In Defense of Compilations: The Who — ‘Hooligans’
The Who are absolutely no stranger whatsoever to compilations. With compilations by far outnumbering their studio output (more than doubling the currently 13 studio albums over their six decade career, a decidedly smaller number of original ‘regular’ studio albums as compared to their contemporaries), there’s a lot to overlook about the ones that have been issued under The Who’s name, as well as compilation albums in general.
Compilations generally in my view seems to get an undeserved bad rap, and not many people seem to come to their defense in terms of their purpose in their respective artists’ discographies, nor does one rarely ever hear why certain compilations are released in the first place, or what’s even on many of them (they’re not all just best-ofs and hits collections, all though many of them are).
Now first and foremost, I don’t claim to be an expert on anything. I’m basically just a big fan of music in general. I love collecting music, listening to music, writing my own music, and playing music on my own. I’m not even a writer, really. I went to school for graphic design but music was, always was, and still is my one true passion. Even though I do write my own music, I often find myself being much more of a fan of someone else’s work than my own, even with design too. Writing, however, has always been one of my lesser hobbies but many people have told me that I have a penchant for it and that I should start doing it, but was never sure of what capacity in which I should start. So here I am (can’t hurt to start here, right?).
This isn’t a structured critical analysis or anything. Like I said, I’m no expert, and I’m not much of a fan of the whole bashing-something-just-because-I-don’t-necessarily-like-something type of thing. It’s more of just one fan and music collector talking about a certain compilation, what’s on it, what’s cool about it, and what I like about it. Not necessarily in that order, since there really isn’t any order to any of this. Look at this as just a rambling fan exercising a couple writing muscles just for the hell of it. Who knows? Maybe you might look at something a different way after reading my insight. I know I often do.
I often see things from more than one perspective, so I don’t think it’s appropriate to really critique or analyze anything too harshly anyway. I believe in the intent of the artist, and that’s enough for me. I generally feel that it’s not really for us to say what’s good or what’s bad about something; maybe we’re not seeing everything the artist had intended. We weren’t the ones making the art, so we can’t know or understand the reasoning behind everything, but then again not every artist makes art just for themselves either. Art as a whole is a very complex thing. Its uncertanties and capabilities are numerous, so many that there are plenty of options of all kinds to explore around. But who knows, maybe that the artists’ intent is for us to deliberately not see what they’re going after. You never know. You see, there’s so many nuanced avenues to go down regarding art that in my mind it’s best to not critique or analyze anything too heavily, but instead to observe the surface, or what’s at face value. That’s not saying one should never critique or analyze, but it’s all about perspective and how one perceives what’s already out in front of them. The intent here is not to necessarily observe the contents of the music, as in why this certain key shifts here at this certain moment, or what the musical interval played at this particular section means historically, or what these lyrics mean in terms of the writer’s point in life, or if the walrus was Paul or not. That’s not the intent. The intent is to observe what’s given to us, the album as a singular unit, and the contents of the release as their own individual units. I’m frankly not that interested in the endless analyzing of lyrics or musical themes. Most of the time there isn’t much meaning to be culled from any of that stuff anyway, so I don’t even bother much of the time. I don’t really believe that the music a lot of these musicians made were as methodical as many make them out to be. By some of the critiques I’ve read, one could’ve sworn Jimi Hendrix or Jim Morrison or John Lennon were saints of another time judging by the pedestals a lot of these writers put them on. Frankly, I don’t care if the walrus was really Paul or not. For me, I look at the entire piece for what it is; I don’t pick and prod at every little thing. I accept everything as just another piece of the whole (in this case, the artists’ discography), each unit standing on its own, connected only by the fact that they’re created by the same artist or artists. There’s more time to be had enjoying the content itself rather than wondering why Ringo chose to slow down towards the end of “You Won’t See Me” (are you sick of the Beatles references too? Same. This is supposed to be a piece on The Who after all …). Or a lot of what is critiqued and analyzed could just be happenstance. Also one has to take in account the variances in the mentality of people through the years, especially for those beloved legends who’ve had careers spanning multiple decades. Like the Bob Dylan of 1965 that caused a near-riot when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival isn’t necessarily the same Dylan who released the sprawling 17 minute “Murder Most Foul” last March of 2020. Just like the 1971 Pete Townshend that went mad making Lifehouse isn’t necessarily the same Pete Townshend that wrote all the songs for The Who’s 2019 (fantastic) pseudo-comeback album Who. Or like the same Keith Richards who notoriously got arrested for drugs in 1967 isn’t the same Keith as the one who snorted his father’s … well, nevermind, you get my point. People change, times change, perspectives change. It’s all variable, so why pinpoint something that’s not very focused to begin with? That’s just how I feel.
