Who's Next (The Who, 1971)

I won't be the first to say this, but the Who is truly one of the most surprising bands in rock history. I consider them one of the six foundational bands of the British Invasion. The were probably the most mod-influenced of them, and benefited from strong songwriting and musicianship, particularly from the overpowering Entwistle-Moon rhythm section. By 1970, three of the bands (The Beatles, The Animals, and The Yardbirds) were gone. While the Kinks and the Rolling Stones sought refuge in more rootsy territory (albeit in completely different ways), the Who, surprisingly moved comfortably into a new cohort of British hard rockers.

The Who's 1960's output is a lot of fun to listen to, but one gets a sense of a certain unsteadiness, and sometimes a sense of juvenile lyrics, which would hamper their ability to get serious songs like "I Can See for Miles" taken seriously. By 1968 they seemed to be falling behind their contemporaries, but then surprised the world with the "first" "rock opera", Tommy. There were still plenty of goofy-Who moments, but they were more tucked away inside a serious framework crafted by Pete Townshend. Not bad for a group that just the previous year was noodling around with "Magic Bus" and "Call Me Lightning".

Who's Next is decidedly NOT a rock opera, or concept album, though nestled between two of them (Quadrophenia being the other bookend). However its roots are in the failed "Lifehouse" project, and it isn't hard to detect the elements of some kind of unified work throughout the album. Sometimes the lyrics give it away, though most people didn't seem particularly bothered that they didn't know who "Sally" was in "Baba O'Reilly". Most clearly though it a powerful, simple riff that ripples through many of the songs on the album. I can't replicate it here in text but it shows up in most of the songs. Speaking of "powerful", maybe it's because they were coming off the Live at Leeds album (hailed as the loudest performance in rock history), but there is a lot more juice pumping through the album than previous ones. Yet it also has a "cold" feel to it, largely stripped of the old mod sounds and more sequenced keyboard sounds. Even the cover (look closely) has a certain bleakness not characteristic of earlier Who album artwork. This is an album of re-invention by a band that was already back on the upswing.

I'm kind of a latecomer to Who's Next. I've heard most of the songs on classic rock radio, and most of the songs work just fine on their own. I have not heard Townshend's resurrection of Lifehouse, which is such a gargantuan box set I wouldn't even know where to begin. Other than Tommy, in fact, I really didn't feel much motivation to invest in any Who albums until maybe around ten years back, as the greatest hits and regular radio rotation sufficed. The earlier albums have a lot of little surprises and The Who Sell Out was a particularly enjoyable listening experience once I got around to it. I can't say the much colder Who's Next provided me with the same warm fuzzies, but then again it's probably more the result of the album being a victim of its own success. All but two or three of the songs are radio regulars, and those oddballs don't offer much more.