The Who Album: “My Generation: The Very Best of the Who”

In my opinion, The Who are the greatest rock and roll band ever. With some of the most talented musicians in rock history (John Enthwistle is the greatest bassist ever) and a barrage of classic rock anthems. However, their legacy is slow being eaten away by a barrage of greatest hits collections that feature the same songs being released over and over again. There have been about nine Who greatest hits/best-of's/definitive collections/ultimate/box sets released over the years.

In 1996, the compilation "My Generation: The Very Best Of The Who" was released. This comoilation contains 20 of the band's biggest hits in both Britain and America. Nine years later, does this collection still hold up? Here are the positives and the negatives.

Positives:

-This collection includes almost all the hits the casual Who fan would want. "My Generation", "I Can See For Miles", "Pinall Wizard", "Baba O'Reilly", "Won't Get Fooled Again", "Who Are You", "You Better You Bet" and many other classics are on here.

-Underrated gems like "I'm A Boy", "Pictures Of Lily", "The Seeker" and "Let's See Action" are all included.

-It's affordable. That's good news for casual fans who only want one Who cd in this collection.

Negatives:

-Only one track from each from "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia"? These are easily The Who's best albums and yet we only get "Pinball Wizard" and "5:15". Those songs definitely deserve to be here, but where's "I'm Free", "Tommy Can You Hear Me", "We're Not Gonna Take It/See Me, Feel Me", "The Real Me" (Enthwistle's best bass work is on here), "Drowned" and especially the epic masterpiece "Love, Reign, O'Er Me"?

-Where's is "Behind Blue Eyes"? This track is very popular. Let me explain how popular this track is. It is the Who equivalent to leaving "Stairway To Heaven" of a Led Zeppelin best of. That is how popular that song is.

-For that matter, where's "The Kids Are Alright", "Pure And Easy", "Goin' Mobile", "Sister Disco" and "Eminence Front"?

-"Who Are You" is edited from 6:20 down to 4:51. Arrgh! I hate it when they do that.

-The sound isn't all that great.

If you're just beginning to get into The Who, then you should skip this and get the two cd "The Ultimate Collection", or if you really must have evryhting they did, then get the expensive box set "Thirty Years Of Maximum R & B". If you're on a budget, then I suggest the more recent single disc collection "Then & Now". That collection, while not as good as the other two, have "Real Good Looking Boy" and "Old Red Wine", the band's first studio recording in nearly 15 years. Whatever it is, this collection, while good, is not needed anymore.

Given the limitations inherent in a single-CD "best of" (you can cram just so much music into one CD), I wasn't expecting an overly deep song selection. But I was expecting a more attractive overall package than this. Unlike the original album reissues, this CD has no liner notes, something that any "definitive" compilation should have, if only for the sake of those unfamiliar with the band who want a little bit of history behind the music they're being introduced to. And that hideous cover; surely they could've done better? (How about the alternate version of the WHO'S NEXT cover, for instance, or the cover from the now-out-of-print MEATY BEATY BIG AND BOUNCY compilation?)

The music itself is great, of course, although I would've sacrificed "Squeeze Box" and "You Better You Bet" for a couple more early cuts. As for the sound quality, the Shel Talmy-produced material (comprising the first eight cuts on the disc) has not been remixed and has been taken from second- or maybe even third-generation masters; Talmy is involved in a long-standing legal dispute with the Who and won't allow the band to use his original master tapes. "Magic Bus" wasn't remixed for some reason, athough the multi-track tapes are available; presumably the compilers thought the original single mix had more of that "punch" the reviewers below were talking about. All of the other material from "See For Miles" through "You Better..." has been remixed--a fact which will probably delight and infuriate equal numbers of fans.

All in all, this is an okay "starter kit" for Who neophytes and for those who only want the Top 40 radio hits. I'd recommend that others avoid it, but then this is currently the only Who CD that includes the original single version of the all-time classic "Substitute." Aaaaargh!

This was supposed to be the one definitive greatest hits package on The Who replacing all the ones that had gone before (MBB&B, Who's Greatest, Who's Better Who's Best, Hooligans). Though it is a pretty decent sampler it just misses being the definitive package it was intended to be.

Originally Jon Astley planned for it to contain most but not all of the well known singles. The Kids Are Alright had long been planned to be included. Then the original multitracks of Won't Get Fooled Again were found and the long version was used on this disc. This used up eight minutes of disc space that could have been used for additional singles.

While most of the songs deserve to be on this (it's great to have the original Substitute), Baba O'Riley's inclusion is debatable. It is certainly a classic track off of Who's Next, and its presence isn't a detractor, but we have that already available on the Who Next reissue. What we don't have is the complete single The Relay remastered.

It is only found on the box set in a crossfade with Join Together. That means that the fade of Join Together obscures the intro of The Relay. Fans who want this song in hot house isolation remastered can't find it. Also one has to invest in the box to get the full version of The Kids Are Alright. This should have been included as well.

And speaking of deleting previous anthologies, why is Who's Greatest still in print, while Meaty Beaty is not?

Superb remastering make this a nice sampler, but not a definitive best-of. Oh, and the other reviewers are right to complain about the ugly cover. Why not use the imaginative MBB&B cover with the Who and their children look-a-likes.

The Who was there at the creation of sixties rock, or so it seems in retrospect. Certainly this very talented band, with Peter Townshend, John Entwhistle, and Roger Daltry all contributing artistically to the strength of the group, was in the spotlight most of the time by the late 1960s, and their creative juices were often exercised in pursuit of a number of artistic activities. This album of their greatest hits is a reflection of just some of those accomplishments, ranging from some trend-setting efforts such as "Substitute", "The Seeker", "You Better You Better you Bet'and "The magic Bus", as well as more experimental forms as were included in the rock opera "Tommy" with songs like "Pinball Wizard" arising from it. Also featured are songs such as the classic "Won't Get Fooled Again", "Squeeze Box", and "5:15". My single favorite is, of course, "Who Are You?", with its expletive-included mid-song. Who are you, indeed? This is a nice, tight collection, nowhere near comprehensive, but fairly representative of both their range and genius. Enjoy!

This is the album that introduced me to THE WHO, no it dosen't contain all the "Hits" and "singles" that the Who are known for, but it does not need to! because its an INTRO to The Who, and not anything else. Who cares about different mixes, its an INTRO! Potential fans that buy this will be motivated to buy all The WHO albums(like me), not just THE Ultimate Collection. The purpose of an introduction is to give you a feel for the topic so you can decide whether you like or not. That is exactly what this album does, so screw all that nay-saying, and go back to listening to your favorite Who album.