ANYWAY, hopefully with my insight you can see an album like The Who’s Hooligans in a different light, or gain more appreciation for them. Like I said, I’m no writer, no analyst of any kind. I’m just a fan talking about what I like and putting it into perspective as a whole, off the cuff. Sorta. To me there’s not much use in over-explaining everything, just have to sometimes accept things as they are. So, anyway, back to the task at hand, here goes …
THE WHO — Hooligans
MCA Records — MCA2–12001
Originally released September 11, 1981.
SIDE 1:
- I Can’t Explain
- I Can See For Miles
- Pinball Wizard
- Let’s See Action
- Summertime Blues
- Relay
SIDE 2:
- Baba O’Riley
- Behind Blue Eyes
- Bargain
- The Song Is Over
SIDE 3:
- Join Together
- Squeeze Box
- Slip Kid
- The Real Me
- 5:15
SIDE 4:
- Drowned
- Had Enough
- Sister Disco
- Who Are You
On the surface, Hooligans is just another Who best-of but with a heavy emphasis on the seventies. In a way, it could be ‘The Best of The Who in the 1970s Plus 3 Hits From the 1960s,’ but Hooligans is a snappier title, if even a bit goofy. The album came out via MCA Records only in the US and Canada, six months after their ‘return’ album Face Dances with ex-Faces drummer Kenney Jones replacing the deceased Keith Moon, itself featuring the smash hit “You Better You Bet,” which could’ve been included on Hooligans one would think, but it can also be understood that the purpose of this collection was to take a look back at the previous decade’s output rather than be a totally up-to-date document of every hit the group had. Hooligans is certainly not that, as it is missing a good chunk of so-called ‘hits’ (Where’s “The Seeker?” Where’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again?” Where’s “Love Reign O’er Me?” Where’s the majority of their sixties hits?) A couple of the tracks don’t even necessarily constitute as ‘hits’ in the general term, as in A-sides that charted. “Drowned” was never issued as a single, and neither was “Bargain” or “The Song Is Over,” yet they’re included here on Hooligans. They are incredibly great tracks, though, and each track featured here showcases exactly what The Who do best, and prove the reasoning behind why so many millions of people enjoy rocking the fuck out to The Who, especially with the whole Who’s Next and Quadrophenia era.
Tracks from Who’s Next take up the whole of the second side, or, rather, the Second Bunch of Hooligans, as stated on the label, covering the anthemic “Baba O’Riley,” “Behind Blue Eyes,” “Bargain” (a personal favorite of mine, GREAT great track), and “The Song Is Over” (another incredible track; I often wonder why this doesn’t appear as often in their live sets, it’d be awesome to hear live), and three tracks off of Quadrophenia span the latter half of side 3 and into side 4, with “Drowned” kicking off the last side.
For completists at the time, Hooligans was the first place Americans could find the 1971 A-side and Lifehouse throwaway “Let’s See Action” (although they’d have to wait until 1985 when its B-side, the spectacular Entwistle-penned “When I Was A Boy,” appeared on the underrated Who’s Missing collection), even despite the fact the track hit a peak of #16 on the UK charts, and it still for whatever reason was never issued in the US as a single. The Who’s other Lifehouse-related singles, “Join Together” and “Relay,” are also included here on Hooligans, both making their premiere appearances on an album.
