Saturday, 24 August 2013

The Who (original)




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The Who were a rock band who were at their height from 1965 to around 1973. They developed in Acton, West London from Roger Daltrey's band the Detours. As well as Daltrey, the band included guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are mostly associated with a dynamic live act, which involved smashing up their equipment, the "rock opera" double album Tommy, and a string of popular singles in the Sixties.

Their best known singles are "My Generation" (1965), "Substitute" (1966), "I Can See for Miles" (1967), "Pinball Wizard" (1969), and "Won't Get Fooled Again" (1971). Along with the critically acclaimed rock opera albums Tommy (1969), and Quadrophenia (1973),  they made what has been acclaimed as the best ever live rock album, the original vinyl version of Live at Leeds (1970). They delivered energetic live performances with Townsend leaping in the air, shaking his guitar, and playing it with wild "windmill" strokes, Moon thrashing his large drum kit, and Daltrey spinning his mic around his head. After a performance at the Railway Hotel in Wealdstone in June 1964 when Townshend smashed his guitar in anger and frustration, the band  would often finish their act by smashing their instruments. During the height of their Sixties career they were regarded as the third most important British rock act after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

 

Though accomplished and acclaimed, and containing notable elements, such as the high energy playing and live performances, socially aware and well constructed songs, a simmering attitude, ambitious albums that challenged and stretched rock music, an adventurous bass player, and one of rock's wildest drummers, the band - even at their height - were not regarded as the best British rock act. Their reputation has not been helped because their output has been uneven, and songs on the albums could often be weak - going through the rock motions while not actually setting anything alight.  While elements of the band were great, the sum total didn't always work. While at times the reverse was true, and the whole was greater than the sum of their parts. Daltrey has a strong, clean voice - but for most of the band's career it tends to sound more like a stage musical voice than that of a rock singer - it was only during a brief period in the early Seventies that he developed the confidence to fully engage his voice and hold the stage during live performances. His stage presence, while looking good, and being full of movement, often lacked aggression and confidence, and couldn't quite match  the brooding performances of Robert Plant, Liam Gallagher, Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger, Ian Brown, Van Morrison, etc. Keith Moon was wild and exciting, but rather limited, so the rhythms are largely driven by Entwistle and Moon's role becomes one of percussion accompaniment rather than the driving heart of the group. And his accompaniment becomes rather mundane and expected after a while - only occasionally does he offer something of interest. However, his high speed rolls and cymbal clashing can be very entertaining (albeit  in small doses).  Townshend has great stage presence - an angry, frustrated young man exploding with energy. His leaps in the air, and his windmill guitar playing are vivid rock images. Yet his beard and clothes choice gave him a rather odd, geeky appearance. The  "concept" approach to song writing, and the desire to appear serious and interesting,  gave the band a rather earnest ambiance which was at odds with the more natural and genuinely interesting attitude of other bands of their Sixties period such as Cream, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, The Bluesbreakers, The Animals, Them, Small Faces, Rolling Stones, etc. And by the Seventies they had fallen behind the new acts such as Deep Purple, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Hawkwind, Yes, Genesis, Black Sabbath, etc.



The band's first released recording was "Zoot Suit" (under the name The High Numbers). A competent copy of  the 1963 recording of  "Misery" by the Detroit RnB group The Dynamics. There is a film of them playing as The High Numbers in the Railway Hotel in 1964. With their first singles as The Who they laid down a series of  four top 10 singles that still stand up now,  "I Can't Explain" (Jan 1965),  "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" (May 1965), "My Generation" (Nov 1965), and  "Substitute", (April 1966). They continued with singles that often reached into the top 50, right into the early Eighties when "You Better You Bet" reached number 9 in 1981. The best of their singles after the first four are: "I Can See for Miles" (1967) - that Townshend felt was a guaranteed hit and was bitterly disappointed that it only reached  number 9 - they never played the song live with the original members - apparently due to Moon feeling he couldn't reproduce the drumming; "Pinball Wizard" (1969) - the lead single from ''Tommy'', and the track that for many represents the best of that album; and "Won't Get Fooled Again" - a tight 3 1/2 minute edit from the epic 8 1/2 minute version on the Who's Next album.

