The Who Album-By-Album (& Single-By-Single) Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Driver 8, May 12, 2009.

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  1. Devotional

    Devotional Senior Member

    Location:
    Oslo, Norway
    A Quick One

    [​IMG]

    UK: December 9, 1966 - A Quick One - Reaction 593002 [Mono]
    US: May 1, 1967 - Happy Jack - Decca DL 4892 [Mono]
    US: May 1, 1967 - Happy Jack - Decca DL 7492 [Mono/Stereo & Fake Stereo]

    UK

    A1: Run Run Run (2:42) *****
    (Pete Townshend)
    A2: Boris The Spider (2:28) ****
    (John Entwistle)
    A3: I Need You (2:24) ***
    (Keith Moon)
    A4: Whiskey Man (2:57) ***
    (John Entwistle)
    A5: Heat Wave (1:54) ****
    (Lamont Dozier/Brian Holland/Edward Holland, Jr.)
    A6: Cobwebs And Strange (2:29) ****
    (Keith Moon)
    B1: Don't Look Away (2:51) **
    (Pete Townshend)
    B2: See My Way (1:52) **
    (Roger Daltrey)
    B3: So Sad About Us (3:01) ****
    (Pete Townshend)
    B4: A Quick One, While He's Away (9:10) ***
    (Pete Townshend)

    US

    A1: Run Run Run (2:42) *****
    (Pete Townshend)
    A2: Boris The Spider (2:28) ****
    (John Entwistle)
    A3: I Need You (3:59) ***
    (Keith Moon)
    A4: Whiskey Man (2:57) ***
    (John Entwistle)
    A5: Cobwebs And Strange (2:29) ****
    (Keith Moon)
    A6: Happy Jack (2:14) ****
    (Pete Townshend)
    B1: Don't Look Away (2:51) **
    (Pete Townshend)
    B2: See My Way (1:52) **
    (Roger Daltrey)
    B3: So Sad About Us (3:01) ****
    (Pete Townshend)
    B4: A Quick One, While He's Away (9:10) ***
    (Pete Townshend)

