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"…Sing My Song Out To The Infinite Sea…"
I can remember as a teenager
seeing the album cover to "Who's Next" in a record shop on Talbot
Street in Dublin in the late summer of 1971. I laughed out loud. There was our
favourite Rock Reprobates pissing up against a concrete monolith in the middle
of some slag heap somewhere (only The Who!) I knew I had to own it. And like so
many other fans of Seventies Classic Rock - I've been in love with this
deceptively deep album for over 40 years - to a point where I've something like
7 different pressings of it on vinyl alone.
Which brings us by swift of
shore and bend of bay to this fabulous 2CD DELUXE EDITION celebration of
"Who's Next" - which only makes me want to wee-wee my initials on
even bigger walls. So here are the new bosses, marital bargains and the Baba O'Riley
behind those blue eyes...
UK released April 2003 -
"Who's Next: Deluxe Edition" by THE WHO on MCA/Chronicles 088 113 056-2 (Barcode
008811305628) is a 2CD Reissue and Remaster that breaks down as follows:
Disc 1 (79:30 minutes):
1. Baba O'Riley
2. Bargain
3. Love Ain't For Keeping
4. My Wife
5. The Song Is Over
6. Getting In Tune [Side 2]
7. Gong Mobile
8. Behind Blue Eyes
9. Won't Get Fooled Again
Tracks 1 to 9 are the album
"Who's Next" - their 6th album released August 1971 in the UK on
Track Records 2408 102 and Decca DL 79182 in the USA (CD Disc 1 uses the Track
logo while Disc 2 uses Decca)
NEW YORK RECORD PLANT
SESSIONS - BONUS TRACKS
10. Baby Don't You Do It
A band fave - a cover
version of Marvin Gaye's Tamla Hit recorded 16 March 1971 with LESLIE WEST of
MOUNTAIN guesting on Guitar - runs to 8:20 minutes
11. Getting in Tune
[Previously Unreleased Alternate Version]
12. Pure And Easy
The 'Original Version'
recorded 17 and 18 March 1971. A later different version turned up on the 1974
compilation LP "Odds And Sods"
13. Love Ain't For Keeping
[Alternate Version recorded 17 March 1971. First appearance was on the extended
CD of "Odds And Sods" in 1998
14. Behind Blue Eyes - this
'Original Version' recorded 17 and 18 March 1971 features AL KOOPER on Organ
15. Won't Get Fooled Again
[Previously Unreleased] - an early version of the full album version at 8:46
minutes - it features a different synth pattern to the released version
Disc 2 (74:51 minutes):
1. Love Ain't For Keeping
2. Pure And Easy
3. Young Man Blues
4. Time Is Passing
5. Behind Blue Eyes
6. I Don't Even Know Myself
7. Too Much Of Anything
8. Getting in Tune
9. Bargain
10. Water
11. My Generation
12. Road Runner
13. Naked Eye
14. Won't Get Fooled Again
Tracks 1 to 14 are all
PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED except for "Naked Eye" which appeared on the
1974 compilation LP "Odds And Sods". All tracks were recorded live 26
April 1971 in front of an invited audience at The Young Vic Theatre in South
London. "Young Man Blues" and "Road Runner" are Mose
Allison and Bo Diddley cover versions. "I Don't Even Know Myself"
turned up in studio form as the non-album B-side to the UK and US 7"
single edit of "Won't Get Fooled Again". A studio version of
"Water" was eventually released as the non-album B-side to the
"Quadrophenia" single "5:15".
The oversized 28-page
booklet has an introduction from Pete Townshend about his beloved
"Lifehouse" project that eventually became the album, a poster from
their concert at London's Rainbow Theatre, period photos of the band in full
on-stage flight, an in-depth history by Who expert JOHN ATKINS, track-by-track
details and even a photo of KEITH MOON in ladies underwear (an alternate album
cover). ANDY MacPHERSON and JON ASTLEY have carried out the remixes and
remasters at Close To The Edge and they rock - full of muscle - perfectly
capturing the sheer sonic power of the band. Two examples of where this is most
evident is the amazing rocking work outs of "Baby Don't You Do It" on
Disc 1 and "Water (Live)" on Disc 2 - wow!
While plaudits always go to
the cool "Baba O'Riley" opener on Side 1 bookended by the monster Who
anthem "Won't Get Fooled Again" playing out Side 2 - I've always
loved those album tracks in-between. "Love Ain't For Keeping" and
"The Song Is Over" both showed the depth of Townshend's writing and
Roger Daltrey's raspy vocals. That same Rock soulfulness permeates both
"Getting In Tune" and the ache/anger that runs through "Behind
Blue Eyes". And the brass break in John Entwistle's acidic "My
Wife" still kicks you in the teeth. Can't really resist the "beep
beep!" and brilliant treated guitar on "Going Mobile" either -
what an album.
The Live Disc opens with an
incendiary take of "Love Ain't For Keeping" with the band sounding
confident - ripping into great new material. I like the plaintive "Too
Much Of Anything" which features NICKY HOPKINS on piano and the jangly
"Naked Eye". It ends on a barnstorming "Won't Get Fooled
Again" with the audience left in shock and awe.
"I sing my heart out to
the infinite sea..." - Roger Daltrey wails on "The Song Is
Over". There's a scene in "The Greater Fool" - Episode 10 in
Series One of Aaron Sorkin's brilliant TV Show "The Newsroom". I
wrote about it in a book of poems I put out this year called "My Broken
Heart (75 Days In The NHS)" about a Quad Bypass I had that took a tad
longer than I would have liked. The News Anchorman Will McAvoy (played
brilliantly by Jeff Daniels) has tried to commit suicide after a public drubbing
and a series of bad events - and he's laid low in a hospital. But his crew from
the TV station are with him trying to talk him back to work to report on a
story of the Democrats shafting elderly voters out of their voting rights by
using 'voter fraud' as an excuse. The opening chords and riff of "Baba
O'Riley" by THE WHO begins to play in the background - Will leaps out bed
- gotta go back to work - gotta report on this...he's back. I cried my sappy
Irish eyes out in my own side room in Whipps Cross Hospital. What other band
can elicit this? When you're back's against the wall - can you always rely on
The Who?
What is it about this Rock
Band that makes so many of us weak at the knees? The sheer British
balls-to-the-wall of it all - the life force coursing through their tunes - or
is it the uplifting centre that brings you back - again and again. I don't know
- but God bless 'em anyway. And here's to 40 more years of naughty boys
whizzing all over public structures in our politically correct straightjacket world...
PS: you should buy this
reissue...
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