My Generation
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My Generation (1965) is The Who's first album. It was released in the USA under the title The Who Sings My Generation, with a different cover and a slightly different track list.
The album was made immediately after The Who got their first singles on the charts, and according to the booklet in the Deluxe Edition of the remastered CD it was later dismissed by the band as something of a rush job that did not accurately represent their stage performance of the time. On the other hand, critics often rated it as one of the best rock albums of all time in the 1970s and 1980s when such list-making was common. In 2003, the album was ranked number 236 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
The title song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and remains one of The Who's best known songs and, indeed, one of the most acclaimed songs in rock and roll history.
The album was made during The Who's early "Maximum R&B" period and features several covers of popular R&B tunes, in addition to the R&B leanings of the tracks written by the band's guitarist Pete Townshend.
Track listing
My Generation (UK release)
| The Who Sings My Generation (US release) |
All tracks were written by Pete Townshend, except as noted. On the first USA release the "Circles" track was misidentified as "Instant Party", and was listed as "Instant Party (Circles)" in some later editions. ("Instant Party" is actually a completely different song.) According to the booklet in the Deluxe Edition of the remastered CD, "I'm A Man" was eliminated from the USA release due to its sexual content. The USA release also excised a brief solo laden with manic drum rolls and guitar feedback before the final verse of "The Kids Are Alright", hiding some of the group's sonic pop-art leanings.
Many of the songs on the album saw release as singles. Aside from "My Generation", which preceded the album's release and hit #2 on the UK singles charts, "A Legal Matter", "La-La-La Lies", and "The Kids Are Alright" were also released as domestic singles, though none were as commercially successful as "My Generation". Interestingly, "The Kids Are Alright" was a top 10 single in Sweden, peaking at #8. "My Generation" and "The Kids Are Alright" in particular remain two of the group's most-covered songs; while "My Generation" is a raw, aggressive number that presaged the punk rock movement, "The Kids Are Alright" is a more sophisticated pop number, with chiming guitars, three-part harmonies, and a lilting vocal melody, though still retaining the driving rhythm of other Who songs of the period. Along with other early Who numbers like "I Can't Explain" and "So Sad About Us", it is considered an important forerunner of the "power pop" movement. "Circles" was notably covered by contemporaries of the group, British mod outfit Les Fleur de Lys; the cover has found some notice in recent years after its inclusion on the second Nuggets box set on Rhino Records.
The USA release also substituted a portrait of the band with Big Ben in the background for the original UK cover depicting the band standing beside some oil drums and looking upward to the camera, with splashes of color added by the red and blue stenciled letters of the title and a jacket patterned on the Union Jack thrown over Entwistle's shoulders.
Most of the songs have enduring qualities and the engineering was very clean, so the album still rewards the interested listener. However, many of the qualities represented here, especially Pete with his finger nails on the guitar strings, lessened over the years as the band changed styles and matured.
Editions
[1965] Brunswick Records LAT 8616- Original UK LP release. Titled as My Generation, with the UK cover and track listing as described above. Producer
[1966] Decca DL4664 (mono) / DL 7-4664 (stereo)- Original USA LP release. Retitled as The Who Sings My Generation, with alternate cover and variant track listing as described above. Producer
[19??] MCAD-31330 (ISBN 7673-11330-2)
[2002] MCA - no catalog number (ISBN 08811-29262)
See also
My Generation (game show) - a music game show premiered on VH1External links
References
- Many of the factual details in this article are derived from the insert to the remastered CD of 2002, ISBN 08811-29262.
| 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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