This week: The Who: 'Who's Next'

Inescapable this week. The essence of music.

There will be millions of words written about The Who, ‘Who’s Next | Life House’ over the next couple of weeks and beyond. The massive super deluxe edition box is out, charting the development of the ‘lost’ ‘Life House’ project. On the one hand, there’s little point in adding more of the same and, on the other, how can I celebrate classic albums and not take a dive into ‘Who’s Next’ this week?

Hear the LP now by clicking this link, or on the image below.

My tagline for LP is ‘personal reflections on classic albums’ and that’s exactly what this post is. ‘Who’s Next’ means so much to me; I hear the LP through layers of personal history.

‘Who’s Next’ is the greatest rock LP ever made. You may disagree and may think it’s not even the best Who album (Tommy! Live at Leeds! Quadrophenia!¹) but let’s get the IMHO stuff out of the way. This IS my opinion, and feel free to leave a constructive comment if it’s not yours.

I bought my first copy of ‘Who’s Next’ in about 1975. That was four years after it was released, but my excuse is I was only a nipper. I’d discovered - a bunch of us at school had discovered - The Who through the ‘Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy’ compilation, in 1974. In that year, they played the Charlton football ground at The Valley, my first major rock gig. The following year, our small gang went to the Wembley Empire Pool gig, much of which is still saved in a password-secured section of my mind (as well as on YouTube). By this time, several ‘Who’s Next’ songs were key elements of the setlist.² 

When you’re 14 and find a new band you want to get all their records. But you can’t, not all at once because the cash from a Saturday morning job as a cleaner in a bread factory only stretches so far.

I can’t explain why, but the songwriting, the sound, and the atmosphere of ‘Who’s Next’ connects with me in a way few other LPs ever have. That’s also true of the atmosphere generated by everything connected with the ‘Life House’ project - Townshend’s ‘Life House Chronicles’ solo gigs especially. It really does feel spiritual. We are all connected, and music is the vibration amplifying that connection.

“There once was a note, listen”. - Pete Townshend, ‘Pure and Easy’, is not on the original ‘Who’s Next’ but this song contains the entire essence of ‘Life House’

Our group of friends established what would now be called a ‘listening party’ during school lunchtimes (or on the odd occasion, nicking off from lessons.) We’d listen to The Who, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and others too, usually because one of us wanted to ‘prove’ one band was better than another. I couldn’t understand how anyone could prefer other music to The Who’s classics - not only ‘Baba O'Riley’, ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, but also songs like ‘Getting in Tune’, ‘Bargain’, or ‘Goin’ Mobile’.

I didn’t really know any Who history then, and definitely not the deep back story behind ‘Who’s Next’. Once the ‘Life House’ project had imploded under the weight of the story and drug-impaired management decisions, there was a need to hurry up and get something out because a couple of years had elapsed since the ‘Tommy’ concept double album. (See this post for a brief discussion on changing time scales in rock ‘n’roll.) So, to cut a very long story ludicrously short, ‘Life House’ was locked in the archive and a ‘normal’ album sequenced from the best songs.

“Pete Townshend in The Who is like the subtle controls of a spaceship tethered to the enormous explosive power of its rockets.” - Andrew O’Neill ‘A History of Heavy Metal’ (aff link) pp. 23 - 24.

Remember, back in 1971, when an LP was released, that was it. There was no expectation of leftover tracks ever seeing the light of day unless they surfaced as a ‘B’ side of a single or on something like ‘Odds ‘n’ Sods’.³ Townshend must have thought most of ‘Life House’ would never be heard. He and the band could be proud of the album they did get released but the pride must have been clouded by a real question mark over what might have been.

They selected the right songs. Every member of the band was at the top of their game. Some will tell you Keith Moon wasn’t a great drummer (fair enough, he got worse as the effects of his lifestyle took their toll) but listen to his playing everywhere here, and especially on ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ - it’s a masterclass. Entwistle is - as always - both solid and spectacular on bass. Daltrey’s vocals are expressive, powerful, and shattering. Townshend - not only on guitar but bringing in the iconic sequencer phrases of ‘Baba O'Riley’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, as well as his own great vocals. This is rock moving in a new direction.

“The Who were a strange combination of art school sensitivity (Townshend) and street thug aggression (the rest of them).” - O’Neill*

The whole project couldn’t have travelled much further away from the old process of going into the studio for a couple of days and banging out 10-12 songs. Townshend would arrive with demo recordings good enough to form a record even if the other three band members had been abducted by aliens or something. Then, as live performance honed the songs, everyone including Townshend found out exactly (or even roughly) what this ‘Life House’ thing wanted to be.

Listen to ‘Who’s Next’ if you’re still discovering this music. Listen to the whole nine hours of the Super Deluxe Edition if you want to know why this project has kept its fascination across fifty years.

We’d need longer than a school lunch hour, now, to ‘prove’ it’s better than anything else produced at the time, or since. But I’m writing this post so I can just say it IS, and no returns. 

Postscript

Last Saturday morning, a quiet stroll, the Olney Market Place getting busier in anticipation of the Food Fair to be opened later. I hear music in the distance. Wait, this is not any music. This is a live band soundchecking. This is ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’. I have to get closer. They’re good. This is exactly what the world needs; loud guitars and a drummer somehow contriving to sound like Keith Moon from a much smaller kit. The band - below - are Mad Mods and Englishmen.

Mad Mods and Englishmen. (Photo by Ian Sharp)

So, 52 years after it was released, a song from ‘Who’s Next’ has the power to shake up a sleepy market in a small Buckinghamshire town. Bands like this are keeping music alive all over the country. 

There is hope.

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1. Quadrophenia does run ‘Who’s Next’ a close second, admittedly.

2. For all the claims about ‘Live at Leeds’ being the greatest live album ever, it feels weird hearing a Who set without ‘Baba O'Riley’, ‘Behind Blue Eyes’, and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’.

3. Originally a single album. Not a super deluxe bonanza, because they hadn’t been invented yet. There was no heritage rock because the source materials for today’s boomer heritage/nostalgia industry were still being minted.

*Andrew O’Neill’s website is https://www.andrewoneill.co.uk/. Most of ‘A History of Heavy Metal’ isn’t about The Who, and it’s a great read even if you’re not into heavy metal.

O’Neill, A. (2018) A history of heavy metal. London: Headline.