Before I get POLLED: the WHO voting and nominations thread (ilm artist poll #25: deadline Friday, September 7)

Anything credited to the Who, or the High Numbers, is eligible

what about the first three or four albums by the jam? do those count as who albums?

OK, this one I'm going mostly straight canon. By which I mean, Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy.

yeah I doubt I'm going to be throwing up too many deep cuts high on my ballot but we'll see

the mention of Zep and the Stones reminds me of how thoroughly weird the Who are in comparison to a lot of their contemporaries. Townsend's obsession with technology and religion (synthesizers! meher baba!), the huge, left-field conceptual pieces (a pinball opera! LIFEHOUSE!), their lack of any allegiance to musical roots (Zep and the Stones were always super-conscious of their folk and blues idols, the Who had already jettisoned any traces of that by the dawn of the 70s). They're really such an oddball frankenstein of elements.

they also strike me as more neurotic than a lot of their peers, like there's this constant tension between wanting to be badasses and also wanting to be taken seriously and also just being proto-emo emotional wrecks that informs everything they do.

I've been re-listening to the first album and while it def gives a Beatles vibe, they just sound so much more, I dunno...dangerous, with the insane Moon drumbeat and the hardcore guitar. Also struck by how Daltrey's voice is really quite smooth and beautiful at times, like in a Gerry and the Pacemakers way. He could have totally pulled off Ferry Cross The Mersey, lol

yeah, the Who are freaks

my ballot might be all about The Who Sell Out and Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy

what was the first Who song you guys ever heard? Or remember hearing?

Mine was Substitute. For some reason that was the only Who song my local AM radio station ever played.

I remember My Generation and I Can See For Miles being on some comp advertised on TV (might have been Freedom Rock in the case of the latter)

I won't front--my intro was Bob Saget singing "My Generation" w/Jessie & The Rippers on that one ep of "Full House".

They appeared live on BBC2 at Charlton, I think the first song was "Young Man Blues"

But, I'm sure I knew "My Generation" from the year it came out, probably.

process question: will ballots that do not include "love ain't for keeping" be counted? Y/N

(i assume N on the basis of clearly crazy and/or trolling)

May well have been "Radio London (Days of the Week)," if that counts, off the copy of Sell Out I found in my parents' basement pile. Had no idea what to make of it, and the bathtub photo on the cover was gross.

this is insane

The album has now been re-issued in many countries and remastered several times using tapes from different sessions. The master tapes for the Olympic sessions are believed to be lost or destroyed. Video game publisher Harmonix had previously announced that Who's Next would be released as downloadable, playable content for the music video game series Rock Band. However, this never came to fruition, since it was discovered that many of the master tapes to the album were missing, as confirmed by Townshend.

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

soooooo badass

Totally; The Who were oddballs, freaks, jokers, four mismatched personalities who somehow became the greatest band ever to grace a stage. Even the debut is all over the place, glorious blues guitar on I Don't Mind, heavy duty riffage on the Ox, songs about divorce settlements and speech impediments. Then they got wilder....

However, this never came to fruition, since it was discovered that many of the master tapes to the album were missing, as confirmed by Townshend.

This is the case with "Bargain" and a couple of other songs. But the master tapes for "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Goin' Mobile," and "Behind Blue Eyes," at least, are safe and sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnVjpymrbIY

Anything credited to the Who, or the High Numbers, is eligible (including solo Pete songs on Who albums).

does this include covers?

Yep!

sweet

This is fascinating stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rto0OIAWtAI&feature=related

what was the first Who song you guys ever heard?

"Can't Explain." My dad played it for me, I think to show all the songs that stole from "Louie Louie."

Probably "I Can See for Miles"

i don't understand how anyone under the age of 60 would be able to pinpoint the first Who song they heard. they've just always been there.

Giving it a little more thought, the first Who song I heard was probably Elton John's cover of "Pinball Wizard." But my memory keeps telling me the first Who recording was "Miles."

I was trying to answer the question more in terms of, what was the first song I heard where I was aware that I was listening to a band called the Who. Which, as I said, was quite likely putting on that copy of Sell Out. I had undoubtedly heard Who songs on the car radio before that, but I would have been too young to have any idea who they were.

Couldn't post this earlier:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtE8CUDTuk4

in that sense, "Baba" was prob the first song i consciously identified as a Who song. (xpost)

Votes for "Cobwebs and Strange" and "Heinz Baked Beans" must be counted together, otherwise this song may be deprived of its rightful position at number 1.

um, they not on the same album, or by the same writer. Also,

My sincere sympathies for the loss of your damn ears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7lZS5AnAsI

Or his?

OK, that's the wrong one.

Basically, look for "Eastern Journey" by Tony Crombie, off the "Man from Interpol" TV soundtrack album.

I thought it was on Youtube, it's more likely to be on Spotify.

How does everyone think votes for "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "See Me, Feel Me" should be counted? The latter is part of the former, and is not a separate track on Tommy. But "See Me" was issued as a single, and often played in concert without the "We're Not Gonna Take It" part preceding it.

Good question. I think you have to count them as one track, really. See Me is pretty much embedded in We're Not Gonna Take It. I guess unless a voter really specifies otherwise.

