Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits Live

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The idea of releasing a collection of best live performances by the greatest live band in history is a great idea. However, this is the Who's Greatest Hits Live, which is not quite the same thing as "greatest live hits". The album contains songs representing 20 of the Who's 33 singles which charted in either the US or the UK. "Baba O'Riley" was released as a single, but apparently failed to chart, despite later becoming an FM radio staple and among the band's most popular songs. "A Man in a Purple Dress", from the Who's most recent album, Endless Wire,is the only song not released as a single. The first 12 tracks of disc 1 are terrific and are reasonably representative of the Who in concert during the seventies. And most of these 12 performances are not commonly available on previous commercial releases. However, the particular recordings seem to have been selected primarily based on time constraints, rather than attempting to select particularly exceptional performances or genuinely rare recordings. Perhaps the best performance is "Naked Eye", which only counts as a "hit" because a few lines from "Let's See Action" and "My Generation" are added at the end. This medley is absolutely terrific, with Townshend's guitar assault on full display. However, the version on the "Live at the Isle of Wight" festival may be better. "I'm Free" is an excellent performance, but the listener may be left wondering what happened when the recording is abruptly truncated. The 1965 BBC recording of "My Generation" is also excellent, but sounds completely out of place on a disc where all other tracks were recorded in concert in the 70s. Disc 2 is very good, although you have to wonder why in the world five tracks recorded on their 1989 tour were included. The Who's 1989 tour was much better than many critics gave them credit for, but there is no doubt that these tracks sound out of place here. Pete Townshend's crashing guitar playing is absent from these recordings. Townshend played mostly acoustic guitar on this tour, with the sound filled out by nine backing musicians and three backing singers. One or two tracks from the 1989 tour would have fit into this compilation nicely, by five makes the difference from their other live material much to noticeable. The last four tracks, recorded this century, are again excellent, but not necessarily their best recent performances. Oddly, there is not a single track from the Kenney Jones era (1979-1985) of the band. Kenney Jones may not have been Keith Moon, or even Zak Starkey, but he is an excellent drummer and the Who had plenty of excellent performances during this period. Also, most Who fans will already have the website-only release View From a Backstage Pass, which includes two discs of Keith Moon era (recorded 1969-1976) live recordings, including all 12 in concert recordings on disc 1 of this collection. View From a Backstage Pass is a considerably better collection, even if it contains none of their more recent performances. And neither album compares to the Live at Leeds deluxe edition (or to Live at the Isle of Wight). But Greatest Hits Live is an excellent, if flawed, and highly enjoyable listen on its own.

I'm a life-long Who fan (as I'm sure many others here are). I have seen them in concert five times (all post-Keith Moon) & have all the live commercial releases plus the stuff available on-line from the tours of the last 10 years. I also have the "Live From A Backstage Pass" from the fan club. That said, this "Greatest Hits Live" was a pleasant surprise. The first 11 songs were all previously available on "Backstage Pass", 'Magic Bus' is from "Live At Leeds", 'My Generation' is from "BBC Sessions" & 'I Can See For Miles' & 'Love Reign O'er Me' are from "Join Together" (The song 'Join Together' is from a different show on the CD of the same name). All the others are previously unreleased commercially. I think it's a good overall collection. Listen, anyone can nitpick about "Greatest Hits Live" or The Who in general for a lot of things. No, it's not "Live At Leeds". So what. Unless there's something still in the archives, you're not gonna get that again. That's why "Backstage Pass" is so good (all Moon-era material). I would advise any big fan to get it (no, I'm just a member in [...] website). If there's anything negative to say about "Greatest Hits Live", perhaps they could've put more on the 2 CDs, but you never know how those decisions are made. In addition, there's no Kenney Jones-era stuff on there. I know some folks can't stand that period or the 1989 tour material included here for that matter, but there were some good moments during those times & it's part of their history, like it or not. Moon isn't coming back (or John Entwistle either now). But these 22 songs are fine on their own merits, 1 CD of Moon, & 1 CD of post-Moon (& a couple of songs post-Entwistle). As stated, I have a lot of live Who material & I thought that "Greatest Hits Live" held its own well against a lot of them.

I guess whoever picked the selections (Pete? Roger and Pete? Record company?) maybe felt the selections were what they liked to hear or what they thought fans may like.

