The Who Resurrects ‘Long Live Rock’ For 1st Time Over A Decade At MSG

The Who brought their The Song Is Over: The North American Farewell Tour to New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Guitarist Pete Townshend was featured on lead vocals for the first setlist surprise of the trek since opening night, a rare performance of “Long Live Rock.”

Townshend and his fellow surviving The Who co-founder vocalist Roger Daltrey are backed by an ensemble on their current tour that features new drummer Scott Devours, keyboardist Loren Gold, percussionist/backing vocalist John Hogg, bassist Jon Button, percussionist Jody Linscott and Pete Townshend’s brother, multi-instrumentalist Simon Townshend.

The Who kept setlists extremely similar through the initial four shows of the tour and continued that pattern at MSG with one major exception. The aforementioned “Long Live Rock” was last played in 2014 and had only been performed by The Who four previous times since 1982.

“Long Live Rock” was recorded in 1972 but wasn’t officially released until 1974, when it appeared on the rarities collection Odds & Sods. The song was reissued as a single in 1979 after “Long Live Rock” was featured during the credits of The Kids Are Alright documentary earlier in the year.

“I wrote this song back in the ’70s. When rock is dead, long live rock,” Townshend said after revealing he didn’t know what he was thinking about when writing the song. “I don’t think any of us thought it would last this long.”

Watch The Who’s performance of “Long Live Rock” at MSG via fan-captured video below: