Like so many mid-60's UK groups the Who saved their best songs for their singles. The group's first two albums are a varying inconsistent mix of great-to-weak originals and cover versions. Despite those drawbacks, "A Quick One" is a legendary British Pop album, and a necessary listen for Who fans to find out how this band quickly evolved to create their later masterpieces. Get around the weaker tracks and you'll discover the amazing title track (foreshadowing "Tommy" by 2 years) and the Power Pop classic "So Sad About Us" which was later covered by The Jam.
This CD has come out in the USA in 3 Versions - all from MCA.
1) The original "A Quick One (Happy Jack)" CD from the late 80's - with a "Compact Disc-Compact Price" ad on the insert and a generic green design back with a simple track listing. The sound quality ranges from tinny to muddy due to MCA's using of the old LP master tape (and some tracks appear in simulated stereo just like they did on the original Decca/MCA album). No bonus cuts, but it does have the original version of "Happy Jack" which SHOULD have been included in the remastered version to keep us American fans happy. If you're curious about this album you can pick this CD up dirt cheap...but I recommend the later versions.
2) The remastered CD with notes and bonus cuts from 1995. But most of this CD used the mono mixes instead, along with some cuts in stereo and simulated stereo. Producer Jon Astley told ICE magazine that he used the mono mixes because he thought they sounded better. The original master tapes were stored at former Who manager Kit Lambert's house in France and were possibly destroyed in a flood decades ago, so Astley couldn't remix them.
3) The remastered album with the same number and packaging, but now back in Stereo. My copy had a sticker that said "CLASSIC WHO remixed & remastered in STEREO for the first time". If it doesn't have that sticker don't buy it. Since 1995 copies of the master tapes have been discovered and the entire album has been remixed almost in true stereo (Almost because "See My Way" appears once again in fake stereo). The rest of the album has never sounded better. Tracks like "Heatwave" and "Don't Look Away" that were originally in distorted fake stereo now jump out of the speakers with a powerful true stereo presence. This is the version of "A Quick One" you should buy.
In 1995, the Who's 1st LP for the Reaction label, A Quick One, from 1966, was remastered, remixed in analogue and re-issued in the UK by Polydor (527 758-2), complete with 10 extra tracks and a colour booklet with extensive notes.
A Quick One, featuring a cover by the very fashionable Pop Art graphic artist Alan Aldridge, showed that the Who had developed a unique sound and style of their own. Gone was the profusion of cover versions as found on My Generation, their first album, with all members of the band contributing to the composer credits. Only one cover, Martha and the Vandellas' Heatwave, in an arrangement from an Everly Brothers album, made the final tracklisting (an earlier version had been dropped from the My Generation album, and in America even this new version was replaced by the hit single Happy Jack).
A Quick One lacked the wild savagery soundwise of the first album, but still had all the elements of it including Keith Moon's powerhouse drumming and chaotic creative energy, as showcased on the well-named instrumental Cobwebs And Strange. The songs were in the main light-hearted and enjoyably immature, John Entwistle's Boris The Spider and Whiskey Man in particular showed a unique humour. Pete Townshend's songwriting talents continued to develop. The album opened with his thunderous Run, Run Run, a song that had earlier been given to The Cat to record on a single produced by Pete Townshend. Along the way came So Sad About Us, later to be covered by the Breeders and the Jam (who also revived the Who's version of Heatwave). The album finale was the ten-minute mini-opera A Quick One (While He's Away), which set in motion a whole new direction for his talents, and led, of course, to Tommy.
The extra tracks began with most of the contemporaneous Ready Steady Who! EP: Batman, Bucket T and Barbara Ann, the three surf music covers from side 1, and Disguises from side 2 (Peculiarly, Circles is not included on this or, it seems, any other Who CD except in an earlier recording). The surfer sides were the influence of Keith Moon, who had played in a surf combo called the Beachcombers in the surfing paradise of Wembley, London.
The B-sides of Happy Jack (I've Been Away), Pictures Of Lily (Doctor, Doctor) and I'm A Boy (In The City) follow, all written or co-written by John Entwistle, and three previously unreleased tracks complete the package. These are an acoustic version of Happy Jack, a great cover of the Everly Brothers' Man With Money and an anarchic version of My Generation which appears to begin in mono and segues gloriously into a stereo feedback-drenched rendition of Land Of Hope And Glory. This was originally intended for the Ready Steady Who! EP, released to tie-in with their appearance on the famous TV show, but was not music from the show itself.
