Again, just to keep it interesting ... here are a couple of tracks recorded by The High Numbers at Abbey Road. I am not sure if they were officially released or anything, and perhaps one of out more knowledgeable folk can give us some details...... Country Line Special Abbey Road Oct 22 1964 This starts of with Pete messing around with some chordal ideas on the acoustic, and it has a sort of feeling that it could have led to some ideas that made it onto Tommy, Quadrophenia and such. It isn't so much a song, as an idea. The band come in and give it a bit off punch, you can already hear Moon following Pete's lead, as he has a couple of assaults on his kit ... I almost expect Pete to start singing "Captain Walker didn't come home" This seems like a somewhat adlib jam, and later we get Roger blowing some blues harp. It's still interesting to hear
I'd forgot about the 'zoops'... just listening to this now as I type. There is a bit more going on there musically than I recollect... lyrics are as bad as I thought though... some interesting piano playing going on which I can't remember who was responsible for it. You are correct though, if it wasn't for the fact this single is from the band who were to become The Who it would be consigned to the dustbin of history.
Some more tracks from the Oct 22nd session in 1964 smokestack lightning walking the dog improv i'm a man improv memphis improv.
Already a lot more going on here than there was in the two songs they released as the first single and yes, I agree there seems to be already some themes here which will work there way into future works. My first thought was is this really so far back as 1964... makes it all the stranger why Meaden took them down the path he did for the single. I know he was trying to make something commercial but he pretty much emasculates the sound of The Who to the point of making them sound like anybody else. When I listen to this, whilst I know it's just riffing, there are some things going on here which are clear indicators of what we know as The Who would become. Great stuff and thanks for this.
The likelihood is that this was after Kit Lambert took over. He encouraged Pete to write... perhaps he gave them some studio time to find a sound or something? I am just speculating though. This is way before my time
Holy crap!!! That is (almost) the exact same way I got into The Who. I saw TKAA that summer as well and was absolutely blown away. My older brother bought the soundtrack and I played it endlessly. That Christmas I got cassettes of Who’s Next, Live at Leeds, and Who are You. Long Live The Who!!
Good point, I'm not sure the exact date Lambert and Stamp took over but I seem to remember that Lambert first saw them in the Railway Hotel sometime in the summer of 64. However, either way, I'm sure they were already developing some of this sound in their live act anyway and as you say Lambert encouraged it further whereas Meaden didn't and was pursuing a different sound and identity for the band.
Early spring of 1980 my brother bought the Quadrophenia soundtrack. One of my favorite non-Who songs on the album was Zoot Suit by some band called The High Numbers. Being a new Who fan I had no idea this was The Who!! I didn’t connect the dots until I read Before I Get Old: The Story of The Who by Dave Marsh in 1983.
Yeah, The Kids Are Alright was a great movie. I had already been a fan for 7 years at that point. I went to see that when it was released and bought the Soundtrack. Fun times. I haven't played that album in years. Time to pull it out.
Looking forward to this thread, thanks for starting it Mark I got into The Who via the Mod revival in the UK in the early '80s - after 2-Tone I started to get into the Jam, and then saw Quadrophenia which made a hell of an impression on me - must have watched it 30 times or more. Anyway, I've always been into checking out the influences of the bands I like and quickly dropped the revival stuff for the real deal. My Dad had The Story Of The Who and the Quadrophenia album, and then I got The Singles compilation and Tommy and off I went! These days my favourite era is 1966 to 1968 studio-wise, although for live stuff I like them from the beginning up to about 1973... Anyhoo, as I said really looking forward to this deep dive. Oh, and Slim Harpo's original cut is FAR superior to The High Numbers anaemic effort
These tracks appeared on a Yellow Dog bootleg, and the tracklist on that CD (which you've reproduced above) is incorrect in several cases (namely, they mis-identified the first two songs and were unable to ID the third). Here's a more correct tracklist, with original artists in parentheses. As noted, two songs are still unidentified and might be originals: Plum Nellie (Booker T & The MGs) Chinese Checkers (Booker T & The MGs) Tell Me Baby (Garnet Mimms) I'm a Man (Bo Diddley) unknown Memphis, Tennessee (Chuck Berry) unknown These recordings are the subject of much debate. The first question is, are they the Who? I'm completely convinced they are, for reasons which I will list in more detail if anyone here wants to debate it. For now, suffice it to say that if this isn't the Who, then Townshend and Daltrey need to go out and hire the drummer who plays on these tracks because he's the best mid-60s Keith Moon imitator I've ever heard. The second question is, when/where were these tracks recorded? The YD boot claims they come from the October 1964 Abbey Road audition, but there's some good reasons to believe that is not so. For one thing, there are no vocals. That means the session was either a deliberate instrumental session, or the intent was to overdub vocals later. Neither of these scenarios seems likely for an audition. Why would a vocal group audition with an instrumental session? Or why would a vocal group be allowed to do an audition in which they recorded basic tracks first and then overdubbed vocals afterwards? Wouldn't they be asked to play and sing live to demonstrate their abilities (and to minimize costs)? And if vocals were overdubbed later, what happened to them? The fact that the first two songs are Booker T covers suggests this may have been intended as an all-instrumental session. Also, it's the opinion of @lukpac (whose ears for this sort of thing are far better than mine) that these do not sound like Abbey Road recordings. So, my own opinions are that this is definitely the Who, but most likely is not the Abbey Road audition, but rather some other recording done for a different purpose around the same time period.
