The Who Album-By-Album (& Single-By-Single) Thread

I love "In The City." Dunno why. It's pretty! It's surf music! It rips off some Beach Boy song in the lyrics: "Drive your super-stock carbur to the long highway." Which Beach Boys song has the same or similar lyric?

 

"I'm A Boy" is terribly catchy and I still enjoy hearing that great power pop. As for submerged themes, one MUST read Geoffrey Giuliano's "Behind Blue Eyes", and even Townshend's own waking dreams recorded in "Horses Neck". Giuliano reports that Pete was a terribly insecure 12 year old when his mother was caring for his younger siblings. The boy in the song is an outsider amongst the siblings. There are some real revelations in that book about Pete's childhood that will go far to explain underlying themes in Tommy.

p.s. "The Kids Are Alright" a regional hit in Detroit? Why doesn't that surprise me?

 

Sorry, but I have to come back to My Generation. My 1979 UK Virgin arrived and it is a Porky Prime Cut. Thanks again, Devotional

 

"I'm A Boy" is the start of the really quirky phase of The Who's career--a phase that I enjoy immensely, although others deem it "unfocused." The single itself is terribly catchy, and I really like the "My name is Bill and I'm a head case..." section with the great bass and drum interplay. "In The City" is also a guilty pleasure. The Who does the hot rod/surf genre! Who would have ever thought it possible at the time?

 

In The City is not so much a Beach Boy song, but rather Jan And Dean, or the Rip Chords.

I still remember the day my copy of I'm A Boy arrived from the UK... we use to send off for stuff in the 60's... I remember my brother, his friends and myself gathered around the hi-fi, playing it over and over...

 

I swear, I SWEAR, that the line is lifted wholesale from a car song of the Beach Boys.

 

The Kids Are Alright is a killer WHO single. Love Moon's drumming on this track and the powerful rhythm section on this track.

 

La-La-La Lies

http://www.*****/images/LLLL-UK-a.jpg

UK: November 11, 1966 - La-La-La Lies / The Good's Gone - Brunswick 05968

A1: La-La-La Lies (2:12) **
(Pete Townshend)
B1: The Good's Gone (3:59) ***
(Pete Townshend)

Still bitter from the court case, Shel Talmy must have known that The Who had spent the autumn in the studio and were releasing an EP on November 11th, because on the exact same date Brunswick released a fourth single from the My Generation album; the rather unmemorable "La-La-La-Lies". The band were definitely pissed off, and they didn't promote it or stand behind it in any way. It didn't sell much, though, and this was the last Who-release on Brunswick. It is the second time around that I find the B-side of a Who-single to be better than the A-side (the first being "A Legal Matter", where "Instant Party" is the flip). On October 21st, Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones praised The Who in NME: "I saw them on Ready, Steady, Go! a few weeks back. They were unbelievably good. Townshend is incredible. Really, The Beatles, The Who, and ourselves are the only British groups to evolve something completely originally in visual and musical production - from our own compositions."​

 

Cool! Report back when you've played it.

"Honkin' honkin' down the gosh darn highway" from 1977 perhaps?

Glad to see that "In The City" also has its fans. I agree that it's charming to a degree, but they would prove that they could master surf way better on their next release imho. it was definitely Keith who was pushing for some surf material.

 

*drum roll* OK, as we hit side 14 of the thread, it's time for one of my favourite Who-releases!

 

Ready Steady Who

http://www.*****/images/RSW-UK.jpg

UK: November 11, 1966 - Ready Steady Who - Reaction 592001

A1: Disguises (3:10) *****
(Pete Townshend)
A2: Circles (3:12) ****
(Pete Townshend)
B1: Batman (1:34) ****
(Jan Berry/Don Altfield/Fred Weider)
B2: Bucket "T" (2:07) ***
(Don Altfeld/Roger Christian/Dean Torrence)
B3: Barbara Ann (1:59) *****
(Fred Fassert)

