The 500 - #237 - My Generation - The Who

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

---

Album: #237
Album Title: (The Who Sings) My Generation
Artist: The Who
Genre: Garage Rock, Power Rock, R&B, 
Recorded: April - November, 1962

Released: December 1962
My age at release: 5 months
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very

Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: My Generation

In 1980, my mom was working for Toshiba Canada selling their latest product, microwave ovens. She was stationed in department stores where she demonstrated this revolutionary technology to customers.

An advertisement for a '80s Toshiba Mircrowave.

It was during her December stint at a store that she decided to buy me a few records for Christmas. The records were Pink Floyd's The Wall; The Police's Zenyatta Mondatta; Eagles Live from Eagles; and The Who's Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy. I was delighted by her selections although she later confessed she had solicited assistance from a few of the young salesmen in the record department.

Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy was the first record by The Who that I owned. It was a compilation, containing songs from their previous five studio releases. and provided an excellent introduction to the English rock band which, by 1980 was legendary.

Back cover with track listing on Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy.

The Who had fascinated me for several years and stories about the group (some perhaps exaggerated) were traded among my friends. They were listed in the Guinness Book Of Records as the loudest band in the world, with concert volumes exceeding 120 decibels, enough to immediately damage hearing. Their drummer had died in 1978 at the age of 32. His antics were legendary and included trashing hotel rooms, blowing up toilets with cherry bombs and even driving a Lincoln Continental automobile into a swimming pool.

The late Keith Moon of The Who

On December 3, 1979, The Who performed at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Fans had lined-up hours before the doors opened because there was no reserved seating -- a policy typical in the ‘70s called "Festival Seating". All the doors were supposed to be opened simultaneously; however , mistakenly, only two doors were unlocked. To make matters worse, the band were performing a late soundcheck which made the fans think they were missing the start of the show and a crowd surge began. Eleven fans, some as young as 15, were crushed to death, with many more badly injured.

A body is removed from Riverfront Stadium.

I was reaching concert going age in 1979, and the tragedy in Cincinnati made me apprehensive about attending my first show the next summer. It also added to the mystery and mystique of The Who. They seemed to be larger than life and weaving a story that seemed stranger than fiction. No wonder I became a massive fan during my teenage years, acquiring many of their records for my collection.

The Who performing in 1971.

My Generation was the debut record by The Who, established  in London, England, in 1962, initially under the name The Detours. They comprised singer Roger Daltry, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle, and drummer Moon. My Generation also featured session musician Nicky Hopkins, a pianist who also played with The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Beatles and the Steve Miller Band. As an aside, Hopkins might be the musician who appears most often on The 500 because he worked with so many legendary artists on their biggest records.

Nicky Hopkins.

The title track on My Generation  became one of The Who's most recognizable songs. The melody is considered by many critics to be the forerunner to the punk rock sound that exploded on the music scene a decade later in the 1970s. The anthemic lyrics celebrated youth rebellion and that resonated with me as a teen as much as they did with the youth in the ‘Sixties. The record features one of the most famous lyrics in rock history -- "I hope I die before I get old".

At 15, listening tof Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy, I reveled in Daltry's angry, frustrated, stuttering vocal performance of Townsend's lyrics to My Generation. It was one of those songs, like Rush's Subdivisions, or Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb, that I liked to imagine had been written specifically for me. Thanks mom ...and Toshiba microwaves...and those sales clerks in the record department for Christmas 1980.