MY GENERATION (1965)What is it with these iconic British bands of the sixties and the blues? What makes middle class English white boys want to be poor old southern American black men. In fairness to The Who I suspect that Townshend was no Peter Green and his heart wasn't really in it. The blues is only one of the styles they try out here as they take a chuck-everything-at-it-and-see-what-sticks approach. And another thing, how many bleedin' versions of this album does Spotify need? There's a 30-track version, Remastered mono version and deluxe edition. For the record I listened to the mono version, I'm a purist see? and it's the shortest. The Who are probably the blueprint for the archetypal four piece guitar rock band - mercurial guitarist, prettyboy singer, dull bassist and mad drummer. Apart from the blues, they play around with psychedelia ('The Good's Gone'), beat pop ('La-La-La-Lies', 'The Kids Are Alright') and Dylan-esque droning ('Much Too Much'). The worst example of embarrassing blues is a toss up between 'Please, Please, Please', with Daltrey doing his best Robert Johnson and 'I'm A Man' where he adopts a voice which verges on sounding like he's throwing up. Obviously 'My Generation' is a standout, mainly because it has a lot of unusual features, from Daltrey's weird stutter (why?), through Entwistle's twiddly bass breaks and Moon's chaotic drumming near the end - almost designed so that the only logical thing to do would be to smash up your instruments. 'It's Not True' sounds like a forerunner of 'I'm A Boy'. Some weird lyrics too. "I haven't got eleven kids, I weren't born in Baghdad, I'm not half-Chinese either, And I didn't kill my dad". So that's all good then. The opening and closing notes of 'A Legal Matter' certainly informed some of Johnny Marr's work twenty years later, and I've always got time for rhymes like: "Kitchen furnishings and houses; Maternity clothes and baby's trousers" - you have to pronounce it "trousis". The last track is the intriguingly titled 'The Ox', in which Keith Moon hammers away at his drum kit and they elicit some bovine sounds from their guitars - could be Townshend or Entwistle - I can't tell. Session musician Nicky Hopkins provides some pretty impressive piano work too. Look at the picture on the cover. They certainly look the part and Entwistle's Union Jack jacket is the business. Maybe he wasn't dull.
A QUICK ONE (1966)They still haven't decided what they want to be when they grow up, although they're getting a few ideas. Spotify are also still offering me far more than was originally released and that I am really interested in. It's worth noting that some of tehir early singles don't appear on studio albums, for example 'I Can't Explain' and 'Happy Jack'. First jolt on this one is the legendary 'Boris The Spider'. An Entwistle composition and popular live. I'm assuming that Entwistle takes the vocal duties on at least the main bits. Maybe Daltrey does the creepy-crawlies. The chorus is a throat ripping growl that no action movie trailer voiceover artist would attempt. I guess it's their 'Octopus's Garden' moment. The Who clearly fancied themselves as a little bit dangerous. The title of the album has a slight fnarrish quality and 'Whiskey Man' celebrates drinking, but they really only appealed to the adolescent in that sense I think. They cover Martha and The Vandella's 'Heat Wave' - rather well actually. Apparently this was replaced by 'Happy Jack' on later reissues. 'Cobwebs and Strange' is what can only be described as circus music. J thought it was Britain's entry in this year's Eurovision. 'Don't Look Away', 'See My Way' and 'So Sad About Us' fit a more recognisable Who sound and song type. It finishes with their 9 minute foray into the 'long form' - 'A Quick One While He's Away'. Six movements no less and probably the clearest indication of Townshend's future ambitions. It's a bit disjointed. Daltrey puts on a Beatles scouse drawl for the 'Ivor The Engine Driver' section. They slip into Gene Autry territory for the 'Soon Be Home' section
complete with wobble-board accompaniment (I'm not checking whether it's the world's leading practitioner of the instrument). The cover is by pop artist Alan Aldridge. It doesn't sound particularly avant-garde now, but it was probably an unusual enough album at the time to be considered 'arty'
THE WHO SELL OUT (1967)
