No. 383: A Quick One

Band: The Who
Album: A Quick One
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: A very strong argument could be make that "A Quick One" is The Who's strongest album. It has tinges of the band's later thematic genius in the title track, great R&B (the band's strongest style at that point), pop sensibilities and even a hint of experimentation.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: I'd have this one higher.
Best song: The album is fantastic and it is full of great songs.
Worst song: See above, though I can see why people don't like "Cobwebs and Strange."
Is it awesome?: Absolutely.

Keith Moon, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle were still finding their way in 1966. They were still youthful rockers, brought up on R&B and Elvis. Yet, they were also trying to find new ways to rock and roll art and storytelling.

And so, we get the most well-rounded Who album of the band's catalog. Each member contributed a song to the record, with a cover song to boot. As such, each band member's personalities come through, with Moon's strangeness, Townshend's straightforwardness and Entwistle's skill as a storyteller as the dominant themes.

The band is tight as ever. Despite the somewhat shoddy production (Moon's drums often sound like they were recorded with broken mics), Moon is at his peak of drumming. While he would later fill Who records with ridiculous fills ("Won't Get Fooled Again" is a great drum song, but the fills get distracting), Moon remains steadfast and accented on "A Quick One." His interpretation of the drumline for "Heatwave" is the great example; Moon keeps the beat while adding bits and short, two-note fills to add to the song without distracting.

The title track is where Townsend first experimented with longform musical storytelling and it is riveting. While the storyline isn't as complex as "Tommy" or the failed Lifehouse project, "A Quick One" is easy to understand and follow. A man strands his girlfriend/wife for a year and she feels lonely. Her friends suggest she enjoy the company of Ivor the Engine Driver. Her lover comes back. She confesses. He forgives her.

Pretty simple stuff, right?

Still, in a nine-minute period, the band rips through the storyline. The song starts with an excellent a capella (each member has a good singing voice, lest we forget) and moves into jangly pop, vocal Beach Boys-type harmonies, surf-style Entwistle awesomeness, a honky tonk section and a straight rock finish. It's stylistically varied, lyrically interesting and tightly played. Basically, it's all the things the Who does well in a nine-minute mini-opera.

Few bands would be as bold to even think of a concept such as "A Quick One," but the Who pulled it off beautifully. It's among the band's best records and wildly underrated.

No. 266: Quadrophenia

Band: The Who
Album: Quadrophenia
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: The second of The Who's Rock operas, "Quadrophenia" is something of a coming-of-age story, set against the backdrop of the late-1950s London mod/rocker scene. In it, Pete Townsend examines the nature of a split (four ways, in the case of the protagonist) mind in nothing less than an interesting way.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: "Quadrophenia" is nothing if not pompous and far-reaching. The storyline is muddy and the album is wrought with filler.
Best song: "The Real Me" is fun, as is the album ender, "Love, Reign O'er Me." "Drowned" is a wonderful Townsend early rock number (in concert, sometimes Townsend played it acoustic).
Worst song: "I've Had Enough" and "The Punk and the Godfather" aren't great. There are a few other songs ("I Am The Sea," "The Dirty Jobs" and "I Am The Sea" come to mind immediately) that are there to move the plot along/complete the opera. Those songs aren't good, either.
Is it awesome?: It has its highlights, but it's not the band's best album, by any means. It's better than a lot of stuff.

I often talk about "xx-year-old Ross" versus "current Ross" in terms of various things. Not to hop on the couch here, but I was looking over an old blog I wrote towards the end of college and was struck by how different I am from 22-year-old Ross (22YOR). 22YOR was somewhat upbeat, not nearly as cynical and, most striking, incredibly optimistic. 22YOR had dreams (I wanted to be the sports editor for a large daily newspaper), something current Ross has no time for.

So, with the idea of a younger Ross in mind, I'm going to write something now that 16-year-old Ross would recoil in horror: "Quadrophenia" isn't one of the Who's best. It's got highlights, certainly, but to call it bloated is like saying Donald Trump is self-assured. It is anything but a great rock opera.

