[DanG]

I posted a review of The Who's A Quick One, their second album, in Carlo's contest thread. I noted how much I got hooked to "early" (pre-1970) Who material from listening to Live at Leeds. I also mentioned my dislike for later Who music compared to the earlier music which had that garage-band feel. I believe I said something to the effect that it was more mainstream, more conventional, less fresh.

Well, I've stolen my younger brother's Who's Next CD and have now listened through it three or four or five times (and am listening to it right now). I had only heard it briefly before (just a few songs).

My opinion of the album has changed dramatically. It's amazing what some time alone with some music can do to your perceptions! Even without herbal supplements. Anyway, I'd just like to revise my stance towards this stuff -- it's great! While the music definitely doesn't have the same raw feel as many of the tracks on Quick One or the stuff they played live at Leeds, the more-careful production of this album gives it a more consistent, mature, and in many ways more coherent feeling. This seems to constrain some of the songs -- like "Love Ain't for Keeping" and especially "The Song is Over" -- making them pretty standard late-60's/early-70's rock material and not all that novel. But some of the songs, while not so youthfully vigorous as material on Leeds, benefit from carefully written lyrics and organization. "Behind Blue Eyes," for example, sounds great but is also far more powerful than anything the Who wrote before Tommy.

I highly recommend this CD to Who fans and especially to people who are fans of great rock from the 60s and 70s along the lines of Zeppelin (i.e., not prog. stuff like Floyd or pop stuff like Beatles) as well as to those who might have been turned off by early Who music.

 

[mkmelt]

This is a great album by one of the greatest rock groups of all time. I have the LP, the CD, and reel tape versions of this recording. The dynamics and bass energy of Keith Moon's drumming on this album is awesome, doubly so on reel to reel tape.

 

[carlo]

Dan,

Great post man, I'm going on a The Who rant for no reason except that they kick ass.

One of the special things about The Who is that they were the foundation for Punk and Progressive Rock, A Quick One is just as easily an influence to any of The Oblivian incarnations as Tommy is to Dream Theater, and they're two genres that (to those who're really into one or the other) are the complete opposite of each other. Punk is regressive, rock and roll and nothing else. Progressive has people who call themselves Proggers. Punk doesn't give a damn, progressive has an idea. When you trace either back to one album, there's a strong case that it's Who's Next.

I love The Who, but I'm also one of the only people I know who doesn't think Live at Leeds was their best recording. I think their brilliance was in their chaos, in Keith Moon drumming in his own world and Entwistle strumming like a god, and to me thats A Quick One. On the BBC Sessions that annoying British guy asks Townshend why they destroyed their instruments and he says something like "When we started we wanted to create something large musically and visually, and eventually we just decided to smash it and we've been doing it ever since", and to me that quote embodies who they were. When Sullivan looked confused after "My Generation" it was probably as much for what he had heard as he had seen. Chaos. No ideas or concepts or any of it, just Rock and Roll and damn the people who were looking for messages in the lyrics. They didn't fall under any classification, even shunning The Kid's Are Alright's association with the Mods. Keith Moon ****ing with the BBC guy while Daltry and Townshend laugh. Whatever intangiable thing that The Who was during that period is the definition of Rock and Roll.

Tommy annoys me. Its too structured and in the end it makes me bored. Its like Dark Side of The Moon or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - I'd rather have Meddle and Rubber Soul. I realize that I'm not getting it, but I also don't really care. Give me A Quick One or Who's Next instead.

Don't buy any more The Who albums for a while, I still need to send you something

carlo.

 

[kerelybonto]

For a twenty-year-old I have an unusual fascination with the birth of modern rock and roll in the mid-to-late sixties. I like to pick 1967 as Day One: Sgt. Pepper's, The Velvet Underground and Nico, Disraeli Gears. The Yardbirds released their last album (with both Page and Jones on board), Beck was doing his thing ... and the Who put out The Who Sell Out.

Along with the Beatles I consider the Who to be one of the greatest transitional bands of the period. One of the British Invasion bands, their music may as well have been the Monkees' if not for Who's Next. My Generation and Sell Out had the makings of modern rock albums, but Who's Next holds a place up there with the all-time albums. Starting off with "Baba O'Riley" and "Bargain" and going from there, it is an album that set the tone for the seventies.

I don't believe that an album's production can make or break the music -- Live at Leeds is a mess sonically, but it's considered one of the Who's best. But it's just the beginning -- its where the Who starts to lose the sixties sound, the don't-raise-your-voice, shirt-and-tie, play-and-go-home stuff. They had the attitude earlier, but it's the music that matters and that's where Who's Next comes in.

kerely

 

[mkmelt]

There were a number of other rock albums released in 1967 that make this the most important year in 60s rock music including:

Are You Experienced - Jimmi Hendrix Experience

Surrealistic Pillow - Jefferson Airplane

The Doors - Jim Morrison and The Doors

The Monterey Pop Festival held in June of 1967 was largely responsible for introducing Jimmi Hendrix to an American audience. This concert also headlined The Who, Janis Joplin with Big Brother, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe & The Fish, Otis Redding, and Ravi Shankar.

In many ways, Monterey was a more important concert in terms of the changes that were occuring in music then and the lasting impact that these performers had on rock music, than the 1st Woodstock concert would be more than two years later.

There is a very good film of the Monterey concert that is worth seeking out on VHS, not sure if it has been released yet on DVD, but it is only a matter of time.

 

[carlo]

Quote:

In many ways, Monterey was a more important concert in terms of the changes that were occuring in music then and the lasting impact that these performers had on rock music, than the 1st Woodstock concert would be more than two years later. - mkmelt

Not to mention Monterey was the first outdoor concert of its kind, basically the Woodstock before Woodstock.
Quote:

There is a very good film of the Monterey concert that is worth seeking out...

Agreed, everyone needs to see Jimi introduce lighter fluid to his guitar. That guitar screeching away and screaming in pain as the people in the front row of that concert (who I'm sure weren't very happy about what they were hearing, or at least they don't look it

) is something thats stuck in my memory since the first time I saw it.

The Gimmie Shelter documentary is another that should be watched by everyone, the day the 60s died and all that. IFC has been known to show it time to time.

carlo.

 

[Nightfall]

I, and any number of people seriously involved in music have always felt that Who's Next stands as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. I remember awaiting it the day it became available and going home and playing it with a group of friends for hour after hour, sitting, mesmerized by the songs and the execution of them. There were very few times that feeling was ever matched, in my experience. Certainly only a handful.

And Carlo is completely right. Go out and buy, or at least rent the dvd of the Monterey Festival, it was much more significant in its impact than anything that followed.

 

[millerdog]

I saw "the kids are allright" back in the eighties?
Loved the Who since then!
Scooping up their vinyl as we speak

md

 

[elrod-tom]

YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

Anyone miss the reference???

 

[BDA_ABAT]

Funny, Who's Next is one of those albums that I put away for a while... then break it out after several months go by. I just LOVE re-discovering this album! An incredible piece of work.

As far as video of the Who, check out the "Classic Albums: Who's Next". Cool documentary of the making of the album, breaks out Moon's drumming to show how he didn't play rhythm, he played "lead". Interviews with the band and the engineers. If you are into this album, the video is pretty interesting. And, while in the Who's Next mood, be sure to check out Pete's Lifehouse. Puts it all in perspective.

Bruce

 

[archosman]

Who's next? Depends on how much trouble Pete is in