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I've been listening to alot of "The Who" lately and i've became addicted to their music from "My Generation" to "Who Are You". I don't listen to anything they did after keith moon died because it's just not the same/right.
I know Pete Townsend and Keith Moon were big fans of the beach boys.
(Keith moon's favorite song of all time is barbara anne.)
Any of you on SmileySmile Who fans or is this going to be a lonely thread? lol

We're here, Dude!

Wait until "Jay" gets his eyes on this one  :-D

:] ok whew(wiping sweat from forehead) i thought i was the only one here. lol
What's your favorite song/album by the who?

Hey NewGuy, take a look at my thread about when I met The Who. It's in the General Music area, about half way down.  8)

That's a big question; my answers are kinda obvious but hard given the mega-breadth of their catalogue:

Song - Substitute.  Love smashin' that one out on my guitar  :rock  As a whacked out teenager, Boris the Spider came in as a top 2

Album - I am an unashamed lover of Tommy; yeah, some bits have dated a little but the production is really interesting (in the minimalist Smiley-Smile/White Album mode), especially overture and underture.  + Go to the mirror, and Amazing Journey.

I was always a little 50/50 about Tommy 'til I saw some great very BBC B&W studio footage of the band playing the whole album - they really seemed (to me) to be getting into it!

I also recently said the Who should provide lessons (for a nominal fee) to other "vintage" acts on how to produce new material and performances with style and dignity (obvious examples excluded).  Eg, circa 1980/1, You better you bet versus Livin' with a Heart Ache or California Dreaming, let alone the Who's recent output

Thus, my nuts are bared; what are your favs, Newguy?

Wow!! i would've been stuck gazing at them like "do you guys realize how fuckin amazing you all are?!!!!" lol
I would've asked them what was there favorite album/songs by them and also other musical artist & MUCH MORE.
Jay you are so lucky you met them. seriously.
If you don't mind me asking,how old are you and what is your illness?

That was long and in depth :)
Hmmm as far as songs i'm sure it'll change a bit since i'm a new fan and my taste always changes. lol
Don't want to confused you but it would have to be out of "I Can't Explain"  "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere" & "My Generation" but honorable mentions are "Circles","Motoring" &"Lubie" i love all those rockin ones i'm a huge fan of the earlier work but i also adore their later songs and albums.
My Favorie album by them is of course the wonder debut "My Generation"..the current ones i'm listening to the most would have to be "The Who Sell Out" & "Who's Next".

I was only 11 at the time I met them. Pretty cool for a young kid, huh?  ;D I'm 26 now. I have since been able to get an audio recording and vhs from the show I saw, which is awsome.  ;D I was VERY  nervous when I met them. I don't think I asked them anything all that interesting. I remember talking to John about his spider necklaces he always wore. As an adult now, I wish I could go back in time and pick Pete Townshend's brain.  :lol

Hell Fuckin Yeah! When i was 11 i didn't listen to the who i listened to Korn,Nirvana & rage against the machine.
My taste completely changed from then i mostly listen to classic rock The Who,Beach Boys,Led Zeppelin,Pink Floyd,The Rolling Stones,The Doors,Etc.
Let's just say for me nervous woud've been an understatement i would've been excited but way past nervous.
Isn't make a wish a charity organization for kids with critical medical conditions? I think the 1st time i heard of "make a wish" was in a Michael Jackson interview.

You know obscure songs like Motoring and Lubie, and you're a "new fan"? I'm impressed.  8)

Yeah when i like a band/artist i really tap into their discography and check out their whole body of work and i was completely impressed by all of the who's albums/songs. This week i'm going to pick up Tommy & Quadrophenia because i heard so many good things about those albums, I hope i like them both.

Get Who's Next too. And The Who By Numbers.  ;D

I have both. :) ..
What's your favorite album/song?

Who's Next is their best album. I'm actually not all that into Tommy. I mean, I agree that it's a masterpiece, and a huge "turning point" in the development of their career. But for every good song on Tommy, there are two or three really great underrated and obscure songs, like Relay or The Song Is Over.

Lifehouse, is their best, BTW.

