The Who - Eminence Front - Live 1982
Caught The Who on this 1982 concert tour at the Checker Dome in Saint Louis, Missouri.
We thought it would be absolutely the last tour for The Who - so did they at the time. Despite a few get together appearances The Who really did end in 1982 - some say 1978, but that's another story. Not to be taken away the group survived the loss of Keith Moon, and so there would be a final tour in 1982.
The Who - Rolling Stone Cover 1982
Pete Townshend was literally back from the dead, having come close to overdosing. He was drug free for the first time in over a decade, and was in excellent shape for the concert.
We debated whether it was right, and good for people in their forties to dare stay together and play on as a viable rock and roll group. To college age kids we just knew it wasn't meant to be. We'd revere them, savor them, and say good bye to them, and never forget them, but they had to go - for they were over forty years old.
My bud Dave of The11thhour managed to score us some third row tickets. Tickets were chosen at random, supposedly, but we knew it was God intervention. We knew we were The Who's greatest fans.
I swear I made eye contact with Pete a few times during the concert. We were stage left (right) just in front of Pete. Yes, Pete! It's me your biggest fan! Can you see the real me? Can you? Can you?
Man I couldn't hear for several days after that concert.
This next video is from The Who's Endless Wire tour this year (2006-2007). On tour for nearly two years the boys look a little bedraggled, and Roger's voice is definitely course as sand paper, but I can still hear it - it's still there - and it's good. Endless Wire is The Who's first studio album in twenty four years - since It's Hard (1982).
John Entwistle, and Keith Moon can not truly be replaced, we know this, but the voice of The Who survives, and so does its poet. And we WHO know better enjoy it for what it is, not what we remember or wish it was. That's the thing about getting older. What we could not know when we were college age kids was that it is not how old a person is that dictates their talent its their heart, mind, and soul - that's rock.
The boys are older, but for sixty somethings they do more than all right, and in the end isn't that what it's really about - staying in the game, and enjoying yourselves while you can? So why don't you come and join the party dressed to kill, dressed to kill - dress yourself to kill.
The Who - Eminence Front - Live 2007
The sound quality sounds much better in this 2007 concert doesn't it? Like night and day. The boys still sound pretty good too don't they? In my opinion this 2007 version of Eminence Front is actually better than the 1982 version. The difference between playing sports, and being a musician is that by forty your over the hill in Sports, but musicians can continue to develop, and improve to the day they die.
