Let’s face it; The Who deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with the Beatles and the Stones. Yes, you’ll like one more than the other, but Pete Townshend and company were prototypical hard rockers from day one. Plus, as these previously unreleased sessions from the BBC’s Radio One studios show, they were pretty good at rhythm and blues and pop.
These tunes, cut for broadcast from 1965 to ’73, show Townshend to be an excellent guitarist and master songwriter, Roger Daltry to be as fine a rock singer as you’ll ever hear, and do I really need to say anything about the rhythm section of John Entwistle and Keith Moon?
If you are a Who fan, you’ll definitely want to pick this up. If you’re not a Who fan, what the hell is wrong with you? – JH
This collection of 25 classics, outtakes, and jingles recorded live at Radio One capture The Who in reckless, rocking form. The band roars through cuts like “My Generation” with raw energy that gives a sense of what they were like in their heyday, pre-stadium rock.
The most fascinating cut is, arguably, the first; a BBC radio jingle changing the words of “My Generation” into “my favorite station” – The Who’s great antiestablishment tirade co-opted into a commercial jingle. – MD
This review originally appeared in VG‘s May ’00 issue.
