You just witnessed the greatest live band of all time. The Rolling Stones shelved this whole movie/concert for 40+ years because The Who upstaged them and everyone else. Roger has knocked himself out with a mic and Pete has broken fingers and even stabbed a tremolo bar through his hand. It’s one song, it’s a mini opera tale

Pete wanted to have cellos in the song, but it wasn't in the budget, so instead the group sang "cello, cello, cello, cello" at the spot where Pete wanted them. It comes in at 7:02

Seeing this performance in The Kids Are Alright when I was 13 is what inspired me to play drums. Incredible performance by one of the best live bands in their prime. Love how great their voices sound together.

I’ve loved The Who ever since I was blown away by the album Tommy almost 50 years ago. “A Quick One While He’s Away” was sort of a precursor to the brilliant rock opera. Townsend would call it a “mini opera”. They had to fill space on an album, and rather than writing a 10 minute long song (unheard of back then), he wrote a 10 minute story made up of shorter songs. Also, Roger Daltrey was VERY good at swinging his mic. He had amazing control of it, so really never hit anyone. Except once, on purpose. He tells a story of getting hit by something thrown at him by someone in the audience. He saw who it was, swung his microphone closer and closer to the culprit, and finally let it fly. The mic hit the guy smack in the nose. Yeah, Roger knew how to handle that mic.

To me this is just the best performance in rock and roll music ever .

On of the epic performances of the rock generation. I love when Keith put the water on his drum and it went all over.

After all these years still never get tired of watching Keith Moon

Of all the performances you can find of this, this is the best.

This performance by The Who is THE reason why "The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus" disappeared for thirty years, because it far surpassed anything The Stones did that evening. They finally released it, and I got a copy on DVD as soon as I could. The Stones stuff is okay, But The Who killed it as did The Dirty Mac, very much worth a listen. The Dirty Mac Is Keith Richards on Bass, John Lennon and Eric Clapton on Guitars and Mitch Mitchell on the Drums, oh yeah and Yoko Ono rolling around in a bag. PFG. This was The Who at their PEAK.

This "mini Rock Opera" was invented to fill out their second album, by combining a few fragemtnst by Pete, into one. Paul McC' used the same method for The Beatles on Abbey Road, and a few solo tunes, as did Billy Joel, etc. "A Quick One' full of innuendo, several characters, and change in tune is fun and kooky on their 1966 album. By 1968, and into the early 70's, The Who elevated "a quick one" into the precursor of "Tommy", and a true ensemble by the four men. This version, as another commentator noted really puts much of the Stones 5 sing feature into average performance., in their Rock Circus, The Who had been touring, and playing as a Unit- while the Stones had not performed for over a year, and drugs had degraded Brian J's talent. At the same concert, John Lennon did his first live performance since 1966. Lennon, with talented friends is quite good -but, The Who still outshine! ;) ;) You are forgiven ;)

As a drummer, my band plays this and it is the funnest and most difficult song to play. Takes chops for sure. I really look forward to playing it everytime.

The who were totally untouchable at this point. On another level to anyone before and since. When you see the other acts and then this performance, you can see exactly why it wasn’t released for decades. Unbelievable performance and band.

Saw this on PBS 15 years ago or so (fundraiser). As a lifelong Who fan this is one of my favorite performances ever.

Not Mick Jones, BRIAN JONES was the blonde Stone guy WHOOPING it up at the end of the song in the audience. At least he, apparently unlike Mick, Keith, and (maybe) Charlie, wasn't intimidated by The Who's performance at the Stones "Rock & Roll Circus", but reveled in it.

This is one of the best rock performance I know of. The group was mostly known as a singles band at this point but 'A Quick One' was a mini-opera, a pre-cursor to "Tommy" which would put them on the map as an album band. They were fresh off of a tour so they were in peak performing condition. The blonde guy in the audience was Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. My 1st ever concert was The Who in 1981 and I can attest that Daltrey swung that mic with deadly accuracy, he put out a stage light 20 feet above the stage with it. As for Townshend he said he stopped doing that windmill style because he was tired of getting his fingertips sliced off. Entwistle was their secret weapon, he could sing those high falsetto vocals as well as the lows in 'Boris the Spider'. He also played brass instruments on their albums as well as his killer bass.

