Author:Dante DiCarlo
London based musician and member of the tribute band ‘Who’s Next’ Dante DiCarlo has put together this comprehensive look at the studio albums released by The Who. He’s taken the reasonable decision to exclude the numerous compilations and live recordings, which unfortunately excludes one of their most seminal albums, Live at Leeds, and one wonders if the rules couldn’t have been a bit more flexible in that instance but there you go. He precedes each album by giving some detailed background on the creation and recording of the music, before giving his thoughts on each individual song, focussing in the main on the albums as they originally appeared rather than getting into bonus tracks added to subsequent reissues and box sets. He also includes the Odd and Sods album in his chronology as that comprised previously unreleased material. He’s a good entertaining writer, although as a non-musician myself the detail on chords, tunings, keys etc was a bit lost on me, but of course others may find that sort of information enlightening! He does offer some perceptive thoughts though on the songs, and isn’t afraid to give his opinion and call out material that wasn’t quite up to standard. I must say my own Who period is the unimpeachable three album run of Tommy, Who’s Next and Quadrophenia. I’m not a particular fan of their earlier albums, other than the singles, and I find the releases post 1975 rather hit and miss, with standouts like Slip Kid and Who Are You buried amongst a lot of fairly unremarkable songs. However, put all those individual songs and the early singles together on a playlist and you’ve got some great listening ahead of you, which demonstrates what a powerhouse the band was in its pomp. It could also be argued that the best of Townshend’s work in this latter period was put aside for his solo albums, which weakened the band’s own releases somewhat. Overall then, this is a very enjoyable and entertaining read that is accessible to casual fans like myself as well as appealing to their more devoted followers, so it’s certainly well worth a read.
Length of Read:Medium
Might appeal to people who enjoyed…
The music of The Who.
One thing you’ve learned
With live audiences clamouring to hear the seventies classics and not showing that much interest in newer material, it looks increasingly likely that 2019’s ‘Who’ album will be the band’s studio swansong.
I’ve looked this book over, via ebay, but haven’t bought it yet. I’m after some revelations or fresh perspective. I read the John-Paul love story book recently (from my library) and it uncovered very little in the way of new details.
There is actually a debate going on right now on Steve-o Hoffmeister’s website about the sales, or lack thereof, of WHO (2019) and how it impacts on the band putting out more PT-penned, Rog sung tunes.
It got to no.3 behind Rod Stewart and Robbie Williams in 2019 and shifted, approximately, a plausible 100,000 copies but the band hasn’t taken to performing many of its songs live and Rog says the money spent on it – they apparently self funded and took it to the record company – didn’t come close to being covered so he’s reluctant to put more time and effort in recording a new batch.
WHO isn’t bad though a significant amount of autotune was applied that doesn’t jibe for me. Did the manager / producer / mixer / mastering co-horts want to be seen as being in lockstep with current trends ? Surely no-one could have though a crossover radio or streaming hit was even the remotest possibilty?
The digital tampering negates a lot of my goodwill, but as everyone else is doing it… this is what we get.
Dear old Rog also made a solo album (of mainly covers), they didn’t want to make a Who album of it but then Pete appears on most of it! Came out just before “WHO” terrible name and I haven’t heard it yet.
I agree Live at Leeds should be considered as a key part of the catalogue especially the original single album which didn’t contain too much that had previously appeared on previous studio albums. My key period also includes Sell Out (a near masterpiece) and the first 2 albums before that are lots of fun especially the bonkers A Quick One album.
Nice review bit I will pass on this
I seem to remember an interview with Pete at the time saying the record company advance was all swallowed up by the recording costs…a separate producer was engaged just to do Rogers vocals.
The album was released in December 2019 and I picked up a copy for a fiver in the hmv January sale a month later so presumably wasn’t a great seller in the UK at least.