Sell Out

Universal Music have released many 2-CD sets(by many artists) in their "Deluxe Edition" series, and I have most of them in my collection, but none are more impressive than this set, which gives you the original 1967 stereo & mono mixes of "The Who Sell Out", plus a nearly vault-clearing excavation of 27 bonus tracks.No matter which mix of the album you prefer, Universal Music offers all of them. Personally, I prefer the more Hifi sound of the 1995 stereo remix(not included here, though easily available on the 1-CD expanded edition). The original stereo mix is murkier & muddier, but this 2-CD set puts it back in print, and offers the mono mix for the first time in the UK(no need to hunt for the deleted Japanese mono CD).There are actual musical differences between the stereo & mono mixes, including a different guitar solo on "Our Love Was".For the bonus tracks, the compilers have used original 1967 mixes, except for tracks where no original mix(or no stereo mixes) existed. Original masters & multitracks are used, excepting when the Uk mono single mix of "Someone's Coming" is presented on Disc 2. Apparently, the only tapes that could be found had unsatisfactory sound or did not match exactly with the mix heard on the original Uk single, so American collector Luke Pacholski has supplied a digital dub from his vintage Track Records single. More Hifi conscious listeners can listen to an excellent 1995 stereo remix on Disc One.Amongst the unreleased goodies included are the instrumental "Sodding About", a different studio version of "Summertime Blues"(different from the version on the expanded "Odds & Sods"), an early mix of "I Can See For Miles" with different vocals, a superior re-make of "Glittering Girl" and an inferior but interesting IBC Studios remake of Rael"(the group opted to use the original Talentmasters Studios version instead), and the original 1960's mono mix of "Jaguar" which had been a WHO bootleg vinyl staple throughout the 1970's.The original stereo & mono mixes of Rael have a clumsy edit in the first verse to omit a lyric line(the 1995 stereo remix restores the missing line), but this 2-CD set concludes with a previously unreleased 1967 mono mix with the missing line. But wait, there's more. Two "hidden" bonus tracks. One is the backwards guitar tracks (a la carte) from "Armenia City in The Sky" followed by an example of The Who selling out for real: an advertising jingle for an American milkshake manufacturer.This 2-CD set is being issued only in Britain & Japan, due to America's harsh per song/per disc song publishing royalties system(there would be 53 separate royalties in America). We have Britain's fixed per disc publishing royalties system to thank for music banquets such as this. In Britain, it doesn't matter if there are 10 songs or 30 songs on a CD. The pubishing royalties"pie" gets divided into smaller pieces.Hold onto your 1995 1-disc expanded edition(for its' Hifi remix), but grab this 2-CD release too. With both releases, you've got everything(well,excepting the single mix of "I Can See For Miles". The compilers thought that 3 mixes of the song on this 2-CD set was enough).Because the UK & Japan releases of this set must supply WHO fans worldwide, we now have a (hopefully temporary) product shortage. I'm expecting that Universal will press more, so that "The Who Sell Out" doesn't sell out......permanently.

This is a brilliant album, with some great songs. As has been stated elsewhere the concept of the album is to ape pirate radio with jingles and mock adverts. Side one concludes with the brilliant I Can See for Miles. Keith Moon used to tell the story of a fan coming up to him when I Can See for Miles was in the charts as a single, “I love the hidden meanings in the song man” he said, to which Moon replied, deadpan “It’s just about a guy with really good eyesight.”I love everything about the record itself, great quality vinyl, sounds great; I can’t fault it. The cover is well reproduced with some obvious adaptations on the back; record label, barcode and so on. This is a nice poster included, albeit suffering from the need to fold it to fit into an album cover, but this relates to the reason why I nearly didn’t give this album five stars. There is a really nasty little sticker on the front of the cover, not on the film wrap but actually on the cover. What makes this unforgivable is that is is anything but easy peel. You don’t discover this, of course, until you have tried to peel it and thus you are left with a messy sticker still ther with a wrinkled edge.This remains one of my favourite Who albums after A Quick One and I still really love listening to The Who Sell Out on vinyl again but I am also glad that I also have the expanded CD version.I would rank The Who studio albums:1. A Quick One2. The Who Sell Out3. My Generation4. Quadrophenia5. Who’s Next6. Tommy7. The Who By Numbers8. Who Are You9. Face Dance10. It’s HardI don’t count Endless Wire

THE WHO SELL OUT, The Who's third album, is one of those records which just gets better with age. Many albums from the 1960s and '70s seemed to have emerged as instant classics while others, like this one, have grown in stature with the passing years. Somewhat overlooked during the Christmas rush of 1967, today THE WHO SELL OUT stands as one of The Who's most enjoyable collections, an album which represented a tribute to the recently outlawed pirate radio ships (specifically Radio London) and the band's own last salute to the world of pop before The Who's graduation to the podium of rock royalty with TOMMY (1969). Above all, from the amusing pop art-inspired sleeve to the band's "Track Records" chant cut into the run-out groove, more than any of their other albums, THE WHO SELL OUT captures Shepherd's Bush's finest having fun.This is a fine vinyl reissue of THE WHO SELL OUT from Universal Music - the company that was responsible for a sumptuous Deluxe Edition CD version of the album a few years back. As expected with vinyl reissues these days, the record itself is nice and weighty and comes with relatively faithful reproductions of the Track Records' labels on both sides (the major difference being a new catalogue number). Audio purists will possibly take issue with the fact that the stereo mix has been used over the mono version; however, at the time of the album's original release, stereo was beginning to overtake mono in popularity and so deciding which is the "true" version of THE WHO SELL OUT is arguably an irrelevance (whereas many believe that the mono version of The Beatles' SGT. PEPPER - released just six months earlier - is the genuine format for that LP). Sound-wise, everything is fine, with the original Radio London jingle track-links and gentler songs like 'Tattoo' and 'Sunrise' sounding particularly nice. The hit single 'I Can See For Miles' also manages to cut through with power and presence. Finally, that iconic sleeve is all present and correct as is, thankfully, the Osiris-designed psychedelic poster that came with original copies of the LP. However, the sleeve does have a matt finish rather than the glossy, laminated look that was commonplace on British album covers from the 1960s and which the recent Beatles vinyl reissues have preserved.All in all, though, this is a great reissue of THE WHO SELL OUT and, at less than twenty-five quid (at the time of purchase), it comes considerably cheaper than trying to find a mint-condition original copy, complete with that poster!