    By the time The Who came to record their second album they were skint through smashing up too much expensive gear, so when Chris Stamp got the band a publishing deal with Essex Music, they suggested that the if each member of the group contributed at least two songs, they would advance £500 to each member. Roger, John and Keith accepted, and were sent off with pens in their hands to compose songs. While John (who had his surname misspelled as Entwhistle on the British album) soon proved a capable songwriter with no outside help, Pete assisted Keith and Roger in constructing demo recordings of their compositions at his home studio, and John assisted Keith further with his writing. The resulting material was recorded at IBC, Pye and Regent Sound from August to November with Kit Lambert as engineer, initially carrying the working title Jigsaw Puzzle. It was clear from the very first session that this was going to be a big step forward from the first album, with the band's manic and pilled up ADHD engine being pushed into overdrive, and their individual characters put on full display through the songs. John's "Boris The Spider" is a great example. It has John's signature (and arachnophobia) all over it, and his proto-death metal vocals and heavier than thou bass riff is the first thing you want to play when you pick up a bass guitar. The silly Addams Family-esque harpsichord of "I Need You" (originally entitled "I Need You (Like I Need A Hole In The Head)" is the first of Keith’s two compositions, and his limited vocal abilities aside, is a pretty impressive track, and must have the loudest cymbals in recorded history. The second, which more than eclipses the first in silliness and, more importantly, sheer drumming brilliance, is the instrumental "Cobwebs And Strange". The recording of the song involved marching up and down past a mono mike, because Kit Lambert (years ahead of his time) thought this might create a stereo effect! Keith played orchestral cymbals, Pete was on penny whistle, Roger blew a trombone, and John played the trumpet. If any instrumental could ever give an accurate portrayal of what was going on inside Keith Moon’s head, this must have been it. On Roger's sole composition "See My Way", there was too much drums for his liking, and when asked to make the drums sound "more like cardboard boxes", the drummer swiftly went outside and found some cardboard boxes to drum on. Pete contributed with some great power pop in "So Sad About Us", the more anonymous "Don't Look Away", and the brilliant opener "Run Run Run", where The Who reclaim the Maximum R&B throne (as if anyone had come close) with a crushing sonic assault that culminates in a massive feedback frenzy midway. The sound on the album is much rougher than the first (the mix is reeking of amphetamines), and the playing is sloppier, but much more organic. Roger sounds much more self-confident throughout, and the band sound like they're having the time of their lives. All in all a sonically truer representation of the wild animal that is The Who than their previous effort. To push the whole project a lot further from anything else around, and with the album still requiring some ten minutes to fill, Pete decided to carry out one of the ideas he had got from speed-fuelled conversations with Kit about extending the themes and ideas of the rock format. Being the son of composer Constant Lambert, and an avid opera fantast, Kit had visions of linking two/three-minute songs together in an almost operatic manner. Pete was inspired to write a small and humorous "mini-opera" about love, betrayal and forgiveness. Through its six phases, the song tells the story about a lonely woman whose lover is far away (Her Man’s Gone/Crying Town), and the arrival of several suitors; one of which is a Welsh train driver (We Have A Remedy/Ivor The Engine Driver). The girl becomes involved with Ivor, but confesses all upon the return of her lover, who forgives her (Soon Be Home/You Are Forgiven). The resulting "A Quick One, While He’s Away" is by far the most ambitious musical piece the band has done up until now, has theatrical qualities perfect for the stage, and exceeds nine minutes. Reaction released the album on December 9th, along with Cream's first album Fresh Cream. Decca considered the title A Quick One too offensive for the States, so it was renamed Happy Jack, and released the following May with "Happy Jack" taking the place of "Heat Wave". A Quick One manages to both reflect the boutique culture of the swinging London scene in which it was created - right down to its Alan Aldridge-designed sleeve, and metamorphose The Who into a first class incredibly raw and noisy album band (remember that four singles was released from My Generation, not one track was released from A Quick One) without compromising any of their intensity. As a review in Crawdaddy put it: "The Who don’t pretend. Their music is them and they don’t have to defend it by coming on too arrogantly, or freaky, within the context of the music itself. They’re sharp, sarcastic, cynical, but never weighed down with their own self-importance. They are a life-force on a rock scene in which too many people are hiding behind facile, slogan songs about how all the world needs is for everyone to love everyone else. They say what they have to say in a manner that is perfectly natural for them, and therein lies their magic and their charm. We would all do well to listen, and to learn."
     
  2. Laservampire

    Laservampire Down with this sort of thing

    Someone really needs to get a minty Brunswick 45 for a needledrop of this one :agree:
     
  3. Chris M

    Chris M Senior Member In Memoriam

    Excellent posts Devotional :righton:
     
  4. glea

    glea Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bozeman
    All this talk got me thinking I'd better fill in the odd Brunswick singles... ouch, they are expensive now.. I did score a nice copy of Legal Matter/Instant Party. Sounds really nice and loud... I'll keep my eyes out for a cheap copy of Out In The Street, but the one I was watching the other day sold for £100+ crazy
     
  5. jhw59

    jhw59 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Rehoboth Beach DE.
    So sad about us is a truly brilliant song-my favorite on the album
     
  6. Steve E.

    Steve E. Doc Wurly and Chief Lathe Troll

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    My US two-fer LP of "A Quick One" (packaged with "Sell out" in a single sleeve) featured the UK lineup with "Happy Jack" added to the end of side 2. It was called "A Quick One, Happy Jack" or something like that.
     
  7. As I read in a review I remember from somewhere, "A Quick One" remains Pete's first and best "rock opera". Unlike the later "Rael", "Tommy" & "Quadrophenia", it retains the band's sense of humor and economy, and the closing section is absolute pop ecstasy. And possibly their best filmed live performance ever was their over-the-top performance of this track at the Rolling Stone's "Rock & Roll Circus" - unbelievable energy!
     