Oo-er. This is clearly an unapologetic concept album with it's Radio London links and advertising theme. Tony Blackburn still uses a lot of the jingles (or variations on them) on Pick of the Pops today. My first gripe is the pronunciation of Armenia in the opening 'Armenia City In The Sky'. They go for arm-an-ear rather than the now ubiquitous ar-mean-ee-ah. It's quite good though, some very disorientating reverb going on. Bonzo-ish hi-jinks for 'Heinz Baked Beans' with vocals from Entwistle. 'Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand' I reckon is a bit like that old song 'And I called my shack, Break-My-Back, and I called my cow, No-Milk-Now, and I called my donkey, Horse-Gone-Wonky, When I first came to this land, I did what I could". All you ex-scouts will know it. Townshend sings about deodorant brand 'Odorono' and he has a bit of a weedy delivery. I liked the 'Smooth Sailing' jingle. Nicely sung. 'Tattoo' is dreamy and Townshend tries out some of the early strummed guitar stylings that eventually opened 'Pinball Wizard'. Big hit time with 'I Can See For Miles'. I hadn't noticed Townshend's discordant twanging at the end of each chorus before, nor the buzzy-bee guitar break in the middle. The line "Cos there's magic in my eyes" always makes me think of the character Majikthise in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The Charles Atlas advert is just plain daft. Nice tambourine work on 'Can't Reach You'. Townshend was singing so they had to give Rodge something to play with. 'Medac' tells the sorry tale of Henry Pond's pimply map which was instantly cured by the eponymous cream.I think the nursery rhyme qualities of 'Silas Stingy' makes it one of my favourites on the album. It's almost got a religious feel about it with its ponderous organ (steady!) sound. In fact, I'm beginning to realise that I find Entwistle's input as the stuff I'm enjoying most about the early Who material. The final track is 'Rael Pt 1 and 2' which is gratifyingly epic, given the title. There's some Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch Xanadu-style whipcraking. It sounds very Who-ish. The cover features a young Will Self applying an oversized can of Ordorono to his armpit, Liz MacDonald from Coronation Street in a bath of baked beans and on the back are Henry Pond and Fred Flintstone. Of course there's loads more dross on Spotify if you can be bothered.
TOMMY (1969)Only four albums in and we're at Tommy already. Just to provide some context here (and big up The Who) the fourth album of British bands they might be compared to were 'The Beatles For Sale', 'Out Of Our Heads' and er.. 'Led Zeppelin IV'. I put it to you m'lud that The Beatles, Stones nor Zep, showed anything like the ambition of Tommy for their fourth release. No shilly-shallying over what this is either. It is a 'Rock Opera' complete with Proper Overture. For me the studio album cannot be separated from Ken Russell's film and I'll take the liberty of talking about the movie version and the album version together if I feel like it. We recorded it off the telly not long after we got our first VHS and I did watch it a few times with a kind of morbid fascination. I haven't watched it in years and have no access to it, so anything I say about it will be from memory. I also recorded the album onto tape after borrowing the vinyl from Tamworth Record library, which was situated on a mezzanine level of the main library and seemed to contain only 'Dumb Waiters' by the Korgis, something by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates and 'Bandolier' by Budgie as far as I remember. I'm warning you now, this could be a long and involved post. The aforementioned 'Overture' provides thrilling moments of memory and anticipation of what is to come. Captain Walker apparently pops his clogs before the Overture ends and Tommy is born and eventually becomes psychologically deaf dumb and blind after witnessing his Dad's return and murder of Mrs Walker's lover (or something like that). The trippy 'Amazing Journey' has one of my favourite musical rhymes of all time "Strange as it seems, his musical dreams, ain't quite so bad". Positively Eminem-esque. I think this was the bit with Clapton in the movie. I remember the song 'Eyesight To The Blind' but the corresponding portion of the movie escapes me. 