This has been a difficult album for me to make, because I originally did it a different way. The basic idea is that the Who were planning an album in 1972 to be called "Rock Is Dead - Long Live Rock." The song "Love Live Rock" obviously was a centerpiece of that. However, some of the songs planned for this album were apparently never recorded by the Who, or if they have been, they've never reached the public.
Furthermore, a couple of the songs that were recorded by the Who were later included on their 1973 album "Quadrophenia," and I wouldn't want to include songs that are on that very well-known album.
Wikipedia has a good page about the unfinished album:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Is_Dead%E2%80%94Long_Live_Rock!
Originally, I made a version of this album with Pete Townshend demos substituting for the songs the Who never recorded or released. But I've also posted a series of Townshend albums at this blog that already include those songs, and I don't want to use the exact same recordings on different albums if I can help it.
So I was left with an album that's too short. Luckily, I was able to beef it up by adding some songs intended for "Quadrophenia" that didn't make the final cut of that album. Some of these songs were recorded by the Who around 1979 for the soundtrack of the "Quadrophenia" movie. I had to be careful not to use those versions. Luckily, demos or other versions from the 1972 to 1973 time frame do exist for most of them. I also included a cover version, "Road Runner," from 1971, to help make the album long enough.
So this is a patchwork album. But the Who were in their prime during this time period, so it doesn't matter much because everything they did was very good.
There's one more cover song from 1971 that I considered including to make the album sufficiently long: "Going Down." However, I don't consider it as good of a song as the others on the album, so I've only included it as a bonus track.
Without that song, the album is 33 minutes long, which is shorter than I'd like. Hopefully, someday some other songs the Who did around this time will get released, such as their version of the obscure Townshend song "Ambition." Townshend played an acoustic version of it in 2005, and said it just missed being included on the super deluxe version of "Quadrophenia." (You can find it at this blog on the "In the Attic" Townshend album.)
01 The Relay (Who)
02 Put the Money Down (Who)
03 When I Was a Boy (Who)
04 [I'm A] Road Runner (Who)
05 Four Faces (Who)
06 Long Live Rock (Who)
07 Joker James (Who)
08 We Close Tonight (Who)
09 Join Together (Who)
Going Down (Who)
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The cover art was made by Jon Hunt, and taken from his blog of alternate album covers.
I came across your site and another one reconstructing this "album" with that cool artwork.
ReplyDeleteLong Live Rock got a lot of airplay in my town in the late 70s, and is a kickass rock song, so it deserved a "proper" album.
"Relay" and "Join Together" are on Lifehouse, (which I put together too, based on that other site) so they can't be here. I didn't put "Put the Money Down" (ran out of room for a proper double album) so it stays. Then what? Might as well be Odds & Sods with a cooler jacket.
The Rolling Stone article about this record references "Get Inside." Sounds like a Pete demo, although credited to The Who on the Quadrophenia deluxe but still pretty solid. Nice place to start. There's some other outtakes from Quadrophenia, and "We Close Now" is classic Who, with a Keith opening riff and power chords. Too bad it's not Roger singing though... There's other Who material from that era, and I followed your guidance and included "When I Was a Boy" and a few others not Pete written. So it kinda also follows the album's earlier proto-Quadrophenia concept of each member of the Who being represented, without being too Roger light on vocals.
So here's my take:
A side
Get Inside
When I was a Boy
Get Out and Stay Out
Joker James
Long Live Rock
Four Faces
B side
Wizardry
Put the Money Down
Waspman
Young Man Blues
We Close Tonight
I'm the Face
Mostly form Quadrophenia outtakes. "Wizardry" has a great early 70s Who feel to it. This is supposed to be "Long Live Rock" so a few selections from Odds & Sods, and then "Waspman," which isn't that great of a song, but OK for a Who three chorder, apparently an homage to "Rumble."
Close out with a classic rocker which was included on Odds & Sods.
Anyway, my $0.02. Thanks for your time.
Thanks for the 2 cents. Interesting song list. I hate the song "Waspman" though. Possibly the worst Who song ever. I could buy putting "Wizardry" on a Who album.
ReplyDeleteThere is a song in Mike Heron's first album from 1971 with The Who minus Daltrey (credited as Tommy and the Bijoux) backing him that would not be out of place here.
ReplyDelete