The Who, who are currently out on what feels like their actual final tour (after several final tours), “The Song Is Over” tour, have released a powerful live album from their vaults, Live From The Oval 1971. And what a live album this one is, oh my! The Who have released a lot of live albums from their vaults and I haven’t exactly kept up with all of them, but this album (for me) ranks up there with Live At Leeds which I consider to be one of the greatest, most essential live albums of all time whether you own it in the original 1-disc live vinyl LP configuration or the 1995 expanded edition (which went from six to fourteen songs) or the 2001 super deluxe edition which was multiple discs… that monster keeps growing! Live At The Oval 1971 finds the original lineup of the band, Roger Daltrey (vocals), John Entwistle (bass/vocals), Pete Townshend (guitar/vocals) and Keith Moon (drums/mischief) in rare form. I’m told this performance has been widely bootlegged over the years but this is my first time hearing it.

When it comes to the Who, I’m at a slight disadvantage. I didn’t start listening to music until roughly the time drummer Keith Moon passed away in 1978. Most of my Who experience, other than going to the record store and buying their back catalog while in college, was the Daltrey/Entwistle/Townshend configuration. At first with Kenny Jones, formerly of the Faces, filling in on drums – Face Dances was the first Who album I ever bought (and yes, call me sentimental, but I’m the only person who likes that album). And then later after Kenny Jones bowed out, after retiring and then coming back, the Who played with other replacement drummers including the recently sacked Zak Starkey, Ringo’s son. And of course, after we lost Entwistle in 2002 it’s just been Roger and Pete whose relationship has always been fraught.

In these very pages I’ve reviewed the Pete/Roger configuration’s  The Who With Orchestra and the Roger/Pete/John and Kenny Jones configuration’s Live At Shea Stadium 1982 album. In both cases despite being down two original members on the former, and one original member on the latter, I’ve found both those performances to be startling potent and strong. With that as a backdrop, you’ll have to forgive me in that I had forgotten how amazingly powerful this band was when the original lineup was still intact. These guys rival Zeppelin in terms of playing bombastic, hard rock. I guess I need to pull out Live At Leeds more often to remind myself.

Tommy, the Who’s and the world’s first double-album “rock opera,” and the ultimate “concept album” came out in 1969 and was a sensation. By that point, their manager Kit Lambert had really painted the Who as an artsy band. Chafing under that description and struggling to complete a followup album, the Who released the sensational, hard rocking Live At Leeds as a counterpoint to that just to prove how hard they rocked in concert. The followup to Tommy was supposed to be another conceptual double-album, perhaps the mother of all concept albums, a record called Lifehouse. Townshend worked and worked to make the concept in his head come together but just couldn’t pull it off. It was similar to what Brian Wilson went through with Smile. Eventually it led Townshend to what has been described as a nervous breakdown. Making lemonade out of lemons, so to speak, the band pulled the best tunes from Lifehouse and in August of 1971 put out a single disc, non-concept album, Who’s Next, which turned out to be arguably the Who’s best album. I believe it was their biggest seller, anyway.

At that point, the Who were approached to play a charity event on September 19, 1971, the “Goodbye Summer: A Rock Concert in Aid of Famine Relief for the People of Bangladesh,” which was the UK companion version of George Harrison’s Concert For the People of Bangladesh. The Who would headline a bill featuring the Faces and Mott the Hoople. (Am I wrong as a Faces fan to wish that someone had hit “record” when Rod & the gang were on stage?). At this point, the Who had been cooped up in a studio for quite a while and were looking for an excuse to rehearse and get out in front of an audience. Townshend was also feeling freed of the burden of trying to realize the Lifehouse project. And the band had to be riding high on the wonderful reception Who’s Next was receiving. That’s a lot of good vibes for a band to contain… It was the perfect time to re-emerge and play a show that was going to melt the faces off some fans. And with all that new material from Who’s Next am I wrong to think that Who were kind of happy to not be playing Tommy in it’s entirety for the umpteenth time?

Good vibes and hard rock are the call of the day as the Who took the stage and Live At The Oval 1971 kicks off. These guys come off as a feral animal escaping captivity… they’re taking no prisoners. They open with a kitschy track “So Glad To See You,” but then they probably were glad, and then right into “Summertime Blues” (which features on our Summer/Sun/Beach Playlist) which fit the “Goodbye Summer” theme to a “T.” Sure, Eddie Cochran wrote it and did it first and Springsteen’s E Street Band used to play it live, but the Who own this song. It’s muscular hard rock, “Maximum R&B,” indeed. It’s hard to overstate how spectacularly this rocks. Moon and Entwistle sound like barely contained thunder and lightning as they do for the whole performance. There’s a reason Entwistle was an automatic for my favorite bass players list.

