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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 6:39 pm 
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First, a disclaimer: Yes, many Who recordings have been released multiple times as either best-of compilations or expanded, deluxe albums. This is apparently quite offensive to people who feel that if they already own a particular song or album, it must never again be made available to any other consumer in any way, shape or form, and that to do so is a sign of unforgivable greed, prompting posts containing predictable complaints about “another who re re re release”. Therefore, reader discretion is advised.

OK. The question now is: What sorts of possibilities exist for a super deluxe version of “Who Are You”?

“Who Are You” was released in the UK on August 18, 1978, a little over a month after the first single “Who Are You”/“Had Enough” was released in July. Eighteen years later, on November 19, 1996, MCA/Polydor released an expanded “Who Are You” from nine tracks to fourteen, remastering, remixing, and at time even replacing material from the original album. Eighteen years after that reissue, this bonus track version of the album remains the default edition, save for a recent Japanese mini-sleeve reissue.

This Japanese edition restored the album tracks to their original mixes (besides remixing and remastering the album, the 1996 remaster replaced certain guitar and vocal parts, among other changes) and also upgraded one of the bonus tracks, a demo version of “No Road Romance”, using a recently unearthed recording with band overdubs. Although Polydor/MCA once quietly reissued “A Quick One” with stereo tracks replacing mono tracks used on the 1995 expanded version, this Japanese upgrade apparently has yet to be released elsewhere.

On a personal level, I own four different versions of “Who Are You” on CD—the 9-track original MCA version, the 10-track MFSL gold disc, the 1996 14-track remaster and the aforementioned recent Japanese mini-sleeve. (I also have at least one vinyl copy.) What bothers me most about the current status of the album is twofold: First, I wish the revamped Japanese version was more widely available, and second, some of the session information contained in the 1996 booklet has since been shown as incorrect. As with any Who-related recording session, I would love to see a more detailed Who sessionography for the “Who Are You” sessions. (That said, the Matt Resnicoff essay in the 1996 “Who Are You” booklet is a great read and well worth including in all future editions of the album.)

So…to create an expanded version of “Who Are You”, what should be included? What could be included?

I. ALTERNATE MIXES

1-9 Original album mixes
10-18 1996 album remixes
19. Guitar And Pen (Alternate Mix) (from the MFSL gold disc version)
20. Guitar And Pen (Olympic ’78 Mix)
21. Love Is Coming Down (Work-In-Progress Mix)
22. Who Are You (Lost Verse Mix)
23. Who Are You (“Kids Are Alright” movie mix)

Three of the five bonus tracks on the 1996 edition are alternate mixes. In addition, the MFSL gold disc version of “Who Are You”, released in the early 1990’s contains an alternate mix of “Guitar And Pen” (different from the “Olympic ’78 Mix”) which is unavailable elsewhere. The problem with a collection containing such mix variations, however, is that the differences between some of them are slight enough as to be indistinguishable to the vast majority of listeners. (The version of “Who Are You” seen in the film “The Kids Are Alright” is yet another alternate version, as yet unavailable on compact disc as well.) Part of the reason for all of these various remixes is that the band apparently rejected mixes prepared by Glyn Johns, the original producer on the album, leaving his assistant, John Astley to assure the producer role and create the final mixes without any input from Johns. (Johns’ recent autobiography “Sound Man” apparently contains no discussion of the “Who Are You” sessions.)

This also illustrates another issue with any attempt to expand “Who Are You” into a multi-disc set: Given the circumstances under which the album was recorded, and the recording techniques used, there simply isn’t much in the way of alternate versions to include. Although John Entwistle was reportedly present for much of the recording (in addition to writing three song on “Who Are You”, he was also working on the soundtracks for both “The Kids Are Alright” and the “Quadrophenia” movie), Townshend typically preferred recording during the day, Daltrey during the evening, and Keith Moon was in such poor physical condition due to his drug and alcohol abuse that most of his drumming was recorded towards the end of the sessions, during a 10-day spell of sobriety. This obviously means that no live band recordings are heard on “Who Are You”, and any alternate versions could really only be hybrids—“alternate takes” created at a mixing board.

