Editing Live at Leeds (section)

== Critical reception ==
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name="Eder"/>
| rev2 = ''[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]]''
| rev2Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=2467 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061019164735/http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=2467 |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 October 2006 |title=Blender :: guide |date=19 October 2006 |access-date=5 March 2019}}</ref>
|rev3 = ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|Christgau's Record Guide]]''
|rev3Score = B<ref name="CG">{{cite book |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |year=1981 |title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies |publisher=[[Ticknor & Fields]] |isbn=089919026X |chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: W |chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=W&bk=70 |access-date=9 March 2019 |via=robertchristgau.com |title-link=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies |archive-date=10 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200510072755/https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=W&bk=70 |url-status=live }}</ref>
| rev4 = ''[[The Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]''
| rev4Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|year=2007|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|edition=4th|isbn=978-0195313734|title-link=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music}}</ref>
| rev5 = ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]''
| rev5Score = A+<ref name="Sinclair"/>
| rev6 = ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]''
| rev6Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name="Muze"/>
| rev8 = ''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]''
| rev8Score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref name="Muze"/>
| rev9 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
| rev9Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name="RSguide">{{cite book |page=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/871 871] |author=Kemp, Mark |editor1-first=Nathan |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-link=Nathan Brackett |editor2-first=Christian |editor2-last=Hoard |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |edition=4th |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |year=2004 |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |display-authors=etal |author-link=Mark Kemp |title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide }}</ref>
| rev10 = ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]''
| rev10Score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref name="Muze"/>
}}

In a review for ''[[The New York Times]]'', music critic [[Nik Cohn]] praised ''Live at Leeds'' as "the definitive [[hard rock|hard-rock]] holocaust" and "the best live rock album ever made".<ref name="cohn"/> Jonathan Eisen of ''[[Circus (magazine)|Circus]]'' magazine felt that it flowed better than ''Tommy'' and that not since that album had there been one "quite so incredibly heavy, so inspired with the kind of kinetic energy that The Who have managed to harness here."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Live at Leeds|magazine=[[Circus (magazine)|Circus]] |last=Eisen |first=Jonathan |date=July 1970}}</ref> [[Greil Marcus]], writing in ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', was less enthusiastic and said that, while Townshend's packaging for the album was "a tour-de-force of the rock and roll imagination", the music was dated and uneventful. He felt that ''Live at Leeds'' functioned simply as a document of "the formal commercial end of the first great stage of [The Who's] great career."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Marcus |first=Greil |author-link=Greil Marcus |date=9 July 1970 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/live-at-leeds-19700709 |title=Live at Leeds |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=2 July 2013 |archive-date=8 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171208031409/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/live-at-leeds-19700709 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]'' (1981), [[Robert Christgau]] asserted that, although side one was valuable for the live covers and "Substitute", "My Generation" and the "uncool-at-any-length" "[[Magic Bus (song)|Magic Bus]]" were not an improvement over their "raw" album versions.<ref name="CG"/> In a retrospective review for [[AllMusic]], Bruce Eder felt that the album was seen as a model of excellence for live [[rock and roll]] during the 1970s; that it was The Who's best up to that point, and that there was "certainly no better record of how this band was a volcano of violence on-stage, teetering on the edge of chaos but never blowing apart."<ref name="Eder">{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/live-at-leeds-mw0000014217 |title=Live at Leeds – The Who |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=2 July 2013 |last=Eder |first=Bruce |archive-date=11 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711231857/http://www.allmusic.com/album/live-at-leeds-mw0000014217 |url-status=live }}</ref> In a review of its 1995 CD reissue, Tom Sinclair of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' asserted that it showed why The Who were important: "Few bands ever moved a mountain of sound around with this much dexterity and power."<ref name="Sinclair">{{cite magazine |url=https://ew.com/article/1995/02/17/live-leeds/ |access-date=2 July 2013 |title=Live at Leeds Review |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |issue=262 |date=17 February 1995 |last=Sinclair |first=Tom |archive-date=3 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141103050453/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,296121,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]'' magazine wrote that "the future for rock as it became, in all its pomp and circumstance, began right here."<ref name="Muze">{{cite web |url=http://www.rakuten.com/prod/live-at-leeds/60141610.html |title=Live at Leeds |publisher=[[Rakuten.com]]. [[Muze]] |access-date=2 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141103061352/http://www.rakuten.com/prod/live-at-leeds/60141610.html |archive-date=3 November 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Steven Hyden]], writing for [[PopMatters]], said that it was "not only the best live rock 'n' roll album ever, but the best rock album period."<ref name="Hyden"/> Roy Carr of ''[[Classic Rock (magazine)|Classic Rock]]'', reviewing the 2010 reissue, remarked how the new Live at Hull section "is noticeably more tight, more focused and even more aggressive" than the original recording, concluding that "we now have the two greatest live rock albums...ever."<ref name="carr"/>

