In 1966 The Who's 2nd Album, A Quick One, marked a change in The Who's recording approach, and although re-recording songs that had previously been cut with Shel Talmy and discovering stereo as everyone was at the time, the addition of the Mini Opera demonstrated the path the band would eventually be taking.
Kit's early days in production used a lot of compression and plenty of mid-range EQ so re- mastering from these original mixes one is tempted to find some top and bottom (if it exists!) and to diminish the hard mid frequencies. However, in this collection, I have tried to be true to the period, so very little EQ has been used.
One or two things, like the "Ready, Steady, Who" tracks have been softened a little in the mids to help them fit and the opposite, of course, has been applied to the mixes that Andy MacPherson and I did in '90s~'00s which we have had to use where original stereo mixes do not exist.
The Stereo mixes from that period mainly come from the German Polydor archives; however the original stereo German Quick One LP tapes sound a little better than the tapes for the LP "The Who" where the stereo 'I'm A Boy' and 'In The City' came from.
I have spent some time finding the best-sounding tapes (and there are a lot of tapes) for this compilation but one or two things like a decent sounding Circles, Substitute (US Single version), and I'm A Boy (Alternate version) have been hard to find.
However plenty of original mixes were found. These tapes, like the mono and stereo LP mixes, were played on a slightly modified Ampex ATR and the only EQ used was analogue with a Manley Massive Passive or the Prism/Maselec MEA-2. I also used a Maselec 3 x band compressor on some of the newer mixes to age them a little.
The conversion to digital at 96k / 24bit is then through DCS converters and the last stage is through the TC 6000 where a little more volume is gained with the 5 band compressor / limiter before being recorded into my Sadie 5 system where the editing and any digital processing like de- click and retouch is done.
The Sadie processing does a very nice 96 to 44.1 conversion and finally the 24 bit audio is dithered down to 16 using Daniel Weiss's POW-r plug in.
Error-free DDP files are then burnt within the Sadie computer to a DVD-r to send off for replication.
by Jon Astley, 2008
1. Run Run Run - 2:31
2. Boris The Spider - 2:28
3. I Need You - 2:24
4. Whiskey Man - 2:56
5. Heat Wave (Brian Holland, Edward Holland, Jr., Lamont Dozier) - 1:55
6. Cobwebs And Strange - 2:29
7. Don't Look Away - 2:52
8. See My Way - 1:52
9. So Sad About Us - 3:01
10.A Quick One, While He's Away - 9:07
11.Substitute - 3:47
12.Circles - 2:28
13.I'm A Boy - 2:37
14.In The City (John Entwistle, Keith Moon) - 2:22
15.Batman (Don Altfeld, Fred Weider, Jan Berry) - 1:25
16.Bucket T (Dean Torrence, Don Altfeld, Roger Christian) - 2:08
17.Barbara Ann (Fred Fassert) - 1:58
18.Disguises - 3:10
19.Happy Jack - 2:11
20.I've Been Away - 2:07
21.Substitute (US Single Version) - 2:57
22.I'm A Boy (Alternate Version) - 3:17
23.Batman (Instrumental) (Don Altfeld, Fred Weider, Jan Berry) - 1:12
24.Happy Jack (Acoustic Version) - 2:52
25.Happy Jack (Alternate Mix) - 2:13
Songs 1,7,9,10,11,12,13,18,19,21,22,24,25 written by Pete Townshend
Songs 2,20 written by John Entwistle
Songs 3,6 written by Keith Moon
Songs 4,8 written by Roger Daltrey
Disc 2 Stereo
1. Run Run Run - 2:43
2. Boris The Spider - 2:27
3. I Need You - 2:22
4. Whiskey Man - 2:56
5. Heat Wave (Brian Holland, Edward Holland, Jr., Lamont Dozier) - 1:53
6. Cobwebs And Strange - 2:29
7. Don't Look Away - 2:52
8. See My Way - 1:51
9. So Sad About Us - 2:58
10.A Quick One, While He's Away - 9:09
11.I'm A Boy - 2:36
12.In The City (John Entwistle, Keith Moon) - 2:21
13.Batman (Don Altfeld, Fred Weider, Jan Berry) - 1:34
14.Bucket T (Dean Torrence, Don Altfeld, Roger Christian) - 2:07
15.Barbara Ann (Fred Fassert) - 1:57
16.Disguises - 3:19
17.I've Been Away - 2:07
18.Man With Money (Don Everly, Phil Everly) - 2:43
19.My Generation • Land Of Hope And Glory (Pete Townshend • Edward Elgar, Arthur C. Benson) - 2:04
20.I'm A Boy (Alternate Version) - 3:43
Songs 1,7,9,10,11,16,20 written by Pete Townshend
Songs 2,17 written by John Entwistle
Songs 3,6 written by Keith Moon
Songs 4,8 written by Roger Daltrey
*Roger Daltrey – Vocals, Trombone
*Pete Townshend – Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards
*John Entwistle – Bass Guitar, Keyboards, Horns, Vocals
*Keith Moon – Drums, Percussion, Vocals, Tuba
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