One of the best sounding Who LP’s in my opinion I have a UK first press mastered by Doug Sax at The Mastering Lab and also the 150g Chris Bellman Classic Records reissue from 2008 both of which sound brilliant.
Not sure who is doing the remaster for this 50th anniversary reissue but I’d be surprised if it improved on the original. I’m very interested in the Swansea gig included in the deluxe versions as my 25 year old parents where there so it would be nice to have that.
Contains a small number of my fave Who songs but there’s no world in which it’s a classic. Patchily brilliant and accurately reflective of the poor state of the band for sure. That said, one of the rare occasions I might have an interest in some of the live stuff.
I don’t think anybody could ever claim Who By Numbers to be a classic Townshend did say later though according to this releases promo pack that that songs are some of the most personal ever recorded by the band and solely talking of the sound of the LP it is in my opinion up there with their best.
I always felt like The Stones the band had a purple patch and Who By Numbers was on the way down from that it is definitely no Quadrophenia that’s for sure.
I saw them at Wembley on the Numbers tour. As Roger says “I was in a band with 3 alcoholics” and they were all over the place. But out of the chaos it was a great record, classic perhaps not, obviously very personal to Pete, However Much I Booze etc. Original pressing, don’t need another!
A slight diversion i was watching a few clips of Roger Daltrey currently on tour and sounding really good. He introduced going mobile as a song from Who’s Next never played live by the Who. He did a great version with Simon Townsend (Petes younger brother) guitar and on vocals.
I agree my original version sounds pretty good and is probably the best-sounding original Who album, although not my favourite overall.
I did get the Abbey Road half-speed master, which is OK but not as good as the original in my view.