II. OUTTAKES

1. No Road Romance (Pete Demo)
2. No Road Romance (Pete Demo with Band Overdubs) (Japanese version only)
3. Empty Glass (Pete Demo with Band Overdubs)
4. Never Ask Me (Pete Demo) (from “Another Scoop”)
5. Overture (Entwistle) (from expanded edition of “Too Late The Hero”)

It also appears that neither Townshend nor Entwistle brought a wealth of extra material to the sessions. The 1996 edition includes rough demos of two additional Townshend songs—“No Road Romance” and “Empty Glass”, the latter of which Townshend would record as the title track of his 1980 solo album. In late 1976 and early 1977, Townshend recorded “Rough Mix” with Ronnie Lane; weary of his obligations to the Who, and months prior to the release of “Who Are You”, he publically announced that he would not tour to support the album.

In parsing the liner notes for Townshend’s three “Scoop” volumes, the only additional Townshend song which might be characterized as a “Who Are You” outtake is “Never Ask Me”, from “Another Scoop”, recorded on 3/30/77; Townshend, in his liner notes states that “[i]t wasn’t used by the band”, but Townshend’s memory of such matters has been shown to be faulty (he made a similar, ultimately incorrect claim about “Melancholia”).

With Keith Moon still alive, a main objective of the band in 1977-78 was the production of several films; one film planned but never produced was “Lifehouse”, the project which had spawned most of the songs heard on “Who’s Next” back in 1971. This proposed revival of “Lifehouse” apparently prompted several new songs from Pete used on “Who Are You”, including “Sister Disco”, “Music Must Change”, “New Song” and the title track. (As with anything Lifehouse-related, the relation of these songs to "Lifehouse" is clear to Pete and nobody else.)

In his written notes included with the MFSL version of “Who Are You”, Pete claims that John Entwistle’s “905” was written for the revived “Lifehouse” project, but his memory appears to be incorrect here as well. According to Entwistle, both “905” and “Had Enough” were actually written for a sci-fi concept album which was never completed; instead, both songs, along with “Trick Of The Light,” wound up on “Who Are You”. The only other Entwistle track ever to surface from this aborted sci-fi project is an instrumental, “Overture”, which was included as a bonus track on the 2005 Sanctuary reissue of Entwistle’s 1981 solo album “Too Late The Hero”. According to the liner notes, “Overture” was recorded at Rampart Studios on 11/2/77, and is arguably thus a bona fide “Who Are You” outtake, despite an apparent lack of input by Daltrey, Moon and Townshend.

III. DEMOS

1. Who Are You (from “Lifehouse Chronicles”)
2. New Song (from “Lifehouse Elements”)
3. Sister Disco (from “Lifehouse Chronicles”)
4. Music Must Change (from “Lifehouse Chronicles”)
5. Meher Baba M4 (Signal Box) (from “Psychoderelict (Music Only)”)
6. Love Is Coming Down (BOOTLEG ONLY)
7. Guitar And Pen (BOOTLEG ONLY)

Of the six Townshend compositions on the final album, demos for three of them (“Who Are You”, “Sister Disco” and “Music Must Change”) were officially released on Pete’s 6-disc “Lifehouse Chronicles” boxed set; “New Song” was released on the single disc “Lifehouse Chronicles”. “Meher Baba M4 (Signal Box)”, a Townshend demo from which the instrumental break in “Who Are You” was at least partly based, was used in “Psychoderelict” and can be heard without dialogue, on the “Psychoderelict (Music Only)” disc. Finally, demos for the remaining two songs remain officially unreleased, but are readily available through, er, the usual bootleg sources,

In addition, John Astley has had this to say about the original “Who Are You” demo:
Quote:
“[Pete] came in with a 24-track demo of 'Who Are You' which was about 22 minutes long, and this consisted of one extra verse and chorus and a middle section that just went on and on into Neverland…Originally, it had gone on for about 15 minutes…The stuff I cut out included Pete fiddling on piano and more acoustic guitar parts. I'd love to know what happened to it all. It must be on a reel somewhere, and it might be worth digging up... I bet it's down the road from here. Can you imagine putting together the original 20-minute version? The only problem is, most of it wouldn't have any lead guitar...”

As for Entwistle—he, too often composed songs at his home by recording demos, although it appears that his home studio did not have the 24-track capability that Townshend's did. Other Entwistle demos appeared on the Sanctuary reissues of his solo albums, and it is certainly possible that home demo recordings of his three “Who Are You” songs exist.

