New Releases: The Who By Numbers (Deluxe)

Been curled up this weekend with the new 5-CD box set reissue of The Who's 1975 album The Who By Numbers. I've always had a complicated relationship with the record. It was the band's current release when I first started listening to pop radio as a kid; "Squeeze Box" was in regular rotation on the local Top 40 station, and while it was a fun little ditty, it wasn't necessarily the ideal song to introduce me to the band. (Fortunately, as I started to move from the AM to the FM dial, I was exposed to much more of their back catalog, and discovering Who's Next in my middle school's record library a couple years later was pretty life-changing for me.)

By Numbers has always suffered a bit from coming on the heels of one of rock's all-time great album runs, from 1967's The Who Sell Out through Tommy and Who's Next, culminating in 1973's Quadrophenia, my favorite Who record. (Hell, even 1974's leftovers collection Odds & Sods is better than most artists' best work.) By Numbers necessarily pales a bit by comparison (I tend to equate it with the Stones' Goats Head Soup, which I similarly find underrated simply by virtue of following one of rock's most perfect runs). 

At the same time, it's still pretty damn great, arguably the band's last essential record--certainly much better than the next one, Who Are You, which I've always found pretty depressing. There are plenty of great songs, including a few which show Pete Townshend starting to hit his "mature songwriter" phase (which seems kinda crazy considering he was just turning 30, but that seemed old at the time)--I love "grown-up" tracks like "However Much I Booze," "Dreaming From The Waist," and "How Many Friends" in particular.

As for the new box set, it's certainly more engaging than last year's Who Are You reissue. Now, it's not really a fair comparison, given my above-noted lack of love for the latter record; however many goodies that box packed in (particularly the live material), it still came down to some songs which were a real mixed bag. So the song selection itself makes this the better pick-up. (Note that the proper album itself, included in the box, doesn't vary from prior remasters, so if you don't want the extras, you don't need the box.) 

This time around, we've got the usual assortment of session tracks and Townshend demos. And while many of these are strictly diehards-only (I consider myself one, yet I can't see myself ever playing the instrumental tracking sessions again), it's cool to hear many of the numbers sung by Pete instead of Roger. Much of the album felt more appropriate for a Pete solo album than for the band, so they work well in their demo or alternate takes. We also, belatedly, get an official release of a long-circulating 1976 concert; they'd included a few songs from the set on an earlier CD reissue, so it was clear they had the tapes in the archives, but for some reason hadn't released the entire show until now. It's one of the first bootlegs I bought, and the sound isn't a whole lot better, but it's improved, and adds about 10 more minutes missing from the boot. And it's a fine show--still a little too Tommy-heavy, with nothing from Quad and little from the new album, but the band is in top form and Keith Moon is still a dynamic presence.

I don't know if they'll bother doing deluxe reissues of the post- Moon Face Dances & It's Hard (both of which I prefer to Who Are You), but I imagine they assume there's still a bit of cash in the pockets of the Boomers and Xers who still buy CDs.