Album Reviews

American Decca's inept handling of The Who (and to a lesser degree the band's inability to produce frothy pop fare) prevented The Who from breaking in the Unites States until Tommy --and even then it was the pure force of the music and the nascent FM “underground radio” scene that spelled success, with little help from the label.

It's hard to fault Decca though, as it was a decidedly rock-unfriendly label at the time, probably run by stuffy oldsters more interested in Broadway shows, classical music, pop and especially country (Decca had an impressive Nashville roster including Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Brenda Lee, Ernest Tubb etc.). But the label wanted in on the new British rock scene and so ended up with The Who without knowing what to do with them.

My Generation was issued in America as THE WHO sings MY GENERATION (Decca DL4664 mono/DL74664 “stereo”) on April 25th, 1966, with the blues warhorse “I'm a Man” replaced by “Instant Party” (issued as a UK single around the time of My Generation's release).

Someone at the label made the hideous mistake of canning the great original cover art showing off the boys' gritty sex appeal in favor of a dark, grainy, poorly lit shot of the foursome standing in front of Big Ben, concerned looks on their faces, as if they'd just seen a dog get run over by a double decker bus.

With Beatlemania reigning, obviously someone at the American label looked at the original art work and said something like “How are kids gonna know these guys are from fucking England? That flag draped around that guy's shoulder? Too subtle. Put 'em in front of Big Ben or something.” Perhaps I'm fantasizing, but I bet the cover shot was custom-ordered by the American label. I can't imagine The Who or its management needing or wanting a shot of the band being towered over by a tourist attraction. Townshend looks tired and pissed on the cover, as if he'd been roused too early and forced into it.

The dark, grainy cover didn't help and if you ever come across an original American copy of this or any Who album before Tommy, chances are the jacket corner will be cut or have a hole stamped through it indicating it was “cut out” of the catalog due to poor sales.

Meanwhile, The Who were an instant success in the UK, with the My Generation album, issued on Brunswick (a division of American Decca sometimes used by British Decca for releasing American acts in the UK) December 3rd, 1965, reaching #5 on the album charts over there. How The Who ended up on Brunswick in the UK, I don't know.

Fast forward to 2005 and good luck finding a clean original UK Brunswick, and when and if you do expect to pay $1500 or so for it. American mono Deccas aren't cheap either and forget the “stereo,” edition as it's reprocessed mono. In 2002 Universal America issued a Deluxe Edition CD set containing the original Brunswick album, digitally remixed to stereo in California from the original 3 track tapes by Shel Talmy himself. Fifteen bonus tracks, including the indispensible “I Can't Explain” were also included. A double LP was also issued in the UK, generated from the digital files. A reader of the original review posted August 19th, 2005 pointed out that the "My Generation" on this digital stereo mix is missing a few Townshend guitar solos, which he says were added to the master tape after it was originally mixed!

However, the original mono release, containing the original mono mixes remained unreleased. Now, thanks to Classic Records, it's back, with the greatest of care taken to assure the authenticity of the sound and packaging. The original mono mix tapes were assembled onto reels and cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering using Classic's proprietary all tube mono cutting system featuring a monophonic cutter head (most other mono LP reissues are cut using a stereo cutter head,which results in somewhat more diffuse, less authentic mono sound).

This reissue is as close to the original as you will find, and potentially, depending upon how the tapes stood up, sounds better than the original. The artwork was generated from a mint original owned by a friend of mine and I await his verdict as to how the sound compares (he's in between tonearms as I write this). But does it really matter how it compares? The greatest care was taken with this reissue using the actual master tapes and you're not going to find an original or most likely afford one if it does become available.

I did compare this reissue with the double digital LP and though the stereo mixes are respectful, this music was meant to be heard in glorious mono and Classic's remastering is both more dynamic and far more detailed, with greater transparency, clarity, musical elasticity and ironically greater depth.

That said, this is not exactly a sonic masterpiece to begin with and you will be buying it to get it as good as it can be gotten not because it has somehow been transformed into The Who Sing Jennifer Warnes —not that there's anything wrong with poor Jenny, the butt of so many anti-audiophile jokes.

The sound is uneven, with some of it raw, and seemingly purposely distorted by over-saturating the AGFA recording tape, but some of it is direct, powerful and exciting-sounding, starting with the opener, “Out in the Street,” wherein Entwistle's bass and Moon's drums attack ferociously and cleanly. You'd expect that with Glyn Johns at the board.

Musically, it's a fascinating mélange as a young Pete Townshend attempts to find his footing. So you have two James Brown tunes (“I Don't Mind” and “Please Please Please”), which Daltry surprisingly pulls off though cast against type, plus the blues warhorse “I'm a Man,” and you have early inklings of themes, musically and lyrically, that Townshend would return to later in his development. Listen to “The Good's Gone,” and though lyrically it's a standard “love's gone bad” song-as are most of the tunes-there's an anthemic quality to the music that goes way beyond. Love songs were never a Townshend specialty. On “La-La-La Lies,” the band, aided by Nicky Hopkins's keyboard backing, attempts a hook laden, hand-clapping pop song but it's too heavy to succeed as one (though it succeeds on its own terms). Same with “Much Too Much,” which is too heavy and sinks as a pop song, though it lays the musical groundwork for “Substitute.” The side ends with the timeless “My Generation,” an actual anthem, and not one posing as a pop song, which may account for its success as a pop song! It was not very well recorded, unfortunately and loaded with distortion, especially on Moon's drums, but Who cares? This is as good as you'll hear it.

Side two opens with another classic, timeless (Beatlesque) Who anthem, “The Kids Are Alright,” which also suffers from oversaturated tape distortion and a serious lack of bass. But again, try to find it sounding any better than it does here. The seeds of future Who greatness are scattered throughout this track.

“Please Please Please” is probably painful for Townshend and especially Daltry to revisit now and of course it's dispensable in the face of James Brown's original, but thanks to Townshend's powerful guitar and Daltry's youthful exuberance, it's durable enough to not bog the album down. The rebellious “It's Not True,” sounds a theme heard in later Townshend compositions. As with “Please Please Please,” "I'm a Man" is filler but fascinating filler as a not exactly soulful rock band covers the blues classic (though of course Townshend's guitar style descends from blues), helped in no small part by Nicky Hopkins on piano. “A Legal Matter Baby” is classic Who, melodically and thematically (in retrospect, it bears some resemblance to The Syndicate of Sound's “Little Girl”). The album closes with “The Ox,” (Entwistle's nickname) a good-natured surf-jam bit of filler that smokes thanks to the bassist's fuzz lines and Hopkins's manic keyboards.

If you're a Who fan as in "I want a greatest hits album," this one's not for you, but if you're a real Who fan this raw package is indisensible for it is impossible to understand the heights the band would later attain without hearing this early effort.

Thanks to Classic for restoring it to its original sonic and physical brilliance. Note: the high sound rating is for how well the admittedly poorly recorded material has been transferred, not because the sound is almost as good as recorded sound gets!