Too much time on here was wasted with songs from the 1989 tour. In 1996 they did all of Quadrophenia for The Prince's Trust Concert. Selected songs of it were shown on HBO due to other artists and time. I'd love to hear versions from that show on this album, or hell, please release that whole show somehow! (The HBO songs are on Youtube and sadly The Who's own Quadrophenia Live DVD is from NYC)Roger's version there of Love Reign O'er Me stoled the show. Their whole performance did, at least what HBO showed me of it. I just wonder if they don't want anything to do with Gary Glitter since his legal troubles with child abuse a few years ago. He was a special guest on the 96-97 tour playing the leader of The Rockers.

I can't figure out why they chose a version of Eminence Front from 2009 instead of the mid 80's when it was fresh and John was still alive.

I guess it's cool that they gave a 2002 version of The Kids Are Alright instead of recycling the 2000 Royal Albert Hall version.

And while I'm ranting about what should be included on live stuff, I wish Pete would release ALL of his Deep End Live show too from back in 85 or 86. You can also find several songs not on that CD on Youtube. Apparently it was a pay-per-view or taped for video. As with The Prince's Trust 96 show, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd joins in the fun playing guitar, as well as singing Love on the Air.

But isn't that a sad irony? You can find cool, rare, deep cuts on tons of stuff for FREE on Youtube compared to what is officially released that they want you to pay for!

the who is and always will be my favorite rock n roll band. but when i saw another greatest hits record i thought, come on pete. then i saw it was live hits so i gave it a try. man i'm glad i did. very enjoyable. one of the best live bands still rockin'. i know, i got to see them. if you like the who you'll like greatest hits live. long live roger and pete. peace

I bought this release solely for the first disc and I was not let down. I wish that the Who would take the Grateful Dead route and release whole concerts from thier storied live tours of the late 1960's and 1970's instead of taunting the die-hard fanbase with releases that only give us glimpses into thier former live greatness.

A diehard Who fan for many years, I jump at any chance to get another CD of theirs. When I saw this CD, I pre-ordered it. The Who as a live band are second to none. Live at Leeds is a superior live album, and I expected much from this one also. Unfortunately, I was slightly disappointed.

There are many tracks on here from The Who's earlier days, many of which I hadn't heard previously or seen on my live Who DVDs. These were a pleasure to listen to. Even the songs on the second CD, in which Moonie isn't drumming, are not bad. It's a plethora of Who classics.

Unfortunately, the CD ultimately failed to capture the full epic musical show that The Who are. The songs are poorly mixed, and I got a slight feeling that they rushed to make this CD. I can hardly hear Entwistle's bass on most tracks. Although I know that many do not care as much about bass, I found the lack of a powerful Entwistle sound depreciated the entire song feel incredibly. It would also have been nice to have had 5:15 pulled from an even later year, in which they started incorporating Entwistle's epic solo. Even Daltrey's voice seems a bit awkward at times, and Moonie's loud drumming sound and spectacular cymbal crashes were a tad squishy instead of crisp.

However, when it comes down to the CD as a whole, the mixing is only a minor problem. If you're not nitpicking at every song, you will find no problems in this classic collection of Who rarities and classics. For any fan of The Who, particularly those who love to listen to the boys do what they do best, perform live, this will be a great addition to your collection.

a very good live, recorded in different occasions, with different musicians (represented about every different line-up of the group). the songs are very famous, there are most of the classics of the band, but the versions here are more or less among the best. everybody loving good old rock 'n' roll should buy this record. please, don't download, buy it.

Amazing collection of amazing live music from the beginning to current amazing tunes like man in a purple dress. Money very well spent.

Yes, this could have been better, with a different format, which focused more upon THE WHO LIVE, and less upon, their Greatest Hits. In the 70's the band was really, the Greatest Live Band performing, so that would have been the ideal moment to capture, their LIVE performance. Although, the band does sound quite good on disc two, which features the band from the 1989 tour, with the addition of drummer Simon Philips, which adds to their overall sound, as well as a second percussionist. Not to mention back-up singers and a horn section.

They are one of the top bands in my life and I do not have a stereo but still have albums I cannot play. So at least they are still making cds. I still have cassettes and was lucky enough to find a cd/cassette player.