The Who: Making a Name for Themselves

I’ll be honest. I just sat in front of my computer screen for at least five minutes trying to come up with some clever pun about The Who’s name. Maybe my creative side is a little slacking today or maybe I am just so stunned by this rock group’s sheer strength in the music realm. Before a couple of days ago, I had never listened to a single song performed by The Who. People would talk about The Who and I would just be like “Who?” (Got my pun in… I knew I could do it!). But once I listened to their first album, they made several impressions upon me.

First of all, I think the musicians in this band should get a round of applause. Each one of them possesses abnormal strength in each of their respective instruments. While maybe not as versatile as the beloved Beatles, The Who definitely mastered the art. The Who sound a lot like an epic blend of the Beatles and the Stones. While I kind of insulted the Stones last week, they did possess some good qualities, particularly a more bluesy, country, and raspy sound that I think is incorporated well with their music. Likewise, throughout The Who’s first album, My Generation, they incorporate great guitar solos, swing-like beats, and Beatles-like harmonies that carry the melody.

Speaking of the guitar… WOW. There is not a better way of describing this. Consistently throughout the album, Pete Townshend destroys with his wicked chords and contrast to perfect harmonies, sorrowful songs, or raspy sounds. I noticed that it really didn’t matter what the song was, the guitar had a constant and respected presence! In my notes, I literally just have “Guitar sound = freaking amazing”. You have to also remember that The Who only had one guitarist. Only someone with Townshend’s level of musical ability could pull that off! One of my favorite parts of the album was the insane electric guitar introduction in “The Good’s Gone”. This song also has some nice raspy and rough sounding vocals that tie together the attitude of the piece. Do yourself a favor and listen to this video:

While the lyrical capabilities and song-writing somewhat lacks in my book (primarily when compared to the Beatles), I feel that The Who still leave me satisfied with a majority of their music, as they take me on a journey through harmonies and melodies. I was also rather surprised when it came to their harmonies. In some songs, I felt that I was listening to an all-men’s choir performance accompanied by an insane Keith Moon and rockin’ Pete Townshend. I had never heard such an innocent sounding harmony before in a classic rock song. Despite this, other songs made me have wild flashbacks to the Beatles. Once again, while the actual lyrical poem wasn’t there, the harmonies so closely matched the Beatles, that I literally feel that songs like “Much Too Much” and “La La La Lies” could have been inserted into a Beatles album and I would never have even noticed! They were obviously getting their fair share of Beatles music/influence! Check out these two songs below and see what I mean:

While I was generally impressed by this album, The Who, in my opinion, had some downfalls. Only one song sticks out like a sore thumb in my mind when I listened to it and that would be “The Ox”. I felt like my ears were getting bombarded by randomness and chaos. That is the only word I can use to describe this song: chaos. I felt little organization in this all-instrumental song. I didn’t dislike this song because it lacked lyrics; I felt that it lacked everything. I feel that Keith Moon was just set free to explode his drum set and mess around, and the others just blindly followed toward a complete disaster. This was the one and only pitfall, though, in a generally great album. Luckily, “The Ox” wasn’t the first Who song I listened to because I probably would’ve been turned off of them instantly. This sounded like an early form of dubstep! Actually, dubstep has nothing on this song! They were able to make that horrible of a sound without synthesized instruments.

Overall, though, I think The Who really altered the stage for rock. They made an impact on the scene and affected other artists. In later Beatles songs, I hear influences from The Who and the Rolling Stones sneaking their way into the music. Additionally, The Who expressed such versatility through their album that they always had me guessing. I never knew what the next song would sound like, and the surprise of it all made the listening experience rather enjoyable. I hope that I get to listen to more of The Who because they are rocking awesome.

Oh and by the way, I think Keith Moon probably would’ve liked Jerry Lee Lewis a lot!