The Who-Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy vinyl reissue

I thought some of the older tracks sounded somewhat poor on the reissue.

 

When it came out, Pete wrote a great piece about it in Rolling Stone. All of Rolling Stone's issues are online somewhere so maybe someone can provide the link?

 

I think this thread should close with that quote.

 

Hopefully this is a good transcription (not mine):

TRACKS
I CAN'T EXPLAIN
Pete Townshend: "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. It seems to be about the frustrations of a young person who is so incoherent and uneducated that he can't state his case to the bourgeois intellectual blah blah blah. Or, of course, it might be about drugs."

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
Pete Townshend: "'The Kids Are Alright' wasn't a single in England; it was in the States. Funnily enough, this broke really well in Detroit, an area where both Decca Records and the local community were a little more hip to The Who than they were elsewhere. Detroit, or at least Ann Arbor, was the first place in the States we played after New York."

HAPPY JACK
Pete Townshend: "It was meant to be based on the Isle Of Man, which is an island where I spent a good part of my childhood, between England and Ireland. It's got its own laws and everything. And my father, as a musician, used to play there a lot. And they have this peculiar beachcomber there, has an image sort of like Moondog, you know. And I spent a lot of time mocking him, and so did most of the kids, but he always seemed to be happy and he didn't mind. I don't even know what his name was. He used to try and come up and lead the donkeys that the kids rode on the beach. He used to try and come up and lead them, and then they'd chase him off. But he used to take everything kindly. Didn't matter. Once he was sleeping on the beach and they actually physically buried him, and he would be suffocating, but he just laughed at them. It taught me something."

I CAN SEE FOR MILES
Pete Townshend: "The real production masterpiece in the Who/Lambert coalition was, of course, 'I Can See For Miles.' The version here is not the mono, which is a pity because the mono makes the stereo sound like The Carpenters. We cut the track in London at CBS Studios and brought the tapes to Gold Star studios in Hollywood to mix and master them. Gold Star has the nicest sounding echo in the world. And there is just a little of that on the mono. Plus, a touch of home-made compressor in Gold Star's cutting room. I swoon when I hear the sound. The words, which aging senators have called 'drug oriented,' are about a jealous man with exceptionally good eyesight. Honest."

PICTURES OF LILY
Pete Townshend: "Merely a ditty about masturbation and the importance of it to a young man. I was really diggin' at my folks who, when catching me at it, would talk in loud voices in the corridor outside my room. 'Why can't he go with girls like other boys?'"

MY GENERATION
Pete Townshend: "The hymn. The patriotic song they sing at Who football matches. I could say a lot about this. I suppose I should say what hasn't been said, but a lot of what has been said is so hilarious. I wrote it as a throwaway naturally. It was a talking blues thing of the 'Talking New York' ilk. I had written the lines of 'My Generation' without thinking, hurrying them, scribbling on a piece of paper in the back of a car. For years, I've had to live by them, waiting for the day someone says, 'I thought you hoped you'd die before you got old. Well, you are old. What now?' Of course most people are too polite to say that sort of thing to a dying pop star. I say it often to myself."

THE SEEKER
Pete Townshend: "I suppose I like this least of all the stuff. It suffered from being the first thing we did after Tommy, and also from being recorded a few too many times. We did it once at my home studio, then at IBC where we normally worked then with Kit Lambert producing. Then Kit had a tooth pulled, breaking his jaw, and we did it ourselves. The results are impressive. It sounded great in the mosquito-ridden swamp I made it up in, Florida at three in the morning drunk out of my brain with Tom Wright and John Wolf. But that's always where the trouble starts, in the swamp. The alligator turned into an elephant and finally stampeded itself to death on stages around England. I don't think we even got to play it in the States."

ANYWAY ANYHOW ANYWHERE
Pete Townshend: "Roger helped a lot with the final arrangement and got half the credit. Something he does today for nothing, bless him. I was lying on my mattress on the floor listening to a Charlie Parker record when I thought up the title. (It's usually title first with me.) I just felt the guy was so free when he was playing. He was a soul without a body, riding, flying, on music. Listening to the compulsory Dizzy Gillespie solo after one by Bird was always a come-down, however clever Gillespie was. No one could follow Bird. Hendrix must have been his reincarnation, especially for guitar players. The freedom suggested by the title came restricted by the aggression of our tightly-defined image when I came to write the words. In fact, Roger was really a hard nut then, and he changes quite a few words himself to toughen the song up to suit his temperament. It is the most excitingly pig-headed of our songs. It's blatant, proud and, dare I say it, sassy."