The albums that gain the most attention are the four studio and one live they made between 1967 and 1973: The Who Sell Out (1967),   Tommy  (1969),  Live at Leeds  (1970),  Who's Next  (1971), and Quadrophenia  (1973).  Of those, Tommy is the album most associated with the band, and the one on which their main album reputation rests. The Who Sell Out  is perhaps the weakest of the bunch, but is frequently mentioned by music writers because the album had a loose concept (it is presented as a commercial radio station along with jingles and adverts). Apart from "I Can See for Miles", which was released as a single, I struggled to like the album for many years, and while not seeing it quite as the band;s best album, I am coming round to appreciating some of the songs on it.  The original vinyl version of The Who Live at Leeds is, for me, the band's best album, and serves as a great introduction to The Who. It has six songs only - the blistering renditions of the rock standards: "Shakin' All Over",  "Summertime Blues", and "Young Man Blues", and three of the band's more popular songs: "Substitute",  "My Generation", and "Magic Bus".  "My Generation" and "Magic Bus" are extended version, with "My Generation" including bits from Tommy. I also like and will recommend Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy, a 1971 compilation.

The Who are essentially Townshend's band. Though it was originally Daltrey's band, his aggressive leadership, backed up by using his fists, resulted in the other three sacking him early on, and he had to beg to be let back in, which crushed his confidence and bravado until after the success of Tommy, by which time he felt he had earned his place in the band. Almost all the song-writing, and certainly the direction the band went in, and the albums they made, were Townsend, and on some albums Townsend even does a lot of the lead vocals. His interests and ego are displayed on the bulk of the songs - for better or worse.

Good introductions to the band are the 1971 compilation,  Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, which contains most of their Sixties singles on which the bulk of their reputation rests, the 1970 live album, Live at Leeds, which represents them at their live best, and the 1969 album Tommy, their most famous album which in its ambition (or pretension),  tight (or narrow) musical focus, and generous (or unnecessary) length exemplifies their approach to making albums. 





Albums

My Generation (1965)
Note: Original has 12 tracks, finishing with "The Ox"
A pretty decent debut. Contains three covers, including James Brown's "Please, Please, Please"; several Townshend penned R&B based pop songs, that were fairly typical of  British bands of the period, such as "Out In The Street"; and the two strong singles "The Kids Are Alright", and "My Generation". The stammer on "My Generation" was developed during the recording - it didn't appear on Townshend's demo.   It's a listenable and fairly attractive album, and while mostly lacking in the energy the band are known for, and the ambition that Townsend would later display, it stands up well against similar R&B albums released that year.  Highlight is "The Ox", a spontaneous jam at the end of the recording sessions for the album.  It's a blend of surfing music, such as The Surfaris' "Waikiki Run", and garage/surf music by such as The Fabulous Wailers.  "The Good's Gone" is a well constructed song which unfolds with quiet menace and shows the promise of Entwistle underpinning Moon's drumming, which is nicely restrained here. 
Other albums released in 1965 (1965 was a good year, with Highway 61 Revisited and Rubber Soul, among others, so I'm only selecting albums with some relevance to The Who's R&B style): 
Wikipedia 
AllMusic: 10
Score: 6  
A Quick One (1966)
Weak album. All the band were encouraged to write and sing their own songs, and that doesn't pay off. As with a number of bands in Britain and America, they were attempting to push themselves musically, but weren't quite ready. This comes across as sub-par pop Kinks. The band are not playing here to their strengths.
Best songs are the cover of  "Heat Wave", "So Sad About Us", and "A Quick One While He's Away", Townsend's first foray into a song suite which has elements that are recognisable, though in more developed form, in Tommy. Townsend has spoken about "A Quick One" being based on sexual abuse he experienced as a child from a family member.  The band did a strong live performance of the song in 1968 on The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus, which was in marked contrast to The Stones weary performance. The film was not shown until 1996. 
All in all a disappointing album, and one that is quite rightly largely ignored. 