Next up is Entwistle’s contribution to Who’s Next, “My Wife” a comical track about an angry wife coming after a husband who’d gotten drunk and fallen asleep and not made it home (we’ve all been there). You can tell how jazzed these guys are to be playing this new material. These songs that are now “old warhorses” were fresh and new and the Who seem to be discovering the raw power in their performance. Toward the end of “My Wife” Daltrey starts singing parts of “Going Mobile,” and randomly sings “Keep me movin’.” Beyond the rhythm section bringing down the sky, Townshend’s guitar is a lethal weapon here. I don’t know why, but sometimes I forget what a guitar god this guy was/is. The big riffs, the loud solo’s, make Pete sound a lot like Hendrix on this album and he plays his ass off. You can tell he’s happily out of the confines of the studio and he’s gonna bend some strings and rawk!

Again, it’s the Who’s Next stuff that shines and “Love Ain’t For Keeping” is no exception. I love Daltrey’s vocal here. He’s got a reputation as a shouter, but he sounds phenomenal on this live LP. After a few of those great, short singles, “I Can’t Explain,” and “Substitute” which both sizzle, we get to the emotional heart of the performance and yes, it’s all the new stuff. “Bargain” just rocks out. That leads to one of the most beautiful performances of “Behind Blue Eyes” that I’ve ever heard. The newly minted “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is spectacular. I always judge a version of that track by how well Daltrey’s climactic banshee wail at the end goes and on this one, it’s A+. That’s followed by one of my favorite deep track/covers songs the Who ever did, “Baby Don’t You Do It.” Daltrey conflates the track with an Elmore James song, but Elmore never did this one. Marvin Gaye did do it and frankly the Band used to use it as their encore… I’m hard pressed to name a favorite, but the Who’s version is certainly a top candidate. I need to do one of my “With 3 Versions, which is your favorite” posts about this song like I did with another Who track, “Pinball Wizard.”

Speaking of which, up next is a mini-Tommy “suite” of two songs with the aforementioned “Pinball Wizard” which leads to “See Me, Feel Me/Listening To You.” After an almost punk rock version of “My Generation” they play another of my favorite deep tracks, “Naked Eye” (which, yes, is on my Playlist: Songs About Eyes). I’ve always loved the dual Roger and Pete lead vocal songs. I’m embarrassed to admit that the first time I heard that song was on a video, maybe on VCR or maybe on MTV, of the Who’s “last” tour in 1982. I went out immediately bought Odds & Sods, a compilation of unreleased stuff because it had that song on it. I knew any Who mix tape I made going forward would have to contain that song. The version here is over 7 minutes and may be definitive. That opening line, “Take a little dope and walk out in the air, the stars are all connected to the brain” reminds me of a night on shrooms many, many moons ago… I stick with beer now.

The concert wraps with an extended jam version of “Magic Bus” where apparently Keith Moon played the drums with a purloined cricket bat… although somehow in my mind I keep conflating that with a croquet hammer… which you have to admit, paints a funnier picture. “Magic Bus,” at 9 minutes long is just a perfect, rocking end to what must have been one Hell of a night. I wish I’d been there, but in 1971 it would have been past my bedtime.

Often when I listen to a live album from a certain point in time, I grouse about tracks they didn’t play or maybe they didn’t do the song well. I have no notes for this performance. Like Live At Leeds, this is a perfect Who live album and a fine addition to anybody’s rock n roll collection. I heard some people grousing about the cover art – Can you believe that shit? Everyone’s a critic… – that it’s too “bootleg like.” Have you seen the cover of Live At Leeds, which was literally a spoof on the bootleg covers of the times? I actually kind of dig the cover, but obviously it’s irrelevant to what’s inside!

Turn this one up loud over your Labor Day Weekend while you’re lounging by your pool and grilling up some burgers and pour yourself something strong… best fasten your seat belt as well. This is gonna rattle the neighbor’s windows… I have to admit that I’ve been listening to this one non-stop since it came out – save for a detour for Cheap Trick’s new song “Twelve Gates” – and it just keeps growing in my esteem. Between this one and Elton John’s recently released Live At The Rainbow Theater, my vaults runneth over!

Cheers! and happy Labor Day to all the working stiffs out there!