Pete Townshend Live [Live]

Pete Townshend | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 21, 1999)
• Original Release Date: September 21, 1999
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Live
• Label: Intersound Records
• ASIN: B00000JJOZ
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,652 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #10 in Music > Indie Music > Rock > Singer-Songwriters

Track Listings

1. On the Road Again

2. Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere

3. A Little Is Enough

4. Drowned

5. You Better You Bet

6. Now and Then

7. North Country Girl

8. Let My Love Open the Door

9. Won't Get Fooled Again

10. Magic Bus

11. I'm One

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4 out of 5 ain't bad, October 11, 1999

By 

Steve Marshall "Steve" (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pete Townshend Live (Audio CD)

It's been six years since the last Pete Townshend album, the criminally overlooked Psychoderelict. Since then, he took what's left of The Who on the road, performing Quadrophenia--but he's only played a dozen or so solo shows. Excerpts of two of them are captured here. This album finds Townshend performing a couple of choice covers ("On the Road Again," and an excellent version of "Girl From the North Country"), plus a smattering of Who and solo tunes.

Who fans will probably have mixed emotions about this disc. The few people who were fortunate enough to attend the concerts will be disappointed because they know what's missing. The rest will love it. The tracks on the CD and its bonus disc come from Townshend's '97 and '98 shows at Chicago's House of Blues.

Highlights? Let's start with the rarely played "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere." The song starts off with Townshend and a drum machine, then kicks firmly into high gear as he shouts, "nothing gets in my way, not even locked doors." Pete's voice sounds great, and his guitar work is even better. "Now and Then" is the lone track from Psychoderelict. Hopefully, this stellar performance of the song will inspire people to go out and find the original CD.

"Won't Get Fooled Again" wins the prize for `most changed song.' Townshend starts the song on acoustic, then switches to electric for the killer solos. On "Magic Bus," you'll swear it's 1972 all over again when you hear the way he attacks his guitar. Both of these tracks clock in at over 12 minutes. Percussionist Jody Linscott and keyboardist Jon Carin are the star performers on "A Little is Enough," recreating and enhancing all the nuances and effects of the studio version.

The big selling point here is the bonus disc. Taken from the '97 show, Townshend and Carin are joined onstage by "special guest" (a.k.a. Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder) for one of the best versions of "Magic Bus" that you'll ever hear, and a great version of the seldom heard "Heart to Hang Onto." Townshend's vocals are outstanding on both tracks, and Vedder turns in an inspired performance as well.

The bad thing about this CD is that you may not be able to find it at your local CD shop. Well, fear not Who fans. You can get it online at Amazon.com. Pete Townshend Live isn't as good as the Deep End disc, but there's enough brilliance here to satisfy any self-respecting Who fan.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What about the rest?, December 28, 1999

By 

Tom (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pete Townshend Live (Audio CD)

This album is truly Pete at his best live and is a must have for any fan. If you're looking for Eddie, this isn't the album for you. I was fortunate enough to attend the two shows that produced the CDs and unfortunately some of the best songs didn't make the cut. Most notably missing "Save it for Later", "I Put a Spell on You", and "The Acid Queen" (There's a lot of space available on disc 2! ). But what made it, is impressive itself! "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" is worth the price alone, and to think you also get great versions of "Drowned" and "I'm One" to boot. Keep you eyes peeled for the '99 benefit concert with The Who.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars He's a Rock'n'Roll Wizard, July 16, 2001

By 

Omer Belsky (Haifa, Israel) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pete Townshend Live (Audio CD)

I've had the pleasure of seeing the WHO live in their reunion tour. It was great fun - huge arenas, great production values, high energy performances - but it was not art. It was 55 year old people performing songs that were mostly written 10 years and more before I was born. They pretended for a while that they were still in the 1970s, and that, Keith Moon or not, the Who were still the people of old, and that nothing has changed. But they were wrong, and so what we got was a great concert - but very little in the way of novelty or excitement. It was a nostalgic act - energetic and capable, but belonging in a museum nonetheless.

But, this - Pete Townshend's Live album - is the real thing. This is the work of an artist, not a historian.

I'm completely unfamiliar with Townshend's solo work, but I love the WHO, and dig live concerts, so, when this was sold at a reasonable price, it was an obvious purchase.

Townshend here presents material roughly equally distributed throughout his career. Fortunately, the reworkings of oldies breath new lives into them - Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere is no longer a proto-punk quickie - rather it becomes a rich, complex and powerful composition testifying for Townshend's youth. Drowned is truly improved upon, getting a more subdude approach. I don't know the original versions of 'Now and Than', ' Let My Love Open the Door', and You Better, You Bet, but they all work wonderfully here, the latter, especially is a great song, containing pop sensability combined with real energy and fine songwriting.

The only disappointments come from the most popular and best songs on this CD - Magic Bus and Won't Get Fooled Again. Those songs suffer from opposite problems: Magic Bus, despite some changed lyrics (Sometimes emberassingly weak 'every bus has two decks - the upper deck, and the lower deck'), is essentially the same song as it was in the album. Won't Get Fooled Again is reworked heavily, but since WGFA is arguably the WHO's best song, it can't be reworked to work any better than the original, and while Pete Townshend is a fine singer, he can't compete with Daltrey's vocals.

Those are especially unnecessary, as various live performances of these songs are available elsewhere - certainly 'Live in Leeds' include the ultimate version of Magic Bus - and non other is necessary.

On the other hand, including some lesser known Townshend songs would probably have been preferable to repeating these ones, and if, they wanted to use classic Who stuff, why not ' The Kids Are Alright' which was apperantly performed in that concert, which is thematically logical to this concert, and which doesn't appear on nearly as many Who live albums.

But those are minor complains. This is a wonderful album. It ends with Townshend's solo performance of I'm One - Solo only if you disinclude the crowd, which recieved Townshend with the enthusiasm the performance deserved.