Digital EP features previously unheard versions taken from forthcoming Super Deluxe box
The Who have shared a three song digital EP of previously unheard jingles from its forthcoming The Who Sell Out: Super Deluxe Edition. This EP follows Pete Townshend’s previously unreleased demos upon the album’s announcement last week.
The Sell Out Jingles digital EP includes a previously unreleased remix of “Heinz Baked Beans (Takes 1 & 3);” the previously unreleased “John Mason Cars”/”Speakeasy”/”Rotosound Strings”/”Bag O’Nails;” and a new previously unreleased remix of “Premier Drums (Takes 1 & 4).”
Released in December 1967 The Who Sell Out reflected a remarkable year in popular culture. The album was originally planned by Pete Townshend and the band’s managers Kit Lambert & Chris Stamp, as a loose concept album including jingles and commercials linking the songs stylised as a pirate radio broadcast. This concept was born out of necessity as their label and management wanted a new album and Townshend felt that he didn’t have enough songs.
The new Super Deluxe Edition of The Who Sell Out features 112 tracks, 47 of which are unreleased, an 80-page, hard-back full-color book, including rare period photos, memorabilia, track by track annotation and new sleeve notes by Pete Townshend.
The Super Deluxe package also includes nine posters and inserts, including replicas of 20” x 30” original Adrian George album poster, a gig poster from The City Hall, Newcastle, a Saville Theatre show 8-page program, a business card for the Bag o’ Nails club, Kingly Street, a Who fan club photo of group, a flyer for Bath Pavilion concerts including The Who, a crack-back bumper sticker for Wonderful Radio London, Keith Moon’s Speakeasy Club membership card and a Who Fan Club newsletter.
The homage to pop-art is evident in both the advertising jingles and the iconic sleeve design created by David King who was the art director at the Sunday Times, and Roger Law who invented the Spitting Image TV show. The sleeve features four advertising images, taken by the renowned photographer David Montgomery, of each band member Odorono deodorant (Pete Townshend), Medac spot cream (Keith Moon), Charles Atlas (John Entwistle) and Roger Daltrey & Heinz baked beans. The story goes that Roger Daltrey caught pneumonia from sitting in the cold beans for too long.
Within the bold concept, were a batch of fabulous and diverse songs. “I Can See for Miles,” a Top 10 hit at the time, is a Who classic. “Rael,” a Townshend “mini-opera” with musical motifs that reappeared in Tommy and the psychedelic blast of “Armenia City In The Sky” and “Relax” are among the very best material anyone wrote during the 1960s
One of the most extraordinary albums of any era, The Who Sell Out is The Who’s last “pop” album. Two years later came Tommy – a double concept album about a deaf, dumb and blind kid.
