On February 14th, 1970 The Who performed their legendary concert at the University of Leeds which would become the iconic Live At Leeds album.
Live at Leeds was The Who’s first live album and only contained six tracks when originally released. Since Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon and John Entwistle jammed out on that Valentines’ Day in England the LP has been hailed as one of the best live rock, if not simply rock, recordings ever.
Rolling Stone placed Live at Leeds at 170 in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Since its original release, Live at Leeds has gone double platinum. Universal Music released a special edition commemorating the 40th anniversary of Live at Leeds in October 2010.
The concert in Leeds directly followed The Who’s strong session at Woodstock and was the final full performance of the operatic Tommy.
The two-hour set included the tunes “Substitute,” “Magic Bus,” and a roughly quarter of an hour version of “My Generation” made it onto the LP with covers of “Shakin’ All Over,” “Summertime Blues,” and “Young Man Blues.” Live at Leeds has been reconstituted, expanded and reissued over the years, but the original recording marked a milestone for The Who and has been spectacularly influential on shaping musical history at large.
