Weren't quite a few albums released in the early to mid-sixties 'quick ones'? Let's bash out an album of covers and filler surrounding our new hit song! It was true of the 'My Generation' album and it's true of 'A Quick One', apart from 'A Quick One' doesn't contain a hit song. Don't really. Of course, 'Boris The Spider' has achieved fame over the years.... In the US, 'A Quick One' was released originally under the title 'Happy Jack', and included said hit song. I wish this version included 'Happy Jack' too, it's one of my favourite 'Oo songs! Anyway, 'A Quick One' includes a cover and also includes songs by Daltery, Entwistle and even Keith Moon. The reason for this was simple and relating back to pure, hard cash in the pocket. Publishing deals were signed for those members of the band - so they needed to write a song or two each to get the money promised from those deals. And, those songs needed of course to also be released. The Who were hardly well off financially, all that destroying of equipment by Townshend on stage had seen to that. They'd enjoyed an unbroken run of top ten singles in the UK - yet still had to play the game - the Sixties were like that, unless you happened to be The Beatles and could enjoy a relatively ( for the time ) high level of freedom.
Anyway, ignoring the original material, Townshend penned or otherwise, let's 'pick on' the cover version first of all. 'Heatwave' arrived to The Who via the famed 'Holland/Dozier/Holland' writing team, via Motown. The Who were into that scene and 'Heatwave' as performed by The Who here fares very well, beat group rock music of the era, competently performed and with nice harmonies. In actual fact, we've got two Keith Moon songs, two Entwistle songs and only one Roger Daltery song? Is 'Heatwave' here in place of a second Daltery penned tune he was unable to write, or something? Still, Mr Roger Daltery's 'See My Way' is light pop material, catchy enough and a promising enough writing effort to surely encourage Roger to at least pen some b-side material in the future, but for whatever reason it didn't happen. The most 'enjoyable' factor of 'See My Way' is the eccentric performance of Keith Moon, apparently instructed to play in the style of Buddy Holly and the Crickets and ending up playing some of his parts on cardboard boxes as a result. Strange stuff! Keith writes 'Cobwebs And Strange', a novelty marching band item that later became 'Heinz Baked Beans' on the art pop masterpiece that is the 'Who Sell Out' album. His other song 'I Need You' is surprisingly fine, Sixites pop - a strong effort with good harmonies and pleasant melodies. John Entwistle contributes the finest of the non Townshend material and would continue and contribute material to The Who through the years. 'Whiskey Man' is a great little song full of the character of Mr Entwistle, shall we say.... and 'Boris The Spider' is, in actual fact, the best song here. It may not have been perceived by Pete and others as particularly a 'suitable' song for The Who to record, being a faintly novelty styled item, yet the bass playing is indeed scary and silly at the same time. The lyrics are clever, dumb and very silly. The vocal delivery is truly silly - and this really should have been a huge hit! In the UK at least, it was never released as a single a-side, which is a shame as far as i'm concerned.
So, what else is new? Well, the Pete Townshend songs don't match the quality of his efforts for the debut album, 'Run Run Run' showcases the sound of The Who very well, though - an aggressive attack of guitars in particular. 'Don't Look Away' is moving into the pop area that 'Happy Jack' did so well and the following years 'Who Sell Out' would expand upon. 'So Sad About Us' has a distinctive guitar introduction and a classic pop feel all the way through it. 'So Sad About Us' could have been a hit song had it infact been released as a single in the first place. Which leaves us just with the nine minute long 'suite' or 'mini-opera', 'A Quick One Whilst He's Away'. Made up of six separate shorter songs Pete had been working on, 'A Quick One' is laudably ambitious, predating the suite of songs on the second side of The Beatles 'Abbey Road' by a good couple of years, for example - but certainly isn't smooth. The transitions between the tracks various segments comes across as rather cut and paste to me. Whether this was just a result of poor editing, i'm not sure. Whatever, 'A Quick One Whilst He's Away' loses some of the power it otherwise would have had as a result. Each one of the individual segments are enjoyable, by the way - and show The Who, Pete in particular, moving forwards.
Run Run Run / Boris The Spider / I need You / Whiskey Man / Heatwave / Cobwebs And Strange / Don't Look Away / See My Way / So Sad About Us / A Quick One While He's Away
Anyway, ignoring the original material, Townshend penned or otherwise, let's 'pick on' the cover version first of all. 'Heatwave' arrived to The Who via the famed 'Holland/Dozier/Holland' writing team, via Motown. The Who were into that scene and 'Heatwave' as performed by The Who here fares very well, beat group rock music of the era, competently performed and with nice harmonies. In actual fact, we've got two Keith Moon songs, two Entwistle songs and only one Roger Daltery song? Is 'Heatwave' here in place of a second Daltery penned tune he was unable to write, or something? Still, Mr Roger Daltery's 'See My Way' is light pop material, catchy enough and a promising enough writing effort to surely encourage Roger to at least pen some b-side material in the future, but for whatever reason it didn't happen. The most 'enjoyable' factor of 'See My Way' is the eccentric performance of Keith Moon, apparently instructed to play in the style of Buddy Holly and the Crickets and ending up playing some of his parts on cardboard boxes as a result. Strange stuff! Keith writes 'Cobwebs And Strange', a novelty marching band item that later became 'Heinz Baked Beans' on the art pop masterpiece that is the 'Who Sell Out' album. His other song 'I Need You' is surprisingly fine, Sixites pop - a strong effort with good harmonies and pleasant melodies. John Entwistle contributes the finest of the non Townshend material and would continue and contribute material to The Who through the years. 'Whiskey Man' is a great little song full of the character of Mr Entwistle, shall we say.... and 'Boris The Spider' is, in actual fact, the best song here. It may not have been perceived by Pete and others as particularly a 'suitable' song for The Who to record, being a faintly novelty styled item, yet the bass playing is indeed scary and silly at the same time. The lyrics are clever, dumb and very silly. The vocal delivery is truly silly - and this really should have been a huge hit! In the UK at least, it was never released as a single a-side, which is a shame as far as i'm concerned.
So, what else is new? Well, the Pete Townshend songs don't match the quality of his efforts for the debut album, 'Run Run Run' showcases the sound of The Who very well, though - an aggressive attack of guitars in particular. 'Don't Look Away' is moving into the pop area that 'Happy Jack' did so well and the following years 'Who Sell Out' would expand upon. 'So Sad About Us' has a distinctive guitar introduction and a classic pop feel all the way through it. 'So Sad About Us' could have been a hit song had it infact been released as a single in the first place. Which leaves us just with the nine minute long 'suite' or 'mini-opera', 'A Quick One Whilst He's Away'. Made up of six separate shorter songs Pete had been working on, 'A Quick One' is laudably ambitious, predating the suite of songs on the second side of The Beatles 'Abbey Road' by a good couple of years, for example - but certainly isn't smooth. The transitions between the tracks various segments comes across as rather cut and paste to me. Whether this was just a result of poor editing, i'm not sure. Whatever, 'A Quick One Whilst He's Away' loses some of the power it otherwise would have had as a result. Each one of the individual segments are enjoyable, by the way - and show The Who, Pete in particular, moving forwards.
Run Run Run / Boris The Spider / I need You / Whiskey Man / Heatwave / Cobwebs And Strange / Don't Look Away / See My Way / So Sad About Us / A Quick One While He's Away
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