#384 - The Who - A Quick One (1966)
MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:
Released on December 9th of 1966 on Reaction/Polydor in the U.K. and Decca and MCA in the U.S. and produced by Kit Lambert this is the second studio album by the British, Mod, Rock, in Pop Art, and Maximum R&B band.
Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, and John Entwistle all attended Acton County Grammar School in Acton, London, England in the later ’50s. Daltrey was a grade older and was expelled at fifteen for bad behavior after discovering Rock and Roll and gangs. He took a job in construction and formed the band The Detours to play professional gigs in 1959 acting as their lead guitarist and manager.
Both of Pete’s parents were musical and encouraged his interest in Rock and Roll and the guitar.
John started on French Horn and then a short attempt at guitar but due to his fat fingers he settled on bass.
Soon Peter and John were playing in a Trad-Jazz band together which was basically a Dixieland revival style.
One day Roger saw John walking with his bass case and asked him to join The Detours with him, a drummer, and lead vocalist.
In 1961 John suggested Pete who had graduated and was then in art school to be The Detours rhythm guitarist.
After a few more line up changes Pete became the sole guitarist and Roger became the lead singer.
They gained popularity, got a real manager, and started opening for bigger bands.
After discovering another band called The Detours they changed theirs to the purposefully confusing name The Who.
They played regularly, changed managers, and got an audition with a record company who didn’t like their drummer.
So they soon added Wembley, London, England native Keith Moon, a highly energetic, powerful, and animated drummer who they had seen playing in his Surf Rock band.
Their new manager, Peter Meaden changed their name to The High Numbers and tailored them to represent the new Mod trend that was sweeping London.
The Mods rode Vespa scooters, were very style and clothes conscious, and adored American R&B and Soul music.
Meaden wrote the lyrics to both sides of their derivative first single but after it failed to chart they changed their name back to The Who.
In 1964 filmmakers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp were looking for a young, unsigned, band to make a movie about and found The Who, who were now very popular due to their dynamic stage shows.
They became the band’s managers, encouraged Pete to write songs, and the band got signed to a production deal with successful American producer Shel Talmy.
Talmy’s singles with the band were popular and they released an album of mostly Townshend-written songs and covers before falling out with Talmy and losing that deal.
Aside from their songs trying to emulate successful singles by rival groups like The Kinks and The Beatles they were also filled with provocative, idiosyncratic, rebellious, and surprisingly mature themes and featured lots of interesting musical techniques like guitar feedback, wildly off-kilter drums, stuttering vocals, and the bass played like a lead instrument.
And after an early show where Townshend had accidentally broke his guitar onstage had led to the audience going wild and notoriety with the music press their stage shows purposely and destructively carried on that expensive gimmick.
It’s important to note that apart from Entwistle and Moon the band weren’t really friends and didn’t hang out together. Roger still considered himself the leader and there were constant arguments and often physical fights.
After a few more popular singles on a new label and lots of fighting, their managers secured them a songwriting publishing deal for their anticipated second album which dictated every member had to write two songs so they could all get paid well and help cover the cost of repairs for all those broken stage instruments.
The band tried their best and finished what was to be called “Jigsaw” but their managers decided some of the songs weren’t that great.
They wrote and recorded a few better ones but realizing that they were still almost ten minutes short Townshend wrote a long, multi-part, song that he would deem his first “Rock Opera” and give the album its title.
The cover art by Alan Aldridge also owed a debt to Townshend’s art school education and interest in the current Pop Art.
The record was another hit in the U.K. and did well in America which added their hit pre-album single, “Happy Jack” and retitled the album after it (while also avoiding the sexual connotations of “A Quick One”).
They released one more Pop Art inspired album before embarking on the amazing journey of their first complete Rock opera, “Tommy” in 1969.
After an abortive attempt at another Rock opera whose songs still spawned a popular album they followed with the successful “Quadrophenia” before releasing standard records again.
Tragically drummer Keith Moon died of a drug overdose in 1979 at the age of 32 and in 2002 bassist John Entwistle died of a cocaine-induced heart attack at 57.
Despite various extended hiatuses in the ‘80s and ‘90s, after losing each original member Pete and Roger ultimately carried on recording and touring with various added musicians.
They’ve released twelve studio albums including another Rock opera in 2006 called “Endless Wire”, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the British Phonographic Industry and the Grammy Foundation, have sold over one hundred million records worldwide, and remain one of the most influential Rock and Roll bands of all time.