{"id":6994,"date":"2025-04-29T14:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T13:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=6994"},"modified":"2025-04-29T14:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T13:07:07","slug":"shindig-163-the-who","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=6994","title":{"rendered":"Shindig! #163 \u2013 The Who"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>This month marks 60 years since \u2018Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere\u2019 upset the airwaves with its squalls of feedback and atomic drums. Its defiant, almost nihilistic lyrics gave further voice to a jumbled youth that had swallowed \u2018I Can\u2019t Explain\u2019 like the Dexedrine pills that kept them going at weekend all-nighters. It\u2019s one of the most futuristic blasts of pop music to make the Top 10 during a year bursting with sonic innovation.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>HUW THOMAS charts how THE WHO became ambassadors for the anonymous, and how both the fans and the media elevated a \u201cgroup with built-in hate\u201d into pop\u2019s elite.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>\u201cIt\u2019s the most excitingly pig-headed of our songs. Blatant, proud and, dare I say it, sassy\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Who - Anyway Anyhow Anywhere - Ready Steady GO!\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mXU0GvtOTH0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Searching for a credible follow-up, The Who turned to no-nonsense rhythm &amp; blues. After all, sermons from the good books Stateside, Sue and London still made up the lion\u2019s share of their live repertoire. R&amp;B was just about the only thing they could all agree upon. Returning to the studio with Talmy, the band cut a single made up of two red-hot Holland-Dozier-Holland compositions, Eddie Holland\u2019s \u2018Leaving Here\u2019 (covered by The Birds at roughly the same time) and Marvin Gaye\u2019s \u2018Baby Don\u2019t You Do It\u2019<em>.<\/em> Daltrey is particularly gruff on these tracks (both eventually released on the 1998 CD edition of <em>Odds &amp; Sods<\/em>) and the band sound unbridled, with Moon\u2019s zippy drumming stealing the spotlight. Talmy\u2019s hand is near invisible. Before these tracks could escape acetate purgatory, however, Townshend changed his mind again. He had a new song, an original, one surely destined to become a classic; that\u2019s right \u2013 \u2018You Don\u2019t Have To Jerk\u2019. Little is clear about this unreleased and perhaps unrecorded Who composition. All we know is that its writer touted it as the next single to <em>Melody Maker<\/em>\u2019s Nick Jones in March. Obsessed with Bobby Bland and James Brown, Townshend wanted to have \u201cthe group all digging the jerk\u201d. We may never know what John Entwistle digging the jerk would have looked like.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The next Who single was ultimately \u2018Anyway Anyhow Anywhere\u2019, a scrawled statement of autonomy knocked together by Townshend and Daltrey in a rare collaboration, the night before it was recorded. Townshend had been inspired by hearing a Charlie Parker solo. \u201cI just scribbled those three words on a piece of paper because I thought that was how he sounded, so free and liberated,\u201d he revealed to the BBC in \u201983. \u2018Anyway\u2019 was released two days after Townshend turned 20 and it was a final, definitive teenage statement with its rallying cry of \u201cI can do anything!\u201d Daltrey provided the street-smart lines about how \u201cnothing gets in my way \/ not even locked doors\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s the most excitingly pig-headed of our songs,\u201d Townshend enthused to <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> in \u201971. \u201cIt&#8217;s blatant, proud and, dare I say it, sassy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Townshend had been emboldened by the reaction to \u2018I Can\u2019t Explain\u2019. That song was about a failure to communicate \u2013 in Townshend\u2019s words, it concerned \u201ca pathetic little boy who can&#8217;t explain to the most beautiful girl in class he loves her\u201d \u2013 but its lyrics had struck a chord with scores of young men. \u201cIt happened at The Goldhawk Club,\u201d Townshend raved to Simon Witter in \u201994. \u201cThis deputation came back and said, \u2018You wrote that song, didn&#8217;t you? You&#8217;ve got to write some more like that\u2026 because we can&#8217;t write&#8230; and if we could write, we&#8217;d have nothing to communicate.\u2019 I felt like I grew in a moment. I thought, \u2018Christ! All I have to do is look at them every night I\u2019m on the stage, figure out what it is they are going through and write a song about it!\u201d With \u2018Anyway Anyhow Anywhere\u2019, Lambert and Stamp\u2019s feedback loop reached a lopsided endpoint. The Who had dressed like mods before but now Townshend\u2019s writing completely refracted the lives of those who listened to it \u2013 their dreams, their feelings, their fears and their inarticulacy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6997\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1707221.