THE WHO

He only comes out when i drink my gin.

Quadrophenia, masterpieceaphenia. This one competes easily in my top 10 of all time rock albums. It starts off with a nice intro that sets the tune to the album. Then it kicks off with "The Real Me" and Roger Daltrey shows off his amazing vocals. The whole album just gets better and better from here. I really don't want to point any highlights because EVERYTHING here is top notch. From the instrumental title track to the hard rocking second side with 5:15 and Doctor Jimmy for example. I just love this album. But as the album couldn't get any better there is the final climax of the album. Love Reign O'er Me. This track is the greatest album ender ever made.

5 Stars, get in get in, this is so fantastic, i just want the love to reign o'er me.

Always a very risky business, coming back to public eye after such a long absence (although the group did some live appearance), but doing so while only two members were still alive was even riskier, since Entwistle always brought much to the group. Was rthiss going to be a Townshend solo album with Daltrey singing or would it be a real Who album??? Well it's safe top say it's a Who album, Peter talking care that it does sound as if the full group (or at leasxt The Ox) was still there. The album is separated in two entities, the first beuing a bunch of unrelated tracks where Townshend plays almost everything, except for Daltrey singing, while the "flipside" is a rock opera where bassist Palladino, keyboardist Brundick and drummer Huntington are helping out on most tracks.

Opening on the Riley-esque Fragments is obviously winking at their top Who's next album, which is a dangerous game because the rest of the album should follow. And of course you can guess it doesn't. But in itself Fragments isn't a bad tune, Pete pulling some nice guitars, and the chorus is catchy enough. Mike Post Theme is also Who-worthy track, Black Widow's Eyes as well, but we'll remember mainly the very good It's Not Enough All of these tracks mentioned so far would make for an album that would stack up with By Numbers. Then there are the simpler tracks with Pete on acoustic guitar or piano) and Roger singing like Purple Dress (an acoustic semi-blues), God Speaks, You Stand By Me etc?. are not really Who tracks and would fit perfectly a Townshend solo album.

The mini-rock opera fills the flipside (if you'll allow me to speak of it as a vinyl), the 20-mins Wire & Glass, I can't say it's sinking in at all, even if some bits (Fragments Of Fragments) are obvious. Whether Mirror Door was recorded live or not or was the suite built naturally or is it a patchwork of tracks, I don't know for sure, but it doesn't often sound like the 70's Who to me. W&G's not bad, but it pales in comparison to Peter's previous rock operas?.

The Deluxe edition comes with a live album dating from the French tour (in Lyon) and featuring the group as a sextet, with Ringo's son on the stool, Pino at bass and Brundick on keys, but also Peter's son on 2nd guitar and vocals. While only one track from the present album is featured, the rest being oldies (but goodies) like Fooled, Naked Eye or Who Are You, but also lesser classic such as Relay or Greyhound Girl. Unless you're a complete fan, it's not really essential to own this deluxe disc, because the live performance is not that powerful or even that inspiring and it shows by the audience's reactions, slightly more than polite applause, but no real madness. The new album is not as good as one could've hoped for, but it's also far from catastrophic either , as one could've feared, and is on the level of By Numbres and better than Face Dances and It's Hard, but I'll pass on it.

— First review of this album —

3.5 stars really!!!

As its title indicates, this is a bit of bottom-of-drawers release, one that was thrown together when Daltrey was busy playing in Tommy (the movie), when Townsend and Entwistle toyed around the studios for the group or their solo career (I seem to remember both putting out a solo albums around this year), but unfortunately where Moon was left on its own and went on lengthy binges that would eventually destroy him four years later. Presented with an ugly shot of the group sporting American Football helmets, this collection was assembled from tracks that were leftover from 68 & 69 and others remaining from their monstrous project: Lifehouse and Quadrophenia or unrelated but still written in those years.

Opening on the brass-laden (courtesy of Entwistle) Postcard, while Farmer is an outstanding track with amazing Moon drumming, both from the 60's, O&S is an entertaining album that proposes over half of its tracks from that decade. Indeed Little Billy seems like it could've been another hit (read the story in the booklet) and Glow Girl (a cousin to Glittering Girl) then Faith In Something Bigger are intermediate track from the two years of silence between Sell Out and Tommy. A real surprise is the '64 cover of I'm The Face, which could be a Stone track of the times: while it sticks out a bit, it's lovely to hear it once in a while.

