The Who 20-1

[Fossie 32]

Armenia City in the Sky is my entry in the current Song Contest. Sure to go well

 

[Fossie 32]

Love the melody / arrangement and imaginative lyrics of Rael. It's a bit like Procol Harum's A Salty Dog

 

[Hoos]

Armenia City in the Sky is my entry in the current Song Contest. Sure to go well

Nice choice. Close to the least known of all the opening tracks on Who albums. Brilliant beginning to Sell Out.

What was the theme?

 

[Fossie 32]

Nice choice. Close to the least known of all the opening tracks on Who albums. Brilliant beginning to Sell Out.

What was the theme?

Songs or Artists with countries in their names

 

[Hoos]

Songs or Artists with countries in their names

Nice one. You'll be hard pressed to find two other people in the SC who know the album let alone the song.

 

[adammania9]

Rael is a sensational song. Fantastic album!

 

[Hoos]

Rael is a sensational song. Fantastic album!

I love it. "Our Love Was" and "I Can't Reach You" are up there at the very top of Pete sung Who songs I reckon. Throw in "Sunrise" and that's three of his best all on the same album.

The ads they wrote for the album are brilliant too.

 

[adammania9]

I love it. "Our Love Was" and "I Can't Reach You" are up there at the very top of Pete sung Who songs I reckon. Throw in "Sunrise" and that's three of his best all on the same album.

The ads they wrote for the album are brilliant too.

I’m a sucker for Silas Stingy. Fun to singalong to

 

[Hoos]

I’m a sucker for Silas Stingy. Fun to singalong to

Entwistle's songs are brilliant. His lyrics seem to be either macabre or just nasty. Always great musically though.

 

[adammania9]

Entwistle's songs are brilliant. His lyrics seem to be either macabre or just nasty. Always great musically though.

Absolutely. Whiskey Man is a favourite of mine. Love 905 too. And Dr Jekyll.

Love that The Who could write absolutely anything and turn it into something great.

 

[Hoos]

Absolutely. Whiskey Man is a favourite of mine. Love 905 too. And Dr Jekyll.

Yep. All of those. "Cousin Kevin", "Heaven And Hell" and "When I Was A Boy" are among my favourites from The Ox.

Love that The Who could write absolutely anything and turn it into something great.

Their musicianship level was off the charts. Plus they sounded totally unique. No other band had sounded anything like the them.

 

[Hoos]

Has anyone on here bought the new Who's Next/Lifehouse box?

 

[Fossie 32]

I had a mental block about which song goes 'my XKE is shining so brightly'.
Then went to listen to Call Me Lightning and there are a lot of covers and versions of it.

This is from 1964

 

[revo333]

Townsend forgot the words at one point in Pinball Wizard. Substitute was awesome.

There's more than a few videos on youtube with Townsend forgetting words or complete verses.

Some of it is train wreck viewing!

 

[Hoos]

There's more than a few videos on youtube with Townsend forgetting words or complete verses.

Some of it is train wreck viewing!

When Hendrix would occasionally do it, he'd always make light of it, which seemed to work. Sometimes it came across as pretty funny.

 

[revo333]

Been on a Who bender lately while organising my cd collection.

I struggle to get into the stuff prior to 'Who's next' for some reason but I enjoy 'Magic Bus' 'Pinball Wizard' and 'I can See for Miles'

The sweet spot is the song 'Naked Eye' and albums "Who's Next' and "Quadrophenia"

After that it's 2-3 good enough songs from every album with "Eminence Front' being one of their best songs and I really like "They made my dreams come true" from 'Endless wire'.

I actually think they get underrated a bit when people talk about the best bands ever.

 

[Hoos]

I actually think they get underrated a bit when people talk about the best bands ever.

Absolutely they do. And there's a few early albums that are worth persevering with. The 1965 debut is like an early blueprint for punk rock, with a touch of glorious power pop ("The Kids Are Alright"), and even though their follow up - A Quick One - is a step down, it still has some very interesting music with some unusually dark themes for 1966.

Sell Out might just be their most underrated album - along with the unjustly ignored Who By Numbers. Both these albums were either just before (Sell Out) or just after (By Numbers) epic double LP concept albums, but Sell Out was a concept album in itself. The whole album presented as a pirate radio station was pure genius. It's ridiculous how little acclaim this album receives from ignorant non-Who fans. Who By Numbers, on the other hand, has no storyline or concept running through it, and they'd even put the synths aside on it as well. The songs on there are great though. And I suppose there is a kind of theme running through the album: the band's disillusionment with the music industry in general and the state of rock in particular. How right they were.

Both albums just somehow got lost in the Tommy, Who's Next and Quadrophenia exaltation (which was entirely justified, by the way). Throw Live At Leeds and the early singles into the mix and it's a wonder Sell Out and By Numbers get mentioned at all. One thing's for sure, nothing they released post Numbers came anywhere near it's quality, with the sole exception being the title track from the album that came after it.