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

it's a ROCK OPERA, having recurring motifs and little dips in the action seems like part of the design. like it or not, you have to almost deliberately misunderstand the nature of the album to call it "underwritten" just because it's not one self-contained pop song after another. (xpost)

I know its part of the design I just don't think it works all the way through

methinks the slow repetitive bits just amplify the amazing standout bits.

My first exposure to Tommy was the film, and I heard the soundtrack album months before hearing the Who's version. I was struck by how spare most of the arrangements were; being used to the bombast of the soundtrack, hearing long solo-acoustic interludes was downright shocking (Townshend has said these were Mingus-influenced). The fact that the motifs reoccur never struck me as filler, or that they were stuck for ideas (even if one of those motifs previously appeared, note-for-note, in "Rael"). It all made sense in context. I mean, "Christmas" would still be great without the "See Me, Feel Me" bit; but that part reinforces the narrative.

unrelated: how is it I have never even heard/heard of this Thunderclap Newman album before

Going back to the first Who song I heard, "Tommy" was issued the day after I was born, and my dad bought it the same day I was brought home from the hospital, so it is highly likely that "Tommy" was the first music I ever heard. This is probably why I have such strange feelings of familarity when I listen to the album.

my dads copy of Tommy is one of those ones built for multi disc turntables, but it wasn't very well labeled, which meant for years I was listening to sides A and D first, then B and C, which made the story even more confusing than it already is.

I've told this story before, but one of my best friends was a huge Who-hater — "you couldn't possibly make shit smell worse" was his line about them. It drove him nuts that bands that he loved (Sex Pistols and Ramones) did Who covers. We went to see Richard Thompson in Birmingham — he covered "Substitute" too and my friend was a 'grrrrrgoddammit!" Then we went to see Polvo one night and they played "Sparks"...it went over so well that they played "Sparks" again later in the same set! As we were leaving my friend said "ok I give up, I'm not saying another word about the fucking Who."

<3 this band. I can't really take their albums as wholes anymore except for Sell Out, which is a BEAST (seriously; I had to review things while picking 20 songs but I could sing Sell Out almost entirely from memory). Tommy as an album is pretty unlistenable and I'm surprised there are so many people who can tolerate it.

Tommy is a great teenage kid album, and probably doesn't need to be anything more. It's catchy as hell, seems profound at a certain age, etc. etc. I played the hell out of it when I was a teen, really don't want to hear it now, and that's just fine. Precursor to The Wall maybe? They kind of fill similar niches.

I think Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere, especially in early live versions would be my current pick for their best song, and everything else kind of follows from that. So Who as proto-Sonic Youth I guess...

I can't find the exact quote (I think it's in Victor Bockris' Up-Tight), but John Cale talked about coming back from Wales in 1966 with a bunch of singles, among them "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere" and the Small Faces' "Whatcha Gonna Do About It." He said to Lou Reed, "We've gotta put out a record soon, look at the jump these bands have on us!"

I don't know if VU ever actually caught up :) Anyway, I just played "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" back to back with SY's "She's In A Bad Mood" just to make sure I'm remembering right, and yeah, I'm remembering right. You could really get from the former to the latter while skipping about twenty years of musical developments...

It always bugged me that the Who seem to be written out of that history. I once played "AAA" for a friend who was a huge VU fan. He initially refused to believe it was the Who. He had no idea they ever did anything remotely like that.

more excited about voting in this than in the november elections

^^^ otm

There isn't a chance in hell it'll make it, so let me throw a little respect toward "Free Me" from Daltrey's McVicar soundtrack, which I believe is Daltrey/Townshend/Entwistle/Jones + horns. Screaming awesome rawkness.

I'm not 100% sure that's Townshend on "Free Me" (he's on other songs on the soundtrack), but it's definitely Entwistle and Jones. Not eligible for the poll, though, since it was released as a Daltrey record and not a Who record. Great song, though.

On the subject of solo Daltrey, this deserves a listen or ten:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG_q_qUqupw
His whole first solo record is great, really gives you a different perspective on his vocal approach.

I was curious as to whether Quadrophenia was available on DVD, and it came out exactly two days ago on Criterion.

http://cdn.hometheaterforum.com/c/c3/539x700px-LL-c3579e4b_quadfront.jpeg

Excellent film, needless to say.

Seven ballots so far! Are there more at the door?

my ballot probably won't change much over the next week but i'm probably gonna wait til near the deadline just to have an excuse to listen to lots and lots of Who music

I like the way you think. The only thing better than the Who is more Who.

I should have mine in over the weekend

Will probably send mine on the 6th.

I'm not 100% sure that's Townshend on "Free Me" (he's on other songs on the soundtrack), but it's definitely Entwistle and Jones. Not eligible for the poll, though, since it was released as a Daltrey record and not a Who record. Great song, though.

― Choogle Image Search (Tarfumes The Escape Goat)

http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-1365138-1213192183.jpeg

Of course they played up the presence of Pete/John/Kenney when the album came out (which undoubtedly helped it get a lot of airtime on New York's WNEW-FM), but I've never been able to find out who played on what. The back cover just lists the musicians:

Drums – Kenney Jones, Stuart Elliot, Dave Mattacks
Bass – John Entwistle, Herbie Flowers, Dave Markee
Guitar – Ricky Hitchcock, Billy Nicholls, Pete Townshend
Slide, Electric & Acoustic Guitar – Jo Partridge
Keyboards – John 'Rabbit' Bundrick
Synthesizer/Keyboards – Ken Freeman
Percussion – Frank Ricotti, Tony Carr
Flute – Ron Aspery
Producer, Arranged By, Conductor – Jeff Wayne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOdLEF7xXmI

"'tommy' has plenty of gorgeous moments but the material as a whole feels really drawn-out and underwritten."

