Who's Next [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster] (CD - 1971)

The Who: Pete Townshend (vocals, guitar, piano, organ, ARP synthesizer); John Entwistle (vocals, brass, piano, bass); Keith Moon (drums, percussion).

Additional personnel: Leslie West (guitar); Dave Arbus (violin); Nicky Hopkins (piano); Al Kooper (organ).

Producers: The Who, Kit Lambert, Keith Moon.

Reissue producer: Jon Astley.

Includes liner notes by Pete Townshend and John Atkins.

The Who: Roger Daltrey (vocals); Pete Townshend (guitar, piano, organ, ARP synthesizer, background vocals); John Entwistle (horns, piano, bass, background vocals); Keith Moon (drums, percussion).

Additional personnel: Leslie West (guitar); Nicky Hopkins (piano).

Producers: The Who, Glyn Johns, Kit Lambert.

Recorded between 1968 & 1971. Includes liner notes by Pete Townshend, John Atkins, and Chris Charlesworth.

This remastered edition of WHO'S NEXT features seven bonus tracks.

The Who: John Entwistle (bass instrument, background vocals); Pete Townshend (background vocals); Keith Moon , Roger Daltrey.

Personnel: Pete Townshend (vocals, guitar, piano, organ, keyboards, synthesizer, ARP synthesizer); Keith Moon (vocals, violin, drums, percussion); Roger Daltrey (vocals, harmonica); John Entwistle (vocals, brass, piano, keyboards, bass guitar); Dave Arbus (violin).

Additional personnel: Leslie West (guitar); Nicky Hopkins (piano); Al Kooper (organ); Dave Arbus.

Audio Mixer: Glyn Johns.

Audio Remasterers: Jon Astley; Andy MacPherson.

Audio Remixers: Jon Astley; Andy MacPherson.

Liner Note Authors: John Atkins; Pete Townshend; John Atkins.

Recording information: Eel Pie Studios (??/??/1970-06/07/1971); Olympic Studios, London, England (??/??/1970-06/07/1971); Record Plant, NY (??/??/1970-06/07/1971); Stargroves (??/??/1970-06/07/1971); The Rolling Stones Mobile Studio (??/??/1970-06/07/1971).

Photographer: Ethan Russell.

Though Pete Townshend was originally unhappy with WHO'S NEXT, it was quickly welcomed by critics and fans, becoming one of the most celebrated titles in their enduring catalog. His frustrations boiled down to the album being a compromised version of a larger work he'd envisioned, LIFEHOUSE, which proved too unwieldy to be realized. Expanded to a two-disc set with essays by both Townshend and John Atkins, the original nine-song album is expanded with six additional studio tracks.

These include earlier versions of the album's songs and a cover of Holland-Dozier-Holland's "Baby Don't You Do It." Recorded in New York during the spring of 1971 in the midst of a fraying relationship with producer Kit Lambert, the early cuts clearly don't have the sonic breadth and wallop of what the Who achieved back in England later in the year, but are fascinating nonetheless. The second disc was recorded live before an invited audience, and was originally part of the album's grand plan. Mixing new material with covers ("Road Runner;" Mose Allison's "Young Man Blues") and original tunes from their past (the anthem "My Generation"), the band plays with a palpable urgency and fire. This was the Who at the peak of its powers, a status the group would retain as a live act through the '70s.

While both THE WHO SELL OUT and TOMMY have their passionate devotees, WHO'S NEXT is the Who's masterpiece. Originally, Pete Townshend intended these songs for an even larger-scale project than TOMMY, a massive multimedia extravaganza, called LIFEHOUSE, that the songwriter eventually abandoned. Townshend was initially keen to keep at least the basic structure of the story for the Who's next record, but associate producer Glyn Johns convinced him that a straightforward single disc of the project's best songs would make a stronger album. Wise counsel indeed, because WHO'S NEXT is by far the group's most focused and powerful effort.

Bracketed by "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again," two classic rock epics that did more to advance the cause of synthesizers in mainstream rock than Kraftwerk's entire career, this album is basically flawless, ranging in mood from the heartbreaking "The Song Is Over" to John Entwistle's bitterly funny "My Wife." Although nearly every song on the record, barring only the bluesy acoustic interlude "Love Ain't for Keeping," is a saturation-level FM-rock-radio mainstay, WHO'S NEXT is that rarity--an intimately familiar album that never gets tiresome.

Much of Who's Next derives from Lifehouse, an ambitious sci-fi rock opera Pete Townshend abandoned after suffering a nervous breakdown, caused in part from working on the sequel to Tommy. There's no discernable theme behind these songs, yet this album is stronger than Tommy, falling just behind Who Sell Out as the finest record the Who ever cut. Townshend developed an infatuation with synthesizers during the recording of the album, and they're all over this album, adding texture where needed and amplifying the force, which is already at a fever pitch. Apart from Live at Leeds, the Who have never sounded as LOUD and unhinged as they do here, yet that's balanced by ballads, both lovely ("The Song Is Over") and scathing ("Behind Blue Eyes"). That's the key to Who's Next -- there's anger and sorrow, humor and regret, passion and tumult, all wrapped up in a blistering package where the rage is as affecting as the heartbreak. This is a retreat from the '60s, as Townshend declares the "Song Is Over," scorns the teenage wasteland, and bitterly declares that we "Won't Get Fooled Again." For all the sorrow and heartbreak that runs beneath the surface, this is an invigorating record, not just because Keith Moon runs rampant or because Roger Daltrey has never sung better or because John Entwistle spins out manic basslines that are as captivating as his "My Wife" is funny. This is invigorating because it has all of that, plus Townshend laying his soul bare in ways that are funny, painful, and utterly life-affirming. That is what the Who was about, not the rock operas, and that's why Who's Next is truer than Tommy or the abandoned Lifehouse. Those were art -- this, even with its pretensions, is rock & roll. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize