The Who By Numbers appreciation thread

What's great on the recording is that the taper left the tape roll during the entire time between the end of the regular set and the encore - you can feel the crowd willing The Who back on stage. The encore actually consisted of Roadrunner, Let's See Action, & Naked Eye.

 

They have enough hit machine material that this format still allows them chances to mix it up good.

I saw a stunning performance of The Kids are Alright (at John's last LA show), and they can do Join Together, and it rocks. Both of these are not that common live. And they have others as well.

 

Let's not get carried away, if Page doesn't include Relf's lyrics to this song for the upcoming Yardbirds box set it will be a travesty.



Sorry for the tangent or Tangerine, now back to the horrible Who!

 

My first ever LP, bought for £1 (or 75p?) in Woolies in Leytonstone - I'd got into the Who aged 10 via being a bit obsessed with the Tommy film poster - so of course for me it'll always be a winner. After playing it relentlessly for months and giving my unqualified approval, it did take me years to work out where it actually fits in with the rest of the catalogue though.

Some great comments in this thread, I concur that it's so good to hear the band playing here without an obvious PT demo lurking beneath (aside from Slip Kid which is nevertheless terrific).

One thing I would say: I feel In a Hand Or Face is a bit underwritten. It has a few things in common with Who Are You - Daltrey's wonderfully bitter delivery, the circular trance like chorus, Moon attack, the inevitable final crescendo - but with maybe a bridge and another verse it would have seen the LP bookended with real classics, and might even have become a concert staple.

On that note, it's interesting to see the LP linked with the 75-6 tour in people's comments. The live act may have 'supported' By Numbers but only Squeeze Box and Dreaming actually became features of the tour(s). The proficiency achieved by the band in 76, as noted upthread, was paid for by purging any songs the band felt remotely uncomfortable with. So out went Booze, Slip Kid was belatedly tried before being dropped, and of course a four song medley from Quadrophenia was dropped within the first few weeks of the tour starting in 75.

Which 76 audience tape is it that ends with the tapers openmouthed - "what??nothing from Quadrophenia??" That certainly shifted idea of the band being committed to its newer music, an observation that has clearly been rather persistent. But I'm not 'putting the boot in' though - as I said, love By Numbers, I love the 'oo.

 

That "not one bit from Quadrophenia" comment is on the end of Dan Lampinski's Providence 1975 tape recording - an excellent recording which he even slightly bettered the next night in Springfield!

 

I agree with most of the very positive assessments. It's not 'Who's Next' but what is? I could live without 'Squeezebox'. It seems to be a cuttingly accurate reflection of where the band was at mentally and emotionally at the time. And there's a bunch of really good songs here and no bad ones imo, other than 'Squeezebox' which really isn't bad as much as intensely trivial, especially in this context.

 

I used to work as an usher at Cinema 46 on Route 46 in Totowa, NJ. I must have seen Tommy hundreds of times. Ditto Litztomania. Oh and Earthquake and The Eiger Sanction too.

 

The '76 show did not suffer at all by dropping what they did. For the record, Dreaming was incredible (and Keith's drumming on it) just blew everyone away!

 

Got to agree with most, a very underrated album.

How Many Friends being my favourite song on the LP

 

I wasn't suggesting it did. Wish I'd have been there, I've heard how good those Dreaming versions were.

Would you have jeered if they had tried a few more songs from By Numbers or something from Quadrophenia though? It's a different discussion, I know.

 

Yes, it would have been great to hear those songs if they could really be done right. And The Who were just so hot at that point they may have been able to do it. But the fact that they felt good about that particular set probably helped make it so powerful. Also, I remember hearing from friends that had seen the previous tour, they had so many problems pulling off the Quadrophenia stuff it was probably wise to leave those out. I guess the tech just wasn't ready to do those songs justice back then.

 

Slip kid a great Who opener!

 

I wouldn't take it over Can't Explain

 

I would

 

Right or wrong The Who set high standards for themselves on stage. The Quadrophenia tour didn't go over as well the ones before it. I saw it and really liked it and I'm sure many others would agree. They started playing most of it on a short tour of England. Quadrophenia songs were removed starting with the first show. By the time they did a short American tour(12 shows), they were only playing 8 or 9 songs from Quadrophenia.

When it came time to tour By Numbers they were heavily involved in the Tommy film and soundtrack. They could play the Tommy songs in their sleep and the crowds went wild. It was just easier to play Tommy then Quadrophenia or By Numbers and the following tours turned into "hits" shows.

 

Missing an opportunity to see the man who I think was the greatest drummer ever, and my favorite band for many years at the height of their powers, all because of no good reason either? Damn right I'm still pissed about it.

 

Fwiw I just thought about the persepctive of the lyrics. The singer says "Mama's got a squeezebox and Daddy never sleeps at night" and the chorus is all about the old "In' Out" and how the music's alright and they're playing all night. It never really dawned on me that this narrator could in one verse actually be their kid or in another a perversely 'interested party' or just the idea that their is vocal sex and 'music' knocking around in that little ditty? The kids don't eat, the dog can't sleep. This couple is just going at it lol night and day amd everybody knows about it and has 'heard' about it lol. Just a thought lol.

 

Since you saw them do Quadrophenia, did they have a lot of tech problems with all the tape loops, etc.? That's what people told me who saw that tour. I'm not totally sure, but I don't think they had proper sequencers as we know them today back then.

 

Girl In A Suitcase - I like it as well. To me, the performance, sound, mix is really to my ears, arguably album release quality. At least fwiw I think it's one of Pete's top 'demos' in vocals and as a whole, and I do wish the band had recorded it.

 

Right, good and dirty, that one! They also did it with tongue firmly in cheek. They were having a laugh for sure. I think some people don't like that song cause they're not getting the humor, but that's a big part of the appeal, imo.

 

Just stepping in here, from all of the live recordings I've heard from the '73 Quadrophenia tour (I have all that circulate), I would say that after the disastrous concert in Newcastle where Pete lost his marbles, the Quadrophenia material seemed to run through pretty smoothly for the rest of the tour without any MAJOR tape/technical problems, including just some absolutely killer shows (the 2 at the LA Forum, Detroit, & the last show in London being absolute killers with outstanding encores).

 

Rennie, that's all well and good, but firstly the comparison you use is a really, really poor one imo and secondly on its own it just doesn't really ring true. He's a 'performing musician' and has been doing so regularly since 1999-2000. There's nothing lazy about that. He's even energized enough to hold and play an electric guitar and he doesn't have to sit on his 'bum' when he does perform. He actually stands, plays with a drummer, and is still basically playing loud R&R music.

 

If you wouldn't mind sharing, what actually happened at Newcastle where Pete lost it?

 

Maybe they did that stuff best too when they just played Quad as a 4 piece band? The Real Me, Punk amd Godfather, I'm One, 515, Sea and Sand, and Drowned? The few tapes I've heard in late 73 and early 74 seemed to only, at times, require a little more routine familiarity with the new material? I think they would have 'killed it' if they could have just done another 20 or 30 summer UK and US '74 Quad 'album' shows with that approach?

 

Quadrophenia had just come out when the tour started. People didn't have enough time to digest a complex album. Keith had to play with headphones on for all of Quadrophenia. If he messed up the timing playing to the click track, it threw the whole band out of whack. I saw the second LA show and Roger and Pete slowed the show down with their explanations of the new material. Don't get me wrong it still to this day is one of the best shows I've ever seen.