The Who | The Who Sell Out (2CD)
Release Date: 23 April 2021
Vinyl edition
SUMMARY
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Following recent super-deluxe editions and multi-format releases of classic Who albums – ‘My Generation’, ‘Tommy’ and ‘Quadrophenia’, and the success of ‘Live at Fillmore’, we follow with The Who Sell Out – this set shaping up to be the most superlative of all…!!
- Released in December 1967 – the album reflected a remarkable year in popular culture. As well as being forever immortalised as the moment when the counterculture and the ‘Love Generation’ went global, 1967 produced tremendous musical upheavals as “pop” metamorphosed to “rock”.
- Originally planned by Pete Townshend and the band’s managers, as a loose concept album including jingles and commercials linking the songs styled as a Radio London broadcast – born out of necessity as the band’s managers wanted a new album and there weren’t enough songs.
- The original plan was to sell advertising space on the album – Jaguar cars, Coca-Cola etc. The jingles pay tribute to the pirate radio stations and expose the myths of ‘pop-culture’ and mock consumer society – way ahead of their time…
- The homage to pop-art is evident in both the advertising jingles and the iconic sleeve design – created by David King (art director at the Sunday Times) and Roger Law (who invented Spitting Image) producing four giant images for each band member – Odorono deodorant, Medac spot cream, Charles Atlas and Heinz baked beans (Roger apparently caught pneumonia from sitting in the cold beans for too long).
- Photography by renowned portrait photographer David Montgomery (rare out-takes included)
- The album is a bold depiction of the period in which it was made – the tail-end of the ‘swinging-60s’ meets pop-art mixed with psychedelia and straight-ahead pop craft. It’s glorious blend of classic powerful Who instrumentation, melodic harmonies, satirical lyrical imagery crystallised for what was only the group’s third album – the ambition and scope is unrivalled by the Who, or any others from that period.
- Within the bold concept, were a batch of fabulous and diverse songs – I Can See for Miles (a Top Ten hit) is a Who classic, Rael, a Townshend ‘mini-opera’ with musical motifs that reappeared in Tommy and the psychedelic blast of Armenia City in the Sky and Relax are among the very best material of the 1960s.
- One of the most extraordinary albums of any era – it’s The Who’s last ‘pop’ album. Two years later came Tommy – a double concept album about a deaf, dumb and blind kid…
TRACKLIST
THE WHO SELL OUT TWO CD EDITION
CD ONE THE WHO SELL OUT - MONO ALBUM
1. Armenia City in The Sky
2. Heinz Baked Beans
3. Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand
4. Odorono
5. Tattoo
6. Our Love Was
7. I Can See for Miles
8. I Can’t Reach You
9. Medac
10. Relax
11. Silas Stingy
12. Sunrise
13. Rael (+ Track Records run-off groove)
BONUS TRACKS - MONO
14. Pictures of Lily (original UK Track single mix)
15. Doctor, Doctor (original UK Track single mix)
16. The Last Time (original UK Track single mix)
17. Under My Thumb (original UK Track single mix)
18. I Can See for Miles (original UK Track single mix)
19. Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand (original US Decca single mix)
20. Someone’s Coming (original US Decca single mix)
21. Unused Radio London ad / Early Morning Cold Taxi (1967 mono mix)
22. Unused Radio London bulletin link /Jaguar (1967 mono mix)
23. Unused Radio London ad /Tattoo (early alternate mono mix)
24. Rael (Talentmasters Studio, New York early rough mix)
25. Sunn Amps promo spots
26. Great Shakes ad
Tracks 21, 24 & 25 previously unreleased
CD TWO THE WHO SELL OUT - STEREO ALBUM
1. Armenia City in The Sky
2. Heinz Baked Beans
3. Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand
4. Odorono
5. Tattoo
6. Our Love Was
7. I Can See for Miles
8. I Can’t Reach You
9. Medac
10. Relax
11. Silas Stingy
12. Sunrise
13. Rael
BONUS TRACKS – STEREO
1. Rael Naïve (complete with organ coda ending)
2. Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand (US single version)
3. Someone’s Coming
4. Summertime Blues
5. Glittering Girl
6. Early Morning Cold Taxi
7. Girl’s Eyes
8. Coke After Coke
9. Sodding About
10. Things Go Better with Coke
11. Hall of The Mountain King
12. Jaguar
13. Rael (remake; IBC version) Track Records outro