"Who' Next" - Classic or Dud?

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I keep trying but it does nothing for me ???

you ?

― grapple (grapple), Monday, 13 March 2006 22:57 (7 years ago) Permalink

give up, it's a dud.

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

Search: The fiddle at the end of "Baba O'Reilly"
Destroy: Everything else.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:01 (7 years ago) Permalink

shoved down everyone's throat via classic rock radio…not dud, tho…just too much gravitas, not enuff fun…

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:02 (7 years ago) Permalink

Yer all world class dopes. World class dopes tend not to like "Who's Next", 'cause it's really good.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:03 (7 years ago) Permalink

Ian, are you ready for the full wrath of Stormy upon his inevitable arrival on this thread?

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:03 (7 years ago) Permalink

what would CSI spin-offs be without it?

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:11 (7 years ago) Permalink

Most of The Who's material grows on me. I still consider "The Who Sellout" their definitive pinnacle, followed not too closely by "Tommy", but "Who's Next" is classic as well.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:14 (7 years ago) Permalink

Great instrumental album marred by idiotic singing/lyrics.

The synth/organ stuff is especially classic.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:16 (7 years ago) Permalink

"Who's Next" is a classic album; every song's topnotch except for "Love Ain't for Keeping," which is merely good.

― happy jack, Monday, 13 March 2006 23:18 (7 years ago) Permalink

The part I referred to as a fiddle is actually a synth, no?

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:20 (7 years ago) Permalink

I never need to hear it again.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:21 (7 years ago) Permalink

The beginning of Baba O'Reilly -- totally classic. Same with Won't Get Fooled Again up until the part where that putz goes "YEEEAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:22 (7 years ago) Permalink

Baba BRO'Reilly

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:24 (7 years ago) Permalink

Half of it's amazing. Half of it's incredible crap that only works when you're so fucking full of drugs that you think ol' Pete's profound.

― js (honestengine), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:25 (7 years ago) Permalink

I should add that I like the singles off the album...obviously won't get fooled again is a great song....i'm just realising/wondering if the Who are just a singles band - will have to check "Sell Out" though

― grapple (grapple), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:31 (7 years ago) Permalink

I heard one song off that album way too much, as reported briefly here

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:40 (7 years ago) Permalink

Love Ain't For Keeping.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:49 (7 years ago) Permalink

two and a half good songs (baba, fooled, first half of behind), pretty bad otherwise, still better than tommy (which has NO good songs, sorry).

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 13 March 2006 23:51 (7 years ago) Permalink

The horn parts in "My Wife"

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:20 (7 years ago) Permalink

Sure, you've heard "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" too many times (damn you, CSI!) its undeniably classic, easily the Who's OPO. If nothing else, for Entwistle's best song "My Wife." (pleasant beat me to it)

― Mitya (mitya), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:21 (7 years ago) Permalink

"Bargain"!

I love this album but I wouldn't try & sell it to anybody in a million years. I can see how people find it boring.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

"entwistle's best song" is not very high praise!

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:25 (7 years ago) Permalink

I still like "My Wife", but overall it's one of my least favorite Who albums. It kind of sounds like a big SUV commercial these days.

― darin (darin), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:26 (7 years ago) Permalink

I'm amazed at how low The Who's stock has fallen. It wasn't long ago they occupied a clear #3 in the classic rock canon, behind The Beatles and Rolling Stones. Now they might not even be in the top ten.

Who's Next is an all-time classic, by the way.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:27 (7 years ago) Permalink

"entwistle's best song" is not very high praise!
Don't let Colin M see this.

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:32 (7 years ago) Permalink

i actually do still love the who - their best stuff (early singles, sell out, "i can see for miles," "fooled") means more to me than almost any other 'classic'-era rock. but they're easily the most inconsistent band i've ever liked.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

"Bargain"!
I love this album but I wouldn't try & sell it to anybody in a million years. I can see how people find it boring.

-- Mark (r-...), March 13th, 2006 7:23 PM.

ditto. I love it. I get sick of some of the songs like anyone else, but now and then one of them hits me like a ton of bricks. I used to hate "Bargain" but it might be my favorite now.