Critiques of the contents aside (they’re all great, no big surprise there), I will say the sequencing is a tad on the awkward side. The same goes for a number of Who compilations too, I’ve noticed. While it appears off the bat to be following a chronological structure as most compilations of this sort do, starting off with their 1965 debut “I Can’t Explain” (as many, many compilations have) and making a large leap across the rest of their first decade, overtop “My Generation,” “Substitute,” “Happy Jack,” whathaveyou (which are all on Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy, so what, big deal, I’ll allow it), landing on “I Can See For Miles” and taking another leap to the Tommy staple “Pinball Wizard,” by the halfway mark on the first side it starts to skate off course across to “Let’s See Action” from 1971, back to their (superior) live take of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” from the infuckingcredible Live At Leeds recorded February 1970, and skating forward again to 1972’s “Relay” to close off the First Bunch of Hooligans. The second side is fairly straightforward, as talked about above, but the third side starts skittering around again, starting off in 1972 with “Join Together,” then leaping ahead over Quadrophenia briefly to 1975’s The Who By Numbers with the smash hit “Squeeze Box” (‘why this of all songs as a hit single?’ I’ve heard many ask) and album opener “Slip Kid,” then back to 1973 with the Quadrophenia tracks. The Fourth Bunch of Hooligans kicks off with “Drowned” then leaps to the 1978 with the three tracks from the last album with Keith Moon, Who Are You, with the B-side of the title track’s single “Had Enough” (or was it double A-side? Might as well have been the B-side since the A-side has since practically dwarfed every other track from the album), one of my dad’s favorites “Sister Disco,” and the title track.
For the extreme completists (like myself), Hooligans also features slight edits of “Relay” (the original length being about 3:55, edited here down to 3:28, mainly due an early fade) and the Quadrophenia standout “Drowned” (edited from about 5:26 to 5:06, same deal as “Relay,” mainly just faded out a little early). A minor quibble that I do have with Hooligans is in relation to “The Real Me.” Hooligans features the standard Quadrophenia album version (minus the fade-in at the segue from the end of “I Am The Sea,” as found on the version included on 2002’s The Ultimate Collection) and not the uniquely-edited 1974 US single version, which has never been reissued formally anywhere. This single version does not have the rain sound effects in the intro, nor does it have the usual vocal-only “can you see the real ME me ME me ME …” outro from the standard version that melds into the drum roll intro of “Quadrophenia” as found on the original album (the track merely fades out just before the drum roll here on Hooligans and elsewhere; the same applies to the 1979 remixed version from the Quadrophenia film soundtrack). The single version is unique mainly in that it features a fadeout found on no other version. Instead of the band fading out in the background when Roger Daltrey sings “can you see the real me MAAAAAMAAAAA …” at circa 3:09 on the original (timing based on the album version from Spotify), the band continues into the rollicking pattern as heard in the segment immediately preceding the “I ended up with a preacher…” verse heard at approximately 2:08 on the album and continues through the fadeout. It isn’t clear to my ears whether this is simply an edit of the backing track from that segment of the song just tacked onto the end or if it’s a genuine continuation of the actual recording which is not heard on the version from Quadrophenia. It could be likely that the latter is the case, but more often than not, singles tended to feature edits more than anything else. To me, it sounds like the prior scenario is the most likely, but you can be your own judge via the two links posted below where you can have a listen for yourself.
