1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 57. The Who – My Generation (1965)

 

As alluded to previously, the Nineties had “Blur or Oasis?”, while the Sixties had “Beatles or Stones?”. To which the discerning listener would answer “The Who”. And here come the third of the Great British Invasion triumvirate.  

Although this album does include the inevitable covers of R&B tracks – most notably a couple of James Brown covers, I Don’t Mind and Please Please Please, as well as going more bluesy with a cover of Bo Diddley’s I’m A Man – it's also very much a unique sound, thanks in large part to Pete Townshend’s rocky guitar work. 

Take, for example, I’m A Man, which starts out like a fairly typical blues cover (showcasing Roger Daltrey’s ability to sing various styles), but then Townshend takes the guitar break and really brings it into a modern era. Although we’ve had distortion and grungy sounds before (notably with The Sonics), it’s ramped up a notch here. 

At times one can pick out a mix of The Sonics, The Rolling Stones, and a bit of The Byrds (not least on the much more lyrical The Kids Are Alright with its lush harmonies), smushed together with some unique talent that makes the album feel like music has taken another step into modernity (hence “mod”...). 

And that step is a giant leap with the title track. My Generation really isn’t like anything we’ve had before on this list. Well, no, that’s not true. It’s got the garage energy of The Sonics with the almost desperate vocals of some of the live rock and roll and soul albums we’ve had. Daltrey’s distinctive stuttering delivery, done entirely, I’m sure, to allow the lyric “Why don’t you all just ffff.....ade away [a-ha! You all though I was going to say -uck off, weren't you?]” to happen, is a bit like Jerry Lee Lewis belting his heart out in Hamburg. But the track defies pigeon-holing. It’s not a rock and roll or and R&B number, it is an entirely new thing, a new kind of rock.  

For me, though, the killer track is a glorious instrumental jam called The Ox that rounds out the original album listing (there are a few – original UK and USA releases, then several updates, longest being the stereo streaming version full of bonus tracks). The Ox is a powerhouse piece of music and a masterclass in a rock guitar solo, Townshend like Marty McFly in Back To The Future, doing things with a guitar that nobody has seen at this point. Or, at least, we haven’t heard on Dimery’s list yet. 

Oh, and of course, the discerning Nineties listener’s answer to “Blur or Oasis?” was “Pulp”. But we’ll get back to that in thirty years. 

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