CD Odyssey Disc 170: The Who

It's been a long couple of days. Yesterday I drove three and half hours to attend my Grandmother's funeral (they call it a 'celebration of life' but I don't go for euphemisms) then three and a half hours back.

I' going to miss my Grandma, but at the same time she lived a long life (90 years) and was in ill health at the end. It is hard to say goodbye to someone, but it's also hard to watch them fade away.

Not surprisingly, I wasn't really in the mood to drive at all today, but I had this thing called 'work' which pays me, allowing me to spend leisure time with food and shelter and write this bumpf.

So, here we are...

Disc 170 is...Odds & Sods
Artist: The Who

Year of Release: 1974 (but reissued in 1998 in this form, with 'bonus' tracks)

What’s Up With The Cover?: The Who wearing 'American' football helmets. I wonder if this means they loved American football, or if as a British act they just thought it was kind of goofy. I, of course, love American football, but I only get excited about a white helmet with an aqua dolphin on it. Since these helmets don't have such a logo, I rate it a 'meh'.

How I Came To Know It: I got this album shortly after seriously falling for "Who's Next" when it was re-released in the mid-nineties. I was looking for another Who album, and trying to avoid a compilation record. Oops.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Who albums as well as the infamous greatest hits record "Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy" Of the three albums I have, I'd say this one is third or to put it more bluntly - not as good as the other ones.

Rating: 3 stars.

"Odds & Sods" isn't a true album per se, it is a basement tapes type album - a compilation of tracks that for various reasons didn't make it on earlier records and went unreleased in the same manner as Pearl Jam's "Lost Dogs" which I reviewed back at Disc 109 in March of this year.

Originally released in 1974, "Odds & Sods" was re-released in 1998 with a bunch of extra tracks added on top of the original record. The original record was fourteen songs, and and additional nine on top of that comes to an unwieldy twenty three (the added space on CD collections is both a blessing and a curse).

I can't really complain about the tracks they added, as most of them are pretty good. That said, the whole practice of doing this leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I think once a record is released it should be left alone, not monkeyed with. Not only were a ton of tracks added, they rearranged the order to make them appear chronologically from when they were recorded (from 1964 to 1974).

I actually liked the re-arrangement, as I prefer to hear songs by year of release (except, of course, where I've gone crazy and decided to spend a few years randomly selecting my music). Still, I'd rather they disappointed me, since again - this messes with the original presentation. It is the band's business to do what they want in this regard, but as a fan it is my business to say what I think about it.

I strongly suspect this sort of behaviour is at the behest of some soulless record executive that has some kind of market research showing it will increase sales among those who already own the record. When confronted with this accusation, I'm sure most soulless record execs would reply, "But you bought it, right?"

Anyway, the music is what I would expect from a twenty-three track album of extra songs. There are a few great ones, but also a fair bit of filler. Four of the best ones ("Love Ain't For Keeping", "Pure and Easy", "Naked Eye" and "Too Much of Anything" are also tracks on the "extra tracks" version of 1971's "Who's Next". I am not a sufficiently rabid Who fan to appreciate the different versions.

Spanning over ten years, this record does underscore how much more I prefer the Who in their early seventies incarnation. I don't mind the early stuff, but it is missing the driving guitar I like in later work.

Because the album has been re-organized chronologically, this meant that I enjoyed myself more and more as it went along and the last ten tracks are all excellent. However, they can't make up for the fair bit of filler that comes before them, so I'm going to stick to 3 stars for this album. It has some good Lost Dogs, but also a few that didn't need to be found, and the pick of the litter are available on "Who's Next" anyway.

Best tracks (that aren't already on "Who's Next): Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand, Time Is Passing, Long Live Rock, .