A Quick One
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A Quick One (1966) is the second album released by rock band The Who. American record company executives released the album under the title Happy Jack, rather than the sexually suggestive title of the UK release, also due to Happy Jack being a minor hit in the U.S.
This is widely regarded by fans to have been a pivotal album for the group, due to the departure from the hard rock / blues formula featured on the band's first release. Part of the marketing push for the album was a requirement that each band member should write at least two of the songs on it, so this of all the Who albums is the least dominated by Pete Townshend's writing.
This album was also the band's first foray into the form of rock opera, with "A Quick One While He's Away", the title track of the LP, a nine-minute suite of song snippets telling a story of infidelity and reconciliation. (The Who would later go on to write and record the full scale rock opera Tommy and then offer up another with Quadrophenia).
The album was intended to be Pop Music (capital 'P'), a sonic participant in the Pop Art movement. The front cover is a Pop Art depiction of the band playing their instruments. The back cover is a black-and-white photo montage of the band members accompanied by a short personality sketch of each (infamous among Who fans for Keith Moon's humourous assertion that he was keen on 'breeding chickens'). A track listing, a couple of paragraphs touting the band, an ad for their first album, and a technical blurb are also crowded onto the back cover.
The blurb reveals the recording technology of the time by announcing "This is a high-fidelity record! For proper reproduction use RIAA or a similar Record Compensator setting."
The album was recorded at IBC Studios, Pye Studios and Regent Sound, in London, England in 1966. Kit Lambert produced.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 383 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Track listing
All songs are by Pete Townshend except as noted. Notice that Daltrey only contributed one song.
A Quick One (original 1966 UK release) |
Bonus tracks (1995 remastered CD)
| |
Happy Jack (original US release)
A Quick One(Happy Jack) (1974 US vinyl release) |
Song Notes
A Quick One includes the very first songs John Entwistle wrote for The Who, albeit in reverse order."Boris the Spider" was written after John had been out drinking with Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman. They were making up funny names for animals when Entwistle came up with "Boris the Spider".
Since Entwistle had trouble singing "r"s, he double-tracked the vocals on "Whiskey Man", singing "fwend" and "flend", hoping they'd come together as "friend".
"Heatwave" is a cover of a song by Martha and the Vandellas that was very popular in the UK at the time. For the USA release "Heatwave" was dropped and "Happy Jack" was added at the bottom of the track line-up. Then was added back on to the album for when Happy Jack was re-issued on the 1974 double album repackaging of A Quick One and Sell Out as A Quick One (Happy Jack).
Though this is deemed by some to be one of the weakest Who albums, it is nonetheless notable in several regards. "Boris the Spider" quickly became John Entwistle's most popular song and was still performed live decades later; in later years, John was almost invariably sporting a spider necklace for photograhs. "Happy Jack" is quirky in both lyrics and sound, but is popular nonetheless and remains a favorite of both fans and non-fans alike to this day. It was featured in TV ads for the Hummer automobile in 2004. "A Quick One While He's Away" was Townshend's first move toward the production of the Rock operas that he is so much noted for. Though it is a simple medley of song fragments, the band came to refer to it as their "mini-opera", and on the remastered CD release of their Live at Leeds album Townshend can be heard introducing it as "Tommy's parent". The song was performed semi-live for The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus film. Many Who fans believe that the film was never released because The Who's performance upstaged everyone else. (The film, made in 1968, finally came out on video in 1995. The track can also be heard on the soundtrack of Jeff Stein's film The Kids Are Alright.)
One particularly notable track on this album is the mod/pop number "So Sad About Us". Though it is difficult to accurately gauge such phenomena, "So Sad About Us" has likely been covered more frequently than any other song on the album. (According to the All Music Guide, it is "one of the Who's most covered songs". [link]). Shaun Cassidy, Primal Scream, The Breeders, and most notably The Jam are among the many artists who have recorded studio versions of the song. Beyond the sheer number of covers, it is also one of The Who's most frequently imitated songs. As the aforementioned AMG put it, it is "an archetypal early Who song" and "hundreds of bands have based their entire careers on this one song". With its ringing guitars, Beach Boys-styled harmonies, crashing drums, and lovelorn lyrics, it is one of the early forebears of the power pop genre, along with other early Who staples such as "I Can't Explain" and "The Kids Are Alright". Pete Townshend and one-time Jam frontman Paul Weller performed an acoustic duet of the song as captured on the album .
"A Quick One While He's Away" features lead vocals by all four members. Keith Moon sings the first solo part ("Down your street..."); he also sings "I Need You".
The album's engineering produced a mushy sound that went unmitigated even by the remastered CD release, and for reasons described above the songwriting is comparatively weak, especially in consideration of its predecessor (The Who Sings My Generation) and successor (The Who Sell Out). However, many fans suggest that careful listening reveals that most of the songs have merit.
"Happy Jack" and "A Quick One While He's Away" can also be heard on the remastered CD release of Live at Leeds from a 1970 performance.
Editions
[ 1966] Reaction 593 002- Original UK LP release. Titled as A Quick One, with cover and track listing as given above. Producer
[ 1967] Decca DL4892 (mono) / DL 74892 (stereo)- Original USA LP release. Retitled as Happy Jack, with cover and variant track listing as given above. Producer
[ 1974] Track/MCA MCAD2-4067 (stereo)- Re-issued as one of a two-LP set along with The Who Sell Out. Track list and order as described above.
[ 1988] MCAD-31331 (ISBN 7673-11331-2)
[ 1995] MCAD-11267 (ISBN 08811-12672)
[ 2003] Polydor 589800-2 (ISBN 31458-98002)
References
- Many of the factual details in this article are derived from the insert to the remastered CD of 1995, ISBN 08811-12672.
External links
| The Who |
|---|
| Roger Daltrey | Pete Townshend | John Entwistle | Keith Moon |
| Kenny Jones - John "Rabbit" Bundrick - Pino Palladino - Zak Starkey Simon Townshend - Jon Carin - Simon Phillips - Doug Sandom - Colin Dawson |
| Listings |
| Discography - Filmography |
| Other related people |
| Peter Meaden - Kit Lambert - Chris Stamp |
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