The Who released their landmark LP Who’s Next in 1971, and before the year was out they’d played seven of the nine songs live in concert. The two exceptions were “The Song Is Over” and “Goin’ Mobile.” It took 54 years and more than 1,000 concerts, but they finally broke out “The Song Is Over” Sunday evening at London’s Royal Albert Hall on the second of their two charity shows for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
“We dedicate this to all the fans that heard the 2016 setlist a 100 times,” Pete Townshend told the audience. “Well, not 100 times, but a lot. So, we’re going to have a go at this one. I think Roger is having trouble hearing though.”
Drummer Zak Starkey live-streamed extensive rehearsals of the song on Instagram prior to both Royal Albert Hall shows. But when the big moment came to finally debut it before live audience, Daltrey was indeed having trouble hearing. He stopped the band about two minutes into their first attempt. “To sing that song, I do need to hear the key,” he says. “And I can’t hear. There’s no pitch here. I just hear drums, ‘boom boom boom.’ I can’t sing to that. I’m sorry guys. We’ll try one more even though it’s getting late.”
In a blog post prior to the show, the group’s longtime associate, Brian Kehew, explained that Daltrey decided to ditch his in-ear monitors for these gigs so he’d feel closer to the audience. “Without his in-ear monitors, Roger has us bring forward his rear wedge speakers, the ones that feed him drum sounds,” Kehew wrote. “This makes the drums feel closer to him, which is helpful.”
The plan seemed to backfire during the initial run at “The Song Is Over.” “I can sing it in any fuckin’ key you want, but I need to be able to hear myself,” Daltrey said. “It’s not your fault guys. I just can’t hear.”
Townshend underwent knee replacement surgery just a few weeks ago, and he sat down for parts of the show. But at this point, he stood up to try and work things out with the sound crew. It seemed to be a success: the band ran through it a second time and Daltrey had no trouble.
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This now leaves “Goin’ Mobile” as the only Who’s Next song they’ve never done live. It has been a staple of many recent Daltrey solo shows where Simon Townshend sings lead vocals in the place of his older brother. The younger Townshend is also a member of the Who’s touring band. But even if they added that song into the mix, they’d still need to find a way to play “My Wife” without John Entwistle before attempting a complete Who’s Next concert. It’s hard to imagine that happening.
In the meantime, the Who will now be inactive before they play a pair of Italy shows in July. Their plans beyond that are unclear. But Kehew did inform fans that the band discussed the possibility of breaking out other obscure songs before deciding to simply focus on the classics, since they hadn’t played a single gig in the past year prior to this week.
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“They’re working hard to just regain ground that seemed lost during the orchestral years,” he wrote. “So just playing the old familiar tunes has become hard enough. A lot to remember. (Zak told me that in the year 2000 he was tasked to come up with a set of obscure-but-cool Who tunes to play in/out of the tour set lists. He chose a bunch of his favorites – ‘Melancholia’ is the only one he remembers now, an exceptional choice, I must say!!! They practiced these new pieces for days and then went on tour; none of them were ever played. Ah well, history repeats itself.)”
For you non-fanatics out there, “Melancholia” is a fantastically obscure song from The Who Sell Out they’ve never done in concert. In a dream world, they’ll debut it in Italy this summer. For now, fans should be happy they finally got a chance to hear “The Song Is Over” after all these years. Who could have imagined back in 1971 we’d have to wait until 2025 to witness that?
