The Who
1973-12-23
Sundown
London, UK
Audience FLAC
Off master, longer and better than ÑMerry Christmas Mr. Whoì bootleg DoCD, plus correct song
sequence.
Lineage:
Master reels or cassettes>DAT>EAC>FLAC (level 8)
Sound quality 3-4 (out of 6)/vg++
DISC 1:
01 – Can’T Explain
02 – Summertme Blues
03 – My Wife (Cut)
04 – I Am The Sea ~ The Real Me
05 – The Punk And The Godfather
06 – I’M One
07 – 0,21875
08 – Sea And Sand
09 – Drowned
10 – Bell Boy
11 – Dr. Jimmy
12 – Love Reign O’Er Me
DISC 2:
01 – Won’T Get Fooled Again
02 – Pinball Wizard
03 – See Me, Feel Me
04 – Substitute
05 – Naked Eye
06 – Magic Bus
07 – Magic Bus *
08 – Naked Eye*
09 – Spoonful*
- London, Edmonton Sundown, December 22, 1973.
Notes by the uploader/trader:
This used to be my most listened-to ÑQuadropheniaì show up until Wolfgang Vault’s Ñreleaseì of
King Biscuit’s 4/12/1973 Philly show (along with the other -though subpar – Biscuit-taped 6/12 Largo
show).
The three Edmonton Sundown shows at the tail end of their 1973 tour (on December 18, 22, and 23),
and in particular this show here, are generally and quite rightly regarded by many fans and the band
themselves (or Townshend, for that matter) as the best of the entire tour to back “Quardophenia”.
It seems by that time the band obviously had got used to the complexity of the tracks, the pre-recorded
backing tapes seem to have worked OK at last, and they had dropped those new numbers they obviously
hadn’t felt too comfortable with.
IMHO, this show here fortunately really does “Quadrophenia” and the band justice and demonstrates that
ñ if the set and band clockwork really clicked – their shows could still be on par with the standard they
had set the previous three years.
Most Who fans on and off Dime sure have the old mid-90’s “Merry Christmas Mr Who”silver or clone
off it in their collections. However, as nice and essential that is to any Whonatic’s collection, it has a few
flaws that can all be remedied with this version: the boot is clearly from the same source as this torrent
yet a few generations up the analog copy line, it has the song sequence out of order, and it lacks one half
of a song (MY WIFEY) which is on the original recording.
So how come the boot starts off with the “Quadrophenia” portion instead of the usual “introduction
block” of oldies which oddly appears at very the end of the bootleg?
Easy. The taper did record the show from the very start (with the usual CAN’T EXPLAIN as the opener).
Virtually from the start however, the tape or reel didn’t run properly. One can quite clearly hear the sound
quality constantly deteroriating throughout the first few numbers. The problem got bad and worse up to
the point where midway through MY WIFE either the tape machine (or reel recorder) cut out automatically,
or the taper noticed the tape getting damaged by the recorder and stopped the machine to change the tape
(or reel).
This obviously took him a while so we unfortunately are deprived of the rest of MY WIFE and the short,
non-jam version of MY GENERATION. The taper then resumed recording with the opening of the
“Quadrophenia” section. Phew, just in time, I’d say.
Thankfully, the new tape ran OK (though I imagine to still hear some roughness in the recording but this
could as well be caused by the mike trying to handle the Who’s volume).
Later at home, Mr. Mystery Taper decided to tack on the three tracks from his first tape/reel at the end
of the secord tape/reel, instead of dubbing both portions on a new tape in the correct sequence. Though
he kicked the show into circulation with the mixed-up sequence, he as well spared us of one analog copy
generation. And these days it was of course easy for me to remedy that minor fault the digital way.
The ÑMerry Christmasì-bootleggers apparently and understandably regarded MY WIFE as so poor
(and cut anyway) that they decided to omit it from their silvers altogether.
As a bonus, I added the end-of-show medley from the previous night. That show unfortunately comes in
lesser quality but its medley is a lot longer.
themidnightcafe.org 
thanks for quad show.