What makes this recording especially refreshing is that while it seemed as if the entire pop culture was taking itself much too seriously during the Summer of Love, The Who were willing to inject a bit of whimsy into the proceedings. In the process they produced some of their most enduring songs: the acoustic charm of "Mary Anne with the Shaky Hands," the tongue-in-cheek "Tattoo," the lovely "Our Love Was" with its razor sharp electric guitar break coupled with Townsend's beautiful acoustic playing and Entwistle's French horn accents, and then there's the ultimate Who single "I Can See for Miles." [It would be the first and only time The Who would reach the top ten in America!]

Other standout tracks include "Relax," "Sunrise" and "Rael," which was a mini-opera along the lines of "A Quick One While He's Away." Since much of the material was more subdued than earlier songs like "My Generation" or "I'm a Boy" little of this album other than "I Can See for Miles" found its way into the band's live shows. That is not, however, meant to diminish the power of these songs.

Like the other remastered Who albums in this series, there is an abundance of bonus tracks. In addition to several previously unreleased commercials, there's the Entwistle-penned "Someone's Coming" (sung by Roger Daltry!), the instrumental guitar workout "Hall of the Mountain King" (based on Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite") and an alternate version of "Mary Anne with the Shaky Hands" featuring Al Kooper on organ. Several other bonus tracks first appeared on The Who's Thirty Years of Maximum R&B. I have a minor quarrel with this duplication, but it is nice to hear these bonus tracks in conjunction with the original album. Plus, if you didn't spring for the TYOMR&B box set, these are all truly bonus tracks. ESSENTIAL


a totally unique masterpiece   March 9, 2000
22 out of 24 found this review helpful

If I were new to this page, I certainly would think that these reviews were from a bunch of biased Who fanatics (and actually, they probably are). But if you're not (a biased Who fanatic), don't let that scare you off. This is a legitimate 5 star album, vastly underrated and relatively overlooked in the Who's ouvre. You don't have to be British, or even grow up in the sixties to appreciate the humor and musical sensibilities here, though it probably would help if you knew something of pirate radio and the Summer of Love. What keeps this album totally fresh, though, is the songs themselves. This was before Townshend weighed himself down with the Tommy and Lifehouse projects, where he was too busy making the Next Big Statement to lower himself to just write great pop songs. And this album is full of them: Armenia City in the Sky, Tatoo (check out the fantastic live version on Leeds!), Sunrise (breathtakingly beautiful), Relax, Odorano (works on multiple levels), Our Love Was, etc. Oh yeah, I Can See For Miles, maybe the BEST Who song, is here as well. Oh, and we wouldn't want to forget Mary-Ann With the Shaky Hands, now would we (nudge, nudge, wink, wink, knowwhotImean?)

I'm certainly not going to say I don't like Tommy. For all its overblown pomposity, it still has some of Townshend's best thematic inventions and guitar playing. But it does sound somewhat forced.

I'm certainly not going to say I don't like Who's Next. Considering it was compiled with the remnants of the aborted Lifehouse project, it has a surprising sonic intensity and cohesiveness, plus it's the best SOUNDING Who album, and gave them their arena rock anthem.

I'm not saying I don't like Live at Leeds. To the poltergiest that was present to magically capture that sound in that hall on that night, I say thank you, thank you, thank you. You'll never hear another live album like it, that is, if you ever hear it. And you really should.

But, all in all, this is the Who at their best in the studio. It's not as sonically impressive as Who's Next, but really, with all its other merits, Who cares?


PARADIGM OF POP ART CONCEPT ALBUM ROCK   February 15, 2000
Steve Fisch (Southern California)
13 out of 16 found this review helpful

"The Who Sell Out" (like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon) represents the paradigm of concept album rock. The Warholesque pop art cover (showing the band hawking deoderant and baked beans)sets the tongue in cheek tone that weaves throughout the album. The supposed premise is that we are listening to a pirate radio station, complete with jingles, PSA's and a wide variety of pop styles that range from the levity of standard love songs (Mary Anne w/ the Shaky Hands)to socio-politacal class struggle (I Can't Reach You) to teen angst (Tattoo, Melancholia) to explosive power pop psychedelic guitar feedback wizardry (I Can See For Miles, Armenia City in the Sky). As a matter of fact, there are so many different styles and textures that you can remove the fairly lightweight concept and still have a superb collection of cleverly written, melodic pop songs that define the the time they came from (Summer of love 1967)and transcend it. No one turns a phrase like Townshend; this from Tatto: My dad beat me 'cause mine said mother, but my mother naturally liked it and beat my brother, 'cause his tattoo was of a lady in the nude and mother thought that was extremely rude. Additionally many of the songs work on several different levels; Odorono, for example, reperesents that song you hear on the radio and you're grooving to it and then only at the end it turns out to be nothing but a commercial for some trivial consumer good. A song that pretends to be a song but it's really trying to sell you something (whether product or ideology). But it's also about unrewarded talent, and traumatic disappointment as well as being a cautionary tale about the superficiality of stardom.

When the album was originally released in '67 it was slimmed up so it could fit on a single record. Only on this brilliantly remastered package, which more than doubles the length of the original, do you get the whole picture: ads for Top Gear and Coca Cola, Early Morning Cold Taxi, Jaguar, Melancholia and Glow Girl (which is also on the other superb Who reissue: Odds & Sods). The liner notes, too, are top notch w/ many pictures and discographical info.

What is sad is that many Who fans even are unfamiliar with this album recognizing only I Can See For Miles (which Townshend felt was the ultimate pop single) but the band is clearly at the top of their game. Townshend at his experimental best, Entwhistle is solid on the bass and frivolous on the horns (he writes most of the commercials), Daltrey is straddling the Mod/Rocker dividing line and his vocals have the same innocent youthful intensity that drives his singing on Tommy and is lost into assured arena rock by the time the innovative Who's Next comes around. Finally, Moon never sounded better, with his wild building tom rolls pounding in and out of control simultaneously.

This is definitely peak stuff and it is easy to hear how Tommy, the grand opera, is the next logical step.


It's all true: This Is a great album.   June 4, 2001
Patrick More (Columbus, OH USA)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful

Notice how most reviewers love the album they're reviewing? I was prepared to dismiss the encomia about this album, but it was so insistent that I decided to give The Who Sell Out a try. Well, the glowing reviews were right.

Here are other some things you should know to help you decide whether to buy it. 1. The song writing is very strong. The album holds up under repeated listenings. The reviewer who said he could leave it playing all day was right about that. 2. The liner notes are very generous and informative, really adding to your understanding of how the album took shape. Who fans may want to buy it just to read the liner notes. 3. The bonus tracks are not like the alternate takes that add clutter at the end of other reissues but rather, as the liner notes indicate, strong and compatible takes that would have made a fine double LP if only there were such a thing in 1967. I enjoy Melancholia, Glittering Girl, the beaty Jaguar. There are no bad cuts. It really hangs together as an album. 4. Keith Moon's drumming is exhilarating in a way that the synthesizers and drum machines of most rap and pop music today cannot match. With hindsight, Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience seems to have been imitating Keith Moon, but Mitchell always had Noel Redding to help him return to the beat. If you keep this music playing in the background you may, like me, sometimes find yourself stopping and listening in astonishment to Keith Moon's drumming.

The Who Sell Out is really lots of fun, great music, and a great value for your entertainment dollar. If you are trying to decide whether to buy it, buy it.