One of the greatest live performances of all time. Near the end Pete adjusted the mic with his nose. Lol

I agree...I'm fascinated with Keith Moon's energy....it's amazing.

Love that you are reacting to old, obscure Who. The Who = G.O.A.T. Pete actually hit one of Keith's mikes early in the performance during one of his "windmills." Also, yes, it was Brian Jones at the end.

One song. Hell of a song. Saw them last in 2016. Roger still throws the mic but Pete doesn't jump quite as high now. Best live band ever.

“When Keith Moon joined The Who we became a group of musicians all vying for the audience’s attention, and I have to say that in the end I think Keith and I won. John, of course, never bothered to join the fight, and Roger just lost.”- Pete 🤣🤣🤣

What a bunch of youngsters. Some of the drumming in this song reminds me of "I Won't Be Fooled Again". Just a great song from their early days. Great reaction Harri. Thanks Harri and Miss Blondie for another great choice. 👍✌️🇨🇦😍 Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦

The GENIUS of The Who!!! Love Keef!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ And thank you for exploring a fun deep track!

Does anyone else remember 'Ivor the Engine' a childrens programme from around the time this song was written?

This is a great showcase of the band at its peak.

I love how the Who could go from playing country to ending with punk rock energy at the end of this suite of songs showing how ahead of their time they were.

This is from ‘The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus’, recorded in December, 1968 for a BBC TV special that never aired. John Lennon put together a band for the show with Eric Clapton, Keith Richards playing bass, and Mitch Mitchell from The Jimi Hendrix Experience on drums. Jethro Tull, Marianne Faithfull, Taj Mahal with Jesse Ed Davis on guitar, and of course The Rolling Stones all played. Between songs there were jugglers, clowns, trapeze artists, a fire eater, strongman, and a tiger tamer. It was a legendary mystery until it was finally released in 1994, 26 years later. It’s definitely worth seeing the whole show.

'Keith Moon, man. I cannot get enough of that guy, man.' I agree, dude.

Have you seen The Kids Are Alright? Great rockumentary, and Keith Moon is his wild self. Oooh, just saw a documentary, Lambert and Stamp, who were the producers/managers etc. for the band from the beginning. Really interesting. Christopher Stamp is Terrence Stamp's brother.

Yes, Pete Townshend once impaled his hand on the "Wammy Bar".

Saw this live---Fillmore West 1967, been with them ever since...

I've been a who fan since the '60s and I've never known of him to drop the microphone

Amazing track that is also used brilliantly in “Rushmore”, which is one of my favorite movies of all time.

They destroyed instruments on stage before anyone else. They were one of the first, if not the first, to have a laser show in their live performances. Pete started the windmill. John Entwistle changed bass, he showed everyone bass can be a lead instrument. Keith was a genius on drums. He’s put explosives in his kit before, live on stage and didn’t tell the rest of the band. Rogers vocals blow me away, he’s absolutely amazing. John and Keith were banned from Holiday Inns because they put enough cherry bombs in a toilet to completely destroy it. I love this band RIP Keith and John🖤🖤

At 7:06 they are all singing "cello cello cello...". The music called for strings but they forgot to book a cello player!

it's one song with six "movements" or sections: Her Man's Been Gone, Crying Town, We Have A Remedy, Ivor The Engine Driver, Soon Be Home, and You Are Forgiven

Springfield Illinois State Fair opening night rock concert (1971?) , someone from the crowd jumped up and played tug-of-war with Roger for a little while with the mic cord. Greatest concert I ever saw.

My favorite story behind this song is about 7:02 when they start singing "cello cello cello cello" this is because they originally wanted to have a cello section at this point in the song but the record company wouldn't put up the money to pay for it.

Pete impaled his hand on a whammy bar on a stratocaster, I think in the 80s or 90s. Roger used the swinging mic as a weapon occasionally. I suspect a lot of injuries were incurred on stage with the Who.

And now we understand how Pete Townsend stays thin. I always loved this performance. As you say great energy and Keith Moon is insane.