 Wikipedia 
AllMusic: 9 
Score: 3

The Who Sell Out (1967)
Some music writers like this album for the gimmick of the commercial radio jingles combined with songs about commercial products, such as acne cream and deodorant, and see it as a stepping stone to Tommy. I find the jingles intrusive on first listen, and irritating on repeated listening. The songs in between the jingles, apart from  "I Can See for Miles",  tend to go through the motions. They have drums, guitar, vocals, and are competent enough, but can be somewhat limited. "I Can See For Miles" is actually a fairly simple and limited song, but it has compelling power. It depends on Entwistle's simple but menacing repeated bass line, which both holds the song together but also drives it forward with Moon's basic but attractive drum runs crashing across the bass line, and Townsend's again very simple but very telling power chords and repeated high notes. It's the compressed repetition of these simple but very powerful parts that really works. The opening is magnificent - almost certainly the heaviest track the Who had done, and quite likely the heaviest any band had done up to that point. That power is awesome - a great humming electric presence that we would later find on Led Zeppelin.  Townsend was quite rightly disappointed that it only just nudged into the bottom of the Top Ten, and never became the No 1 he thought it would. Part of the reason, perhaps, is that the lyrics are are a bit poppy and bright - "I can see for miles and miles", and Daltrey is just too clean a singer. He has strength and announces clearly, but there's no character to his voice, and there's little he does (or even perhaps can do) with the lyrics. Oddly, he flattens what is a very powerful song. But, to be fair, I've not heard anyone sing it better. Of the other songs, "Armenia City In The Sky" is The Who's take on psychedelia with backward noises, lots of fuzzy distortion, and "freak out freak out" spoken toward the end. Dalty sounds like a chipmunk. Compared with "Strawberry Fields Forever",  "Good Vibrations",  "Arnold Layne", and even "I See The Rain" by Marmalade, it clearly fails. To be fair, it wasn't written by Townsend, but by his friend Speedy Keen, who Townsend would put into his manufactured band Thunderclap Newman, who recorded the wonderful "Something In The Air". "Mary Ann" is a jokey song. Hmm. "Odorono" is another joke song. It's a rather flat pop song, the whole thing devoted to the story lyrics which are rather banal.  "Tattoo" is a song that critics tend to like, because the lyrics are something they can talk about. The song, like "Odorono" depends entirely on the lyrics - the music just there to decorate and carry the story.  And the story is about two boys getting tattoos. It's very whimsical, as is the music, and is more baroque pop than rock, poised somewhere between The Kinks and the Bee Gees. "Our Love Was" is a shimmering song, with better vocals (handled by Townsend), and the whole band pushing the song forward with some of Moon's more focused drumming, and Townsend ripping loose on some sharp guitar riffs toward the end. The whole tied together by Entwistle's meaty bass.
I've been struggling with this album. I had it back in the early Seventies, and didn't think much of it. I was put off by what I felt to be the superficial and tacky gimmicks of the adverts and radio jingles, and was not charmed by any of the tracks other than the rather basic but wonderfully thunderous "I Can See For Miles". On reviewing the album when I first wrote this blog back in 2013, I was scathingly dismissive, perhaps carrying some latent bias with me. While I am not finding the album a masterpiece, and can still feel the weaknesses I felt earlier - the limited drumming, the lack of adventure and movement in the music, etc, I am seeing far more in it that I did previously. The songs do yield up something to those prepared to listen with an open mind. I have my doubts about the value of the concept behind the album, and would much rather all the garbage jingles were removed, but accept that it is what it is, and it's a reflection of it's time when everyone seemed to want to do some sort of concept album.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 10
Score: 5

