Live at Leeds vs. How The West Was Won
 

I think a comparison between the two albums by The Who and Led Zeppelin is valid for several reasons:

- Both came from pioneers of the hard rock sound with base in the blues.
- They were recorded just two years apart.
- The bands had the same ensemble of a bassist, a drummer, a guitarist and a vocalist.

So, which one do you prefer?

Is there one that you prefer?

I have never listened to the Led Zeppelin one, but because it's Zeppelin, it's probably excellent. I like Live At Leeds for the amazing performances of the songs from Tommy as well as "Young Man Blues" and the older stuff.

Live At Leeds, but in general I prefer The Who anyway.

I haven't actually decided yet.

I'm leaning towards Live at Leeds, because the drumming and bass playing is better and more explosive, but Jimmy Page is a better guitar player than Townshend. Then again, The Who does have more wit than Led Zeppelin in the chat between songs, which plays a bit part on Live at Leeds.

I think Led Zeppelin are the better band music wise. But live at Leeds gets it because the Who`s live performance form the late 60's and early 70's is the best I`ve ever seen dvd wise of course.

I'm down with Live at Leeds. I prefer the original non-expanded version. Yes the Deluxe version gives a a more rounded version of the band, but when talking about one of the best live albums, I'm thinking

Side A
A1 Young Man
A2 Substitute
A3 Summertime Blues
A4 Shakin' All Over

Side B
B1 My Generation
B2 Magic Bus

I don't want this to sound persnickity by any means, so I'm sorry if this comes off that way, but I feel that who cares what they sound like between songs, isn't it the music we should be judging on, and not a personality contest? I don't know maybe its just me.

Anyway, I picked "How The West Was Won" because it keeps me interested throughout the whole album and has so much more variety, whether Jimmy Page is shredding his acoustic guitar in their countryesque jam Bron-Yr-Aur-Stomp, or Plant is wildly throwing out his passionate cries in the bluesy "Since I've Been Loving You".

I've owned Leeds for longer, but Led Zeppelin was just a better live band (here). Some of the songs don't work so well, but the overall quality of recording and musicianship is certainly better on the Zeppelin album.

As much as I love Zeppelin, I will vote for Leeds. The performance was incredible, the recording quality could have been better, but it was such a great show that is not a big deal. My first concert was Zeppelin ('73 Buffalo, I was 16) and I still remember how exciting it was. I like their studio stuff better, although the dvd had some awesome live stuff on it, like Bonzo doing Moby ****.

Live at Leeds by The Who for sure :)

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Guide to Percussion Instruments

Live at Leeds by The Who is great!

I saw this coming.

Moby Dick and Dazed and Confused are all it takes to convince. How the West Was Won is one of the few Physical albums I own, and as much as I like LAL, Led Zeppelin come out on top in my opinion.

It's not a fair comparison for me because I bought Live at Leeds when I was like 12 years old and for me, for better or for worse (for better imo) The Song Remains the Same is the quintessential live Zep record. I don't care what the critics say about TSRTS I love it and I love it even more than Live at Leeds. I voted for Live at Leeds for this poll though.

Live at Leeds for me. The witty chat in between songs on LaL is brilliant as well!

I love Live At Leeds but have never heard HTWWW. Is it really that good? It's 3 discs right?

Exactly my thoughts. Love LAL. Personally prefer The Who over Led Zep, but never heard HTWWW so, not really fair for me to vote.

If we're considering entire concerts, I voted West on the basis that I really despise the Tommy set on Leeds. West, while not being an entire concert exactly, still gives a better perspective on what Zep could do as a live band.

Live in Leeds will be replaced by Live in Hull, maybe has been already.

BBC - The Who: Live in Hull after a 40 year wait

I agree with this. I bought the CD to replace the vinyl. The added songs bring down the overall quality. I need to put them on a MP3 player in the original order.

Seeing as this concert by the Who was just another one off and they gave a performance that is still being talked about to this day I'm going with Live At Leeds......The energy of this performance is hard to equal anywhere.

The Who Live at Leeds. It now includes their performance(s) of Tommy, which was the main purpose of the shows. The 'heavy rock' tracks are great, but I never get tired of hearing Tommy - live or in the studio. Most of The Who's live recordings are excellent, but I have not heard the later shows with the 'celebrities', such as Pearl Jam. Contrary to popular opinion, the BBC Proms show, even without Moon and Entwistle, was very good, mainly because of the energetic performances of the material from Tommy.

Can't say anything else than How The West Was Won. That album is a ****in' monster. The album that got me into Led Zeppelin... which by the way was the first band I was really into for real.

The energy given off by this one performance could power Zep's amps for the rest of their career! Just a stunning performance to say the least.:clap:

This is a really close call, as I often think of these as two of my very favourite live albums. I think I'd have to go with How the West Was Won though.

Live at Leeds was probably The Who sounding their tightest but HTWWW sounds more intense to me, and I really get lost in some of the jams that go on, and on, and on...

Probably worth noting I only have the original edition of LAL though. Haven't heard the extended one.

my thoughts exactly

I haven't heard How the West Was Won. I did hear the Song Remains the Same, of course, and I was fortunate to see them live in 1977 when I was a teenager (yes, I'm one of the more ancient ones). Still, the Who is one of my ten top bands/artists and I loved Live at Leeds so it gets the nod.

I have THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME (records) and its quite good!!

Live at Leeds, by a distance long from Earth to Moon.

I cant decide because they're so good.

Live at Leeds has the edge because its completely raw, no overdubs,... exactly what they played is what you get. Thats like Made in Japan, a real rarity for live albums.

How the West Was Won is a hodge podge jigsaw puzzle of Page going thru at least two concerts and cherry picking the best performances of each instrument and piecing it together,,, even down to individual phrases of guitar leads. Its not exactly a one-night performance like Live at Leeds, but it still is extremely good.

Led Zeppelin always beats The Who.

If it had been The Song Remains The Same vs Live At Leeds, then The Who would win.
But How The West Was Won is way much better than TSRTS, and in my opinion, also beats Live At Leeds.