That reissue campaign that began over twenty years ago
basically wrapped up in 2002 with the very first stereo mix of The Who’s raging
debut, My Generation. As was the case
with the other remixes, the novelty was ample, but it wore off real quickly as
we lamented the loss of ferocious guitar tracks in “My Generation” and “A Legal
Matter” and came to the realization that this noise-fest demanded the unified
power of mono to knock our knee caps off the way it was meant to.
The original mono mix soon became available in Japan, a big
audiophile market, but it has taken fourteen years for My Generation to return to its proper mono origins on physical
media in the west. It arrives in another in The Who’s series of big Super Deluxe
box sets that also saw reissues of Live
at Leeds, Tommy, and Quadrophenia (of which, only Tommy was included in its original mix).
The latest remaster is very comparable to the Astley’s
excellent one released in Japan in 2008, so if you’ve never heard My Generation as it must be heard, this
Super Deluxe is a fine place to start.
A recent stereo remix put out on iTunes a couple of years
ago is distinctly wider than the 2002 stereo remix, which tended to center
everything except for one guitar track shoved off to the left channel. That
means it takes advantage of stereo better, but is even less powerful than the
2002 version. One very interesting development of these 2014 mixes is the
reinsertion of those missing parts from “My Generation” and “A Legal Matter”
with newly recorded guitar from Townshend, who used vintage, authentic
equipment. They don’t sound exactly the same as the ’65 originals, but they do sound
a hell of a lot better than those hollow 2002 versions. There are also some
neat new vocal touches on “My Generation”.
The rest of the set is filled out with lots of alternate
versions, alternate mixes, singles and period outtakes such as “Lubie (Come
Back Home)”, “Instant Party Mixture”, and the definitive Who version of “Heat
Wave”. Some of these are superior to the 2002 mixes too, as Entwistle’s French
horn returns to the stereo “Circles” and the tambourine clatters once again on
the stereo “I Can’t Explain”.
However, the real gem of these extras is Disc Five, which
gathers together eleven Townshend demos from his initial writing days. One of these
had been released on Townshend’s Scoop
comp and a few have made the bootleg circuit, but they never sounded this good
(and it's interesting to note how central a role “Mary Ann with the Shaky
Hand”-style Latin percussion plays on these recordings). A demo of “Sunrise”,
which would not get the official Who treatment until 1967, has more of a
languid Antonio Carlos Jobim feel than the flushed version that ended up on The Who Sell Out.
The big surprise is several previously unheard Townshend
songs that make their debut here. There’s a bluesy rocker called “The Girls I
Could’ve Had”, which may spark conspiracy theories that Elvis Costello somehow
got his hands on this rarity before he wrote “Tokyo Storm Warning”. There are
also a couple of tracks that were probably among those that made Roger Daltrey
conclude that Townshend’s early songs were too sweet for him: the Quick One-like “As Children We Grew” and
the unusually romantic “My Own Love”.
The big question whenever one of these massive boxes comes
out is: “Is it worth it?” There is certainly a degree of excess here. The music
on these five discs could have fit on three. The set comes with an 80-page
book, replica posters, flyers, and cards, none of which were included in the
review package I received, so I can’t comment on them. The bottom line is if
you dig fancy packaging, a fine remaster of the mono album, a better crop of
alternate mixes and version than were included on the 2002 edition, and some
terrific demos— and you’ve got the money to burn— you’ll likely be happy.
