BCB 100 - The Who
- Davey the Fat Boy
- Posts: 24008
- Joined: 05 Jan 2006, 02:55
- Location: Applebees
I have as deep a love/hate split with this band as is humanly possible. For the most part I must admit thatI can't stand them. Townshend has always tipped the genius/idiot scale overwhelmingly to the pretentious idiot side. Daltry's singing in the band's more anthemic moments is like nails on a blackboard to me ("when I say you love me, you say you bettah"- gag), and Entwistle's bass playing, while often the bass-equivilent to Moon's inspired cacphony, could lapse easily into 'jazz oddessy" annoyance.
All of that said - for a few short years when they were at their best (namely 65-67), they were as good as a rock/pop band can possibly be. From I Can't Explain to I Can See for Miles they are virtually untouchable. After that...meh.
Favorite Album: The Who Sings My Generation
Favorite Song: I Can See For Miles - As long as I'm making big, declarative statements, I'll say that this isn't just the Who's greatest track, but one of the four or five greatest ever by anyone. Absolutely glorious.
All of that said - for a few short years when they were at their best (namely 65-67), they were as good as a rock/pop band can possibly be. From I Can't Explain to I Can See for Miles they are virtually untouchable. After that...meh.
Favorite Album: The Who Sings My Generation
Favorite Song: I Can See For Miles - As long as I'm making big, declarative statements, I'll say that this isn't just the Who's greatest track, but one of the four or five greatest ever by anyone. Absolutely glorious.
“Remember I have said good things about benevolent despots before.” - Jimbo
-
- Maddie as a March Hare
- Posts: 573
- Joined: 27 Apr 2006, 21:52
- Location: Cloud-hidden, hareabouts unknown
Davey The Fat Boy wrote:Favorite Song:[/b] I Can See For Miles - As long as I'm making big, declarative statements, I'll say that this isn't just the Who's greatest track, but one of the four or five greatest ever by anyone. Absolutely glorious.
Ooh, flashback, I loved that track as a kid. And Magic Bus.
Hm lots of reconsidering going on
- Tom Violence
- Superchod
- Posts: 5405
- Joined: 11 May 2006, 21:51
- Location: Darlington, NE England
Absolutely fantastic band.
Fav song: Can't Explain, Substitute, Baba O Riley, Tattoo, Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand
Fav album: Who Sell Out
I am much more a fan of their earlier work. Those first dozen or so singles, Beatlesy pop type stuff, that's my fav stuff.
And the brilliant 'Who Sell Out'. Brilliant melodies, inspired concept, executed just brilliantly. Probably the greatest 'concept album' ever, by which I mean not necessarily the one with the best songs but the one that works best overall and just took a genius to write. Some of the songs on that are pure gold. Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand must surely be the best song about handjobs ever written...and possibly the only.
Having said that I love 'Who's Next', and the later singles too.
But not a fan of Tommy or indeed much of their later stuff.
Fav song: Can't Explain, Substitute, Baba O Riley, Tattoo, Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand
Fav album: Who Sell Out
I am much more a fan of their earlier work. Those first dozen or so singles, Beatlesy pop type stuff, that's my fav stuff.
And the brilliant 'Who Sell Out'. Brilliant melodies, inspired concept, executed just brilliantly. Probably the greatest 'concept album' ever, by which I mean not necessarily the one with the best songs but the one that works best overall and just took a genius to write. Some of the songs on that are pure gold. Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand must surely be the best song about handjobs ever written...and possibly the only.
Having said that I love 'Who's Next', and the later singles too.
But not a fan of Tommy or indeed much of their later stuff.
I'm the sort who gets out of a bath with a dirty face
- take5_d_shorterer
- Posts: 5753
- Joined: 22 Sep 2003, 23:09
- Location: photo. by Andor Kertesz, Hung.
Quaco wrote:Oscar wrote:Am I the only person who's not particularly bothered one way or t'other about 'Live At Leeds'? I've never seen the fuss.
I always thought it was alright, but always far preferred their studio output. Lately, though, I have newfound respect for the interplay on "Young Man Blues" and especially the long "My Generation" medley. This is what the live Who was best at, in my opinion. Everybody's playing flat-out but then, within that, you hear the whole band almost breathing together. Then that fizzles out and Townshend improvises a new theme, then the others join in and give that a beating. In its way, the "My Generation" medley thing is almost like jazz. No one really knew what was going to happen, including the band.
John Enwistle wrote:MUSICIAN: Was it fun for you as a bass player?
ENTWISTLE: It was fun if I was on top of it. If I was having problems with my sound, it'd be a nightmare. That was one problem too many, because I always had a problem with Keith. A lot of the time I'd just carry on playing with my left hand and sort of pull the cymbal to one side to see what his bass drum foot was doing, so I could get back to the beat. He would often come out of his drum break on a different beat than I had. But it helped me in my playing style a lot. And I helped him, 'cause he knew no matter how crazy his drumming got, my bass would still be there. I could always hold the band together while playing some flashy licks myself. If I went off on a tangent, he'd suddenly get the message and take off with me, When we came out of it together. we sounded like a couple of geniuses, but if we came out separately -- oooooh!
Quaco wrote: So any great moments were truly magical, not just a band doing its job well. That's the kind of thing The Who in their prime offered that too few others were able to. And they could have been even better if they had turned down just a little. I think the quest for ever-more-earthshattering waves of sound killed some of the subtlety.
John Enwistle wrote:MUSICIAN: Care to share a fond memory of a concert before your book comes out?
ENTWISTLE: I very rarely lose my temper. I let things bottle up and then something small or silly will be the last straw and I'll blow my top and everyone will run away and hide. Roger had been yelling at me all tour in 1974 to turn down. So I'd turn down and I'd be quite happy playing like that. And then Pete would scream from the other side of the stage, "I can't hear you! Turn up!" So I'd turn up, thinking, "What the fuck is this." For three weeks Roger would yell at me to turn down, and four seconds later Pete would yell at me to turn up. Finally we were in Houston, Texas, and Roger screamed in the microphone, "TURN DOWN!"
I thought, "I don't mind you screaming at me to turn down, but I don't need you to scream at me in front of the bloody audience." So I smashed the head off the bass, threw it in front of him and said, "You play the fuckin' thing!" He just stood there, with the song halfway through. I walked to the back of the amplifiers and they'd taken the fuckin' stairs away. I was in a bad enough temper that I jumped off the back of the stage. And it was 12 feet high. It felt like my spine came out the top of my head. But it was Chinese water torture out there: "TURN DOWN!" "TURN UP!"
Roger Daltrey wrote:MUSICIAN: Did John smash his bass in Houston?
DALTREY: Yes, that's right. That's what I mean about the problem with volume. There was Pete, all the way up, only hearing himself. And there was John playing four times as loud as he needs to be to hear himself. It was a Catch-22 situation. With the singer in the middle. A complete nightmare. You can’t sing, you just shout. I’m a good shouter, but it gets very boring.
Musician, 1989
http://www.thewho.net:16080/articles/to ... sician.htm
- soundchaser
- Rokster & Rollster
- Posts: 9243
- Joined: 20 Jun 2006, 10:55
I've been listening to (and loving) Sell Out quite a bit recently, but I suppose, if push came to shove, My favourite album is Who's Next and favourite song, The Song Is Over, which always gives me the chills. The original version of Live At Leeds, was one of the first albums I got into as a fresh-faced kid: its power to excite has not diminished over the years. And every one of those singles still sound as great as they did when I first heard them on the old Yacht Boy radio my Dad had back in the sixties.
-
- Maddie as a March Hare
- Posts: 573
- Joined: 27 Apr 2006, 21:52
- Location: Cloud-hidden, hareabouts unknown
Old Clear Orf wrote:King John Coan wrote:And I was enormously disappointed, coming to it after the Stooges and the Velvets - I was expecting all kinds of loud, raw, primal thumping. But they're too proficient, and the songs twist and turn too much.
You're very silly sometimes.
Journalists confound and dismay. I'd read about the album before hearing it.
The same thing happened with Joy Division. I was expecting something truly gripping. Instead I got miserable tuneless incompetent pish.
album: 'Live at Leeds' ANY version.
song: 'I Can See For Miles'
anybody who's known me for any period of time can vouch for me that I'm a pretty flakey character. It's not uncommon for me to change opinions like I change my underwear. Not in this. 'Live at Leeds' is the record I grab when the house is on fire. I doubt I'd say it's my favorite but it's the one I grab.
song: 'I Can See For Miles'
anybody who's known me for any period of time can vouch for me that I'm a pretty flakey character. It's not uncommon for me to change opinions like I change my underwear. Not in this. 'Live at Leeds' is the record I grab when the house is on fire. I doubt I'd say it's my favorite but it's the one I grab.
- Jeff K
- The Original K
- Posts: 32699
- Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 23:08
- Location: Pennsylvania USA
- Contact:
- Tom Violence
- Superchod
- Posts: 5405
- Joined: 11 May 2006, 21:51
- Location: Darlington, NE England
- Phenomenal Cat
- death on four legs
- Posts: 10464
- Joined: 07 Sep 2004, 16:52
- Location: Presently Shattering the Illusion of Integrity
- Contact:
Sometimes I wonder if we're all listening to the same band. I love the early records, but they're just so maddeningly hit and miss, a record like Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy came across as a revelation. Stack up all their great singles and they're unbeatable. That whole stretch of Substitute/I'm a Boy/Pictures of Lily/I Can See For Miles - absolutely essential listening. However, I still don't mind that they stopped being a singles band. It happened to everyone by fashion. Thus, I applaud their decision to grow up and stop taking the safe, easy route of catchy singles. I'm a fan of ambition.
Album - Tommy
Song - Underture
Album - Tommy
Song - Underture
kath wrote:i will make it my mission to nail you.
But somehow when you smile, I can brave bad weather.