I think this is a POLL of shit while John Sinclair rots in prison: THE WHO RESULTS THREAD (ilm artist poll #25)

13. "Tattoo" (The Who Sell Out, 1967) 13 votes, 312 points, two #1 votes
http://www.rosshalfin.com/diary/february-2008/who-tattoo.jpg
http://youtu.be/XO20hw41N2Y

This was my number one. I'm pretty sure they played it in 2006(?) when i saw them, which made my effing day. A lovely, silly, dramatic, beautiful, aching, and funny song!

I like how it could be a parody on people that think tattoos are cool, but it's also a love song to them.

The original US cover for A Quick One highlighted the inclusion of "Happy Jack" more prominently than the album title, due to it being a top-40 hit.

So prominently that Decca re-titled the album:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xtlaadPnL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

My copy, still quite old, looks like this:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BvRc-bawld0/R_9aztx7GbI/AAAAAAAAAY0/IB3BKyYQSRc/s320/HPYJCK01%2B-%2BFront.jpg

I was on my phone while the results were coming out over the weekend so I couldn't check out all the youtube links til now -- Tarfumes this stuff is all gold

LOVE that Relay performance

and Weller & Pete trying to rehearse Sunrise was fking killer. It's kind of, reassuring, that the rehearsal process is pretty much the same for genius legends as it is for normies

Yeah, that "Relay" is so great. And for all the talk (usually from those drummers who value technical facility above all else) of Moon being "sloppy" or "just an apeshit drummer," HE'S the one that keeps it all together, not just keeping time with the tape, but taking far more chances than he did on the record.

And for anyone who wants to hear the live "Magic Bus" referenced in the results above, e-mail me for the s3ndsp4c3 link.

I can say without hyperbole that it's the most absurdly explosive Who performance ever in the history of everything ever.

Never knew until now that "Happy Jack" wasn't really on A Quick One. Likewise, never even knew the Who covered "Heat Wave" until recently, since that was deleted to make room for Happy Jack on the LP. Eventually both songs were included on US albums.

Yours looks like the first US CD issue...correct? I think the first time the title A Quick One was used for the US market, it was on the twofer dealie:
http://www.spirit-of-rock.com/les%20goupes/T/The%20Who/A%20Quick%20One%20-%20The%20Who%20Sell%20Out/A%20Quick%20One%20-%20The%20Who%20Sell%20Out.jpg

nope, it's an LP, i thought from the '70s but maybe '80s. A single LP, not the two-fer

Interesting -- didn't know it was ever issued as a standalone with both titles.

12. "I Can't Reach You" (The Who Sell Out, 1967) 18 votes, 384 points
http://therawgallery.com/en/wp-content/uploads/DMontgomery-Who01.jpg
http://youtu.be/piSE4TTHzzw

xp - Wiki sez the 11-track US release is from 1974. Don't know when they started printing the proper album name though

"I Can't Reach You" is a jam, such a lovely chorus, vocal harmonies in terrific form. It's a pop song that could stand on its own, which is rare on that album.

Is this the greatest song ever sung by Pete Townshend? It could be.

xp I don't understand this point of view.

Tattoo, I Can't Reach You, Sunrise, I Can See For Miles, Armenia City in the Sky

which one of these doesn't stand on it's own?

last one for the day; tomorrow, THE TOP TEN!

11. "So Sad About Us" (A Quick One, 1966) 17 votes, 404 points, one #1 vote
http://images.45cat.com/the-jam-so-sad-about-us-polydor.jpg
http://youtu.be/dM0oOTrCVuQ

YES soooo good!

YESSSSSS always felt this was underrated/ignored. I guess not!

simultaneously invents and surpasses the Police

"So Sad About Us" should be top 5. such a fucken jam

"apologies mean nothing, when the damage is done"

this "Tattoo"/"I Can't Reach You"/"So Sad About Us" run is beautiful

yeah it's nice to get a heavy dose of that tender '60s Who

boy has the who shot up in my estimation after re-listening to it all (i didn't vote, too busy when the submissions were due). maybe it's just that i always neglected them in favor of the beatles and the stones so they are like an untapped wellspring...incredible! i still don't know how you have a band with everyone soloing at the same time--my jaw still reliably drops when i listen to them

soloing at the same time, all through every song i meant

Iago otm -- it kind of occured to me today that they found a way to be four distinct personalities in their actual *music* as much as irl. It's like a balls-out rock n roll...jazz band? or something. Not even jazz though.

I'm a huge Beatles fan, huge Stones fan..equally as huge Who fan. But as much as I think about what the Beatles were doing when the Stones were doing their thing, and vice versa, and bands like the Beach Boys...I never think of the Who as occupying the same timeframe. Like they had their own parallel universe because they were just so, I dunno...rarified? Not to overstate 'omg the who rulez' kind of thing. But I guess, I dunno...I think of them like I think of Pink Floyd. There's them. And there's the rest.

excellent points all, vegemitegrrl. they definitely seem like Art to me now, and I never really got around to appreciating them fully...like Who Sell Out, that's as good as piece of pop art as Lichtenstein or Rosenquist. Totally sui generis, as you astutely pointed out!