This quibble about “The Real Me” isn’t necessarily a fault of anybody involved in the compilation’s making; typically at the time many compilations would use the most commonly found versions of tracks available, which most often meant the utilization of the original, standard album versions, where applicable. Some compilations would include the versions found on the original singles instead, however, especially if the tracks in question only ever appeared on a single previously. But if the compilers/producers had any foresight to please potential completists, these more sought-after iterations (which could have featured a mix that was different to the album version, a differently edited version to more closely adhere to the radio guidelines of the time, or in some cases, a totally different version entirely, whether it be an alternate take or re-recording) would be included just to make the collection a little more desirable for those who care about that sort of thing. This is the reason why some collectors seek out the 1965 Beatles compilation Beatles’ Greatest, issued in Germany and the Netherlands, since the version of “All My Loving” included is slightly longer due to a brief count-in from Ringo’s hi-hat cymbal immediately preceding the track, a small little curio that is not found on the standard recording found on most other places like With The Beatles or 1962–1966, including any hitherto officially-released CD (the same goes for a handful of other interesting Beatles mix variations, but that’s for another time, possibly). There have been interesting mix variations from The Who over the years, as documented under the Rarities section on WhiteFang’s Who Site (linked below), a fantastic source for nearly every Who release and Who-related release known to man. But alas, the single version of “The Real Me” is not on Hooligans, and neither is the US single edit of “Slip Kid” (which should also be noted since it is a uniquely-edited iteration, shaving about a minute off of the original’s 4:30 to approximately 3:30, also never been officially available anywhere else since its original release). Hooligans would have been a great place for both to have made their ‘premiere album debut’ but alas, either due to overlooking them, ignorance, both, or refusal, neither are featured. But like I said, it’s not necessarily their fault they weren’t included. Hopefully someday they will, just so the completist in me will be happy.
The cover art is magnificent, much better seen on the large 12” double vinyl version as opposed to the 2CD set that was issued in the mid-to-late 1980s via MCA. Richard Evans, the Who’s main graphic design guy, been with them for years and years, is credited as sleeve designer with Gavin Cochrane credited as front cover photographer and Chris Chappel as sleeve co-coordinator. I am a huge fan on the front cover. It’s just so well made and well designed, with the musical staff and notes creating a chain link fence over top of the image of the smashed ephemera on the concrete in front of a large apartment/tenement building (?) in the distance. I love the little details too of the classic oft-seen image of The Who circa 1965 in the smashed TV screen in the foreground and various cymbals strewn about behind. A smashed goldtop Gibson Les Paul Deluxe situated off to the right is a nice touch. I don’t necessarily understand what the image means or stands for, or what it has to do with the title Hooligans, or why what appears to be various bits of trash and newspapers are also thrown about the seemingly wet concrete, but it gives off an essence of anguish, destruction, power, and all things that come to mind when one might listen to The Who. The chain link fence turning back into the musical staff wrapping around the back cover is one of those ideas that is so genius to me, one of those things where I often think to myself, “man … that’s a great design idea, wish I would’ve thought of that.” I may not know what it means explicitly, but every element of the cover in my eye is part of the whole experience as referred to above, the constraints of music, the obliteration of everything in the name of music, the wide open courtyard of sorts in what appears to be then-current-day Britain, which can relate to commotion within society, or rather general anxious feelings that many of Pete Townshend’s songs have expressed so directly and eloquently, with the imagined empty space between the building at the far end of the image and the blue border surrounding the rest of the cover being a sort of window into the imagined landscape created by the assault-on-the-senses style of nobody else but The Who. It’s album art that was definitely well produced, made back at a time when compilation albums had more weight in an artists’ discography and not just a random collection with a generic layout and cover photo (to prove a point, just a few years prior to the release of Hooligans, Paul McCartney had worked with famed album art designers Hipgnosis, known for their work with Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, among others, for the album art for his Wings Greatest collection which featured a statuette situated in the snow, which could have presumably been photographed anywhere, but it was decided to make a dedicated trip to the Swiss Alps just for the cover shoot, with the final photograph, a rather straightforward image of the two foot tall statuette in a drift of snow, being shot from a helicopter, all just for a collection of previously released singles featuring no unreleased or new material either. Just goes to show the lengths that were taken back in the day).
