The Who : Classic or Dud

Slip Kid is probably my favorite in studio Townshend guitar performance

Always have to be clear about "in studio" vs. "live" with the Who because they were almost two different bands.

I was listening to "Slip Kid" this morning and yeah, what a tremendous Townshend performance on that.

Also, a fair amount of the demo ended up on the final record: the handclaps/percussion and piano are all Townshend.

New 50th-anniversary comp (yawn)...but it's got a new hat!

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-who-record-be-lucky-their-first-new-song-in-eight-years-20140925

"Dogs"! That's a first for a non-box hits comp.

Good point! "Dogs" never gets enough love.

And in all honesty, I'm tremendously excited about the new song.

Ah, here it is:

http://youtu.be/7K_CGq-1u1E

I'd somehow never heard 'Dogs' until a couple of weeks ago - it really is a lovely song (xposts).

It features prominently on http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.co.UK/ "Who's for Tennis"

But you knew that already, right?

Stupid spelling corrector..

http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.co.uk/

ooh hadn't seen that -- looks totally good.

Thanks for that link, Mark G. It's often claimed that the Who weren't as prolific as the Stones or Kinks in those days; they were, it's just that little of it was released at the time (and they were also on the road more than both of those bands combined).

Would love to see that blogger reconstruct the aborted 1972 Who album.

tbf nobody was as prolific as the Kinks in the late 60s

Lifehouse?

Look deeeeeeeper.......

I'd seen his Lifehouse reconstruction, and it's pretty spot-on, though I'd quibble with the inclusion of "I Don’t Even Know Myself," as it was originally earmarked for the aborted 1970 7 Foot Wide Car, 6 Foot Wide Garage EP (along with "Postcard," "Now I'm A Farmer," "Water," and "Naked Eye"), and wasn't part of the Lifehouse concept.

But they started work with Glyn Johns on a record in 1972 that was to include all the Lifehouse leftovers, plus "Long Live Rock," "Love Reign O'er Me," "Is It In My Head?" "Can't You See I'm Easy," and "Riot In The Female Jail" (the latter two of which may not have been recorded by the Who).

That new song is okay. Not great, but far from embarrassing. The main thing is probably that Daltrey isn't shrill.

Ha, yeah, but I don't think Daltrey is physically capable of being shrill at this point. I'm really digging the new one, and production-wise it's streets ahead of anything on Endless Wire.

His voice sounds strangely muffled. The song is actually quite catchy -- I played it twice last night and I can still remember the chorus this morning.

I wish Mike Post Theme was on the greatest hits

Yeah, seriously; apart from "Who Are You" (the song), that's the best thing they've done since The Who By Numbers.

I downloaded that Who's for Tennis? LP (link a few posts above). How did I never notice "Glow Girl" before? The Who at their most brilliant. I bought Odds & Sods on vinyl 15 years ago, but I probably only played it once, and somehow "Glow Girl" slipped by me. Is it just the end of the song that makes its way into Tommy, or the whole song under another name?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH6se_YY8f0

yeahhh that who's for tennis thing is a perfect follow-up to the who sell out imo.

here's what townshend said re: glow girl and tommy

"I tried to write an archetypal rock single; the Shangri-Las type thing, the Jan and Dean type thing. The car crashes, the motorcycle goes over the cliff, 'Oh no! and then there's a little spoken part: 'and then I went to the cemetary and I prayed over his grave'. Well, it was a reincarnation song and it was about a plane crash and two kids on an aeroplane and they realize that the plane's crashing. The reincarnation ploy comes at the end, where you hear 'It's a girl, Mrs. Walker, it's a girl. When I came to write Tommy, I picked up that phrase and used it as the opening. Thats how Tommy became Tommy Walker, just because in this song which was worked on two years before, we had a little girl."
--Pete Townshend

otm, Who's For Tennis? would've been great. But the fact that it was never completed/released is typical Who: "Yeah, we could be like CCR, just constantly churning out brilliant singles/albums, but we're gonna hold this back, because instead, we're working on this HUGE STATEMENT that will CHANGE EVERYTHING AND/OR FALL FLAT ON ITS FACE." (Ditto their aborted 1972 album.)

They were fearless. Who's For Tennis? (and/or the planned-but-unreleased Fillmore East '68) likely would've raised their profile enough to have gotten them out of crippling ($500,000) debt at the time, but no, better to scrap those and spend six months recording this "rock opera" thing.