Tommy (1969)
The band's most famous and notable album, and the one that will secure their name, regardless of what one personally thinks of it (opinion is divided among music writers, and its reputation has declined over the years). The ambition and scale is admirable, and for many the concept and execution stand up well. The songs themselves are something of a continuation of the monotonous, uninspired thumping of The Who Sell Out, and only a handful of the twenty four songs stand up by themselves - most simply serve as a means to carry the concept or story a stage further. Though it has connections with progressive music in terms of extended song suites and an overall concept (a deaf, dumb and blind boy who starts a new religion), the band's roots in R&B, and the rather straightforward music (which lacked the melody and musical variety, ambition and accomplishment associated with progressive music), saw the album as being considered part of the mainstream rock genre, which at the time made it more accessible and popular, though it's R&B simplicity is now playing against it when compared to the musical virtuosity of prog-rock bands such as Yes, which at the time were seen as posh boys trying too hard. Townshend had Meher Baba in mind when writing the album, so aspects of his life and ideas are present in some of the songs and themes. Meher Baba deliberately made himself dumb, and then lived for two years by anonymous begging - feeling that it was appropriate to  renounce everything and become helpless. Tommy becomes a guru and asks his disciples to become deaf, dumb and blind - essentially renouncing what they have, and becoming helpless.

There are snatches of songs which contain some interesting and vibrant music, but the only song that stands up by itself is "Pinball Wizard". The Ken Russell film based on the album brought some life and colour to the music, and Tina Turner's rendition of "The Acid Queen" is wonderfully over the top, if a little thin and trashy. The album is over-long, overblown, and often rather tedious and uninspired, but for both ambition and status it is a must listen album.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 9
Score: 5 1/2

Live at Leeds (1970)
The vinyl album, containing just six songs, is raw, rough, tight, and very exciting. This is the band at their peak. They only played like this for a short period, and it was fortunate that it was caught on tape and released as an official album. All the songs stand up well, though "Summertime Blues",  "Young Man Blues, and "Magic Bus" are particularly awesome. "Magic Bus" was slightly edited for the album - the fuller version is available on Greatest Hits Live, complete with the mangled tape near the start that results in a few seconds of the song being played backwards. For the energy displayed on the album, and the excellent decision to select a few hard-hitting tracks rather than overfill the album so it becomes boring (as they have done with the CD releases), this has deservedly earned the reputation as being the best live album ever made.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 10
Score: 8

Who's Next  (Aug 1971)
Compared to the band's studio work since their debut, this is a crisp, rocky album full of energy. In many ways it's the band's most complete and satisfying studio album. There are some solid, stand up songs, including "Baba O'Riley" and "Behind Blue Eyes", as well as one of the band's all time best, "Won't Get Fooled Again". While it's held back as usual by Moon's limited drum ability (great at drum rolls and cymbal clashing, not so good at holding a simple rhythm, let alone developing new ones), which tends to be more exposed when listening to an entire album rather than just one song, the band have matured together, and work well. The album was made during Townshend's rock opera phase, and indeed, the album was originally intended to be a science fiction rock opera under the project title of Lifehouse, but was thankfully abandoned as being too stressful. It might be the release from the constraints of a concept that give the album it's looseness, light and energy.  The music at times follows a fairly narrow and predictable path which makes it less than likeable on extended play, but can burst out at times, such as on "Won't Get Fooled Again".  The Who are treading here on similar ground to Led Zeppelin, inviting dangerous comparisons because Zeppelin were gifted with supremely talented and original musicians, but this is a decent rocky album. Not groundbreaking, no, but entertaining enough. And "Won't Get Fooled Again" is simply one of the most exciting rock songs ever!

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 10
Score: 6 1/2

Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy (Oct 1971)
The Who were an excellent singles group, and this is an action packed summary of their singles up up to 1971. It makes a powerful statement, and results in one of their very best albums.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 10
Score: 6 1/2

Quadrophenia (1973)
We return to the overblown and excessive. Another double album rock opera. But as Townshend had already done it once, the second time is somewhat less interesting. The album has the sound of Who's Next, and also some of it's competence in delivering competent songs, but more is needed to produce special music. The band's limitations are clear here, and to spread those limitations over a double album is excessive. Plodding, narrow music, with lyrics trying to combine a story of a Sixties mod with that of the four personalities of the band, results in a mess. A very decent film was made out of the concept (the film is much better than the album) - but that was more despite rather than because of the music and lyrics. The two best tracks were released as singles - "5.15", and "Love, Reign o'er Me".

