The Where and When of The Who

I love The Who. I love them like I’m far too young to, like a man twice my age. I don’t even remember them properly – Keith Moon died when I was six months old (almost to the day) and prior to the release of 2006’s ‘Endless Wire’, they’d only released three studio albums in my lifetime. In fact – and this is kind of my point here– ‘Endless Wire’ arguably wasn’t even The Who. It was The Who Minus Two, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend trotting out the name for another hurrah.But what The Who, at least in the Entwistle and Moon heyday, have always done is Rock and Roll, the way it’s supposed to be. The way it influenced Iron Maiden and Pearl Jam, Blur, Oasis and Green Day. The way it inspired covers by WASP and the Breeders, Limp Bizkit, the Scorpions and um... Hilary Duff. The way it all but invented the Rock Opera as we know it.And that’s the version of the Who that we get on ‘View From A Backstage Pass’. If you’ve been following "Michael Goldberg’s posts":http://mog.com/michael_goldberg over the past couple of weeks, you’ve probably gotten to hear some of the songs. At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, you get all the hits, and more. It’s the Who at the height of their powers: it’s all live recordings from 1969 to 1976, at a variety of venues from The Grande Ballroom in Detroit and The Civic Auditorium in San Francisco to Charlton Athletic Football Club in London.The Who’s live energy is legendary – even if you’ve never seen them, a listen to ‘Live At Leeds’ (arguably the all time great live album) hints at the sheer power of rock. Townsend’s guitar windmills, Daltrey’s voice, the seemingly unstoppable forces of Moon and Entwistle; these discs capture the Swinging London swagger, the bad boy attitude, the pre-punk snarl of dissent. The only real weak point to ‘View From A Backstage Pass’ is coherence: this is not a concert album as such, it’s a live ‘Best of’. There’s little to tie the tracks together and get a feel for a Who show of the era. Whereas you might – and in all likelihood, do – get two songs from the same show, it’s difficult to tell if you’re getting an end and a beginning, or two from the middle. Maybe that’s a compliment to the relentless nature of the shows at the time.On a song-by-song basis, though, it’s flawless. The versions are just different enough to bring something new to the table for all but the most hardcore Wholigans; and yet familiar enough as not to be off-putting to the casual fan – Daltrey and Co. never really subscribed to the Adam Duritz school of random lyric/pitch/tempo/song changes, so you can sing along in the car and not get caught out wondering what happened to the song you know and love. With that said, there’s a tremendous slowed-down bluesy rendition of ‘My Generation’ as part of a three song medley on Disc 2. I don’t begrudge Daltrey and Townshend their continued use of ‘The Who’ as a trademark. They’ve earned the right to use it; from the little I’ve seen of their more recent performances they’re still putting heart and soul into their concept of Maximum R&B. But for the ‘real’ Who; the band that allegedly trashed hotel pools and Rolls Royces (though the book ‘The Who In Their Own Words’ reports it as a Lincoln Continental) at the same time: accept no Subsitutes.‘View From A Backstage Pass’ is a fan-club only release, so at present it will set you back $50 (31 Euro, or £25, plus change if you’re this side of the Atlantic). Although for that you’ll get membership of the Who Fan Club, including a t-shirt and full access to all the videos and music on the official site for a year. It’s steep, but for a lot of you, it’s well worth it.26 Tracks on 2 Discs ¬– here’s what you get:1. Fortune Teller2. Happy Jack3. I’m A Boy4. A Quick One...5. Magic Bus6. I Can’t Explain7. Substitute8. My Wife9. Behind Blue Eyes10. Bargain11. Baby Don’t You Do It12. The Punk and The Godfather13. 5.1514. Won’t Get Fooled Again15. Young Man Blues16. Tattoo17. Boris The Spider18. Naked Eyes/Let's See Action/My Generation Blues19. Squeeze Box20. Dreaming From The Waist21. Fiddle About22. Pinball Wizard23. I’m Free24. Tommy’s Holiday Camp25. We’re Not Gonna Take It26. See Me Feel Me/Listening to You