The 70's track include the interesting Put The Money Down (Daltrey lays some classic yells), while Pete yells out to Moonie that Too Much Of Anything , like Pure And Easy (probably the most Lynyrd-ish Who track in its middle section) , both originally for the Lifehouse and left away from Who's Next make a big positive argument for the album. Also from the 60's, but really sounding like Tommy ('69, thus sounding much more 70's >> hence why I discuss it in this paragraph) is the excellent Naked Eye, probably the best track (and proggiest) of the present album. The closing Long Live Rock is linked to Quadrophenia, which in itself is a compliment.

After the other compilation of MBB&B (regrouping for the first time many hits that had not been available other than in singles), in some ways this recognized "unreleased track compilation" will resemble much the official following studio release the tedious By Numbers and in some ways the excellent Who Are You, by mixing songs from years gone by. Personally (and since I tend to treat this compilation as a real album) I prefer O&S to BN, because the choice of tracks is simply superior to the next release

This was a much needed compilation for Who fans that hadn't been around in the 60's to buy all of these non-album singles and had no way of having these tracks (since 45RPM singles were rarely reprinted) at home, even if this compilation also contained the singles "taken from the albums" as well. Nevertheless this made an excellent "60's greatest hits of The Who" and one that many fans played it through until the disc became transparent.

As such, for progheads, this album has no real interest in terms or "progyness", but it still remained for a while a very important Who album containing a few pearls like Substitute, Can't Explain, Happy Jack , the excellent Diddley-derived Magic Bus (which was a concert favourite for years). Unfortunately, MCA chose to go cheap on this compilation, probably not remastering the original recordings to fit 33RPM vinyls and the sound quality is not extra, either. I can't remember for sure whether this compilation was approved by the group itself or whether this was a management and record company stunt, but I think the group only moderately appreciated MBB&B, but it was surely something that most fans worldwide needed so despite the botched-up job, this compilation was one point for the industry and the fans.

Although I've seen this compilation in Cd format, this compilation lost probably most of its interest to the many other more recent Cd compilations or boxsets of the group, so most likely the utility of this album (besides a solid dose of nostalgia and it's relatively cool gatefold artwork) has been next to zero of late,

Not the best I ever had, but still a bargain...

WHO'S NEXT has been claimed as one of the most influential THE WHO and 70's rock scene records. Not unfairly I would say. A purely 60's band seems to have matured and produces sounds that can not be compared with any other band at that time.

According to the few experiences I have of THE WHO, this album does not sound at all like their 60's efforts and the band does not bring much of that culture into the 70's. Of course, experts on this field can prove me wrong and I will not deny it... Musically, WHO'S NEXT is based on the edge of rock 'n roll and 70's rock, with the latter slowly but steadily taking the lead.

The album consists of some very mature rocking compositions (i.e. Bargain, possibly the best track here) with strong vocal performances and an unexpected level of maturity from the band. I will dare to say that the very few prog rock elements make their appearance - strangely enough - in the opening and closing tracks: clever use of keyboards, breaks and more sophisticated song structures reflect the turn to more progressive settings.

The middle part of the album unfortunately fails to impress me although there are very decent and pleasant tracks with good rock riffs encompassed with lots of rock 'n roll and slow mellow parts. Although the compositions are very well structured, they lack the extra push that would make them memorable. Behind blue eyes deserves a special mention as its intriguing melodic start interchanges with a great rocking break to produce a powerful yet lyrical song that has remained as a classic.

Nevertheless, I still believe this album sounds well ahead of its age. In 1971, few bands could produce such a mature level of songwriting, even if the rock 'n roll elements are still evident. The 1995 remastered version includes several interesting and robust bonus tracks that constitute a bargain, taking into account the insignificant amount of money I had to pay for this CD.

As the progressive elements are few, I would recommend this release to prog fans with caution; 70's classic rock is the bargain here and it's well worth 3.5 stars...

3.5 stars really!!!

Just like their preceding A Quick One, Sell Out didn't do that well back in those days, probably because it wasn't that obvious that the quartet was well ahead of their times in some ways. Indeed after the semi-conceptual Quick One with the title track the first rock- opera, with Sell Out we have a full concept album, but it got a bit over-shadowed by their non-album singles flying about and the future career-launching Tommy. Actually if Sell-out benefits of some newly acquired critical acclaim, it's partly because of a few hints to the upcoming Tommy album, namely Daltrey bathing in baked tomato beans and I Can See For Miles, a track that stands out here, but would've felt right at home in Tommy.