The gatefold is a little more of a subdued affair, nothing at all like the front cover, with eight photographs of the group throughout their career at that point, two from the 60s, one live shot, a couple outtakes from the Who’s Next cover sessions, etc., all with Keith Moon, with a blown-up Ben Day dot version of the same 1965 photograph mentioned previously in pink and purple overlaid on top of the eight photographs. The inner sleeves feature the lyrics to all the tracks, playing on the time signature symbols for each side (1 / 4 for side 1, 2 / 4 for side 2, etc.) and the first couple bars of the vocal line for each song written out in musical notation immediately preceeding the lyrics for each track, with yet again the same 1965 photo in the lower right corner of the side 1 side of the first inner sleeve, and a more up-to-date later 70s collage-type live backstage photo in the lower right of the side 4 side of the second inner sleeve; both photos in black and white. I own a used copy of the 2LP version, and interestingly both inner sleeves are for the first record but one’s in a glossier finish and the other’s more of the generic paper-type sleeve, yet both display all the contents found on only the first sleeve. Presumably the previous owner had two copies and pilfered the elements they felt were in the best condition and kept those for themselves and combined the rest together and sold it off, never bothering to check that both inner sleeves have different information (I’ve seen this sort of thing happen a lot with records and CDs. That’s why it’s paramount to check used copies prior to purchasing, if at all possible, to ensure that what you’re getting is the complete thing). The labels are the generic run-of-the-mill early 80s MCA labels, nothing too special about them.
The mid-to-late 80s CD features all the lyrics, but none of the clever musical notation elements or vocal lines present, and neither of the inner sleeve photographs either, but the gatefold is present in the middle spread of both booklets. Yes, both booklets. This was back at a time when those fatboy two-disc jewel cases must not have been a thing because many releases that exceeded a single disc like the original CDs of Tommy or Quadrophenia were split across two discs (even when the former could easily fit on one disc; perhaps they wanted to replicate the feel of a double album also being on 2CDs, or simply wanted to stay well within the 80-minute time limit, I don’t know), so in most cases like the original MCA CD versions of Tommy, Quadrophenia, Who’s Last and Hooligans, any two-disc albums would feature two of the exact same single-disc jewel cases with the same inlay cards and booklets, the only distinguishing factor being the discs themselves (except Tommy and Quadrophenia, the back inlays display different tracklistings on theirs, the ones on both discs of Who’s Last and Hooligans display the exact same information, catalog numbers and all). I often find this issue when perusing eBay or elsewhere and a copy of one of the above mentioned titles is being sold but it’s only one disc or the other claiming to be the full album. I had this issue once in person when I had a used copy of Who’s Last on CD in my hand, only to notice it was the just second disc, so I put it back. If one was so inclined to do so, I suppose they could purchase one of those 2CD cases that are the same size as a regular jewel case and slip just one inlay and booklet in there, pop both discs in and set the rest aside for display or even ([gasp] please don’t do this, the completist in me is cringing with disgust) discard it. But hey, it’s their prerogative.
Overall, if you’re a fan of The Who, it’s worth a listen. You’ll surely enjoy the content if you are a fan of The Who. It’s not the best of the best, and not all compilations are supposed to be just the best of the best. Compilations in my eyes are unique in that they can place any tracks that you’re used to in their original iteration, in their original sequencing on their album of origin, and give you a different light on them placed beside other tracks. That’s why I personally enjoy listening to and collecting them. Plus you never know, there could be a unique mix or version or edit variation you’ve previously not known about, further extending your appreciation for a song, or sometimes, making you wish they’ve never done such an atrocity to such a great song (looking at you, the entirety of the remix disc on Jethro Tull’s 25th Anniversary box set from 1993). In the least, at least you have a unique variation. That’s why people enjoy remixes and such. They’re nice alternatives to what you’re used to. They’re not meant to REPLACE the originals (in most cases). They’re just meant to supplement them, to put them in a different light, as stated before. That’s how I view compilations like Hooligans.
Let me know if you’d like for me to do more little pieces on different compilations of my interest, or other albums and such. I have a couple other writing topics I’d like to explore, so let me know if you’d like to read those too. Big thanks if you’ve made it this far and you’ve enjoyed what you read. Glad to know there’s other people out there with similar interests!
Hooligans on Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/master/view/224667
For the 1974 US single version of “The Real Me” referenced above, you can find a brief snippet of the ending here (along with preview snippets of numerous other Who rarities, should one be interested): http://thewho.info/Rarities1.htm or you can find the actual original 7” playing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7LhBaecZTQ . The US single version of “Slip Kid” can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrCgSqP4ZSE .