A Quick One was originally released in mono in the UK, and according to the booklet in both mono and stereo versions in the US, although the 1995 re-issue CD appears not to have had access to the stereo masters if such they were (they may just have been electronically re-channeled fake stereo). Run, Run, Run appeared in a stereo version previously available on the vinyl Backtrack 3 compilation sampler, but, apart from Whiskey Man the rest of the original album was monaural, with 5 of the bonus tracks in stereo, including the Batman theme, which may have come from the same Backtrack series.
This release of this stereo edition of the album has nothing on the CD itself to differentiate it from the 1995 edition which appeared alongside it on the record shop shelves and which had a sticker saying it was newly remastered and remixed. The publication date on both sleeve and disc is still given as 1995, and the booklet is an exact reprint of the 1995 edition. There is not even a sticker with additional information on the cover of the case of the British re-issue.
This poor and rather wasteful promotion and lack of demarcation is a shame because when I finally tracked down the correct copy it more than lived up to expectations. The whole of A Quick One is in full stereo. Run, Run, Run is in a new and slightly longer mix, and all the bonus tracks are stereo too, with the sole exception of the acoustic Happy Jack. This gives a bigger, clearer sound allowing many of the production subtleties to be fully appreciated for the first time thanks to the separation, especially for headphone listening, and particularly enhances the vocal harmonies.
The absence of a revised booklet means one unfortunately cannot tell whether these mixes are derived from 1966 stereo masters or were newly created from multi-track tapes for this release.
This album is, I would contend, much overlooked in the Who's catalogue. Yet, 37 years on, there is a freshness and energy which many of their later albums lack. Who fans will be familiar with all the tracks on the CD but the question is do the remixes work? I say the amswer is an emphatic YES. Most tracks are in crisp, clear stereo for the first time. The original mono vinyl album always sounded a bit "muddy" to me, though no worse than many others from the mid 60s. The title track, in particular, sounds much better in its stereo mix. It is a pity, though, that Polydor couldn't squeeze the single mix of "Happy Jack" onto the CD as well as the mono acoustic version which is an interesting curio rather than an essential. My favourite track is "Disguises", originally from the "Ready Steady Who" EP...but, again, where is "Circles"? This is the Who striding confidently along the highway that led to international acclaim...it's a great album to have in your collection.
Ah..1967. I have many fond memories of that summer. One of the best was crusing around town in my parents' car with my pal, Freddy R. and listening to the radio. Whenever `Happy Jack' by The Who came on, it was mandatory to crank up the volume to the max! So naturally, I bought the album which I listened to often. Now I got the CD with bonus tracks, but since the song, `Happy Jack' was not on the original British album it is not on this release! What kind of a deal is that? (`Heatwave' which is included on the CD was on the British album instead of `Happy Jack') There is a previously unreleased accoustical version of `Happy Jack' which is not the same. It kind of makes me feel ripped off.
Before I review this, I have to take issue with Jules who reviewed A Quick One claiming that Townshend was the only talented member of the Who. Totally false! John Entwistle is one of the best bass players in rock and roll as was Keith Moon one of the best drummers of all time (for proof, listen to his fast and furious drumming on "Cobwebs and Strange" included here!)! Roger Daltrey has a heck of a strong voice, too.
I will agree, however, that Townshend is the tunesmith of the band. John Entwistle's songs are clever and sinister ("Whiskey Man" and "Boris the Spider"). Roger Daltrey's sole piece "See My Way" is only fair as is Keith Moon's "I Need You" (with his Beach Boys falsetto). "Don't Look Away" is the Who's attempt to sound country and "Run Run Run" sounds a little like "My Generation". We're also missing the original "Happy Jack". The extras are songs from Ready Steady Who! (excepting "Instant Party" which was released on the American version of My Generation) and the American release Magic Bus (like "Disguises", "Doctor Doctor" and "Bucket T").
Then of course there's Pete's 1st rock opera ever "A Quick One While He's Away", which is by far the highlight of this CD. A lonely girlguide misses her man who's been away "for a night and a year". Along comes Ivor the Engine Driver who promises "I'm gonna make you feel allright!".
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