― Alex in Baltimore (Alex in Baltimore), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:35 (7 years ago) Permalink

So OTM. It is weird. I guess a lot of it is The Who didn't grow old gracefully next to those other bands (Townshend arrested for child porn, among other things), plus their back catalog was never treated as something with value. Who records have always been seen as something you pick up cheap at a flea market, where the Beatles and Stones make every reissue seem like a big event.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

Thinking about it now it's probably the repeated reunion tours with no new material. If they'd broken up after "It's Hard," bad as that album was, people would still be talking about them. Serious music fans under 30 will still rep for the Meaty Beaty-era singles, but the band may as well have ended with Live at Leeds as far as they are concerned.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

Who By Numbers used to mean a lot to me but I haven't talked about it w/ anybody for 10 years at least. It's like it doesn't exist now.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 00:47 (7 years ago) Permalink

Best song on this one is "The Song Is Over", great piano line, love the shift to C with "Pure and Easy" reference at the end. "Baba O'Riley" is of course classic. I always loved "Love Ain't for Keeping" as well--short and sweet. I think the least one on this album is "Goin' Mobile".

I like Who By Numbers more, overall.

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 01:28 (7 years ago) Permalink

Such a great band, and such a weirdly flawed band--almost every song/record I love by them has some kind of "yes, but..." aspect to it.

Entwistle's best song = "Heaven and Hell," no contest.

― Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 01:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

Agreed.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 02:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

Jeez, this is real kill yr idols stuff right here. Poor The Who. What's next, we tie Elvis' corpse to a lamppost and beat it like a pinata?

― M. Biondi (M. Biondi), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 02:07 (7 years ago) Permalink

The less Daltrey gets to emote, the better. Douglas is right: this album is packed with great songs, yet most of the time it makes me wince.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 02:09 (7 years ago) Permalink

What's next, we tie Elvis' corpse to a lamppost and beat it like a pinata?
I believe this is what John Lennon referred to as being "strapped to the throne like Elvis Beatle."

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 02:35 (7 years ago) Permalink

Wait a minute? Didn't we do this album before? As part of the Mike Costello Lost Classic series?

― The Day The World Turned Dayglo Redd (Ken L), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 03:41 (7 years ago) Permalink

here's the thing about the 'orrible OO…I don't think wimmen like them, largely. hold them up to LZ, to whom they have the most parallels, lineup-wise, wimmen will always choose LZ.

Plus, cause of Moon's disinterest in/inability to keep straight time, you can't fuck to the Who. Whereas LZ, via the baddest, solidest, most-deliciously behind the beat englishman to ever put wood to pigskin, well…

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 03:46 (7 years ago) Permalink

Some classic songs (five or six I remember) but the overall message of the album is so packed with classic rock baggage that it's hard to take as a whole. Pete Townsend was still writing the lyrics and Daltrey still singing the song like civilization depended on rock to pull it through the dreary 1970s.

― Cunga (Cunga), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 03:50 (7 years ago) Permalink

I recommend not googling Veronica Moser.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 03:59 (7 years ago) Permalink

Mark's comments really OTM. I went through a huge Who phase about 10 years ago, kept the CD's but yeah, they just sit on the shelf, mostly, and I didn't expect them to. Who By Numbers used to mean a whole lot to me too. I even got into Townshend's guru Meher Baba back then, but somewhere along the way I lost faith in Meher Baba, too, and became an atheist, so even that part isn't the same.

When I do pull them out I have a bit of a preference for parts of It's Hard. "I've Never Known War" kills me every time. Best anti-war song ever, I think. As for Who's Next, it's hard to imagine listening to it from beginning to end. "Going Mobile" is my favourite, though.

― All The Furniture Is In The Garage (Bimble...), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 04:59 (7 years ago) Permalink

If they'd broken up after "It's Hard," bad as that album was, people would still be talking about them.

I think this sums up why they have had such a brutal critical reappraisal over the last ten or so years.

I, also, never need to hear this record EVER AGAIN.

― sleeve (sleeve), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 05:26 (7 years ago) Permalink

" but they're easily the most inconsistent band i've ever liked."
Yes. Live at Leeds and Meaty, Beaty are about the only albums that I can recommend wholeheartedly.
Though, to be fair, I really blame the Beatles for The Who's flailings. Trying to keep up instead of realizing that not every experiment from the Beatles was a success to be emulated. Part of that might have been because Townshend was always so fucking mercinary about the band (which makes ponderous tripe like The Song Is Over so insultingly shallow), and because he always felt like he was aiming for a slot in Led Zep by ego alone.
Fucking rock opera? Lots of people argue that punk was a reaction against Led Zep, but I can't imagine a better starting point than fuckin' Tommy.
Anyway, in a saner alternate dimension, Tommy was a rock opera by Ted Nugent, probably about a taxidermist that humped his displays or something.

― js (honestengine), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 05:34 (7 years ago) Permalink

Punk was hugely inspired by Quadrophenia, don't kid yourself. Hilarious exaggeration of aesthetic standards on this thread. Yeah, The Who suck, yeah right.

