# Any fans of The Who?



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

What are your favorite songs? One of the bands that dominated my early teenage musical obsessions, very powerful sound, appealed to me immensely back in those times

I've always liked this later song





This one used to bother me due to the vocals in the beginning, but I think its a powerful





And more typical of them


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I liked them when I was rocky geezer and even performed "I can't explain" with my one-day band, me on bass. I was terrible bassists but bass motive from that song was very fun to play. It was never great love though and I don't have much sentiment for them these days when compared to bands like Cream.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Agreed that Cream has held up better for me too, more stable music.

Edit, and I might add that the Who's music is very heated and wild, whereas Cream is very cool.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

> Edit, and I might add that the Who's music is very heated and wildl.


Not as much as I expected after hearing all those things about them - about their "wild" concerts where they smashed their stuff. After I got to hear entire albums I was dissapointed with little amount of songs which were good enough to smash instruments while playng them.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

The Who is not as "hard" as Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix, but Keith Moon provides intense energy. 

See, about entire albums, I preferred just to listen to greatest hits anyway, many of the songs are just filler with each album. Never could sit all the way through Tommy.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

It's funny you should mention Keith in that sentence because he along with Bonham and Mitch Mitchell are my main drum set influences. The intense energy is really present in all members...amazing band with amazing sounds...I'm surely glad they recorded what they did when they did. One of the best rock bands of all time.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

What a great band. From soul/mod through to heavy rock via pop-art and psychedelia and all within a time-span of 5 short years - very few bands can claim to have gone through such a gamut of styles while still enriching every one. 

Anyone who has any doubts at all about their almost-telepathic collective power AND their humour should check out the 2-disc 'deluxe' version of the 1970 release 'Live at Leeds' which now features the whole set list. Simply one of the greatest live albums of all time from a band totally on top of their game after honing their act during many months roadwork in the US - and now that the audience track has been restored you can almost imagine being there sharing the between-song banter which mainly features Moon and Townshend. They did go into a decline post-Quadrophenia but I have to admit to liking the Who Are You album (the last one to feature Keith Moon) much more now than I did when it was initially released back in 1978.

If I had to pick just ten songs from their career which highlight their many strengths I would go for the following (while trying to avoid choosing too many of the usual suspects):

Anyway Anyhow Anywhere - 1965
Pictures Of Lily - 1966
Tattoo - 1967
We're Not Going To Take It - 1969
Summertime Blues (live) - 1970
The Seeker - 1970
Behind Blue Eyes - 1971
5:15 - 1973
However Much I Booze - 1975
Who Are You - 1978


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

The Who paved helped pave the way for both hard rock / heavy metal and progressive rock. And they did it without nearly as much cheese as many other bands. The rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia are true innovations, both heavy and subtle, complex overall, but simple where it counts. I agree they are one of the most transitional bands ever.

I saw them in Tennessee (about 1975? or 76?) while Keith Moon was still with them. He was the most awe inspiring drummer I have ever seen. The guy played almost all fills all the time, when he wasn't climbing up on his kit during rare quiet moments and then jumping down slamming his kit seemingly with all eight limbs at once. He seemed to be having great fun too. After the death of Moon, the magic was diminished for me.

They were one of the loudest bands I've ever heard (but not THE loudest). I think that poor auditorium is still reverberating all these decades later.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I find it hard to listen to their music due to overexposure, but I like all of the early stuff including Sell Out, Tommy, Live At Leeds, Quadrophenia. Heck, like the later stuff too, but I've heard it too much.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)




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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

^^^^^^
I've listened to Mose Allison more than The Who.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Mose Allison? Wimpy white boys doing the blues don't do it for me. I'll stick with the real thing:





















I listen to all of them more than the Who.


