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A Quick One

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A Quick One (1966) is the second album released by British rock band The Who. American record company executives released the album under the title Happy Jack, rather than the sexually suggestive title of the UK release, also due to "Happy Jack" being a top forty hit in the U.S. "Happy Jack" was not included on the UK version of the album, but was instead a non-album track single.

This is widely regarded by fans to have been a pivotal album for the group, due to the departure from the R&B / pop formula featured on the band's first release. Part of the marketing push for the album was a requirement that each band member should write at least two of the songs on it (though in fact Roger Daltrey only managed one), so this Who album is the least dominated by Pete Townshend's writing.

The album was also the band's first foray into the form of rock opera, with "A Quick One While He's Away", the title track of the LP, a nine-minute suite of song snippets telling a story of infidelity and reconciliation. (The Who would later go on to write and record the full scale rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia).

The album was intended to be Pop Music (capital 'P'), a sonic participant in the Pop Art movement. The front cover is a Pop Art depiction of the band playing their instruments. The back cover is a black-and-white photo montage of the band members accompanied by a short personality sketch of each (infamous among Who fans for Keith Moon's humorous assertion that he was keen on "breeding chickens"). A track listing, a couple of paragraphs touting the band, an ad for their first album, and a technical blurb are also crowded onto the back cover.

The blurb reveals the recording technology of the time by announcing "This is a high-fidelity record! For proper reproduction use RIAA or a similar Record Compensator setting."

The album was recorded at IBC Studios, Pye Studios and Regent Sound, in London, England in 1966. Kit Lambert produced.

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Track listing

All songs are by Pete Townshend except as noted.

A Quick One (original 1966 UK release)

Side one

  1. "Run, Run, Run" – 2:43
  2. "Boris the Spider" (John Entwistle) – 2:29
  3. "I Need You" (Keith Moon) – 2:25
  4. "Whiskey Man" (Entwistle) – 2:57
  5. "Heat Wave" (Brian Holland/Lamont Dozier/Edward Holland) – 1:57
  6. "Cobwebs and Strange" (Moon) – 2:31

Side two

  1. "Don't Look Away" – 2:54
  2. "See My Way" (Roger Daltrey) – 1:53
  3. "So Sad About Us" – 3:04
  4. "A Quick One While He's Away" – 9:10

Bonus tracks (1995 remastered CD)

  1. "Batman" (Neal Hefti) (theme from Batman the TV series) – 1:37
  2. "Bucket T" (Atrield/Christian/Torrence) – 2:12
  3. "Barbara Ann" (Fred Fassert) – 1:59
  4. "Disguises" – 3:10
  5. "Doctor, Doctor" (Entwistle) – 2:59
  6. "I've Been Away" (Entwistle) – 2:08
  7. "In the City" (Moon/Entwistle) – 2:21
  8. "Happy Jack" (Acoustic Version) – 2:55
  9. "Man with Money" (Don Everly/Phil Everly) – 2:45
  10. "My Generation" / "Land of Hope and Glory" (Townshend/Elgar) – 2:05

Happy Jack (original U.S. release)

  1. "Run, Run, Run"
  2. "Boris the Spider" (Entwistle)
  3. "I Need You" (Moon)
  4. "Whiskey Man" (Entwistle)
  5. "Cobwebs and Strange" (Moon)
  6. "Happy Jack"
  7. "Don't Look Away"
  8. "See My Way" (Daltrey)
  9. "So Sad About Us"
  10. "A Quick One While He's Away"

A Quick One (Happy Jack) (1974 U.S. release and first U.S. CD release)

  1. "Run, Run, Run"
  2. "Boris the Spider" (Entwistle)
  3. "I Need You" (Moon)
  4. "Whiskey Man" (Entwistle)
  5. "Heat Wave" (Brian Holland/Lamont Dozier/Edward Holland)
  6. "Cobwebs and Strange" (Moon)
  7. "Don't Look Away"
  8. "See My Way" (Daltrey)
  9. "So Sad About Us"
  10. "A Quick One While He's Away"
  11. "Happy Jack"

Personnel

Song notes

A Quick One includes the very first songs John Entwistle wrote for The Who, albeit in reverse order.

"Boris the Spider" was written after Entwistle had been out drinking with Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman. They were making up funny names for animals when Entwistle came up with "Boris the Spider".

Since Entwistle had trouble singing "r"s, he double-tracked the vocals on "Whiskey Man", singing "fwend" and "flend", hoping they'd come together as "friend".[1]

"Heat Wave" is a cover of a song by Martha and the Vandellas that was very popular in the UK at the time. For the U.S. release, "Heat Wave" was dropped and "Happy Jack" added in its place. "Heat Wave" was added back on to the album for when Happy Jack was re-issued on the 1974 double album repackaging of A Quick One and The Who Sell Out as A Quick One (Happy Jack).