I saw the Who play "Quadrophenia" with my mother and my first real girlfriend when I was 15 at United Center on Halloween. I remember it quite fondly, but I'm sure I would find it ludicrous were I to see it now. Billy Idol was involved, as was noted pedophile Gary Glitter.

The plot is tough to follow. In short, Townsend bit off more than he could probably chew in explaining how one could have multiple aspects of a personality (four in protagonist Jimmy's case). Certainly, the idea that rock and roll could save someone from this sort of mental illness ("Quadrophenia" is a play on schizophrenia) is silly, though, it appears to be Townsend's thought:

"I think that our album clarifies who the real hero is in this thing - it's the kid on the front. He's the hero. That's why he's on the front cover. That's why he's sung about. It's his fucking album. Rock 'n' Roll's his music. It's got nothing to do with journalists, and it hasn't really even got anything to do with musicians, either." - Pete Townshend, 1973

On some level, I fancied myself that kid from the cover when I was 16 and listening to this album daily. Rock and roll was that big of a part of my life (it still kind of is), but that sort of tunnel vision is silly.

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I mentioned, in writing about "Who's Next," that the Who went on a steady decline from "Tommy" on, and "Quadrophenia" is the second step in that progression. As much as "Who's Next" sounds like a stadium rock record, "Quadrophenia" expands on that sound. Instead of just Moogs and pianos galore, the horn and layered guitars make The Who, ostensibly a punk band, sound like Journey. Not good.

And that brings it back to the point, "Quadrophenia" is too far reaching for this band. It's giant and when a band like The Who experiment like this, it doesnt always hit. "Tommy" did and "Who's Next" sorta did. "Quadrophenia" didn't.

No. 236: The Who Sings My Generation

(U.S. cover)

(U.K. cover)
Band: The Who
Album: The Who Sings My Generation
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: The Who's debut is a rocking exploration of sound and space, as well as a picture perfect rereading of early R&B-tinged rock and roll. The record's taut sound is only rivaled by its sheer energy.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: My opinion is that this record should be the top-ranked Who album, not the bloated "Who's Next." "My Generation" is punk before punk existed and furious in its passion.
Best song: Is there a bad song on here? I'd suggest no. "I Don't Mind" is great early rock and roll balladry, but it's not the best thing the band has ever recorded.
Worst song: Nope.
Is it awesome?: Absolutely.

In writing about "Who's Next," I say that "The Who was a great proto-punk band and a great bunch of mods" and this first record shows that as well as anything. What is "My Gneration" if not a punk rock record?

Like the Kinks, the Who occupied the Mod subculture in 1960s London, trotting about in slimline jackets, shorter (well, shorter than the rockers, at least) hair cuts. They rode around on Vespa and Piaggio scooters. See the "Quadrophenia" movie. You'll see what I'm talking about.

Anyway, whatever scene they identified with, the band's first album and early single basically form the template for punk rock. Certainly, the band's

Rock and roll before the Who was pleasant and it was dangerous because it was titillating. The danger was in the sexuality, it was subtle and it was a threat to their innocence.

The Who changed that. The Who took rock and roll's sound and added, probably, the most often-quoted anti-authority line of the mid-60s: "I hope I die before I get old."

The song's open "fuck you" (in the above line or the "why don't you all just f-f-f-ade away") to the older, "greatest," generation was more of a middle finger than any dance Elvis could ever swing or more than any haircut John Lennon would refuse. Pete Townsend stated it deinitively and bluntly: It's us against them and they can kiss our asses.

The band followed it up with their live performances. Toward the end of the song, as John Entwistle played, Townsend smashed his guitar and Moon would kick through, set fire to and generally destroyed his kit.

The message, again, was clear: We're not fucking around.

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This is where punk rock got its attitude. One of the Clash's first American tours was with the Who, largely because the Who saw them as their earlier selves. While the Who devolved into stadium pomp-rock, the early records rock with a ferocity of 19-year-old Keith Moon pounding away.

"My Generation" is that. Feeding back, screeching and furious, it's punk at its earliest and, possibly, best.

No. 170: Live At Leeds

Band: The Who
Album: Live At Leeds
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: On the short list, if not the greatest live album of all-time, the Who's wildly popular "Live At Leeds" is a study in sheer power. From the record's lengthy extended version of the band's signature tune to the taut cover of an Eddie Cochrane classic, "Live At Leeds" is great.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: If we're talking live albums, this should be higher on the list. It's the best.
Best song: Pick it. From the fury of "Young Man Blues" to the extended "Magic Bus," this album rocks.
Worst song: There are no bad songs here. At all.
Is it awesome?: No doubt about it.

I believe I've mentioned this, but The Who are like a first girlfriend to me. They were the first band I really loved and the first I dove fully into.

"Live At Leeds" is the reason for that. In rummaging through my parents' records as a junior high-aged lad, I found "Live At Leeds" among the Johnny Mathis, Ahad Jamal and Beatles records. I shoved it on a turntable and was completely transfixed. Filled with punk energy, blues rock riffing and heavy metal rock and roll, the album is a show of the band at its height.

The band had toured worldwide for more than a year in support of "Tommy" and "Live At Leeds" is a result of the band finishing this movement. Filling clubs and university halls, the band learned to perfect their live sound, finally ending up at Leeds University. The hall has since been commemorated with a plaque noting the recording of the record.

Styled to look like a bootlegged album -- down to the brown paper cover and templated stamp lettering -- the original mix of the album is a short list of great songs. With only six tracks (two on the second side), the album is spare and raucous. The guitar in Mose Allison's "Young Man Blues" starts and stops as the band reworks it into a powerful blues-type number. The short, sweet, proto-punk "Substitute" is superior to the original and the Eddie Cochrane cover "Summertime Blues" features John Entwistle's heavy melodic bass. Falling into the old rock standard "Shakin' All Over," the band comes together as a well-oiled machine.

The second side is the point where the band lets loose. "My Generation" becomes a pastiche of themes from the band, including parts of its magnum opus "Tommy" and seven minutes of "Magic Bus" finishes the album.

"Live At Leeds" is, in a lot of ways, a turning point for the band. In touring "Tommy" throughout the world, the band slowly became enraptured in itself. After "Live At Leeds," the band started putting out masturbatory concept albums and long-winded stadium rock. Nevertheless, "Live At Leeds" (especially the double disc reissue) is powerful, raw and beautiful. Best live album, indeed.

No. 113: The Who Sell Out

(front)

(back)
Band: The Who
Album: The Who Sell Out
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: The Who's absurdly cynical look at consumer culture is peppered with a few great songs. "I Can See For Miles" has the "8 Miles High" vibe that the Who mostly shunned during the band's early years while "Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand" is a thinly veiled ode to masturbation. The seeds of "Tommy" are here, as Townsend and Enwistle's character sketches like "Silas Stingy" and "Odorno" are also part of the record, as well as sticking the concept together with the interstitial commercial songs.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: I find it a little stupid that four (!) Who albums are on this list before their first record. I mean, "The Who Sell Out" is a lot of fun and a pretty good record, but, come on.
Worst song: Both "Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand" and "I Can See For Miles."
Is it awesome?: It's close, but it's not awesome. Conceptually, yes. Actually listening to it? Not so much.

It's really stupid that there are four Who albums on this list before they get around to "The Who Sings My Generation." It's my favorite of the Who records.

Nevertheless, the third Who album is a fun little study in thematic constructed. The album is put together as it was a radio broadcast, complete with commercials, station IDs and, of course, songs. The cover is a series of satirical advertisements for products.

(Not surprisingly, the record faced a litany of lawsuits, as the band used brand names and radio IDs without permission.)

What of the record? Of course, the fact that "Rael 1" appears here is another step (after "A Quick One, While He's Away" on the previous record) towards rock opera and narrative songwriting. The thematic approach to the album (the theme being commercialism is bad) is also a step towards "Tommy."

