Had The Who's "Lifehouse" been released, would it have been better or worse than "Who's Next"?

I voted "worse" only because it would not be as concise (though I wish they could have figured out how to include "Pure and Easy" on "Who's Next" -- though I don't know what I'd cut to do that).

"Who's Next" is my 2nd All Time Fave Album (behind only the Beatles "White Album")

 

A part of the charm of Who's Next for me is the fact it is not a "rock opera" like Tommy or Quadrophenia. Moving from funny songs to pompous concepts is my perception of their evolution. Give me the pre-Tommy band anytime! And yes, I understand it was in vogue at the time, hence it worked commerically. (I still like their later studio output and I love their live output from the early 70s.)

 

I voted "same" because it would have benn all high quality. Pete was on such a roll and had so many terrific songs he give us. It would have been a double monster.
However, the songs all in one place might have seemed a little too much and too samey.

 

I think it's a shame Mary was never recorded by The Who (PT's demo is wonderful) but despite the absence of key Lifehouse song Pure and Easy, Who's Next is pretty much as good as you can get from an album. A double would probably suffer from lack of diversity and a problem that for me at least also badly affects Hendrix's First Rays Of The New Rising Sun era material....it all starts sounding too similar. I think the best solution would have been putting out another album a year later with the rest of the songs but then again, it could have turned out to be more of the same and not as good as a result.
Smile and Lifehouse are endlessly fascinating. Both probably represent the writer at an absolute creative peak but one that was ultimately too ambitious for them (Brian and Pete) to sustain and finish without significant help or co-operation. Brian needed Van Dyke who left the Smile project and Pete needed an ally to make Lifehouse a reality. It worked out well for The Who in the end. Who's Next is a masterpiece. Lifehouse is that double lp of demos and a brilliant PT solo album. Good to have both.

 

The main issue with Pure & Easy is you have to get it on Side One before Song is Over so the refrain is in the correct order.

I think the only way to have gotten it on was to drop at least one song. one solution would be drop both Love Ain't For Keeping and My Wife.

Side One
Baba O'Riley
Pure and Easy
Bargain
Behind Blue Eyes

Side Two
Getting in Tune
Goin' Mobile
The Song Is Over
Won't Get Fooled Again

Or drop Goin' Mobile

Side One
Baba O'Riley
Pure and Easy
Bargain
Love Ain't For Keeping
My Wife

Side Two
Getting in Tune
Behind Blue Eyes
The Song Is Over
Won't Get Fooled Again

History judges Glyn probably made the right call, but thank God for Odds and Sods!

 

Absolutely! Mary would have sounded fantastic with Moonie and the Ox, but would Roger or Pete sing it? I'd like to hear Rog give it a try, but I'm too used to Pete's vocal

 

If Lifehouse had been released, I can almost guarantee that it would have ended up in the section designated for the band Lighthouse in more than a few record stores... ultimately frustrating fans of both bands..

 

We can’t forget to include “Wasp Man” as well.

 

Here's my "follow-up" for the 1972 album that never was:

Side 1:
Join Together
Pure and Easy
Time Is Passing
I Don't Even Know Myself
Let's See Action

Side 2:
Relay
Put the Money Down
Too Much of Anything
When I Was A Boy
Long Live Rock

Yeah, no love for Wasp Man... keep it as a B-side! Also, in this fantasy world, Let's See Action wasn't released as a single in '71.

 

More music will get my vote if pre release, every time. I don't like rewriting history for a masterpiece,
so the default position is worse. That's my vote...

Now I'm eager to hear the Lifehouse assemblage......

 

I can get up to at least a baker's dozen of 1970-71 tracks that would make 3 great sides, even if it wasn't Lifehouse, but more of WN.

Baba
Bargain
Love Ain't For Keepin
My Wife
Song Is Over

Gettin' In Tune
Goin' Mobile
Behind Blue Eyes
Won't Get Fooled Again

And from 1970/71 there are then these by the band or Pete...

Pure and Easy
Too Much Of Anything
Let's See Action
I Don't Even Know Myself
Time Is Passing
When I Was A Boy
Mary
Naked Eye
Water
Baby Don't Do It
Greyhound Girl

Of those above there is 1 side worth there that can rival, or complement, (not surpass) either side of Who's Next even as it already is, imo. Perhaps...

Pure and Easy
Time Is Passing
Mary
Let's See Action
Naked Eye


Also, Water smokes live, at IOW and Young Vic, imo, but the recorded studio version doesn't seem to be as good a tune as all the others above.

