59. The Who - My Generation (03/12/65)

1. Out in the Street

2. I Don't Mind

3. The Good's Gone

4. La-La-La-Lies

5. Much Too Much

6. My Generation*

7. The Kids Are Alright*

8. Please, Please, Please

9. It's Not True

10. I'm a Man

11. A Legal Matter*

12. The Ox

A-

And so we come to the Who, easily one of the strangest bands to ever conquer the world. And if you don't believe me, I'd ask you to explain The Who Sell Out. Or the inclusion of an elaborate synthesiser part on "Baba O'Reilly". In my head, I tend to dismiss the Who as fatuous hard rock, but that's really not fair. True, their lyrics seldom managed to match their musical inventiveness, but you only have to listen to My Generation to appreciate the extraordinary musical range of the band. "Out in the Street" is a straight shuffle bookended by thunderous, feedback laden power chords. "The Good's Gone" is a droning proto-psychedelic stomp that must have packed the dancefloors when it first hit. The title track is a sui generis precursor to heavy metal and punk, and at the same time a killer pop single, and at the same time one of the definitive rallying cries in rock.  "The Kids Are Alright", with its lilting melody and glorious harmonies, is one of the most lovely songs to come out of the 60s. And "A Legal Matter" basically invented XTC.

Backing all of this you have Keith Moon on drums, giving even the softest and sweetest songs on this album a rumbling, driving rhythm that must have seemed unprecedented at the time. And really, that's a large part of the genius of this album. The Who embraced pop while at the same time playing it harder and heavier than anything before (except maybe the Sonics, but nobody had really heard of them at the time). Pete Townsend also incorporated some deeply unusual guitar techniques. The cover of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man", for example, is really just an excuse to morph the track into a rambling, feedback-drenched jam. "The Ox", on the other hand, is sort of a surf song, but with Townsend playing distorted, twisted, growling guitar parts and messing around with feedback from his amp, all over Moon's insistent drum beat.

So this is a great album, tremendous fun. Unfortunately there are a few clunkers to bring things down a bit. "I Don't Mind" is a fine, faithful cover of the James Brown classic, but the version of "Please, Please, Please" is kind of weak, mostly due to Roger Daltrey's vocals. "Much Too Much" has a lovely chorus but the lyrics are kind of dumb, and Daltrey sings in that bellowing style of his that I find off-putting. And "It's Not True" is kind of a stupid goof, in which the singer just lists all the things he didn't do, including being born in Baghdad and killing his dad. I'm really not sure what the point of it was.

When all's said and done, though, the main thing this album is is a lot of fun. It has a wealth of musical inventiveness, a nice variety in the styles of songs which range from straight R&B covers to incipient noise rock to Beatlesesque pop, and just enough depth to keep things interesting. True, it doesn't all work, but that messy, try anything quality is a part of what made the Who so vital in their early years. Plus, they hated hippies, which is always nice.