A Quick One

A Quick One
Studio album by The Who
Released	9 December 1966
Recorded	September–November 1966, IBC Studios and Pye Studios, London, England, United Kingdom
Genre	Rock, Psychedelic rock, Pop
Length	31:48
Language	English
Label	Reaction
Producer	Kit Lambert
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Rolling Stone link
The Who chronology
My Generation (1965) A Quick One (1966) The Who Sell Out (1967)
Singles from Happy Jack
"Happy Jack" Released: 2 December 1966

A Quick One is the second album by English rock band The Who, released in 1966. American record company executives at Decca Records released the album under the title Happy Jack, rather than the sexually suggestive title of the UK release, and due to "Happy Jack" being a top forty hit in the U.S. "Happy Jack" was not included on the UK version of the album (replaced with a cover of the HDH hit Heat Wave), but instead was released as a non-album single.

This is widely regarded by fans to have been a pivotal album for the group, due to the departure from the R&B / pop formula featured on the band's first release. Part of the marketing push for the album was a requirement that each band member should write at least two of the songs on it (although Roger Daltrey only wrote one), so this Who album is the least dominated by Pete Townshend's writing.

The album was also the band's first foray into the form of rock opera, with "A Quick One, While He's Away", the title track of the LP, a nine-minute suite of song snippets telling a story of infidelity and reconciliation. The Who would later go on to write and record the full scale rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia.

The album was intended to be pop music, a sonic participant in the pop art movement. The cover was designed by the pop art exponent Alan Aldridge,^[1] with the front cover depicting the band playing their instruments. The back cover is a black-and-white photo montage of the band members accompanied by a short personality sketch of each (infamous among Who fans for Keith Moon's humorous assertion that he was keen on "breeding chickens"). A track listing, a couple of paragraphs touting the band, an ad for their first album, and a technical blurb are also crowded onto the back cover.

The blurb reveals the recording technology of the time by announcing "This is a high-fidelity record! For proper reproduction use RIAA or a similar Record Compensator setting." The album was recorded at IBC Studios, Pye Studios and Regent Sound, in London, England in 1966 with Kit Lambert was as record producer.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 383 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Contents 1 Track listing 1.1 A Quick One 1.2 Happy Jack 2 Personnel 3 Song notes 4 Jigsaw Puzzle 5 Sales chart performance 6 References 7 External links

Track listing

A Quick One

Happy Jack

Side one

1. "Run Run Run"
2. "Boris the Spider" (Entwistle)
3. "I Need You" (Moon)
4. "Whiskey Man" (Entwistle)
5. "Cobwebs and Strange" (Moon)
6. "Happy Jack"

Side 2

7. "Don't Look Away"
8. "See My Way" (Daltrey)
9. "So Sad About Us"
10. "A Quick One, While He's Away"

1974 re-release and Compact Disc bonus tracks

11. "Run Run Run"
12. "Boris the Spider" (Entwistle)
13. "I Need You" (Moon)
14. "Whiskey Man" (Entwistle)
15. "Heat Wave" (Brian Holland/Lamont Dozier/Edward Holland)
16. "Cobwebs and Strange" (Moon)
17. "Don't Look Away"
18. "See My Way" (Daltrey)
19. "So Sad About Us"
20. "A Quick One, While He's Away"
21. "Happy Jack"

Personnel

• Roger Daltrey – Vocals, trombone and bass drum on "Cobwebs and Strange"
• John Entwistle – bass guitar, keyboards, horns, vocals
• Pete Townshend – guitar, vocals, penny-whistle, keyboards
• Keith Moon – drums, percussion, vocals, tuba

Song notes

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2009)

A Quick One includes the very first songs John Entwistle wrote for The Who, albeit in reverse order.

"Boris the Spider" was written after Entwistle had been out drinking with Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman. They were making up funny names for animals when Entwistle came up with "Boris the Spider". The chorus utilizes vocals that influenced the vocal style of death metal singers.

Since Entwistle had trouble singing "r"s, he double-tracked the vocals on "Whiskey Man", singing "fwend" and "flend", hoping they'd come together as "friend".^[1]

"Heat Wave" is a cover of a song by Martha and the Vandellas that was very popular in the UK at the time. For the U.S. release, "Heat Wave" was dropped and "Happy Jack" added in its place. "Heat Wave" was added back on to the album for when Happy Jack was re-issued on the 1974 double album repackaging of A Quick One and The Who Sell Out as A Quick One (Happy Jack).