That was my guess, just a snippet, like how "Rael" is incorporated. Tommy's an album I never warmed to (except for "We're Not Gonna Take It"), so I don't know it well.

definitely prefer clever pop songwriter townshend to rock opera genius townshend.

I dunno, I don't think that distinction is necessary: his genius rock operas were constructed out of clever pop songs.

So much so that reversing your wording describes him perfectly: genius pop songwriter Townshend vs. clever rock opera Townshend.

otm

"Be Lucky" is embarrassing

definitely prefer clever pop songwriter townshend to rock opera genius townshend.

― tylerw, Saturday, September 27, 2014 7:20 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I prefer boiler-suited, amps to 11, blood on the stage and an 18 minute "generation" followed by Naked Eye and a massacre of the first three rows of patrons. Also: courvoisier

First performance of "A Quick One, While He's Away" in 44 years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2vYqIssV8M

Haha, whoops, wrong clip...(happy birthday, Jimmy Lyons!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgrmcNCe4Ok

Lol

New Pete interview:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/whos-done-pete-townshends-ambivalent-farewell-20150507

I always feel very sad when I say this because I think I'm unusual in this respect. People don't really believe me. But I don't enjoy performing. I don't feel uplifted on the stage. I rarely have moments these days onstage when I go into what jazz musicians call "the zone." I rarely lose myself on the stage.

...

To wrap this up: Every night you begin the show by blasting into the opening notes of "I Can't Explain." It sure looks like you're enjoying yourself—

[Laughs] You don't believe me, do you! Nobody believes me. The best way to enjoy it is to laugh at it. It's fucking absurd, isn't it? It was absurd when I was fucking 20, it's even more absurd now I'm 70.

Complaining all the way to the bank.

He enjoys being on tour but he doesn't like playing, which at the very least is an original take.

Also the weird calling out/not calling out Robert Plant in equal measure.

Also the fact the Pete even kind of knows who Henry Rollins is (enough to causally mentioned him in an oft-hand way) blows my 16 yo mind

That is a great interview! Thing is, the musician doesn't necessarily need to enjoy performing or having that "in the zone" moment to give a good performance. In fact if he is bored w it he may end up playing/performing in an even more interesting way than otherwise.

I like what he said about John Paul Jones, wanting to hear him do cool keyboard stuff on a new Led Zeppelin album.

One would have thought 30 years ago that Townshend, no matter what depredation the act of recording and playing music for $$$ had undergone, would continue to be creative as it had been commonly understood during his peak era. I went to a press conference in 00, when JE was still alive, and when asked he said "how do you know I don't have any new music? Maybe I don't want you to hear it!" Fair enuff.

But after all this time, it is also fair to say that it appears that the only thing that he shares with the public, never mind his fans, is to go on tour as "the Who." that's it! doesn't he have anything else on his mind? so what if you don't make as $$$ when you make a record as 30-40-50 years ago! wouldn't you think he of all ROCK artists would consider such concerns to be irrelevant? (nine years ago was Endless Wire, which I invite anyone to say was really good, but when I heard it, it seemed a transparent and uninspired effort to do shit for Roger, who truly is not the brightest bulb and unlike Pete has nothing except for the Who.

(nine years ago was Endless Wire, which I invite anyone to say was really good

Endless Wire was really good -- better than It's Hard, better than Face Dances, better than Who Are You (with the exception of the title song there). "Mike Post Theme" is as definitive/defining a Who song as anything they've recorded (as the Who or otherwise) since 1973.

I think Psychoderelict and Endless Wire are the only new albums Townshend did after the Who first reformed in 1989. He of course did the work with the Tommy musical, which was a pretty big success in an arena where few rock musicians would ever venture to follow. While novel, it wasn't new material.

It's kind of a shame that Townshend never did more work with Gilmour, I think they could have probably done each other some good in such a project. White City is a pretty good record and whose sound has held up quite well I think.

I think Psychoderelict and Endless Wire are the only new albums Townshend did after the Who first reformed in 1989.

Don't forget The Iron Man! Although, that actually came out at the same time as when the 1989 tour started.

He of course did the work with the Tommy musical, which was a pretty big success in an arena where few rock musicians would ever venture to follow. While novel, it wasn't new material.