'Christmas' prefaces a number of encounters between Tommy and various unsavoury individuals - Cousin Kevin (Paul 'Grandma's Party' Nicholas), Uncle Ernie (Moon) and The Acid Queen (Tina Turner). No Mrs Walker, clearly it is not 'alright' to leave Tommy with his psychotic delinquent cousin or horrible Uncle Ernie, what are you thinking? I have to say that Nicholas' performance in the film is much more menacing than the version on this album. Entwistle makes him sound quite benign. The same is true for Turner in lieu of Townshend on 'The Acid Queen'. Daltrey's acting skills were stretched to the limit when she'd finished with him too as he stood rigid, eyes bulging and shaking all over. Despite inhabiting the role in the movie, it is not Moon but Entwistle who sings 'Uncle Ernie' here. Just nasty. All this is interspersed with the 10 minute 'Underture' which is a terrific piece of music in its own right. Then, of course, we finally get to 'Pinball Wizard'. Elt did it in the film, wearing a pair of stilt Doc Martens that I'm sure Dolce and Gabbana would be proud of. Dalts stood staring into space while he just operated the flippers so fast that no ball could get through, a bit like when my kids are playing Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games. It always struck me that "from Soho down to Brighton" is a bit of a lame boast really. It's not THAT far. Next we move onto the world's most untrustworthy medic played by Jack Nicholson in 'Go To The Mirror'. He figures out that our Tom's senses are all in full working order ("all the time the needles flick and rock"). At this point we get the glorious 'Listening to you.." refrain. 'Tommy Can You Hear Me' and 'Smash The Mirror' all come around the time that Ann-Margret as Mrs Walker starts getting showered with Baked Beans (a throwback to the last album) and Chocolate? Tomato Soup? Whatever it was, it amounted to Russell indulging himself. Smashing the mirror cures Tommy and he almost immediately founds a cult - as you do. 'Sally Simpson' is sucked in but gets too close to the new Messiah and ends up with a scarred face as she is flung off the stage. 'I'm Free' really captures the sense of liberation and shows the genius (in my opinion) of the whole affair, with a deceptively simple melody and reprise of the Pinball Wizard riff. 'Welcome' starts out sounding like a song from Trumpton (Brian Cant didn't cover this kind of subject matter though) with it's light polka style, inviting the unwary in. It soon darkens as Tommy tries to swell the congregation and "there's more at the door". Apparently all is forgiven for Uncle Ernie because he turns up again as Tommy's recruiting sergeant. That last "Welcome" must be one of the most menacing moments in rock history. Finally, Tommy's recipe for redemption, sensory-deprived pinball, doesn't prove such a big hit and his followers rebel. Tommy is left alone to run off into the sunset singing "see me, feel me, touch me heal me" which segues into the final triumphant "Listening to you, I feel the music...." etc. Phew! Just magnificent and consistent throughout in terms of both quality, theme and music. Funnily enough I never paid half as much attention to Quadrophenia, which comes soon.
Great album title. Simple, literal and yet communicating how important they were becoming. Also, great opening, 'Baba O'Reilly' with it's shimmering keyboard intro which is unlike anything else you will ever hear. Again, compare to their contempories and they are as inventive as Bowie was in 1970. Bruce learned a few tricks from this as well I'd say... and the prog rockers. After the extraordinariness of Tommy this is a much more straightforward rock album although Wiki-wotsit claims it arose from another rock opera idea. Daltrey's vocal on the tracks where he takes the lead is much more of the familiar muscular sound that is commonly associated with him. They show themselves to be in the vanguard of the sound that would become Glam, although I don't think they ever went in for dressing up much. 'My Wife' is a typical example, sounding a little like Mott The Hoople (it's Entwistle doung the vocal). The closing song on side 1, 'The Song Is Over' nicely sets Townshend's lighter voice on the verse with Daltrey's rock scream on the chorus. It's piano led too, which makes a nice change. I found the two opening tracks of side 2, 'Getting In Tune' and 'Going Mobile' a bit below par (although there was some nice guitar freakouts on the latter) but they pick it up again with 'Behind Blue Eyes' and 'Won't Get Fooled Again'. Poor old Roger, no-one understands the pain behind the blonde curls and piercing stare. It is a great song though. His love is vengeance dontcha know? And the behemoth that is Won't Get Fooled weighs in at over 8 minutes and reprises the synth sound of 'Baba O'Reilly'. Daltrey howls and Townshend windmills (I assume). "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss". Keeping up the old rebellious image, the cover shows them having just taken their ease against a Kubrickian concrete block.
