“Strange as it seems now, with the survivors of the Who still playing live nearly 60 years after the band’s formation, their tour of 1982 was announced as their last, their grand farewell.”
So begins the essay that accompanies a new [March 1, 2024] two-CD recording of a Shea Stadium concert from that tour. In fact, The Who’s endurance after an ostensible retirement doesn’t seem strange at all, given the large number of rock bands that have since called it quits and then reformed. (One memorable example: the Eagles, who broke up with Don Henley proclaiming they wouldn’t play again “until hell freezes over,” only to wind up touring 13 years later in support of an album called Hell Freezes Over.)
At any rate, the Who’s 1982 concert series did mark the end of a couple of chapters: it featured the group’s last live performances for seven years as well as their last gigs with drummer Kenney Jones, the Faces and Small Faces veteran who replaced the late Keith Moon and appeared on two Who studio albums, 1981’s Face Dances and 1982’s It’s Hard.
Performances from several shows from this tour surfaced on 1984’s Who’s Last, and the second night of the group’s sold-out October 1982 two-night Shea Stadium stand—plus several bonus tracks from the first night—appeared on DVD and standard-definition Blu-ray in 2015. Now, nine years later, we finally have a CD edition of that final Shea concert, albeit without the bonus tracks.
Called Live at Shea Stadium 1982, the 25-song program taps all the stages of the group’s career up to that point. Naturally, there’s material from the then-recently released It’s Hard: the title cut plus “Cry If You Want” “Eminence Front” and “Dangerous,” though not the hit “Athena.” Also featured are John Entwistle’s “The Quiet One” from Face Dances; “Sister Disco” from Who Are You; “Drowned” and “Love Reign O’er Me” from Quadrophenia; “Pinball Wizard” and “See Me Feel Me” from Tommy; “Baba O’Riley,” “Behind Blue Eyes” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” from Who’s Next; and “Naked Eye” from Odds and Sods.
In addition, the group offers a few early non-album hit singles (1966’s “Substitute” and 1965’s “Can’t Explain”) and, from the great The Who Sell Out, the rarely performed “Tattoo.” The concert ends with a medley that sandwiches Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” between two songs that appear to pay homage to the Beatles’ historic 1965 gig at the same venue: “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Twist and Shout.”
Related: The Who’s Tommy musical is returning to Broadway
Not all this material ranks with the Who’s best; the audio quality and mix aren’t quite on par with what you’ll hear on 1970’s Live at Leeds; and Kenney Jones is no Keith Moon. That said, the band plays consistently well and enthusiastically, and the two-hour program offers a generous and representative sample of its catalog up through 1982. This shouldn’t be anyone’s first Who album but if you’re a fan who already owns a variety of its releases, you’ll likely want to add this one to the pile.
The album is available as a softpak 2-CD set [available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here] as well as a 3-LP set in gatefold jacket [in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here]. (A Blu-ray is available here.)
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