Based on the loose but story-less concepts of a hypothetical UK pirate radio and the spoof advertising, The Who tries to upstage Monty Python, but they never get close to Frank Zappa's humour in music, even though their attempts give most progheads a jolt or two. Of course one of The Who's advantage was to sound very different than most of their contemporary in 68: while most groups where increasingly heavier, much of The Who's music remains whimsically-tainted and lightly psychedelic pop-rock, even if they had an occasional violent outburst (My Generation or See For Miles) and Entwistle's frequent use of the horns gave them another edge that none other had. The Who sort of describe UK's pre-hippie era society (much the same way Genesis would with SEBTP in 73), but without being too much Swinging London either.

Mixing 50's and 60's radio-related ambiances throughout the album ensures enough of a unity for the other "songs" to melt together as one: Starting with Armenia City In The Sky where Entwistle's horns and Townshend's Hendrix-like guitar, the album is definitely a step up to what they'd been up to until now. The "radio interludes" are usually fairly experimental (the weekdays through electronic filters, rather filled with fun and sound collage that Zappa wouldn't disown. And as mentioned above we also get a glimpse of the future with See For Miles (the only hit from the album), that prefigures Tommy, with Townshend's energetic guitar crunches, Moon's incredible drum fills, but what's amazing here is that the sound is completely different, as if recorded in a different studio, a few years later.

Other tracks are still too much stuck in the mid-60's pop-like mode Mary Anne or Tattoo, but often not that straightforward, either. Medac, and Stingy are also up that alley, but somehow, you'd have to wonder if Daevid Allen didn't revisit this album before writing some of his RGI trilogy with GonG and in early Soft Machine. While The Who avoided endorsing too widely the then-over-powering psychedelia of the times, with some of their songs, they could easily match Floyd's Syd Barrett's "Emily Layne" and the Sell Out album can be considered their "Satanic Sergeant Pepper Majesty" album. The closing track, the two-part Rael tune, the first part is still too 60's-ish, while the second will be used as blueprint for Underture/Sparks of the Tommy opera.

The "Legacy" remastered series has the same bunch of bonus tracks from the mid-90's (which were adding much to the original album, since these "bonuses belonged to these sessions) reissue, but also sports a second disc offering the mono album and again another bunch of tracks, this time of a lesser interest. Coming in a superb double Digipak with an adapted booklet, it is too bad that the lyrics are absent. Sell Out is probably just as important as The Nice's Thoughts or Procol's debut (except that it wasn't a debut album) in developing the classic rock sound . Almost essential

Some three years after the lacklustre By Numbers album, The Who comes back from a lengthy holiday with a seemingly strong album. Three years is a long time for a group to rest, and most likely too long for some members who were living dangerously. Moon was obviously the one that didn't take such a long holiday well and his health was declining, although we had no way this album (and the surge of activities in 78) would be his swan song. Townshend himself was not doing that much better regarding substance abuse, while Daltrey and Entwistle had kept busier with solo album. It was with great relief that the press and public received the album and the two tracks that were obvious belters convinced many that this was a real return to form. Upon closer inspection though, it appeared that the better tracks (the most exciting ones) were written quite a while ago (some as far as Lifehouse in 71) and the newer ones didn't hold the distance as easily. No trace of Hopkins n this album but he's well-replaced by the fantastic Rod Argent on various keyboards, while Astley's string arrangements have a Quadrophenia taste.

Right from the first second of the opening New Song, you know the group is back in form, with the usual breaks and energetic surges of power coming from their collective guts. The following thought-provoking Had Enough (Entwistle-penned) doesn't have the same freshness (despite strings in the background) but holds the pace well enough until the excellent mid-tempo 905 (also Entwistle) where Townshend is toying with electronic noises up in the forefront. While I'm not really a fan of Sister Disco, there is no discussion it became another Who classic, but I find that the synths are killing an otherwise fine song. We're not even halfway through the album and already the lacklustre Numbers is erased from memory.

