Who's Next, and Quadrophenia are must have Who albums. Tommy is good, but inconsistent in my book.
Who's Next, and Quadrophenia are must have Who albums. Tommy is good, but inconsistent in my book.
"I've Had Enough" has finally landed in my repertoire as my favorite piece of all time from them. Not their most well known song for sure.. "Slip Kid" has become a close second for me. This choice has taken me 35 years to come to Quadrophenia and Genesis's The Lamb Lies Down on Brodaway are the best Albums ever created.
The who, for me, are the best straight up "Rock Band" of all time. Brilliant work and they had the "Led Zeppelin" style, "Big Arena Show" down before Jimmy ever met Pagey, and as much fun as Led Zep is/was.... "The Who" actually played their music well at many live shows. Besides they had Keith Moon..... The Ultimate Musical Madman!
Last edited by Classic Progressive; 05-06-2015 at 03:04 PM.
Of course, not being of the daily persuasion in this opinion laden public prog bathhouse, my diatribe of recent lucubration is perhaps as welcome as a rats teat. One often is forced to weigh the desire to flash judgment within against the effort required as well as the value this knowledge will be to the greater good of all mankind or whatever inhabits the current spa. At best, its a slippery slope.
Sell Out. Always a singles band for me.
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
I think Roger invented that move, cool as hell. I always loved how those microphones have gobs of tape around them looking like they're holding on for dear life.Originally Posted by Jerjo
The other Daltrey stage move I remember from seeing the 'Oo back in the day was smashing two tambourines together like a pair of orchestral cymbals.
Who's Next even though it is a bit overplayed on classic rock radio. I'm not that familiar with their other albums.
Quadrophenia is the Who's masterpiece.
Yeah, You and The Quiet One were both awesome songs. The only Townshend song on Face Dances that I think comes close to being that good is Another Tricky Day. I've heard it said many times that Townshend was saving his "good stuff" for his solo albums, and hence some of the tunes he put forth for those two albums was the "B material".
One thing I've never been able to understand is how they managed to start It's Hard with Athena, which I liked for awihle when I first heard it, but now, it just strikes me a not very good song. The best thing about is the back story about who the "real" Athena was (actress Theresa Russell, the song was originally called Theresa and was written after Pete had a fling with her...so that's why he "had no intention of releasing a song called Theresa", as he stated in Guitar Player in 1989).
The Who Sell Out, Live at Leeds and Who's Next.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
'Athena' is a contender for my least favourite Who song, really- that stupid spoken hook in the chorus sets my teeth on edge.
'Face Dances' also has some really horrible material like 'Did You Steal My Money'.
Twirling the mic
Running on the spot
A quick punch-up with Pete*
* - not sure about this one...
Wow!!!... even if you're not a fan of Daltrey's voice (which I can understand in a twisted manner), the question should hardly arise.... Townsend's songwriting was at its peak between 69 and 73. By the 80's, he was only the shadow of his former self, though he still had momentsof brilliance (notably on White City)... plus the Who's music also features Moon's incredibly intuitive drumming, and Entwistle's excellent arragements (and odd brass and compositions as well).
Totally agree with your top three , though Tommy should cited third
Yup, I only saw The Who with Kenny on drums... not the best time to see them.
AFAIAC, Eminence Front is the only tracvk on that album...
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
Quadrophenia is one of the best rock albums of all time.
I caught this year's "Farewell Tour"recently and, while the ravages of time are apparent in Daltlrey's voice, and there are less windmills from Pete, and zero leaps and knee-slides across the stage, the music is still spectacular. Very few bands in history can put together a setlist anywhere near as great as this:
I Can't Explain
Substitute
The Seeker
Who Are You
I Can See for Miles
The Kids Are Alright
Pictures of Lily
My Generation
Magic Bus
Behind Blue Eyes
Join Together
You Better You Bet
I'm One
Love, Reign O'er Me
Eminence Front
A Quick One (While He's Away)
Amazing Journey
Sparks
Pinball Wizard
See Me, Feel Me
Baba O'Riley
Won't Get Fooled Again
This is the issue with Who's Next. Anyone who listened to classic rock radio through the 80s or 90s (maybe even today!) has the whole damn thing permanently burned into their brain whether they know it or not. I bought the CD reissue sometime in the 90s but I never listen to it--there wasn't a single song I couldn't play in my head without a physical copy.
Great tune...as is "Circles/Instant Party"
"Dem Glücklichen legt auch der Hahn ein Ei."
