{"id":2352,"date":"2009-10-05T10:25:21","date_gmt":"2009-10-05T14:25:21","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-10-05T10:25:21","modified_gmt":"2009-10-05T10:25:21","slug":"what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-th\/","title":{"rendered":"What We Talk About When We Talk About The Who"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a recent thread, Townsman jungleland2<\/strong> raised an interesting point that I’ve heard raised many times over the years:<\/p>\n

Just got the 2-disc The Who Sell Out<\/em>. I know this is their “great” record of the 60’s but I am not connecting to it so far<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Have you had this feeling? Have you heard this feeling expressed by other rock-loving, Who-loving friends when they finally get around to checking out this critically acclaimed Who album? <\/p>\n

I love the album, myself, and I’ve recommended it to aspiring rock nerds through the years. However, there must be a half dozen friends who love The Who, whom I thought would surely love Sell Out<\/em>, but who felt the same way jungleland2 does. It’s made me wonder what we talk about when we talk about The Who.<\/p>\n

We don’t ask this question about The Beatles or The Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan, do we? Factoring in all artistic progressions, we still seem to find a common thread through their music, despite the fact that some of us prefer early Beatles or pot-smoking Beatles or Exile<\/em>-era Stones or feel comfortable writing off the last 30+ years of Dylan’s output.<\/p>\n

With The Who, however, an acknowledged titan of rock and contender for the Mount Rushmore of Rock<\/a>, fans of the band seem to have more wildly varying notions of the band’s essence. Some fans feel the band is best defined by the early singles. Some feel it’s the epic stuff from the early ’70s. Most seem to be uncomfortable with the legacy of one of the band’s best-known works, Tommy<\/em>, and all seem split on Sell Out<\/em> and Live at Leeds<\/em>. The funny thing is, I don’t think their music changed that much over the years, just the parts they emphasized at any given era.<\/p>\n

What do we talk about when we talk about The Who?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent thread, Townsman jungleland2 raised an interesting point that I’ve heard raised many times over the years: Just got the 2-disc The Who Sell Out. I know this is their “great” record of the 60’s but I am not connecting to it so far Have you had this feeling? Have you heard this […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[33],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}