The Who: Who's For Tennis?

"Who's For Tennis" was the title of a 1968 Who LP cooked up to fill the long gap between "Sell Out" and "Tommy". A number of tracks were recorded for it, and while I doubt it got as far as a proposed lineup (although I'd like to see one), it would be fun to put together a CD of the songs from that era, along with singles, B-sides, BBC exclusives, and Pete demos.

Here is a potential track list; if you have suggestions for the best source CDs to use, or any additions, please post them here:

- Faith In Something Bigger
- Little Billy
- Do You Want Kids, Kids (I don't think this is available anywhere)
- Glow Girl
- Call Me Lightning
- Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
- Dogs
- Melancholia
- Fortune Teller
- Magic Bus
- Young Man Blues (studio version)
- Dogs Part Two
- My Way (BBC)
- Summertime Blues (BBC)
- King Rabbit (demo)
- Lazy Fat People (demo)
- Politician (demo)
- Goin' Fishin' (demo)

There are some other candidates, like "Jaguar", "Girl's Eyes", "Early Morning Cold Taxi", or "Glittering Girl", but they feel more like "Sell Out" leftovers. Still, they would fit in with the overall vibe.

That list paints an interesting portrait of a band trying to find their identity. Some of these songs are silly but fun ("Dogs" and "King Rabbit"), some are atrocious ("Faith In Something Bigger", "Call Me Lightning"), some are intriguingly good ("Glow Girl", "Melancholia"), and the cover of "Summertime Blues" is excellent - I prefer it to the Leeds version.

And "Little Billy" may be my favorite Who song ever!

- John

 

Great idea for a thread. I love all of the post Sell Out/pre Tommy stuff. Melancholia is simply amazing. Dogs should have been a hit. It always reminds me of the kind of stuff Blur did 30 years later. I even love Faith In Something Bigger!

Let's see, Lazy Fat People and King Rabbit are A Quick One era demos. The studio Summertime Blues and My Way were recorded during the Sell Out sessions. Dogs Part Two and the studio Young Man Blues are Tommy outtakes. That leaves the following..

Glow Girl
Melancholia
Faith In Something Bigger
Dogs
Little Billy
Magic Bus
Call Me Lightning
Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
Fortune Teller
Do You Want Kids, Kids (not sure if this was recorded)
Politician (demo)
Goin' Fishin' (demo)

That's a damn good batch of songs IMO. I can't get enough of Goin' Fishin'. A shame the Who never recorded it. It's worth mentioning that Now I'm A Farmer was written in '68 but not recorded until '70.

 

Call Me Lightning and Faith In Something Bigger, atrocious? Hmmm. According to Townshend, the album would have led off with Glow Girl... and would have been a 'preachy' album...which is where Faith In Something Bigger comes in. Also, Now, I'm A Farmer was recorded with that project in mind. Your list includes two songs that I believe were recorded much later though... Politician and Goin' Fishing were 1970's demo, weren't they?. Ron

 

I want to say Goin' Fishin' was demoed in '68 but I'm not sure. It has the same feel as Melancholia..

 

"Call Me Lightning" isn't horrible for when it was written ('64, one of Pete's first songwriting attempts), but to release it as a follow-up to "I Can See For Miles" seems like a major regression. Dom dom dom doo ray.

As for "Faith In Something Bigger", even Pete says something like "God, how embarrassing" in the "Odds & Sods" liner notes. The backing vocals remind me of the Brady Bunch. The bridge is interesting, because George wrote "The Inner Light" around a similar theme contemporaneously ("The more we learn, the less we believe to be true").

It would be cool to hear a '68 version of "Now I'm A Farmer", another fave of mine. I found the date for "Politician" and "Goin' Fishin'" on a website dedicated to Pete's demos (it doesn't seem to be up any longer), which indicated they were recorded at the same time as the demo of "Melancholia".

- John

 

Cool stuff... definitely an underappreciated era for the Who. I'll check on the demos for Politician and Goin' Fishin'...love them both. Ron

 

Those Odds and Sods liner notes always crack me up. Still, I have a real soft spot for Faith In Something Bigger. Is the version on the Odds and Sods reissue a stereo remix?

 

The notes in Scoop specifically note Goin' Fishing was done in stages (3 bounces, I think), which means it was done when Pete was just recording in stereo. I believe he got the 3M 8-track in 1970, so it had to be before then...

I think the notes to Politician specifically note stereo as well, but even if they don't, the sound is certainly very much like some other demos from the era, most notably Melancholia.

Must go home and get Scoop...

A few interesting notes:

I like Faith In Something Bigger (and Dogs for that matter).

 

Me too. Neither of these tunes were played live, right? Something tells me FISB woulda been just huge-sounding on stage.
"Dogs" always makes me think of The Small Faces for some reason...which is a good thing, don't get me wrong.