IV. LIVE PERFORMANCES

The Who performed only one live concert during the “Who Are You” sessions, but it was both professionally recorded and filmed—the 12/15/77 Kilburn performance, staged for the “Kids Are Alright” documentary and finally issued as the “Live At Kilburn” DVD. Very little of this show has been made available as a separate CD-only release, and could certainly justify an expansion of “Who Are You”, although only the title track was played at the show (and somewhat sloppily at that).

As mentioned, there was never any intention of a “Who Are You” tour to coincide with the album’s release, and in the intervening years, only “Who Are You” has been performed on all subsequent tours, with “Sister Disco” appearing on set lists through 1989 (including a 1979 version released on the “Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea” album) and being revived again in 2008. “Music Must Change” was played from 1979 through 1981, and “Trick Of The Light” was played regularly in 1989 (appearing on the “Join Together” boxed set.)

Finally, Enwistle’s “Left For Live”, a 1999 album of live performances from a 1998-99, contains live versions of both “Had Enough” and “905”, and “Left For Live Deluxe”, an expanded edition released in 2003, adds “Trick Of The Light” from the same tour.

V. MISC

There are some single edits floating around. The more common single edit trims the song from 6:30 to 5:05, while a rarer edit (found on the Japanese version of “Greatest Hits & More) trims it again to 3:29 and removes the F-words.

Also, “Trick Of The Light” was also released as a single in the US, and reportedly trimmed down to about three-and-a-half minutes for release. The recent “Who Hits 50” comp was originally announced as containing a “shorter album version” (whatever that is) of “Trick Of The Light”, but as far as I know (no, I’ve not yet purchased this comp) this did not happen.

Despite being a well-loved Who album, it is a shame how “Who Are You” seems overlooked in an era which has seen multiple repackagings of “Live At Leeds”, “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia”. While not out-of-print, the odds of finding a new copy of the album on the shelf of any given brick-and-mortar retailer seems remote at best, and despite the dozens of Who compilations that have hit the market over the years, very few of them have contained anything from the “Who Are You” album besides the title song.

Barring the discovery of something “new” and never-before-discussed or previously bootlegged, hopefully this brief examination at least provides either a starting point for what might show up on expanded edition of “Who Are You”, or an illustration of why such a title has never been created.

Now…ALL THAT SAID…what did I miss?

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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 4:22 am 
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Stumpy Joe wrote:
23. Who Are You (“Kids Are Alright” movie mix)


This isn't an alternate mix, it's a completely different (or at least almost completely different) performance of the song. It's not an alternate take either, as it was recorded months after the master take of the track had already been completed. Definitely worthy of inclusion, as it's a fine performance in its own right.

Quote:
Now…ALL THAT SAID…what did I miss?


The only other thing I can think of is the Shepperton jams of Barbara Ann (in TKAA) and I Saw Her Standing There (unreleased). Sloppy but entertaining.


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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 6:55 am 
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You beat me to it Jason. These are the exact things that I was going to mention.


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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 10:20 am 
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If such an expanded edition ever came about, I'd be afraid that Pete would insist on (and Roger would allow) a minimal of new Who music. That's what happened with the recent Tommy and Quadrophenia box sets. No new Who music. I always welcome a disc or two of Pete demos, but they should be balanced by unheard band music. These were, after all, Who albums, not Pete Townshend albums.


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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 3:28 pm 
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Yeah, that's precisely why the Quadrophenia Deluxe Edition had little interest for me. Townshend demos of Who songs are interesting to hear once or twice to get insight into the creative process, but they sound sterile and don't hold up to repeated listenings in most cases. A Quad box set that had zero unreleased music by the Who (neither outtakes nor live material) was to me a waste of time. It's the singer (and band) not the song that makes the music move along, Pete.


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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 4:41 pm 
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There's also a live, embryonic version of "Who Are You" on the "Live At Kilburn 1977" DVD. It's the only time that Keith played the song onstage and it's great to hear the band doing it before Pete had actually finished writing it.


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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 5:52 pm 
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Townshend's demos are a classic example of recordings that, as bootlegs, were highly sought out by collectors, but as official releases, are seen as a ripoff. I've been collecting them for years, but listening to them is akin to learning how a magician performs his tricks--going all the way back to the Shel Talmy era, it is apparent that Townshend was arriving at the studio with fully written and arranged songs which the band then used to learn their parts; often, particularly during the 1970's, when Townshend's home studio had 24-track capability, they would record their bass/vocal/drum parts directly onto the demo recording.

