The Who: Live At The Oval, 1971

Beginning with what amounts to only a minute or so of an opening “So Glad To See Ya,” The Who rolls into “Summertime Blues,” then thunder into “My Wife,” and “Love Ain’t For Keeping,” from their Who’s Next album, just released at the time of this concert. This The Who: Live At The Oval, 1971 show was recorded when Keith Moon, John Entwistle, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend headlined the “Goodbye Summer: A Rock Concert in aid of Famine Relief for the People of Bangladesh.”

The fifteen songs represented here are newly mixed from the original 8-track analog multi-track tapes and reveal a rock band at the height of their powers. If you have any doubt of what The Who were about way back when, pre infinite amount of “final tours,” band members dying, and less and less releases of new work, this like the seminal Live at Leeds, considered one of the best live albums of all times, and released a scant year or so before this show. is a great indication of the way things were for this foursome…and luckily, for those who got to see this band then.

“Behind Blue Eyes,” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” hit about halfway through here, the best from the stuff from Who’s Next that’s presented of the five or so songs here. And the set is rounded out with the likes of “Pinball Wizard,” “My Generation,” “Can’t Explain,” and a stage-destroyer harmonica jamming last tune “Magic Bus.”

The Who were notorious for not playing encores, nor could they usually when Townshend and Moon got done destroying the stage.

The Who, (Daltrey and Townshend that is) are slogging their way on what they claims is their final tour. Hearing the original band, in this form on The Who: Live At The Oval, 1971 one can remember better days.