Week 36: 50 Albums That Changed Music

[Swish]

I had to post this thread a day early as I'll be heading to the wild West....Pittsburgh....for the entire week and won't have access here until my return. Anyway, this week's choice is another obvious one, and it is The Who - My Generation (1965).

Alongside the equally influential Small Faces, The Who were the quintessential British mod group. Long before they recorded the first rock opera, Tommy, they unleashed a stream of singles that articulated all the youthful pent-up frustration of Sixties London before it started to swing. Their 1965 debut album, My Generation", included the defiant and celebratory 'The Kids Are Alright' and the ultimate mod anthem, 'My Generation', with its infamous line, "I hope I die before I get old'. Angry aggressive art-school pop with attitude to burn.. Without this....no Paul Weller, no Blur and, God help us, no Ordinary Boys either.

Another fine choice, but cheapened by the list of artists they influenced. Paul Weller? I'm sure his work with the Jam was influenced the Who. Blur? I suppose in their latter years (the 90s) rather than early on. Ordinary Boys? I guess they're all the rage in jolly old England, but they have no weight here as far as I know. How about Bowie, Oasis, Green Day, Cream, Led Zep? There are many others who trump the short list they offered up, so why not point them out? This was one of my favorite bands in my teenage years, especially after they released Who's Next, and they certainly deserve to by on this list.

Swish

[BradH]

It wasn't the album that was influential, it was the singles released before it.

[Mr MidFi]

Hmmm...It's almost like they're saying "The Who themselves were influential, and here's an early album of theirs as an example." Brad's right about the singles being the big deal for them at that time, and I would say they were as much a product of London's Mod scene as they were its creators.

I would argue that, as an album, Tommy was far more influential on the music that followed. For better and for worse.

And if the subject is "all-time great albums by The Who," then Who's Next, Quadrophenia, Live at Leeds and Tommy would be among my first choices.

[3-LockBox]

Yeah, easy pick, but they have no idea why they're picking it, they just think they're supposed to, so they do. Very bush league.

[nobody]

Yeah, good album, good band. But, for some reason The Who is one of those were I never really get into as much as theoretically I'd think I would. I kinda agree with the theme of their singles from this era being the best about them. I usually just listen to Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy. Or, skip ahead to Who Are You.

[BradH]

Yeah, good album, good band.

Actually, I think this a lousy album overall and they disowned it right away. It didn't come close to what they were doing live even the year before as the High Numbers. Kit Lambert had them professionally filmed in 1964 and the soundtrack was released last year on the Yellow Dog boot label. It's amazing. It shows Townshend was well into those trademark chord changes of his, something you'd never guess from listening to My Generation.

Another point of useless trivia: The Who weren't really mods, they only marketed themselves to mods. That was the whole point of changing their name from The Who to The High Numbers in '64 and releasing "I'm The Face"/"Zoot Suit". A "number" or a "face" was a mod. Remember the line from Quadrophenia?..."riding up in front of a hundred faces." The Small Faces were the real thing from the East End. I'm not sure how old they were but most mods were around 13 to 15 years old. 17 was pushing the upper age limit and that was Moon's age in '65, the youngest member of The Who. Townshend had the most sympathies with the mods while Daltrey was probably the most hostile. Those two were 18 that year and Entwistle was 19. They've admitted they were a little sceptical about passing themselves off as mods. Unfortunately, Townshend took all this mod stuff way too seriously when they picked Kenny Jones as their drummer. I thought that was a stupid move after working with Simon Phillips on Empty Glass.