The Who Sell Out (Black 2LP)

SUMMARY

• Following recent super-deluxe editions and multi-format releases of classic Who albums – My Generation, Tommy and 'Quadrophenia', and the success of 'Live at Fillmore', we follow with The Who Sell Out – this set shaping up to be the most superlative of all…!!
• Released in December 1967 – the album reflected a remarkable year in popular culture. As well as being forever immortalized as the moment when the counterculture and the ' Love Generation' went global, 1967 produced tremendous musical upheavals as “pop” metamorphosed to “rock”.
• Originally planned by Pete Townshend and the band's managers, as a loose concept album including jingles and commercials linking the songs styled as a Radio London broadcast – born out of necessity as the band's managers wanted a new album and there weren't enough songs.
• The original plan was to sell advertising space on the album – Jaguar cars, Coca-Cola etc. The jingles pay tribute to the pirate radio stations and expose the myths of 'pop-culture' and mock consumer society – way ahead of their time…
• The homage to pop art is evident in both the advertising jingles and the iconic sleeve design – created by David King (art director at the Sunday Times) and Roger Law (who invented Spitting Image ) producing four giant images for each band member – Odorono deodorant, Medac spot cream, Charles Atlas and Heinz baked beans (Roger apparently caught pneumonia from sitting in the cold beans for too long).
• Photography by renowned portrait photographer David Montgomery (rare out-takes included)
• The album is a bold depiction of the period in which it was made – the tail-end of the 'swinging-60s' meets pop-art mixed with psychedelia and straight-ahead pop craft. It's glorious blend of classic powerful Who instrumentation, melodic harmonies, satirical lyrical imagery crystallized for what was only the group's third album – the ambition and scope is unrivaled by the Who, or any others from that period.
• Within the bold concept, were a batch of fabulous and diverse songs – I Can See for Miles (a Top Ten hit) is a Who classic, Rael, a Townshend 'mini-opera' with musical motifs that reappeared in Tommy and the psychedelic blast of Armenia City in the Sky and Relax are among the very best material of the 1960s.
• One of the most extraordinary albums of any era – it's The Who's last 'pop' album. Two years later Tommy came – a double concept album about a deaf, dumb and blind kid…

TRACKLIST 2LP STEREO VINYL EDITION

DISC ONE (ORIGINAL LP - STEREO)

Side 1
1. Armenia City in the Sky
2. Heinz Baked Beans
3. Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand
4. Odorono
5. Tattoo
6. Our Love Was
7. I Can See for Miles

Side 2
1. I Can't Reach You
2. Medac
3. Relax
4. Silas Stingy
5. Sunrise
6. Rael

Track Records run-off groove

DISC TWO (BONUS TRACKS - STEREO)

Side 1
1. Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand (US single version)
2. Someone's Coming
3. Summertime Blues
4. Glittering Girl
5. Early Morning Cold Taxi
6. Girl's Eyes

Side 2
1. Coke After Coke
2. Sodding About
3. Things Go Better with Coke
4. Hall of The Mountain King
5. Jaguar
6. Rael (remake; IBC version) Track Records outro