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 10
Score: 3 1/2

Odds & Sods (1974) 
A collection of previously unreleased material from 1964 to 1973. Some tracks had been released on live albums, or in different studio versions. It's an odd collection, done to undermine bootleggers who had released these songs on pirate LPs. But it seems somewhat self-defeating to release such disparate and sub-standard material just to undermine the bootleggers. At least with a bootleg the buyer knows they are buying sub-standard material, and are buying it because they are completists. Flogging this to the public as an official album release seems like a shot in the foot, and rather unfair on the general public. It's not a bad album, but it does sound like the bass player in the band had scraped together discarded scraps of unwanted tape and put them on an album to spite the bootleggers, which is exactly what it is.  Sigh.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 7
Score: 3

Tommy Soundtrack  (March 1975) 
The soundtrack from Ken Russell's overblown but entertaining film of Tommy, with guest appearances from Elton John, Tina Turner, and Eric Clapton. While I like the clarity that Russell brought to the story, and some of the songs are perhaps better here than on the original, I'm not entirely sure I prefer this to the original. Yes, perhaps I do. This is more colourful, clearer, cohesive (it actually sounds like a musical), and, ahem, more fun.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 4
Score: 6

The Who by Numbers (Oct 1975)
A competent though dull album. The songs are decently structured and well meaning, but the music generally just plods along; though Moon's drumming is now more focused and rhythmic, it lacks energy and interest, and the singing is flat and monotonous and resembles someone singing a wordy stage musical - it doesn't sound like rock. The album is more mainstream singer-songwriter than rock.  It's as though the band have given up the idea of trying to compete with the Seventies rock bands, and have retreated into the pretentiously wordy and earnest that served them so well on Tommy and Quadrophenia. The only proper rock track is Entwistle's Success Song, and that is firmly third rate. The fun "Squeeze Box" sits uncomfortably among the dour navel gazing of the rest of the album. "Slip Kid", the opening track,  is tight and rhythmic, with the band more poised and musical than usual, and is the best track. The rest is Townsend miserably and superficially navel gazing. If you want to peer into his boring, self-absorbed and whingy navel, then go ahead, but there's nothing interesting or thought-provoking there. Lyrics and music compress into a sad hopeless introspective lump.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 8
Score: 3

Who Are You (1978)
The last album with Keith Moon. Full of synthesisers and strings, this is a dreadful album. The worse the band made with Moon. The band manage to pull it together for the title track - and the last song on the album - "Who Are You", but as for the rest of the album - avoid like the plague.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 7
Score: 2

Retrospective live albums (with Keith Moon) 

Live At The Fillmore East 1968  (2018)
Of the various live albums available from the period of The Who's peak, this is the best accompaniment to Live At Leeds, as there is a different focus to the band, as this was just before Tommy. The band are not as good as on Live At Leeds, but this is still a blistering performance of a late Sixties pop-rock band as they start moving toward being a Seventies rock band.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 9
Score: 6

Live At Hull 1970 (2012)
Recorded just after Live At Leeds as a backup. The set lists are almost identical. My preference is for the performance at Leeds. And my ultimate preference is for the shorter, intense original release. I have fond memories of being round a friends house when first hearing it. I genuinely thought it was a bootleg, which somehow made it more exciting.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 5
Score: 5

Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 (1996) 
I think it's been well established that The Who were an exciting live act in 1970 by the Live At Leeds album, and neither this nor Live At Hull add anything significant. The set lists are almost identical, and the band sound pretty much the same.  If you get all three albums you can have fun playing them side by side to see which performances of which song you prefer. For me the Leeds performance is the better. Your mileage may vary.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 9
Score: 5

BBC Sessions (2000)
Recorded between 1965 and 1973 live at various BBC studios in London. More of a curiosity for Who fans than for the general public. The recordings and performances are not as good as are available elsewhere, so this is of minor interest.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 9
Score: 3

Post-Keith Moon


Face Dances (1981)
The first album without Moon has Kenney Jones (The Small Faces/The Faces) on drums.  It contains "You Better You Bet". It's an indifferent album. Boring.