"Boris the Spider" quickly became John Entwistle's most popular song and was still performed live decades later; in later years, John was almost invariably sporting a spider necklace for photographs. "Happy Jack" is quirky in both lyrics and sound, but is popular nonetheless and remains a favorite of both fans and non-fans alike to this day. It was featured in TV ads for the Hummer automobile in 2004. "A Quick One, While He's Away" was Townshend's first move toward the production of the rock operas that he is so much noted for. Though it is a simple medley of song fragments, the band came to refer to it as their "mini-opera", and on the remastered CD release of their Live at Leeds album Townshend can be heard introducing it as "Tommy's parent". The song was performed live for The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus film. (The film, made in 1968, came out on video in 1995. The track can also be heard on the soundtrack of Jeff Stein's film The Kids Are Alright; it is also used in Wes Anderson's film Rushmore, but the soundtrack album uses the Live at Leeds version.)

One of Keith Moon's contributions, "I Need You," was originally titled "I Need You (Like I Need A Hole In The Head)." Moon thought The Beatles spoke in a secret language behind his back, and this song was his way of getting back at them. Although Moon denied that a vocal part in the song was a John Lennon imitation, Entwistle said, in fact, that it was.^[2]

"Cobwebs and Strange" was originally called "Showbiz Sonata." Entwistle claims to have written the melody, but it actually comes from a song from the UK television series Man From Interpol. Unquestionably, the drums come from Keith alone.^[2]

Daltrey insisted that Moon should sound like Buddy Holly´s drummer Jerry Allison on "See My Way", but was rather unhappy with the results. Another version of the song was recorded, had at least one airplay and was realised on the BBC Sessions CD.

One particularly notable track on this album is the mod/pop number "So Sad About Us". Though it is difficult to accurately gauge such phenomena, this song has likely been covered more frequently than any other song on the album. (According to Allmusic, it is "one of the Who's most covered songs."^[3] ). The Merseys, Shaun Cassidy, Primal Scream, The Breeders, and most notably The Jam are among the many artists who have recorded studio versions of the song. Beyond the sheer number of covers, it is also one of The Who's most frequently imitated songs. As the aforementioned AMG put it, it is "an archetypal early Who song" and "hundreds of bands have based their entire careers on this one song." With its ringing guitars, Beach Boys-styled harmonies, crashing drums, and lovelorn lyrics, it is one of the early forebears of the power pop genre, along with other early Who staples such as "I Can't Explain" and "The Kids Are Alright". Pete Townshend and one-time Jam frontman Paul Weller performed an acoustic duet of the song as captured on the album The Who and Special Guests: Live at the Royal Albert Hall.

"Happy Jack" and "A Quick One, While He's Away" can also be heard on the remastered CD release of Live at Leeds from a 1970 performance. The latter song is including with the lengthy introduction by Pete Townshend (comments from other people are in brackets):

We would like do for you now the little set up numbers which we call Tommy's parents, as you've probably read in musical papers. And if we've ever played for any of you before, you'll probably know this piece of repartee that I'm just about to embark on. It's the story of our mini-opera, and this mini-opera was something which we did on our second album, and in a way it was very adventurous for its time, 'cos it one story which took six different themes of music. And the story is of a girl guide [(laughter)] who was seduced [(gasps)] by an old engine driver [(laughter)] and it's, you know, one of these social commentaries [(laughter)] and John Entwistle plays the engine driver (Moon: "Ah, the black reaper!") Yes, and I play the girl guide [(laughter)] later. And er, the seduction takes place when the boyfriend is away from them, and she's weeping because he's been away for so long, and some of her friends say "We have a remedy", and you'll hear that chorus. The remedy, the remedy is of course the old engine driver [(laughter)] who's a randy old *** [(laughter)] and they know that with him, she'll be alright, and so what happens is that they fornicate [(audience gasps) Moon: "What's that"] Pardon? [Moon: "What's that Pete? Sounds like a little station outside Chipping Ongar"] No. [(laughter)] Moon: "That's the trouble always sitting here at the back"] He always gets off at the wrong stop. Anyway [(laughter]), this seduction is rather lengthy [(laughter]), and because it takes so long, the boyfriend (and he deserves what he gets) he comes in right in the middle of the seduction and he catches the couple in the act [(gasps)]. And I'd like you now to imagine this scene. Assemble the musicians. And the reason why the seduction takes so long is that Ivor, as he's an engine driver naturally, doesn't come on time (Moon hits drum) [(laughter)]. "Ooh blimey, it's taking longer than usual!" He's looking at the watch he got for his retirement, all covered in soot. Anyway, in he comes, the boyfriend. Catches them, "Ah-ah, Urrr" - all over my best Persian [(laughter)]. But instead of rebuking them, dually. Dually rebuking them. Instead of dually rebuking them, as it was ahead of its time, and remember this was three years ago and we anticipated feelings of peace and love and pacifism and all that kind of thing which were to come represented as, as a skinhead, and such is life, he forgives them [(aaah)]. He loves to watch that sort of thing! Anyway, we'll get on with it, and welcome you to the Frankie Howerd show. And we do feature normally, you normally would feature Keith Moon singing, but today we would just like to feature him. If you would like to stand please. Yes, and it's called A Quick One, While He's Away" [(applause)]

