The Who By Numbers appreciation thread

I like this record. I saw The Who when toured on this record. Great show hairraisingly good!
Granted a large part of the show was older songs but still one of the greatest shows I ever saw.
I saw them do quadraphenia a year or two earlier not nearly as good.

 

Some great tunes, Success Story and Squeeze Box for sure. I have the 2011 SHM and the bonus live tracks are kinda weak.

 

A wonderful album. I like it more than Tommy but not as much as Quadrophenia & Who's Next.

 

Wow! Different strokes. Beauty is in the ear of the beholder.

 

I remember that, and quite a shame.

 

Love it.

Am still pissed that a friend of mine was supposed to get us tix for the show in Philly on this tour but for some reason he didn't, and when the time came we did not even think of going down the night of the show & getting tix then. Closest I ever came to seeing Keith Moon and we blew it. Gotta get working on a rock and roll time machine to rectify this.

 

Man, that blows!

My Dad saw them twice in 75...Des Moines and Chicago. Loudest shows he says he ever saw

 

Totally agree. I saw the Numbers tour as well, and have to say it IS the best concert I've ever seen (and I've seen a few ;-) Unf--king believable!

 

I have often thought that Squeeze Box should have been a non-lp single (released the same day as BY NUMBERS). It's place could have been taken by a group version of "Girl in a Suitcase" or another song more fitting to the middle-age-crisis flavor of the album. I know, revisionist.... Still, an album I really dig. Maybe because it's not as overplayed as TOMMY, WHO'S NEXT and QUADROPHENIA.

 

Love the intro to Slip Kid... top ten Who moment for me.
Love Success Story.
Dreaming From the Waist is one of Roger's best recorded vocals, in my 'umble opinion.

 

I love all 11 WHO studio albums, as well as the 6-8 albums worth of non LP singles, B sides, outtakes & all that.

I rank this higher than the next 3 albums, Who are You & the 2 with Kenny Jones.

For me personally, this smaller less bombastic album gets more spins than Quadrophenia. Tommy I like a lot of the songs, but not the link pieces, & overtures & musical Coda's.... So roughly I place this 5th-6th out of 11. Love it..

Slip Kid, Blue Red & Grey, & Squeezebox are my faves, I like the whole album though, love the artwork, Entwistle's writing, all of it....

But I dig Endless Wire too, more than WHO are you, Face Dance & It's Hard. My favorite period is the pop art WHO 65-68, but I love all their work, & rank Who By Numbers about 5th of 11. I rank it above the live albums & compilations also.

If they redid Magic Bus or Meaty Beaty as a real album, with just the non LP songs, took off the Who sell out songs, then it would be hard to beat.

 

You're still pissed about missed tickets from 42 years ago. Wow you hold a grudge.

 

Entwistle said that the '76 tour was his favorite tour and that the band (especially Keith) were playing great.

 

There were all ON FIRE - especially Keith! How did he play like that, I just don't know, but he did! All of it, vocals/harmonies too, everything, shockingly great from start to finish. Still remember it vividly

 

Daltrey said (I *think* to Dan Rather on The Big Interview) something to the effect that it didn't make sense to play "Slip Kid" for the 6 people in an audience who (Who? ) would want to hear it. I think he is just wrong. First, I think more than 6 would like to hear that, and second that is a very powerful song that a powerful band should be able to kick out to an audience and MAKE them love it. Jeez, after the count-in the opening chord is SO strong!

Love Who By Numbers, I think your comments are spot on.

In other news, today I was ruminating what a live mash-up of "Who Are You" into "Won't Get Fooled Again" and back into "Who Are You" would be like. Following "Slip Kid"!

 

...but ya gotta love it nevertheless! What there ought to be is a darker outtake with Keith Moon doing the vocals in Uncle Ernie style...

 

A wonderful album, full of Pete's wonderful songs, featuring graceful & understated performances by the 'oribble 'ooo!

 

The Who By Numbers is my favourite Who album (one of my favourite albums of all time, actually). I like every song, even Entwistle's which is rare for me. After the (IMO) overblown conceits of Who's Next and Quadrophenia, By Numbers seems like a breath of fresh air, and the "no synthesizers" stance seems deliberate on their part, though Nicky Hopkins more than makes up for it with some of his masterful piano work (as usual). I just read a post in this discussion saying "there's not enough guitars" whereas I've always felt By Numbers is The 'Oo's "guitar album"- Pete conjures up a masterful blend of acoustic and electric layers; some of it really seems to foreshadow his work on Rough Mix to my ears.

It's one of those albums that I can put on whenever I'm feeling down (which, admittedly, isn't very often) and end up feeling better simply because I've never felt as low as Townshend did when he wrote those songs And some of those lyrics...wow, what a kick in the guts. "Imagine A Man", "They Are All In Love" and "How Many Friends" (my personal favourite) get me every time. When my wife and I saw Daltrey and Townshend (aka THE WHO) last year naturally "Squeeze Box" was the only song from By Numbers they played (I was holding out for "Slip Kid" to no avail)...been as Mrs Ohnothimagen liked "Squeeze Box" I played her the album in full afterwards. All she said when it was over was "Wow". More than once she did a double take, as if to say, "What did he just say?" I think she dug it musically but I could tell that some of those darker lyrics seemed to rile her considerably. Generally speaking, my missus doesn't do "down" and "depressing". I don't care...The Who By Numbers is the one Who album I would not want to be without.

 

I think its often under appreciated, but among Who albums I'd say it rests in the middle of the pack. Above stuff like Face Dances, Its Hard, and Endless Wire - but underneath the obvious ones like Who's Next, Sell Out, Quadrophenia, and Tommy. That said, I pretty much love 'em all so don't take that as a knock against it. WBN is a great album and I listen to it all the time.

 

Such an outstanding album. I remember thinking how Pink Floyd put out WYWH and the Who issue By Numbers, and it told me right there that the second half of the 70s is going to be a golden period. Rock music was growing and changing but had a lot of life in it still. Ray was writing interesting stuff, the Stones had a few more classics left in them. Recording quality was getting really good too if you liked headphones, or owned decent equipment.

There were some newer acts too that were showing ability to make their 3rd or 4th albums as good as earlier ones.

This Who album is just a standard of quality one could expect from one of the masters of British rock royalty. One of dozens of classics coming out like it was nothing. I really miss this kind of quality.

 

You didn't miss much.

 

I love the LP. Saw them at MSG in March 1976 on the second tour in support of the collection. Now for one of my favorite stories about how I obtained tickets to a high demand show. You had to send a SASE along with your money to a P.O. Box in NYC. The post office happened to be across the street from MSG. I heard stories of people mailing theirs directly at that post office. I just mailed mine from New Jersey, along with my mothers check. Well, a few days later my envelope was returned unopened. Me being the brilliant, 20 year old I was at the time, resent my SASE and check back to the P.O. Box. A few more days later, my tickets arrived.

 

Quoted 'cause this is so right.

 

Love the original mix, and the remixed CD is just fine as well. Both are good!