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

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)

xp Yeah, love that version -- Al Kooper on organ!

interesting how My Generation didn't suffer the Whole Lotta Love/Hey Jude/Satisfaction syndrome. it will be top 10

I didn't vote for "My Generation" but I think a saving grace it has over the others you mention is the Live at Leeds version. also the original single is very short

I've been meaning to ask: were/are Medac and Odorono actual real product names or were they made up for that album?

According to the Who Liner Notes page (highly recommended, btw), Odorono was a real product:
http://www.thewho.net/linernotes/WhoSellOut.htm

whoops, trying image again:
http://www.thewho.net/linernotes2/odo-ro-noad.jpg

10. "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere" (single, 1965) 17 votes, 420 points, two #1 votes
http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/images/equipment/guitar/19680720_va_pt_02.jpg
http://youtu.be/0hYjsOqOYHo

NOTHIN GETS IN MY WAY

NOT EVEN LOCKED DOORS

this is exciting. some big songs will be left out

I was listening to my old shot-to-hell cassette of The Kids Are Alright in the car the other day and "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere" came on, all warped and degraded sounding, it was just so perfect and I was like "what kind of jackass cuts this from their ballot at the last second to throw a sympathy vote to 'I Need You'?" I'm a dumbass. :(

Hey, it was cool to see votes for "I Need You" (you weren't the only one)! That's a great song, and very underrated.

I didn't vote for My Generation cuz yeah I'm sick of it. also every time I hear it I remember the anecdote about how Roger adopted the stuttering delivery as a joke on one of the engineers (who had a stutter) which just seems cruel

also I figured everyone else would vote for it

Fear not!

Another salient aspect of "My Generation" is Daltrey's delivery: an angry and frustrated stutter. Various stories exist as to the reason for this distinct delivery. One is that the song began as a slow "talking" blues number without the stutter (in the 1970s it was sometimes performed as such, but with the stutter, as "My Generation Blues"), but after being inspired by John Lee Hooker's "Stuttering Blues", Townshend reworked the song into its present form. Another reason is that it was suggested to Daltrey that he stutter to sound like a British mod on speed. It is also proposed, albeit less frequently, that the stutter was introduced to give the group a framework for implying an expletive in the lyrics: "Why don't you all fff... fade away!" However, producer Shel Talmy insisted it was simply "one of those happy accidents" that he thought they should keep. Roger Daltrey has also commented that he had not rehearsed the song prior to the recording and he was unable to hear his own voice through the monitors. The stutter came about as he tried to fit the lyrics to the music as best he could, and the band decided it worked well enough to keep. The BBC initially refused to play "My Generation" because it did not want to offend people who stutter, but it reversed its decision after the song became more popular.

"I Need You" was one of my last cuts. now I feel bad.