A QUICK ONE

Whether or not The Who belongs in the progarchives, i am not the one to decide, since my experience of their music is admittedly rather limited, but if there is one reason for them to grace the proto-prog sub-genre with their not so vast discography, then this might very well be it.

At this stage in their career the who were not much more than a steady, ordinary, 60-s rock band, and they would most certainly have stayed that way, despite the amazingly good rhythm section, if it were not for the visionary genius that is Pete Townshend. Pete is simply one of the most inspiring men in music, in my opinion, and this is the album where he first got the chance (and took it) to experiment with the idea of a rock opera. The 10 minutes long title track is quite simply reason enough for anyone to buy the album, even if it's nowhere near the sophistication of their later, more expanded rock operas, Tommy and Quadrophenia. It's alot of fun to listen to, and it must have been pretty ambibious for 1966. The album version is a little tame compared to the different versions of it live that i have seen, however.

While the title track is where the prog starts and ends on "A quick one", the rest of the album is very enjoyable, with contributions from all band members. Keith's piece (Cobwebs and strange) is a fun and wacky instrumental which goes faster and faster until it almost breaks, really good, fun tune, sounds like it was a sweaty day in the recording studio.

John's two pieces (Whiskey man/Boris the spider) are the most humoruous, lyric-wise, and in my opinion, the least interesting, but they are not bad at all, just not in the same vein as most of the other songs on the album, and a bit slower.

The rest of the songs are very ordinary, poppy, enjoyable songs with the usual enjoyable drumwork fom Keith Moon. The music on the album is pretty thick, and the refrains on "i need you", when Keith bangs his cymbals, hurt my ears when i use earphones.

I'm torn between 3 and 4 stars for "A Quick One". On a progressive rock site, it has no real place, but since it's labeled "proto-prog", it fits neatly in, and the music on the album is good, with the title track as the masterpiece, even better performed on the video from "Rock & roll circus" submitted above, but since i haven't heard all of the other Who albums and am not quite done with this one yet, i'm giving it 3 stars so far, with reservations for the future.

Doesn't have to be on the top of your "The Who"-albums priority list, but it's not one you will want to miss.