About: Who Are You
This is where it all began...
My very first Who album!
I never paid attention to music until I started driving. Music and
driving go together...
I had a cassette player in my car and I joined the
Columbia House
(Music Club) and they sent me cassettes.
After going through the "first batch" (ELO, Billy Joel, Styx, Kansas,
etc...) I stopped at the local discount department store,
Korvettes
(long gone) and bought "Who Are You".
In the Fall of 1978, there was constant airplay on the radio and juke
boxes of "Who Are You" and "Had Enough", so I figured, why not?
I ended up playing the album pretty often - and it became my #1.
Everything has a beginning and this was it for me...
There are a whole bunch of variations in the different pressings of "Who
Are You" - both in LP and CD. Some of these sound fantastic, some
"don't. Some have bonus tracks, others don't, etc...
Before CDs were created, my favorite LP version was the Japan pressing.
It seems that in Japan, The Who and Who solo LPs were divided between
the Polydor label and the CBS/Sony label. For whatever reason, those
which were on the CBS/Sony label were superior to all other
LP pressings and "Who Are You" was no exception.
(What was CBS/Sony of Japan doing right vs. everyone else “doing
wrong”?)
At the time when the album was initially released on CD in 1985 (MCA
USA), most record companies were scrambling to get CDs "out the door"
and didn't understand (or perhaps care) that the mastering for an
LP was different than a CD and many of the initially released CDs of
that vintage were "pretty bad" - "Who Are You" is one of them. (Some of
these issues were also the result of using “backup tapes” which they had
lying around and didn’t translate well to the CD format).
Two years later, Polydor (Germany) released their version of the CD - it
sounded perfect. This version was as good as the Japan LP. There was
nothing not to like!
In 1988, MCA (USA) upgraded their tape (when they began producing their
own CDs in the USA <which were previously “outsourced” to Japan>) and
the new CD was an improvement
over the previous version - but still not as good as its Polydor
counterpart.
In 1992
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
(MFSL) released their version of "Who Are You". I was always a fan of
their vinyl products (which were amongst the best of all vinyl
standards) - both in terms of sonics and the quality of their "virgin
vinyl" pressings. However, when they began issuing CDs (at least in
regards to The Who), I was very disappointed.
Fast forward to 1996, the new remixed/remastered version was being
released. Unfortunately the MCA (USA) pressing of the CD didn't sound
quite right. There was an overall frequency shift upward (not as bad as
what happened to
Quadrophenia) and it didn't sound right.
Fortunately, the Germany Polydor CD sounded *perfect* and if you had to
own just one "Who Are You" - this CD is it.
Sonics and "The History of CDs Part 2" aside, what about the music?
This is another album with "mixed" Who fan reviews. There are those who
love the album (i.e. me) and those who are just "warm" on it. I have
discovered that if a fan's favorite Who album is
The Who By Numbers, they are much softer
on this one: ("Too many synthesizers", "Keith Moon's drumming is
weak...", etc.)
(But the same fans who are soft on this one for its synthesizers, love
Quadrophenia. - Go
figure that one out!)
And... if it matters to anyone, I put this album very high on a
pedestal. It's a great album.
Here's the original track lineup:
* New Song - "New lamps for old" - I always thought they should have
performed this live. Great song.
* Had Enough - A John Entwistle masterpiece - "The world's gonna sink
with the weight of the human race...". In some countries this was
released as the A side of the single, with "Who Are You" as the B side.
Apparently there was some discussion that this was going to be the A
side of the single and then it got eventually marketed as a "Double A
Side” single" in the UK... (Whatever that means).
* 905 - Supposedly John was working on a Sci-Fi story... I've always
liked this song a lot. Great bass lines and interesting lyrics...
* Sister Disco - I probably prefer the demo of this song. The
synthesizer parts are completely different and Pete sings it like he's
Freddie Mercury. The Who version is pretty good too and the two versions
complement each other nicely. (There’s also a nice live version of the
song on the 1981
Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea
LP.)
* Music Must Change - The remix version helps clean up the "overlap" of
Roger singing "Change" (and whatever else is going on). It wasn't until
I heard a live version of the song (pre remixed version) that I actually
had a clue what Roger was singing there because the vocal got buried (in
the original mix). You can hear Pete walking around the studio with his
squeaky shoes throughout the song. The sound on this song is just
fantastic.
* Trick Of The Light - Another great John Entwistle song. As a "young
teen", I always thought about playing this after spending some "quality
time" with a new girlfriend... I don't believe I ever did!
* Guitar And Pen - This is probably my least favorite song on the album
- yet, I know fans who claim this to be their favorite! Go figure...
* Love Is Coming Down - I like this song a lot. It's lighter than the
rest of the songs on the album - but that's OK.
* Who Are You - Is there anything I can say here? (I also like the
alternate version that they perform in The Kids Are Alright – a very
different vocal for Roger vs. the album version.)
Originally the bonus tracks for this album were going to be some live
tracks from Keith's last concerts, including a "raw" live performance of
"Who Are You" (before the album was released).
