The Who/TX, USA 1970

The Who’s climax live sound source from the “TOMMY” period is released! Since the release of this album in 1969, the group’s energetic live performances in the United States have borne fruit, gaining solid popularity and performing at venues such as the Fillmore, Woodstock, and the Electric Factory (Philadelphia). did. In response to such great success, the following year, in 1970, he performed in his home country of England at Leeds, and even produced the live album “LIVE AT LEEDS”, which was an unexpected success for Pete. And, just like at the London Coliseum at the end of the previous year, “TOMMY” was performed at the Opera House on the American tour starting in June, and this was widely reported, and the album’s sales in the United States increased. It was such a dramatic improvement. On this tour, the video footage of Tanglewood, which is one of the standard live footage in 1970, is familiar, and at the end of the month, there was even a performance with Led Zeppelin as the undercard. And the explosion in popularity in America even produced a byproduct called bootlegs. One of The Who’s earliest releases was an LP called “GATHER YOUR WITS.” This was an item that captured The Who’s stage performance in the United States in June 1970, but it seemed to be an early boot, and the date credit was ambiguous: “TOMMY LIVE from Austin, Texas.” Adjustment. It would have been enough if they could appeal that they recorded the big hit “TOMMY” live. Another big point was that it was an audience recording with a surprisingly on-sound image for a 1970 bootleg. However, the recording data of this LP has now been clarified, and it actually recorded the Dallas performance on June 19th. This was discovered because the audience recording that became the basis for the LP was circulated among traders. As a result, it became clear that the sound source, which seemed good at first listen (at the time), was disappointed when it was made into an LP. After all, the sound source that had been recorded in stereo had become monaural, and it had fallen even further into a shaky state. The reason why the sound quality has changed so much is simple. The bootlegger made a copy by picking up the sound from the speaker that played the tape. However, at the time, when double decks and systems for connecting to other recorders were not widespread, this dubbing method was primitive but commonplace. Also, while the LP did not include “Young Man Blues” and “Substitute,” the trader sound source had the advantage and disadvantage of not including the opening “Heaven And Hell.” Still, it is confusing that Keith Moon’s MC heard before “I Can’t Explain” is longer in the trader sound source. By the way, the fade-in of “Christmas” in the “TOMMY” part is the same, and even the cheers (lol) of the female fans everywhere are the same. Although there is a difference between stereo and monaural, they are originally the same sound source. This is proof of something. Even so, I’m surprised at the quality of the sound of the version that was circulating among traders. The sound image is surprisingly on for the level of audience recording in 1970, and it is a stereo recording. Such a superb sound source cannot be overlooked, and it has been released once in the past on a CD called “WHO IS TOMMY”. However, the generation drop and pitch deviation of the cassette dubbing remained the same, so it cannot be compared to the wonderful upper feeling of this version (second generation copy). Originally, the pitch deviation of the version between traders was worse than the LP (it was more normal), and this issue has been thoroughly adjusted for this release. This greatly reduces listening stress. The only drawback of the trader sound source is that “Heaven And Hell” heard on the LP is not included. However, as mentioned earlier, there is a huge difference in sound quality, and the recording was made in the middle of the performance. Compensating for this would result in an incomplete performance at the beginning of the CD, and a bad start to the sound. And since adding the same song wouldn’t fit in the recording time of one disc, we deliberately avoided using “Heaven And Hell” from the “GATHER YOUR WITS” LP. Above all, the difference in sound quality is too drastic. The performance is at a rock-solid level, full of dignity throughout. What is noteworthy is that the repertoire other than “TOMMY” has changed significantly since the Leeds days. “Tattoo” and “A Quick One While He’s Away”, which had been in the repertoire for many years, were finally dropped from the set list, and new songs were introduced instead. Among them, “The Seeker” was the latest number at the time, which had already been released as a single, and made its stage debut from this American tour. Despite this, it disappeared after only being performed a few times, and it was an extremely valuable repertoire that the original The Who has never performed live since. Among the few live performances, the value of the recording here in Dallas, which can be heard in high quality stereo sound, is by far the best. And since it has passed since the release of “TOMMY” and after the successful performance at the Opera House, the set of the same album is impressive as you can feel the enthusiastic response of the audience from beginning to end. Even so, the performance is not drowned out by the cheers (at all!), rather it is captured with a powerful sound image and typical analog-taste sound quality, and you can enjoy the rich sense of reality of stereo. The atmosphere of the live show and the quality of the performance itself exceeded the professional shot video of Tanglewood three weeks later, which was a standard at this time, and the second half of the live show after the “TOMMY” part was unrecorded (that part was recorded on the “GATHER YOUR WITS” LP). (The album was filled with copies of singles that were not included in the album), but you can still enjoy the best stage on one neat CD. For enthusiasts, it can be an upper version of the sound source heard on the previous vintage LP, and after all, this is a masterpiece! Live at Memorial Auditorium, Dallas, Texas, USA 19th June 1970 (76:38) 1. MC 2. I Can’t Explain 3. Young Man Blues 4. Water 5. Seeker 6. Substitute 7. Overture 8. It’s A Boy 9. 1921 10. Amazing Journey 11. Sparks 12. Eyesight To The Blind 13. Christmas 14. The Acid Queen 15. Pinball Wizard 16. Do You Think It’s Alright? 17. Fiddle About 18. Tommy Can You Hear Me? 19. There’s A Doctor 20. Go To The Mirror 21. Smash The Mirror 22. Miracle Cure 23. I’m Free 24. Tommy’s Holiday Camp 25. We’re Not Gonna Take It 26. See Me, Feel Me