Again, I'd love to hear a tape of the four members of the Who rehearsing the "Who Are You" songs (or the "Quadrophenia" songs) live in the studio, but given the excitement over the discovery and release of a Townshend demo with previously unheard Entwistle/Moon overdubs a couple of years ago, if such a tape exists, I'd have to think that it would have been officially released by now (certainly Jon Astley, who co-produced the original album and still works for the Who, would be aware of such a tape.) Again, all I've read about these sessions is the extent of the band's dysfunction--Pete and Roger actively avoided one another as much as possible, and Moon reportedly spent most of his time wasting everybody else's time.

That said, the "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" book mentions numerous occasions where Jeff Stein filmed the band, both individually and collectively, at multiple locations in 1977 and 11978--footage which was mostly unused in the final cut of "The Kids Are Alright". I know that I was disappointed that the 2-disc DVD of about ten years ago contained very little unseen footage and no unused music--the release of the Kilborn show on DVD would seem to indicate that the unused footage was never scrapped. After listening to a recent podcast interview with Andrew Sandoval, I have to wonder if the problem with the unused KAA footage shot by Stein is simply that there is no money available to properly screen and catalog and archive the footage that they do have.

There were some live-in-the-studio tracks recorded by the Who (with Kenny Jones and, I believe, John Bundrick) in 1979 that have popped up over the years ("Sister Disco" on the "Thirty Years Of Maximum R & B Live" video and "The Real Me" on the "Thirty Years" boxed set).

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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 10:36 pm 
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Stumpy Joe wrote:
So…to create an expanded version of “Who Are You”, what should be included?


Marbles, and a scarf

A Guitar, and a Pen !! :ohyes:


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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 11:37 pm 
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Stumpy Joe wrote:
The Who performed only one live concert during the “Who Are You” sessions, but it was both professionally recorded and filmed—the 12/15/77 Kilburn performance, staged for the “Kids Are Alright” documentary and finally issued as the “Live At Kilburn” DVD.


Somehow I overlooked this comment in your initial post. The Who actually performed two staged live shows during the WAY sessions: The 1977 Kilburn show and a May 25, 1978 mini set at Shepperton Studios (done because Kilburn was considered such a disappointment). The Shepperton show was the one from which The Kids Are Alright performances of Baba and WGFA were drawn. They only did 8 different songs, but I'd love to hear the complete audio of this:

Baba O'Riley
My Wife
Won't Get Fooled Again
Substitute
I Can't Explain
Magic Bus
Summertime Blues
My Generation
My Wife (second version)
Won't Get Fooled Again (second version)


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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 11:52 pm 
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Stumpy Joe wrote:
Townshend's demos are a classic example of recordings that, as bootlegs, were highly sought out by collectors, but as official releases, are seen as a ripoff.


It's not so much that I see them as a ripoff, as that they hold less interest to me than other stuff that could be released instead. In the case of the Quad Deluxe Edition, there should have been at least one live disc of the band performing Quadrophenia in 1973. Precious little from that tour has been released, and it's something fans have been looking for for years. As you noted there are likely little in the way of alternate takes, given the way the band recorded Quadrophenia, but I know there's at least two unreleased tracks (Electronic Wizardry and Bank Holiday) that were omitted, and they should have stuck We Close Tonight and Four Faces on there as well. And I suspect they could have found something in the way of alternates, even if it was the same basic tracks with just an alternate vocal or alternate drum part. Two discs of demos to the exclusion of all these other things is too much, in my opinion.


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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 3:30 am 
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Jason Czeskleba wrote:
Stumpy Joe wrote:
Townshend's demos are a classic example of recordings that, as bootlegs, were highly sought out by collectors, but as official releases, are seen as a ripoff.


It's not so much that I see them as a ripoff, as that they hold less interest to me than other stuff that could be released instead. In the case of the Quad Deluxe Edition, there should have been at least one live disc of the band performing Quadrophenia in 1973. Precious little from that tour has been released, and it's something fans have been looking for for years. As you noted there are likely little in the way of alternate takes, given the way the band recorded Quadrophenia, but I know there's at least two unreleased tracks (Electronic Wizardry and Bank Holiday) that were omitted, and they should have stuck We Close Tonight and Four Faces on there as well. And I suspect they could have found something in the way of alternates, even if it was the same basic tracks with just an alternate vocal or alternate drum part. Two discs of demos to the exclusion of all these other things is too much, in my opinion.

