The Who, Pinball Wizard

My pal Jimm D. found this video, and boy do I owe him a thank you. This performance of “Pinball Wizard” by the Who is one of the single greatest rock and roll displays of all time. While I’m pretty sure that the instrumentation is mimed, as was the case in many 60s era television clips, the singing was live, evidenced by a few missed notes by Townshend. Whatever, this performance, whatever it is, shows the Who at their most dynamic, engaging, and most star powered. The best part is the dearly departed Keith Moon miming the words behind Roger Daltry’s back in hilarious English “goon” like insanity. In the fashion department, thumbs up to John Entwistle’s horrible attempt at a Fu Man Chu mustache. Its funny, I never was the greatest fan of this song until I saw this clip, its that unbelievably good, so enough of my hype, (50 years late) and just play this thing and dream about what rock and roll could still be, if only someone was good enough to try.

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2 Responses to “The Who, Pinball Wizard”

  1. Jimm says:

    Thanks for the shout out! John’s cookie duster aside, they look quite fab, Pete looks like he’s ready for Vegas, and Keith looks like he’s ready for the board of directors meeting at Track Records. Or maybe sell you a Jag-u-ar from John Mason. In the interest of your Who threads, here’s something I stumbled upon this morning: http://youtu.be/JWpz2OYf1QU

  2. Jimm says:

    Btw, where do keep getting these import 45 sleeves? That PW sleeve is badly out of date, those photos have to be at least 2 years before Tommy. Maybe Quick One era or even earlier. Of course, international releases do tend to come out later than domestic ones. But sheesh, that’s almost as bad as this: http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTZVnpmYzzzCLLv2l2zYsIVHq21CW7B7BWKyT2MqbbEs4eQHK1YF6nZPAsJ4Q

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