The band's best two psychedelic works dot "The Who Sell Out" in the album opener, "Armenia City in the Sky" (written by John Keen, a friend of the band) and, of course, the top ten hit "I Can See For Miles." Each has a totally different sound from the British Invasion/Mod rock the Who had nearly perfected on their first two records.

"Tattoo" is a cool song later made famous by the version on "Live At Leeds" and "Silas Stingy" is a fun little character study (which Townsend would later perfect on "The Acid Queen"). The ode to self-love that is "Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand" builds off the earlier single "Pictures of Lilly" in fine fashion. Complete with a soft organ and light percussion, it's one of the band's most fully-formed records (all puns intended).

It's not "Tommy" and it's not "My Generation," but, it's good. It's a fun concept, but not an easy listen.

No. 96: Tommy

Band: The Who
Album: Tommy
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: "Tommy" is one of the first real rock operas and maybe the genre's most celebrated achievement. It's surprisingly dark -- themes include murdering a homewrecker, disability and child molestation -- but it's also sprawlingly beautiful. Unlike a lot of thematic albums, "Tommy" actually follows a more traditional theater pattern of having themes and overtures. It beats "The Wall" on that level, certainly.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: It's dark. It's real dark. It was clearly influenced by drugs (Pinball? Really?) and possibly Townsend's own life experiences. It's sprawling beauty is sometimes just sprawling and tedious.
Best song: It'd be easy to say "Pinball Wizard" as it was the only real single from the record, but the final song, "We're Not Gonna Take It" uses most of the themes in the piece and ties them together well. "1921" is a beautiful song, as well and fits the plot well.
Worst song: There isn't really a terrible song on the record.
Is it awesome?: Yes.

"See me. Feel me. Touch me. Heal me."

Pete Townsend's words -- sang by Roger Daltrey -- rang out over Bethel, New York in the morning of Saturday, August 16, 1969. As the sun was rising, the Who was finishing up "Tommy." It's among the most striking rock moments caught on film and it shows the simple power in the rock opera's message as it related to the '60s.

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The Broadway version has won Tonies. The film version features marquee stars like Jack Nicholson and Ann-Margret. The live album versions (Isle of Wight and Leeds, specifically) are some of the best live recordings ever pressed.

The original, though, is nearly unstoppable. There's nary a bad song on there, structurally it's cohesive while still interesting and the actual plot is strange enough to keep a listener's attention. It's real strange, actually.

(It was 1969. There were a lot of drugs going around. So, having a plot where the main points involve a child molesting uncle, pinball, the "Acid Queen" and a deaf, dumb and blind protagonist.)

There's an inevitable rock opera catch-22 that "Tommy" experiences. The structure of a cohesive plot makes for a pointed listening experience. It's certainly a foray into a realm in which rock hadn't previously stomped about. Rock operas, at the time, were a relatively new concept, certainly on this level.

On the other hand, Townsend's adherence to the opera style keeps (almost) all the songs on a theme. Nearly every song pushes the plot forward in a way that just isn't radio friendly. Unlike a more conceptual rock opera like "The Wall," the songs on "Tommy" all have a serious storytelling element in them. So, "Christmas" sounds kind of silly outside of the context of the rest of the opera.

(Also, the record has some unfamiliar musical theater elements -- namely the "Overture" and "Underture" on the record. That's small potatoes, though.)

Does "Tommy" survive that? I'm not sure. I mentioned in my piece on "Who's Next," the Who were my favorite band before I discovered indie rock. So, "Tommy" is basically tattooed on my brain. I hear any single song and know the place in the plot of the song. "Pinball Wizard" was something of a single and continues to get played on classic rock radio, so maybe that's not as big a problem.

Still, it's "Tommy." There are some classic records and "Tommy" is one of them, certainly. It should be higher; This is one of the precursors to progressive rock and one of the landmark albums of the last 40 years.