Great reaction Harri! In their heyday, The Who was one of the best bands to hit the stage. Highly recommend Young Man Blues live at the Isle of Wight

It's hard to beat THE WHO's raw power and energy as few bands have ever had such a strong percussion group. Their Live at Leeds album has a number of great songs worth checking out. Young Man Blues, Amazing Journey/Sparks, Magic Bus or my favorite My Generation (a 15 minute medley) are all powerful masterpieces.

It's a medley. All so good, but the bass playing and drums, just over the top amazing.

It was Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones at the end, whistling :)

Oh my days!! Love The Who and this is one of my favourite performances. All four members of the band on top form - Rogers vocals and mic swing, Petes lyrics, vocals and windmill, Keith just being Keith and throwing drums and The Ox bass playing and opera singing!! If I'm ever having a bad day I just watch this!! Incidentally the band requested a cello player to accompany them but management refused citing financial reasons which is why the band sing cello, cello, cello at the part when the instrument was supposed to be played.......

Likewise...I find Moon literally addicting. A true shooting star...🥁🥁

Townshend did have an accident in 1989 where the whammy bar/tremolo bar went through his hand, and there is video of it. He got stitched up and continued the tour. He says he loses his fingernails from the windmills early on in the tour. Most people don't realize the force he hits the strings with on those. One of the all time great performances.

This is the predecessor to Tommy, or as Pete called it “the mini opera”. Four parts linked together to make one song. Pete didn’t think you could make a record longer than 2:50 because of radio airplay. Kit Lambert said, “what if you made a record with four small sections”. The rest is history.

A Quick One is a mini Rock Opera.

Me either man, Keith, Bonzo, and Bill Ward. Sign me up.😎🎸🎸🎸.

My favourite Who song, thx!!

Thank you so much for sharing this gem

My favorite band, love this 💜💜💜

Welcome to one of the great all-time performances. I love it all, but especially the You Are Forgiven benediction.

You're right about Keith Moon. His talent and energy couldn't be replaced either.

Greatest Rock Band Ever 🤘 😎 🤘

Part of the Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus which was a concert show filmed to be shown the BBC in Dec 1968. (from wikipedia) "The show was filmed on a makeshift circus stage with Jethro Tull, The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and The Rolling Stones. John Lennon and his fiancee Yoko Ono also performed as part of a one-shot supergroup called The Dirty Mac, featuring Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell (also part of The Jimi Hendrix Experience), and Keith Richards. " It was withheld from broadcast by the Stones until Oct 1998, some say because they were upstaged by the Who.

Keith Moon FOREVER!

Pete used to regularly injure his hands/fingers, but the most famous injury was on The Smothers Brothers Show (available on KZfaq) when Keith Moon put a bunch of extra flash powder in his bass drum, and it exploded and perforated Pete's eardrum.

i love this guy. I love the who of course

This is the birth of the rock opera style in 1966, which they would expand on later. The Pretty Things came out with what could be the first full album rock opera, "'S. F. Sorrow is born,'' in 1968. The Who came out with their double-album rock opera, "Tommy," a year later in 1969. Yes, Pete has injured himself doing "windmills." I saw the "Who Are You" tour at Madison Square Garden in 1979, and Pete was bandaged up, having ripped his hand open the night before. It did not slow him down, nor did he shy away from providing many more windmills when I saw them.

great video, yes it is scary energy. Two things i've noticed when you said 'accident', at 1:40 Townshend swings his arm and hits Moon's mic; at 9:23 Townshend adjusts mic with his nose w/o missing the chord..lol; there is a story that Daltrey was pissed at a photographer in the front row and swung his mic within an inch of his face.... so yeah " accidents" will happen apologies to Elvis Costello). love this performance, nice response video mate.

You should check out their Woodstock performance. John Entwistle (bassist) wrote and sang a bunch of their songs. Usually dark and weird subject matter. Try “My Wife”. He also did several fantastic solo albums.

