10 Perfect Hard Rock Albums Everyone Tried To Copy

There's a certain expectation that comes whenever a rock and roll band hits the stage. Though acts like the Beatles may have gotten by standing fairly still throughout their entire performance and occasionally getting into it, you were going to need to do a little more than just sing a song to win over the hard rock crowd. The Who had already blown minds in the studio with Tommy though, and it was time to take that kind of reckless abandon to the arenas around the world.

Although Live At Leeds might not feature the same bombastic instruments that were on Tommy, they more than make up for it in the raw aggression of some of these tunes, like turning My Generation into this large expansive piece and getting a lot more chaotic with singles like Substitute. For all of the great tunes Pete Townshend wrote though, the standouts on here are the covers, where the band recontextualize the old school rock and roll they grew up on, whether that's the stadium rock behind Summertime Blues or making the first steps towards heavy metal on their version of Moss Alison's Young Man Blues.

In between the actual performances though, the real appeal of this album is just how aggressive the band can be onstage, with Townshend assaulting his guitar for the better part of an hour and Keith Moon turning in one of his greatest performances behind the kit. The Who may have still been a straightforward rock and roll band, but this is the kind of music where you would have to check for structural damage for once the last notes rang out.