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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At last!, 23 April 2005
The Who's 1st LP, originally released in the UK on Brunswick, one of Decca's group of labels, had been unavailable in the UK for decades, due to a legal matter involving the group's defection to their manager's new Reaction label, and the ownership of the album master tapes by their former producer, Shel Talmy. Thirty-five years later, after they had almost ended up auctioned on E-bay, the 3-track masters were re-mixed by Shel Talmy into true stereo for the first time and eventually released in a lavish 2CD set, overflowing with bonus tracks of unreleased out-takes and alternative versions. It seemed too good to be true, when first announced, but it almost isn't. The stereo sound is incredibly vibrant and powerful and the Who crackle with a raw energy and with a righteous commitment from each to outdo all the others, a clash of ambition and ego which provides glorious results.There were slight variations between the UK track-list and its US release, The Who Sing My Generation, which came out later. I'm A Man was replaced by a newer recording, Circles, from 1966. This had been recorded as their intended fourth single, but had been abandoned when the band left the label (Brunswick cheekily released it later as the B-side to A Legal Matter, which was lifted off the album; they mistitled it Instant Party). Both items are included on Disc One, which also houses both sides of their first single and the UK B-side of their second (Anyway Anyhow Anywhere), which was the Otis Blackwell song Daddy Rolling Stone, covered first by Jimmy Ricks and the Ravens but known to the Who from a Sue label single by the Jamaican former-Top Note and Raven, Derek Martin. All of these are also mixed in stereo. Disc Two begins with "additional bonus tracks", the first twelve tracks comprising material unreleased at the time, though some have subsequently appeared on 1980s compilations such as Who's Missing. Exceptions to this include the James Brown song Shout And Shimmy which became the UK B-side to My Generation, and Anytime You Want Me (Garnett Mimms and the Enchanters), unreleased in the UK at the time but found on the US B-side of Anyway Anyhow Anywhere. An a cappella version is also included, as is the instrumental version of My Generation. It was the practice of the time to include well-known songs on albums and the Who's set was full of R&B, soul and Motown covers, many of which were recorded for their debut album, although Shel Talmy says in the notes that he was admirer of Pete Townshend's writing and would have been happy to include only original material. When early acetates of the sessions went out for review, the paucity of new material was commented on by Beat Instrumental reviewer John Emery, and so the release date was put back while some covers were replaced with Townshend songs: La-La-La-Lies, Much Too Much, It's Not True, A Legal Matter (featuring an early Pete Townshend lead vocal) and The Good's Gone. The replaced tracks included, as well as those mentioned, Leaving Here (a Motown cover, originally by Eddie Holland), Lubie (Come Back Home) (an adaptation of Paul Revere and the Raider's Louie Go Home), Heat Wave and Motoring (both from Martha and the Vandellas), all collected here. Leaving Here exists in a number of different forms: a 1964 demo appeared on the expanded CD version of Odds And Sods, a version from April 1965 appeared on Who's Missing, and it was also recorded for the BBC's Saturday Club programme the following month (available on The BBC Sessions). The version here is an unknown alternative take from the April 1965 session. Heat Wave was re-recorded for the album A Quick One, copying the arrangement used by the Everly Brothers, whereas its clear from this earlier version that its genesis in the Who cannon was the Motown original.
Instant Party Mixture was recorded at the same time as Circles and was to have been its flipside. Circles was later re-recorded for the Ready Steady Who EP but Instant Party Mixture never saw the light of day until this release. Full length versions of two of the album tracks follow. Their version of I Don't Mind is considerably adapted from James Brown's original, whether by design or out of necessity for a 3-piece group and a singer, and benefits from the extra minute or so, while what The Good's Gone owes to its inspiration, The Kink's See My Friends, is made much clearer by the guitar on the extended fade. Incidentally, See My Friends and other Kink titles were produced by Shel Talmy on 14 April 1965 at Pye Studios, while the Who were at IBC Studios cutting Anyway Anyhow Anywhere and several tracks for this album with the same producer. He must have been quite busy. The band's extraordinary second single, Anyway Anyhow Anywhere, is unfortunately not included, but a rare early version with a slightly different title, which was released by accident on a French EP in 1966, takes its place. Apparently it was impossible to include a stereo mix of the released version as the vocal overdubs had been performed directly onto the final mono mix-down, a common practice at the time in order to minimize tape hiss. This same practice affects the stereo presentation of a number of the album tracks, which are missing those final touches that were added at the mixing stage. These include vital guitar parts and some back-up vocals on My Generation and A Legal Matter, John Entwistle's french horn playing on Circles and vocal overdubs for La-La-La Lies and Much Too Much. This is partially addressed by the final two tracks on Disc Two, which are "monaural versions with guitar overdubs" (the great original mono versions of A Legal Matter and My Generation), and is made up for by the chance to hear these historic tracks in full stereo for the first time. All of what is found here is so important and so fantastic to hear after all this time, and in such high quality sound, that one really doesn't want to carp. However, it would surely have been a good idea to have the entire original mono album on the second half of Disc One, with its three bonus tracks added to the second disc, along with the original mono version of Anyway Anyhow Anywhere, a top ten hit in the UK after all, and perhaps the Who's Missing version of Leaving Here. Maybe next time
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![My Generation [Deluxe Edition]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518041EDGvL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