The big question I have about the "Quadrophenia" sessions is "5:15"--it's the only song that Townshend didn't demo, and by all accounts, the basic track was created entirely in the studio by the band on 6/27/73. Brass and vocal overdubs were recorded in July, but I have to wonder if any session tape was saved from that 6/27 session. Hell, I'd just like to hear eyewitness accounts of that session, but the Who themselves are notorious for forgetting such details.

Lately, I've been reading quite a bit about Ramport, the Studio that the Who built in the 1970's where they recorded much of "Quadrophenia" and "Who Are You". It had three separate isolation booths; Townshend claimed that at the time it opened, that it was the only studio in London with as many. This was done so that a band could play live and hear each other, yet record their parts separately. The problem is that after building this special feature, the Who apparently never used it themselves.

In the meantime, I'm trying to compile a timeline for the "Who Are You" sessions. We'll see.

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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 9:36 am 
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Any idea when it was finished? I've read stories about it leaking water from rain while they were recording Quad.


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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 4:36 am 
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OK, here's a rough version of the chronology I've gleaned from several sources, although I have books packed away somewhere that I need to dig out. (In pasting this, I've lost much of my formatting.)

October 21, 1976—An early version of “Who Are You” is played at the final concert of the Who’s 1975-76 “Who By Numbers” tour in Toronto.

Late 1976-Early 1977—During this time:
1) November 1976 through March 1977 Roger recorded his solo album “One Of The Boys” at the Who’s Ramport Studios and at Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris
2) September 1976-Spring 1977: Pete recorded “Rough Mix” with Ronnie Lane at Olympic Studios in London, with some work being also done at Lane’s mobile studio.
3) John Entwistle was in the UK. He contributed to the “Rough Mix” album
4) Keith Moon was in California
5) At some point during this period, the Who’s 1966 single “Substitute” was reissued in the UK and reportedly made it back into the Top 10, although I need to corroborate this.

January 20, 1977—Events occurring this day inspired Pete to write “Who Are You”. Reader’s Digest Condensed Version: After spending hours in a business meeting negotiating a settlement with Allen Klein, Pete went to a bar where he ran into two of the Sex Pistols, Steve Jones and Paul Cook (a photo exists of this meeting!) Distressed to learn that they were Who fans, Pete tore up his settlement check. In his autobiography, Pete states that he wrote “Who Are You” the “next day”.

January 21, 1977—After having passed out in a Soho doorway, Pete is awakened by a police officer who recognized him.

March 30, 1977—Pete records “Never Ask Me” at his home studio. In the liner notes for “Another Scoop”, released in 1987, Pete wrote, “This song was carefully constructed as an alternative ballad for the WHO ARE YOU album. It wasn't used by the band.”

April 22, 1977—UK single release of “Written On The Wind”, Roger’s first single from “One Of The Boys”

May 20, 1977—“One Of The Boys” released in the UK. (US release date: 6/11/77)

June, 1977—Although dates for many Townshend demos can be difficult to determine, the demo for “Who Are You” was reportedly made at Pete’s home studio in June.

June 23, 1977—In California, Moon makes a guest appearance at a Led Zeppelin concert.

July, 1977—Moon returns to the UK and rehearses with the rest of the Who at Shepperton Studios. These rehearsals were filmed for “The Kids Are Alright”. Moon and Entwistle also both appear in Roger’s “Say It Ain’t So” video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bVGTVrQd6M

August, 1977—Moon returns to California, where scenes for “The Kids Are Alright” are filmed

September 16, 1977—“Rough Mix” released in the UK.

