The Who: Who's Next (Disc-1) CD Track Listing

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The Who Who's Next (Disc-1) (2003)
Who's Next (Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1 of 2\n2003 MCA Records, Inc.\n\nOriginally Released 1971\nMCA Steve Hoffman Version CD Released 1985?\nRemixed & Remastered with Bonus Tracks Version Released November 7, 1995\nMCA MasterDisc Gold CD Version Released August 29, 1995\nMFSL Gold CD Version Released October 12, 1999\nDeluxe Edition Released March 25, 2003\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: The Who's catalog was revamped in the mid-'90s, with every title (except My Generation, due to legal entanglements with producer Shel Talmy) receiving new remastering and bonus tracks. Nearly eight years later, Who's Next, one of the group's most beloved albums, was given another remastered/expanded treatment as part of Universal Chronicles' Deluxe Edition series. Now it spans two discs, including a full disc devoted to their legendary show at the Young Vic on April 26, 1971. Reportedly, this is also the first time the original master tapes were used for a CD master as well, and while the difference isn't as dramatically different as it was from the 1984 CD to the 1995 CD, this is a richer, resonant mix, which may be reason enough for some fans to acquire it. Most collectors will focus on the bonus material, all of which ranges from very good to great, yet the set on the whole gets a qualified recommendation for one very simple reason: The greatest of the material here was already featured as bonus material on the 1995 reissue. True, some of the versions were present as single edits, but the greatest songs -- "Pure and Easy," a rollicking cover of "Baby Don't You Do It," the live set pieces "Naked Eye" and "Water," "Too Much of Anything," "I Don't Even Know Myself," the original take of "Behind Blue Eyes" -- were all bonus tracks on the previous edition (this is not counting the fact that the electric version of "Love Ain't for Keepin'," which is really good, is also on Odds & Sods). That said, there is some unreleased music here that is either fascinating (the first take of "Won't Get Fooled Again," which sounds as if it's on the verge of collapse) or excellent (the whole of the Young Vic show, where you can hear the band get its strength back; it's a truly fine concert). But no matter how good, or even revelatory, some of this is, the end result feels underwhelming because any Who fan has heard the most crucial music here before (and those who enjoy nitpicking will surely wonder why there wasn't more of an effort to present Lifehouse rejects and outtakes here instead of a full concert). If you're a fan, Who's Next: The Deluxe Edition is like paying a bill -- buying it is something that needs to be done, you're glad once it's done, but it's not something you're necessarily eager to do. -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: (Standard Edition) 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 bass lines 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\n\nAmazon.com Editorial Review\nThe success of Who's Next and its slate of classic-rock tracks has often obscured its true roots--Lifehouse, the unwieldy multi-media project that Pete Townshend originally concocted as the follow-up to Tommy. Variously informed by apocalyptic visions, sci-fi notions of interconnectivity that neatly presaged the internet and, of course, an unwavering conviction that rock & roll would save the world, the core tracks of the sprawling Lifehouse were recorded, cut, re-recorded and finally boiled down into a collection that seems to represent as much alienation ("Behind Blue Eyes") and overweening cynicism ("Won't Get Fooled Again") as it does liberation and unity. Aside from Townshend's own self-released, multi-disc meditation on the project, this expanded new edition is the most rewarding attempt to place Lifehouse and the over-exposed classic it spawned in their proper context. Six tracks from the album's original, but abandoned New York sessions flesh out the familiar material, with previously unreleased outtakes of "Getting in Tune" and a revealing, early arrangement of "Won't Get Fooled Again" warranting special note. The second disc documents one of Lifehouse's most quixotic elements with the first-time release of one of the series of concerts staged at London's Young Vic theater during the project's gestation, events during which band and audience would somehow mystically become One. Core tracks from the project are interspersed with typical hard-rocking Who fare of the time, resulting in a show whose focus and dynamics belied something very different from the arena-rock clich

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