4
4
"Live!"
Pete Townshend's Deep
End
Atco Records
★★★★★
The Who’s final
concert tour, completed in
1983, left me with mixed
emotions. I was sad that
one of my favorite bands
was calling it quits but,
after hearing “Who’s
Last,” the album taken
from that tour, I was glad
that the band had enough
sense to realize they
weren’t the band they
used to be and decided to
stop while they were
ahead.
When Pete Townshend
released “White City” in
1985,1 was overjoyed.
“White City” showed that
Townshend, the same
man who wrote the lines:
“I hope I die before I get
[ old” in the song “My
Generation,” has actually
grown old gracefully and
| was able to use the
experience of age to make
more music. Townshend
still had a lot to say even if
The Who wasn’t the best
vehicle for his music.
“Live!” is an album
taken from the videotape
of Townshend’s 1986
concert in Brixton,
England. A couple of
tracks from the concert
had been released as b-
sides of singles from the
“White City” album.
Townshend’s solo live
version of the Who classic
“Magic Bus” was the b-
side of the “Give Blood”
single. Townshend and
Deep End’s killer live
version of “Won’t Get
Fooled Again,” originally
from the Who’s 1971
“Who’s Next” album was
the b-side of the “Face the
Face” 12-inch single.
For the concert
Townshend assembled a
band of top-flight
musicians that included
ex-Pink Floyd guitarist
David Gilmour,
keyboardist John
“Rabbit” Bundrick,
drummer Simon Phillips,
bassist Chucho Merchan,
blues harpist Peter Hope
Evans, percussionist Judy
Linscott, the Kick Homs
and a three-man, two-
woman choir.
Townshend and the
band crank through a
choice selection of
Townshend’s solo
material, Who songs and
a few covers. The playing
is sharp and hot and there
is a lot of soul in
Townshend’s vocals.
Townshend is content to
stick to rhythm guitar and
let Gilmour take the lead
passages.
“Live!” kicks off with
Robert Barker’s
“Barefootin,’” a number
that would be perfect if
you could see Townshend
dancing. “After the Fire, ”
a song wrote for Roger
Daltrey’s 1985 “Under a
Raging Moon” album,
sounds more gentle and
soulful than Daltrey’s
version.
Townshend’s vocals on
“Behind Blue Eyes,” a
song originally included
on The Who’s “Who’s
Next” album, are
fantastic. As Daltrey sang
it, “Behind Blue Eyes”
was an angry declaration
from a misunderstood
tough guy. As Townshend
sings it, “Behind Blue
song a traditional
treatment for the “Live!”
album. The cover version
of the Beat’s “Save it for
Later” shows that
Townshend has a good
ear for new music as well
as the old.
The live version of
“Pinball Wizard, ” a song
from The Who’s
“Tommy” album, proves
that Townshend is the
Eyes” becomes a heartfelt fastest guitar strummer in
plea from a man who is
tired of putting up a
iacade of being tough.
“Stop Hurting People, ”
and “I’m One,” both
get excellent treatments.
Townshend goes back
to his love for old
American blues by
performing Screamin’ Jay
Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on
You” and Sonny Boy
Williamson’s “Eyesight to
the Blind. ” Townshend
had taken “Eyesight to
the Blind” and turned it
into a Who song for the
band’s 1969 “Tommy”
album but he goes back to
the original to give the
the world. “A Little is
Enough,” a song from
Townshend’s 1980
“Empty Glass” album, get
a hefty workout as well.
While “White City”
showed that Townshend
still had a lot to offer as a
songwriter, “Live!” shows
that Townshend still has a
lot to offer as a performer.
If you have a VCR, you
should get “The Brixton,
England Concert”
videotape. It has all of the
songs listed above and as
many more.
—Review by Karl
Pallmeyer
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