Who's Next
is the fifth
studio album
by English
rock band
The Who
It developed from
the aborted
Lifehouse project,
a multi-media
rock opera
written by
the group's
Pete Townshend
as a follow-up
to the band's
1969 album
Tommy.
The project was
cancelled due
to its complexity
and conflicts with
Kit Lambert,
the band's manager,
but Townshend
was persuaded to
record the songs as
a straightforward
studio album.
The Who
recorded
Who's Next
with assistance from
recording engineer
Glyn Johns.
After producing the song
"Won't Get Fooled Again"
in the
Rolling Stones
Mobile Studio,
they relocated to
Olympic Studios
to record and mix
most of the album's
remaining songs.
They made prominent use
of the synthesizer
on the album,
particularly on
"Won't Get Fooled Again"
and
"Baba O'Riley",
which were both
released as singles.
The cover photo
was shot by
Ethan Russell
and made reference to
the monolith in the
1968 film
2001: A Space Odyssey,
as it featured group members
having urinated
against a concrete piling
protruding from a slag heap.
Who's Next
was an
immediate success
when it was released in
August 1971.
It has since been viewed
by many critics
as the Who's best record
and one of the
greatest albums of all time.
The cover artwork
shows a photograph,
taken at
Easington Colliery,
of the band apparently having
just urinated on a
large concrete piling
protruding from a slag heap.
The decision to shoot the picture
came from
Entwistle and Moon
discussing Stanley Kubrick
and the film
2001: A Space Odyssey.
According to photographer
Ethan Russell,
most of the band members
were unable to urinate,
so rainwater was tipped
from an empty film canister
to achieve the desired effect.
The rear cover
showed the band backstage
at De Montfort Hall, Leicester,
amongst a debris
of furniture.
In 2003,
the television
channel VH1
named
Who's Next's cover
one of the greatest
album covers of all time.
Other suggestions
for the cover
included the group
urinating against a
Marshall Stack
and an
overweight nude woman
with the Who's faces
in place of her genitalia.
An alternative cover
featuring Moon
dressed in
black lingerie
and a brown wig,
holding a whip,
was later used
for the inside art
for the
1995
and
2003
CD releases.
Some of the photographs
taken during these sessions
were later used as part of
Decca's United States
promotion of the album
The first disc
of the
Deluxe Edition
contains the
nine tracks
from the original album
containing the original mix,
followed by six outtakes,
of which
"Getting in Tune"
and
"Won't Get Fooled Again"
were previously unreleased.
Each of the six outtakes
was recorded during
the Record Plant sessions
in March 1971
before work restarted
in the UK.
The tracks on
the second disc
were recorded live
at the
Young Vic Theatre,
London,
on
April 26 1971.
All of the tracks
were
previously unreleased
except for
"Water"
and
"Naked Eye"
TRACK LIST
CD 1
Baba O'Riley
Bargin
Love Ain't for Keeping
My Wife
The Song is Over
Gettin' in Tune
Going Mobile
Behind Blue Eyes
Won't Get Fooled Again
Baby Don't You Do It
(Longer Version Record Plant Sessions )
Getting in Tune
(Alternate Version Record Plant Sessions )
Pure and Easy
(Alternate Version Record Plant Sessions )
Love Ain't for Keeping
(Electric Version, Townshend on lead vocals)
( Record Plant Sessions )
Behind Blue Eyes
(Alternate Version Record Plant Sessions )
Won't Get Fooled Again
(Original New York sessions version)
CD 2
Live
Young Vic Theatre, London,
April 26 1971
Love Ain't for Keeping
Pure and Easy
Young Man Blues
Time is Passing
Behind Blue Eyes
I Don't Even Know Myself
Too Much of Anything
Getting in Tune
Bargain
Water
My Generation
(I'm A) Road Runner
Naked Eye
Won't Get Fooled Again
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