Who's Next is like "Lets just do a quick version of Lifehouse"

The Who has always been one of those stalwart musical interests for me since I first started listening to any rock music at all. I remember when I was 12 and hearing Baba O'Riley for the first time, which almost singlehandedly jumpstarted my love for hard rock.

Even though I've never had a period of obsession about them (and don't actually own many of their albums), over the last few months I've been very addicted to Live at Leeds. What a great, great show. The fact that the band could go make these more complicated or produced records, but then get up on stage and convert it back into an explosive three-piece hard rock sound, is just awesome. I don't know how many of you are familiar with the 15-minute version of "My Generation" that's on there, but it's such a cool jam, ranging from the quiet (introspective?) to the downright devastating. And it really gave me an appreciation for the musical themes on Tommy; it's a good record, but I'm content just listening to its best moments distilled down into that jam.

(and, holy carp, the rhythm section of Entwhistle and Moon? Killer.)


That's kind of a funny thing to say though, isn't it? There isn't a Who version of Lifehouse to go off of -- just demos and re-recordings of songs. I really love Who's Next, even if it's just a back-to-basics rock album. And: if you've never been somewhere where you can comfortably scream at the climax of "Won't Get Fooled Again," you are missing out. ;D Reading about some of the synthesizer experiments on that song (and elsewhere on the album) is really fascinating, if you're into that kind of thing.

What else: those early mod-y, power pop singles are something to behold, and "Pictures of Lily" sounds like it almost takes a cue out of the Brian Wilson playbook. I always liked "Join Together" for the same reason. The Who Sell Out is certainly funny, if a little leaning towards novelty. And finally, I'm not familiar with Quadrophenia (or much of their 70's albums) beyond just a few songs, but as I write, that's my next purchase.

Quadrophenia all the way for me.  It's their only album that works as an entity IMO.

Pure and easy is a hidden gem. Dirty jobs is their most underrated song. I believe Dirty jobs influenced Meet in my dreams tonight. How about that?

Agreed, Quad is their best RELEASED album.

One of my top 5 groups, and Sell Out is my favorite lp...

Their first two albums (My Generation, A Quick One) have their moments, but Sell Out thru Quad are a string of great albums.  Odds and Sods is a steller set of discards, By Numbers is a personal favorite, and Who Are You, for all it's "The Who Meets Journey" leanings is underrated.  They really did blow it by continuing on after Moon died, but Face Dances has a few good ones (and a great album cover), It's Hard has a couple of good ones, but overall falls on its a$$.  Endless Wire I have yet to hear.

Same here. Also Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy.

"My Generation" & "sell out" are my favorites.  :) Now the last 3 albums i haven't even given a chance. It's just weird to listen 2 a Who album without keith moon's wild drumming.

I love 'A Quick One', so many great songs on it, Boris The Spider, Run Run Run, I Need You, So Sad About Us and A Quick One While He's Away being faves, the latter track pointing the way to Tommy.

I love the melody of boris the spider but the chorus always freaked me out :/

I'm really getting into the Sell Out album and period again, after a few years of ignoring it. Rael is a very cool track. Quite a few pieces made it into Tommy, but the song on it's own is pretty cool, and rather underrated.  8)

Does The Who have any music that doesn't sound like a CSI theme song? If I was to purchase one album which one should it be?

Who's Next! Or Quadrophenia. Or By Numbers. Or Who Are You, if you're in a deep, philosophical pondering mood.  ;D

Or Live At Leeds, if you want loud, angry rock and roll music to piss your neighbors off.  >:D

'Creepy, crawly, creepy creepy, crawly crawly'!

"my generation" if you are into pop/catchy records.
"who's sell outt" if you are into psychedelic rock.
"who's next" if you wanna hear the who's "smile".
"tommy" if you are into theme/rock opera albums.

A Quick One!

The Who Sell Out.

A Quick One, some of the best songs are the ones written by other members other than Pete ie Moon's I Need You and Entwhistle's excellent two Boris The Spider and Whiskey Man.

Smiley smile

no fuckin way lol

Both smiley smile and who's next are albums made of remnants from a bigger project.