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"463\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1707221.jpeg 389w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1707221-292x300.jpeg 292w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1707221-24x24.jpeg 24w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1707221-48x48.jpeg 48w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lambert and Stamp had a name for this. Their charges had made \u201cthe first pop-art single\u201d, a trojan horse chartbuster with a standard call-and-response structure buckling underneath a cacophony of morse code guitar feedback. Its range was such that The Who were asked to play the song both on an edition of <em>Ready Steady Go!<\/em> and at a <em>musique concr\u00e8te<\/em> concert in Paris. (They didn\u2019t accept the latter invitation.) The feedback troubled Decca\u2019s American arm, however. They sent a telegram to Talmy complaining that they\u2019d been sent a defected record \u201criddled with distortion\u201d. \u201cThe beginning of the disc is like fly paper \u2013 designed to trap the unwary and hold them there while the &#8216;damage&#8217; is done,\u201d Lambert snarled to <em>Record Mirror<\/em>. \u201cA great thing about pop-art is that it won&#8217;t stand analysis. You can&#8217;t explain it, it just works. Another thing about pop-art is that the statements it makes are very, very simple. One record, one idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018Anyway\u2019 was, in fact, one idea in a sea of false starts. It was recorded at IBC Studios during the three days in April \u201965 that The Who set aside to make an album. These sessions produced 12 tracks, most of them R&amp;B cover versions \u2013 with their touring schedule at a brutal peak, the band hadn\u2019t had the time to write new material. There was \u2018Anytime You Want Me\u2019, a waltz time ballad familiar to Daltrey as a Garnet Mimms B-side, \u2018(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave\u2019, the Martha &amp; The Vandellas classic made powerpop via gender switch, \u2018Please, Please Please\u2019, a James Brown number with a convincingly tortured Daltrey vocal, and \u2018I\u2019m A Man\u2019, Shel Talmy\u2019s favourite since he first auditioned the band. \u2018Louie Louie\u2019 spin-off \u2018Lubie (Come Back Home)\u2019 was probably the least inspired of these recordings. Almost four minutes long, it retains little of the vim that made the original by Paul Revere &amp; The Raiders take so appealing. What\u2019s more, the number had already been covered better by struggling mod group Davie Jones &amp; King Bees on the B-side to \u2018Liza Jane\u2019, the first of nine consecutive flops for their Brixton-born lead singer.<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverbackpublishing.rocks\/product\/shindig-163\/\">here<\/a> to order issue #163 and read the full article. Subscribe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverbackpublishing.rocks\/product\/unlock-the-world-of-shindig-subscribe-today-and-access-every-issue-ever-published\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<span class=\"synved-social-container synved-social-container-share\"><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F6994&#038;t=Shindig%21%20%23163%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Who&#038;s=100&#038;p&#091;url&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F6994&#038;p&#091;images&#093;&#091;0&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F04%2FWho-copy.png&#038;p&#091;title&#093;=Shindig%21%20%23163%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Who\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-twitter nolightbox\" data-provider=\"twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F6994&#038;text=New%20post%20on%20our%20site\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"twitter\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-mail nolightbox\" data-provider=\"mail\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share by email\" href=\"mailto:?subject=Shindig%21%20%23163%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Who&#038;body=New%20post%20on%20our%20site:%20https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F6994\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"mail\" title=\"Share by email\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/mail.png\" \/><\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This month marks 60 years since \u2018Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere\u2019 upset the airwaves with its squalls of feedback and atomic drums. Its defiant, almost nihilistic lyrics gave further voice to a jumbled youth that had swallowed \u2018I Can\u2019t Explain\u2019 like the Dexedrine pills that kept them going at weekend all-nighters. It\u2019s one of the most futuristic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6996,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1009,7],"tags":[1012],"class_list":["post-6994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-music-videos","tag-the-who","post_format-post-format-video"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6994"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}