"Whatever anyone says, I regard myself as the first person to do feedback, and I was naturally disappointed when the credit went on several occasions to The Beatles and Yardbirds," Pete told Disc on September 17th. While there may have been some disappointment from Pete, there was certainly no reason for bitterness. He was now pretty much universally regarded as the King of Feedback, and while there were many that hated The Who and their "cascades of white noise" with a passion, their influence was felt all across England, where the musical landscape was shifting towards heavier territory with new groups like Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and British Invasions bands like The Animals, The Small Faces and Yardbirds growing increasingly noisier. 1966 was also pretty much the peak of garage rock in the States, and while The Who had still not played there (a US tour was cancelled in September), their records were treasured and covered by many underground bands, and inspired countless harder edged bands to form. The Who did appear quite a lot on TV during 1966, which of course helped to seal their reputation as the most extreme and visually exciting band in England. One of the shows that they often appeared on was ITV's Ready Steady Go!, where they proved so popular that they got 16 minutes of airtime - the entire second half of a programme, on a special named Ready Steady Who! on October 21st. The Who mimed to their cover of "Batman", did a mock mime of Cliff Richard's "Summer Holiday", and then plugged in live and played the new song "Cobwebs And Strange", "Bucket "T"", "I'm A Boy", the new song "Disguises", "My Generation" and a massive smash-up over "Rule Britannia", where John smashed one of Paul McCartney's former Höfner basses. The band were happy with their performance, and planned to release a live recording of the show on their Reaction label, but due to legal problems they had to use the recently recorded studio-versions instead. Not that we should cry too much over that, because THIS is one gigantic EP! It kicks off with one of the heaviest, most apocalyptic tracks in the whole Who-catalogue; the thunderously massive "Disguises", which is proto-psych, proto-industrial-doom-metal, proto-everything-so-heavy-and-pulverising-that-it-turns-its-listeners-into-sheer-liquid! Under a wall of shattering effects, French horn, reverb and backwards guitars, Keith sounds like he is banging the drums of hell, Pete destroys everything in sight with his piercing guitar, John's bass is the distorted incarnation of loud, and Roger and Pete deliver a beautifully damaged and psychotic double vocal in the midst of all the chaos. Amazing! This is followed by the Who-version of the brilliant "Circles" (as featured on the B-side of "Substitute"), making for an all round dark, dramatic and killer A-side! If the A-side - while indescribably great fuelled our expectations from an auto-destructive band on the verge of breaking up, then the B-side comes as a relief. It opens with their manic, pilled up version of "Batman", which is great fun and kick *** to boot! The EP credits the song to Jan Berry, Don Altfeld (misspelled as "Altfield") and Fred Weider, though the song was actually written by Neal Hefti. Next up is a version of "Bucket "T"", which might be the weakest track here, but a joy nonetheless. The band sound like they're having the time of their lives, and you gotta love a novelty song about a car that has Moonie's vocals way up in the mix! Keith is also the star of the last track, playing the most lyrical surf-drums in history, and singing lead vocals on an absolutely fantastic version of Barbara Ann (modelled on The Beach Boys-version). It's pure bliss, with the band sneaking in funny comments in the background all the way through, such as: Pete: "Hit me, hit me! I like it, I like it!" John: "I hate it." The whole band smokes, and while they didn't quite pull off the surf-sound on "In The City", they most definitely do here. While the band may have felt that they just couldn't capture their explosive live sound in the studio, this EP goes a long way in capturing the spirit of both the darker and the lighter sides of The Who.​

 

Ready Steady Who is a neat little compilation.

 

Bucket T is so bad it's great. Typical Moony. Together with Keith's drums, Entwistle's horn solo sounds like an elephant crashing the party.

 

Haha, that's spot on!

I can't tell you how much I love this EP, it's one of my favourite Who-releases. It was reissued by Badger in 1978 (in a black and white sleeve), and then again by Polydor in 1983, and shouldn't be too hard to track down.

 

Ready Steady Who is perfect. I fell in love with it the first time I heard it. So much fun crammed into 12 minutes. One of my hold grails is the Ready Dteady Who! television show with the closing My Generation/Rule Britannia ending.

 

I adore "Ready Steady Who." I love that the B-side is basically Keith Moon taking over the band for ALL THREE TRACKS. They become the Beach Boys on severe pills. It's a concept EP. A shame that it is not included in its entirety on CD (in any one place).

I love this year of the Who. They are at their silliest and craziest and more anarchic. It's the most fun Who. The most punk rock. That version of "My Generation" from French TV with Pete giving the camera the finger ("scratching his nose") is from this time, too.

WHAT is that sound that runs through "Disguises"? Proto-industrial is right.

 

This is when the Who was a FUN band!

Evan

 

Yes, the closest Moon ever got to fronting the band. With a #1 in Sweden with Bucket "T" no less!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdG8JG8EO3U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6LvSN0xhP0&feature=related

 

I love every minute of Ready Steady Who. It's a shame that The Who doesn't get enough credit for their sense of humor (except for Moon's escapades, of course). The pre-Tommy era was filled with inspired wackiness.

 

I always thought the sound that runs through Disguises was a backwards or somehow manipulated cymbal hit really hard. Anyone know for sure what that is???

Frank R.

 

When I first heard "Bucket T" on the US Magic Bus album, I thought The Who could get no worse. I suppose I'm much less hard on that track now, though I can take it or leave it. Otherwise the material here makes for a really good listen.

I still hate myself for not buying a copy I saw in a record store years ago for only $20. Best I could tell it was an original as it was on the Reaction label. Before seeing that, I had no idea this EP even existed. I haven't checked, but I doubt I'd get one for even close to $20 these days.

 

The Who were pretty much just a cult item at this point, in the USA. "Sell Out" didn't do a lot saleswise, even with "I Can See For Miles" being a moderate hit. The band needed a kickstart.

We all know what the kickstart ended up being: Tommy. But before that happened, I have a vague recollection of an earlier interview Pete T did, declaring that The Who's next frontier was to be television. The were much funnier than The Monkees, declared Pete, and a Who TV series would prove it!

 

It's on the Rarities Volume 1 & 2 CD.

 

I'm hedging my bets that it is a compressor on an overdubbed cymbal, setting attack and release to "pump" the sound.

I believe somewhere in one of the various Who books that I have, Keith mentions something about them playing with compressors and squeezing the drums circa this period.

 

Are we ready for the next round, Devotional?