This one always mystified me. The other High Numbers studio tracks appeared together on the Yellow Dog boot but this one came out a number of years later. Same sessions? Different session? Is it even the Who? And the title. Jump ahead more than a decade and the Who were adding Country Line Special into their extended Magic Bus jams. This recording with the lengthy guitar noodling doesn't sound much like the original Country Line Special and even the harmonica is a stretch. This familiar harmonica part was the norm for '75-'79 Magic Bus performances. Cyril Davies R&B Allstars "Country Line Special"
Sorry but I believe these tracks are all instrumental for one fundamental reason: It's not the High Numbers or The Who, it's a fake.
Interesting. So we have a division over this.... I wasn't trying to cause contention, I just thought it was interesting.
Oh ! I agree....but that Joe Cocker one is choking on its own dust. Not Mark's fault though. Just not enough Cocker love here.
If it's not the Who, it would have to either be: A. a found tape of some other band that just happened to sound extremely similar to the Who (down to playing style and instrumental line-up) and happened to play many of the same songs, or B. a deliberate forgery created years after the fact I think we can dismiss option A out of hand. The likelihood that there would be some anonymous other band who sounded so much like 1965-era Who, and played a setlist remarkably similar to theirs, yet remained undiscovered and unknown, seems ridiculously implausible. As to it being a deliberate forgery, the question would be "who recorded it, and when, and why?" Yellow Dog was just a bootlegger and wouldn't have had the budget to hire musicians to record outfakes... it's not like there was such a huge demand for pre-fame Who recordings that they could make millions off such a bootleg release. So it would have to have been recorded for some other purpose at an earlier date. And if that's the case, what would the reason be for this recording? Why would someone go to the trouble and expense of creating fake 1965-era Who recordings, something there isn't much of any profit potential in? And having gone to this trouble, why would they not release them? Why record a bunch of tracks from which you are not going to profit or receive any recognition? And why have none of the people involved in this recording ever come forward to reveal themselves? Beyond the logistical questions, it seems unlikely to me that someone trying to create a forgery would be able to so perfectly capture the band's style, even to the point of being able to compose original instrumentals that replicate their 1965 work exactly. So for me it comes down to my opinion that the tracks sound very much like the Who (especially the drumming) coupled with the fact that I've yet to hear a plausible explanation for why these tracks were recorded if they are not the Who.
Yep , your on the money there, the extra tracks make this even better, it’s unusual for a bands leftovers to sound as good as the regular tracks, I love that album so much i even bought the album on LP with the extra tracks , a triple album!