  8. Steve E.

    Steve E. Doc Wurly and Chief Lathe Troll

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    A Quick One (the album) along with Sell Out, really inspired me to start writing songs at 15.. "Whisky Man" really got me. I liked the story songs. That one, and "A Quick One," and on Sell Out, "Tattoo," "Odorono" and "Rael." (I bought Steely Dan's Katy Lied during the same visit to "Strawberries Records and Tapes" in Boston, and set about trying to write songs that combined the two bands.)

    To me, this album is not entirely a step forward. Its feet walk back a bit, too, because of the lo fi production, the lessening of Nicky Hopkins' piano, and the fact that Townsend contributes fewer classic songs. And there's a way in which the Who always seem a little behind their contemporaries. The Beatles, Stones and Who were writing more consistently on their albums by December 1966. (geez, it's almost unfair to compare this to Face to Face, Revolver and Aftermath.) But of course, they had also started a couple years ahead of the Who, too.

    BUT....it is a super fun album. Bascially, none of those criticisms matter. It goes well with "Ready Steady Who." And what they lack in songwriting sophistication, they make up for in personality and sonic assault. (and what am I talking about? I just said that the songs inspired me to write songs!!) 1966 is my favorite Keith year. Both because he gets to sing a few times, and because his drumming is amazing.

    And I like the lo fi production a lot! wouldn't want it any other way.

    The harmonies are cool.
     
  9. Ringmaster_D

    Ringmaster_D Surfer of Sound Waves

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    Thanks for the great posts Devotional. "A Quick One" always seemed like an odds & sods collection to me (no pun intended), and doesn't really hold together well as an album because of it. It's still a fun listen, but not one that I find myself playing as often most other Who albums.
     
  10. reb

    reb Money Beats Soul

    Location:
    Long Island
    Fantastic post! I feel like celebrating!
     
  11. reb

    reb Money Beats Soul

    Location:
    Long Island
    This song really to me one of the best The Ox has ever written. What a talented man he was.
     
  12. Did a good version of the stereo mix of this album ever make it to CD? The 1995 remix is mono and sounds bad. I believe they did a reissue somewhere in 2003 or 2004, but I remember reading somewhere that was pretty brickwalled.
     
  13. Mike D'Aversa

    Mike D'Aversa Senior Member

    2002 -

    http://www.*****/AQuickOne2.htm

    CD (remix) comments: The Polydor (Germany) and MCA (USA) are identical in terms of sound quality and the Polydor (Japan) adds that "value added" bass to the above (as do most of the Japanese Who CDs). All of these versions are a combination of <mostly> mono, true stereo (only on "Run, Run, Run" and a few of the bonus tracks) and a few simulated stereo (reverb/echo variety) tracks as well.

    CD (2nd remix) comments: The new stereo mixes of: Run, Run, Run, Boris The Spider, I Need You, Cobwebs And Strange, Heatwave, So Sad About Us, Bucket T and Barbara Ann are great! The rest of the "A Quick One" stereo tracks seem to be taken from the mix-down tapes used for the great sounding German <stereo> Polydor LP and blend very well with the new mixes. "See My Way" is the simulated stereo version, perhaps with a bit more "reverb", but very clean. "Disguises", which was in mono on the 1st remix version, has been swapped with the stereo mix. "Doctor Doctor" is the simulated stereo version and "Happy Jack" is still in mono...

    Of the remixed tracks, "Run, Run, Run" *runs* about 10 seconds longer, while the rest of them seem to be about the same as the previous releases.

    Unfortunately, the CD is mastered WAY TOO LOUD !!! (This is more noticeable on the MCA version than on the UK Polydor promo - which I found "easier" to listen to.) All the softer passages are turned WAY WAY WAY up, so it sounds like someone is hitting your head with a hammer when you're listening to it. Music is *supposed* to have both loud AND soft passages, but this just has LOUD ones. "Batman" is actually even louder than the track preceding it ("A Quick One While He's Away"), so you need to turn the volume down!

