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The Who - New York Rock Festival 2nd August 1968 (1968)

Track listing:
  1. Heaven And Hell 3:02
  2. I Can't Explain 2:12
  3. Summertime Blues 3:43
  4. Fortune Teller 2:05
  5. Tattoo 2:45
  6. A Quick One 9:20
  7. Magic Bus 10:00
  8. Shakin' All Over 2:45
  9. My Generation 2:47

Notes

Singer Bowl
Queens, New York

Unknown Audience Recording.

A fair to good audience recording. This was recorded during their 2nd US tour. The show finishes with My Generation, which is sadly cut. An announcer is caught on tape talking about a "brief intermission", as the pieces of guitar and amp are picked up!

The Doors shared the same bill. Pete Townshend is inspired by Jim Morrison to write Sally Simpson; "The Doors had become meteoric and Jim Morrison's Christ picture is all over f**king New York".

Magic Bus was released as a single a few days before this gig in the US.

"This may not be not an audience recording but a poor sounding soundboard recording. The main reason I am thinking this is that the stage was rotating while the Who were playing, PA systems at large concerts still sucked in 1968 and if this is an audience recording you should be able to hear the instruments gain in volume as the amps swing by the direction of the taper's mics. Listen to how clear and up in the mix Keith's claves are on Magic Bus, they would be the quietest thing on stage yet are louder than the vocal or instruments as they would be in a mix being sent to the PA. Bands in the 60s relied more on their stage amps for instrument volume than the PA. which may be why the claves are so loud on this recording and the instruments less so. It sounded more balanced in the audience.
The description at the link above leaves out a few things about the night. I remember the stage rotating for almost all of the Who's set though it had stopped by My Generation. The info about the Who being pissed off that the Doors left their equipment on the stage is accurate. The Door's amps were laying on their backs along the front of the stage during the Who's set. Too bad My Generation is missing from the tape because the performance this night was one of the most destructive I ever witnessed. Since Pete was pissed about the Door's equipment being left on the stage he ran out to the front of the stage at the end of Generation and started attacking thier amps with his guitar. He then turned and ran at his stack of amps swinging his Stratocaster into the side of his amp stack and destroying it in the process. A friend of mine has stills and 8mm silent footage of this show and my favorite shot is the one where Townshend's guitar has just been swung into the side of his speaker cabinets. You can see pieces of the guitar flying off into the air and all the veins and muscles on Townshend's neck are bulging out. By the end of Generation Pete's amps were knocked down and buried under Keith's drum kit. I remember Keith picking up the bass drums with the toms attached and heaving them into the air to land on top of Pete's amps. While the Who were trashing the stage and their equipment the Who's roadies were facing off with the Door's roadies who were not happy about Townshend's attack on the Door's amps."