The Who's Masterpiece?

One of the problems with a "opera" is that the lyrics need to convey the plot and tend to get in the way of the song. This happens in Tommy and is one of the reasons I don't pull it out too often. Quadrophenia works much better as an album IMO.

Maybe the "plot" (of Quadrophenia) is a lot looser as a result. On the other hand I prefer the movie version of Quad over Tommy also.

 

I voted for WN and I'm really hoping for a super duper deluxe release next year - 50th anniversary.

 

Who's next is a phenomenal album. Simply sublime. We saw them at Sheffield Arena years ago. We were right down the front. Entwistle's solo was mind boggling as he stood in front of a mountain of amps.

 

A QUICK ONE is still my fave.

 

Who’s Next may be the best “album,” but Tommy is just a magnificent accomplishment. As an album, I don’t think it’s a strong and Who’s Next, but as a composition/live performance, I feel it was their crowning achievement.

 

I'd flip that:

Best song - "Baba O'Riley"

Best album - Quadrophenia

 

Tough question. For me it's My Generation, The Who Sell Out and Who's Next.

 

bump

 

Who's Next. I think it's the greatest album of 1971 as well.

 

In my opinion, it's the greatest album of the '70s.

 

So, as one of the biggest Who fans, notwithstanding the Poll choices, my vote goes to the album that will only live in Pete Townsend's imagination: Lifehouse. We know the songs that might have been on it, but the opportunity has passed when the full participation of the band would have rendered Lifehouse the crowning glory in the history of the Who. I know this may be hyperbole, but the realization of a complete Who Lifehouse, though will never happen, is the spiritual unknown that lingers in the Who legacy that is frustrating to accept, yet we are designed to accept as a casualty of that which is rock and roll lore.

 

I dunno - what's a masterpiece? No vote from me.

At the particular time of their conception, recording and release, all of them are / were. You can throw My Generation in there too as being the toughest, hardest-hitting rock debut of the 1960's.

The The Who Sell Out 1996 remaster was a masterpiece as it finished and time-stamped a masterful pop concept that wasn't fully realised in 1967.
Tommy was a masterpiece in that it was on such a scale, so early addoing what had only been hinted at previously. It was the catalyst for The Who becomimg history's greatest live act.
Who's Next was a masterpiece in its concise presentation and the high technical quality of the recording as well as the material raising the band's bar on the stage, night after night.
Quadrophenia was a masterpiece in terms of the depth of the story it told and the cultural impact it would have across many subsequent decades and will continue to have in the future.

No single one of them defines - or should be expected to define - The Who IMVHO.

 

Who Are You is the Who album I usually rank as my #1.

Really every Who album gets a 5/5 from me though.

 

Quadrophenia. Who's Next is very nearly perfect... this one is even better and also there's more of it.

 

Who's Next. It's the perfect length (I love Tommy and Quad but I don't listen to double albums often) and the songs just feel a bit more timeless and is overall stronger than Sell Out (though Sell Out is great as too). "Baba O'Reilly", "Behind Blue Eyes" and of course "Won't Get Fooled Again" are three monumental songs that are ingrained in pop culture, not something I can really say about any song on Sell Out.

 

Quadrophenia

But I also think an album can have more impact based on when it time you heard it (got Quad the day it was released) and memories that are attached to the music for a particular individual. When it comes to The Who, all choices need to be respected.

 

That's funny... I've only been familiar with Quadrophenia for a few years but I think it's the best. I didn't grow up with it and I don't really know much about its "story" or context ... It's just a nonstop, killer set of songs.

 

Quadrophenia is their masterpiece but Who's Next is their best album.

 

Who's Next

 

I voted for Quad but could have just as well gone with Who's Next. Quadrophenia grabs you by the balls from the first note and doesn't let go. Who's Next is a masterpiece, no doubt, But I played it to death the first few years after its release and I think I am still a little burned out. Oldies stations still play it all the time.

 

I voted for Who's Next because I see it as the quintessential Who album. So much power and majesty. When you see all the songs that Pete had going on at the time (for the Lifehouse project really) you realise that he had before him the greatest rock album of all time. It all got too much for him but hell, Who's Next will do.
I suppose Tommy really is Pete's recorded masteriece but the feeble production lets it down a little. I don't love it any less though really.
I should adore Quadrophenia but a bunch of tracks annoyed me so I never took to it as a complete work. I think I bought it twice and sold it. Perhaps I should give it another go.

 

Who's Next. Add in the discarded Lifehouse project songs and there's really no contest. Pete at the peak of his songwriting powers, and the band's performing chops were never better. Quadrophenia contains moments of greatness, but it's patchier and the "story" (if one could call it that) just doesn't grab me.

 

I'm not a passionate Who fan, but I'll pick Who's Next as their masterpiece. Wedged in between two wildly ambitious double albums (and salvaged out of the rubble of another) Who's Next benefits from being so concise. Moon, Daltrey, and Entwistle seem liberated by not having to follow a plot or tell a story - they dig deep into, then explode out of some of Townshend's best songs. This is the Who - as a band, as a single creative unit - at their absolute peak.

 

Who's Next. I never took to Quad, even thought I wanted to.