The Who Sell Out 50 years later: song by song discussion

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by NothingBrightAboutIt, Nov 10, 2017.

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  1. Dodoz

    Dodoz Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    I can't remember who - wasn't it McCartney?- who said "Tommy" almost sounded like a demo?

    An interesting thing is the influence The Who seem to have had on Peter Gabriel/Genesis. Genesis is one of the earlier bands I ever listened to, as a child. I got into The Who as a teenager and only heard "Quadrophenia" in my late 20s! I think it's the last classic album I heard by the Who (wherever I went, it was costly).

    The main character on "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" is called Rael and when I got into "Quadrophenia", the black and white pictures of Jimmy really reminded me of the ones on "The Lamb". These two albums are double conceptual albums that came out a year apart from one another, I doubt it would be coincidental. As I wonder to this day if Rael/John isn't actually one and the same person suffering from a dissociative mental disorder, that would be something common too, but of course, it's only my theory :)

    But anyway, I wonder if Rael could have influenced the other Rael.
     
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  2. Nick Dunning

    Nick Dunning Forum Resident

    The remake is a much lesser performance, they sound tired and it's little more than a run-through (to my ears, anyway).
     
    Last edited: Nov 23, 2017
  3. marmalade166

    marmalade166 Sous les pavés, la plage!

    Location:
    Aberdeen, Scotland
    Day by day in the same order as the deluxe sounds good to me, a lot of those tunes definitely deserve it in my books
     
    Last edited: Nov 23, 2017
  4. My favorite song on this album, by far, and probably in my top five Who/Townshend recordings. "Achingly beautiful" describes it perfectly.
     
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  5. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    I don't connect with Rael at all. Some nice sequences but on the whole it annoys me. The Mods must have though Pete had lost his head. He went prog before the notion existed.
     
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  6. Benn Kempster

    Benn Kempster Who else?

    Location:
    Tring, UK
    Remember, this was a "much longer" piece which, potentially, could have taken the music world by storm, but would likely have, ultimately, remained as unrealised as "Quads" and "Tommy" were.

    As confused as Rael is, the BIGGER piece could have completely blown all our minds!
     
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  7. O Don Piano

    O Don Piano Senior Member

    And I’m glad Pete had the chance to progress and expand. Can’t be a Mod forever.....! Too limiting!
     
  8. O Don Piano

    O Don Piano Senior Member

    I’m sure he won’t answer this question. Probably moved on to make negative vague comments elsewhere.
     
  9. Purple Jim

    Purple Jim Senior Member

    Location:
    Bretagne
    Exactly. Pete was moving on in leaps and bounds, far ahead of anyone at the time. Hell, a mini rock opera already with "A Quick One While He's Away" in 1966 and even before that, the freeform hard rocking "The Ox" was totally far out for 1965. A helluva songwriter and musician.
     
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  10. SGR

    SGR Forum Resident

    "Rael" is another very imaginative song from Pete with great singing. If it is part of a larger work, I wonder if Pete has any more demos of "Rael" related songs.
     
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  11. dee

    dee Senior Member

    Location:
    ft. lauderdale, fl
    Fwiw, it's been a "grower' for me, over the years and not until the release of the different mono and stereo mixes and versions (and the organ coda) did I 'fall in love' with it. The standard album stereo mix and mono mix, I find interesting, but don't get that motherland feeling I do when hearing the later mixes, remixes, versions released, which became a healthy addiction for me and Rael then became a major work, more realised to me than before. If you try one of the remixes or the band remake versiom from later in '67 and then add the short Rael Naive epilogue that has the Townshend vocal and then add the organ outro (which iirc on the 30 years box set, the start of which can be heard before its cut off at the end of Rael Naive) then you have a more complete and better sounding and more cohesive and clearer representation or idea of Rael, for better or worse. For me, it's become one of my favorites by the band.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2017
  12. James H.

    James H. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Runnemede, NJ
    I always thought the remake has the demo of Townshend’s made into a rough mix (The Who’s version).
     
  13. Dog Ear

    Dog Ear The 2nd Protects The 1st

    Location:
    Chicago
    I remember hearing the Sparks precursor for the first time on Rael and loving it too. Tommy was already thoroughly listened to by the time I discovered Sell Out. A bit surprised though that Townshend and The Who got away with lifting a musical piece from one album and reusing it on another.

    Having said that, I think Sparks is quintessential Who. Just listened to a brand new remaster of Live at Leeds. When The Who goes into Sparks during the stretched out My Generation track, they are on fire.
     
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  14. NothingBrightAboutIt

    NothingBrightAboutIt Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    It wouldn't be the only time a future Tommy song surfaced during the Sell Out sessions, of course:

     
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  15. marmalade166

    marmalade166 Sous les pavés, la plage!

    Location:
    Aberdeen, Scotland
    A superb track, amazing the quality of Pete and the band's unreleased output at this time. Great guitar break as well
     
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  16. NothingBrightAboutIt

    NothingBrightAboutIt Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
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  17. marmalade166

    marmalade166 Sous les pavés, la plage!

    Location:
    Aberdeen, Scotland
    I've just realised that Glow Girl isn't on the Deluxe edition! Whilst I'm at it, I'm re-reading the thread about the My Generation Super Deluxe - The Who Sell Out needs one NOW!! And as someone suggested in that thread, a Super Plus Deluxe of A Quick One and The Who Sell Out would fix the issue of too few tracks, if that was the case...
     
  18. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    The Beach Boys influence on Rael is huge.
     
  19. marmalade166

    marmalade166 Sous les pavés, la plage!

    Location:
    Aberdeen, Scotland
    I think Glow Girl would have made a superb opening track for an album, a peak track for sure - it's a shame Tommy came together and diverted the band from the 1968 album as their pre-Tommy work in this year is very interesting for me - and I have no love for the portentous Tommy
     
  20. NothingBrightAboutIt

    NothingBrightAboutIt Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    Who's For Tennis might be one of their greatest missed opportunities, obviously nowadays we can compile playlists (and my personal Tennis makes one hell of an album), but that 1967-68 material is special in its own way.
     
  21. marmalade166

    marmalade166 Sous les pavés, la plage!

    Location:
    Aberdeen, Scotland
    [​IMG]

    After we've finished running through the tracks a bit of Who's For Tennis speculation would be fun...
     
  22. marmalade166

    marmalade166 Sous les pavés, la plage!

    Location:
    Aberdeen, Scotland
    Also, in Scott Parker's excellent book Who Did What he says that a mono mix of Glow Girl came out on the 1980 bootleg The IBC Demos - I guess this would be a vintage mix - has it been released officially? @lukpac may know...
     
  23. beatlesfan68

    beatlesfan68 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit, MI USA
    Does anyone know who is the lady on the cover ??
     
  24. NothingBrightAboutIt

    NothingBrightAboutIt Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Canada
    For those interested, my Tennis tracklist:

    Side One

    "Glow Girl"
    "Someone's Coming"
    "Fortune Teller"
    "Girl's Eyes"
    "Dogs"
    "Melancholia"

    Side Two

    "Faith in Something Bigger"
    "Early Morning Cold Taxi"
    "Little Billy"
    "Call Me Lightning"
    "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
    "Magic Bus"
     
  25. marmalade166

    marmalade166 Sous les pavés, la plage!

    Location:
    Aberdeen, Scotland
    No idea I'm afraid, AFAIK the photo originated on the Albums That Never Were blogspot - the owner of I believe is a member here - @soniclovenoize
     
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