Doctor Jimmy, where the band demonstrate how well they could integrate their live performance with the taped sounds and we get a glimpse of how good Quadrophenia could have sounded live.

The band would return from the US to play four nights in London at the Edmonton Sundown, with the December 23^rd gig held by some Who fans as the best live performance of Quadrophenia that year. A short French tour with a similar set-list followed in February 1974 but by the time The Who played Charlton Football Club in May they included only four songs from Quadrophenia. Critical rehabilitation would eventually follow, culminating in an acclaimed 2013 tour which featured a live rendition of all seventeen Quadrophenia tracks. By then only Townshend and Daltrey would remain. So for an authentic 1973 performance by the original four piece line-up in stunning sound, walk this way…and for the other songs that The Who plated that night check out Live In Philadelphia (R&B136).

Sleevenotes:

Mel and Collyer

The Who  – Live  in Philadelphia 1973

Tracklisting

Side One

1. I Can’t Explain (Townshend)
2. Summertime Blues (Cochran / Capehart)
3. My Wife (Entwistle)
4. See Me, Feel Me / Listening To You (Townshend)

Side Two

1. Pinball Wizard (Townshend)
2. My Generation (Townshend)
3. Naked Eye (Townshend)

Recording Details

All tracks recorded live at The Spectrum, Philadelphia on 4.12.73 and broadcast on The King Biscuit Flower Hour US FM radio

Personnel

Roger Daltrey – lead vocals

Pete Townshend – guitars, vocals

John Entwistle – bass, vocals

Keith Moon – drums, vocals

Sound Quality

All tracks sound exceptional

Sleevenotes

The Spectrum in Philadelphia was the penultimate date of the Who’s US 1973 Winter Tour.  By now thoroughly road-hardened, the band performed a sold-out show for 13,500 enthusiastic fans. Fortunately the leading US syndicated FM radio programme The King Biscuit Flower Hour arranged for the entire set to be recorded by the Record Plant Mobile 16 track studio. The newly-released Quadrophenia featured extensively, we have released these tracks as R&B135. The new material was complemented by a variety of Who classics, which are presented here.

Traditional set opener I Can’t Explain is played crisply and precisely with some fine vocal harmonies and a sharp Towshend solo. Given that the Who specialised in songs of teenage disaffection Eddie Cochran’s Summertime Blues was an obvious choice and this cover blasts off in a welter of powerchords and exuberant Keith Moon drumming. More tight vocal harmonies are complemented by the gruff voice of John Entwistle taking the role of The Man. Entwistle provided some fine live numbers for the Who – Boris The Spider, Heaven and Hell and now My Wife. This characteristically dark-humoured tale of marital discord has Entwistle pursued by a heavily armed and enraged spouse. The song is extended to allow Townshend to solo, but rather than merely support him Moon and Entwistle solo as well without getting lost or becoming self-indulgent. See Me, Feel Me / Looking At You was the closing number of the 1969 rock opera Tommy. The band’s performance of this number at Woodstock and its appearance in the resultant movie had helped build the band’s US profile. Daltrey inhabits the Tommy persona with power and conviction, making this song a live highlight – he exhorts the crowd to join in on the chorus and “Let them hear in New York!”

Of the second Tommy number Pinball Wizard, Nik Cohn wrote that the song was “as good as anything Townshend has written, which means as good as anything anyone has written since Chuck Berry.”  Despite being introduced as Pineball Blizzard the band play a faithful version of the song with Townshend reprising his flamenco-syle strummed guitar parts. By 1973 My Generation had been through a lot of changes. In 1965 it was played live as a tight three-minute wonder. At Monterey in 1967 the song had expanded to four and a half minutes and by the time Live At Leeds was recorded in 1970 My Generation was over thirteen minutes long and had evolved into a mini-history of the Who, incorporating riffs from Tommy and elsewhere. This seven-minute version retains the power and drive of the original even during an extended instrumental coda which almost veers off into Big Boss Man whilst Daltrey manages to slip a four-letter word past the radio censors. In live dates the following year the song would change again, slowed down to form My Generation Blues. Naked Eye was recorded for an unreleased 1970 EP but the studio track would not appear until the 1974 outtakes collection Odds & Sods. In the sleeve-notes for that LP Townshend describes its gestation “This number was written around a riff that we often played in stage at the end of our act around the time we were touring Tommy. It came to be one of our best stage numbers, it was never released because we always hoped we would get a good live version one day”. Here is that good live version. Played as a rare encore, the song features some of Townshend’s pithiest lyrics.  This lengthy arrangement intersperses thoughtful, melodic guitar improvisation with impassioned Daltrey vocals before it ends with the sound of a Cherry Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Deluxe meeting its maker.

“From Shepherds Bush Mods to time machine mystic travellers, The Who played longer, harder and straighter, for the people, than anyone else.” Nik Cohn 1974

Sleevenotes: Joe Kerr-Jaymes