Who Says What?

In my last blog post I talked about my favorite album, The Who’s Live at Leeds. As I expressed in that blog post I love how the album expresses true emotion through music. Some would fully agree with me, while others would tend to disagree. David Bowling of Blog Critics Magazine says, “Live at Leeds may not be the best live album of all time, but it certainly ranks near the top.” In this persons opinion it is clear to see that he is fond of the album, but it is not his favorite. While Steven Hyden of Pop Matters says that, “Live at Leeds...…..is not only the best live rock 'n' roll album ever, but the best rock album period.” While these opinions are both positive toward the album they differ slightly, thus showing the difference in each person’s opinion.

The two critics listed above also seem to differ in what style of music they like in the album. While Bowling says, “Young Man Blues” and “Substitute” are the other two songs contained on the original release….. They are my least favorite tracks…… The sound is a little poorer, at least to my ear, than the rest of the record.” While Hyden says “Mose Allison's (the original artist and writer) "Young Man Blues”… was a more obscure number pumped solid by the Who…” It is easy to see that while Hyden liked the song “Yong Man Blues” Bowling thought of it as his least favorite. In my own opinion about the song I think it is hands down the best song on the album. The song is completely unique because it was originally composed as a Jazz song by Mose Allison, but The Who made the song there own by adding amazing guitar riffs, heavy drum rolls, pumping bass, and unbelievable vocal skills. Therefore I think that in seeing how these critics feel about this song, we also see what there preferable music style might be, and how it affects there opinion.

Hyden also says “The other three songs were among the Who's most enduring classics, including a truncated "Substitute", a hilarious "Magic Bus", and a rambling 15-minute version of "My Generation" that not-so-succinctly summed up everything you would ever need to know about the band.” I fully agree with this statement because these three songs show the bands evolution till the time of the Leeds Concert. The song "Substitute", although short, is still very well written, and a very good song, but sounds more like the pop music of the 60’s instead of rock and roll. The song "My Generation" was written very early in the Who’s career and is a spectacular performance. This song shows off the Who’s vocal and musical skills, and really puts into perspective how great the Who really is. Also the song "Magic Bus", which the Who used to close this album, is also a great song to express the awesome talent that the Who had when the album was recorded.


Work Sited:
Hyden, Steven. PopMatters. 29 January 2003. 18 February 2008 (http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/w/who-liveatleeds2.shtml).

Bowling, David. Home Page. 09 December 2008. 19 February 2008 (http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/12/09/094221.php).