September 19, 1977—“Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere” states that this was the official start to the “Who Are You” sessions, with a band rehearsal at Ramport indicating that Moon was back in the UK. Notes:
1) All sources seem to indicate that most, if not all of Moon’s drumming was recorded at Ramport Studios in April of 1978. Therefore, it remains possible that (a) the session data as is currently known indicates only when the basic track was recorded and not any overdubs or percussion.)
2) As noted, Pete’s demos were recorded at his home studio. Entwistle had a home studio as well. However, the bulk of “Who Are You” was recorded at Ramport Studios, which the Who owned. Co-producer (with Jon Asltey) Glyn Johns apparently preferred Olympic Studios to Rampart, and it would appear that he did at least some mixing at Olympic, but only “Had Enough” seems to have actually been at least partially recorded at Olympic. Finally, in March, there were three sessions at RAK studios in London.
3) Glyn Johns: Jon Astley (Pete’s former brother-in-law) worked on the album as Johns’ assistant from start to finish, and was ultimately given co-producer credit. Several reasons for Johns’ partial absence have been given:
a) Johns had a prior commitment to produce an album for Joan Armatrading. In October of 1977, Armatrading’s “Show Some Emotion” (also produced by Johns) was released, so the album in question is almost certainly “To The Limit”, released in September, 1978. “To The Limit” was recorded at Olympic Studios, but I have not been able to pinpoint exactly when it was recorded, although April, 1978 seems a likely possibility.
b) Johns’ original mix of the album was rejected by the band. Jon Astley then remixed the entire album by himself.
c) Johns and Daltrey did not get along at all, and at one point their disagreement became physical. Following this incident, Astley, and not Johns, produced the sessions in which Roger performed his vocal tracks—usually in the evening. Notes on the Johns-Daltrey fight:
(i) Daltrey states the the fight was prompted by Daltrey’s disparagement of the strings on “Had Enough.” This places the altercation in December. According to Daltrey, “I think he smacked me and I smacked him and that's how we were in those days.” John Astley, however, states that Daltrey “nutted” Johns after Johns called Daltrey “a little c--t”. Of course Daltrey, at 5’6”, objected to being called “little”.
(ii) Jon Astley has stated that the fight actually centered on “Sister Disco”—which would have placed the fight in October. Daltrey had complained that the track sounded “overproduced”.
(iii) Richard Barnes, in “Maximum R & B”, cites Astley in stating that the altercation took place after Townshend’s early 1978 hand injury—which would have been March—and the altercation started after Daltrey complained about the lack of bass in the rough mix of an unnamed Townshend demo.

September 30, 1977—According to the booklet with the 1996 reissue of “Who Are You”, Ted Astley’s string overdubs for “Had Enough” were recorded this day. However, this appears to be wrong, and this date does not appear in the current discography notes on the Who’s official website.

October 1977—“New Song” (October 24th and 27th), “Who Are You” (no further info), “Love Is Coming Down”(October 18th) and “Sister Disco” (no further info) were all reportedly recorded at Ramport this month. Andy Fairweather-Low contributed backing vocals on all four of these tracks.

November 2, 1977—Entwistle records “Overture” at Ramport. In 2005, this appeared a bonus track on the expanded version of “Too Late The Hero”

November 7, 1977—Pete appears on a UK radio show called “Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It” and plays four demos: “Sister Disco”, “Who Are You”, “Love Is Coming Down” (each recorded at Ramport the previous month) and “I Like It The Way It Is”. A version of the last song, with added orchestra recorded September of 1978, was released on “Scoop 3” in 2001. The original demo, along with “Love Is Coming Down”, remains officially unreleased.

December, 1977—As mentioned, the strings for “Had Enough and Love Is Coming Down”—arranged by Ted Astley, Pete’s father-in-law and Jon’s father—were recorded at Ramport in December. “Had Enough” was recorded at Olympic Studios.

January-February, 1978—During this time:
1) Entwistle was filmed in sequences for “The Kids Are Alright”
2) From January 16th through March 31st, Roger was filming a movie, “The Legacy”, in the UK. The extent to which this kept him away from the studio is unclear; it would appear that he may well have simply recorded his remaining vocals in April (as Moon did) but there is no indication one way or the other as to whether he at all participated in any of the March recording activities (save for the above scenario in which he supposedly fought with Johns in March.) “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere” also states that Daltrey missed “a fortnight after a throat infection required an operation”.
3) Townshend was reportedly out for all of February with a hand injury. Although pinpointing the exact dates of this injury are elusive, nothing contradicts this.
4) Moon--??? I need to dig out my copy of Tony Fletcher’s book and see if there is anything in there about what Moon was up to that month.