Greyhound Girl is a very nice PT demo and pretty tune and I can imagine The Who doing an affecting version.

Baby Don't Do It I have never been able to imagine as part of Lifehouse or WN x2 but it's so much fun and as a cover rocks the house. Perhaps if there was a 'live' side, Water and Baby Don't Do It could make for a scorching one.

Not sure what other songs I may have forgottten.

There are also some edits that cut down the time of some of Pete's demos that the band recorded, most egregiously in Let's See Action, but also in Pure and Easy (both demo and Young Vic performance) and also the instrumental coda in Love Ain't For Keeping not included on WN as well as fading Gettin' In Tune and not using the live part with the band singing the refrain a capella too, etc. So, not only are many good tunes not included on WN, but songs that are included even have parts, or of lengths, that are cut away from the PT demos and,or the April '71 live performances (Love Ain't For Keeping, Gettin' In Tune, Pure and Easy).

So, maybe there was as much work making and fashioning WN into just a single LP as it otherwise could have just as easily been a double, lol. But with no Lifehouse, that apparently was also the deathknell for a new Who 2LP set as well.

That post took way too much of my time lol. I retire

 

I love Who's Next as it is. I never give any thought to Lifehouse as it did not happen.

 

this movie

 

I’ve been listening a lot (even more than usual) to Who’s Next recently
IMHO, of course: it simply can’t get better. To me it’s the best rock record ever made. I just never tire of it.
Your mileage may vary.

 

Isn't it a great read? The detail in it is incredible, and Richie had stories and facts that weren't out there in the general public before he wrote it. I would say it's a shame the band, Pete really, didn't cooperate in interviews for the book, but I think that distance really helped the book. Richie clearly had great sources apart from The Who directly. I do think a casual fan might be bored by it, but it answered questions about The Who and Lifehouse I didn't even know I had.

 

BLASPHEMER!!!

 

Other threads are closed so this should fit here. No background info necessary for this really but we know there are some missing reels of WN 2track mixdowns and more session multis some of which "Mr. Green" acquired some years ago. Let's See Action appears at least once iirc maybe twice? in the written documentation. Whether the band recorded Pete's demo in its entirety has always been one of the top Who mysteries to me! The band single is okay. Pete's demo is epic. Big difference between the two. A full band version from those sessions of Pete's demo would be like a Who holy grail find to me. So, the band released, and I guess likely recorded only an edited version (of the demo), though that still gives me pause to entirely believe but little to no evidence otherwise, yet, nonetheless, I see apparently if it is a legit tape source, that 40 seconds or so of the Nothing Is Everything outro may have been either simply faded out from the releasd single or pieced together (still 40 seconds short) from a longer band recording of the Nothing Is Everything section. I can't compare the released mix with the sample posted at whitefangs site right now but am curious about anyone who does listen to it and if they hear the same mix as the officially released track or if it might be an alt take etc. or as shrared via text possibly a 'fake' such as that of a 'loop d loop' extended edit?

Calling on any # of Who mix and mastering experts...
Luke, Rob Cooper, 'insert other expert member name' re: this apparent find.

Though I guess we'll never know if the band recorded and if so if there is a tape of the longer middle section, as in Pete's demo or other 'in-song' bits missing from the band's butchered (sorry) adaptation of Pete's fully realized demo to try to make a single out of it.

 

I voted better. Lifehouse is like the holy grail of rock albums (well, that and Smile). The Townshend project from 2000 simply doesn't do it justice. As great as Who's Next is, the outtakes from it are simply amazing - an incredible writer at his peak.

 

“I shall count in ...”

 

We'd be doing endless threads about making Lifehouse into a single record.

 

"Watch this foot"....

.

 

'Mary' was recorded by The Who, I remember a Record Collector article from the 90s covering the remixed reissues and it was mentioned that the tape was found but "disintegrated" when they tried to play it. There was also a photograph of an acetate with 'Mary' listed on the label. I've always wondered if that acetate still exists and if so, if it's playable.

 

I thought they later found it was Petes demo of Mary which was located?

 

Could be, nobody knows everything. Given the band's track record (groan) of telling one version of any of their songs from another, I'd take it all with a pinch of salt. Never thought that Pete's demo fitted anyway, the drums stick out so much from Keith's work on the rest of the album.

 

Made my own years ago and finally uploaded it to YouTube although it shows blocked in some countries and "regions" ...