QUADROPHENIA (1973)Mods and rockers, Brighton beach, fishtail parkas, bank holiday rumbles, bicycle chains, air force roundels, scooters, jumpers for goalposts, hmm, isn't it? Ah, those were the days. All before my time of course - or at least before I was aware of such stuff. This album seemed to turn The Who into a Mod band, but I've never really understood what Mod music is, or even if there is a strong musical element or it's really about skinny suits, the aforementioned parkas and winklepickers. The Mod look was quite popular for a time at my school in the early eighties. My brother-in-law was into it all at that time too, so I'm told, but he's a copper now, so draw your own conclusions. The obvious reference musically is Paul Weller, The Jam and the Style Council but he came 10 years after. There was also the excellent 'Poison Ivy' by the Lambrettas who I assume were mods because of their name. Do Rod 'the Mod' Stewart and the Faces count? If we take the Jam as our model (and the general style of this record) then spiky anger seems to characterise it quite well. Anyway, I have to make mention of the movie, although the album (and Rock Opera) and the film are very different beasts and I won't be dwelling on it like I did with Tommy. Probably it's biggest contribution to popular culture was launching a number of spectacularly ugly British actors on us. Phil 'Parklife' Daniels, Phil Davis, Timothy Spall and Ray 'Bet365' Winstone all featured. Oh and of course Mr. Sting, formerly of this parish, who was always trying to do a bit of acting back then. All I remember of him in his role of 'Ace Face' was dancing in a very mannered way in a club. He was supposed to be ultra-cool but ended up being revealed as a bell boy or something, much to Jimmy's disdain. Also some significant women on the cast list - Toyah and Leslie Ash. So what of the album? Well, I've never really connected with it. It has a kind of hectoring style throughout and Daltrey in particular seems to give a fairly one-dimensional performance. It fits with the subject matter of teenage alienation, but I do find it a bit wearing. The opening 'I Am The Sea' is mainly the sound of waves on a beach, with some lyrics pushed back into the mix before the get going with 'The Real Me'. Much of the subject matter is about the main character Jimmy's split personality (he's not satisfied with being schizophrenic, which is why he's quadrophenic (phrenic?), see). For a rock opera there's quite a lot more instrumental content than you might expect too. It all stands as a piece however and there are some very operatic moments, such as 'Helpless Dancer'. My favourite tracks are probably the obvious ones; the aforementioned 'The Real Me', '5:15', 'Doctor Jimmy' and 'Love Reign O'er Me'. 'Bell Boy' has Moon doing his best Arfur Mullard and there's a touch of the Peter Frampton vocoder thingy on the end of 'The Rock'. I guess you can't say much more about the cover art than 'iconic.
THE WHO BY NUMBERS (1975)We're in 1975 and The Who still sound like a sixties band. What's more, it's not a bad thing. I think it means that there is a timeless quality to it. 'Slip Kid' and 'However Much I Booze' are both great songs, sung by Daltrey and and Townshend respectively. The latter has a kind of freewheeling quality in it's central riff. The extended single entendre of 'Squeeze Box' brings the tone down a little, but at least it's about a settled married couple who still love each other, so there's nothing for the Daily Mail to get worked up about is there? There's still a Rock operatic feel to some of these tracks and at least one was recycled from the defunct Lifehouse project. Side 2 starts with 'Success Story', all about the trials of life in a Rock Band and featuring Entwistle (I think - its the Boris The Spider voice) as the band's fairy godmanager - "You shall go to Carnegie Hall". There's a bit of tenderness in 'They Are All In Love'. Just Townshend on Uke and Entwistle on horns for the featherlight 'Blue, Red and Grey'. I'm sure 'How Many Friends' was good for moping in your bedroom as a teenager feeling like the world was against you. So this is a good, solid album, but not spectacular. I have an issue with the cover too. Either the album should be called The Who Join The Dots or the cover should be a picture of the band as a paint by numbers - you know lots of blobs with a number in each to tell you the colour to use.
