Around the summer of 2010, I properly started listening to The Who. The months up until that period of time were those in which I discovered the Beatles and really began my fascination with their music that continues to this day. So I’m thinking that my decision to check out The Who came from a throwaway thought of “What’s another ’60s band that people talk about? The Who? Wouldn’t do no harm to try them out.” And so I did. I was 15 then, and now at 28, albums like Quadrophenia and Who’s Next are such that I can’t imagine my life without. But really I think the first of the band’s albums that I sought to listen to was The Who Sell Out, the group’s third album, released in 1967. I saw its professional ratings on the Wikipedia page and the time and was surprised at how highly rated it seemed to be among critics and the like. Couldn’t be that great, surely? Well, it actually is. And its 1995 remix/reissue that added 10 more songs to the original tracklist further showcased just how on a roll the band appeared to be during those sessions. That’s the version I’m most accustomed to.

‘Rael 1’, originally titled ‘Rael (1 and 2)’ on the original 1967 release, would usually be the album’s closer, though with the 1995 issue there’s an added selection of bonus material recorded during the record’s production. The song was the result of what was initially going to be a much larger project – I believe, a rock opera – conceived by Pete Townshend, but pressure from the band’s record label to produce hit singles at a faster rate ground whatever plans Townshend had to a halt. So what we get is the much compressed version of his vision. Like the Who’s album closer on Sell Out‘s predecessor, ‘Rael 1’ is another mini-opera, consisting of separate musical movements to create one whole piece. But unlike the domestic relationship situation explored in ‘A Quick One…’, ‘Rael’ takes the subject matter to broader horizons, exploring a world in which China is the main power of the world and is on its way to conquer Israel. The track is told by an Israeli protagonist who wishes to return to his home and save his country against all odds.

Shame the idea didn’t get the full album treatment it needed. However, the whole idea of a rock opera was something that was very much on Townshend’s mind. We all know what arrived a couple years later. And if you don’t, well, the band made Tommy, which took the band’s popularity to a whole other level worldwide and took the group’s success to the greatest heights when for a moment it looked like the band were at a crossroads when Sell Out didn’t meet commercial expectations. There are plenty of musical ideas subtly presented in Sell Out that would appear again in the music of Tommy, and none arrive quite as clearly as they do here on ‘Rael 1’, with its final instrumental section being reused for ‘Sparks’. I’m sure Who fans got a kick out of hearing music that they were sure they’d heard before and revisiting Sell Out to find that it was there all along. Even though the music gets its own highlight in the form of ‘Sparks’, I recognise it more as the exciting instrumental passage that brings Sell Out to a cosmic end.