Oh yeah that's true. smiley smile is much more mysterious :)

My suggestion is definitely for Sell Out. My gut says you'll be disappointed by A Quick One (a must for Who fans but I can't imagine what a first time listener would think -- not a solid, cohesive effort by a long shot). Who's Next is great but it may have a bit of that CSI thing that you're talking about.

Don't blame The Who because of CSI.

what do you mean by csi?  ???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sarYH0z948

lmfaoooooo!! wow you guys are fuckin hilarious for coming up with that.

Nah I didn't come up with that. Wish I did.

It's a TV show, there's 3 different versions, one in Las Vegas, one in Miami and one in New York and they all have different Who songs for the themes.

I never seen the show i heard of it before though. All i can say is creators of it have beautiful taste in music lol

What a coincidence, I'm listening to Quadrophenia at this very moment.  I've always loved The Who, I think all of their albums between Sell Out and Who by Numbers are perfection.  They're definitely in my top bands.

A great LP! The original A Quick One LP is really nice too.

My favorite Who songs are Heinz Baked Beans, Odorono, Medac, Charles Atlas Course, Smooth Sailing With the Highly Successful Sounds of Wonderful Radio London, Radio London Reminds You, Monday Tuesday Wednesday, John Mason's Cars, Coke after Coca-Cola, Rotosound Strings, and Check Record Check Record.

Here's my top 10 Who songs. The big classics dominate.

1. Dirty jobs
2. The real me
3. The kids are alright
4. I can see for miles
5. Baba O'Riley
6. Love reign over me
7. Pure and easy
8. My generation
9. Behind blue eyes
10. You better you bet

()
11. Relay (BBC Sessions)
12. Magic bus
13. I can't explain

"Dogs" - most underrated Who song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ83-45VpUM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ83-45VpUM)

Quadrophenia is one of the greatest albums of all time. Any self respecting British teenager, regardless of their date of birth should get heavily into that album. It's a rite of passage. Amazing from start to finish. Who by Numbers is a personal favourite. Anazing candid, honest writing and great performances. Regarding Endless Wire, it is a fine album, marred by Townsend's procrastination leading to a delay in recording which led to Zak Starkey being on tour with Oasis and therefore he plays on only one song which was a dissapointment to me. Get Townshends "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes" for me it stands alongside Quad and By Numbers. Incidently John Entwistle bought me a drink at the Saddlers Wells theatre the night I went to see Townshend play his Lifehouse Concert. What a blast!

That's Track Records.

Yeah, you might be right. But "check" and "track" are pretty damn close when you're not looking at a lyric sheet.

I'm definitely right. But, yeah, check and track are words that sound close to each other. It also helps to actually own a copy of the album and see that the name of the cut is Track Records.

The Who are among my 5 favorite bands. Quadrophenia is the best in my mind. Roger sat one seat down in the row behind me at Smile's premier in London. Eric Clapton was 3 seats behind me the same night.

It's amazing how much work Pete put into Lifehouse & Quadrophenia...Those demos are amazing and at times better than the originals. :)

oh wow really? i just said that because Roger Daltry said it in a performance before :)

@ISpaceman  Guess I didnt check the CD booklet close enough. The tracklisting on the case just goes from Rael 1 to Rael 2. 

keith moon is one of the greatest drummers of all time but DAMN HIS SINGING! :O

hey did dick dale ever have anything to say about the beach boys? :)

Yes, I.Spaceman is correct that it's Track Records. It refers to the UK based record label owned by the Who's 60's manager Chris Stamp and their 60's producer Kit Lambert. Track Records distributed the Who's discography in the UK from '66 to '75 and also initially had the UK distribution rights for Jimi Hendrix. Other acts on the label included The Crazy World of Aurthur Brown and Golden Earring.  In '75, Track Records were absorbed by Polydor.

The Who are my all time favorite band and it's very hard to pick just one favorite album. If pushed I would say Quadrophenia for studio work, Live at Leeds (especially the short original album and the '95 remaster) for live material. I'm also a big fan of Sell Out in both it's mono and stereo mixes. I also really like Pete Townshend's home demos and I've compiled an eight volume set of my favorite ones.  I also named my i-pod touch Gridlife in reference to Pete Townshend's storyline for Lifehouse.