Who biographer [[Dave Marsh]] has praised the album as "so molten with energy at times it resembles the heavy metal of [[Deep Purple]] and the atomic blues of [[Led Zeppelin]] ..... absolutely non-stop hard rock".{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=359}}

=== Accolades ===
[[File:The Who Plaque at University Leeds.jpg|thumb|150px|right|[[Blue plaque]] at the [[University of Leeds]] commemorating the album]]

''Live at Leeds'' has been cited as the best live rock recording of all time by ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'',<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandjazzmusic/3653281/Hope-I-dont-have-a-heart-attack.html |title=Hope I don't have a heart attack |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=22 June 2006 |access-date=3 January 2007 |archive-date=10 January 2022 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110040104/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandjazzmusic/3653281/Hope-I-dont-have-a-heart-attack.html |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[The Independent]]'',<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/live-at-leeds-whos-best-481358.html |title=Live at Leeds: Who's best... |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |date=7 June 2006 |access-date=3 January 2007 |archive-date=16 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116173915/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/live-at-leeds-whos-best-481358.html |url-status=live }}</ref> the [[BBC]],<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/articles/2005/09/02/music_the_who_live_in_leeds_feature.shtml |title=The Who: Live at Leeds |publisher=BBC Leeds |date=18 August 2006 |access-date=3 January 2007 |archive-date=16 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061216044313/http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/articles/2005/09/02/music_the_who_live_in_leeds_feature.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]'' magazine,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://reporter.leeds.ac.uk/press_releases/current/live_at_leeds.htm |title=Live at Leeds – again |publisher=Leeds University |date=6 June 2006 |access-date=25 August 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070502042421/http://reporter.leeds.ac.uk/press_releases/current/live_at_leeds.htm |archive-date=2 May 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and ''[[Rolling Stone]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531/the-who-live-at-leeds-20120524 |title=The Who – Live at Leeds |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=1 November 2003 |access-date=28 October 2013 |archive-date=30 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180430114556/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531/the-who-live-at-leeds-20120524 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2003, it was ranked number 170 on ''Rolling Stone''{{'}}s list of [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|the 500 greatest albums of all time]],<ref>{{cite magazine |title=The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time |magazine=Rolling Stone |page=136 |date=11 December 2003}}</ref> maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list,<ref>{{cite magazine| url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/the-who-live-at-leeds-156087/| year=2012| title=500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time| magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]| access-date=18 September 2019| archive-date=24 September 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924181656/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/the-who-live-at-leeds-156087/| url-status=live}}</ref> and dropping to number 327 in 2020.<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=22 September 2020|title=The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-all-time-1062063/|access-date=19 July 2021|magazine=Rolling Stone|archive-date=22 September 2020|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200922150118/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-all-time-1062063/roberta-flack-first-take-1062782/|url-status=live}}</ref> A ''Rolling Stone'' readers' poll in 2012 ranked it the best live album of all time.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/readers-poll-the-10-best-live-albums-of-all-time-18920/ |title=Readers' Poll: The 10 Best Live Albums of All Time |first1=Rolling |last1=Stone |date=21 November 2012 |magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=5 March 2019 |archive-date=6 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306044746/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/readers-poll-the-10-best-live-albums-of-all-time-18920/ |url-status=live }}</ref> It was ranked number 356 in [[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]'s ''[[All Time Top 1000 Albums]]''.<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|title=[[All Time Top 1000 Albums]]|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=2000|edition=3rd|isbn=0-7535-0493-6|page=139}}</ref>

A commemorative [[blue plaque]] has been placed at the campus at which it was recorded, the [[University of Leeds Refectory]]. On 17 June 2006, over 36 years after the original concert, The Who returned to perform at the Refectory, at a gig organised by [[Andy Kershaw]]. Kershaw hailed it as "among the most magnificent I have ever seen".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.leeds.ac.uk/thewholiveatleeds/ |title=The Who Live at Leeds |publisher=[[University of Leeds]] |access-date=9 November 2012 |archive-date=2 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121202065457/http://www.leeds.ac.uk/thewholiveatleeds/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

"Even today, ''Live at Leeds'' sounds so alive," remarked [[Rush (band)|Rush]] bassist [[Geddy Lee]]. "It's a real piece of that period of rock. It's like a bootleg: the artwork, the tone… It was raw."<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Live albums|magazine=[[Classic Rock (magazine)|Classic Rock supplement: The Live Albums That Changed The World]]|date=December 2011|page=5}}</ref>
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