    The 2006 Polydor (Japan) CD is a hybrid of true stereo original mix tracks from the 2006 reissued I'm A Boy CD and the above stereo remixed tracks with the "LOUD" mastering. The results are mixed, with the normal mastered tracks significantly outshining the loud mastered tracks. Tracks from: "Run, Run, Run" to "Don't Look Away" are with "normal" mastering, then tracks: "See My Way" to "Doctor, Doctor" are loud mastering, then the rest of the album switches back to "normal" mastering. I'm assuming the Japanese compilers preferred the normal mastered tracks and used the "loud mastered tracks" where they didn't have true stereo tracks available. (They could have used additional true stereo <normal mastered> bonus tracks which were available from the 1995 release, but probably wanted to maintain a consistent sound for a group of songs, vs. bouncing back and forth between songs.)

    Please note that the initial pressings, the packaging is *identical* to the previously released (1995) MCA CD. The dates, the run times, *everything* is the same. MCA corrected this with a new sticker (see previous page). So, if you are looking for this version - make sure it has the right sticker on it.

    The Polydor version has been issued a new catalog # for Europe - Polydor 589800-2 (no word on a Japan release at this time).

    CDs (2nd remix, 2008 remaster) comments:

    This version combines the original mono mixes on one CD and the 2002 stereo mixes on the other, adding bonus tracks to each, respectively. The mastering of the mono album is relatively clean, but there seems to be a trace of a "metallic" type sound throughout which may have been accidentally added while attempting to expand the frequency range via the remastering process. The mono bonus tracks don't suffer from this effect. The stereo album has been remastered differently than the 2002 version and is no longer "loud". It isn't quite as "warm" or "rich" sounding as the original stereo mix LP versions, but it isn't bad either. The stereo bonus tracks seem to be "louder" as if they were just pulled from the 2002 CD and "toned down" slightly versus remastering them again without the "loud mastering". The new stereo mix of "I'm A Boy" seems to be mastered closer to the album's style of mastering vs. the other bonus tracks. Lastly, the "Batman" (Instrumental) track on the mono disc is newly released and previously only available on bootlegs.

    Unfortunately an opportunity was missed to release the unedited version of "I Need You" as a bonus track. The complete version adds an interesting perspective to the song. I'm not sure why it wasn't included. Some of the other bonus tracks on the mono disc, were previously released on the bonus disc to the USA Best Buy exclusive, The Ultimate Collection.

    Summary: This is a great album when listened to in true stereo. While the (2nd remix) mastering sounds good from a tonal perspective, but it is louder than any other CD I've ever heard and to the detriment of the enjoyment of the music. The 2008 version corrects the bad mastering for the stereo album and is a big improvement.

    If you try to "piece" a stereo version together from LPs, you will need a combination of sources. By using the Polydor (Germany) vinyl for the majority and the Decca-stereo (USA) for "So Sad About Us", you combine the most and best sounding LP true stereo tracks.

    The 1st remix CD is problematic as most of the songs used, were not remixed, just remastered. However, the bonus tracks sound good

    If you like the mono version, find the original Polydor (Germany) CD copy
     
  14. Matthew B.

    Matthew B. Scream Quietly

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    WhiteFang constantly hears extra bass on Japanese discs that isn't there, and should be taken with a grain of salt. Those Japanese CDs are digitally identical to the discs issued elsewhere. The older Polydor Japan mono disc is also identical to the one from Polydor Germany.

    I'm a Boy is the best way to hear most of the stereo mixes on CD, though the EQ is too dull. The (expensive) Japanese A Quick One box has decent stereo mixes of "So Sad About Us" and the title track, both absent from I'm a Boy. But I prefer the album in mono anyway.
     
  15. Evan L

    Evan L Beatologist

    Location:
    Vermont
    The definitive stereo "So Sad About Us" can only be found on the original stereo Decca US LP.

    Evan
     
  16. Mike D'Aversa

    Mike D'Aversa Senior Member

    What about the Japanese 'A Quick One' box Matthew cites above?
     
  17. Evan L

    Evan L Beatologist

    Location:
    Vermont
    I like the sound of the Decca LP version better.

