@What_Exit has done a few of these lately, so I thought I’d start one for my favorite classic rock band of all time. I’m just including the studio albums, since the live cuts and rarities/singles compilations quickly start to outnumber the albums with original material on them, and for their early releases I’m listing the UK versions rather than the US versions which were retitled and had some tracks swapped out (as was the style at the time).
The Who were my favorite band in high school, to the point that I wore that maximum R&B shirt all the time and saw them three times. I also collected every bit of discography I could find, including some oddities from the UK, some live bootlegs, the occasional picture album, and of course all the solo albums, including Keith Moon’s very crappy one, which did have a cool pull out cover.
Quadrophenia is the album on my turntable at this very moment, and for reasons I briefly mentioned in the Pink Floyd thread, is also my favorite album of theirs, but really, it’s a matter of mood… who’s next could just as easily be a favorite, as well as who by numbers. Or even meaty Beaty big and bouncy! It’s all such great music.
IMO, Two Sides of the Moon is the dictionary definition of “so bad it’s good” - the most legendary drummer of all time refusing to play the drums so that he can instead croon along off-key to mediocre pop songs backed by a Phil Spector-ish army of session musicians. It’s a pity he was too far gone at that point to record an album capable of actually showing off his talent, but it’s an interesting piece of '70s kitsch all the same.
I could easily have voted for Quadrophenia, Tommy, or It’s Hard, but I went with Who’s Next because it’s got the best collection of solid rock numbers and because Won’t Get Fooled Again was the song that really turned me on to the Who in the first place when I heard it on the radio and paid attention to the lyrics for the first time at about 3 AM in the summer of 1999.
Ah, man, I can see that, it was just such a hard album to put on the turntable. I eventually sold it, even though I kept almost all the other Who albums.
It’s an interesting contrast to Nick Mason’s 1981 solo album, “Fictitious Sports”, which is also in my mind a failure, but a musically interesting failure….
They produced a lot of great music and albums, but for me Quadrophenia really stood out, and I still listen to it in its entirety on occasion. Which I also do for Tommy but not as often.
I highly recommend Quadrophenia and psychedelics, if you’re into that sort of thing. What a fantastic album. Although “love reign o’er me” may be the most overplayed song in the history of rock.
Quadrophenia. My all-time favorite album by my favorite band. Every May 19th I have a tradition of listening to it all the way through in the car when I’m on a long long drive in observation of Pete’s birthday.
I remember the first time I put that disc in the player, how the start of the first song blew me away and the album didn’t let up until it was all over. What an amazing album to listen to full-length.
“Magic Bus”, a sort-of thrown-together compilation, sort of belongs on the list because most of the tracks were unknown in the US, plus it has that ridiculous painted-up psychedelic bus on the cover, which the Who hated but they posed on it anyway.
Agree with Jaycat, the early Who records were the best, before Peter T. decided they needed to do Message songs.
Other than in the Floyd, Led Zep and Beatles threads, this time I have to go for the obvious, “Who’s Next”. It’s just one of the greatest Rock albums of all times. Quadrophenia is killer too, and I REALLY like the concept of “The Who Sell Out”, but “Who’s Next” has some of the greatest Rock tunes ever. “Behind Blue Eyes” is one of my top five songs ever.
One of my greatest memories is my 10 year old (now 22 year old) son coming down to the basement and saying, “hey Dad, want to listen to Who’s Next together?”
Who’s Next all the way. God, I’ve listened to that album so many times and still never get tired of it. Last year I spent a lot of time driving a dump truck back and forth between construction sites and the landfill or the gravel quarry, hours and hours on the road with only music to keep me company…I must have played Who’s Next 50 times. In particular, my favorite song on that album is probably “Love Ain’t For Keeping.” It’s the shortest song on the album and one of the simplest and most straightforward, but there’s something about the bass and drums on it that are just mesmerizing. In particular, the tone of the drums on that song. It’s hard to explain exactly, since The Who are known for Keith’s drumming first and foremost and obviously he’s responsible for countless drum-driven bangers, but the way he plays on “Love Ain’t For Keeping” - it’s just tasteful and powerful at the same time. His drums and cymbals seem to have a shorter decay on that track than many of their songs - by which I mean they don’t sustain out as much, they’re a little more muffled, but like I said, still hard-hitting. Other than some tasteful triplet fills, the drums don’t overshadow anything else in the song. Same for the bass, playing melodically and beautifully but restrained. Restraint I guess is the thing that makes the song so good to me - everyone’s working in equal partnership. I just can’t get enough of that track.
Do you know the version from the initial and later scratched New York sessions for “Who’s Next” with Leslie West on lead guitar? I like that version even better, and it’s much longer because of the killer West guitar solo.
ETA: oh, by the way, there’s another difference, Pete takes the lead vocal.
Quadrophenia. The soundtrack of my college years. Who’s Next is a very very close second, but Quadrophenia puts all my angst and anger into a double album.
