Tag Archives: the who

My iPod #426: The Who – Girl’s Eyes

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“Girl’s Eyes” is a song recorded during the making of The Who’s third album The Who Sell Out, which went on to be released in 1967. The song did not make it onto the original album’s tracklist. Though it did appear in the extended tracklisting when the album was remastered and remixed years later in 1995. The track is one of the very few Who songs to be written by the ever-eccentric Keith Moon. He couldn’t sing very well, but you’re still able to hear him take lead vocals in the right channel with bassist John Entwistle singing along with him in the left.

After a false start in which someone blows over the top of an open bottle and Moon hurriedly says “Hello” to the listener (maybe to test the microphone or something), the track eventually gets going and is driven by a delightful piano and acoustic guitars, but Moon and Entwistle do their business on their respective instruments too. The track concerns a fangirl who Moon sees at every show the band perform at, but he clearly doesn’t care about her as much as she about them. He wonders if he could have the audacity of hurting this girl if they were ever to meet, though whether this actually happens is not revealed as the lyrics pretty much end there. I also think that Moon couldn’t think of a true ending to the song’s music, as the band improvise an ending where each member eventually gives up playing after a few reiterations of the song’s chord progression.

This song’s a-okay. Moon was always meant for the drums, of course, but this track shows that he could actually write a good tune as well too.

My iPod #307: The Who – Early Morning Cold Taxi

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Today’s track is “Early Morning Cold Taxi” by The Who, one that wasn’t released on an album when the band were making music in their heyday. I heard the song when listening to the 1995 Remixed and Remastered version of “The Who Sell Out“, the band’s third album released in 1967.

What the song title actually means is beyond me. I never really think about it that much. Maybe the phrase just fit the melody of the song or whatever. “Cold Taxi” wasn’t written by Pete Townshend, who obviously wrote pretty much everything The Who did, but instead a guy named Dave Langston who was the band’s first roadie. The song is actually credited to both him and lead singer Roger Daltrey, but Daltrey didn’t actually do much. He didn’t write any of it at all really.

But this isn’t a bad thing. “Cold Taxi” is a nice poppy number with, what I think are vocals done by both Daltrey and bassist John Entwistle, the former being in the right side of the ‘stereo field’ (that is how it’s described, right) and the latter on the left. Got great vocal harmonies and a sweet melody, an innocent little ‘ooooh’ bridge section and a few key changes here and there. It’s a nice song.

The song is about three minutes long, and ‘cos of the whole radio concept the album’s supposed to have it is followed by a thirty second Coke jingle that the band actually recorded for the company all those years ago. It does take the momentum out of the track, but it is a rocking advertisement for a drink.

My iPod #303: The Who – Drowned

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For me, “Quadrophenia” was very difficult to absorb initially. At an hour and twenty minutes fit to burst with long instrumental passages on some songs and the whole concept made the listening process very complicated. Or maybe it was me thinking about it too much. Upon further listens I realised that everything you hear is essential to the story throughout the album. You are taken on a journey with the tragic lead character of Jimmy. In “Drowned”, we find him in a desperate state as he contemplates…. drowning himself in the sea. Although, out of the album’s context it is a tribute to Meher Baba who Townshend admired for his spiritual teachings.

“Drowned” is a great track. A roaring vocal take by Daltrey, that rolling piano phrase throughout, that slick musical reference to 5:15 in the middle…… the final jam at the end which seems to carry on forever before fading into a clip of Townshend singing “Sea and Sand” on the beach…. Those are just the little things I can pick out from memory at the moment. But they are the little things that add to the album’s cohesion. I’m blabbering on a bit; I will leave it there.

All in all, another wall of melodious noise and relentless rhythm provided by The Who.

My iPod #290: The Who – Dogs

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Behold. A song that sounds like nothing The Who would ever do, made by The Who.

This is “Dogs”. A single released in 1968, and recorded during a period when the group went ‘slightly mad’ according to Pete Townshend.

There’s nothing much I can say to you that would be any different from its entry on Wikipedia. It’s a very English-sounding song. That “beer” chorus reminds me of a sing-along down at a pub or something, and overall it sounds like a very dramatic theme track for two characters in a soap opera.

In comparison to everything else The Who did, “Dogs” is definitely an odd one…..

My iPod #286: The Who – Doctor Jimmy

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Happy Easter everybody.

The first post today marks the start of the “Doctor” trilogy. This particular song is not about someone who is in that line of work. The second post coming later on today, and tomorrow’s are. Maybe tomorrow, ’cause I’ll be at my friend’s place. The next three songs all have the word ‘Doctor’ in them, basically.

“Doctor Jimmy” is the longest track on The Who’s album “Quadrophenia“, coming in at a hefty 8 and a half minutes. It only contains three verses and the “Is It Me?” segment that is meant to represent John Entwistle’s personality. Apart from that are some rather long instrumental passages where the band jam and play off one another.

In terms of the album’s concept, Jimmy – the main character – is pissed off with everything. The Mod life he believed in was all a lie. He starts drinking gin to see if it can ‘hold [him] down’, but instead the alcohol brings out the absolute worst. A bit like that story by Robert Louis Stevenson.

In the midst of it, he is still able to think about which one of the four personalities he possesses is actually his – hence the “Is It Me?” part. Overall, it’s all too much to take so he steals a boat, heavily intoxicated and sails off into the sea.

Dramatic stuff.  Very tense.

Instrumentally, so much happens in the track that I don’t think I could even describe it to you. It’s The Who really, what more do you need.