Who Sell Out CD

This 1995 reissue of THE WHO SELL OUT includes songs and jingles not available on the original version.
The Who: Pete Townshend (vocals, guitar, piano); John Entwistle (vocals, bass); Roger Daltrey (vocals); Keith Moon (drums).
Additional personnel: Al Kooper (organ).
Producer: Kit Lambert.
Reissue producer: Jon Astley.
Recorded in 1967 & 1968.
Originally released on Track (612002/613002). Released in the U.S. on Decca (4950/74950) in 1968.
Includes liner notes by Dave Marsh.
Personnel: Pete Townshend (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); Roger Daltrey (vocals, harmonica); John Entwistle (vocals, trumpet, keyboards, bass guitar); Keith Moon (vocals, drums); Al Kooper (organ).
Audio Remasterers: Jon Astley; Andy MacPherson.
Audio Remixers: Jon Astley; Andy MacPherson.
Liner Note Author: Dave Marsh.
Recording information: Advision Studios, London, England; CBS Studios, London, England; Columbia Recording Studio, Hollywood, CA; De Lane Lea Studios, London, England; Gold Star Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA; IBC Studios, London, England; Kingsway Studio, London, England; Talent Masters Studios, New York, NY.
Photographer: David Montgomery.
The same people who gave us the mono, digipack-style releases of the classic 1960s the Rolling Stones and Beatles albums on CD are responsible for this version of The Who Sell Out. The sound is excellent and the music is priceless, and for anyone who thinks they know The Who Sell Out, this CD will be a great listening experience -- not only are many of the edits between the songs (and the mock-commercials) different, but the mixes bring out very different instruments and voice combinations on the familiar material, so that even guitar solos that we think we know sound different here, in texture and even content; additionally, the mono mixes impart a good deal more punch even to the very familiar songs, such as "I Can See for Miles." In addition to the complete album (with cover art from the European version), the bonus tracks include unused commercial jingles and the singles "Pictures of Lily," "Someone's Coming," "The Last Time," "Under My Thumb," "Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand," (in its U.S. single version), "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde," "Dogs," and "Call Me Lightning," plus a pair of Pete Townshend demos, "King Rabbit" and "Lazy Fat People." The whole CD is a dazzling look back at the band at the peak of its pop-psychedelic phase, and at its most playful -- beyond this point lay the ambitions behind Tommy and the need to create a work that held together across 75 minutes, where here they had no ambitions beyond entertaining for three minutes at a time, and eliciting some laughs and maybe (especially on "I Can't Reach You" and "Sunrise") letting a stray serious thought seep through. ~ Bruce Eder
Pete Townshend originally planned The Who Sell Out as a concept album of sorts that would simultaneously mock and pay tribute to pirate radio stations, complete with fake jingles and commercials linking the tracks. For reasons that remain somewhat ill defined, the concept wasn't quite driven to completion, breaking down around the middle of side two (on the original vinyl configuration). Nonetheless, on strictly musical merits, it's a terrific set of songs that ultimately stands as one of the group's greatest achievements. "I Can See for Miles" (a Top Ten hit) is the Who at their most thunderous; tinges of psychedelia add a rush to "Armenia City in the Sky" and "Relax"; "I Can't Reach You" finds Townshend beginning to stretch himself into quasi-spiritual territory; and "Tattoo" and the acoustic "Sunrise" show introspective, vulnerable sides to the singer/songwriter that had previously been hidden. "Rael" was another mini-opera, with musical motifs that reappeared in Tommy. The album is as perfect a balance between melodic mod pop and powerful instrumentation as the Who (or any other group) would achieve; psychedelic pop was never as jubilant, not to say funny (theRolling Stone (12/11/03, p.124) - Ranked #113 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "[I]t was a send-up of consumer culture, and the band's first stab at a concept album."
Rolling Stone (10/28/99, p.107) - 4.5 stars out of 5 - "...SELL OUT is the most successful concept album ever...To hear these 13 tracks is to be transported to the wistful, alternatingly painful and joyous territory that was the Who's...adolescence."
Melody Maker (7/22/95, p.36) - Bloody Essential - "...a masterpiece. A glorious celebration of pop as useless commodity and a commercially corrupted art form....it crosses art-school intelligence with pop flash with neither being cheapened or degraded, and is, as such, a stupendous achievement..."
Q (Magazine) (p.112) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Revisiting it now, you can hear a hint of the monolithic rock that would make The Who a stadium act in the '70s, and the knowing humour that would inspire the best of such Britpop disciples as Pulp and Blur."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.117) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[W]hat truly defines SELL OUT is its deference to the well-rehearsed language of pop. Kinks-like character vignettes and PET SOUNDS-parroting textures are the dominant influences."
NME (Magazine) (7/22/95, p.49) - 9 (out of 10) - "...Townshend finally free of shackles....a stream of brittle, spangly pop songs...which are simply otherworldly....Like all truly great albums, SELL OUT isn't overrated. It's simply that you might not be ready for it yet."
Record Collector (magazine) (p.87) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "'I Can See For Miles' was the powerhouse....'I Can't Reach You' and 'Rael' both strayed beyond the previous template of the accepted notions of pop, rich in motifs that would return more fully-formed on TOMMY."