The Dirty Mac also played at this show. John Lennon ,Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mitch Mitchell from the Hendrix Experience

Now you have to watch Young Man's Blues live at isle of Wight 1970

This is gr8 Blew the Stones out of the water Saw them do it again 2014 still as good 😊

Aug 18th 1989 I was at this show: Pete Townshend barely escaped serious injury Wednesday during a Who concert at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Wash., when the tremolo bar of his electric guitar pierced the webbing between the fifth and fourth fingers on his right hand. Townshend was executing his trademark windmill strum during “Won’t Get Fooled Again"--the final song before the encores--when his hand was snagged by the metal bar. The band went ahead with encores of “Twist and Shout” and “Hey Joe” without its leader, who was rushed by ambulance to a nearby hospital. It was determined that he had suffered no nerve, bone or tendon damage, and no stitches were needed. --L A Times

I had loved The Who since I was a kid. Tommy got me hooked. But seeing “The Kids Are Alright” film confirmed my madness for them.

In 1979 Pete cut his hand windmilling at Madison Square Garden.

Pete once drove the whammy bar through his hand, legend has it.

the band that influenced so many...never sleep on Entwhistle though. that guitar could run the show on its own. This band paved the way for so many others.

Thank you for your reaction Harri, it's one song with different parts, Pete's mini rock opera. This performance makes me smile it's The Who being The Who...What a band, so much talent on one stage I also can't keep my eyes off of Keith and love how the 3 harmonize. John looks like he's waiting for a bus as the others are going crazy, he's an amazing bassist as well as a singer

Legend has it that Daltrey fired the mike into the crowd and nailed some reprobate in the forehead who was giving him a hard time. Pulled the mike right back in and continued with the song. Townsend actually impaled his hand on the guitar's whammy bar - went straight through the palm of his strumming hand.

I haven't heard of any actual physical accidents during Roger's mic lassooing, but I'd seen a clip some time ago somewhere on YT in which his mic cable got entangled with Pete's guitar one, and it then took him forever to separate the two again 😅 Oh! *But:* Roger once did knock an audience member in the head with his mic, and deliberately, too! I don't remember the full story anymore, but he had good reasons to do so. And great reaction! 😀👍

1:42 There's one accident right there. Pete's windmill knocks the mic and it hits Keith in the face, Pete picks it back up. Neither missed a beat.

At the end of the clip it was "Brian Jones" from the "The Stones".

Glad you liked…Mini opera… like Tommy, but at 9 minutes vs a double album. Pete had a windmill whoopsie in the first few minutes when his arm hit Moons overhead mic but he caught it quickly. Also, in 1989, on tour, Pete was playing a Fender Strat with the whammy bar in, and as he went to windmill, he impaled his hand on the bar. Super painful. Pretty sure Roger had some mishaps with the mic. First several times he swung it around, the damn mic flew off. So there was always a fresh 15 (or 40) wraps of duct tape to keep it on after that. One thing that makes this performance so amped up is, of course, Pete’s energy… but as you noted, Keith’s energy. Frequently, when they played live, you could hear Keith just screeching out from behind the kit and I think they dropped some water on his snare drum at one point in the song so every time he hit it, they would be a splash of water and the effect was like his snare drum would explode a little bit every time he hit it And let’s not forget when they were on the Smothers Brothers show Keith wanted his bass drum to explode and they had been doing cherry bombs in the drum to blow out the front for months… Well on this one, he put it in like three or four times what a cherry bomb would’ve been , and Pete was standing 15 feet in front of it when it went off like a freaking grenade and a half, and he claims that he is half deaf in that ear because of the Shenanigans of Keith, and whoever advised him to put that much explosive in his bass drum for the final blow out. Lol. These guys were lightning in a bottle, and Keith burned the brightest, rest his soul

True brilliance

Same song Pete’s first attempt at a long concept song Yes it’s the Stones Rock n roll Circus TV show

before I even notice Keith or anyone else I hear that amazing melodic bass.

My kids are always bitching about how often I watch this video. I you notice at the end there is a blonde guy clapping; that is Beian Jones, the founding member of The Rolling Stones. Also, the Rock N Roll Circus featured a band called The Dirty Mac; featuring John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards playing bass on "Yer Blues". That one is worth a look as well. However, it was unanimously thought that The Who had by far the best performance of the night!

If you want another who song that keith moon shines in react to amazing journey/sparks live, moon shows why he's the best drummer of all time

TheWho is Gold!!

