The Who: The Most Superlatively Mediocre Band in the History of the World or Dud?

Oh, I guess you're right. My bad.

Yeah, "talentless hacks". JOhn Entwistle and Keith Moon - two human beings who remade the blueprint for modern electrically-powered small band internal combustion dynamics - those two guys, were "talentless hacks". You still haven't told us what great fucking creative, inventive musicians light your candy-ass on fire.

You don't know how to listen to music and I GUARANTEE you Skottie, you don't play an instrument. I GUARAN-fuckin'-TEE it.

And I listen exclusively to early New Kids on the Block and Kylie Minogue.

I agree Daltrey can be a toad at times, though.

Songs? "Substitute", "I Can't Explain", "I Can See For Miles", "Bargain", "Won't Get Fooled Again"? Um, they could right songs well enough.

The Who completely and utterly rock. They are 3 guys who really kick ass and one guy who's an only occasionally sufferable singer. There are so many moments when Pete's singing where you start thinking...power trio?

But really. Let's all relax and go watch The Kids Are Allright or just fastforward to the performance of A Quick One and let's watch that over and over again and discuss what it means to totally kick ass, even if you're singing a weird song filled with perversion.

And really, Joel, you too? The Who Sell Out is one of the best records of the 60s, with only 1 song I don't like. And Tommy's great if you don't listen to the lyrics. Or think about the story. You cannot front on The Who Sell Out!

x-post oh shit Dan, does this mean we won't play music?

Dan, they always seemed like a singles band to me, but I'll give The Who Sell Out a chance.

I Just Love Sonny and Cher
I Just Love Three Dog Night's Greatest Hits

Although, I love Three Dog Night too! (not so much S&C though but it's all good).

Anyway I just really loathe gratuitous would-be provocative threads ("Superlatively-Mediocre or Dud?"; "talentless hacks"?). I mean, come on: you were looking for an argument, or you wouldn't have bothered. You didn't exactly offer an opening post that deserved to be met with anything beyond similarly combatitive language. I wasn't taking the whole argument that seriously!

The Who Sell Out stands on it's own, it only has one single, I Can See For Miles. The rest is some of the best pop Pete wrote, or anyone actually, silly songs about hand-jobs and tattoos and love, all with these fake ads inbetween totally brilliant fun. Get the MCA CD which has an extra load of songs including the absolutely brutal rocker Jaguar.

or I'll burn if for you with CDrs I bought selling your headphones.

wait, did I just say that?

The late 60s-early 70s don't get a whole lot better than that, and I haven't even mentioned 'Tommy'.

Townshend does have hell to pay for pretty much everything he's done since All The Best Cowboys... whether or not it has a "The Who" name affixed to it - the distinction being whether Daltrey sings on it I suppose. On occasion there was a glimpse of the Way Things Were, but very rarely and impossible now without Entwistle. There's a telling scene in The Kids Are Alright when an interviewer asks him if he was still the "desperate young man" of the 60s and he answers back with "I'm a desperate old fart" - desperate yes, and still obsessed with making Big Statements that just seem more and more embarrassing. I wish he'd take a cue from Ray Davies and just become a semi-retired Elder Statesman, but I don't believe he can allow himself to do that. It's sad because I'm convinced that he's determined to smash the "legacy" (sorry) of The Who to pieces like so many Rickenbachers. Heck, I'd be happy with a retread of It's Hard, but instead it's endless rehashes of Tommy, etc. I cringed when he continued without Entwistle and now I just don't want to hear anything.

Nevertheless, The Who is one of the few bands to rightfully earn a Force Of Nature description. NOTHING surpasses Live At Leeds, not even No Sleep 'TIll Hammersmith. "Sparks" at Woodstock is still awe-inspiring even now and I love the sheer "fuck you" of that destruction that wrings the necks of all the dopey hippies in the audience. Most folks would sell their soul to write a song as good as a Townshend b-side from back then and no band has equalled The Who's string of singles from 1965 to 1968.

Tommy is unbearable to listen to now, and I only listen to bits and pieces of the Stadium Rock years. The dreadful songs ("Long Live Rock", "Squeeze Box", etc.) are the classic rock radio hits and I think that's fueling a lot of the hate. Still for every one of those there's some terrific forgotten songs in there - "Naked Eye", "Sea And Sand", "Blue Red And Grey", "Bargain", "Dreaming From The Waist", etc. I don't dislike Daltrey, but his singing in the 70s is so cliched especially compared with Townshend's wonderfully weedy voice on "Goin' Mobile" or "The Punk And The Godfather".

Townshend comes in with that "I sit looking 'round / I look at my face in the mirror ..." part, and it's like ooooohhhh, thats nice.

That and the instrumental passage that follows it with crisp drumming, synthesizer/acoustic and amazing bass notes..one of my favourite sections.

"Dreaming From The Waist"

I listened to this six times in a row yesterday and now I'm listening to it again. Did they remix it for the remaster because the bass on the original vinyl is criminally low?

i mean, i can't really knock them, but as someone else said on this thread, life is too short

in the non-who category: "like a hurricane"

it's like some really cool relative who has a habit of talking too loud

the who are truly pish.

Sure the who haven't done anything worth a pinch of shit in about 33 years, but for a few years there the who were perfect.

so what?

"My Generation" is a motherfucking blisterning LP, comments on all the good stuff above seconded but don't forget the brilliance of Rael in opening the beat overload -> oceanic equation -- everything on Sell Out seconded, actually, and also on the expanded Leeds and other period boots which in general opened rock overdrive up as a permissable idea, the open chords, etc. this was completely NEW at the time. And the dynamism of some of the riffs still, not least in Baba and jesus Daltry tearing into Young Man Blues (did anyone else who did the blues treat them with less respect and more reverence?), but also more who originals like can't explain, PLENTY of tommy, PLENTY of quad, and yes all of who's next.

Is there a prettier song than behind blue eyes? Only, maybe, Pictures of Lily or Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand.

many.

i like their first lp best by far.

Not to mention which -- The Who's appearance on the Smothers Brothers was probably the most rock moment ever televised!

Erm... you DO know that they were lip synching on the Smothers Brothers show, right?

hmmmmm. the only good songs off tommy i can think of: pinball wizard, we're not gonna take it, cousin kevin, and (if i'm feeling generous) fiddle about. out of a 24-track album, that's pretty bad.

The Who is the worst band of all--including Hanson. Absolutely 0 talent.

Sterling on the money!

I pretty much dislike the great majority of what the Who did post-late 60's. "Who's next" was sooo blah to my ears. "Going mobile" is the most embarassing part of it. There are sparse good parts. But the 60's early stuff is what I really care about. Nobody ahs mentioned the BBC Sessions CD that came out in the 90's- it is the most fun thing I have heard by them- people who doubt the Who and think they have no groove or whatever, you need to get that CD- this is the stuff that shows why punks respected them!

As far as today's bands, I'd have to say Coldplay is the most "eh" band out there. Competent songs, competently played, all the emotional urgency of getting up for another beer or waiting for a train to work.

But sometimes this is the most important thing in the world. Yet even Coldplay would make that boring.

I think their glory days were the mid-to-late-Sixties, right up to Tommy. Tommy is awesome, but when they got into the "bloated hard rock band that jams on My Generation for 10 minutes" i kind of turned them off. So nowadays i can see how people could look at their 70s output and say 'ugh'. But as a Speed-driven mod pop band, i think they were second to none.

btw "So Sad About Us" is one of the greatest pop songs ever.