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A Quick One (Happy Jack)

The Who - A Quick One (Happy Jack) Audio CD

A fair review of the The Who "A Quick One (Happy Jack)" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Who reviews here, or go back to the The Who tabs.

Band: The Who
Title: A Quick One (Happy Jack)
Rating:

Release Date: 1995-06-20
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Run Run Run 2: Boris the Spider 3: I Need You 4: Whiskey Man 5: (Love Is Like A) Heat Wave 6: Cobwebs and Strange 7: Don't Look Away 8: See My Way 9: So Sad About Us 10: Quick One, While He's Away 11: Batman 12: Bucket "T" 13: Barbara Ann 14: Disguises 15: Doctor Doctor 16: I've Been Away 17: In the City 18: Happy Jack 19: Man with Money 20: My Generation/Land of Hope and Glory

I love this LP
It's unconventional but definitely worth a listen for that reason alone. For those accustomed to the hard-rock guitar-smashing antics of the Who in the 1970s, the version of the band heard on this LP may be almost unrecognizable. It also includes "A Quick One While He's Away", which is both my personal favorite Who song and a kind of precursor to the "rock operas" for which they would later become famous. You should definitely seek out this extended edition, whcih features all sorts of great bonus tracks that were not present on the original vinyl LP.

Ivan Rorick.

Don't believe stickers claiming stereo
It is not. I just bought a copy of A Quick One with a sticker that said it was re-mastered in stereo. It is the same mastering as originally released in 1995. The only songs in stereo are Run Run Run,I've Been Away, In the City and Man with the Money. Also Whiskey Man is in fake stereo. If you already have A Quick One, don't be fooled by claims of new stereo re-mastering.

A Quick One Fails to Follow up on "The Who SIngs My Generation"
You would have thought the band would have progressed a bit more, but it really wasnt until 1969's Tommy, that the band would reach PERFECTION. 1966's "A Quick One" would be the second album for The Who, which would follow up the very impressive Debut "The Who Sings My Generation" Even though I originally gave the debut album 3 1/2 Stars, but deserved better, more like 4 1/2 Stars, as almost every song on the album shines, with expection of a few over bubblegum type songs, but even still, the band showed that it was pretty much ahead of its time. A Quick one is a bit of a disspointment since it contains 20tracks, and out of 20, I say that I only liked 10. The album is riddled with ridiculous bubblegum and corney songs, and you would have thought there would have been alot more on the first album, then this. Now, keep in mind that some people like "That Bubblegum Sound" from the 60's, but I think The Who was at its best when laying down hard rock bluesy type anthems, and beautiful Ballads (such as the amazing This Song is Over) Its just hard to picture a band that was smashing up its instruments and I believe was the beginning of "Heavy Metal Music Theatrics" with of course he Likes of Henrix, would have so much of this rubbish on its the album. Still, its got some great stuff on here, just to bad that its not enough, and the album doesnt exactly flow well, just as your hear something like Run Run Run or See My Way, you are haunted by two, sometimes three lousy songs in a row. "Sellout", the next Who album, is much better, and even though corney at times, it was released as a "concept" album, and its song quality is better. Out of the First Four Who Albums, "Happy Jack" is a disspointment. Theres is just not enough to keep it from becoming a classic Milestone from The Who.

A Quick One (Happy Jack)
That is not to say that it is a weak album because it is not. The Who-Quick One (Happy Jack) ***1/2

Released originally in 1966, the Who's second album A Quick One (Happy Jack) is their most uneven album of the Keith Moon period.

The title came from the record companies overly zealous attitude forcing the band to rush and pump out an full album. Hence, A Quick One. This is what leads to the unevenness of the album. While many of the songs are great and some of which are classics, others are less than stellar.

Boasting such classics as Entwhistle penned 'Boris The Spider' which is among the groups best. Also 'Whiskey Man' another Entwhislte number, though highly overrated it became a classic none the less. The dual title tracks 'A Quick One While He's Away' and 'Happy Jack' are two of the groups most celebrated tunes. The former being a nine minute epic, and Townsends first epic. The latter being a percussion filled legend fueled by Moon.

But tracks like the overtly popish antics of Daltrys 'See My Way' and 'Cobwebs And Strange' are just a few of the tracks the album would have benefited from not having.

While not as bad as some claim, it is not as great as others claim either. As far as musicianship this is Pete's worst album guitar wise; That is my only real gripe with the record. Other than that it is worth having if only for the few classics.

The Who's weakest album of the 60s

I'll say it right here, this is not a *bad* album by any means. Well in some ways it's an apt title; it's a "Quick One" because if you listen to this more than once you'll only spend time on a few songs. There is nothing unlistenable here, the worst offence that A Quick One has is to have high ratio of filler to good songs. The story is well known, the record company decided to give the band members a lump sum of money if they all wrote their individual songs for the album. Of these however I can really only find 3 songs that I would bother to listen to more than once. Run Run Run by Pete Townshed is a rough R&B song that has a feel not unsimilar to My Generation, albeit not quite as good. Boris The Spider, by Entwhistle although somewhat toungue in cheek is actually quite a catchy song. The highlight though is of course the title tune A Quick One, (Townshed again) It's really 6 mini songs strung together to make a mini rock opera. The story about marital infedility isn't particulaly interesting, but the track is easily the strongest melodically. The other songs are. . . . . okay, I suppose in a generic R&B way but just don't compare well to the iconic sound of My Generation.

Of the bonus tracks, unfortunately they follow the mould of the original songs in being passable but unspectacular. Yes there are versions of The Batman theme and a cover of The Beach Boys Barbara Ann, but they come across as novelty songs rather than worthy songs in themselves. Best of the bonus songs is a short renditon of My Generation (in stereo) followed by the band singing along To Land Of Hope And Glory.

The sound quality isn't bad for 1966, but there is little sonic experimentation beyond basic stereo. On par for the course, then.

So overall hardcore Who fans (the ones giving this review the thumbs down natch) may want to praise this as a vital step in The Who's evolution. More casual fans will probably be disappointed in the inconsistency. If there is a good point to this album, this is where they realised that Townshend was definitely the strongest songwriter and should be the dominant songwriter. Thankfully they seemed to have learned the lesson on their later, stronger albums like The Who Sell Out and Tommy.

You can see a complete list of all The Who discography, or go back to the The Who tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.