PINBALL WIZARD
Pete Townshend: "'Pinball Wizard' is, quite simply, quite pimply, from Tommy. It's my favorite song on the album and was actually written as a ploy to get Nik Cohn, who is an avid pinball player to be a little more receptive to my plans for a Rock Opera. Nik writes on and off for the New York Times. I know which side my Aronowitz is buttered, mate!"

A LEGAL MATTER
Pete Townshend: "'Legal Matter' is about a guy on the run from a chick about to pin him down for breach of promise. What this song was screaming from behind lines like, 'It's a legal matter baby, marrying's no fun, it's a legal matter baby, you got me on the run,' was 'I'm lonely, I'm hungry, and the bed needs making.' I wanted a maid I suppose. It's terrible feeling like an eligible bachelor but with no women seeming to agree with you."

BORIS THE SPIDER
Pete Townshend: "The only non-Townshend track on the album is also a non-single. Politics or my own shaky vanity might be the reason, but 'Boris The Spider' was never released as a single and should have been a hit. It was the most-requested song we ever played on stage, and if this really means anything to you guitar players, it was Hendrix's favorite Who song. Which rubbed me up well the wrong way, I can tell you. John introduced us to 'Boris' in much the same way as I introduced us to our 'Generation;' through a tape recorder. We assembled in John's three by ten-foot bedroom and listened incredulously as the strange and haunting chords emerged. Laced with words about the slightly gruesome death of a spider, the song had enough charm to send me back to my pad writing hits furiously."

THE MAGIC BUS
Pete Townshend: "When I wrote 'Magic Bus,' LSD wasn't even invented as far as I knew. Drug songs and veiled references to drugs were not part of The Who image. If you were in The Who and took drugs, you said, 'I take drugs,' and waited for the fuzz to come. We said it but they never came. We very soon got bored with drugs. No publicity value. Buses, however! Just take another look at Decca's answer to an overdue Tommy; The Who, Magic Bus, On Tour. Great title, swinging presentation. Also a swindle as far as insinuating that the record was live. Bastards. This record is what that record should have been. It's The Who at their early best. Merely nippers with big noses and small genitals trying to make the front page of The Daily News."

SUBSTITUTE
Pete Townshend: "'Substitute' was written as a spoof of [The Rolling Stones'] 'Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown.' On the demo I sang with an affected Jagger-like accent which Kit obviously liked, as he suggested the song as a follow-up to 'Generation.' The stock, down-beat riff used in the verses I pinched from a record played to me in 'Blind Date,' a feature in Melody Maker [the song was "Where Is My Girl" by Robb Storme and the Whispers].

It was by a group who later wrote to thank me for saying nice things about their record in the feature. The article is set up so that pop stars hear other people's records without knowing who they are by. They say terrible things about their best mates' latest and it all makes the pop scene even snottier and more competitive. Great. The record I said nice things about wasn't a hit, despite an electrifying riff. I pinched it, we did it, you bought it."

I'M A BOY
Pete Townshend: "This is a longer and more relaxed version of the single which was edited and had fancy voices added. The song, of course, is about a boy whose mother dresses him up as a girl and won't let him enjoy all the normal boyish pranks like slitting lizards' tummies and throwing rocks at passing cars. Real Alice Cooper syndrome. Of course Zappa said it all when he wrote the original Rock Opera. Nobody noticed, so he had to write a satire on the one Rock Opera people did notice. 'I'm A Boy' was my first attempt at a Rock Opera. Of course the subject matter is a little thin, then what of Tommy?"

 

I'm puzzled by people who actually want fake stereo. Seems ridiculous to me.

 

This was the first Who music that ever entered my ears. I loved it...fake or not. If the original recording is such an atrocity...why is the album highly regarded? Or is it not? Honest question. I understand improving the fidelity/recordings used. But, I still love this album as is/was.

I guess that fact alone means that I’m not horrified by them reproducing it for others to hear. It worked for me. I may not choose to do it that way myself...but then it wouldn’t be MBBAB.

 

Because of the songs.

This discussion is all the more absurd considering it is occurring on the forum of someone who not only built his reputation on locating better sources, eliminating fake stereo, and using masters instead of compilation copies, but who did those very things *on this album*.

I can’t wait for the “historic reissue” of the 1990 Robert Johnson box using the same heavily filtered and NR’d transfers because “that’s the way it was”.