Wikipedia
Allmusic: 7
Score: 2 1/2

It's Hard (1982)
Dull.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 4 
Score: 2  

Who's Last (1984) 
Live album recorded 1982 with Kenney Jones on drums. It's not a great album - this is not The Who at their peak, but to be fair it's moderately entertaining, and better than expected. This version of The Who split up not long after.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 4
Score: 3

Endless Wire (2006)
The new Who split up in 1983, reforming occasionally for a concert. Then Entwistle died in 2006. So this is The Who mark III with just Daltrey and Townsend and a variety of backing musicians. The opening song is better than I expected from the previous post-Moon albums, with a return to something like the early Seventies sound, including pretty much the same synthesiser refrain used a couple of times on Who's Next. But as usual Townsend's lyrics are too wordy, like something from a Broadway musical, and Daltrey's delivery is forced into being stilted and empty in order to carry the sentences. When given the chance Daltrey can really belt it out, but too often he's expected to be stage actor and Broadway musical singer. That's always been the case, though it's perhaps more obvious here.  On "In The Ether" he strains his voice to give a passable imitation of  Tom Waits, giving some indication of the potential lost. 

Wikipedia 
AllMusic: 7
Score: 3 1/2 

Who (2019)
A mature and professional album. Soft rock, quite accessible and commercial, so this will have a wide appeal and should sell. Daltrey's voice is well controlled here, and age has rasped it pleasantly, so he sounds probably at his best, and this may well be his best studio performance. Townsend's song structures and lyrics are allowing Daltrey to perform. The two have grown old together very well. The accompanying musicians are all good, so there is a better sound here than on many Who albums. The drumming in particular kinda shows how good The Who could have sounded if Moony had been able to drive and sustain a good rhythm. Yes, I loved his wild drum rolls as much as anyone, but his limitations, despite Entwistle's best efforts to compensate, cost the band dearly.  Anyway, this is a very respectable and mature album that I find I am liking rather more than I thought I would. There's nothing special here, just a well made, accessible and pleasing album from two aging rock gods. Johnny Cash, Rod Stewart and now Daltrey and Townsend show that the 21st Century is a good time for old musicians.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 8
Score: 4 1/2

Discography


   Retrospective live albums with Keith Moon

  Post-Keith Moon

Albums ranked 

* RollingStone
* Louder
* UCRock
* NME
* BEA
* RYM
* Ranker
* Stereogum
* Top Ten
* ClassicRock
* RoR
* Chart

5 points for 1st, 3 for 2nd, 2 for 3rd, 1 each for 4th & 5th.  Most lists don't include live and/or compilation albums (though all include the post Moon albums), so the position of Live At Leeds and the Meaty compilation are lower than they otherwise would be.

Who's Next  (1971)  56     
Quadrophenia (1973)   26 
Tommy (1969)  31    
Live at Leeds (1970)  19 
My Generation (1965)  13 
Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy (1971)  10  
The Who Sell Out (1967)  9  
Who Are You (1978) 1 

 My list 
Live at Leeds (1970)  
Who's Next  (1971) 
Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy (1971) 
My Generation (1965)  
Live At The Fillmore East 1968  (2018) 
Tommy Soundtrack  (March 1975) 
Tommy (1969) 
The Who Sell Out (1967) 
Top tracks

 "My Generation"
 "Substitute"
 "I Can See for Miles"
 "Pinball Wizard"
 "Summertime Blues"  (Live at Leeds)
 "Young Man Blues"  (Live at Leeds)
 "Magic Bus"  (unedited version - Greatest Hits Live)
"Won't Get Fooled Again"
"Who Are You"

Links
* Great footage of the band playing at The Railway Hotel as The High Numbers.
* The Who.com (Official site)
* Rolling Stone profile
* Wikipedia
* AllMusic
* The-who.net (Fan site)
* Thewho.net (Fan site)
* Moon passes out on stage and is replaced by a fan from the audience