― happy jack, Tuesday, 14 March 2006 06:10 (7 years ago) Permalink

Greatest hard-rock/prog LP ever. (Tho "Getting In Tune" and "My Wife" are pretty gawdawful. And I admit that I myself haven't played it since the '90s.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 06:13 (7 years ago) Permalink

i like "My Wife" - in fact, when I see this record in a bar jukebox, that's the only one I pick. (what's the beef - misogyny? i actually have never tried to listen to the lyrics) Sell Out is undeniable, rest of the catalog, tread carefully.......

― timmy tannin (pompous), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 06:17 (7 years ago) Permalink

The Who have three good albums. My Generation (the original one), Live At Leeds, and Meaty Beaty. Who's Next is NOT one of them!!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 06:21 (7 years ago) Permalink

To me it's just as simple as, the best songs on it have gotten worn to the ground and so when I flip to it in my record box, I at most pause, think it over, and go "Ehhhh." The only thing on it that excites me is of course "Goin' Mobile," which is tremendous fun and untainted by the level of radio saturation-bombing that's been visited on Baba O and even Bargain at this point... I can't really hold any of this against the record but it means I'm not going to put it on. I should give "Sell Out" another try, I've had it for a year and a half and put it on only once. Got distracted by Bridge Over Troubled Water, which I got at the same yard sale...

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 06:29 (7 years ago) Permalink

How much do ILMers listen to the radio, especially classic rock radio, that they're sick of jams like "Won't Get Fooled Again"? I thought most everyone here iTuned My Bloody Valentine, Annie, Guru Guru, and J Dee.

― happy jack, Tuesday, 14 March 2006 06:41 (7 years ago) Permalink

How much do ILMers listen to the radio, especially classic rock radio, that they're sick of jams like "Won't Get Fooled Again"?

I listen to the radio when not driving my own car. Mostly oldies radio but classic rock is on the presets usually.

― Cunga (Cunga), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 06:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

"'"entwistle's best song" is not very high praise!'

"Don't let Colin M see this."

Saw it, wasn't offended, Douglas was absolutely right anyway (Heaven and Hell).

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 08:02 (7 years ago) Permalink

Yes, Dr. Casino, you should definitely play Sell Out some more.

― Let's get this clear...I am NOT technology (Bimble...), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 08:26 (7 years ago) Permalink

It's the first "Who" album as we know them. Juggernaughts, massive rigs, 4 people.

It did indeed 'born' the whole Classic Rock idiom.

That's how good it was.

I missed out on the whole "Who" love at the time, and got the 2CD version in a competition. And it's a big marvellous thing. Sure, I love "Who Sellout" more, but that is only to be expected, it's more human and has fragile moments and out and out comedy.

I admire it without necessarily loving it. (I certainly like it well enough)

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 09:13 (7 years ago) Permalink

For an album that kickstarted 70s rock it still sounds surprisingly lean, mean and fresh. Though had Townsend's Lifehouse project survivied intact no doubt we'd have a mostly unlistenable self-indulgent triple album, of which these would be highlights. No point comparing this record unfavourably with the early singles - the who's greatest work. It does lack that comedy. But context is all: there's probably a conscious irony in bellowing out 'Teenage Wasteland' at a field full of stoned rockers.
At the time, no-one in a rock band was sequencing synthesisers like that; what is surprising is that it's done so well.
I love the oo, flawed beast though they were, and this is one of their best.

― Craig Kenny (Dr X O'Skeleton), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 10:21 (7 years ago) Permalink

It's like a musical version of The Tomorrow People.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 10:24 (7 years ago) Permalink

I don't like the who

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 10:29 (7 years ago) Permalink

I never need to hear it again.

-- Ned Raggett

but is a classic album just wish they hadn't sold out to everyone possible...

On a side note is Mark, Ryan?

― BeeOK (boo radley), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 10:35 (7 years ago) Permalink

Saying that Who's Next isn't funny enough (despite "My Wife" and "Goin' Mobile" . . .) implicates all sorts of great albums--Loveless, Tago Mago, Unknown Pleasures, Pink Moon, the list goes on. Are The Who supposed to be like the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band or something?

― happy jack, Tuesday, 14 March 2006 13:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

"Tago Mago" is quite funny in places ("Peking O")

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 13:59 (7 years ago) Permalink

well, the oo do have that reputation, jack, as your name testifies. I don't see it as a bad thing at all. It sits alongside the serious stuff, so on Who by Numbers you have the 'Carry on' humour of Squeeze Box, followed by townsend crying into the bottom of a glass over the course of several songs.

― dr x o'skeleton, Tuesday, 14 March 2006 14:00 (7 years ago) Permalink

Humour is a very important part of The Who.

My Wife is funny, but not poignant. Heaven and Hell is funny and poignant. Postcard is funny but not that poignant.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 14:02 (7 years ago) Permalink

John Entwistle never wrote a serious song in his life, did he?