"I Can't Explain" Single by the Who B-side "Bald Headed Woman" Released 15 January 1965 (UK) December 1964 (US) Format 7-inch single Recorded November 1964, Pye Studios, London Genre Power pop[1] Length 2:04 Label Brunswick Songwriter(s) Pete Townshend Producer(s) Shel Talmy Brunswick 05926. Released 5 January 1965. Highest chart position: #8. US: Decca 31725. Released December 1964. Highest chart position: #93. I CAN’T EXPLAIN Written by Pete Townshend. Produced by Shel Talmy. Recorded at Pye Studios, London, in November 1964. BALD HEADED WOMAN Traditional, arranged by Shel Talmy. Produced by Shel Talmy. Recorded at Pye Studios, London, in November 1964. The US first pressings of I CAN’T EXPLAIN titled the song incorrectly as CAN’T EXPLAIN. It was quickly reprinted in the correct form. Townshend noted the song's similarity to the contemporaneous hit "All Day and All of the Night" by the Kinks: "It can't be beat for straightforward Kink copying. There is little to say about how I wrote this. It came out of the top of my head when I was 18 and a half." In a 1994 issue of Q magazine, Roger Daltrey echoed Townshend's comments regarding the Kinks' influence: "We already knew Pete could write songs, but it never seemed a necessity in those days to have your own stuff because there was this wealth of untapped music that we could get hold of from America. But then bands like the Kinks started to make it, and they were probably the biggest influence on us – they were certainly a huge influence on Pete, and he wrote 'I Can't Explain', not as a direct copy, but certainly it's very derivative of Kinks music. In a May 1974 interview with Creem, Jimmy Page recalled playing rhythm guitar on the song as a session guitarist. This was confirmed by Pete Townshend and producer Shel Talmy. According to those working on the recordings, however, Page's contribution did not make the final cut. "I was on 'I Can't Explain', just playing rhythm guitar in the background," he clarified in 2004. But the main riff, he confirmed, "was all Pete… He was roaring, man." Page also played on the b-side, "Bald Headed Woman". Townshend referred to "I Can't Explain" as "a song, written by some 18-year-old kid, about the fact that he can't tell his girlfriend he loves her because he's taken too many Dexedrine tablets." Roger Daltrey – lead vocals, tambourine Pete Townshend – lead guitar, backing vocals John Entwistle – bass, backing vocals Keith Moon – drums, backing vocals Additional musicians The Ivy League – backing vocals, handclaps Perry Ford – piano Jimmy Page – 12 string rhythm guitar (session only; contribution not used in the final mix) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have loved this song for as long as I can remember. I can only assume that lots of early Who singles got played on the radio in Perth when I was a kid. I have loved music since I was born I think. Mum has a reel to reel of me singing Heartbreak Hotel when I was five. I used to watch a music show in Aus called Countdown every week, and I listened to the radio... until the late eighties/early nineties. The Who's singles were always around, and I thought they were great. Up until starting the thread I had no idea that I Can't Explain was their first single as The Who, but I always was more interested in the songs than the history. Listening now, I can hear a Kinks comparison being valid, but to be honest, it never sounded like anything but The Who to me. The punchy way the chords come in, grabs you immediately, but the bridge is the real corker here. It comes in so smoothly and rolls back out so smoothly. The melodic structure works really well, and even the bits and pieces they added work well in the context of the song... perhaps I am too close to it to be objective on it, but there's nothing I would change personally. Pete lets loose on a nice lead break. It is a wandering exploration, and uses a lot of rhythm and gets the attention. Roger's vocal is spot on. John is solid and audible. Keith is slightly buried in the mix on occasion, but when he bursts out, I think it would be hard to pacify that The track has a really cool vibe and I think Shel Talmy did a pretty good job on the production. To me this is a sixties classic, and I reckon any band around the time would have been happy to have this track in their kit bag.
Just to further enhance the Kinks' influence on early Who, Bald Headed Woman featured on The Kinks' debut album in 1964. So the first single as The Who features a Kinks-inspired song and a Kinks cover! But thankfully they found their own voice very quickly after this. But I still love I Can't Explain.
Bald Headed Woman - the b-side This is the first time I have heard this to be honest. We have this almost ominous start to the song and it really seems to draw on a blues vibe. Pete is strike that steady chord, and Roger is putting on this low and mean angry vocal. It is almost like he is trying to channel an old Delta blues singer. Before you know it the track has slowly worked its way into this crescendo, and then it bursts into a key change and a harmonica lead. This moves into another move up the scale again and Roger sings us out into the fade. The track comes in here at 0:17 ... it is an auto-turntable, but at least I know it is the actual single version
