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"...Guitar And Pen..."
Released October 1975 around the
world, their seventh album "The Who By Numbers" had done respectable
business on the UK and US LP charts too – No. 7 and No. 8. But in 1978 – a full three years on -
and with British Punk and New Wave in the absolute full-throws of destroying
all in its inventive three-minute path – The Who were beginning to seem like
the dinosaurs the Young Turks were all snarling about. Even Townshend himself
was saying it in press interviews.
Unfortunately – and with my
lifelong affection for the band undiminished even an iota – you cannot call
much of "Who Are You" anything other than just so-so. Outside of the
killer title track and a few other moments of melody, I thought it was half-assed and coming three long years after 1975's "...By Numbers" - felt like critics were being fueled with and not starved of go-go juice. "Only
frustration and overload..." Townshend sang on the disturbingly good
outtake "No Road Romance".
But never underestimate the power of
a killer riff and a single that distills it – July 1978 giving fans and lapsed
buyers the cool of an edited "Who Are You" on 45-single three months
before its parent LP arrived on Polydor Records in the UK and MCA Stateside. And
the album was a huge hit. It reached No. 6 in the UK and a staggering No. 2 in
the USA – beating its predecessor by a considerable country mile. Musically I can
vividly recall thinking then that both "The Who By Numbers" and
"Who Are You" were good-ish Who LPs – not great ones – the days of
"Who's Next" and "Quadrophenia" already gone.
Which brings us to this...the
November 1996 'Expanded Edition' single CD Remaster of "Who Are You".
I cannot say that time has been kind to the 'oo' on this genuinely awkward
outing - its lacklustre Side 1 stuff sticking out like a sore thumb and those
strings on two tracks that feel intrusive and horribly out of touch. You have
to worry when Entwistle produces the only ‘other’ real riffage moment of
brilliance in "Trick Of The Light" and not Townshend.
But, this CD reissue is bolstered up
with five Previously Unreleased goodies worthy of the moniker Bonus. A plus
seventy-minutes playing time too. Guitar and Pen triumphant - let's get back to
that Soho doorway; get up and walk away...
UK released 18 November 1996 -
"Who Are You" by THE WHO on Polydor 533 845-2 (Barcode 731453384521)
is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster with Five Bonus Tracks that
plays out as follows (70:59 minutes):
1. New Song [Side 1]
2. Had Enough
3. 905
4. Sister Disco
5. Music Must Change
6. Trick Of The Light [Side 2]
7. Guitar And Pen
8. Love Is Coming Down
9. Who Are You
Tracks 1 to 9 are the album "Who
Are You" – released 18 August 1978 in the UK on Polydor Records WHOD 5004
(Polydor 2490 147) and 25 October 1975 in the USA on MCA Records MCA 3050.
Produced by GLYN JOHNS and JON ASTLEY – it peaked at No. 6 and No.28 in the UK
and US LP charts. Tracks 1, 4, 5 7, 8 and 9 written by Pete Townshend with Tracks
2, 3 and 6 by John Entwistle
THE WHO were:
Roger Daltrey on Lead Vocals
Pete Townshend on All Guitars,
Keyboards, Lead and Shared Vocals
John Entwistle on Bass, Synths and
Vocals (Synth and Lead Vocals on "905", Horns on "Had Enough"
and "Music Must Change")
Keith Moon on Drums and Percussion
Guests:
Rod Argent of Argent on Keyboards –
Synth on "Had Enough", "Guitar And Pen" and Piano on "Who
Are You"
Andy Fairweather-Low [ex Amen
Corner] and Billy Nichols on Backing Vocals Ted Astley - String Arrangements on
"Had Enough" and "Love Is Coming Down"
BONUS TRACKS (all PREVIOUSLY
UNRELEASED):
10. No Road Romance (Demo), 5:05
minutes
11. Empty Glass (Rough Mix), 6:23
minutes
12. Guitar And Pen (Olympic ’78 Mix),
6:00 minutes
13. Love Is Coming Down
(Work-In-Progress Mix), 4:06 minutes
14. Who Are You (Lost Verse Mix),
6:21 minutes
The 24-page booklet is substantial,
packed with period photos of the band in studio and live modes - including a
center spread shot of rows of people behind each band member that was going to
be the front sleeve, but abandoned for the wires and equipment photo.
Bolstering the text are a lot of great power live shots and new MATT RESNICOFF liner notes that
not only outline the band's troubled history by 1978 (beloved drummer Keith Moon passing from drugs aged only 30 - even seeming to know his end was nigh by citing his out-of-control behavior as no longer being a laughing matter) - but they go into tremendously helpful track-by-track details. And yet despite his best efforts to convince me that much
of the LP is a misunderstood gazelle – even a friendly re-listen does not hold that up at all (critics at the time weren't exactly bowled over by it either).
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 a full WHO sound and
the CD properly rocks because of it. I wish the actual album did, but to the
music anyway...
"New Song" comes screaming
out of your speakers – all big-daddy riffs pumped up underneath by synths. Coming on very quickly as a lyrical parody on the public's need to hear the same old riffage just being done with different words (everyone
wants to cheer it). "New Song" is angry and cynical and I can't help
thinking that if it had had better lyrics about something else – it wouldn't
have the awful feeling of a band taking the piss out of itself. Strings and
Disco Synth Beats fill up "Had Enough", but again it just feels wrong
to me – the strings hamming it something awful. Recorded in March 1978 at St.
John's Wood, "905" is the second of three Entwistle songs ("Had
Enough" was the first) and it would have opened the album on a winner. In
his usual heavy-strings attack, it's hard to know what's lead electric guitar
or his Bass – either way it is one of the better tracks on Side 1. "Sister
Disco" has always been a hateful tune to me, but the version we get of "Music
Must Change" is a new mix with different guitar parts than that which
first appeared on the 1978 MCA LP. The Audio is spectacular – as are Daltrey's
vocals – snarling out wild stallion lyrics.
Side 2 opens with the fantastic "Trick
Of The Light" where apparently all that guitar riffage is not a guitar at
all but his Atlantic Bass strings hammered out like a lead guitarist. Rod
Argent steps in to help Pete Townshend on the very Quadrophenia feeling "Guitar
And Pen" – both giving it layer after layer of keyboards over Pete’s
biting guitar stabs. For me, it's always been a highlight on the album. The
lonely "Love Is Coming Down" comes in two forms – the recording done
in October 1977 with its heavy strings arrangement added in December – far better
is the Work-In-Progress Mix which strips it back to a guide vocal with different
piano and Bass parts. The LP finally delivers a bona fide classic in the title
track – the stunning and musically complex "Who Are You" – quite possibly
in the top five of everyone's fave raver by the band - six-minutes and seventeen seconds of why people love THE WHO to distraction.
And here for me lies the weird thing about the CD reissue of "Who Are You" - it's Five Previously Unreleased Tracks feel like a better album that the released deal!
"No Road Romance" is first - an almost finished album outtake that was considered superfluous to requirements at the time - but I absolutely love it. Sporting a huge array of melody breaks, backing vocals and astute lyrics, Townshend's lead vocal has an urgency to it that makes much of the released album stuff feel staged. I could imagine Daltrey would have eaten this alive had it been put on the record in finished form.
Next is a gem - recorded in April 1978 and originally called "Choirboy" - we get a Rough Mix of his second solo LP's beloved title track "Empty Glass" and again it's ALIVE! Both Entwistle and Moon play on it and if you're unconvinced by the 'Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Drummer Ever' moniker so easily lumped onto Keith Moon - then check out his work here! Because he rocks - you can actually here it - Moony playing a blinder. Entwistle too does Bass Harmonics as the tune begins and again, you can really hear both his huge signature sound allied with what he brought to the Who dance, innovation not flattened or buried by mixing. Great stuff...
The last three are more alive in my books in all cases than their finished versions - frenzied guitar parts - "Love Is Coming Down" stripped of those intrusive strings - that spiky unheard second verse in "Who Are You" that was re-written by Townshend (both work). Now here's the innards of a great band - brilliant...
I hate to dis a Who LP, but 1978's "Who Are You" was a serious regular sell-in at Reckless Records in Berwick Street for decades on end when I worked there - not something fans fretted over when they needed a few bob or a swap. But the kick-ass audio, the first-rate considered presentation and those five tag-on Bonuses have moved it up from three to four stars. And I'll take that kind of upgrade on a reissue CD any day of the week...
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