-- Who - Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy | (Audio CD) MSRP $ 15.99 Amazon Price $ 15.99 Savings $ 0.00 | |  Release Date: 24 April, 1996, Mca Int`l
TRACK LISTING - I Can`t Explain
- Kids Are Alright
- Happy Jack
- I Can See for Miles
- Pictures of Lily
- My Generation
- Seeker
- Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere
- Pinball Wizard
- Legal Matter
- Boris the Spider
- Magic Bus
- Substitute
- I`m a Boy
Usually ships in 2 to 3 days | | | Ya gotta have this one in your collection! | | The first song on the Who`s 1971 album "Meaty Big Big and Bouncy" is "I Can`t Explain." The first song on the Clash`s 1979 American version of their album "The Clash" is "Clash City Rockers." Listen to the first few seconds of each of those two songs. They are the same! Obviously, the Clash is paying tribute to the Who. And such a tribute is well deserved, for the Who were the first real, genuine precursors to the punk movement of which the Clash was the greatest act of all time. "Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy" is a compilation of early music by the Who. It is a very well blended mix of punk-ish and garage-band music. It`s high power, strong, and intense in every respect. If you like the early Clash, then you will probably like this album. "Happy Jack" is a wonderful anthem of the individual believing in himself, and being secure against those who would taunt him for being different. If you can believe in yourself, then all the teasing in the world won`t break your spirit. "I Can See for Miles" is one of the most powerful songs that the Who ever did. Wanna know why many people consider Keith Moon to be the best drummer ever? Check this one out. And it`s not just the drums. The whole song takes on a life of its own. It`s like somebody is trying to break through a door, and they have to keep hitting and pounding, until they finally are free. What a rush of energy! "Pictures of Lily" is a song about, uh, well, heh heh, it`s about how teenage boys manage to get themselves to fall asleep at night. What a bold move to have written about this subject in the 1960s. I wonder if Tipper Gore knows about this one? "My Generation" is probably the most famous song by the Who. There`s a very precise calculation in Roger Daltrey`s stuttering. He`s actually very much in control of his voice. And that represents the bigger picture that he is also in control of his life. He`s not about to let other people push him around. He will run his own life. He will make his own decisions. He is free. "The Seeker," "A Legal Matter," and "The Magic Bus" all have a certain urgency and seriousness to them. There`s a lot of power in the singing and instrument playing. All of the songs on here are quite low-fi sounding by today`s standards. But that`s not a problem. On the contrary, it`s an asset, because it lends a certain rawness to the songs. If this stuff was being recorded today, most likely the record company would have overproduced it, and it would have sounded overbright, glossy, and watered down. This is the kind of music that could only be recorded in the 1960s. I like the low-fi, low-tech sound of these songs. Really, this is a great album. I actually own the American release of it. Right now, it`s only available as an import. I don`t know why it`s out of print in the U.S. Over the years, the Who have had a huge number of compilation CDs issued, and as far as I am concerned, this is their only compilation CD that is worth owning. I also strongly recommend getting their CD "Who`s Next." | | | | maybe the best Who compilation | | Why is it the best Who compilation? Because most Who compilations (excluding the ultimate collection) don`t cover the early Who as well as this one, and every other Who compilation (including the ultimate collection) includes tracks from Who`s Next and Tommy, and, in my opinion, those are great albums and are already worth getting, so you`d only be paying for the same songs twice. The songs on Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy are either songs released only as singles, or come from albums which as a whole are not nearly as good as the Who`s best albums. If you`re still into buying music, you should appreciate getting all these great songs together on one disc. So, why not five stars? First of all, it`s missing "Call Me Lightning,"- since buyers of this album will likely buy Tommy as well, why couldn`t they put "Call Me Lightning" on instead of "Pinball Wizard?" Second, it has the slower, dragged-out version of "I`m A Boy," instead of the more rocking version which is on the Ultimate Collection. And by that token- if they`re doing the long version thing, why not have the long version of "The Kids Are Alright?" As for the sound quality- it could have been better, but I don`t think it`s bad- in fact, the Ultimate Collection doesn`t sound that much better. As an afterthought, perhaps the remastered "My Generation" is comparable to this- it has about half of these songs, and the long version of "Kids," but I hear that has a lot of filler, and some of the songs sound really different. This certainly has no filler and the songs are in the un-remastered form in which they became classics- I`m sticking with this one. | | | | My first vinyl record | | This was the first vinyl LP I bought for myself, the first of February 2001, at the great vintage music store in my college town. I had a few kiddy records from childhood, but haven`t listened to them in years; this record was my true first vinyl LP. Unfortunately, at the time I didn`t have a record player and my parents had long since thrown ours out when it broke, so I had to display the record in my dorm room as eye candy till I got my first record player later that year on the day after my birthday. The ten and a half months of waiting were worth it. I don`t normally go in for greatest hits packages anymore, but the songs are great regardless of being mostly a collection of singles and not album tracks. I got it on vinyl because I had been told that the CD version is missing the long version of "Magic Bus," the single version of "Substitute," and the rare "I`m a Boy" with horns and slightly different lyrics. The only thing I would change about it is the inclusion of "A Legal Matter," a song which may have gotten to #32 in Britain but which isn`t as well-loved by the fans as the even-lower-charting "TKAA" (also included here, though I`m told left off of the 1996 compilation `My Generation`), which reached #41. They did include "Boris the Spider," which was only an album track, but that song is well-loved and well-known, not some minor hit that most fans don`t consider a classic or personal favourite. By that same token, they could also have included "Call Me Lightning," which hit #40, and "Dogs," which was #25. Still, it did a great job at introducing Americans to the early Who songs which had only been hits in Britain, and even though the most recent hit on it is "The Seeker," it`s still one of the most classic greatest hits packages out there. | | |
-- zzzz
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