Surprisingly, Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970 came out on another label in 1996, thanks to a legal hurdle that had been jumped. This was the Who six months after Leeds, with a cache of new songs that were supposed to be the next album. “I Don’t Even Know Myself” and “Water” are lengthy expansions, and “Naked Eye” has developed into a full-fledged song out of the “My Generation” improvisations. “Shakin’ All Over” goes into “Twist And Shout”, yelled by John. More importantly, it includes Tommy in sequence, but split across two CDs. It’s a more confident show, if a little muddy, and still no substitute for Leeds.
By the end of the decade, most of the catalog rejigging had been completed, with the exception of My Generation, held up in litigation with the original producer, who wasn’t going to let the tapes go for less than a fortune. While waiting for that mess to pan out, the record industry’s BBC fixation took over.
Like all struggling British bands, The Who made several appearances early in their career on the BBC’s pop radio programs. Many—but not all—of those recordings are included on BBC Sessions, which had already been beaten to certain shelves by some very comprehensive bootlegs. Still, there are some exclusive songs and some powerful versions of familiar songs before spinning to an abrupt end. “Good Lovin’” appears nine months before the hit version by the Young Rascals, while “Just You And Me, Darling” is another homage to James Brown. Even stranger, “Dancing In The Street”—yes, the Motown classic—gets a runthrough as well. Two versions of “Substitute” are here, one in the original single arrangement, and a later one in the shorter Leeds style. The disc ends with a pair of performances from BBC television, a funky take on “Relay” (a current single) and the then-unreleased “Long Live Rock”, where Pete blows the third verse. (The Best Buy chain had an exclusive bonus CD, containing an interview and some more BBC recordings of dubious origin, including a take of “I Can See For Miles” with a new bass line mixed up high.)
The Who My Generation—The Very Best Of The Who (1996)—4
The Who Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970 (1996)—3
The Who BBC Sessions (2000)—3
I think that you underrated “..Isle of Wight”. It’s not as precise as “Live at Leeds” in performance nor in sound quality. But one does have to consider that they were playing at an open air festival at two in the morning! I think that it sounds great, especially through headphones. It’s fortunate that they had multitracks going, which wasn’t the case with everyone who played. (If you want to listen to The Moody Blues’ performance, you get bootleg level sound). Despite their dropping “A Quick One..”, prefer this setlist over “..Leeds”. To be sure, the band’s attack overcomes the occasional duff track (“Water”).
ReplyDeleteAlthough I’ve owned the audio since a few months after its release, I only recently watched the film. It’s a must-see, despite them cutting out almost a half hour of the show and rearranging the sequence. It really is a precious document of the group at the peak of its live powers, before artistic overambition and substance abuse began to overtake them. It’s better than their Woodstock set, for sure. The camera spends a lot of time on Moon, with good reason. Really amazing.
I haven't listened to this in a while. Again, I'd rather listen to the single-disc expansion of Leeds. The Tommy movie affected my enjoyment of that album, so the Amazing Journey/Sparks excerpt suffices.
DeleteIf they ever get around to an expanded BBC set as they've threatened, I will likely update (and separate) this post.