Thursday, November 11, 2010

A new operational definition for "milking it"

The Who, now apparently on Geffen, are releasing a "super deluxe" version of Live At Leeds, which Nik Cohn, writing in the NYT before its release, correctly designated "the best live rock album ever made": four CDs, a vinyl LP and 7", including the previously unreleased show from Hull that was originally shelved because Entwistle's bass wasn't recorded on some songs, which in the fullness of time proved to have bass after all. Thing lists for 80 bucks; you can preorder it on Amazon for $63.96. Drops 11.22.

My take: Save your money. If you don't own it, buy the '95 CD, which was a legitimate improvement because it restored the rest of what Cohn had promised back in '70 ("Heaven and Hell," "Tattoo," "Fortune Teller," "I'm a Boy," "A Quick One," and so on) and revealed the original LP to be essentially a document of the encore. You can live without the Tommy songs, especially since the '70 Isle of Wight show has been DVD-available for years. And Live At Hull is so much less euphonious than Live At Leeds.

2 Comments:

Blogger Grubbermeister said...

Or save your money until they inevitably release the "super-duper-golly-gee-willikers deluxe" edition... nah. Your suggestion is better (and cheaper).

Word verification: rehook

9:54 AM  
Blogger Breaking Light said...

Thanks for the advice, I'll follow it! But I think the title of "the best live rock album ever made" belongs to Allman Bros. at Fillmore East, IMO.

5:21 PM  

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