RARE 1968 UK TRACK THE WHO DIRECT RARE EP MIXES

$

71

                                                  ***  ATTENTION! **

 Beautiful TOP COPY ~ 1968 BRITISH TRACK RECORDS 

    LAMINATED FIRST PRESS U.K. COLLECTIBLE   

            THE WHO

                Direct Hits

                       UK - TRACK RECORDS - 613 006    

TOP COPY!

CLEAN, RARE, BRITISH ORIGINAL 1968 first pressing on the highly collectible TRACK RECORDS label with nice clean laminated cover...this copy is really nice, 43 years onward.... 

Direct Hits was the first U.K. overview of rare 45's mixes released by The Who in 1968. It collects singles, B-sides, and odd Mod/pop tracks originally recorded between 1966 and 1968 and recorded in both stereo and mono. This was the fourth U.K. LP released by The Who.

Earlier Who recordings from 1965, such as My Generation, were released in the U.K. by Brunswick Records and were not available for this release due to licensing issues. Direct Hits shares a few songs with the earlier U.S. compilation album Magic Bus: The Who on Tour, but is otherwise unrelated to that release. Strangely, it does not include the song Magic Bus, which had reached #26 on the U.K. singles chart during the summer of 1968, but includes Who rarities such as "In the City", "Dogs", and "The Last Time."

It is a genuinely strange experience listening to Direct Hits some fourty two years after it was rushed out by Track Records (the Who's U.K. label) to help fill what would become a 19-month gap between The Who Sell Out (November 1967) and Tommy (May 1969). Then again, it was probably a pretty strange experience listening to it back in November of 1968 -- the album was a cash-in effort by the cash-strapped Track Records label, made all the more urgent by the fact that the group's last three singles, "I Can See for Miles," "Dogs," and "Magic Bus," had not sold nearly as well as expected in England. The first two were on this, the first-ever attempt to collect the Who's hits (augmented by some EP track mixes) -- the Who not yet having had quite enough hits, even in England, to fill an LP) in one place, and Direct Hits would be notable on that basis alone. But the fact that it's such a damn good record, no matter when one hears it, makes the album especially worthwhile four decades on. What kind of an overview of the Who's hits opens with the John Entwistle-dominated "Bucket T," a cover of a Jan & Dean car song that's dominated not by such Who signature sounds as Pete Townshend's guitar or Roger Daltrey's vocals, but by Entwistle's horn? And then jumps to a pair of Townshend-authored plunges into sexuality as subject matter, "I'm a Boy" and "Pictures of Lily," the former about a boy feminized by his oppressive mother and the latter an ode to masturbation? And then switches gears to Entwistle's loopy ode to hypochondria "Doctor Doctor," driven as much by the composer's loping bass figure as Townshend's crunching guitar, while the singer rattles off a comical list of ailments he believes himself to be suffering from? Only two of the first four songs have come down to us as defining the Who, but all were very much what this band was about in its first few years, pop/rock musical caricatures of how British teens defined the human condition during the mid-'60s. As a singles compilation, Direct Hits might be considered a joke if the individual songs weren't so good.

Instead, it ends up one of the wildest and woolliest rides one can take through the Who's early history, which it manages to be while still not being complete in that context (the mod anthems "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere," and "My Generation" are absent, as is their debut as the Who, "I Can't Explain"). But it was worth owning, because there was no place else to look for a Who compilation (on either side of the Atlantic) in 1968 -- what was here was unique, and it's still worth hearing four decades later. For all of its strangeness (especially on the original LP's first side), Direct Hits does focus on the Who as a killer singles band and the sound of the 45's mixes is incredible. That side of their work and history ended up being pushed into the background -- especially in the press -- after albums such as Tommy and Who's Next came to dominate their output, their image, and their concert sets, and is neglected in most histories. But it was as pop-music miniaturists, creating these vest-pocket dramas, comedies, and vignettes, along with anthems like "My Generation," that they excelled during their first four years, and it was those singles that first endeared them to their fans, as much as or more than LPs like My Generation or A Quick One. Direct Hits includes one forgotten highlight of that singles output, the band's manic rendition of the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time," rushed out as an expression of support for the group after Mick Jagger, Keith Richard, and Brian Jones' arrests on drug charges. On this single -- which was hardly heard (or known) in the United States at all prior to the explosion of interest in the band after Tommy -- the Who deconstruct the song and reshape it distinctly in their image, dominated by Townshend's frantic guitar in place of the carefully delineated original Brian Jones/Keith Richard performance; his playing, coupled with Daltrey's edgy vocals, impart an overall tension that leaves the song feeling inches from violence. "I Can See for Miles" is no less frenetic, while "Dogs" is a piece of British mod-ish whimsy that never saw the light of day on this side of the Atlantic, and they're surrounded by such moments of brilliance as "Call Me Lightning." Direct Hits jumps across these three-minute explorations of humor (dark and bright), sexuality, irony, and drama -- and just plain silliness in the case of "Bucket T" and "In the City" -- all of which are sharper and punchier than their album output of the period. Direct Hits was and still is an appealing snapshot of the early Who in all of their weird and offbeat glory. For decades, it was consigned to history, and it is worth every penny to hear it again after all of those decades, and get a fresh fix of the Who as a bunch of pop/rock virtuosos and brilliant musical story-tellers who were also not afraid to be silly.

                                                   Side One

• "Bucket T"  
• "I'm a Boy" 
• "Pictures of Lily" 
• "Doctor! Doctor!" (Entwistle) 
• "I Can See for Miles" 
• "Substitute"
•  
• Side Two
• "Happy Jack" 
• "The Last Time"  
• "In the City"  
• "Call Me Lightning" 
• "Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand"
• "Dogs" 

CONDITION: The cover is laminated and clean, near "EX" (excellent) with no more than a bit of very light use that should not bother anyone, really...vibrant colorful colors...no split seams, no writing...43 years old UK collectible...

The vinyl is all glossy clean over both sides gets the M- rating and plays SUPEB! Both Track labels are CLEAN too

                keeper copy!

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for more & more of similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record