Townshend doing Tommy as a Broadway musical was basically a "No, like THIS, you idiots!" to the Broadway establishment that had been pooping out nothing but awful "Rock" "Musicals." Townshend lent the form (such as it was) some depth (such as it was). Unfortunately, a pit orchestra of Professional Session Musicians is, by definition, going to completely miss everything that made Tommy great (and Tommy was only great in its 1969-1970 live performances).

It's kind of a shame that Townshend never did more work with Gilmour, I think they could have probably done each other some good in such a project. White City is a pretty good record and whose sound has held up quite well I think.

Yeah -- not only is White City underrated, but it's aged a lot better than The Iron Man or Psychoderelict. Townshend should've had Chris Thomas produce those two as well.

I suspect that Townshend is secure enough that he doesn't need/want whatever validation might result from releasing new music. He seems pretty content to stockpile. And unlike, say, Jimmy Page, whose interviews are always teased with, "Oh, just you wait! I have so many mysterious, interesting, fog-machine-esque projects in my cauldron!", I actually believe that Townshend has a massive stockpile of unreleased new work.

Gonna see (for too much money) the 50th aniv tour gig near me (cuz wife has never seen them before)

whaddya know, Townshend just recorded some new stuff:
http://petetownshend.net/news/pete-townshend-records-new-tracks-in-nashville

i really love their almost motorik take on "dancing in the streets" from the bbc sessions. is there other stuff like that out there?

There is!

Their version of "Under My Thumb":
http://youtu.be/wIjO2x2Js9g

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-roger-daltrey-pot-smoke-who-concert-20150522-story.html

By MIKAEL WOOD
contact the reporter

The kids are alright, according to Roger Daltrey, unless they're into marijuana.

That seemed to be the message, anyway, Wednesday night at New York's Nassau Coliseum, where the Who frontman, 71, reportedly threatened to stop a concert by his band after smelling pot smoke near the stage.

Saying he's allergic to the smoke, the singer told the crowd his voice was shutting down, according to Newsday, and that he wouldn't go on unless the smoker stopped.

"It's your choice," Daltrey says in an expletive-laden YouTube video that appears to have been shot at the show. "I can't do anything about it. I'm doing my best."

Then Daltrey's bandmate, Pete Townshend, suggests another way of ingesting the drug.

The Who is on tour commemorating the 50th anniversary of its debut album, "My Generation." It's scheduled to play Anaheim's Honda Center on Sept. 16 and Staples Center on Sept. 21.

here is more for that Newday link:

There were tense moments at Nassau Coliseum Wednesday night, as The Who's singer Roger Daltrey threatened to walk off the stage if someone smoking marijuana near the stage didn't stop.

Daltrey has a well-known allergy to marijuana smoke that affects his throat and singing voice, a condition the band even emphasized during the informational slides it projected before its set.

The smoke's impact was almost immediate on his voice, which went from crystal clear and potent for the opening "I Can't Explain" to something rougher and more limited during "I Can See for Miles." "My voice is shutting down," he said, apologizing.

A few songs later, though, Daltrey had seemingly recovered. He hit the towering notes of "Love Reign O'er Me" with no problem and his voice got stronger from there, matching Pete Townshend's inventive, ferocious guitar playing.

If "The Who Hits 50!" really is The Who's farewell tour, Daltrey and Townshend are certainly going out rocking, with a two-hour set that traces their journey from jangly mod-influenced pop to ambitious artists crafting detailed rock operas to rock standard-bearers. Each had his moments to excel. Daltrey powered his way through the selections from "Tommy." Townshend crafted new approaches to "Eminence Front," which picked up a jazzier vibe, and "Squeeze Box" (now with more banjo).

But the biggest moments came when they were both pushing hardest -- the powerful one-two punch of "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again," with Townshend in all his windmilling glory, and Daltrey playing every bit of the mic-twirling frontman.

They seemingly have more backup than ever, with help from guitarist Simon Townshend, bassist Pino Palladino, drummer Zak Starkey, keyboardists John Corey and Loren Gold and musical director Frank Simes. All that musical firepower made "A Quick One, While He's Away," which Townshend described as their first rock opera, an unexpected treat, starting with the four-part harmonies and winding through a dizzying range of rock styles.

Townshend's stage banter was also in rare form, noting that he had made some decisions since turning 70 on Tuesday. "From now on I will only tell the truth," he said, adding that he had a very English sense of humor. "How do I feel about you? I'd better not say."

informational slides it projected before its set

WTF?!
Monty Python instructor voice: "You are about to see a rock band. Do not be alarmed."