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CAPT. FANTASTIC - 1975
Your All-Genres Guide To
Exceptional CD Reissues & Remasters
All Reviews From The Discs Themselves
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"...Control Myself..."
"No easy way to be free – I'm a soldier at 63 – off to the civil war... " - Daltrey snarled on "Slip Kid". Further into the LP "Success Story" echoes that weariness again, "This used to be fun..."
Ten years together burning down that Rock and Roll road, in 1975 The Who were battling internal demons that threatened to rip them apart. Principal songwriter and spiritual soldier Pete Townshend (turning 30) was clearly questioning where they fit in after a disconcerting American Tour that he felt had reduced them to an oldies act where fans only wanted what had gone before and not what was new – break yer guitar and give us a jump – they demanded.
PT didn't feel inclined any more to oblige. With Punk whiffing at their heels (they even prophetically cite Punks in the lyrics to "They Are All In Love") - were The Who the greatest R&R band ever as so many had claimed - or were they fast becoming a cliché that could no longer be sustained? Townshend needed to answer all these questions and more and much of that turmoil and searching came out in this 'maturely' worded LP.
Put down at Shepperton Sound Stage using Ronnie Lane's Mobile in April and May 1975 - The Who's seventh album is certainly a professionally recorded affair (this CD sounds so damn good). But I recall that after the mighty "Quadrophenia" double-LP-splurge of 1973 on Track Records – "The Who By Numbers" had huge boots to fill – and many felt this single LP with its rather naff Entwistle-designed join-the-dots numbered sleeve barely squeezed into the left foot never mind both plates of meat.
But as with so much around them, time has been kinder to the 'oo' and this 1996 'Expanded Edition' CD Remaster of "...By Numbers" is a wee belter to me – not a masterpiece - but still an album full of songs rather than just bluster and riffage. "I'm dreaming of the day I can share the world... " Townshend channeled on "Dreaming From The Waist" (originally called "Control Myself"). Well, let's wrestle back some of that control and share it again...
UK released December 1996 - "The Who By Numbers" by THE WHO on Polydor 533 844-2 (Barcode 731453384422) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster with Three Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (49:51 minutes):
1. Slip Kid [Side 1]
2. However Much I Booze
3. Squeeze Box
4. Dreaming From The Waist
5. Imagine A Man
6. Success Story [Side 2]
7. They Are All In Love
8. Blue Red And Grey
9. How Many Friends
10. In A Hand Or A Face
Tracks 1 to 10 are the album "The Who By Numbers" – released 18 October 1975 in the UK on Polydor Records 2490 129 and 25 October 1975 in the USA on MCA Records MCA 2161. Produced by GLYN JOHNS – it peaked at No. 7 and No. 8 in the UK and US LP charts.
Roger Daltrey on Lead Vocals, Pete Townshend on All Guitars, Keyboards, Lead and Shared Vocals, John Entwistle on Bass and Vocals (Brass and Arrangements on "Blue, Red And Grey"), Keith Moon on Drums with Pianist Nicky Hopkins guesting on "They Are All In Love".
BONUS TRACKS:
11. Squeeze Box (Live) – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
12. Behind Blue Eyes (Live) – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
13. Dreaming From The Waist (Live)
Tracks 11, 12 and 13 recorded live at Swansea Football Ground on 12 June 1976 – Track 13 first issued June 1994 and only available on the 4CD Box Set "Thirty Years Of Maximum R&B"
The poster to THE WHO 'Put The Boot In' 1976 UK Tour with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Little Feat, Outlaws and Streetwalkers on the same bill (what a line-up) fills Page 23 of the 24-page booklet. It's there because it lists the Swansea Football Ground gig of 12 June 1976 – the date for the two Previously Unreleased Live Tracks. But I’m disappointed to once again not see the lyrics in a reissue of this most literate of Who albums. All that searching and life observation and social commentary is absent and I really think if there is ever a 2CD Deluxe Edition of this album, the brilliant and highly literate lyrics should be present.
What you do get is new JOHN SWENSON liner notes and classy black and white live shots of the band on their 1975 and 1975 tours. Swenson also gives indepth insights into each and every song and along with Townshend and Entwistle recollections of old, all of it gives you a fuller picture of an album many have written off over the years. The tapes (and reissue) were prepared by long-time Who-associates and archivists JON ASTLEY and ANDY MacPHERSON with Remasters done by the legendary BOB LUDWIG and as I said earlier, this is full WHO sound and the CD properly rocks because of it. To the music...
"Slip Kid" kicks open proceedings strongly, Daltrey's voice full of ballsy maturity as he snarls out words about a second-generation lad who already feels he's faking it. 13 going on 63 – well, is he going to die inside and out before he gets old? But best of all is that fabulous guitar-solo towards the end - the remaster lifting it up - PT's playing inspired and not just impressive (he never gets enough credit for what a good player he is). Things darken on the PT-sung "However Much I Booze" – our man having been on a bender – shakily picking through his thoughts the morning after – at the least the one he can remember. The strummed acoustics combined with a jaunty guitar and drums backbeat gives it an almost upbeat Country-Rock lilt, like a ditty, but with lyrics that namecheck Brandy and no way out and a destiny he can’t seem to prevent, it has a walls-closing-in dark heart.
By immediate contrast, the Daddy-never-sleeps-at-night saucy banjo-soloing "Squeeze Box" is great fun and a typically cool WHO song. Issued 9 January 1976 in the UK, Polydor 2121 275 featured the superb "Success Story" on the flipside. The British 45 gave them a No. 10 chart hit whilst it had been issued November 1975 in the USA on MCA Records MCA-40475 in an album-artwork picture sleeve that attained a No. 16 chart position. In some ways it’s decidedly odd that such a ‘fun’ tune is associated with an album mired in such personal turmoil. Both "Dreaming From The Waist" and the Side 1 finisher "Imagine A Man" are up there in my Who books – especially the strangely beautiful acoustic-led "Imagine A Man" where Roger Daltrey's expressive voice elevates PT's poetic lyrics (gorgeous clarity too).
A Rock and Roll singer is on television giving up his music for religion in "Success Story" - a tune I always thought a winner. Ace sessionman Nicky Hopkins lends his distinctive and lovely piano playing to "They Are All In Love" - a sort of kids-are-alright homage from Townshend to the young. And once again on "Success Story" he lambastes his musical output as 'recycling trash' (a tad unfair), while the recrimination goes even further on the core-deep "How Many Friends" - a song so personal it actually makes for affection and uncomfortable listening at one and the same time. Out comes the George Fornby Ukulele for the quietly lovely "Blue, Red And Grey" - Bassist Entwistle stepping up the plate with truly gorgeous Silver Brass fills (he arranged them too). The LP ends with the riffage of "In A Hand Or A Face" - a reflection on society's inequalities - going round and round - one man sipping champagne while another goes through your dustbin looking for food.
We get to hear Keith Moon work the crowd for the unreleased live cut of "Squeeze Box" (introduces the song) - Townshend turning it into a guitar-driven beast (no banjo in sight). In fact the last minute of it is a witty intro to "Behind Blue Eyes" (Keith Moon left the stage) - and it's really good. My love is vengeance that is never free - Daltrey and Entwistle holding it intact as Pete strums that "Who's Next" gem. And the live cut of the LP’s "Dreaming From The Waist" turns into a barnstormer – a genuinely great addition and not surprising it was included on the 30 Years Box set.
The more I rehear this 1975 WHO album, the more I realize I dismissed it all too easily back in the day. "Imagine a man tied up in life...a road so long...you will see the end..." I can’t imagine a world where my love of The Who will ever diminish and this cool CD only reaffirms that...
