The Who By Numbers Music Cd

Who - The Who By Numbers

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The Who by Numbers      Artist : The Who      List Price : $18.98 USD        Your Price : $11.97 USD      ProductGroup: Music      Release Date : 1996-11-19      Studio : Mca      Label : Mca      Avg. Customer Rating : (92 reviews)

Reviews Customer Reviews for The Who By Numbers      Who's Underrated      Rating:      This is the last Who album. Who Are You was a coda (albeit an alright one) and the albums with Kenney Jones were by a different band. You can't lose an energy like Moon and go on pretending you're The Who. You're not, you're the Who's Left. And that's okay, go be the best darn new Who you can be! But recognize the difference and act accordingly no matter what anyone says, because if you build it they will come. That's where I think The Who got it wrong post 1978, which is a shame because I really like Face Dances, it just could have been better. But I'm not here to discuss all that now am I? No. By Numbers...great album. No synthesizers, no Rock Opera. This is the return of the My Generation Who (or if you wish to acknowledge the self-referential pun of the album title, The High Numbers Who). Guitar, bass, drums, vocals and occasional keyboard. By Numbers is the perfect bookend to their career. My Generation was the frustrated young man, By Numbers the frustrated man ten years on. Since the collapse of Lifehouse Townshend seemed to become more reflective about the band and himself. The song Long Live Rock was the start of a period of looking back, of examining, celebrating, mythologizing and ultimately popping holes in and deflating The Who and his role and place in music and in life. The dour mood of the album could have been balanced a bit with one or two of the more perky/tongue in cheek tunes Townshend had around at this time - something like My Baby Gives It Away or Misunderstood from his later Rough Mix album with Ronnie Lane for example. Squeeze Box fills this gap as best as its cheery little heart can though, and Entwistle's fantastic Success Story humorously encapsulates everything Townshend is going on about. Blue Red And Gray is rather sweet as well. The Who still had fire in them at this point and it is well represented in the playing and performances. AND The Who By NUmbers has one of the best damn album covers EVER! Cheers to The Ox! The live bonus tracks are cool too. I mean, Dreaming From The Waist? Are you kidding?! Cheers to The Ox again!!! Great Who album.     Customer Reviews for The Who By Numbers Cd      An early mid-life crisis?      Rating:      I recently rediscovered this album, along side with Quadrophenia, after an absence of over 20 years. I always thought Quadrophenia was The Who's best album, and viewed The Who by Numbers as their worst. I was wrong. Quadrophenia is their best, IMHO. But The Who by Numbers has aged better, because The Who's fans of have aged. Whereas the one is a coming of age story, the other is a plaintive attempt to come to grasp with the consequences of decisions made, paths chosen, and success attained, only to find that it may not be success after all. I remember that critics hated this album, with its self-loathing and self-pitying. "Success Story" explains the reaction before it even happened: they wanted to become rock stars, and they did, with all the good and the bad that comes along with it. So "How Many Friends Have I Really Got?" seemed pathetic in 1975; in 2008 it rings somewhat more true. This was The Who's (and Pete Townshend's) first really personal album. For the first time, he moved from high concept albums (Tommy, Who's Next which grew out of the never realized Lifehouse project, and Quadrophenia)to a collection of unrelated songs that nevertheless portrayed the songwriter's thoughts and attitudes at that point in his life, and where he stood in the world. Subsequent albums would continue to do the same. From the perspective of performance, this is a brilliant collection. Daltrey's voice is superb, ranging from his famous growls to plaintive ballads. Townshend clearly has become, by this point, a brilliant orchestrator of a rock band, successfully getting more out of less, by eschewing the synthesizers of Who's Next and Quadrophenia, and reducing the band to guitar (and banjo etc.), bass, drums, voice, and some piano. I think my favorite song has become "In a Hand or Face", as it displays typical Who anger versus humility. "Blue Red and Grey" is a very pretty song, as is "Imagine a Man". This is not the first Who album someone should buy -- that is still either Who's Next or Live at Leeds (the original release), followed by Tommy & Quadrophenia. (Honorable mention must go to The Who Sell Out.) But it is a must own, especially for those of us who listened to this album 30 years ago. Editorial Reviews for The Who By Numbers Audio Cd      Amazon.com      This 1975 collection excels in large part due to its modest goal. It's the Who's singer-songwriter record. Without the ostensible shield his "rock operas" provided, Pete Townshend's personal demons strut about nakedly. Not a pretty sight, but an involving spectacle nevertheless. "They Are All in Love" and "How Many Friends" are forgotten Who songs, but they've aged beautifully. John Entwistle's "Success Story" sequences nicely with the rest of the album. And "However Much I Booze," "Dreaming from the Waist," and "In a Hand or a Face" are great decade-early exercises in mid-life self-pity. There are only three bonus tracks here--live versions of "Squeeze Box," "Dreaming from the Waist," and the earlier "Behind Blue Eyes"--but By Numbers is such a cohesive collection that they're less welcome extras than annoying distractions. Still, By Numbers now stands as one of the linchpins in a great band's catalog. --Steven Stolder