 

The album is highly regarded because it's a collection of great songs by a great band. Presenting the songs in mono or true stereo instead of fake stereo can only enhance the listening experience.

I'm not nostalgic for bad sound. When I want to enjoy an album that a favorite in my youth, I want to hear it presented as good as possible. Fake stereo is never going to be that, even if it was presented that way originally.

 

For YEARS here I've read the praises of Steve's CD of MBB&B because he went to the trouble to use only mono and true stereo for the tracks. This is literally the first thread I've ever read on the topic where people have suggested that the fake stereo release is to be regarded as even acceptable, let alone the best. Very weird. I can only chalk it up to the peculiar anti-mono sentiment that often appears here - the only other times I've heard praise for fake stereo is in the context of "I'll take ANYTHING but mono."

And that's why you won't see anyone praising the 1990 Robert Johnson box because stereo/mono/fake stereo debate isn't an issue with it. It's still OK to hate NR, at least for now.

 

I assume you skipped the thread on the Beatles US albums box set, circa 2014? It was criminal that all of The Duophonic tracks were replaced.

 

In my case it is not true anti mono sentiment.
It is sheer exasperation at being made to feel wrong for even liking the "weak" "inferior" stereo when the mono is so clearly "superior".
It is sheer exasperation at being made to feel wrong for even liking "gimmicky" aggressive surround / quadraphonic.
It is sheer exasperation at being made to feel like there is something wrong with me for liking duophonic, DES, DCS, or indeed any other form of "fake" stereo. Why should I have to defend liking it?
It is sheer exasperation at being made to feel wrong for liking twin track stereo. Yes, I love the wide twin track of the first two Parlophone Beatles LPs.

It is sheer exasperation at seeing so much that I love being rubbished.
I come here to share the music that I love. Not to see it dismissed by experts.

And I loathe noise reduction, heavy compression, brick walling, strident equalisation, lifeless mastering, umpteenth generation tape sources.

 

How would you feel if someone told you they loved the sound of noise reduction or brick wall compression? Would you respect their tastes as a perfectly valid opinion, or perceive them as being "wrong" and lacking in taste/judgment?

This is an audiophile forum. One of the primary goals of this forum is to discuss sound quality of records and CDs. "Sound quality" is subjective, but the presumption is that anyone who comes here probably has an aesthetic similar to the forum host (in terms of things like using the best tapes available, not degrading the sound with processing, etc). You certainly are free to like what you like, but if you champion the use of inferior source tapes or degraded sound, you should not be surprised if people here are puzzled and disagree with you.

 

Thanks for this . I remember reading this back in the day. My favorite thing about the album was Pete’s notes in Rolling Stone. I actually much preferred Direct Hits at the time (dreadful sounding record) to Meaty Beaty. “There was nothing in my life bigger than beer!”

 

It wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Of course it is a perfectly valid opinion. And everybody is entitled to their opinion. Nobody should have to defend their opinions.

And, by the way, I always understood this to be first and foremost a music forum.

 

Yeah, I had no interest in the US albums.

 

You're like the original anti-mono guy on the board. If you're not ashamed of liking duophonic I don't see why you're ashamed of that.

I love quadrophonic and don't necessarily dislike twin-track stereo but duophonic and other varieties of fake stereo are for the birds and I don't have to defend that opinion either.

I love mono and vinyl and both get rubbished here every day. There's entire threads dedicated to it, dozens by now.

 

MBBAB is highly regarded ?........I don't think so. It's been out of print for a long time. It's been re-issued on vinyl solely for the purpose to generate some revenue. A common $3.00 record, I see copies all the time in the used bins here in the USA.

 

This, from the guy who compiled the original LP. As I speculated earlier, he worked with what he had access to at the time, which apparently was not optimal.

FWIW, the version he goes on to describe is the US Decca 45, not the UK Track single.

 

Both have the same mix.

 

Really? To my ears, the US Decca 45 has a distinctly different bass track, compared to the UK mono - or even the US mono LP for that matter. (Admittely, I'm relying on needledrops for the latter.)

 

Both have the (subtle) bass overdub. There’s no overdub on the LP.

 

Got it. I'm guessing that the original Direct Hits LP used the LP mono mix, rather than the 45 mix.

 

Try telling that to the Beatles Capitol zealots.

 

That's my recollection, although I'm not certain.

FWIW, comparing the rips I did years ago of the Decca and Track 45s again. Different mastering (the Track is brighter and more distorted), but definitely the same overdub. The only caveat is I don't know if *maybe* there were different Track pressings. @owsley would be the person to ask.