My favourite band in my youth. I'm a pro drummer and Moonie was my first inspiration to start playing. I saw them with him around 77 at the Hammersmith Odeon, London. At one point Pete and Keith pretended to have a row and they winched Keith up in the air and off the stage while he was screaming at Pete. Apparently Pete used to have a glass of whisky on his cab to dip his fingers in to numb the pain from the windmilling. Best live band ever? Well.. close - Alice Cooper doing the Wecome To My Nightmare tour at Wembley was my first ever gig so that has to be in the running too..

"Did they ever have any accidents?" You missed the part at 1:46 where Pete accidently knocks a drum mic onto Keith's forehead and repositions it, glancing back at Keith. Keith's mouth makes an O shape but he doesn't slow down for a second!

I saw The Who and Stevie Ray Vaughan in Texas. Pete was doing the windmill thing and jammed the whammy/vibrato bar into his hand and was bleeding.

Can you believe that this medley called a tone poem by The Who inspired Paul McCartney to have a medley on the 2nd side of Abbey Road? Paul brought the idea of a tone poem to John and John said to Paul "I don't care what other bands are doing." John was there and performed Yer Blues as the Dirty Mac with Eric Clapton and the drummer from Jimi Hendrix Experience. This performance on December 8th??? 1968 was going to be the Rolling Stones Rock n Roll Circus. The Stones canned the project because they didn't like their performance at 4am so they sat on it for 30 years until they released it in the 90s. Maybe the Stones didn't want to be outdone by The Who who had just come back from being on the road and were in the top of their game. By the time the Circus was released in the 90s it had become a time capsule because Brian Jones, John Lennon and Keith Moon were gone. The film photographer was Michael Lindsey Hogg who a month later in January 1969 filmed the Beatles at work which later became the Let It Be movie and the Get Back series. The base guitarist who sings high is John Entwistle and he died like in the 2000s. The Who's performance here was the only part released before the 90s and this song A Quick One appeared in the Who's 1979 movie The Kids Are Alright which also had a soundtrack double album.

Never seen that before. Thank you.

this was from the Rolling Stones hosted "Rock and Roll Circus" … must watch.

IT'S ONE SONG DEFINATELY THE WHO LEGENDS OF ROCK MUSIC.

It was all one song. This was a mini opera. think of it as their practice run before "Tommy."

This video is from The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. John Lennon performed his Beatles song “Yer Blues” along with Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. The Who blew everyone away with this mini-Opera (A Quick one while he’s Away). They really stole the show. Check out the full video. There’s a few other bands on this also.

If you're familiar with the Who breaking up their gear at the end of the show, it all started with an accident. Mr. Townshend is around 6' tall, some little club had low roof beams and evidently while moving around Pete smacked the head of his guitar (I think it was a Rickenbacker at the time) into a rafter, the neck separated from the guitar. Pete went with it and busted it up all the way, the crowd when nuts, the rest is legend.

Keith was the greatest drummer that ever lived!

It was the first rock opera 😊

This is from the Rolling Stones ROCK 'N' ROLL CIRCUS film project. The Who crushed their performances so well that the Rolling Stones shelved the project for years because they were ashamed that they didn't match up. John Lennon was here too among a ton of others....

I just saw this movie at the cinema in Tokyo. The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. They re-released it....I guess. Everything on it is fire (aside from Yoko Ono's nonsense), IMHO. If you have time you will want to check out more from the movie. I agree, Harri, Moon takes over this song.

When you watch the whole concert this performance stands out even more. Jethro Tull also performed. They needed a song to fill out the rest of an album and their producer Kip Lambert suggested the song format. Tommy precursor. Couldn't afford strings so they just repeated "cello, cello, cello". Just read that another commentor provided same info. Forgive me.

The story goes that The Who had 10 minutes to fill on their album, and their manager Kit Lambert asked Pete to write one song to fill the time. Pete didn't think he could do it. Kit then suggested that Pete string a bunch of songs together, and voila, the first rock opera, albeit a very small one.

Another great one by The Who Cynthia. I love that band so much.☮️💜

Someone in the audience at one of the concerts was throwing pennies up on stage at Roger. It was causing a hazard. Roger swung the mic at him and tapped him on the head a bit. But, yeah, there been a few incidents. There are a few live concerts where you can see Townsend's fingers bleeding.