We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
I have stayed away from most greatest hits LPs since most of the songs were not recorded or released in 1971 but I’ll make an exception for “Meaty, Beaty Big & Bouncy” from The Who.
It’s technically a “best of” Lp but a number of the tracks were not released in the US and as such were unfamiliar to many American listeners.
The tracks span the 1965-69 time frame featuring a bunch of great songs from “My Generation” and “The Kids Are Alright” which appeared on their first LP to “Pinball Wizard” from Tommy.
For those of you who only know the band from “Who’s Next” on, these songs show a group that could focus alot of solid music and lyrical quality in 3 minute songs. Hell, many of these tunes are under 3 minutes.
The aforementioned songs are stand outs but really, the whole LP is one quality track after another filled with chunky Townsend chords, throaty vocals from Daltry, Entwistle’s hammering bass and the coup de grace….Keith Moon’s drumming.
Moonie is amazing on these tracks. Sometimes it sound like chaos on the kit is going to bring the whole house down but he always manages to hammer it back to some semblance of normalcy.
This is still my favorite Who record and is so much fun to listen too. From the psychedlia of “Anytime, Anyhow, Anywhere” and “Magic Bus” …to the lyrical twists in songs like “Pictures Of Lily”, “I’m A Boy” and “Substitute”…to the throwaway fun of Entwistle’s “Boris The Spider”. It’s a gas.
Also, the title of the LP is not what you think. It describes the four band members….Meaty (Daltry), Beaty (Moon), Big (Entwistle) and Bouncy (Townsend).
Have fun with this one!
