Search - The Who: Who's Next on DVD

Good Stuff - Could be even better

Mark D Burgh | Fort Smith, AR United States | 07/15/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you love the Who, this is one of the best documents about them, even though we have to spent part of our dwindling lives listening to Dave Marsch's drivel instead of Pete's during the too-short duration of the video. For insight into the music itself, this tape showed me things I had heard for years, but never really grasped, like how Keith Moon would play riffs instead of drum patterns, and how much energy the Who had. Listening to the un-mixed tracks from "Goin' Mobile" are incredible. Pete Townshend is always generous when talking about his music, and no less here. For an avid Synth fan like me, who worships "Baba O'Riley," what a real treat to see Pete's ARPs at work, and how he created the groundbreaking, unique, and staggering synth backing that makes the songs on Who's Next the great works they are, despite what Roger Daltrey thinks. There is too much "Won't Get Fooled Again" in this documentary. They are always cutting back to it, and Pete does an acoustic version that while fun, is not really necessary. Other music on the record is slighted at the expense of the bigger hits. The whole Lifehouse disaster is dealt with; mainly Pete's inability to articulate his vision. Who's Next is one of the greatest, if not the greatest record in Rock history and this tape helps explain in."

Who's Next - One of my favorites

Thumper | 09/29/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'd like to start by saying I really enjoy all the Classic Albums series documentaries. If you get the chance, check out some of the other titles, like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, etc.

Also, to point out, this is a documentary on the Making of an album, not a concert video...although there are some live concert clips and music videos, all found on The Kid's Are Alright.

On to the review: Overall, this makes an excellent companion to "The Kid's Are Alright" for Who Fans. If you're a fan of the Who's Next album, you'll get an inside view of how and why the songs were put together, told mostly from the viewpoint of Pete, Roger, and John themselves.

Hearing Pete's original demo for Won't Get Fooled Again is really cool, although it has a totally different feel than the end product, as Pete plays all the instuments on the demo, with a half-time beat...very interesting.

The introspect into the routing of the organ thru the synth shows how groundbreaking and essential the use of keyboards were to these songs. However, most of the time is spent on "Fooled Again", and I would have liked to have seen something on the organ track for Baba O' Riley (for those who would like more info on this, I found a cool link: http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/equip-baba.htm) There also used to be a page with someone's recreations of these tracks, but it no longer exists :(

I also like Pete's candor with the interviewer (one of my favorite lines is when he's listening back to the organ solo on Fooled Again and kind of chuckles to himself and calls it "brilliant" -which it was, really), but most of all, I enjoyed hearing the individual tracks being solo'ed up to hear them isolated from the rest of the mix. As a musician myself, this is like finding the Dead Sea Scrolls! I think it's pure magic to hear the individual components, and how they all work together to form the classic music that we've all come to know and love for so many years now."

Essential for Who Fans

D. Levy | New York, NY USA | 05/22/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a wonderful hour-long documentary on the making of "Who's Next" and its origins in the Lifehouse project. There are very good interviews with Pete, Roger, John, Glyn Johns, Chris Stamp, Dave Marsh and others. As with other shows in the Classic Albums series, there are some cool moments at the mixing board with the original multitrack recordings, showing how the final mixes were put together (for instance just Roger's voice and Keith's drumming during "Behind Blue Eyes.") There is some great live concert footage, including several numbers from the 1976 tour. Some excellent explanations of Pete's approach to sequencing for the groundbreaking synthesizer parts on the album. Finally, a few brand-new performances (Pete singing "Pure and Easy" at the piano and "Won't Get Fooled Again" with just an acoustic guitar.) If you love Who's Next you will find this DVD to be well worth the money."

Required Viewing For Any Who Fan...

"The Woj" | Downers Grove, IL | 11/26/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This dvd provides many insights into the Who's classic album, "Who's Next", from it's genesis as Townshend's failed "Lifehouse" project to the finished product we know today.
The dvd includes several acoustic solo numbers performed by Townshend exclusively for this release (by far this dvd's strongpoint). My only fault with this title is the length and hence it being incomplete. It only runs an hour with no bonus material added. Only a handful of songs from the album are viewed in any depth, consequently the documentary seems incomplete. It leaves the fan wanting & expecting more. Obviously there is no commentary from Keith Moon presented here, but it would have been great to see more video footage showing Moon & his bandmates in the studio. All in all a very good dvd for the devoted Who fan. However, its not the best place to start for the novice. I would recommend the 5 star 2 dvd set of "The Kids Are Alright" as your first Who dvd purchase."