“He threw down his sticks and said, ‘I’m still (having a bad day), but I’m still the best fucking (Keith Moon type) drummer in the world!” Pete Townshend describes in the 2007 documentary Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who about during the making of the band’s eighth studio album Who Are You which got the band back on their feet, and returning back to form during the peak of the punk movement. Let’s not forget the ugly’s which included bands like the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Ramones had an admiration of The Who’s music.
With their previous Super Deluxe releases they put out, ranging from My Generation, The Who Sell Out, Tommy, Quadrophenia, and Who’s Next / Life House which marked the first time Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree had worked on the Atmos mix for in 2023, is now taking the next mountain climb to delve deeper into the band’s last album, Who Are You with Keith Moon in 1978.
It had been three years since The Who had unleashed a new album after the release of their 1975 and seventh studio album The Who By Numbers. It showcased the band’s move away from what they were known for. It wasn’t just the big hits such as ‘My Generation’, ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere’, ‘Pinball Wizard’, ‘Baba O’Riley’, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, and the two rock operas; Tommy and Quadrophenia, they were trying to appeal more of the mainstream during that time frame. And with Townshend using some of the complicated orientations by adding synths and strings, and detailed themes from the Lifehouse project, he was always up for a challenge.
That and this 7-CD / 1 Blu-Ray disc box set consists not just the band’s achievement, but it also marked the end of an era as it was the last album to feature original member Keith Moon on the album before his death due to an accidental overdose on September 7th, 1978. Whatever you may think of Keith’s legacy, both the good, the bad, and the craziness he went through, you can’t deny he was the certainly both the conductor and the mad scientist behind his drum kit and gave the band, the power and energy it needed when he pounded the shit out of those drums like a mad man.
Listening to Who Are You, which was originally released on the Polydor label in the UK and on MCA Records in the States, you can tell that despite what was going on behind the scenes, you can feel the energy, the love, the craftsmanship, and the beauty in what was going on.
Included in this box set are; the unreleased Glyn Johns mix, Sessions and Demos, the rehearsals at Shepperton Studios in 1977, then in 1978 at the time the band were working with filmmaker and Who fan Jeff Stein (later on finding success with the 1985 American sitcom as a co-developer with Mr. Belvedere starring the late, great Christopher Hewett and Bob Uecker) on the documentary, The Kids are Alright (it definitely needs to be on The Criterion Collection, big time!), and the post-Moon era with Kenney Jones of the Small Faces taking over Moon’s drums for the preparation of tour in ’79.
Also included is their tour in the states that same year, followed by a Blu-ray set of Steven Wilson’s Dolby Atmos mix of the album. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available at the time the review for Echoes and Dust that was in the works for the Super Deluxe Edition of the band’s album.
There’s this incredible lost guitar mix in the midsection Pete does on ‘Sister Disco’ where he improvises this bluesy-like jazz solo before the fanfare section in which Daltrey belts out his vocals (“I will choose nightmares and cold stormy seas/I will take over your grief and disease/I’ll stay beside you and comfort your soul/When you are lonely and broken and old!”) comes in with the synthesizers, bursting through the floodgates. How prog can you get?
A rare live version of the title-track in Toronto nearly 50 years ago when the piece was a work-in-progress in a bootleg live recording where it becomes this fast-paced, Yardbirds-like proto-punk attitude that The Who were doing by showing they can still kick ass and get the fans’ blood pumping out for more. Now before we get into the Glyn Johns mix of the album which is featured on the second disc from the set, we need to delve into the fourth and fifth disc of the Shepperton performance at the time they invited fans to be a part of The Kids are Alright.
This is a revelation. Not only it featured ‘Baba O’Riley’ and the crowd-pleasing laser-light show closer of ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, but four songs that didn’t make the final cut from the film. You have the car-riding adventure of Entwistle’s troubled situation of being in a love triangle on ‘My Wife’, the rumbling ride adventure on ‘Join Together’ without the usage of the mouth harp, makes it an extended take after leaving where they left off on the ’My Generation’ medley.
When you get to the tour rehearsals they did that same year, they were doing covers of The Beatles ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, the fiery powerhouse of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates’ ‘Shakin’ All Over’ which has always been a crowd-pleaser between the Leeds performance and at the Isle of Wight during that same year in 1970. It’s Moon’s love of the Beach Boys which has a bit of fun by doing the falsetto vocals on ‘Barbara Ann’ featured in the documentary that’ll make you have an understanding on why he loved Surf music when he was in the Beachcombers.
And of course, the blues. The medley between Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Spoonful / Smokestack Lightning’ portrays Roger’s raunchiness and growling arrangement on the composition. Pete, John, and Keith follow him in hot pursuit in a slowed-down groove of the Chicago sound in the Chess label during the 1950s and throwing it right back at us. Despite the laughter, and Roger saying “Keith, this is your moment!” as they tackle ‘Barbara Ann’, you can tell that they were having a ball during that song.