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 14:05 (7 years ago) Permalink

Classic, and the last Who album I enjoy start to finish, though I like some tracks on the LPs after this one. On the other hand, outside of listening to the LP in one sitting, I'd be happy to never hear "Behind Blue Eyes" again.

I don't consider "Getting In Tune" bad at all, at the least for the part where Roger sings the "right in on you..." part, and Entwhistle and Moon kick things up a few notches, turning what was a ballad into a heavy rocker.

― James, Tuesday, 14 March 2006 14:15 (7 years ago) Permalink

hey british ILMers…

since classic rock radio has no analogue in the U.K. (or does it? not sure), did '70s-era "rock and roll is IMPORTANT" 'Oo get shoved down yr throats?

i ask cuz i know lots of english ex-pats who never heard LZ—or at least were disinclined to check 'em out— until they moved to the US, since punk and new wave was opposed to dinoaur-ism.

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 14:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

hey british ILMers…

since classic rock radio has no analogue in the U.K. (or does it? not sure), did '70s-era "rock and roll is IMPORTANT" 'Oo get shoved down yr throats?

i ask cuz i know lots of english ex-pats who never heard LZ—or at least were disinclined to check 'em out— until they moved to the US, since punk and new wave was opposed to dinoaur-ism.

and Entwistle wrote a song for the 'Oo called "When I was a boy" that was "serious."

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 14:24 (7 years ago) Permalink

since classic rock radio has no analogue in the U.K. (or does it? not sure)

It doesn't

did '70s-era "rock and roll is IMPORTANT" 'Oo get shoved down yr throats?

No reason for it, after punk

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 14:28 (7 years ago) Permalink

A few years ago, when I was in college and there were tons of "mod" punk kids, early Who stuff definitely had status near or next to The Stones. I don't know if that's changed now.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 15:04 (7 years ago) Permalink

On a side note is Mark, Ryan?

-- BeeOK

Not sure if this was addressed to me, but if so, Mark is Mark, not Ryan.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 16:12 (7 years ago) Permalink

I agree with a lot of what's been said here. I don't think that The Who's back catalogue has been treated with respect in the way The Beatles or The Stones has. Despite the parallel in events with LZ at the end of the 70's/early 80's. LZ split and that was that The Who have soldiered on for the best part of 25 years in one shape or form. Dylan and Bowie have managed to put out some material of note post '79 and I'd probably say that the recent attention around Pink Floyd probably puts The Who behind all of them.

Back to Who's Next, It's patchy and I think it's status as the first classic rock album puts it in a bad light but a lot of it isn't worth recommending. I'd say the essential Who is Live At Leeds, The Who Sell Out and that compliation from 2002. After that the orginal My Generation. I think you had to be there for Tommy and Quadrophenia, they are even more patchy than Who's Next

― MitchellStirling (MitchellStirling), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 17:02 (7 years ago) Permalink

One of Townshend's demo/archive/Scoop albums has the extended-synth, bandless version of "Baba O'Reilly" on it and it's pretty outstanding. Like Pink Floyd, Townshend approaches the Moog and VCS3 as pure sound-generators without any "proper keyboard training" getting in the way.

As for Who's Next it's both classic and dud. Past 1967, Townshend's failures are generally pretty interesting and the sinking of Lifehouse results in a pretty outstanding rock album without all the conceptual blubber of hippie mysticism weighing it down. I'd dump some of the tracks with a couple of the Odds And Sods leftovers (really just "Pure And Easy" and "Naked Eye") though.

Who's Next also marks the point where the studio version of The Who completely separates from the live version of The Who. It's not surprising, Townshend has everything he needs to feed his maniac pursuit to whatever/wherever, but the one thing he can't do is get the live sound down of the 70s-era Who. Too bad, the live versions of "Won't Get...," "Baba...," and "My Wife" on The Kids Are Alright are still U & K and there's a live take of "Bargain" out there that's just amazing.

― The Equator Lounge (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 19:32 (7 years ago) Permalink

6 years pass...

I think the biggest reason the Who haven't aged well is because of all the falsetto. It's terrible, and sucks all the masculine power out of every song. A shame, because they're pretty good otherwise.

― Poliopolice, Thursday, 6 September 2012 05:23 (8 months ago) Permalink

Where does he sing in falsetto?

― timellison, Thursday, 6 September 2012 05:36 (8 months ago) Permalink

i've always called this album a shit sandwich on golden bread.
"baba o'rielly" and "won't get fooled" again are amazing. the rest... shit.

― BringTheAuBonPain, Thursday, 6 September 2012 05:49 (8 months ago) Permalink

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