The Who - the Studio Albums

[Thenop]

Listening to Face Dances right now, I had forgotten how John's voice had changed over the years. The Quiet One is a great track but he doens't sound one bit like he did on Boris the Spider or My Wife.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I only have one clear Who memory of this time, and again it's the single which Nop has mentioned. I turned 21 that year. My present was a VHS recorder, an Akai I believe. This was a very big deal at that time. Probably due to the present I got talking to a guy in the pub one Saturday night. He was a smaller, clean shaven, George Best sort of look-alike. He went out with the girl everyone considered to be the best looking in my hometown, but he always seemed to be the worse for wear with alcohol, which unfortunately became a major issue in his life.

Anyway, we got talking and I mentioned The Who had been on Tiswas that morning and I'd taped it. The Who were his heroes. A bunch of us procured the necessary carry-out, probably the dire Draught Packs back then, and went to mine to watch it. We watched the clips with the band and then the video for the single. I seem to remember there was a part where Pete's head suddenly appeared in profile at the mic to sing a backing vocal, but he got the timing wrong and I think it was left in for comic effect. I might be wrong about this.

Sadly, the last time I saw my Who loving pal was outside a local convenience store where I gave him a fiver for a bottle of cider. He always kept a glass in his deep coat pocket. He considered it uncouth to drink out of a bottle. I heard a few months later that he had died in an accident at his home. He had been evicted from the house in his hometown due to his issues and placed a few miles away which caused him huge distress. Makes me sad to think of his plight, struggling with his demons. RIP.

[Slim]

It's Hard [September 1982]

Released only eighteen months after its predecessor surprisingly. But whatever the reason for that was (I can't remember if Pete has much to say about it in his book), I'm pretty sure it's not because the band were bursting with inspiration and energy. Because unfortunately, this is pretty thin gruel.

Roughly speaking it follows the same pattern as the previous three albums in being an unpretentious collection of lightweight songs. But whereas those were at least decent albums, I don't think this one is. It's just limp corporate pop-rock.

I was really surprised to find that Glyn Johns had produced this because it sounds a bit half-baked and hamfisted. The synth parts especially sound very inelegant and amateurish here and there.

I have to except the excellent Eminence Front from the above criticism. It's the only tune I was already familiar with, a bit of a rock radio hit. It has a bit of the old purpose and intent and it sounds great. Absolutely head and shoulders above everything else on the album.

Interestingly Entwistle contributes three tunes. One of them, Dangerous has a bit of energy but it's very '80s keyboard rock. I don't think it's aged well.

This was the last Who album for twenty-four years, until Endless Wire in 2006.

[Slim]

Endless Wire [October 2006]

Many years later, Townshend and Daltrey record another Who album. Kenney Jones is no longer in the band. John Entwistle has been dead for a few years.

This is actually quite an interesting record, it feels heartfelt and sincere - and there are two or three really good songs. There are nineteen songs in all, though six of them are less than two minutes long.

Is it a Who record, really? I don't think so. For one thing the various bass players and drummers aren't actually in the band, except where Townshend plays bass or drums himself. Townshend also sings a lot more of the songs than usual - no bad thing.

That said some of these tunes do sound like The Who, especially Black Widow's Eyes for example, but they aren't great. Actually the opening tune starts with a sentimental homage to the Baba O'Reilly intro.

I think I could accept this as a Townshend solo album. It's really eclectic, there are some exceptional moments. I wonder if he really teamed up with Roger just so he could sell this as a Who album and make loads more money. But Roger's voice sounds tired and I could do without the pair of them trying to disinter the spirit of their old band's heyday.

Either way, it's overlong and feels a bit too fragmented and bitty. It doesn't really flow like an "album journey". But when it's good, it's very, very good. It's also very well produced and allegedly Pete took care of that himself (curiously, separate producers were used specifically for Roger's vocals. Perhaps he recorded them remotely or something).

Highlights: a glorious Tom Waits pastiche called In The Ether with some very clever chord changes and harmony, and Trilby's Piano, beautifully orchestrated and off-the-scale poignant. Both sung by Pete and neither trying to sound anything like The Who.

[Thenop]

I bought Endless Wire upon release and immediately liked it. Haven't heard it for a while now so will have a listen tomorrow. Actually quite enjoying the trip through Who country so far.

Need to see about that last one, never heard it before.

[Ali]

Despite having the opportunity several times, including recently when they played locally, I've never bothered to see them live.

As I'm a regular gig-goer who has seen hundreds of bands including their peers, the Stones and the Kinks, that makes it quite unusual.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I found it impossible to obtain tickets for their Glasgow Apollo concerts, but saw them at Celtic Park in June, 1976. That was a long day! I have to admit that I enjoyed Alex Harvey the most from that long bill of bands I had no knowledge of.

[Slim]

Who [December 2019]

Another thirteen years pass, Townshend and Daltrey record another Who album. Is that really what it is? Well the same comments as last time apply, it's really a Pete Townshened project with Rog recording vocals separately assisted by anonymous session musicians. The biggest difference is that for the most part, Pete is clearly trying to make a Who record here.

And actually, the opening tune All This Music Must Fade has more of the old Who vigour and attitude than any Who tune since Quadrophenia. I liked it. I could have done without Pete's little Johnny Rotten-style spoken affectation at the end. It would have worked better if he was 19 or 20. But it's a banging rocker.

Unfortunately all of the other Who-style tunes really just sound like fillers and some are a little bit hamfisted. I didn't really like any of them.

But: there is an absolutely exceptional tune that sounds nothing like The Who, sung by Pete called I'll Be Back. It sounds so deeply heartfelt and poignant. And it's incredibly cleverly composed. You could argue that it's really very sophisticated smooth jazz. I loved it.

Gordon Giltrap plays acoustic guitar on one track, interestingly. No idea why, it's pretty standard stuff, not virtuouso baroque folk.

Roger's voice sounds a bit tired throughout and I'm not keen on the way it's been produced, with a bit too much presence and possibly slightly too loud in the mix.

I listened to the bonus tracks as well; only one is realy worthy of note: Got Nothing To Prove. It sounds exactly like a pastiche of a '60s Who or Kinks tune, the same vocal style, the same low-fi doubletracked vocal production. A bit of Googling told me why: it's an old demo that Pete recorded in 1966 with new instrumentation added.

The whole thing does have a theme running through it - it's a sort of wistful retrospective; old men at the end of their career. It's OK. It's probably better than I expected. It has a couple of splendid moments, which I definitely didn't see coming.

And that concludes my odyssey through the studio canon of The Who. It's been a bit patchier and less consistent than I expected. But there's some good stuff in there, that's for sure.

I'd say that the band's classic material, their heyday, is covered by three consecutive albums: Tommy, Who's Next, Quadrophenia. Everything else could be regarded as a bit superfluous.