Kapow! The opening 'New Song' arrives with a bullet and the rest of it is pretty dynamic too. Heavily reliant on keyboards rather than guitar. Daltrey sounds like he's trying too hard though. He's still straining at the leash on 'Had Enough' which is big and orchestral. Townshend takes over for '905' and 'Sister Disco' which is quite a relief, although he does share the latter with Rodge. There's one of those fanfare-y synth breaks in the middle.but it all kind of peters out in the end. Are we entering the realms of cooool jaaaazzz in 'Music Must Change' - well almost, but dear old Roger can't maintain a calm, measured tone for too long. The intro to 'Trick Of The Light' suggests they're about to launch into a Quo-ish blues rocker but happily they do something a bit more interesting than that. 'Guitar and Pen' has some nice changes of pace and references the instrument smashing excesses that made The Who's name. 'Love Is Coming Down' is a measured piece and is followed by 'Who Are You' which is by far and away the standout track on the album, from the wobbly synth intro, through Daltrey's angry growl to a decent drumming swansong from Moon. Bit sweary though. I'm thinking that The Who are past their peak by now. Moon was on his last legs and died not long after the album's release. Wiki-hmm? reckons that Townshend was trying to bridge the gap between punk and prog, but mixing anger with complicated arrangements doesn't really cut it. The cover is unexceptional, probably trying to emphasise their live reputation. The internet nerd in the corner claims that Moon is sitting on the chair backwards to hide his alcohol-swollen belly and that there is irony in the 'Not To Be Taken Away'.
I mentioned earlier that I remember Face Dances as being available from Tamworth record library, and I did borrow it, probably on the strength of 'You Better You Bet', which is something of a classic in my view. The Who really were yesterday's news by now, but the opening track of this album was a bone fide hit and still gets regular airplay today. There's lots to like about it, including Daltrey's rather arch delivery - love the indignation he injects into some of the"you'd better!"s. He's not keen on the habits of his partner's mutt either. It is also one of several songs to namecheck T-Rex, and I'm sure this was the subject of a question on the Mike Read hosted Pop Quiz - what links these songs? (Although it could have been a similar one around mentioning Top Of The Pops (Rezillos, Boomtown Rats). Anyway, off hand I can only think of two other songs that mention T-Rex, which are 'All The Young Dudes' by Bowie/Hoople and 'Cool In The Kaftan' by B.A.Robertson. The intro is quite unexpected, there's a single dull pain note which makes you wonder if it's the right song, but it soon sorts itself out.'Don't Let Go The Coat' has a folky, Byrds feel to it with the 'jangley guitar' sound so beloved by unnumbered indie bands a few years later. Next they try their hand at a bit of punk/new wave with 'Cache Cache'. The more jagged stuff is interspersed with a lower tempo chorus. Not sure what all the stuff about "there ain't no bears in there" is about though.What shall we try next - how about a bit of Alice Cooper? OK.Here's a little number called 'The Quiet One'. It really is heavy metal - and quite a good example. Not sure who is on vocal, but it's not Daltrey. I'd guess Entwistle. By now it's clear that The Who are determined to play around and have a go at whatever takes their fancy with this album, next they sound a bit like The Police with some reggae/calypso stylings on 'Did You Steal My Money?'. 'How Can You It Alone' is a bit of an odd one. The closest I can compare it to is 'Parklife' as it features Rodge wandering around encountering various characters and asking them the titular question. It's quite enjoyable but a bit pointless. They come right back to the heavier rock sound with 'You'. Both this and 'The Quiet One' were Entwistle compositions, so he obviously was leaning toward this kind of music at the time. They finish with 'Another Tricky Day' which may have later influenced the likes of Pearl Jam. This features Kenney Jones as Moon's replacement and the cover has portraits of all four members in various styles, some of which I think are a bit too cruel regarding the Townshend hooter.
