The Who
Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970
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The Who
Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970
MCA, 1996
RiYL: Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath |
I remember listening to the album and trying to figure out what I was missing. I kept thinking, "Why am I so dumb? These guys are supposed to be great!" I mean, it wasn't just the kids at school. I vaguely remember having watched a rockumentary at some point...And an advertisement for a "Greatest Hits of the '60s" collection that played "I Can See For Miles" over and over again. I had this image of Pete Townshend doing the windmill on a guitar and Roger Daltrey doing crazy shit with the mic and Keith Moon downing a fifth of Beefeaters Gin during a drum solo.
So I thought I was gonna get a great live sound. Of course, all I got was the Who, sans Moon, recovering from nervous breakdowns and drug addictions and bitchy ex-wives, attempting to re-create a sound that had escaped them for the last 15 years. I wanted to hear this band for everything they were supposed to be: the magic, the mystery, the power of rock and roll. Instead I got crap and spent the rest of my days, walking around with a half-horrified, half-dumfounded expression on my face.
Less than ten years later, I happened upon the Who's Live At The Isle Of Wight (1996) and said expression finally left my visage. Alas, I was not a fool! I had just not been privy to the two or three worthwhile years of this band's meteoric career. And here was the album that proved it!
Flashback to 1970: The Who was at its best. Before the drugs stopped being fun. Before the wives started being bitches. Just a year earlier, Pete Townshend crafted Tommy, easily the most important album of the songwriter's shaky career. Though he might have been flawed in his execution of a "rock opera," the band's leader secured the Who's place in rock history, alongside the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, as one of the three most important bands to come out of Britain in the 1960s.
As Isle Of Wight can prove, the Who was also at the height of its performance abilities. Townshend, Moon and Entwistle were performing their finest concoction of "Maximum R&B," which only Hendrix could top. The version of "Young Man's Blues" found on this collection solidifies Townshend's reputation as one of rock's most exciting live performers. With the help of mad drummer Moon and bassist Entwistle -- the unsung hero of this band -- Townshend sets the crowd ablaze, pouring out his electric emotion with ear-piercing feedback and a terror-inducing barrage of riffs.
On other standout tracks, such as "Sparks," "My Generation" and "Naked Eye," Pete is unstoppable. Once you think a tune is over, he fiddles quietly with his guitar before settling on a riff that the other fellas can bite into. Two seconds later, Moon and Entwistle jump in behind Pete, continuing the awe-inspiring display of rock 'n' roll glory.
Equally gratifying, and somewhat surprising, is Roger Daltrey's incredibly soulful take on Tommy. If there was ever a moment in the Who's career when Roger was key to the band's success, it was during live performances of this epic rock opera. Roger keeps a straight face on throw-away tracks like "Fiddle About" and "Miracle Cure," meanwhile making ever-so-cheesy tunes like "See Me, Feel Me" not so cheesy.
The performance is almost impossible to digest in one sitting. It's hard to imagine how the crowd on the Isle took it. If you ask me, they sort of took it up the ass. I mean, the Who came on stage at two in the morning -- like a 10-month pregnant wife being rushed into a hospital -- and gave birth to Heavy Metal in front of a crowd of immoderately stoned hippies who had already been sonically melted by Jimi Hendrix.
It wasn't just the volume of the music... It was the density of it. And the persistence with which it was delivered. If you view Murray Lerner's tape of the concert on DVD, with the volume of your living room's surround-sound stereo turned up real loud, you can get a good idea of what I am talking about. Watch as John, dressed in a lovely skeleton costume, stands almost completely still while his fingers (of both hands) fly over the bass strings. Watch as Mooney (filled to the brim with Beefeaters) delivers a never-ending roll of pounding toms and exploding symbols. And behold His Majesty, Sir Townshend, as he demonstrates exactly how he rendered himself hearing-impaired whilst sustaining feedback amidst death-defying windmills.
Needless to say, the album makes up for all the band's crappy live releases, as well as its umpteen other miserable greatest hits collections and horrific post-Quadrophenia studio releases, and proves this band was actually worth something. It proves all that masturbating by Dave Marsh (the Who-freak/critical masturbation expert) is not all wrong for worshipping this band. And most importantly, it proves those assholes in middle school didn't have entirely shitty taste in music...
Just shitty taste in live Who albums.
BEN FRENCH | Ben founded NATN in the winter of 1998-1999 with fellow IU alums Troy Carpenter and Jonathan Cohen. During the day time, he's working for Nielsen Business Media, publisher of Billboard. Ben's favorite acts include Bruce Springsteen, The Clash, Sonic Youth, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys.