When it comes to The Who, it sometimes is a difficult choice as
\nto what album I should listen to next. This could be why I’ve
\nwaited so long since I last featured them here.<\/p>\n
So, the decision was left to reader (and Who fan) Andrew
\nSantoni,who made his suggestion with almost no hesitation:
\nThe Who Sell Out<\/i>. Digging deep into the Pierce Memorial
\nArchives, I passed on the re-issue from MCA and grabbed my copy of
\nthe original 1967 release – when I do things like this, you know I
\nmean heavy business.<\/p>\n
Believe it or not, prior to this review, I had never listened to
\nthe whole album. Now, I’m kicking myself – this contains some of
\nThe Who’s strongest material, and shows the band at their creative
\nand humorous heights.<\/p>\n
Coming off of the “mini-opera” of “A Quick One,” Pete Townshend
\nstarts to create a true concept album, by making the first half of
\nthe record sound like you were listening to a London radio station.
\nAnd though it partially continues onto the second side, I wish he
\nhad run the theme through the entire album.<\/p>\n
And then there is the music – holy cow! I had become familiar
\nwith some of the cuts courtesy of the 30th anniversary box set (a
\nwonderful Christmas gift from Bill Ziemer last year), but when
\nsurrounded by the ads for Heinz baked beans, Rotosound and Charles
\nAtlas, the true beauty of these songs come out.<\/p>\n
Most rock fans – even those who have a limited knowledge of the
\nWho – are familiar with the big hit “I Can See For Miles,” a song
\nwhich started to plow new ground for the band. But it’s not the
\nstrongest song on the album. In fact, with the exception of the
\nthrowaway ad-song “Odorono,” the entire first side is incredible.
\n“Armenia City In The Sky” starts the aural barrage, and it doesn’t
\nlet up until the last note of “I Can See For Miles” fades out. Cuts
\nlike “Tattoo,” “Our Love Was, Is” and “Mary-Anne With The Shaky
\nHands” are all songs that should be revered as classics. (I’m still
\nundecided as to whether “Mary-Anne…” is another song like
\n“Pictures Of Lily”, related to masturbation. Reader comments are
\nrequested on this concept.)<\/p>\n
The second side is a shade weaker – possibly because the theme
\nis broken early on. Songs like “Silas Stingy” have lessons that can
\nbe learned, but they also feature The Who a little sillier than I
\nwould have liked. Other songs like “Sunrise” and “Rael” are solid
\nefforts – one could even say that drummer Keith Moon is finally
\nshowing some control in his playing.<\/p>\n
What is a shame is that
\nThe Who Sell Out<\/i> is more known not for the music, but for
\nthe pictures on the album jacket, including one of Roger Daltrey
\nsitting in a tub filled with baked beans. (The pictures all fit
\nwith one of the ads recorded on the album.) These days, you’re
\nhard-pressed to hear anything about the album or from the album on
\nthe radio.<\/p>\n
And this, kids, is a damn shame. Not only is some of The Who’s
\nbest music being overlooked (and hardly shows any age after 30
\nyears), but you’d also miss the germination of ideas for their
\neventual “masterpiece”
\nTommy<\/i>. You can hear a little bit of “Pinball Wizard” and
\n“See Me, Feel Me” in some of the movements – if you didn’t know
\nthis album was recorded two years before
\nTommy<\/i>, you’d swear Townshend was stealing his own riffs. I
\nfind it interesting to hear the conception of
\nTommy<\/i>, as well as the further development of the band as
\nmusicians and songwriters.<\/p>\n
\nThe Who Sell Out<\/i> could possibly be the lost treasure of The
\nWho’s career – I personally think it’s their best work. And even
\nwith the one tiny mistake of not following through the album’s
\nconcept to the finish, it still is an album that awaits
\nrediscovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5649],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35732","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-who","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35732"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35732"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}