    Evan
     
  18. Matthew B.

    Matthew B. Scream Quietly

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    It's probably a fair bit more compressed than an original Happy Jack LP (which I've never heard). The old MCA Happy Jack CD doesn't sound especially clear, but an early U.S. vinyl pressing would likely come from a tape in better condition.
     
  19. Evan L

    Evan L Beatologist

    Location:
    Vermont
    The version on the MCA Happy Jack CD doesn't sound as good as the original Decca US LP, to my ears.

    Evan
     
  20. reb

    reb Money Beats Soul

    Location:
    Long Island
    This is the one to have.
     
  21. glea

    glea Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bozeman
    I bought a used UK copy Of Quick One back in the early 70's, but always thought it wasn't it very good shape. when I listened recently, it was dead quiet. It's been sitting on the shelf unplayed for 35+ years!
     
  22. reb

    reb Money Beats Soul

    Location:
    Long Island
    bass the way the ox heard it:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
     
  23. sberger

    sberger Dream Baby Dream

    While I favor the mono AQO, I was listening to my stereo copy from the Phases box today and really enjoyed it. Truly an lp where both mixes are rewarding.
     
  24. riknbkr330

    riknbkr330 Senior Member

    I have the following:

    USA Happy Jack Mono original Decca that was SS when I got it.
    USA 2-fer Sell Out, Happy Jack
    USA Quick One CD - Mono and Stereo copies
    German Quick One CD - Mono
    UK 2 fer Sell Out & Quick One Track records
    UK Quick One Backtrack #8 ( I think that's the number)

    Then all the variations of Quick One...the French "the Who"LP, Best of the Who....lots of French ones. One of those has a nice sounding stereo "So Sad About Us"

    Anyway, the best sounding of this bunch is the 2 fer UK Track records...although the Backtrack sounds pretty much the same. The German CD would be next.
     
  25. Devotional

    Devotional Senior Member

    Location:
    Oslo, Norway
    Miles Interviews Pete Townsend

    Miles, International Times, 13 February 1967​

    WHO? Pete Townsend, that's Who. Lead guitarist, song-writer, destructivist for this off-number-oned-pop group. He walks, he talks, he smashes. The WHO is the most popular among many auto-destructive groups on the scene at the moment. They are in the forefront of the smoke-bomb generation and are raping the boredom and expectation of the pop music world. WHO speaks.

    MILES: IS your music an extension of anything you did at Art College?

    Pete: Some fantastic things were done there. People were doing things which are now recognised as psychedelic images, and slides with liquid in there and things like that. Some great things were being produced but I got the feeling that it was all to no good in the end and I got fantastically interested in auto-destruction because this was my answer to the problem which I had at the time. I didn't understand what was happening so I needed an answer and auto-destruction was the answer. This was apart from the rhythm and blues which we were playing in a group that I was in.

    M: How do you see auto-destructive art?

    P: When I was at art college Gustav Metzger did a couple of lectures and he was my big hero. He comes to see us occasionally and rubs his hands and says, "How are you T". He wanted us to go to his symposium and give lectures and perhaps play and smash all our equipment for lira. I got very deeply involved in auto-destruction but I wasn't too impressed by the practical side of it, When it actually came to being done it was always presented so badly: people would half-wittedly smash something and it would always turn round so the people who were against it would always be more powerful than the people that were doing it. Someone would come up and say, "Well, WHY did you do it ?" and the thing about auto-destruction is that it has no purpose, no reason at all. There is no reason why you allow these things to happen, why you set things off to happen or why you build a building that will fall down. The people who knock it can be so sarcastic, they're in such a powerful position.

    M: Don't you see it as a creative act – creation through destruction?

    P: Nobody knew what it was all about. Before the Who got big I wanted them to get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger until a number one record and then wrap dynamite round their heads and blow themselves up on TV. Its just been one of those things. Well presented destruction is what I call a joy to watch, just like well presented pornography or obscenity. Although destruction is not as strong as obscenity, it's not so vulgar but it's rare, you don't see destruction so often, not malicious destruction just for the sake of it, and so when you do you normally stop and watch. I'd always thought that high class, high powered auto-destructive art, glossy destruction, glossy pop destruction. was, far, far better than the terrible messy, dirty, disorganised destruction that other people were involved in.

