Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Who - Big Boss Man



I came across a concert that The Who did in Passaic, N.J. in 1979. Above is the audio of the band performing "Big Boss Man," which is a cover of a song written by Luther Dixon and Al Smith, and although covered by many, is most notably done by Jimmy Reed. By the way, if you don't know the late Jimmy Reed, check out "Shame Shame Shame" here.

Robert Plant's New Song

Robert Plant is releasing an album with his revived Band of Joy. Rolling Stone has a clip of one of the songs, "Angel Dance,"which can be heard by clicking this. The album comes out in September. The rumors of a Led Zeppelin reunion tour are basically dead at this point. Recently, drummer Jason Bonham said a Led Zeppelin reunion with a different lead singer was considered. I think other than one-off concerts there will never be a full-fledged tour.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Who - "Amazing Journey/Sparks" from Houston 1975



When The Who played The Summit in Houston, Texas in 1975, some believed and still believe it was the band's best concert ever. For me this is very debatable. I'm not sure how you can look at a career that has spanned nearly 50 years and say one performance is the definitive moment, however, this concert is really good. It's out there as a bootleg on DVD, but really, the band's management should consider having this cleaned up and released as an "official" DVD.

Regardless, the show contains a stellar performance of "Sparks." Pete Townshend was definitely on that night. I've never seen Pete have a bad performance, but some are better than others and this is one of those occasions.

The Who - "Amazing Journey/Sparks" at Tanglewood



I was forwarded this video of The Who performing "Amazing Journey/Sparks" at Tanglewood in Massachusetts in 1970. I never grow tired of comparing and contrasting performances of "Sparks" and it doesn't matter what era the performance comes from; they all hold up in my opinion.

The audio is courtesy of Wolfgang's Vault and it was synced up with some old video of the concert. The quality of the audio and video are perfect. It might not be a bad idea for the band's management to consider putting together a full-length DVD of this concert.