 

[QUOTE="Dogs" always makes me think of The Small Faces for some reason...which is a good thing, don't get me wrong.[/QUOTE]

It was released at the same time as the Small Faces released "Lazy Sunday" and "The Universal" - which both had that same "cheeky chappie" cockney London vibe. Quintessentially British. Whimsical. Full of lyrical references that probably baffled a lot of Americans...

 

Or "Donkey Rides, a Penny, a Glass."

 

It WOULD have "baffled a lot of Americans" if they had released it here. But they didn't.

 

"Melancholia", or at least the time around its recording, always struck me as the time at which Roger transformed from a passable singer into a fantastic singer. Towards the end of the song, as it transitions into one of Townshend's trademark modulations, you can actually hear Roger's voice change, as he adopts his (now-familiar) Tommy-era voice, if you know what I mean. In those moments, out went the Dippity-Do, in came the swaggering, fringe-wearing rock icon.

 

Wasn't "Signal 30" from this period? I always thought that had "classic B-side" written all over it, at the very least.

 

Another interesting "lost Who album" from '68 is "Live at Fillmore East". Listening to it now, you can hear why they rejected it at the time (quite a few flubs), but it's a really interesting setlist, with several unique songs:

Summertime Blues
Fortune Teller (!)
Tattoo
Little Billy (!!)
I Can't Explain
Happy Jack
Relax (!!!)
My Way
Boris The Spider
My Generation
A Quick One While He's Away
Shakin' All Over
Young Man Blues

Pete's between-song dialogue is also quite entertaining. Check it out:

http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/ConcertDetail.aspx?id=426|7962

- John

 

Don't mean to thread crap, but I didn't want to start a new thread just to thank this forum for alerting me to The Who releases in Canada (Who's Next, Meaty Beaty, and Who's Missing). $7.99 Canadian each, and even with all of the shipping, I paid about $10 US for them. I just got them today, and they are FANTASTIC! My West German Polydor Who's Next is going to a friend or in the trash, and I think I can be happy with this and never have to spend $200 to buy the MFSL! Also managed to pick up the Buddy Holly collection; terrific as well.

 

... P-p-painful... Fading out just as the band jam their hearts out...

 

Then there's the tape glitch right in the middle of their inspired version of Eddie Cochran's "My Way." Really too bad. It's amazing that a better version of this show hasn't emerged; the one I first heard in the mid-70s is still circulating.

 

IIRC, Dave Marsh's Before I Get Old states that the Fillmore East concert, not a studio album, was slated to be officially released in 1968 under the title Who's for Tennis. According to Marsh, the band vetoed the release because there were too many sloppy moments due to Moon throwing sticks in the air, Townshend leaping around, etc.

 

I grabbed Marsh's book on my way to work. The two releases were linked to 1968, but Who's For Tennis was the title for a studio album, nothing at all to do with the Fillmore East shows. As mentioned earlier, Marsh said Glow Girl would have been the opening track of the album.

Pg 289.. "Who's For Tennis, perhaps the worst pun in a history studded with poor ones, was to lead off with a single 'Glow Girl', Townshend's plane crash tune. A version was recorded in January 1968 complete with sound effects: a ripping, slashing Townshend guitar solo fading into sustained notes and feedback out of which emerges the reincarnation chorus: It's a girl, Mrs. Walker, it's a girl". Ron

 

None of those songs were released in the US? Surely you jest! Not as singles perhaps - but certainly on albums. On which the lyrics would I'm sure have been just as baffling...

I doubt that most Americans can decipher lines such as:

"I'll put twenty-five knicker, please, on Gallop Printer"

and

I'll sing you a song with no words & no tune
To sing in your khazi while you suss out the moon..."

(translations available on application!)

 

Dogs was UK market only, with Call Me Lightning on the B-side. We got Lightning as an A-side, with Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde on the flip, and THAT wasn't released in the UK (until The Ox Backtrack LP)! Dogs' 1st US release was in the Maximum R&B Box Set. The original mono mix was never released here.


Lovely buttocks!

 

I managed to pick up "Dogs" in the US, but on the imported "Direct Hits" set from Track--I still think its their all-time best 1960s-era hits package. Its recently been released on Classic, but sadly I traded mine off at the dawn of the CD era...

Track list:

1. Bucket "T"
2. I'm a Boy
3. Pictures of Lily
4. Doctor! Doctor!
5. I Can See for Miles
6. Substitute
7. Happy Jack
8. The Last Time
9. In the City
10. Call Me Lightning
11. Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand
12. Dogs

 

Keep in mind every version out there (including the one on Wolfgang's Vault) is apparently from acetate. Always sounded like it to me, and explains why there are fades and such. Would be nice if the 4-track tapes were properly mixed and released...

 

Is there any indication that the 4 tracks exist?