The Who - The Who Sell Out

We’ll be right back after these messages…

The title of a 1964 LP declared that The Beatles were “for sale”, and the following year saw The Rolling Stones make reference to adverts or promotions for washing powder in two consecutive singles, Satisfaction and Get Off Of My Cloud. But was there ever a more playful – and occasionally puzzling – comment on consumer culture than The Who’s first stab at a concept album?

First heard at the tail-end of 1967, six months after the arrival of Sgt Pepper, for many this was Pete Townshend’s dismissive response to a music industry beginning to take itself too seriously, in danger of stumbling over its selfimportance. Realising that his band were a product in the same way as a breakfast cereal or bathroom suite might be, he set about demystifying rock stardom, while simultaneously fashioning his group’s first great rock record.

Mock jingles for Radio London are interspersed between several songs, along with faux commercials – many penned by John Entwistle – for acne cream, soft drinks and baked beans. In truth, the idea (unlike the beans) was pretty half-baked and might have had more legs if the original plan to get companies to pay for real ads had come to fruition.

The songs, however, remain the selling point, with Townshend’s growing curiosity about the world he inhabits revealing him to be as articulate a social commentator as Ray Davies. I Can See For Miles was the powerhouse single, but there was a more vulnerable element to tracks such as Tattoo, with its half-answered questions on the definition of manhood. I Can’t Reach You and Rael both strayed beyond the previous template of the accepted notions of pop, rich in motifs that would return more fully-formed on Tommy. Concepts and commentary aside, The Who Sell Out features some of the group’s most joyous playing, from the Byrds-kissed calypso of Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand to the gentle flower power of Sunrise, from the pomp psychedelia of Armenia City In The Sky to the beat group hymnal Our Love Was.

Did the prankster stance of the album’s gimmicky ads ultimately work against it, detracting too much from the fine music? Sgt Pepper topped the charts for a good six months, but The Who’s hopeful magnum opus failed to dent even the Top 10, its sales barely enough to settle the myriad lawsuits that the jokey commercials inevitably spawned. The witty sleeve featuring band members hawking products is arguably more familiar than most of the songs – the image of Roger Daltrey in a bath of beans was even parodied, indirectly, by the band themselves in a memorable scene from Ken Russell’s film version of Tommy.

This new two-disc version adds previously unused jingles alongside the expected alternate mixes and early demos, serving mainly to confuse the issue further. To this day, it’s still largely regarded as half genius and half folly, but it’s an undeniably fascinating indicator to the restlessness and reactionary spirit of one of the greatest groups we’ve ever heard – and that’s not just sales pitch hyperbole.

Universal | 5315336 (2-CD)

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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