IT'S HARD (1982)When the lineup for Live Aid in 1985 was announced, one of the big coups was a Who reunion, but they'd released this only three years before. Add to that that they've made countless comebacks since (plus a last studio album) and you kind of wonder what the fuss was about. In the event they were a bit underwhelming at Live Aid, and the broadcast cut out halfway through. The opening 'Athena' has a guitar rhythm which is like Hansen's 'Mmm Bop', but it's still pretty good. Daltrey continues his style of putting as much expression into his vocal as possible. In 'Cook's County' they sing "people are hungry, I'll say it again", but I wish they wouldn't because it just makes for a dull song. The title song is better, but do they really need to persist with their suggestive song titles? By this time, rock dinosaurs (The Who would be Velociraptors I reckon) were in their forties - which makes me a dinosaur now - and were in no position to try to relate to 'ver kids' or be 'risque'.To reinforce the point, the next track 'Dangerous' is a fairly plodding piece of MOR.The low-key funk of 'Eminence Front' is little better. 'I've Known No War' starts with a repeating piano note which could have been from 'Shine' by The That. It's a reflection on the experience of the post war generation and the fact that next time around - this is 1982 remember - we'll all be gone with the push of a button. Kids these days, they don't know they're born.'One At A Time' starts with some comedy brass playing. It's quirky, so it's not surprising to see it's an Entwistle composition.'Why Did I Fall For That' is OK. Daltrey puts on a kind of Bryan Ferry voice by singing from the back of his throat. It almost has a Phil Spector feel to it - if he tried to do a bass wall-of-
sound. The last two tracks, 'A Man Is A Man' and 'Cry If You Want' are not worth remarking on. I reckon they made the right decision to call it a day after this. It isn't great.. Pity they didn't stick to it. Oh, and look at the cover. It's an updated reference to Tommy. Get it?
Now hold on. Those opening notes are more than a little reminiscent of Baba O'Reilly. Moon is long gone, Entwistle has followed him and Kenney Jones was given the boot in the eighties. So we're down to the hardcore of Townshend and Daltrey. Zak 'son of Ringo' Starkey was on skins duty for their live appearances around this time, doing a timeshare with Oasis apparently, but he only turns up on one track here. It's another themed effort, but can I be bothered to fathom the ins and outs from what is presented on Wiki-legend? I cannot. There's an opera buried in here somewhere apparently. 'Man In A Purple Dress' is pretty good. Daltrey's voice dominates it a bit too much and Townshend's strummed acoustic guitar struggles to compete. In fact, much of it seems to be an exercise in Roger establishing that he still has the lung-busting volume of yore. He also lapses into nasal, growling Dylan/Waits unpleasantness at times, speaking of which is that him or Townshend sounding cirrhotic on 'In The Ether'? Trying.Too.Hard. 'Black Widow's Eyes' has Starkey on drums and it does have a more Who-ish sound as a result. A touch of mandolin on 'Two Thousand Years'. Very nice. Very Mumford. Bit of a repetitive lyric though. You've got to be intrigued by a title like 'God Speaks Of Marty Robbins' and I enjoyed it. Townshend and an acoustic guitar with a kind of folky ballad. It contrasts quite markedly with 'It's Not Enough', which follows and is a substantial piece of middleweight rock. The see-saw style continues as Townshend tries his hand as the new Ralph McTell on 'You Stand By Me'. The tracks come thick and fast now, the next 9 never exceed 2 and a half minutes. They range from the frantic 'Sound Round', to the simplistic 'Unholy Trinity' and the clearly operatic 'Trilby's Piano'. They do that Baba O'Reilly bit again on 'Fragments Of Fragments' (the opening track is called 'Fragments'). The layered vocals weren't to my liking. Made me feel a bit nauseous. They finish in some style with the a classic who-sounding effort called 'Mirror Door' and the more downbeat 'Tea and Theatre'.
