Pete Townshend
9/10/95
Theater at Madison Square Garden
New York, NY

Precise lineage unknown; see graf three

If I could somehow go back in time and attend this gig, I would. It happened just days after I moved to New York; how it flew under my radar I still don’t know. Fortunately, this most excellent audience recording exists, and I wanted to share it on this, the 13th anniversary of the performance.

Paul Simon had invited Pete to this perform benefit, and he opened the show (other artists included Annie Lennox, Wynton Marsalis, and Simon, too). It’s a revealing show and a rich recording. Pete gives remarkably strong performances of rarely-played numbers, and in some cases, it approaches what amounts to a master class from the Big T. If you like his cover of the English Beat’s “Save it For Later,” you’ll love this energized version. Pete sits at the piano for a bunch of songs, too (though he says he’s never played piano before in a performance setting, Doc suggests that he had --- at the Roundhouse gigs in ’74). Pete is in a great mood throughout: lots of witty banter and asides, and he sounds connected to the music and audience. He reprised this format the following spring in a short U.S. tour, but this experimental outing, essentially a one-off gig, sounds wildly successful.

For a while I thought this recording had circulated here, but on playback I realized they are separate masters (the whole show appeared as “Paul Simon and Friends” in 2006). With all due respect to the taper and seeder of the aforementioned source, this one sounds much closer and brighter. So I’ve lowered the sound by just a bit (2.2 db in Adobe Audition) to ensure that your listening experience isn’t too hot. I do not know the lineage of this recording, but it’s likely that it’s no more than 2d generation; it’s more likely, however, that it’s first generation. Given the fact that it came to me on DAT (and to the person I got if from, too), it was most likely recorded that way. Regardless, the sound here is most pleasing, as is the performance. Whoever recorded this, thank you for your work, 13 years ago tonight.

And a huge thanks to Pete Townshend. Just because.

1) intro
2) The Kids are Alright (with Paul Simon)
3) Save it For Later
4) Slit Skirts
5) Cut My Hair
6) Love, Reign o’er Me
7) I Put a Spell on You
8) I Am an Animal
9) Drowned
10) You Can Call Me Al (with cast)