I think some of the tracks like Sparks and others that sound huge live on Live at Leeds and other period live recordings just don't have that sound on Tommy

They had some other great tracks from the 69-70 period like Naked Eye, Pure and Easy or Heaven and Hell which were great songs, but they just didn't quite capture the song well in the studio, so the tunes never really became as well known like say the tracks on Who's Next.

Naked Eye is pretty spectacular.

That it is. Their first post-Tommy release was supposed to be an EP, recorded at Pete's garage/home studio, with "Postcard," "Now I'm A Farmer," "Water," "Naked Eye," and "I Don't Even Know Myself." The proposed title was 7 Foot Wide Car, 6 Foot Wide Garage. The material wouldn't fit on a 7", so it was scrapped, but the latter three songs were played live throughout 1970.

4 out of 5 tracks on the CD:

http://991.com/NewGallery/The-Who-Odds--Sods---Seal-476893.jpg

The Who definitely had combustible part to their sound that seemed to peak when in front of a crowd, at least at their live peak. The studio version of Naked Eye just doesn't take off like the live version. I have to wonder if that is part of the reason Townshend wanted to incorporate the captured audience on the original Lifehouse idea, as that feedback from the crowd seemed to bring that other gear out of the band.

There is definitely a potentially very good lost Who LP in those tunes from that came between Tommy and the remains that did not make it on to Who's Next, especially if you add in the single only "The Seeker".

never listened to Odds and Sods before. surprisingly great!

Weirdly, it's a perfect introduction to the Who, even without any hits.

why isn't the Seeker on here? god this discography is almost as bad as the Kinks

It's on the 1971 comp Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy, which was all singles (give or take a "Boris"). O&S, in its original incarnation (1974), was all previously-unreleased material (except for "I'm The Face," which was impossible to find anyway). The 1998 reissue doubles the original's length.

And yeah, the Who's discography is a mess. Some titles are remixed, some aren't, some reissues have bonus tracks that aren't included on subsequent reissues of the same title, the 2001 Deluxe Live At Leeds has some overdubbed vocals and shitty mastering...it's all a rich tapestry.

"The Seeker" was on Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy which was a real early and real good singles compilation from 1971.

x-post

some reissues have bonus tracks that aren't included on subsequent reissues of the same title

Yeah the deluxe version of Sell Out misses off 'Glow Girl' and 'Melancholia', those are the two best extra tracks!

True story: I've seen Roger Daltrey solo live, and I've seen Pete Townshend solo live (he signed by "Quadrophenia" sleeve!), but I've never seen the Who live. I may be the only one.

Was talking with someone else the other day about the Who's odd output, about how such a massive band with so many massive songs put out so few records. Was this group just always on the road in the '70s? So was Zeppelin, but Zeppelin churned out the product. It's a bit of a mystery. Maybe because a band like Zeppelin didn't have any weight of the world sorts like Townshend amongst their ranks.

I've seen them 3 times -- the best was 1999 at the Bridge School Benefit. Ox did Boris the Spider, and all the Bridge School kids up on stage were laughing and just so freaking delighted by that song...that was a really fun show.

I saw the later version of the Who twice, once in old Busch stadium in St. Louis in 1989 and then on that Quadrophenia tour in the late 90s. I was pretty excited about seeing them that first time, but to be honest, it was kind of like "The Who on Ice" with this huge band and Townshend playing acousting in some plexiglass cube.

The second time with Zak Starkey playing drums and Townshend back on electric with his brother playing a second guitar was really pretty good. Starkey is a heck of a drummer and they actually interacted while playing. The version of "The Real Me" had this crazy ass bass solo part that Entwhistle just took off like a freakin' rocket. Kind of a shame Townshend lost the fire and they pretty much faded away, cause Entwhistle really never lost it as a player and really the only band he could play like that and have it work was The Who.

I can't imagine a bassist such as Entwhistle that could cut a mountain like that playing in Ringo's all star band. Kind of curious if he really ever cut loose in that band live, which toured for a few years.

70s output:

The Who: 4 studio albums, 1 live album, 3 comps (1 UK-only)
Led Zeppelin: 6 studio albums, 1 live album, zero comps

Not that different

one of those Zep albums is a double (as is the live album)

random thing - anyone who hasn't seen it, check out VH1's Classic Albums episode of Who's Next. It's flippin' great.

Quadrophenia's a double as well, plus add the Kids Are Alright soundtrack (a double) for 2 live albums. The two bands' outputs are not enormously different in quantity.

in the 70s

Also, the Who put out non-LP singles in the early 70s, something Zeppelin would have never considered doing: "Relay," "Join Together," and "Let's See Action," all with non-LP b-sides.

The Who toured relentlessly in 1970 (almost the whole year), only slightly less so in 1971, and did short tours in '72, '73 and '74. But they toured a lot in '75 and '76, mainly because so much of their money was missing/tied up due to litigation with their former managers. Some of the '76 shows are as amazing as their '70-'71 shows.

Also, there are at least ten Who 70s solo albums.

who could forget Ride a Rock Horse

ENTWISTLE!

Speaking of "the Who's odd output," was there any band of comparable stature who was willing to release completely goofball stuff like "Dogs," "Now I'm a Farmer," even "Magic Bus"? You expected humor from Entwistle songs, or when they threw Moon a bone ("Waspman," "Cobwebs & Strange"), but even Townshend would go happily bonkers from time to time.

I think that sense of humor is one of the cool parts of their music.