''Who's Last'' is the second live album by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

rock band

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

, recorded in 1982 during what was then billed as the band's "

farewell tour A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific to ...

". Thus, this album, released in 1984, was to be the band's last album. Most of the album was taken from the band's 14 December 1982 show at

Richfield Coliseum Richfield Coliseum, also known as the Coliseum at Richfield, was an indoor arena located in Richfield Township, between Cleveland and Akron, Ohio. It opened in 1974 as a replacement for the Cleveland Arena, and had a seating capacity of 20,273 f ...

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, which was their "last concert in the USA" (as

Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Townsh ...

can be heard saying after " Won't Get Fooled Again") this time around. Four songs come from different sources (verified by meticulous comparison with soundboard and audience recordings and videos from that tour). " Behind Blue Eyes" is from 10 October show at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford; " Magic Bus" and " Summertime Blues" are from 20 October show at the

Kingdome The Kingdome (officially the King County Stadium) was a multi-purpose stadium located in the Industrial District, Seattle, Industrial District (later SoDo, Seattle, SoDo) neighborhood of Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. O ...

in Seattle; and " Substitute" is from 27 October show at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Notable by their absence from this recording, released by

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two years after the tour, are songs from the band's two then recent Warner Bros. Records albums, ''

Face Dances ''Face Dances'' is the ninth studio album by English rock band the Who. It was released in 1981 by Warner Bros. in the United States (it was the band's first release on that label) and on Polydor in the United Kingdom. It is one of two Who ...

'' and '' It's Hard'', although they played " The Quiet One" (from ''Face Dances'') and several songs from ''It's Hard'' every night on the tour. Five songs from this tour were released as bonus tracks to the 1997 editions of ''Face Dances'' ("The Quiet One" from the Shea Stadium on 13 October 1982), and ''It's Hard'' ("It's Hard," "Eminence Front," "Dangerous" and "Cry If You Want" from Toronto on 17 December 1982, the first three of which were later included on the 2007 release '' Live from Toronto''. While that album is from the same tour, it does not contain any of the performances on ''Who's Last''.

Critical reception

Reviewing for AllMusic, critic

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

wrote of the album "it's a damn long way from '' Live at Leeds'' to ''Who's Last'', and the distance between the two extremes is nothing short of stunning. ''Who's Last'' is so lifeless and lackluster that it's hard to believe the same band released both records. It may not be a graceful way to end the Who's career, but it's hard to imagine a better testament to why it was time for the band to come to an end."

Track listing

All songs written by

, except where noted.

Personnel

;The Who * Roger Daltrey – vocals,

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

– lead guitar, vocals *

John Entwistle John Alec Entwistle (9 October 194427 June 2002) was an English musician who was the bassist for the rock band The Who. Entwistle's music career spanned over four decades. Nicknamed "The Ox" and "Thunderfingers", he was the band's only member ...

– bass guitar, vocals * Kenney Jones –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

;Additional musicians *

Tim Gorman Tim Gorman is an American pianist, composer, arranger and record producer. Gorman studied music composition at the University of Portland in Oregon, under Philippe De La Mare, himself a former student of Nadia Boulanger. Biography Gorman graduat ...

– piano,

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synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, backing vocals ;Production *Dave "Cyrano" Langston – production, engineer, mixing *Bill Smith – cover design *Gavin Cochrane – photography * Neal Preston – photography

References

{{Authority control The Who live albums 1984 live albums MCA Records live albums