At the time, I was concerned that there were some great studio tracks
"left on the table" which I was hoping would finally see the "light of
day".
I had a copy of
The Pete Townshend Tapes
(a 1980 promo only
Empty Glass interview album) where Pete
mentions that The Who recorded "Empty Glass" and "Keep On Working" for
the "Who Are You" sessions, but were not included on the album. I also
had read about a track called, "Choir Boy" that was recorded and
unreleased. It seemed to me that it was important that these tracks
needed to make the revised album.
After chatting with Producer, Jon Astley, Jon explained to me that
"Choir Boy" and "Empty Glass" were one and the same (The nickname “Choir
Boy” came from the high vocal that Pete sang the demo in). He also told
me that "Keep On Working" did not exist as a Who song. (Of course in my
mind, how could the latter be true - Pete "said so" in 1980!) Pete may
have been mistaken as apparently "No Road Romance" was in the vaults as
a work-in-process Who track, but not "Keep On Working".
So, for the 1996 reissue, Jon
added "No Road Romance" (Pete Townshend demo) and The Who
work-in-process version of "Empty Glass" as bonus tracks.
(What ended up being somewhat ironic, is that years later, the
work-in-process version of "No Road Romance" was discovered and then
used on the 2011 Japan remastered CD in place of the demo version.)
I absolutely love this version of "Empty Glass". It's hard to believe
that the song was never finished for this album. To me, this was the
next "Naked Eye". Just add some Roger Daltrey vocals to half of the
song, and with Pete and Roger dueling vocals - there's another real
masterpiece here. I find it perfectly fine "as is", but as a "finished"
song - I believe it would have been that much better... Oh well...
(dream on)
The work-in-process version of "No Road Romance" isn't a big change over
the demo version. Added is a light Keith Moon drum track and John
Entwistle’s bass replacing Pete's. These overdubs make the song a bit
"grittier" - but not much. Either way, it's a great song. It nicely
captures Pete's feelings about "life on the road"...
I can live with (or without) the remaining bonus tracks:
Guitar And Pen, Love Is Coming Down, Who Are You (lost verse mix)
I like the album versions of "Guitar and Pen" and "Love Is Coming Down"
better than these (although these are interesting) and the "Who Are You"
(lost verse mix) is more of a novelty. When the latter was released,
everyone was scrambling to make out Roger's lyrics (which were
admittedly hard to decipher).
I would have liked for them to have included the USA single version
(which uses the "Who the hell are you" lyrics) included as a bonus
track, but that track ended up on CD elsewhere (i.e. the "CSI"
Soundtrack CD!).
So... in summary…
1) Make sure you have the 1996 <Made in Germany> Polydor
remixed/remaster CD
.
2) If you are a big fan of "No Road Romance" - make sure you buy the
2011 Japan CD *
* Note: This CD is based on the original 1978 mix of "Who Are You", plus
the same bonus tracks as the 1996 remix versions, but with a <Who>
work-in-process substitute of "No Road Romance" vs. the demo version.
(Yes, it's all confusing.)
Lastly, over a period of time I was challenged by a bunch of “computer
geeks” (picture a bunch of really pale young men living in their
parent’s basement, un-showered and walking around in their dirty
underwear) as to how I could possibly say “X” CD of the same material
sounded better (or worse) than “Y” CD of the same material – because in
their “minds” – these CDs (and their master tapes) were all “digital”
and “identical”. (In other words, I must have had way too much time on
my hands and just made all these reviews up for lack of anything better
to do.)
What I discovered was that most of my “challengers” were using “swapped”
files (most of them didn’t actually have possession of the CDs in
question, but they “shared them” copies
with their friends and didn’t have “decent” <or
any> stereo equipment to play the music on) – and it was “all about the
0’s and 1’s.
Personally, I never needed to “dig” into the “cause” of why 2 CDs of the
same material (and sometimes from the same master tape) ended up
sounding differently when one CD was pressed in the USA and the other CD
was pressed in Germany (or Japan for that matter). The fact that they
did sound different was good enough for me (I’m a collector and a
<former> audiophile, not a scientist).
Like a hoard of mosquitoes buzzing around in an attempt to be one of the
"10 plagues", the “geeks” continued the “challenge”. Since I knew
that these CDs actually sounded different, I thought I would “beat them
at their own game”. I downloaded a program called, “Audacity”
(which broke the content of the CDs down to their 0's & 1's) and did a
comparison of the 0’s and 1’s between the CDs the “geeks” claimed were
identical (in their “minds” these different CDs should sound “identical”
- therefore I had to be "wrong" and never mind what I actually heard).
What I discovered, was the 0’s and 1’s were
actually different (no surprise) and not “identical”. At that
point, the “geeks” claimed, “Oh, but they are really close!”
Really???
(I'm sorry, but “close” is not the same as “identical”. And what may be
"close" in terms of 0's & 1's - could be miles apart in terms of
similarity in sound qualities).
There comes a point where you need to move on and stop discussing
“nonsense” with really
silly people. You can see the results of my “trials” for "Who Are
You" on the next 2 pages.
Oh well…
