The cynical might contend the two-CD set of Who’s Next/Life House merely scratches the surface of the larger compendium from which comes its contents. But it’s more accurate to term the smaller package a sampler from the 155-track Super Deluxe Edition based on the Who’s iconic 1971 studio album.
Still, this two-CD package does not fully correlate to a previous iteration released twenty years ago. Nor does it exactly correspond to any exhumations of the archives. It is instead a composite of culls from the 10CD/Blu-ray set that collates previously released but no longer readily available material like Life House demos and concert recordings, not the least of which is the estimable inclusions of December 1971 San Francisco shows (like its London Young Vic counterpart appearing in full in the more expansive assemblage).
The three tracks from the former might well have been placed on the first disc. There’s plenty of room available along with the nine tracks of the album as originally released and the thunderous sound of the quartet on stage–hear the torque of the late John Entwistle bass and the firestorm of the deceased Keith Moon’s drumming–would ratify Townshend’s imaginative use of synthesized sounds as so skillfully integrated into the often majestic sound of the Who. The foursome sounds even noisier here than in the days of guitar smashing.
Still, leaving Who’s Next on its own furthers the implicit thinking behind this Deluxe Edition. That is, formulating an overarching theme distinct from the more broad scope of Life House the larger set aims to clarify. As a direct reflection of sharper and more immediate sound compared to the earlier double-set, courtesy Jon Astley’s remastering plus Bob Pridden and Richard Whittaker’s remixing, such perceptions become readily apparent.
With the second disc offering highlights of ‘Sessions, Demos, Singles & Live,’ its nine cuts represent something of a mirror image to its now iconic counterpart (and perhaps the best Pete Townshend solo album ever). Songs such as “I Don’t Know Myself” are direct expressions of personal emotion (not surprisingly a regular inclusion of the setlists around this time). In that same respect, the open-hearted vulnerability of “Mary” is one of the man’s most touching compositions, while “Pure And Easy” further displays his gift for melody.
As is also the case with “Too Much of Anything” and “Time Is Passing.” Both of the latter address the author’s spiritual leanings, an integral but sometimes overlooked undercurrent in much of this material. Likewise, the thoughts behind the demo “Getting In Tune” are those reflections of a single individual and, in the fully-formed arrangement tendered by Pete alone, they resound as deeply without the bracing bravado of the Who (with Mountain’s Leslie West) permeating “Behind Blue Eyes” .
Within the context of the group or not, these tracks effectively punctuate the notion of the original Glyn Johns-produced record as a combined culmination and farewell. And it’s not just one proffered to any given era or to the grand ambition that was Life House, but a resigned adieu to a certain idealism with which Townshend regarded rock and roll as a means of communication and community.
As such, the cover image of Who’s Next has never looked so perfectly appropriate. However much the photo seems to capture an infantile exercise in futility, it is far less so than the anthemic likes of “Won’t Get Fooled Again;” the fittingly-placed final track on both CDs of this set collates all the begrudging acceptance and defiant optimism that courses through all these twenty-one tracks, rendered with correspondingly cacophonous impact
Whether intimate solo renditions or all-encompassing band takes featuring the artful vocal intensity of Roger Daltrey, the inclusion of more selections from the Super Deluxe Edition would only render this distillation less of an accurately condensed compilation. In fact, the appearance of tracks released only as singles subsequent to the now over fifty-year-old LP–“Relay” and “Join Together” to name just two–would contradict the original intent of the titular leader of the Wh: he wanted to generate something other than merely another album as fodder for more touring.
As it now stands, the Who’s Next/Life House double-disc package defines the iconic release on its own terms, separate from those larger ambitions from which it came. If, in their respective liner notes, both Pete Townshend himself and journalist/author Andy Neill skirt that issue–apart from the latter’s insightful copy on the backstory he shares on the content of second disc–it may be that, like so many epochal works in the history of contemporary rock (Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street, R.E.M.’s Document), this title represents the expert execution of a finite but perhaps only subliminal concept that few if any of the participants were cognizant of during its gestation and preparation.