No. 28: Who's Next

Band: The Who
Album: Who's Next
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Some of the Who's classic songs are on here, including "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again." For a band in a superstar mode, the use of keyboards on the album was a major risk and produced some cool effects.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: In the same way that Nirvana is responsible for all the Linkin Parks of the world, "Who's Next" is a big reason as to why America was subjected to stadium rock during the mid-late '70s.
Best song: "Baba O'Riley" is pretty cool, as is "Won't Get Fooled Again."
Worst song: "Behind Blue Eyes" is absolutely awful. It's the prototype of stadium rock balladry.
Is it awesome?: I'm not sure. On one hand, there is a lot to like on "Who's Next." On the other, it's stadium rock at its most pompous.

Because more and more of these reviews are including my personal narrative in them, let's go through my relationship with The Who:

Like most boys in the suburbs, I was inundated with classic rock from the time I developed any interest in music. My parents played me a lot of Beatles records as a kid and as soon as I started having any control over my own radio listening (aka in my bedroom), I subscribed to the baby boomer idea of "the only good rock and roll came out in the '60s and '70s."

So, I loved Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and the like. I borrowed my parents' records and listened to them on headphones in my bedroom and sought out old vinyl copies of records at garage sales.

My favorite band during these years was The Who. I worshiped the Who. I thought "My Generation" was so coolly defiant. I thought "Who's Next" was so smart. I thought the synths used on "Who Are You?" were so interesting. I thought "Quadrophenia" and "Tommy" were so much better than anything in current music. The Who could do no wrong. I even went to see one of their dreadful reunion shows.

Looking back on that time, it sounds kind of foolish. But, really, it was just youthful energy put into rock and roll. Considering that the modern popular music at the time was either West Coast hip hop (which I don't think I could've appreciated at the time) and awful alternative rock in the wake of Nirvana's demise (Green Day was very popular at the time), I probably went the right way in The Who.

I still love the Who, but I love their pre-Tommy stuff more than anything. As genius as "Tommy" is, as a concept, as each record came after, the Who were increasingly awful. "Who's Next" was the first in a series of albums of deteriorating quality.

For the uninformed, "Who's Next" is the wreckage of Pete Townshend's follow up to "Tommy," a dystopian view of a future without rock and roll called "Lifehouse." "Lifehouse" never really materialized, but the remnants made up "Who's Next."

Let me say that I'm happy the Who didn't do another double album of rock opera stuff. Double albums have lots of filler and the proposed "Lifehouse" track listing is no different. By stripping away songs like "Too Much of Anything," "Who's Next" becomes a slimmer, more impressive record.

"Who's Next" sounds like an identity crisis record, because the Who clearly were trying to find themselves in a rock and roll landscape they never really fit into. They weren't the huge pop darlings that the Beatles were, they didn't have the blues chops of the Stones and were much more popular than fellow Mods The Kinks. They weren't involved hugely in the psychedelic scene that Genesis and Pink Floyd were part of. They weren't really hippies like the Jefferson Airplanes, Hendrixes and Joplins in America.

Coming off "Tommy," it was clear that Pete Townshend wanted to continue using strings, horns and keyboards to augment the band's sound. This is why the interesting keyboards (evident in "Baba O'Riley' and "Won't Get Fooled Again" ) litter the record. However, this is also the time when the members of the band took themselves far too seriously. Songs like "The Song is Over," "Getting in Tune" and "Behind Blue Eyes" are total nonsense and simply portend the overly emotional nonsense that was the stadium rock ballad (see Journey for examples).

Is that to say that "Who's Next" is terrible? No, because it's not. "Won't Get Fooled Again" is bloated, but in a good way. It's epic and the repetitive keyboard breakdown six and a half minutes into the song is oddly moving and very, very cool. "Baba O'Riley" is a similarly bloated (in all the right ways) track based on a keyboard riff and a very simple guitar part. Are the Townshend "Don't cry. Don't waste your eyes" parts stupid? Absolutely. Does that ruin the song? Nope.

To say this is the Who's best work is silly, I think. The Who was a great proto-punk band and a great bunch of mods. Their first three albums built on that mystique much better than the shifting sensibilities of "Who's Next."