The Who - Ready Steady Who - Non-Album Tracks (1966)

As I mentioned previously, for almost every Who album, one could make another Who album from the stray tracks around that time period. This is the companion album for the 1966 album "A Quick One."

In 1966, rock groups typically put out singles of songs that weren't on their albums, plus usually unique B-sides for each. The Who did that with "Substitute," "I'm a Boy," and "Happy Jack." Plus, they appeared on a special version of the TV show "Ready Steady Go" focusing of them, which was called "Ready Steady Who" for the occasion. They then released a five-song EP also called "Ready Steady Who" to capitalize on the appearance.

Given that albums weren't that long in 1966, that already makes up most of an album. Add in a few more stray tracks and one gets an album that's 40 minutes long. Some of the songs could be called filler, but others, like the A-sides, are all-time classics.

There's one song I debated whether or not to include. In December 1965, actually on the "Ready Steady Go" TV show, the Who played a curious instrumental called "You Rang." It's not a great song, though it does show off Keith Moon's drum skills, and the song quality is below everything else here. So I stuck it on the end, as a bonus track of sorts.

In 2019, the Who released a new studio album simply called "Who." "Got Nothing to Prove" and "Sand" are "new" Who songs released as bonus tracks to that album. But in fact, both songs are Pete Townshend demos from 1966 with new overdubs to make them have a fuller, Who-like sound. "Sand" is only available on very hard to find versions of the album, such as the Japanese edition, so I've decided to make them available here. I've decided to treat these as Who songs instead of Pete Townshend songs, since they've been officially released as such. Townshend sings lead vocals on both, but he sang the occasional lead vocal on Who albums going back to their very first album, so that's nothing unusual.

01 Substitute (Who)
02 Circles [Instant Party] [Second Version] (Who)
03 Sand (Who)
04 I'm a Boy (Who)
05 In the City (Who)
06 Happy Jack (Who)
07 I've Been Away (Who)
08 Got Nothing to Prove (Who)
09 Disguises (Who)
10 Batman (Who)
11 Bucket T (Who)
12 Barbara Ann (Who)
13 Man with the Money (Who)
14 My Generation - Land of Hope and Glory (Who)
15 You Rang [Instrumental] (Who)

https://www.imagenetz.de/daZAn

The cover is the cover for the "Ready Steady Who" EP. For once, I didn't have to change a thing.