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

For me no list of favorite Who songs could be complete w/o "My Generation" and "Won't Get Fooled Again". Also the complete rock operas *Tommy* and *Quadrophenia, *and I'd still be short a good number of great songs. I went to see them in the fall of 1974 at MSG, right before I was entering the Army and that was one of the most "kick ***" concerts I have ever attended. Keith Moon was awesome. as were Daltrey and Townshend. Long Live Rock! :guitar:


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

@ StLukes, IMHO, that *Live* *At* *Leeds* album is one of the finest live rock albums ever made--by the Who or anybody else.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Mose Allison? Wimpy white boys doing the blues don't do it for me. I'll stick with the real thing:


If that's all you think there is to Mose Allison, then you don't know much about his music.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Yes... I always thought that the Who were a band whose LPs never lived up to the reputation they had from their live performances ("Who's Next?" being an exception). "Live at Leeds" really made it clear just how good they were live. 

Having said this... I will have to admit I haven't really listened to them in years.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

But they're just white boys covering a wimpy white boy who stole the blues!


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

And I'm not a big Who fan... although I think they brought something a bit ballsier.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Some of my favorite (non-classical) guitarists are 'wimpy' white boys who stole the blues. 

(Eric Clapton , Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Keith Richards etc etc)


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Now Keith Richards certainly ain't "wimpy"... I mean look at the man:


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Jimmy Page stole from everybody and called it his own. 

Re: Keith Richards- Anybody who looks like that and is still breathing has to be a tough old fart!


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Jimmy Page stole from everybody and called it his own

And unlike most others of the era, refused to acknowledge his "borrowings" and continued to do so.

Re: Keith Richards- Anybody who looks like that and is still breathing has to be a tough old fart!

Exactly?:lol:


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Yeah, I just recently heard that contemporary 60s folk tune on YouTube where Page stole the idea for Dazed And Confused. Pretty blatant! I knew about the Willie Dixon tunes. Of course this type of thing is very common in the blues, but Led Zep made so much more money, so they deserved to get sued. Even so, I like their records.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Jimmy Page ripped off a lot, but also was quite original and innovative in other ways as a player and musician (no one else really sounds quite like him). As a producer he is also top notch. I would agree that some of the things Page passed off as his own were/are pretty darned sketchy, yet I also agree with him that the only _totally_ unoriginal thing about Zep, were Plant's lyrics on the first album, and parts of the second. But time and again many of Page's non-artistic decisions have left me scratching my head.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

White Summer was the Page "composition" that I know of him ripping off. Its based on traditional Irish folk song arrangement by Davey Graham that specifically using Indian tunings on the guitar. Page never acknowledged that this tuning was Graham's idea. Its a cool performance of the piece though, very rockin' in a folky sort of way.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Here's where Page got Dazed And Confused for the first Zeppelin album.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

tdc said:


> I also agree with him that the only _totally_ unoriginal thing about Zep, were Plant's lyrics on the first album, and parts of the second. But time and again many of Page's non-artistic decisions have left me scratching my head.


Sorry to quibble, but according to the credits on their debut album Plant didn't write anything at all apart from gaining a co-credit for the group's arrangement of Anne Bredon's (via Joan Baez) Babe I'm Gonna Leave You and that only materialised once bredon was finally given credit for being the original writer (Joan Baez didn't credit her at the time either, which may have resulted in a genuine oversight by Page for once).

As an aside, Led Zep were not the first band to rip off Willie Dixon with the 'Whole Lotta Love/You Need Love' affair. The Small Faces recorded a version back in 1965 called You Need Loving (Dixon didn't get a credit there either) and Plant's sung intro completely ripped off Steve Marriot's delivery.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I love "Behind Blue Eyes" I like "Pinball Wizard" 
The rest of their music I've heard I can take or leave, although to be fair, I have not heard an extensive amount of their catalogue.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

elgars ghost said:


> Sorry to quibble, but according to the credits on their debut album Plant didn't write anything at all apart from gaining a co-credit for the group's arrangement of Anne Bredon's (via Joan Baez) Babe I'm Gonna Leave You and that only materialised once bredon was finally given credit for being the original writer (Joan Baez didn't credit her at the time either, which may have resulted in a genuine oversight by Page for once).


Yes, this was a legal issue at the time, because I believe Plant was still under contract with some other band, so he wasn't able to be credited with any songwriting on that first album.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Who? .


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