The Who – Who’s For Tennis?
(soniclovenoize reconstruction)
Side A:
1. Glow Girl
2. Fortune Teller
3. Girl’s Eyes
4. Dogs
5. Call Me Lightning
6. Melancholia
Side B:
7. Faith in Something
Bigger
8. Early Morning:
Cold Taxi
9. Little Billy
10. Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde
11. Shakin’ All Over
12. Magic Bus
A long-desired blog-follower request, this is my
reconstruction of the proposed and promptly withdrawn 1968 album Who’s For
Tennis? by The Who. Originally intend as a proper studio album
(or live album, as some maintain) that would have been released in-between The
Who Sell Out and Tommy, the idea for the album was scrapped and the recorded
material instead came out as either single releases or remained in the
vaults. This reconstruction draws from numerous
sources to create a completely stereo, cohesive album, utilizing the best
mastering available and is volume-adjusted for aural continuity. Also, a completely new and unique stereo mix
of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was created, unavailable elsewhere and exclusive
to this reconstruction.
Riding as high as they possibly could from 1967’s The Who
Sell Out, a concept album recorded to emulate British pirate radio stations,
The Who embarked on tours of Australia and the United States throughout 1968,
biding their time until their next concept album. During this time, Pete Townshend began
composing what he believed could be his magnum opus, a rock opera that spanned
an entire album-length (rather than a single-song ‘pocket-opera’ such as “A
Quick One While He’s Away”) about a deaf, dumb and blind kid (who sure played a
mean pinball). Such a lofty project
required time to compose and demo properly, and the album was set to be
recorded that fall. But in an attempt to
keep up with their British rock contemporaries such as The Rolling Stones, The
Beatles and The Kinks who could release an entire album of material every year,
the question was proposed: what album would The Who release in 1968 to fill the
stopgap until Townshend’s rock opera, which at best would be released in early
1969?
Thus The Who’s manager and producer Kit Lambert proposed an
album entitled Who’s For Tennis? to be released that July of 1968, meant to
capitalize on the upcoming Wimbledon Championships. The album would have included all new
recordings as well as any number of the relevant outtakes from the previous
year’s Sell Out sessions, which had produced a wealth of non-LP material. In January and February of 1968, The Who
recorded Townshend’s “Faith in Something Bigger”, “Glow Girl” and “Little
Billy”, the later written for the American Cancer Society for an anti-smoking
campaign. Also recorded during these
initial sessions was a very old Who song originally dating from 1964 called
“Call Me Lightning”, and bassist John Entwhistle’s own “Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde”, yet another ‘scary’ children’s song.
After embarking on their spring tour of the US directly after the
February recording sessions, The Who returned to the studio in May and June and
recorded seven more tracks: Townshend originals “Dogs”, “Melancholia”, “Magic
Bus”, “Joys” and “Facts of Life” as well as live staples of old blues covers
“Fortune Teller” and “Shakin’ All Over”.
With twelve new studio recordings in the can, the absurd idea
of Who’s For Tennis? was eventually withdrawn as the summer drew upon The Who. Instead of an entire album, just three of the
tracks trickled out as single-releases: the US single “Call Me Lightning” b/w
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and it’s UK counterpart “Dogs” b/w “Call Me Lightning”. Neither single charted particularly well,
becoming long-forgotten Who singles.
There was also some discussion of a live album of The Who’s performance
at The Fillmore East to be released in Who’s For Tennis?’s place (some sources
claim the Who’s For Tennis? concept was this live album rather than a studio
album of the 1968 recordings) but the performances were a bit too sloppy and
were set aside. The final decision was to
instead release the single “Magic Bus” as well as two cash-grab compilations:
The Magic Bus: The Who On Tour in the US, and Direct Hits in the UK. The decision paid off, as “Magic Bus” became
a long-time fan favorite and live staple for The Who for years to come. This was enough to bide the band’s time until
Townshend could see, feel, touch and heal his rock opera into fruition, even as
much as pillaging the outro of the now-canned “Glow Girl” into Tommy’s
“Overture/It’s A Boy”.
The remaining tracks were left unheard for years, with each
slowly trickling out on anthology collections: first on Odds and Sods in 1974; then on Rarities volumes 1 & 2 in 1983; and
finally the Maximum R&B boxset in 1993.