Though this is deemed by some to be one of the weakest Who albums with Keith Moon, it is nonetheless notable in several regards.[citation needed] "Boris the Spider" quickly became John Entwistle's most popular song and was still performed live decades later; in later years, John was almost invariably sporting a spider necklace for photographs. "Happy Jack" is quirky in both lyrics and sound, but is popular nonetheless and remains a favorite of both fans and non-fans alike to this day. It was featured in TV ads for the Hummer automobile in 2004. "A Quick One While He's Away" was Townshend's first move toward the production of the rock operas that he is so much noted for. Though it is a simple medley of song fragments, the band came to refer to it as their "mini-opera", and on the remastered CD release of their Live at Leeds album Townshend can be heard introducing it as "Tommy's parent". The song was performed live for The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus film. (The film, made in 1968, came out on video in 1995. The track can also be heard on the soundtrack of Jeff Stein's film The Kids Are Alright; it is also used in Wes Anderson's film Rushmore, but the soundtrack album uses the Live at Leeds version.)

One particularly notable track on this album is the mod/pop number "So Sad About Us". Though it is difficult to accurately gauge such phenomena, "So Sad About Us" has likely been covered more frequently than any other song on the album. (According to the All Music Guide, it is "one of the Who's most covered songs." [1]). Shaun Cassidy, Primal Scream, The Breeders, and most notably The Jam are among the many artists who have recorded studio versions of the song. Beyond the sheer number of covers, it is also one of The Who's most frequently imitated songs. As the aforementioned AMG put it, it is "an archetypal early Who song" and "hundreds of bands have based their entire careers on this one song." With its ringing guitars, Beach Boys-styled harmonies, crashing drums, and lovelorn lyrics, it is one of the early forebears of the power pop genre, along with other early Who staples such as "I Can't Explain" and "The Kids Are Alright". Pete Townshend and one-time Jam frontman Paul Weller performed an acoustic duet of the song as captured on the album The Who and Special Guests: Live at the Royal Albert Hall.

The album's engineering produced a mushy sound that went unmitigated even by the remastered CD release.

"Happy Jack" and "A Quick One While He's Away" can also be heard on the remastered CD release of Live at Leeds from a 1970 performance.

In addition to their usual instruments, each bandmember played an orchestral instrument as well to give a marching band effect on "Cobwebs and Strange". Keith Moon played orchestral cymbals, Pete Towshend played penny-whistle, John Entwistle played trumpet, and Roger Daltrey played trombone.

Jigsaw Puzzle

An early version of the Who's second album was to be titled Jigsaw Puzzle.[citation needed] If released, it would have consisted of the following tracks:

  1. "I'm a Boy" (the slow version, released on Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy)
  2. "Run Run Run"
  3. "Don't Look Away"
  4. "Circles" (version 2)
  5. "I Need You"
  6. "Cobwebs and Strange"
  7. "In the City"
  8. "Boris the Spider"
  9. "Whiskey Man"
  10. "See My Way"
  11. "Heat Wave"
  12. "Barbara Ann"

Editions

[1966] Reaction 593 002
Original UK LP release. Titled as A Quick One, with cover and track listing as given above. Producer: Kit Lambert
[1967] Decca DL4892 (mono) / DL 74892 (stereo)
Original USA LP release. Retitled as Happy Jack, with cover and variant track listing as given above. Producer: Kit Lambert
[1974] Track/MCA MCAD2-4067 (stereo)
Re-issued as one of a two-LP set along with The Who Sell Out. Track list and order as described above.
[1988] MCAD-31331 (7673-11331-2)
Original CD release (AAD). Double titled as A Quick One (Happy Jack). Original cover (except for the title) on the front; simple track listing on the back. Standard MCA silver label with title and track listing. The tracks are as on the original UK release, plus USA-style "Happy Jack" added at the end. The front insert folds out for a somewhat modified version of the original back cover, another copy of the CD's track listing, and some spamish advertisements for other MCA CDs. Producer: Kit Lambert. Executive Producer: Chris Stamp.
[1995] MCAD-11267 (08811-12672)
Remastered CD release (ADD). Title reverts to A Quick One. Original cover on the front; portrait of the band with "The W H O" painted on their faces on the back. Custom black disk label with "the who" written over arrows and a plain title. The tracks are as on the original UK release, plus 10 bonus tracks. Includes an acoustic version of "Happy Jack", but not the version from the original USA release. The cover insert is a 10 leaf booklet including extended credits, facsimiles of period posters and articles, an article and track background information by Chris Stamp, the front and back covers of the Ready Steady Who EP of 1966 (Reaction Records 592001), and period photos of the band. (Most of the tracks from the EP show up as bonus tracks on this CD.) Producer: Jon Astley. Executive Producers: Bill Curbishley, Robert Rosenberg, and Chris Charlesworth.
[2003] Polydor 589800-2 (31458-98002)
Remixed CD re-release (AAD). All but 3 tracks are in true stereo; exact same packaging used as on 1995 release. Catalog number listed above is for UK release; US release has same catalog number as previous issue.

References

  1. ^ Liner notes to the CD reissue
  • Many of the factual details in this article are derived from the insert to the remastered CD of 1995 (08811-12672).
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