ALBUMS: Odds and Sods (1974); Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy (1971); The Who By Numbers (1975)
MVC Ratings: Odds 4.0/$$$$; Meaty 5.0/$$$$$; Numbers 4.0/$$$
I’m kind of surprised I don’t have more Who records. I was a fan of their rock operas: ‘Tommy’ and ‘Quadrophenia,’ but I guess I listened to them so much with friends who were Who fanatics, I just never bought them. (How I don’t have ‘Who’s Next’ is unforgiveable though.)
I do have Tommy as performed by the London Philharmonic but I obtained that just recently so I’m not counting it in my Countdown.
For my money Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy is one of the top greatest hits compilations of all time. It captures all the early stuff like ‘My Generation,’ ‘I Can See for Miles,’ ‘Substitute,’ ‘Pinball Wizard,’ and even ‘Magic Bus.’
These early song reveal a quartet of great musicians playing original songs (mostly by guitarist Pete Townshend).
Re-listening to the songs again after all these years had me focusing on the rhythm section — one of the best in rock music. John Entwistle on bass had few peers. Go put a Who song put it on and try to focus on the bass. He died several years ago. And Keith Moon — also deceased — was a maniac on the drums. Add lead sing Roger Daltrey and guitarist extraordinaire Pete Townshend and you had nearly the perfect band.
I think I sort of burned out on the Who after seeing them in concert in the 80’s and they were loud to the point of distortion and hearing loss. ‘Who Are You’ was an album I decided not to buy. The presage to this moving away from the Who was the movie version of Tommy. Roger Daltrey movie star and overexposure was starting to creep.
In 1975, I bought The Who by Numbers, which was low key and really good (probably one of their most underrated.) But radio picked up on ‘Squeeze Box, a novelty tune, and played it to death.
My wildcard in all of this is ‘Odds and Sods,’ a collection of early outtakes, alternate takes and just lost-in-the-vault songs.
The surprising thing was it had some real strong songs such as ‘Pure and Easy,’ ‘Too Much of Something,’ and ‘Put the Money Down,’ and ‘Faith in Something Bigger.’ My wife, then girlfriend, Catherine’s favorite ‘Now I’m A Farmer’ (And I’m digging, digging, digging, digging). The song is about getting out of the city and growing vegetables, even gourds. This was the Who’s back-to-nature song akin to the Kinks‘ ‘I’m an Apeman.’