Here's a funny thing from their Wikipedia entry. It claims (as usual there is an undercurrent of adoration in the author's style) that their main contributions to Rock and Roll are 'the power chord', 'the windmill strum', 'the Marshall stack' (?!) and the 'guitar smash'. I wasn't even aware that the 'guitar smash' was a recognised band manoeuvre, more of a spur of the moment thing I imagine. Let's not dwell on the artwork. Bloody awful.
So that's it. Plenty of additional material out there if you are so inclined, and a lot of early singles never made it to studio albums. I think they should withdraw gracefully now. This last album was certainly nothing to be ashamed of, but it would be a tragedy of Daltrey tried to go on once his voice goes, and an old fella like him can't continue roaring at the top of his voice forever.
Released: 6th December 2019
The Who
Well, I just read my closing comments above and apparently, 13 years down the line, Daltrey's pipes are in fine fettle and in no danger of giving up the ghost just yet. I was also wrong about them needing to withdraw gracefully. There's little wrong with this latest album and quite a lot which is really very good indeed.
No other band so comprehensively set themselves up for a fall because of a single line in one of their earliest songs, but as the rock dinosaur phenomenon grew over the past half century, The Who's desire to be pushing up the daisies in advance of reaching maturity seemed like an ever more embarrassing boast. Then, when Keith Moon did fulfill the prophecy, everyone agreed that it wasn't such a great ambition after all, and so here they are, Daltrey is 75 and Townshend is 74, and they're still at it.
They've more than pulled it off, although it's a slightly odd experience. It's kind of like when Oasis based their entire act on The Beatles, it feels like The Who are just actually ripping off The Who. It's authentic, but it feels like a tribute. Does that make sense? It's more like a patchwork quilt of all The Who's projects down the years, from early sixties beat pop through to all usual rock opera histrionics, and Peter Blake's cover art emphasizes this as well. You can spend a happy hour or so working out all the references represented in the 22 images.
As noted above, the vocals are as strong as ever, you have to assume Daltrey has never been a smoker (a quick internet search reveals he's not keen on the audience partaking of wacky baccy during performances as he's allergic). It starts with a particularly forthright performance from both of them on 'All This Music Must Fade'. There are four bonus tracks on the deluxe edition, three of which boost Townshend's lead vocal contribution from one, 'I'll Be Back', to four.
For me the best song on the album is 'Break The News', written by Pete's brother Simon. It has the feel of a genuine classic that's always been around. This is immediately followed by 'Rockin' In Rage' which you can't help feeling Townshend has written in hope that there's going to be a big screen remake of Tommy (yes please) which will require an additional song or two. After all, the opening two lines are "If I can't speak my truth for fear of bein' abused; I might as well be a mute, my voice never used" and it certainly would fit within the wider piece musically.
Not sure geopolitics is really a Who thing either. 'Ball And Chain' is overtly about Guantanamo Bay but rather vague in its precise meaning and Townshend's dissection of middle-eastern conflicts in bonus track'This Gun Will Misfire' uses a butter-knife instead of a scalpel. It's still a decent song though.
Perhaps most interesting is 'Got Nothing To Prove'. Reaching right back to their early sound, to the extent that it could well be recorded in mono (more likely its a clever bit of production work) with full on sixties string and brass accompaniment. It's brilliantly done.
So perhaps they do still have something in the tank but this time I still think they should stop because they might have trouble topping this as an appropriate swansong.
All This Music Must Fade
Ball And Chain
I Don't Wanna Get Wise
Detour
Beads On One String
Hero Ground Zero
Street Song
I'll Be Back
Break The News
Rockin' In Rage
She Rocked My World (Deluxe Bonus Track)
This Gun Will Misfire (Deluxe Bonus Track)
Got Nothing To Prove (Deluxe Bonus Track)
Danny And My Ponies (Deluxe Bonus Track)
0 Yorumlar