r/TheWho

I was listening to the news this morning, and a host used the phrase "the kids are alright," which I've heard here and there over the years but was unsure if it traced back to The Who's song or if the song shared a common ancestor with the saying, but after looking it up, apparently it does come from the song.

This struck me as an interesting measure of cultural impact that I don't think many artists can claim. To clarify, I mean sayings that come from songs but are not necessarily direct song references. In other words, sayings that are often used by people who don't necessarily know the songs they come from (granted, I've not confirmed whether the people using these sayings know the songs or not - it's just my impression based on what I do know of the speakers).

I think there may only be two other strong examples of this from The Who: "meet the new boss" and "teenage wasteland." The only one from from another band that comes to mind is "another brick in the wall."

Any others like this, whether from The Who or other artists?

Endless Wire is 20 years old this year and I’ve been listening to it a lot and giving it a reappraisal. In short: I think it’s an excellent album let down by a few terrible songs (cough, cough, In The Ether) and it’s a few cut tracks and a revised track listing away from being a classic.

So I’ve done that. And to be clear, this is the only Who album I see needing this treatment. No one needs to go messing around with anything else. But Endless Wire could stand a refresh and I think in this form it’s the comeback it was meant to be.

The album now opens with ‘Mike Post Theme’, which means it opens with one hell of a bang and one of the album’s finest tracks. I also think that fits Who tradition (Who Are You opened with a very self-aware song about music) and I think it’s ballsy to open the album with a song that uses another musician’s name and seems designed to force google searches to stumble across Endless Wire.

Some stranger and more meandering tracks have been cut, but even with plenty of cuts, the album is 41 minutes and would comfortably fill side 1 and 2 of a vinyl recording. Yes, Wire and Glass is cut down and no makes no sense in this form (it wasn’t super clear anyways and psychoderelict is kind of required reading to understand it at all) but now Wire and Glass feels more like the mini opera in ‘A Quick One’ rather than an awkward 3/4 of an opera with some parts that drag.

I’m sure people will disagree with my choices; but I think Endless Wire just has some magical stuff on it and its length and some of the poorer songs scattered throughout did it a disservice and it’s criminally underrated as a result. So, I hope you enjoy and can just see the best of this album rather than the whole awkward affair of it.

Let me know your favorite tracks from the Who’s My Generation album
1.What is your number one track?
2.What is your runner up track?
3. Best deep cut track?
4. What is your skip track? (The song you most likely skip)

From Disc and Music Echo: "How Pete turned chauffeur: If you see the Who's Pete Townshend in chauffeur's uniform driving around in a Bentley, don't think you've been hitting the bottle or have a touch of the sun. Maybe's it's part of the Op Art image, but Pete was dolled up as a chauffeur the other day when he took over the wheel of the American car the Who have now swapped out for the Bentley. It seems that the Who are not so keen on American cars since their 1963 model broke down near London's Victoria. It was Pete's 21st birthday, and he had to use the £3 his fan club secretary, Diedre Meeham, was going to spend on a birthday present to get the car towed away! Who drummer Keith Moon related the sad story in the early hours when he was with Beach Boy Bruce Johnston at London's Phone Booth discotheque. Pete had a chauffeur until a few days before his birthday, then he dressed in that uniform and drove the car himself -- until the breakdown. Said Keith, 'We've just bought a 1955 Bentley with big doors and all the extras. Like the ones the ladies go to the big balls in. We'll be driving to dates in it. Chauffeur of course.' That leaves Roger Daltrey, who may make use of another form of travel. 'I'm thinking of buying a houseboat on the Thames,' he said. 'Great for parties.'" (5/28 p. 8)

I'm digitizing my copy and each disc beyond Disc 1 has a separate custom cover.

Glyn Johns Mix, Sessions & Demos, Shepperton 1977 etc.

My usual place to find high quality images of album covers only has the main front cover (The Who Are You cover with "Super Deluxe Edition" printed at the bottom.

Thanks

Not that I’ve never heard of The Who, even Amish people have heard Baba O’Riley. Never had anything against The Who just wasn’t my scene…..or so I thought. Our algorithm overlords suggest a Who concert and me being Who-Curious hit play….WOW I am HOOKED!! Every song is AMAZING! Im addicted. At work…thinking about The WHO…taking my dog out…thinking about The Who…thinking about The Who..you get the picture. I’m hooked. What’s your favorite song??

I rewatched the Tommy movie in IMAX two months ago and it reawoke my love for that story and The Who in general. And just yesterday, I listened to the London Symphonic Orchestra version for the first time and was completely blown away by it (my favorite parts being John singing Cousin Kevin and Roger singing Sensation) and it made me wonder just how big Tommy actually was at the time. Like you rarely hear people talk about it nowadays unless they’re talking about how it was a trendsetter or they’re just a huge Who fan, but like, this rock album inspired a symphonic orchestra cover album and a movie within only 6 years of each other, both of which had humongous celebrities attached and the movie at least was in the top 10 biggest box office successes of its year of release. But I was born in 2000 and I have no way of knowing how big it was, so does anyone from the time of the album or movie’s release remember how massive of a deal it was?