The Who 80 minute CD

"Zoot Suit"
"I Can't Explain"
"Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere"
"Out In The Street"
"My Generation"
"The Kids Are Alright"
"The Ox"
"Substitute"
"Heat Wave"
"I Can See for Miles"
"Summertime Blues"
"Young Man Blues"
"Magic Bus"
"Pinball Wizard"
"I'm Free" (version from the film)
"Won't Get Fooled Again"
"Baba O'Riley"
"5.15"
"Squeeze Box"
"Who Are You"

Summary

Voice/Musicianship
Daltrey has a strong clear voice that carries Townshend's lyrics very effectively. The lyrical themes rarely ask anything subtle, clever or emotional from Daltrey so he handles it all with ease. In the early Seventies his voice style and power could at times be compared to Robert Plant, and the yell near the end of Won't Get Fooled Again is awesome - one of the best vocal moments in rock. However, the voice is limited: clarity and strength can only offer so much.  Moon is a very popular drummer, and is an essential part of the image of The Who - his wild drum rolls and cymbal clashing, combined with his mad antics and wild lifestyle, present a Muppets image of a rock drummer during rock's teenage years. Sadly, his drumming, flashy and fun, and exciting though it could be, was fairly limited - he couldn't hold the band together, nor drive them forward, and his limited range became very boring when faced with an album load of it. But the nature of his appeal means that there will always be a debate about how "good" he was. On some tracks, especially the singles, I find him irresistible exciting and "rocky". Sigh. Townsend's on stage windmill playing and guitar smashing  makes him an iconic guitar figure. The band were essentially a power trio, especially live, relying on electric guitar, bass and drums. While they were not the first, they were playing as a power trio before Cream were formed. During recording, Townsend would sometimes play two different guitar parts, or there would be a piano part added, so they were not consistently a power trio, but they did approach most songs in a direct almost brutal manner typical of a power trio. Townsend's playing, especially early on, could be fairly limited to strummed chords, simple, albeit pleasant, arpegios, and then strategic notes or a riff. But now and again he could explode with musical aggression and power, and sometimes sustain a reasonably complex musical sequence. Though his main style was the simple attack, for which he was famous and very effective, especially when part of the whole band going for it. Entwistle is the band's genuine musical talent. He held the band together, drove them forward, and occasionally used the bass as lead. His work in covering for Moon, dueling with Townsend, playing bass lead, and holding the whole band together is sometimes mentioned, but too often what he did is overlooked for the flash and strength of the other three. All in all, the band amounted to more than the sum of their parts, and at their best there is a compelling musical power about them that is simply awesome.
11/15

Image
Part of their image is the cool, angry mods wrecking their instruments in frustration. Another is their wild and energetic live act. Moon's manic behaviour and drumming. These are positive rock images, much admired by the Mod revivalists and Punks of the Seventies. Unfortunately they are are also associated with Townshend's pondering earnestness.  And they are always seen as lying behind The Beatles, Stones, And Led Zeppelin in importance - so feel a little second rate. So, big band, but not - quite - awesome.
4/5

Lyrics
Effective lyrics. Sometimes very good. Often merely workmanlike and over wordy and earnest. Trying too hard to be meaningful, and forgetting the power of a direct lyric that speaks for the listener.
6/10

Music
At times the music was brilliant - but that has to be balanced by the dreary stuff that forms the bulk of their album work.
6/10

Impact/Influence
Yes. They had a big impact, though their importance can be over-stated as they didn't break new ground.
7/10

Popularity
Fairly popular.
4/5

Star quality
OK
3/5

Emotional appeal
Not really their thing. But the music can get you worked up at times.
3/5

Authenticity
They believed in themselves, and weren't just doing it for the money. That they sometimes outreached for things beyond their grasp, or worked beyond their talent is not, for me, a negative in this category. Yes, overall, an artist tends to be more successful being aware of and playing to their strengths, but there is also something admirable in musicians pushing the boundaries of their own abilities.
16/25

Legacy
They will be remembered.
6/10

Total: 66/100

Voice/Musicianship (15), Image (5), Lyrics (10), Music (10), Impact/Influence (10), Popularity (5), Star quality (5), Emotional appeal (5), Authenticity (25), and Legacy (10).


Kitchen Table Music Blogs
Best Of The Best



64  April 2019
78  Jan 2020
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