The Who unissued and unreleased songs--a comprehensive list

The Who material that we do have from 1968 was unfocused and all over the map. Besides not being their strongest material, it would have made for an album that was a completely random grab-bag and styles and tones. This at a time when albums were becoming viewed as overall statements rather than just collections of songs, and their peers were releasing albums that were filled with high-quality material. I would guess Townshend and the band decided the material they had was not up to snuff, and that it was better to hold back until they came up with something truly great, as well as something with a coherent overall album concept.

 

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This thread's inspired me to have another listen to the bonus Tommy disc. Many thanks. I don't know how many alternate vocal takes there do exist from what they have on tape. Fwiw, from an interview at the time that PT worked on putting the deluxe together, iirc, he made mention of Keith, and John, and how well they played, and fwiw my impression was he wanted to feature this aspect as part of the package, and perhaps intentionally opted for as many instrumental tracks as there are on it because of that. Fwiw, I think Christmas is especially indicative of this. As well as the creative process that culminated in the album we know. I think the good in that is part of why we miss a similar approach to the recent Quadrophenia set in the lack of additional Who recordings.

 

I love the outro, it reminds me of the jams from the Who's '79 tour.

 

I don't know, here's the relevant quote: "logged in the Who tape archive are the intriguing titles "Joys" and "Facts of Life".

Ambiguous but I took that to meant there is a tape in the vault that was logged under those titles rather than just paperwork. "Joys" and "Facts of Life" are attributed to May 29 at Advison along with "Melanchila", "Dogs" and "Fortune Teller" and we know they have the multitrack for those three since they have been remixed.

I wouldn't think "Joys" is a working title for another "Who's For Tennis" song since, per AAA, everything known from the sessions was already in the can or recorded that day, May 29th. Of course, there could be more complete or accurate session info out there awaiting discovery.

 

I just realized that I forgot to include "Dance It Away". I think, if I recall correctly, the band recorded it for "Face Dances" but it ended up a b-side to one of the songs from "All the Best Cowboys..." Is this the same recording?

I have a few questions that hopefully somebody will be able to shed some light on:

1) I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Who (with John Entwistle) did some studio sessions in 1998 or 1999. Is that true? If so, does anybody know what they recorded?

2) What was the actual tracklisting for "Rock is Dead--Long Live Rock!"? Didn't a picture of a tape with the album's tracklisting appear online recently?

3) Does anybody know anything about "Siege"? Did the band do any recording for it? Are there more songs than just "Ask Yourself" and "Cat Scratch"?

 

Those tracks and maybe one or two other musical demo snippets on Scoop 3 are all that is represented. The band never attempted anything in the studio and Townshend never materialized the concept as far as I know.

 

Yes, the b-side version is the Who recording.

 

Wow !

 

The same one that is a bonus track on the 2006 remaster of All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes?

 

That's my understanding, yes.

 

Relay
Get Inside
Love, Reign O'er Me
Women's Liberation
Long Live Rock

Is It In My Head
Put The Money Down
Can't You See I'm Easy
Join Together In The Band

Note the tape is a compilation of demos. My understanding is some songs were never recorded by the band and thus no final running order was ever created.

 

In a Disc & Music Echo article dated Oct. 24, 1970 Townshend talks about a new EP he wants to release. He mentions Water, IDEKM, Postcard, Naked Eye and "a very old one called Now I'm A Farmer". And then he says: "....and Heaven and Hell which we did a good version of. A crappy version of it was on the B-side of the last single"

This implies there IS another unreleased version of H&H on tape.

 

I don't think I've seen that before, but thanks. It would be interesting if there was in fact another version.

Of course, that still leaves the mystery of the BBC/B-side version, where the multi is, and why there's a second "mix" that just has one additional guitar strum.

 

Are the B-sides to "Relay" ("Waspman") and "Join Together" ("Baby Don't You Do It") on any CD?

 

Waspman is on Two's Missing (both original and the recent SHM reissue and Rarities.

The single edit/mix of Baby Don't You Do It is on Rarities and View From A Backstage Pass. A different, unedited mix is on the SHM Who's/Two's Missing.

 

Thanks. I actually have "View From A Backstage Pass" and forgot it was on there. I was looking at everything else except for that release.

 

The unedited version on the new Japanese set is pretty great if you can swing it. Nearly 3 more minutes of prime live Who.

 

It wasn't. I made this up. A long story. See:


Generations Issue 6 (September 1991)
http://www.mediafire.com/?az6828xlgwkcnle

 

Dance It Away sounds similar to the 1979 Shepperton recording of "The Real Me" on the Maximum R & B box set, tone-wise. It's long since been my guess that the recording of Dance It Away is from 1979, especially since the song was in and out of the concert setlist in 1979 and 1980. But some possible overdubs were done to complete it for the b-side (bg vox, percussion).

 

That pretty much sums it up. PT revealed the existence of a 2nd version (see above post) but I suspect this is now lost. It's a bit out of context but Pete could have been referring to the Leeds version of "Heaven And Hell" as the "good version".

 

I'd be surprised if Pete was considering using the Leeds version of H&H on the EP, when everything else was a studio track and H&H had quite a bit of "crackling noises".

I asked and apparently the only version in The Who's vault is the B-side. That doesn't account for the two slightly different versions/mixes though.

 

Could it be that the track was remixed for inclusion on the 45, and what we hear on the BBC sessions is the original mix? I always thought the 45 version as heard on Who's Missing sounded the better of the two.

 

Like I've said before, the *only* difference I'm aware of is the BBC version has a final guitar strum and the 45 version does not. When I checked it didn't seem that the mix was at all different other than that. No differences in levels, reverb, etc that I could detect.

 

Wasn't there supposedly going to be a Live EP around this time too,containing left off L@L songs.
Maybe H&H from L@L was being considered for this.
were any of the Live EP's ever pressed,or just Acetates?
is this where those L@L songs come from on the LIfehouse to Leeds bootleg?