Listened to Quadrophenia on the drive home from work, got all overwhelmed with love all over again, lol

Great girl group harmonies in "So Sad About Us". That song could be a Phil Spector hit. Maximum R&B, Mod Soul.

o shit a Bangles version, I would wet myself

sorry for hyperbole, I probably wouldn't actually wet myself

but I would dig it thoroughly

(with mild and discreet incontinence, lol)

"But I guess, I dunno...I think of them like I think of Pink Floyd. There's them. And there's the rest."

bbbbut the move, and the small faces, and the attack, and the pretty things, and the creation and all the other amazing mod and freakbeat bands in the u.k.! the who were at the top of the heap, but there were lots of people making who music.

I know, I know...goddamn details ruining my grand sweeping statements

The Smoke had a couple of Who-like hits. "My Friend Jack" is pretty nice. Nobody really has the dynamics of the Who though, they are a rock orchestra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EEANTrFJqA

bbbbut the move, and the small faces, and the attack, and the pretty things, and the creation and all the other amazing mod and freakbeat bands in the u.k.! the who were at the top of the heap, but there were lots of people making who music.

― scott seward, Tuesday, September 11, 2012 10:28 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

what was the timeline of that stuff anyway? i've always been curious how much The Who was building on their contemporaries and how much they were just taking that American R&B and rock'n'roll source material and just totally inventing their approach to it. and it's pretty fascinating how later on, when the big bands seemed fairly competitive and aware of each other, The Who never seemed to really follow anyone's lead -- they seemed to respond to the Beatles' innovations by just going for even more audaciously original ideas.

Beginning to lose hope that I Don't Mind will chart. It's all about the solo and the stabbing "I know, yes I know" bit

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Tuesday, September 11, 2012 4:28 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah, am bummed out that too. LOVE the longer take on the last My Generation reissue.

I should probably put this in a Pussy Galore thread, but just realized earlier today (at least I think) that the Jon Spencer bit at the start of Understand Me on "Dial M" is straight up inspired by "Pete Dialogue" from the 30 Years of Maximum R&B thing. Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe this is common knowledge...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjumawGYmwg

Iago otm -- it kind of occured to me today that they found a way to be four distinct personalities in their actual *music* as much as irl. It's like a balls-out rock n roll...jazz band? or something. Not even jazz though.

I'm a huge Beatles fan, huge Stones fan..equally as huge Who fan. But as much as I think about what the Beatles were doing when the Stones were doing their thing, and vice versa, and bands like the Beach Boys...I never think of the Who as occupying the same timeframe. Like they had their own parallel universe because they were just so, I dunno...rarified? Not to overstate 'omg the who rulez' kind of thing. But I guess, I dunno...I think of them like I think of Pink Floyd. There's them. And there's the rest.

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, September 11, 2012 9:52 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Great points. I think this is why they were so highly respected by their contemporaries. They weren't blues purists, nor were they psychedelic, but bands in those camps totally envied the Who. The Beatles tried to emulate/beat them with "Helter Skelter"; the Stones put them on the Circus when the Who were at their lowest commercial ebb in the UK -- only to completely upstage the Stones; much of Piper At The Gates Of Dawn would be inconceivable without "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere"; and as Jeff Beck said, "There is no one who ever held a candle to them. Townshend, he’s not a finicky fiddly tiddley guitar player like I was, and like Eric and Jimmy were -we were always a bit fairy arsed about it - he was orchestral and he was this windmill orchestra with a couple of howitzer cannons on the side. They were too good."

what was the timeline of that stuff anyway?

The Who seemed to be first out of the gate -- "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere" was May '65, before any of those other bands had a record out (Small Faces' "What'cha Gonna Do About It" was next, in August).

That's a great quote from Beck.

yeah i'm not debating who was first or best - though the maximum r&b of the pretty things started coming out in 1964 (and the prettys were very influential in the u.k. just as a live band for the punch and heft of their sound early on) and there were other mod con artists recording in 64 as well and the stones and "you really got me" and all that - just saying that there were a lot of contemporary who-like artists. people who stole from the who's sound for sure but everyone stole from everyone. when i think of the who i think of all kinds of bands. but i also understand the feeling that they were alone in their who-ness. the punk loner vibe. love the who vibe. they were nuts.

kinks and the who actually i think of as being kinda separate from the world around them. and early on kinda effortlessly inventing shit that people would mimic for years to come.

anyway, this is one of my fave who things. american b-side version. like it better than the album version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU7t9fiZ7IU

Actually, Townshend has gone on record a bunch of times saying he stole the "I Can't Explain" riff from "You Really Got Me" (even though it's not the exact same thing, but still, decent of him to cop to it). And he said something about how he, Beck, and Dave Davies will go to their graves never agreeing on who started using feedback first. So yeah, there was definitely a lot of everyone-stealing-from-everyone. (also, the Eddie Philips/Jimmy Page Guitar Bow Battle)