Tag: Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy

Who – Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy … album review

I bought this album right after I had bought Wholigans and Who’s Next. I wanted to know what their sixties output was like besides My Generation and I Can See For Miles. This compilation album was released in 1971; it wasn’t just a sampler of radio singles; it was a brash declaration of how The Who reached the top and what they broke along the way. Most of these songs did not reach the ears of Americans and Canadians in the 1960s. If Who’s Next was their grand gesture, Meaty Beaty was their rowdy scrapbook. The album is exciting!

In Canada and America, most people know the Who’s Next material and after as well. This album is the roots of the band. They stretched the limits of recording, trying new things in the studio, much like The Beatles did, but with a rawer result.

Rock in the mid to late sixties was changing, and what a diverse set of songs that you hear from that period. This is when Pete Townshend was turning teenage anxiety into rock mini-operas and Keith Moon was trying to demolish every drum kit in London. The title, reportedly referring to the four members themselves, Meaty (Roger), Beaty (Keith), Big (John), and Bouncy (Pete), is cheeky and self-mythologizing. And the tracklist? Nearly perfect. These singles are where Moon started to get his wild drumming reputation. He is everywhere in these songs, especially I Can’t Explain, making them different from other bands.

I have said that my favorite kind of band to watch live is the ones that you think will fall apart with any song they play, but they pull it between the lines without going over the cliff. They did that with these songs in the studio.

You’ve got I Can’t Explain, The Kids Are Alright, and Substitute up front, each one a case study in amphetamine, fueled mod rock. These aren’t songs that build; they explode right from the opening riff. Substitute, in particular, grabs your attention with the loud backing, but also the lyrics. Substitute could be The Who’s best single ever. And then I’m a Boy, Happy Jack, Pictures of Lily, you realize Pete was already leaning into story-song territory years before Tommy became a rock opera.

Magic Bus is a Bo Diddley-beat freakout that somehow makes a song about public transportation sound like a spiritual quest, or My Generation, the track that blew the doors off rock ’n’ roll. If that bass solo doesn’t rattle you, check your pulse. There’s a through-line here: Townshend’s fascination with identity, repression, rebellion, and guilt. These songs are electric in the best sense of the word.

Later Who albums might be deeper (Quadrophenia) or grander (Who’s Next), but this one is the sound of the band becoming The Who. Loud, brash, and already mythic. If you want to learn about The Who…this is a great starting point. 

…

Who – Substitute

I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth
The north side of my town faced east, and the east was facing south

America missed out on The Who’s great early singles. Some didn’t hear their 60’s singles until after they hit with Tommy and released Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy in 1971. It’s one of my favorite compilation albums. This one has a raw power to it and it’s pushed by John Entwistle and Keith Moon driving the song along.

Great song by The Who. The song peaked at #5 in the UK charts in 1966. The twelve-string guitar opening riff kicks into one of The Who’s best singles. This was a flop in the US, partly because it wasn’t promoted well. It was the only Who song released on Atco Records.

Townshend’s favorite song at the time was “Tracks of My Tears” by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. Townshend loved the way Smokey sang the word “substitute” so perfectly “Although she may be cute she’s just a substitute ‘Cause you’re the permanent one” that he decided to celebrate the word with a song all its own. The song was also influenced by 19th Nervous Breakdown by the Rolling Stones. Townshend admitted to getting the riff from that song. Townshend also got his trademark windmill from watching Keith Richards warm up with his arms going above his head.

This was the first single The Who released after breaking their contract with their manager and producer, Shel Talmy. As part of the deal, Talmy got royalties from this and the other Who records over the next 5 years, which turned out to be albums that old-time producer Shel Talmy would never have produced. The albums were Tommy, Who’s Next, and  Quadrophenia.

After listening to a recording of the song, Keith Moon began to become paranoid, insisting that it wasn’t him drumming and that the band had gone behind his back and gotten another drummer. John Entwistle refuted this paranoia as ridiculous – he could hear Keith screaming on the recording as he did a difficult fill.