    M: So you have only practised it through music?

    P: On the stage, yes. I have really done it, on a couple of occasions, glossily and flashily.

    M: And it needs an audience?

    P: When you've got an audience there it is one of the most exhilarating experiences you can have, like dropping your trousers in front of an audience. It's THE exhibitionist's delight, to do something really big in front of people. Oh they know you're going to go out there and sing and play so that becomes nothing. For the first couple of years that's great but then you want more. You want people to tear their hair out when you appear – and when they don't you feel you've got to extend your end a bit, you've really got to make them spew up. I think a lot of groups are just now finding out what audiences want. This is probably why acid's popular, because it makes you part of the audience. You take it, you sit back, there's no work, and off you go. It's 24 hours of touring. I think everyone is a member of an audience, everyone wants to sit back and watch. I do.

    M: You have obviously evolved your own type of destruction as an art form.

    P: I'm not afraid of calling anything I do an art form, I've just never thought of it further than it being something that personally I got pleasure out of, and which made me money. And cost me money. I've smashed up 28 guitars now which all cost about £200 each. let alone the amount of equipment that I've set fire to. But people just don't care anymore.

    I go on and smash a £200 guitar and they go home and say "Yes, they were quite good tonight!" When I first did it people used to come up to me and say, "You Bastard! I've been saving all my life for a guitar a tenth of that price, and there you are smashing it up on stage. Give me the bits!" and I have to say, "Calm down, it's all in the cause." But nowadays people just come up and say "Like your LP". Yet there I am still getting the same kicks, it's the ultimate end to the act; along we go, we play through our LP tracks and we do our joke announcements and we do our commercial numbers and we do our movements. And then it comes to the end, we do 'My Generation' and we f***ing smash everything up.


    M: How is this aimed at the audience? Do you do it to break through their materialism?

    P: In a way. Unfortunately I've never really regarded my audiences high enough to say this. The materialism that I'm trying to break through is mine. It's my own. I'm probably the biggest most stupid materialist in existence. All the time I need to be fairly near to security. Money is great because it's just f***ing paper.

    M: Is A Quick One a reflection of your current direction in music?

    P: Not really, I call it our first LP. It's our most important record but it's also weak because the group haven't really got together yet. It's good because the group have admitted that as the chief song writer I'm not a person to be scared of and that they can write songs and I'll play them and they'll be successful. The fact is that people haven't admitted that the group is still the basic vehicle. This is a problem but then it's a beginner. This is our first LP. Our first LP in reality was crap. It was all my songs of which I had 1000's and still have 1000's and we just sifted through the bunch for ones which were fairly commercial and knocked them off in a studio with Shel Talmy. And then we came out with our s**t LP. With this one, if someone came and started pushing me around because my first LP was s**t, I'd walk away. But if someone started pushing me around with this one I'd stay and take it or if I didn't agree I'd defend it.

    This is something l was involved in and something which I'm willing to stand for.


    M: I found 'Run, Run, Run' the most interesting track because it gets away from conventional chords and into feedback and things like that which I've always thought was the direction which pop music was going in. But then I may be wrong...

    P: Yes you may be wrong. Electronics take a lot of skill and good luck to control and feedback is a difficult thing. When I first started I could make a guitar feedback on any note for any length of time and I had such control I could do anything I liked. At the Marquee when we first started I used to have a guitar going on a chord and stop certain strings with my feet while I was playing something else on another guitar. In the end I was standing with one foot on a guitar which was feeding back and playing something else with one hand while turning a knob up here and I thought: "What are I doing? Why bother?" The thing is to create the same dramatic effect musically, You could lean on electronic music if you think that it's really valid as part of what you are doing musically. There is a place for electronic music and there is probably a place for it in pop. I think that someone should take it up but I don't think that it should be a course of development for any group to take. We're going to take a blatantly commercial move which will be. very, very big but it will be blatant and commercial at the same time. And it will probably upset a few people that thought we were making progressive moves. What is more important is that record sales were going down.