I find that surprising. Baba and Fooled got loads of airplay here, Behind Blue Eyes got a little bit (wasn't it a single?), and that's it. I don't believe I have ever heard anything else from that album on the radio, not until Alice Cooper's radio program. He for some reason loves Going Mobile, which is probably my least favourite track on the album.
The pattern I describe above is normal here, by the way. No matter how poopular an albu,m might be, you will only hear the same tracks played - any singles, plus maybe one or two other tracks, but always the same other tracks. I can think of only a handful of albums that had most or all of their tracks featured on radio: Sgt Pepper, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Abbey Road, Tapestry... struggling to think of any others.
A1 Baba O'Riley 4:59
A2 Bargain 5:33
A3 Love Ain't for Keeping 2:11
A4 My Wife 3:35
A5 Song Is Over 6:16
B1 Getting in Tune 4:49
B2 Going Mobile 3:40
B3 Behind Blue Eyes 3:40
B4 Won't Get Fooled Again 8:31
If you listened to FM regularly in the 70's, you knew 3/4 of the tracks even before buying the album... All these tunes got airplay ... Back then, just singles....
I'd say the only tune I didn't k,now at the time when I bought it (around 78) was Ain't For Keepin'...
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
I must be the only person on the planet who actually likes the Kenney Jones era Who. I've heard a bunch of different live recordings, and I think in general they were still a great live band. No, they didn't sound like the old Who, but I still think they were pretty bad ass, taken on their own terms.
The only thing I've heard from that era that I don't like so much is Who's Last, a double LP from the 82 tour, which was hampered by a poorly chosen setlist (not the shows themselves, but the album) and I recall Entwistle kvetching about the mix on that one a well.
One of the cool things about The Who as a live band is they always pulled out obscure songs, they never played "just the hits" as so many other bands do. I've got several bootlegs where they pull out things like Punk Meets The Godfather, Drowned, Tattoo, etc. When I saw them in 2000, they did Anyway Anywhere Anyhow and The Relay, a song that was only released as a single, which as I recall was a flop. Townshend also whipped out Sheraton Gibson, which he explained was about how much he liked hanging out in Cleveland with Joe Walsh and the James Gang.
basically most of what he does in the first 2 minutes and 30 seconds of this, beginning with the mic twirling. the shifting back and forth left, right, etc. punching the air. all very annoying to me. but I started the thread about the music so I don't want to dwell on this stuff.
Last edited by davis; 05-06-2015 at 08:31 AM.
I grew up listening to Philadelphia classic rock radio (WMMR and WYSP) and *all* those songs were in regular or semi-regular rotation for at least 20 years.
I college friend of mine even made up a riddle about it: how can you tell you're not tuned to WMMR? A: Listen for an hour; if you don't hear anything off Who's Next or Aqualung, it's not WMMR.
I loved them too. As you say, I think the key is not comparing their output to the Who of the early 70s. Taken on their own, Face Dances and It's Hard are damn good albums. Intelligent, appealingly odd and quirky, tuneful and catchy.
And while I have never seen the Who live in any form, there is a Rockpalast show up on Youtube with Jones that clearly demonstrates they still had "it".
...or Carol King's Tapestry and whatever the latest Elton John LP was.
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
Especially Michael Tearson, he played Tull a lot.
Worthy Farm festival confirms veteran rockers for Sunday slot
The Who have been confirmed as headliners for this summer's Glastonbury festival.
The veteran rockers will bring the curtain down on the Worthy Farm event as they headline on Sunday, June 28 – eight years after their first appearance at the festival.
Frontman Roger Daltrey says: “It’s great to be ending this part of a 50-year career at the most prestigious and respected music festival in the world. We'll do our best to close this year's event with a bang, unless of course the fireworks get wet.”
The Who join already announced headliners Foo Fighters, who play on the Friday night. Glastonbury 2015 has already sold out.
Daltrey and co are celebrating their 50th anniversary with a world tour called The Who Hits 50. A few day before the Glasto show, the band will perform at London's Hyde Park on June 26 as part of 2015’s British Summer Time festival.
Last year they released new track Be Lucky and said a final album could also be in the works.
This is one of the ones I was talking about when I mentioned songs which are not on their 90s CDs. There are two versions of this...the 2002 'My Generation' featured a stereo remix missing something (a horn part I think). There's also a separate song on there called 'Instant Party Mixture', which is presumably where that title came from as 'Circles' is clearly the right one.
But the faster, tighter remake that I think was on the 'Ready Steady Who' EP is missing-in-action from their remasters. 'Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde' is another great little tune that is quite hard to track down.
BTW, if you've never heard it, a band called Les Fleur De Lys did a fantastic cover of 'Circles'.
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