Substitute

You think we look pretty good together
You think my shoes are made of leather

But I’m a substitute for another guy
I look pretty tall but my heels are high
The simple things you see are all complicated
I look pretty young, but I’m just back-dated, yeah

(Substitute) your lies for fact
(Substitute) I can see right through your plastic mac
(Substitute) I look all white, but my dad was black
(Substitute) my fine linen suit is really made out of sack

I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth
The north side of my town faced east, and the east was facing south
And now you dare to look me in the eye
Those crocodile tears are what you cry
It’s a genuine problem, you won’t try
To work it out at all you just pass it by, pass it by

(Substitute) me for him
(Substitute) my coke for gin
(Substitute) you for my mum
(Substitute) at least I’ll get my washing done

I’m a substitute for another guy
I look pretty tall but my heels are high
The simple things you see are all complicated
I look pretty young, but I’m just back-dated, yeah

I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth
The north side of my town faced east, and the east was facing south
And now you dare to look me in the eye
Those crocodile tears are what you cry
It’s a genuine problem, you won’t try
To work it out at all you just pass it by, pass it by

(Substitute) me for him
(Substitute) my coke for gin
(Substitute) you for my mum
(Substitute) at least I’ll get my washing done

(Substitute) your lies for fact
(Substitute) I can see right through your plastic mac
(Substitute) I look all white, but my dad was black
(Substitute) My fine-looking suit is really made out of sack

Who – Magic Bus

A band called The Pudding heard this song from a Pete Townshend demo that was circulated. The Pudding recorded the first version (see video below), which came and went without much fanfare in 1967…they could have picked a little better name. Their version was a little too smooth for me.

I’ve always liked this song with it’s Bo Diddley rhythm.

The Who’s version came out in the next year in 1968 and peaked at #25 in the Billboard 100, #26 in the UK, #6 in Canada, and #13 in New Zealand.

The song was included on the American album Magic Bus: The Who on Tour although no tracks were live…they were all studio tracks. In the UK it was just released as a single. It would later be included on the great compilation album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy in 1971.

Pete Townsend: “When I wrote ‘Magic Bus,’ LSD wasn’t even invented as far as I knew. Drug songs and veiled references to drugs were not part of The Who image. If you were in The Who and took drugs, you said, ‘I take drugs,’ and waited for the fuzz to come. We said it but they never came. We very soon got bored with drugs. No publicity value. Buses, however! Just take another look at Decca’s answer to an overdue Tommy; The Who, Magic Bus, On Tour. Great title, swinging presentation. Also a swindle as far as insinuating that the record was live. Bastards. This record is what that record should have been. It’s The Who at their early best. Merely nippers with big noses and small genitals trying to make the front page of The Daily News.”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl9bvuAV-Ao

Magic Bus

Every day I get in the queue (too much, Magic Bus)
To get on the bus that takes me to you (too much, Magic Bus)
I’m so nervous, I just sit and smile (too much, Magic Bus)
You house is only another mile (too much, Magic Bus)

Thank you, driver, for getting me here (too much, Magic Bus)
You’ll be an inspector, have no fear (too much, Magic Bus)
I don’t want to cause no fuss (too much, Magic Bus)
But can I buy your Magic Bus? (too much, Magic Bus)

(No)

I don’t care how much I pay (too much, Magic Bus)
I want to drive my bus to my baby each day (too much, Magic Bus)

I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it (you can’t have it)
Thruppence and sixpence every day
Just to drive to my baby
Thruppence and sixpence each day
‘Cause I drive my baby every way

Magic bus, Magic Bus, Magic Bus
Magic bus, Magic Bus, Magic Bus
Magic bus, Magic Bus, Magic Bus
Magic bus, Magic Bus, Magic Bus

I said, now I’ve got my Magic Bus (too much, Magic Bus)
I said, now I’ve got my Magic Bus (too much, Magic Bus)
I drive my baby every way (too much, Magic Bus)
Each time I go a different way (too much, Magic Bus)

I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it
I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it

Every day you’ll see the dust (too much, Magic Bus)
As I drive my baby in my Magic Bus (too much, Magic Bus)