During this performance, after the spoken line of "Here comes Ivor the Engine Driver to make you feel much better", Keith Moon calls out "Dirty old sod" in response.

In addition to their usual instruments, each bandmember played an orchestral instrument as well to give a marching band effect on "Cobwebs and Strange". Keith Moon played orchestral cymbals, Pete Townshend played penny-whistle, John Entwistle played trumpet, and Roger Daltrey played trombone.

Jigsaw Puzzle

An early version of the Who's second album was to be titled Jigsaw Puzzle.^[2] Its preliminary running order consisted of the following tracks:

1. "I'm a Boy" (the slow version, released on Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy)
2. "Run Run Run"
3. "Don't Look Away"
4. "Circles" (version 2)
5. "I Need You"
6. "Cobwebs and Strange"
7. "In the City"
8. "Boris the Spider"
9. "Whiskey Man"
10. "See My Way"
11. "Heat Wave"
12. "Barbara Ann"

Sales chart performance

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1966	UK Chart Albums	4[4]

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1967	"Happy Jack"	Billboard Pop Singles	24[citation needed]
1966	"Happy Jack"	UK Singles Charts	3[4]

References

• Many of the factual details in this article are derived from the insert to the remastered CD of 1995 (MCAD-11267).

External links

• A Quick One liner notes - Song-by-song liner notes for the album
• Guitar tablature

v • d • e The Who Roger Daltrey • Pete Townshend John Entwistle • Keith Moon • Kenney Jones John "Rabbit" Bundrick • Pino Palladino • Doug Sandom • Zak Starkey • Simon Townshend Studio albums My Generation • A Quick One • The Who Sell Out • Tommy • Who's Next • Quadrophenia • The Who by Numbers • Who Are You • Face Dances • It's Hard • Endless Wire Live albums Live at Leeds • Who's Last • Join Together • Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 • The BBC Sessions • Blues to the Bush • The Who Live at the Royal Albert Hall • Encore Series 2002 • Encore Series 2004 • Encore Series 2006 & Encore Series 2007 • Live from Toronto Compilations Magic Bus: The Who on Tour • Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy • Odds & Sods • Hooligans • Who's Greatest Hits • Rarities Volume I & Volume II • The Who Collection • Who's Missing • Two's Missing • Who's Better, Who's Best • Thirty Years of Maximum R&B • My Generation: The Very Best of the Who • The Ultimate Collection • Then and Now Soundtracks Tommy • The Kids Are Alright • Quadrophenia • Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who Filmography Monterey Pop • Woodstock • Tommy • Quadrophenia • The Kids Are Alright • McVicar • Buddy's Song • The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus • The Concert for New York City • An Ox's Tale: The John Entwistle Story • Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who • At Kilburn 1977 + Live at the Coliseum Related articles Discography • The Boy Who Heard Music • Influence • Lifehouse • Personnel • Track Records • 2006–2007 tour • Bill Curbishley • Kit Lambert • Peter Meaden • Bob Pridden • Chris Stamp • Scot Halpin • Chris Townson • Two Sides of the Moon • The Who's Tommy • The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard • "A Tale of Two Springfields"