The first (and not the only) weaker track is Trick Of The Light, an Entwistle-penned track, a noisy affair that should've lasted half its duration. However, I must say that the following Guitar And Pen is a complete miss with me, and Moon is busy burying it in cymbal crashes, although I'll agree that the closing section, they attempt an almost-impressive Yes movement that is maybe a little too much for Keith. But then again you have a superb Music Must Change, where Keith's almost non-intervention (besides a few hi-hat jiggers and a few hits on skin) is pure bliss and a true sign of genius (despite some reviewers claiming he was incapable to play it). Love Is Coming Down benefits from Astey's sweet string arrangements, but could easily be a filler as well. Of course this album wouldn't be complete without the fantastic closing title track, which seems to revisit the opening track and 905, and incorporating some excellent interplay from everyone, including Moon's last divine intervention in drumming. In either case, it's the perfect closer to a good album, just like New Song was the perfect song to open it, and the soundscapes from both tracks provide a sort of book-ending.

A more recent reissue where MCA added a bunch useless bonus tracks (some completely un-related), and remastered it helped the album re-gaining dynamics lost in its first Cd re-issue, but unfortunately it also enhances the fact that Moon was only the shadow of his former self, even if he still manages some excellent moves. While Who Are You is certainly a better album than the previous, and later Moon The Loon's untimely death; retrospectively it's now clear that this album is the first step towards The Who's slow death that would last another two albums. It looks like only one f the four did prefer to die before fading away, the other three choosing to age as gracefully as they could. Should have this album been their swansong, like Zep's In Through The Outdoor, we'd probably look at this one more fondly, but it's no use rewriting history: The Who missed its exit but this album has got its share of gems

BTW, this is the album that introduced me to The Who along with Who's Next (bought a few weeks before the release of this one), so most likely in my subconscious, I'm giving an extra half star because of memories.

2.5 stars really!!

After three incredible strikes and hits, could we expect The Who to eternally give us major works like Tommy, and Quadrophenia? Well the group certainly chose to let off steam and produced another concept album, and this one's goal was to relax and take it easy and quit with the pretension and ambitions of the previous projects. Instead we are given a bunch of songs, apparently unrelated, but the lyrics are pondering the group's different (Pete's mostly) moods and draw a bittersweet conclusion about success and loneliness. It came with an amusing artwork, but ultimately everything about this album is meant to be a breath- catching phase.

Indeed the two hits that came from the album are fairly shallow and under par: both Slip Kids and Squeeze Both tracks are too slick and lack depth in the music (compared to the Quadro's sophistication or Tommy's borrowings to classical), even though the lyrics seem of a very personal nature. It's hard to fault only the songwriting here (all Townshend except the noisy under-par Entwistle-penned Success Story), but it's more that the group didn't seem to believe in them and didn't arranged the song's frame and even regular guest Nicky Hopkins sounds restrained on the first track. However I Booze is one of those tracks where it's evident that Townshend is anything but happy (despite Daltrey's singing) and the semi- country rock guitar is anything but pleasant for progheads, but the "middle section" (where Pete sings) is much finer-tuned. In the slow acoustic Imagine A Man and Blue Red & Grey, one has to wonder what this is doing on a group album instead of a solo album, especially the later and Pete's banjo or ukulele.

On the positive side, there are one or two tracks where the group still struts their stuff: and Dreaming From The Waist is one of them, with Moon's incessant drum attack and Townshend excellent guitar work. The other is How Many Friends, a track that wouldn't be out of place on Who's Next, with finally plenty of dynamics, just what they'd gotten us used to. Good stuff, but nothing worth writing home about, but worthy of a selection on a home compilation. I'll also mention the closing In A Hand that's reminiscent of Quadrophenia and Moon's crazyyyyy drumming.

Certainly not on par with the three predecessor (and even more, IMHO), Numbers is a strange transitional album that was to signal the end of mega who projects and it would be followed by a lengthy 3 years silence. Personally I think this album is less interesting than Odds & Sods, because the way both album's track spectrum is the same (ranging from 68 to 73), thus allowing the comparison) and BN suffers from being the rest of the "bottom-of-drawer" of O&S. Certainly not essential, not even for fans of the group, but probably not a tad better than I remember it either.

2.5 stars really!!