Just read through this thread. It's nice to see all the appreciation for The Who Sell Out. It may be in my top 15-20 records, certainly my favorite by the Who. I get off the magic bus with Tommy though.Maybe someday it'll click with me but I never seem to be in the right frame of mind to let it soak in right. I was a big fan of Who's Next in high school, but over the years I've seen too many car commercials and have developed a distaste for bombast. I still probably like it better than I'd like to admit though.

A few years back I dove down the rabbit hole and made a compilation for myself of all the Who songs from 1967-1968, interspersed with jingles and commercials. I found a lot of vintage commercials on the internet as well as Radio London jingles.

Nobody ever mentions the BBC-sessions. Isn't a very overlooked live album?

There are bootlegs of the Who's BBC sessions with superior mixes to the released ones. Another really good Who live set is Tanglewood 1970 which is up on Wolfgang's Vault. Eagle Rock are releasing a DVD of The Who live in Houston '75 in October. I think they're planning on releasing it right around the same time as Pete's autobiography.

My first Who exposure was the US album Happy Jack, which is still my favorite. A GREAT underrated song is Heaven and Hell!!  8)

Bit burned out on the Who, though they're still one of my favourite bands.

Long Live Rock is my favourite song by the Who at the moment, and The Who Sell Out is my favourite album by them.

Have to say John Entwistle and Keith Moon are my favourite members, and they're just not the same without them. I only like two songs by the Who which were made after Keith died.

Awesome band. My favorites is probably Quadrophenia. I think their output is pretty great overall, even though I've barely listened to the Kenny Jones albums and the first two albums. Every other album has great tracks - some favorites include Our Love Was, Blue Red And Grey, Sister Disco, Success Story. Really hope that the rumours about a new album this/next year are true. Really enjoyed Endless Wire and the two shows I've seen (the 2007 tour and Quadrophenia last year).

I saw The Who in their original lineup twice, once in London in '73 and the second time in the Netherlands in '75. On one of those occasions (unless I'm greatly mistaken or was pissed at the time) Moon sang lead on a song, accompanying himself on the tympani. Something tells me it was from Quadrophenia, although I get the impression it was too slow and contemplative to be "Bell Boy". Does anybody have any idea as to what that song might have been?    

 Yep, his LIFEHOUSE demos are of incredible quality. Pete made great demos.

If it was at the 1973 Quadrophenia show, then it was most definitely Bell Boy. I'm not sure what it would have been if it was at the 1975 show. Possibly Fiddle About? Or Tommy's Holiday Camp? I'd LOVE to hear any memories you may have of the shows, if you wouldn't mind sharing.

I'm sure you're right about it being "Bell Boy" and that it was at that show. My memory playing tricks on me, no doubt...

This is a memory (reworked from a post of mine on another board) of the Dutch show that is nowhere else to be found online. Most baffling. And I refuse to believe it's a lapse of memory this time...

It seemed Townshend had recently gone teetotal! He sang a song about it (accompanying himself on acoustic guitar) called "The Day I Gave Up Booze".  "You'll note that Mr Moon hasn't joined me in my venture", Pete added, and to be sure, Mr Moon didn't give the impression that he had.  Not that this dalliance lasted long. If I remember correctly Pete had some marital problems and hit the booze again with a vengeance...

Was it "However Much I Booze" (a song on all the set lists) with new lyrics? After listening to "HMIB" on Youtube, it doesn't seem likely. "TDIGUB" had more of an upbeat folk tune feel.

Regrettably, that's the sum total of my recollections of that show...

Last time I saw The Who was in late 2012, when they took Quadrophenia (my favorite The Who album, and one of my top ten albums of all time) on the road. 

I think The Who took a page from what The Beach Boys did on their C50 tour with Carl and Dennis.  During the second half of Quadrophenia, they played a clip of John going his bass solo from "5.15."  I think it was taken from the Royal Albert Hall 2000 DVD.  Also, during Bell Boy, they played a mid-70s performance of Keith singing his leads. 

I'd love to see The Who on their 50th Anniversary Tour, but I'm seen them 3X now (2000,2002,2012), so I'm pretty happy with that.