March 6—John “Rabbit” Bundrick, keyboard player on many subsequent tours, auditioned for the band, then went out drinking with Keith. At some point that evening, he fell out of a taxi, broke his wrist, and wound up not appearing on the album

March 13, 14, 16, 1978—The Who recorded at RAK studios near London, a move intended to give the band the impetus to bear down and finish the album. There is quite a bit of drama that one might infer from this change of venues.
1) Barnes states that Glyn Johns was behind the move to RAK, which makes sense—six months into the sessions, only five songs had been recorded, and only partially at that. His commitment to the Armatrading album (which, again, was released only six months later) undoubtedly loomed large.
2) John Entwistle took advantage of Townshend’s relative dearth of new material—the album would contain an unprecedented three Entwistle compositions, and two of them—“Trick Of The Light” and “905”—were recorded at these RAK sessions, as was Townshend’s “Guitar And Pen”. (Was “Guitar And Pen” written during Pete’s month off? For whatever reason, he did not preview the song during his radio appearance the prior November.)
3) Unfortunately, the RAK sessions were not successful, partly because of a mishap where part of “905” was accidently erased, but primarily because of Moon’s condition. It was after one of the RAK sessions that Townshend, and probably Entwisle (among others) went out to dinner with Moon at a nearby restaurant and essentially informed him that if he didn’t make some major lifestyle changes and get his crap together, he would be kicked out of the band. It kind of blows my mind that the conversation apparently occurred in a public place.

April—Back to Ramport. All indications are that Johns was not present for any of these sessions, possibly because of his commitment to Joan Amatrading, but also because he was indifferent at best to the Who at this point (he does not discuss the “Who Are You” sessions at all in his recent autobiography).
1) It is agreed by all that it was in April when Moon was able to get sober enough to record all of his drum parts at Ramport.
2) According to Barnes, the final song recorded for the album was “Music Must Change” in April. The 1996 reissue of “Who Are You” featured demos of “No Road Romance” and “Empty Glass”. Two years prior to becoming the title track of a Townshend solo album, “Empty Glass” was called “Choirboy”, and when a band version of the song “wasn’t working out”, Townshend recorded a demo of “Music Must Change” over the weekend in his home studio and brought it in the following Monday. Moon, however, was unable to play the drum part in the required 6/8 time. Many accounts state that it was his frustration with this song which prompted Moon to make his oft-quoted statement that he “was the best Keith Moon-type drummer in the world.”

May-June 1978: Final mixing. Johns was apparently back at this point to put together a mix of the album at Olympic Studios with Jon Astley. The band rejected this mix; what would become the final mix was created by Jon Astley—without Johns—at CTS studios.

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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Wed Jan 14, 2015 9:22 pm 
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George

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Stumpy Joe - That was an awesome read! Thank you, the fan boy in me is now satiated.


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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 2:55 am 
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Proud enemy of the United States--again!

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gainsworth wrote:
Stumpy Joe - That was an awesome read! Thank you, the fan boy in me is now satiated.

Seriously--thank you. Like I said, what I originally wrote was easier to read because I could format it.

I realize that much of it is likely conjecture, but when I started to organize this info chronologically--and looked up info on the locations and history of the various recording studios used by the band--suddenly the conflicts involved in the making of this album made sense.

One fact I forgot to include--It has been said that the reason the album cover/design of "Who Are You" is so pedestrian is because the band members had informally rotated the job amongst themselves--Townshend had designed the contents of "Quadrophenia", Daltrey came up with "Odds & Sods", Entwistle drew the cover for "The Who By Numbers. For "Who Are You", it was Moon's turn, but he never came up with any ideas. The cover photo was shot in May at about the time of the Shepperton filming.

Oh--and speaking of Shepperton Studios--today I looked it up on Google Maps and discovered that security there isn't the greatest--the Google Street View car managed to get through the front gate and drive around and photograph a good chunk of the property
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Shepp ... feb909006f

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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 5:44 pm 
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Pure Evil Gold!!

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Wasn't The Who By Numbers supposed to come out as a two disc deluxe set?

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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 11:01 pm 
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I was listening to Who's Next today and realized that the Who's catalogue is overdue for a remastering. I know this will make Renny's head explode, but the technology has come too far not to clean these up (or maybe they just need a different producer). It's time for this thundering rhythm section to be given its due mastering-wise. Listen to the new Zeps next to the Who's catalogue. It's night and day.

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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 11:22 pm 
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Dr. Chris Evil wrote:
Wasn't The Who By Numbers supposed to come out as a two disc deluxe set?


Yes, later this year supposedly.

I want that one-always liked it.

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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 1:31 pm 
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Pure Evil Gold!!