Definitely one step further than their debut, A Quick One (released as Happy Jack in the US the following spring of 67)s not great as some would have you believe, but it's definitely holding a few keys for the future of rock and "prog" in its content. Graced with a slick and shinny Yellow Submarine-type of cartoon artwork on its sleeve, the album shows a few weaknesses, mostly because of its concept, and having all four musicians writing their own track separately, which was not a very bright idea as some achieved the goal effortlessly, others didn't.

If Entwistle (the group second writer behind Townsend) manages quite fine the entertaining Boris The Spider and Whiskey Man (and its signature of brass instrument in the background), it must be said the Moon's Cobweb (a bizarre walk around mikes) and I Need You (with an interesting harpsichord outro that could've served as a start of a new song) are still correct, Daltrey's song See My way (laden with Entwistle brass) is also average, but even Townshend two shorter tracks are lacking the oomph. Gladly there is the 9-mins mini-rock opera about a wife's infidelity. Generally over-rated, this track does throw the premises of Tommy, but there is a ocean to cross before this tidbit becomes the rock opera of Tommy, it is effectively ahead of its time. The unsung hero of the album is definitely Moon the Loon that was probably the most active in finding new sounds and echoes and using whatever dinosaurian studio techniques to use it as an instrument. Remember that the first 8-track studio is for the following summer.

One of the (probably many) re-issue of this album holds the content of the Ready-Steady Who EP that includes a Barabara Ann version and a bunch of B-sides of non-album singles, but unfortunately not their A-sides. Again given the group's first records appearing very early in the site's time frame makes The Who groundbreaking, but progheads will find that much to

2.5 stars really!!!

This group took the world (or at least the rock realm) by storm with the title track of their debut album the anthemic and stuttering My Generation and its uncontrolled feedback in the middle solo. Their sound was brutal up-front in your face and radically new. It's always a little puzzling to see such a hard rocking (with plenty of energy in their music and on stage through the bashing of instruments) group claiming to be a Mod. However huge was My Generation, the surrounding singles like Happy Jack, Substitute, Can't Explain and Anyway, Anyhow were less all-out rockers and much closer to the poppier material, hence the Mod label. So when The Who got the go-ahead to record a full album, instead of placing a good deal of their own singles on the album or covers done in concert, they wrote a bunch of tracks in a hurry and the least we can say is that the results have something unfinished.

While the group was mainly songwriter (and sometimes singer) Pete Townshend's main vehicle, it is hard to imagine The Who without one of the four members as all had their indubitable imprint on the band. Drummer Keith Moon was not only the joker/clown of the band, but he was always from far the most exciting and unorthodox and unpredictable drummer playing with his guts more than through flashy chops and he certainly was very influential in the next generation of drummers. Bassist John Entwhistle is one of the three bassists that rewrote the rock-bass playing book in the mid-60's, along with Jack Casady and Jack Bruce. Not only did he also write the odd tune and sing, but he also played some brass instruments. Townshend was no slouch at his guitar with some techniques and unique to him (the windmill), and he could play a mean solo, but he never sought to be a guitar hero, and was also dabbling in keyboards. I am probably not going to make friends here by saying that Daltrey could be regarded as the weaker link, despite having one great voice, he was thankfully more "instrumental" (pun intended) on stage with a fairly strong presence.

Outside My Generation, you get a bunch of pop rock tracks that lack the real catchy hooks that their singles had, and the covers (like J Brown's I Don't Mind) bring nothing new to the original or even massacring it (Please), but it's mostly the tiny details that will signal the group's future greatness: the short brass interventions courtesy of Entwistle, the non- playing of Townshend when expected, Moon's unorthodox playing or not playing, Townsend's chaotic solos etc?.. This group's mostly onto something different. And it ill be clear in the album's only climax (other than the title track): indeed The Ox is a four-minutes instrumental where session man extraordinaire Nicky Hopkins completes the quartet on piano that's laying the foundations of a future psyched-out hard rock: imagine a hard rock version of Wipe Out with a super bass.. Note that this song's title will become Entwistle's nickname.

I suppose this album has received many reissues with plenty of bonus tracks in which hopefully will stand the aforementioned singles and their B-sides, but probably as well the tracks that didn't appear on the album, depending on which side of the Atlantic you stood at. Sooooo, calling The Who's debut album groundbreaking might seem exaggerated to some, but it has its historical significance in rock music, although for progheads, it will certainly not essential, despite this album's early appearance in the time frame of this site.