Performer: The Who
Songwriter: Pete Townshend
Original Release: Who’s Next
Year: 1971
Definitive Version: None
When The Who announced that its 1982 tour was going to be its farewell tour (ahem), they announced that the last show would be broadcast on pay per view, which we were fortunate to have in Columbus. As it happened, that was the day I’d get home from Wabash after my tumultuous first semester there.
Beth and I couldn’t wait to see each other, of course, but—and this is likely because we hadn’t been dating long—she let me watch the event as long as I took her out to dinner first to somewhere nice. Fair enough. I don’t remember where, but I’d have to guess it was DaVinci’s—a standard low-cost but fancy Italian date place. That would be why I was wearing a suit when The Who took the stage for what was billed as their final performance.
To capture the event for all of posterity—or at least until the tape gave out—Scott set up our standard audio recording equipment. This consisted of propping up a cassette recorder so the mic was right on the TV speaker and made sure the volume was turned up as loud as it would go before the neighbors—or Mom—told us to turn down that infernal racket. It was an imperfect low-tech solution, but in all honesty, I’ve heard worse quality bootlegs.
I suppose it was teen-age naivety to believe that The Who would do nothing but go out with a bang, but it was in actuality more like a whimper. Beth fell asleep during the second half, and Scott and I almost went too. My favorite song of the night was Naked Eye to start the encore, but the finale of Twist and Shout was tepid, and of course, no guitar was sacrificed, alas.
They did play this song right after the one-two Tommy punch of Pinball Wizard and See Me, Feel Me. Pete said it was one they didn’t play much on stage, and that was kind of cool. And cool was the right word. The fire had obviously left years ago (RIP, Keith), and they couldn’t turn it back on that last night.
Fortunately, that was not the last time we’d ever see The Who on stage.
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