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Smiff wrote:
I was listening to Who's Next today and realized that the Who's catalogue is overdue for a remastering. I know this will make Renny's head explode, but the technology has come too far not to clean these up (or maybe they just need a different producer). It's time for this thundering rhythm section to be given its due mastering-wise. Listen to the new Zeps next to the Who's catalogue. It's night and day.


Really? I thought the Astley remasters from the '90s and '00s were just fine (yeah, I realize I'm opening myself up to a war by saying this).

Unless, of course, you're talking about going back to the original mixes (all or most of the Astley stuff was remixed). I suppose that might be good.

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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 3:23 pm 
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Dr. Chris Evil wrote:
Smiff wrote:
I was listening to Who's Next today and realized that the Who's catalogue is overdue for a remastering. I know this will make Renny's head explode, but the technology has come too far not to clean these up (or maybe they just need a different producer). It's time for this thundering rhythm section to be given its due mastering-wise. Listen to the new Zeps next to the Who's catalogue. It's night and day.


Really? I thought the Astley remasters from the '90s and '00s were just fine (yeah, I realize I'm opening myself up to a war by saying this).

Unless, of course, you're talking about going back to the original mixes (all or most of the Astley stuff was remixed). I suppose that might be good.

Apparently the Japanese remasters which came out in mini-sleeves about three years ago all went back to the original mixes.

As for expanding "The Who By Numbers", one alternative is obvious: release it with a complete 1975-76 show--about half of the 1976 Swansea concert remains bootleg-only, but other stuff has popped up in recent years--that 1975 Texas DVD, or maybe the Silverdome show, a portion of which was included in "The Kids Are Alright". It all depends on what's in the archives and whether the Who owns the multitrack masters.

"The Who By Numbers" was recorded at Shepperton studios, which the band tended to use for band rehearsals, but no session tapes have ever surfaced, either officially or via bootleg, and I don't even think that any of Townshend's demos (which haven't yet been officially released) have been bootlegged. As a result, there's not much in-depth background on the making of the album. Townshend has stated something to the effect that little to nothing he wrote for the album went unused, indicating that there are no outtakes, but apparently a full-band version of "Blue, Red & Grey" was recorded.

Just a guess here, but it appears that both Daltrey and Townshend are, at best, indifferent to "The Who By Numbers" and "Who Are You"--and possibly to the idea of expanding either one. As the 70's progressed, Townshend became less and less interested in writing songs tailored to Daltrey and the Who, and Daltrey apparently began to question the stuff Pete was writing. One thing that set the "Quadrophenia" super-deluxe box apart from the "Leeds" and "Tommy" boxes is the active role that Pete took in creating the "Quadrophenia" box. (He took a similar role in creating the "Tommy" CD-ROM" back in the 90's; I wish that the materials he had provided for that project--handwritten lyrics, etc--could somehow have been incorporated in the mega-box.)

Also--another notion that popped into my head about the "Who Are You" recording history: At the time that the Who began planning the "Who Are You" sessions, they were also planning to produce four movies: "The Kids Are Alright", "Quadrophenia", "McVicar" and "Lifehouse". The first three movies were all produced, but what isn't clear is exactly when the plans for the "Lifehouse" revival were scrapped (and why). What I noticed, however, is that the songs Townshend purportedly wrote for the "Lifehouse" film were all recorded prior to the two-month recording break that the band took in January-February 1978.

As for an expanded "Who's Next"--I'd buy it in a heartbeat, although it would be hard to find content that would top the "Lifehouse Chronicles" 6-disc box.

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 Post subject: Expanding "Who Are You" into a deluxe edition: What could be included?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 5:12 pm 
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0023158

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Dr. Chris Evil wrote:
Smiff wrote:
I was listening to Who's Next today and realized that the Who's catalogue is overdue for a remastering. I know this will make Renny's head explode, but the technology has come too far not to clean these up (or maybe they just need a different producer). It's time for this thundering rhythm section to be given its due mastering-wise. Listen to the new Zeps next to the Who's catalogue. It's night and day.


Really? I thought the Astley remasters from the '90s and '00s were just fine (yeah, I realize I'm opening myself up to a war by saying this).

Unless, of course, you're talking about going back to the original mixes (all or most of the Astley stuff was remixed). I suppose that might be good.


I've always thought the Astley's were fine too--until I listened right after listening to Zep II. IMO they aren't up to 2015 standards.

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