    M: 'My Generation' was one of your biggest hits and that was progressive.

    P: Yes but that wasn't what sold the record. It was the sitter that turned it over. It's a very big social comment 'My Generation', it's the only really successful social comment I've ever made. Some pilled-up mod dancing around trying to explain to you why he's such a groovy guy, but he can't because he's so stoned he can hardly talk. People saw different aspects of the record, it was repetitive, there were lots of effective key changes in it so it didn't bore you too much. And there was a bit of feedback at the end to keep people happy. It was our biggest seller and we never hope or want to produce anything like it again.

    M: There seems to be a bigger and bigger difference. between your recorded music and your live performances.

    P: This commercial move answers every problem we've ever had. The idea which we've got, the idea which our managers have got, will answer all these problems. The group will be able to do what they like. I can bring out an opera a day if I want to, or conduct at the Opera House, and they would all be tremendous successes because of this little secret, which even I'm not very clear about at the moment. All I know is that there's this beautiful land ahead where all the problems are answered, and I believe in it. Just like some people believe in heaven, because I believe anything. I think that this is inevitable, this must happen to someone. British pop, although it's not so much on the decline as some morbid miserable groups say, is generally taking a drop.

    M: How do you fit into the world on a general level?

    P: I don't see myself in a position of power or anything, I see it as quite convenient because it means I can lead a quiet uneventful life other than the fact that people point. I get away with murder, because for instance to be one of the Small Faces is sheer hell because they're so approachable. You can go up to them and you can poke them. they're little and cuddly and you can poke your finger in their eye and steal their buttons, and you can take their shoelaces off when you're talking to them, and you can scratch big screwdrivers into their cars because they're the Small Faces and you can kick them and they're cuddly and you can get in their car and you can stand outside their house throwing pennies up at their window. But you can't do that to Pete Townsend. Thank God!

    M: Do you have to philosophical standpoint?

    P: No, I don't think I have. I understand life now I think. and I understand work and I think understanding work is far bigger than understanding life because work is really what keeps one living. You see it's so easy to deteriorate off into a twilight sub-culture pot-smoking world, where you sit there smoking, and work only so that you can get enough bread together to buy some more pot, so that you can sit in your red light and play Jimmy Reed records. Oh I did that for years! Fine, so you are in a position of great understanding but you are one of the people who watches and that's the drag. The best thing is to be involved in something that's moving, rather than saying, "Well that's moving. Dig it! That's moving. Dig That! Look at that Look at that plane!" It's far better to be on the plane. it's far better to have painted that picture, it's far better to have done something. I'm not saying that everyone that smokes pot is part of the sub-culture. it's just this thing I've got.

    M: Do you like people like Stockhausen?

    P: I like his music; but I always tend to do something else with it. It's good to play it through stereo earphones so you get all those funny little noises running all over your face and read Edgar Allen Poe while it's going on, and end up in a screaming frenzy. Once I did this and I had cans on, earphones, in stereo with Stockhausen playing through them and I was speaking in stereo. I had two microphones, one with reverb on and one without. So that if I went near this microphone I was miles away and if I suddenly leapt over to this one I'd be speaking very close into this ear. I had all the windows open and there was a storm going on outside, and Stockhausen was playing and I was reading Edgar Allen Poe. In the end I put the book down and I was saying my own terrible, revolting things into the microphones. Suddenly there was a big clap of thunder and it came in through the cans and the rain was falling and Stockhausen way wailing and I was screaming and I thought "God, this is going to be fantastic! I'll play it backwards. with Stockhausen, stereo recording of thunderstorm, me doing this fantastic narrative, Jumping up and down screaming." In the end I got this guitar and jumped up and down on it. Then the record ended and everything subsided after the scene. There was the tape recorder going round and round with the knob clearly on 'play'. I just collapsed. It was one of those terrible things.

    © Miles, 1967
     
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