When Kenney Jones replaced Moon, because he had been a mate and a friend with The Who during his time with the Small Faces. It was tough at first for him to fill in Moonie’s shoes, but when you go back for those tour rehearsals in ’79 and the live shows they did in the States at the Pontiac Silverdome, the Spectrum in Philadelphia, and the Masonic Temple in Detroit that same year, there was a bit of magic in the fire that they had.
Yes, it wasn’t the same without Moon’s fire power, but Jones held it in. And adding in Houston-based keyboardist John “Rabbit” Bundrick, it was the ammunition that The Who needed to keep the flames burning brighter than ever. They go through the classics such as ‘Substitute’, ‘I Can’t Explain’, ‘Pinball Wizard, ‘See Me, Feel Me’, ‘Long Live Rock’, and a roaring take of ‘The Punk and the Godfather’ from Quadrophenia, Entwistle handling in the creepy-crawly turned sneaky insect with his clean turned monstrous vocal-line on ‘Boris the Spider’, I can imagine he might have inspired the Death Metal genre with his growling vocals that paved the wave in the ‘80s. And we ain’t talkin’ about the Marvel comic superhero, ladies and gentlemen.
But as soon as they tackle the waltz-like organ approach of the ‘Music Must Change’, the eruptive punch of ‘Sister Disco’ in Pontiac, and the title-track where Pete just hits those notes, bit by bit, string by string, you know audiences are getting they’re monies worth. However, ‘5:15’ is a crowd pleaser. Even though Entwistle didn’t do a bass solo on here, it’s always a fan-favourite amongst Who fans.
I had the honour of seeing The Who 25 years ago for their Blues to the Bush tour when I was a freshman in High School when they came to The Woodlands when The Ox was still alive. And when Entwistle plays his bass solo on ‘5:15’, they were rooting him on to keep going.
It wasn’t him honouring the bass giants such as Jaco Pastorius and Geddy Lee, it was him creating these incredible bass frets that people were aware that you can do whatever you want on the four-string instrument. And since his passing in June of 2002, it marked the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one. But The Who’s legacy lives on.
Now, we get to the Glyn Johns mix. The first seven tracks that appear on the second disc, according to Who expert Matt Kent, he had prepared to release the album with his version, but it was turned down by The Who. Listening to it, you can get a clear understanding on why the band turned it down, but it becomes a revelation to see what Glyn wanted to do.
You have the strings setting up for the adventure that’s waiting for you and Rod Argent’s synths setting the sun to rise on ‘Had Enough’ with a bellowing roller-coaster ride between Entwistle’s bass and Roger’s vocal lines of being fed up of trying to do good while the alternate version of ‘Guitar and Pen’ which was originally issued back in the 1996 re-release of the album, it’s a little sped-up instead of its original mix.
But its Pete’s guiding vocals on the song that adds pure and joy which Steven had mixed on. “One of the things I like about several of Pete’s song on the album is the meta-aspect of them being about the very process (and struggle) of songwriting itself.” Steven describes in the liner notes and his approach to remixing classic albums to be faithful to the original mix. And he is spot on. Some will love the new atmos mixes, other will not, but that’s not for me to judge.
There’s also the alternate mix of ‘Love is Coming Down’ without the orchestra overdubbing it. It’s almost a bit of Tommy with its ‘See Me, Feel Me’ approach and the struggle for the main character to start all over and not make the same mistakes as before. Let’s not forget the guide vocals on ‘New Song’ Pete does, which was originally written during the Lifehouse period where Pete had envisioned the future prior before Blade Runner, Ready Player One, The Matrix, and the 1981 adult-animated sci-fi cult classic Heavy Metal produced by Ivan Reitman.
Adding in Matt Kent’s incredible liner notes, who has been an expert on The Who’s music since releasing the first Naked Eye fanzine nearly 30 years ago, co-organising the 1995 Who convention is well described, well researched, and covers details on the recording sessions and what the band were doing between 75, 76, 77 and in ’78. The book contains photos of the band on tour, promotions, reviews, master tapes, a photo of the HMV record store in London’s Oxford Street that went to town for its window display for Who Are You, and Terry O’Neill’s first concept of the album cover.
As The Who are embarking on The Song Is Over farewell tour this year, despite the differences that Roger and Pete have with each other, the music will live on and inspire the next generation to pick up an instrument and show how much this band had influenced punk, progressive rock, hard rock, alternative rock, and metal. The light of the guitars and pen still marches on in this incredible box set. And no matter what, we took the tubes back out of town, back to the rollin’ pin, by adding in a massive streak of rin tin tin.