Curious about thoughts on Sister Disco. I'll probably vote for it, but I wonder if it's seen here as some kind of rockist rant?

I better go back and check that. I voted for "We're Not Gonna Take It" just assuming it stood alone--if "See Me, Feel Me," which I don't particularly like, breaks it up, I'd want to change that vote.

I've received votes for both, but if there are no objections, I'm happy to separate them out.

I think the best thing they ever did was the live "My Generation" off of Leeds. That's some unbelievably heavy stuff.

re: "Sister Disco," Pete wrote/demoed it in 1976, predating both Saturday Night Fever and (iirc) the general "disco sucks!" sentiment among the rock audience. Dave Marsh has said it's not about disco music, Townshend has alternately said it is and it isn't. But once it was released in 1978, its fate was likely sealed.

I like it. I think Townshend's done better with similar subject matter, but Daltrey sells it. Somewhat dishearteningly, Entwistle plays exactly what's on Townshend's demo, as does Moon. Oddly, the version with Rabbit (keyboardist) and Kenney Jones from 1979 rehearsals (on the 30 Years of Maximum R&B Live video) sounds more "Who-like" than the studio version.

If there's enough votes for the Leeds "My Generation," I'll count it separate. It's such a different beast from the original.

xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG1HJdEuCn0

Don't know if I need to sell the virtues of this song on ILM, but it makes a strong showing on my ballot. Beautifully segued into the "Moon at the Bag of Nails" jingle as an extra on the Sellout CD

Somewhat dishearteningly, Entwistle plays exactly what's on Townshend's demo, as does Moon.

All Moon could manage at that point, I guess. The stories of the recording of that album are sad.

The funny thing is, Moon is good-to-great on the 1977 Kilburn live DVD -- WAY better than anything he does on Who Are You. I think it wasn't the physical demands of drumming as much as Moon was frustrated at not being able to come up with exciting new shit for Townshend's songs. Plus, Glyn Johns would try to force Moon out of his cliches by doing things like taking away all his cymbals, adding to the frustration, and probably not doing a lot for Moon's self-confidence.

what was the first Who song you guys ever heard?

I was a kid when "Who Are You" was released. Since I only listened to (American) top-40 radio back then, it was the first time I'd heard of The Who. I thought it was a new band who thought it was clever to name a song after their band, or vice versa.

Harmonix had previously announced that Who's Next would be released as downloadable, playable content for the music video game series Rock Band. However, this never came to fruition, since it was discovered that many of the master tapes to the album were missing

You'd be astonished how many master tapes (and sometimes even the mixdowns) for great records have gone missing over the years.

Yeah Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks was missing forever - they found it when they moved from Virgin to Universal this year.

And on a related note, one I'm reminded of with the recent passing of Neil Armstrong, NASA lost the tape of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Pathetic.

Right, but that one was part of the cover-up.

The Who's version of this, recorded for Lifehouse/Who's Next, was supposed to be included on a reissue...until the multitrack master disintegrated on the reel. No safety copies/mixdowns have yet been located.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cSb1F4aZNc

does anybody else find Tommy kind of a chore to sit through...?

this oughta bum everybody out a bit eh

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

For the results thread, I'm thinking of starting the roll-out Saturday afternoon, but I'm happy to wait until Monday morning for those who primarily peruse ILX while procrastinating at work. Thoughts?

― Sunn? Sunn? It's your cousin, Marvin O))) (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, September 8, 2012 12:48 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

i think it'd be great if you at least ran something over the weekend -- maybe the results of the albums/least favorite tracks polls and/or a little bit of the main poll results. how many songs are going to be in the rundown?

Some weekend results would be tasty. I hope Adam B sent his ballot in time.

There's 120 songs, so I'll count down the top 50. I'll start with the worst and albums today, and the bottom 10 tomorrow.

sweet!

Yeah got mine in last night at 1am, thanks for the extension!

wahoo!

*drinks a quart of brandy to get ready for the gig*

I listened to "Dogs" 5 times this morning already. What an awesome throw-away song.

So...just to make sure I'm doing this correctly, instead of using a different scale for the album points, I used the same scale as the track points, but only using positions 1-5 (e.g., 1:40, 2:36, 3:33, 4:30, 5:28). Since I'm beyond hopeless in math, can someone please confirm that this will result in an accurate tally?

As long as the #1s get more points than the #2s et cetera, should be fine. I used 10-7-5-3-1, but those were just numbers out of hat that I didn't want to be too big because I did albums and least-faves by hand instead of spreadsheet. It seemed to me that the more space there is between the point values, the less likely it would be for ties to happen, but I don't know if there's any statistical reason for that to be true.

For me, it works even better for albums, although that would vary from person to person. It's hard to weight these things, but I'm pretty sure the distance between my favourite and fifth-favourite songs would be much smaller than between my favourite and fifth-favourite albums; 40/28 would come closer to working for albums than for songs.

yeah i think it might be good to have more than 2-4 points' difference between each spot on the list but in general it should be fine whichever way you do it (xpost)

Cool. Yeah, the point totals make sense, just wasn't sure if there was something I was missing. I will start soon with the 10 least-liked tunes...

There will be blood.

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