Aside from the tracks that remain in the vault to this day (“Shakin’ All
Over”, “Joys” and “Facts of Life”), Who fans have just enough material to
reconstruct what this theoretical 1968 stopgap album would have been. Various fans’ track sequences tend to utilize
the same 12-or-so tracks recorded during this period but the actual track
sequences fluctuate wildly, as there never was a finalized tracklist. The only concrete information we have (beyond
a title) is that it would have been a ‘preachy’ album (a reference to the
inclusion of “Little Billy” and “Faith in Something Bigger”) and the album would
have opened with “Glow Girl”. Keep in
mind that allegedly Sell Out outtakes and non-LP tracks would have been used as
filler on Who’s For Tennis?, which could have included any of the following
songs: “Pictures of Lily”, “Doctor, Doctor”, “Glittering Girl”, “Hall of the
Mountain King”, “Sodding About”, “Early Morning: Cold Taxi”, “Girl’s Eyes”,
“Summertime Blues”, “Someone’s Coming”. What
would have actually been on Who’s For Tennis?
While there is no possible answer, we can certainly know what is on this
reconstruction!
Side A begins with the only clue Pete Townshend has left us:
the album starts with “Glow Girl”, which would have also been a single, here
sourced from the best-sounding version from the Sell Out remaster. Following is “Fortune Teller” taken from the
30 Years of Maximum R&B boxset. The
first of my chosen Sell Out outtakes follows (using only the ones that seemed
to stylistically and sonically match the rest of the 1968 material): Keith
Moon’s “Girl’s Eyes”, again taken from Maximum R&B. Mellowing down a bit, the unique stereo mix
of “Dogs” taken from the Maximum R&B set is next, followed by mod-rocker
“Call Me Lightning”, using the true stereo mix (albeit frustratingly narrow) again found on Maximum
R&B. Side A closes with the epic
rocker “Melancholia”, once again taken from the Maximum R&B set.
Side B opens with Townshend’s admittedly
preachy “Faith in Something Bigger” from Odds and Sods, followed by a song that
seemed a bit ahead of its time in terms to social acceptance to the health
hazards of smoking: “Little Billy”, using the superior master from Odds and
Sods. Next is the second Sell Out
outtake which fits in with the sound of The Who circa 1968, Roger Daltrey’s “Early Morning:
Cold Taxi”, also taken from the Maximum R&B box set.
Midway through side B we come upon the two truly unique mixes
on my reconstruction. First, a
completely new stereo mix of the otherwise mono “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is
created when syncing up the two different mono mixes. Panned at 9 o’clock to the left is the mono
mix found on the Rarities album that features prominent drums; panned at 3
o’clock to the right is the mono mix found on the vinyl-only release of Magic
Bus: The Who On Tour that features prominent backing vocals and sound
effects. Because both versions are mixed
differently enough, we are able to create an interesting stereo spectrum. At some points, the two mixes fall out of
sync, creating a sweeping phase effect; while this is usually unwanted, I
thought the effect was particularly effective in the creepy psychedelic track, and
I left it in! While “Shakin’ All Over”
was recorded during the May 1968 sessions, no recordings of the track have been
released nor leaked. Instead, I present
here a soundboard recording of the song taken from their Fillmore East
performance, a nod to the brief concept that Who’s For Tennis? might have been
a live album from that date anyways. Edited
to a more modest length, I also personally remixed the crusty-sounding
soundboard recording to emulate the mixing found during the ending of “Melancholia”
by reducing the volume and high end of the guitar in the left channel, and
raising the high end of the drums in the right channel as well as bringing them
in a bit to about 3 o’clock. Concluding the
noisy performance—and the album as a
whole—is “Magic Bus”, the stereo mix taken from Odds and Sods, which featured
the most natural mastering in my opinion.
With cover art brilliantly reimagined by Jon Hunt (thanks
Jon!) as the icing on the cake, we have twelve songs evenly spread over two shorter
sides, in tandem with their previous three albums. And what of the quality of this audio tennis
match? The most points scored here is for
the drastic change from mod-pop into full-blown rock icons. Here we hear the band beefing up their sound
and more importantly Roger Daltrey shifting from the slight, short-haired teen-pop
singer of “I’m A Boy” and “Substitute” into the wailing, bare-chested, long-haired rock
star of Tommy, Who’s Next and Quadrophenia.
Listening to the album, we now see how The Who went from Sell Out to
Tommy. But taking the album into a
whole, we can understand why Who’s For Tennis? was left out: while there are
some great songs here, the album as a whole is pretty weak, scatterbrained and honestly
a bit corny. Regardless, this
reconstruction offers a missing piece of The Who’s history, an excellent
addition to their album discography as it, at the very least, collects a number
of non-LP songs that would be quite an annoyance to gather piecemeal. Let the match begin!
Sources used:
30 Years of Maximum R&B (1992 original CD master)
Fillmore East: 6 April 1968 (bootleg CD, Sunrise Records)
Magic Bus - The Who On Tour (1968 unknown vinyl rip)
Odds & Sods (1998 Polydor CD remaster)
Rarities vols I & II (2004 Polydor CD remaster)
flac --> wav --> editing in SONAR, Goldwave and Audacity --> flac
encoding via TLH lv8
*md5, artwork and tracknotes included
