59. The Who - My Generation (1965)




















Track Listing

1. Out In The Street
2. I Don't Mind
3. The Good's Gone
4. La La La Lies
5. Much Too Much
6. My Generation
7. The Kids Are Alright
8. Please, Please, Please
9. It's Not True
10. I'm A Man
11. A Legal Matter
12. The Ox

Review

The Who had louder drums and guitars than anyone else around at the time. Are they necessarily better? No, not really. But they do mark a shift from tame romantic stuff to the heavy sound more associated with rock and roll. And most of the albums is actually pretty good. Scrap that, very good. The Who invented the noisier type of rock with this album, thank them.

If you are hoping for 12 tracks of My Generation, then you won't get what you are expecting. The Who are actually quite varied in style, while keeping a heavy beat going on the thing. They even have a great instrumental track in The Ox as well as a soul number in I Don't Mind and a Blues thing in I'm a Man. They go from the funny: A Legal Matter to the sad like The Good's Gone. The lyrics are also quite good, and deep down they are pretty innovative with the use of feedbacks and such. And it does sound very rocky, the problem is that this same variety leads the album to have a lot of hits but also some misses unfortunately. Still drums and guitars are simply terrific.

The Who aren't that polished but they have a raw energy that compensates for it a thousand-fold. The only point that has to be made against them is that they sometimes sound like throwbacks to an earlier time of rock (which at the speed of development in the 60's can be just 2 years or such) just with harder beats. And the star here is really Keith Moon; in my opinion. Ringo isn't worth a bit of poo on the soles of his shoes. And the drumming is just terrific throughout.

You can't stream it from NApster, so you'll have to buy it at Amazon UK or US

Track Highlights

1. The Ox
2. I'm A Man
3. My Generation
4. The Kids Are Allright

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

I just had half a Sea Bass for dinner... the recipe didn't come out as expected. Oh well... next time I'll add less water to the Tagine.

Who?

From Wiki:

Influence

The Who were easily one of the most influential groups in rock music as a whole. The aggressive music made by the power trio formation of Townshend, Entwistle, Moon, was followed by groups such as Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Led Zeppelin, Rush, The Jam and nearly all punk and grunge bands.

Their early sound and attitude epitomised what would come to be known as punk in the mid-late 70's. On top of this, The Who are the only band covered by and/or heavily influential to all four of the major punk rock bands: the Clash, MC5, Ramones and Sex Pistols. The synth-covered tracks of Who's Next were a starter for the origins of the new wave genre, which is based on synth in addition to traditional instruments. Bands affected this way include The Police, The Cars, Blondie, Boston, and others.

During their earliest Mod genesis, The Who provided inspiration for most, if not all, of the major bands during the Britpop wave in Britain during the mid-90s. Bands such as Blur, Oasis, Stereophonics and Ash draw a heavy influence from the band's work, which, especially with the Mod counter-culture, provided a quintessentially "Cool Britannia" ideal.

The group has been credited with devising the "rock opera" and it made one of the first notable concept albums. Following in Tommy's footsteps were David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, and the Pink Floyd albums Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, and especially The Wall. Recently, the idea was adopted by The Flaming Lips in Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and Green Day in American Idiot.

"My Generation" is perhaps the band's most covered song. Iron Maiden, Green Day, Oasis, and Patti Smith have released covers of the song. Oasis used it as their set closer during their 2005 world tour. David Bowie covered "I Can't Explain" "Pictures of Lily' and "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere". The Clash based several songs off of the "I Can't Explain" riff, most blatantly with "Guns on the Roof". Pearl Jam also would perform The Who's "Baba O'Riley" and "The Kids Are Alright" during their tours in the 90's and 00's. Van Halen covered "Won't Get Fooled Again" on their 1993 live album Live: Right Here, Right Now, explicitly describing it as "a tribute to The Who" and in 1995, Phish covered Quadrophenia for their second annual Halloween concert tradition of performing another band's album in its entirety.

The Who have one of the most dedicated fan bases of any band (even rivaling the famed crazed fans of the Grateful Dead). Fans are known to argue in favor of The Who in any musical debate, especially when compared to Led Zeppelin. The music of The Who is still performed in public by many tribute bands, such as The OHM, The Who Show, and The Wholigans in the USA and Who's Next and Who's Who in the UK.

Quotes

* "The Who's work became a major template for so many of us. The considered and intelligent use of so-called 'art-theory', actively engaged with rock music, was merely one of Pete's phenomenally important contributions to the new 'language' of rock." (David Bowie)

* "A group who really molded us when we were kids and beyond is The Who...we would go anywhere to see The Who." (Brian May of Queen)

* "More than any other band, The Who are our role models." (Bono of U2)

* "The one thing that disgusts me about The Who is the way they smashed through every door in the unchartered hallway of rock 'n' roll without leaving much more than some debris for the rest of us to lay claim to." (Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam)

* "The Who are just one of those amazing experiences that have not only defied their own hype, they've actually transcended it. They embody everything rock can and should be - rhythm, tension, energy, and the most elusive ingredient of all, passion." (Sheryl Crow)

* "I can't help but get caught up in the electricity of Pete Townshend's playing. It's moving to see and hear an instrument when it becomes an extension of someone, an appendage that's mastered with the naturalness and unconsciousness of the movement of your own body. I learned from him in terms of having the sound come from more places than just your fingers. And I do strive for that kind of energy, to be so galvanizing." (Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney)