Sell Out - The Who

 

No matter that The Moon and The Ox are no longer with us, Townshend and Daltrey are currently busying themselves with huge shows and preparing new material. Although surely beyond being in it for the money there is always further trout farms to buy and with the cost of Broadband these days, The Who are likely to be around for a few years at least and as much as the duo would like to think their new material will be the focus of peoples attentions, it’s the back catalogue that will be in peoples minds.

The Who have a fairly extensive back catalogue from the high tempo and power chords of their early days, to the rock operas and extended keyboard solos of the 1970s but its to the classic pop album of “The Who Sell Out” that we turn our attention to.

Created as homage to the pirate radio of the day, the album is a fantastically crafted piece merging hit after hit with jingles and it remains as fresh today as the day of release.
Opening with ‘Armenia City In The Sky’, the track was written by John Keene, better know for being in Thunderclap Newman and the spectacular “Something In The Air”, the track is a nasty rollicking song that captures the psychedelic sound as much as The Beatles or The Stones did in the same era but with Moons ferocious drums behind the track, the droning guitars and effected vocals never registered as much with the hippies as weaker songs did.

Which in a way, encapsulates the whole album, it tends to be regularly overlooked by people considering The Who but it has so many classic songs that would stand up with any bands back catalogue. ‘I Can See For Miles’ is possibly the only track that would find its way onto a Greatest Hits release but track after track brims with chiming melodies and simplistic playing that stands as a good record of the late 1960s.

Even the adverts stand the test of time with “Medac” and “Heinz Baked Beans” sounding better than many of the jingles offered up by todays advertisers. The sense of fun was all over this record and perhaps the light-heartedness drew away a lot of the praise from the record.

Certainly tracks like “Odorono”, “Tattoo” or “Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand” were tongue in cheek or had a punch line waiting for the listener but as songs, they are extremely well constructed and played. If “Odorono” had lyrics about loves young dream as opposed to a crushing tale of failure due to a lack of personal hygiene it would be hailed as a classic, even “Tattoo” with its rooty-toot-toot backing vocals delight and please more than annoy.

For those wanting their songs more traditional, the appearance of “I Cant Reach You” or “Relax” shows The Who in more reflective mode than their stereotypical crashing and bluster, and the tracks lose nothing for it.