The Who - Woodstock 1969

We are coming up on the anniversary of Woodstock which took place from August 15-18, 1969. A big moment for The Who was when they played "See Me, Feel Me/Listening to You" as the sun began rising at the festival in upstate New York. The above video comes from the movie.

The Who - Sparks (1979)

Let's go back to December 28, 1979 now and a performance of one of my all-time Who favorites, "Sparks." This one takes place at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. I mentioned in my prior post here about a poll on TheWho.com asking what is your favorite song off of the Tommy album. I think it's safe to say that if I were to declare one song my favorite, "Sparks" would be it.

The Who - Pinball Wizard (Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970)

TheWho.com recently had a poll asking what is your favorite song on the Tommy album. So far in first place is "Amazing Journey" followed by "Pinball Wizard." This is one of the more memorable performances of the song; one that occurred in front of 600,000 people at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970.

Favorite Song on Tommy Album

TheWho.com has a poll up asking what is your favorite song on Tommy (1969) and so far the results have "Sparks" in front with "Amazing Journey" and "Pinball Wizard" trailing. Other choices are "1921," "I'm Free" and "The Acid Queen."

The question is being asked as Roger Daltrey prepares to perform Tommy with his solo band at next week's TCT Charity Concert. He'll do a warmup show tomorrow night in Bournemouth, U.K. before the charity event on Thursday March 24.

Polls, brackets, etc. are all rubbish to me and my God have we overdone it lately....but that's for another post and another blog. Still, the poll gave me an excuse (as if one is necessary) for me to post The Who performing "Sparks." This one (audio only) is from a concert on May 31, 1976 in front of 80,000 people at the Charlton Athletic Football Ground in London.

The Who - Underture

Continuing on the subject of “Sparks/Underture” from my previous posts here and here, the above is a YouTube video with the studio version of “Underture” being played and accompanied by some pictures of The Who throughout their years together.

Although "Underture" is on the Tommy album, the music actually first showed up on the latter portion of “Rael 1,” which is off of The Who Sell Out; an incredibly sophisticated album which deserves multiple listens. Pete Townshend's art school background is on full display on Sell Out, so for some people that only know The Who through Who's Next, they may not initially "get" Sell Out.

When you listen to “Underture” it is quite clear that there’s a lot going on. I think it is definitely one of Pete's best and most complex compositions, however, it's probably also a song that people foolishly skip over when they listen to Tommy. I also think that it is one of those rare songs that every time I listen to it, I hear something new that I hadn't heard before.

The first part I love is around the one minute mark, which is where the heavy bass moves into some frenetically tight drumming – an oxymoron in most cases, but not when your drummer is Keith Moon. Basically, it sounds as though a machine gun is being fired, but there is not a hint of sloppiness to Moon's drumming, just ferocity. I can envision Moon going around and around on his massive drum kit and making sure he doesn’t leave one component of the kit untouched. His drumming is equally as fierce at the 2:33 and 7:33 marks.

The song slows down around 6:38 and seems to bide its time for about 30 seconds or so before hitting the climax and then fading.

I found a demo of "Underture" on YouTube (of course), which was released on Pete's demo collection, The Genuine Scoop. Here is a link to it; an amazingly rich sound; which, for me, only Pete Townshend could and can achieve. Not even an orchestra can match the genius that is Pete Townshend.

"Yes, the Who can help you find God. But then so can surviving a terrible plane crash." –Pete Townshend