The Who releases ‘The Stereo Bonus Tracks Digital EP’

All tracks from forthcoming The Who Sell Out: Super Deluxe Edition

The Who have released The Stereo Bonus Tracks Digital EP featuring previously unreleased versions of three songs from The Who Sell Out studio sessions, the singles “I Can See For Miles” and “Magic Bus” and the outtake “Facts Of Life (AKA Birds & Bees).” All of the tracks appear on the forthcoming The Who Sell Out: Super Deluxe Editionavailable April 23rd via Polydor/UMe.

The masterpiece that is “I Can See For Miles” had a long gestation, the basic track was cut in London and further overdubs were applied in New York and, according to some unconfirmed reports, Nashville before being mixed and mastered in Los Angeles. This is the complete master (take number unknown) with Pete Townshend’s count-in and guitar doodling on the intro and outro.

When scouring The Who’s tape vault for this project, a backing track for “Facts Of Life,” a John Entwistle composition, was discovered. A home demo exists of the song with lyrics, but it appears to have only got this far when brought before The Who. Also recorded was an early run-through of “Deaf, Dumb And Blind Boy” (later to become “Amazing Journey” on Tommy). Unfortunately, all that remains is Townshend demonstrating the opening section on piano.

Several attempts were made to record the Bo Diddley-flavored “Magic Bus” that Townshend had written and demoed back in 1965. “Take 6” starts with Keith Moon playing claves, Townshend on electric guitar and Entwistle on bass before Moon crashes in on drums. Roger Daltrey and Townshend provide guide vocals. This version was close to how the band performed the song on stage at the time. Moon’s unsolicited vocal interjections closes out the performance.

Released in December 1967, The Who Sell Out reflected a remarkable year in popular culture. The album was originally planned by Townshend and the band’s managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, as a loose concept album including jingles and commercials linking the songs stylized 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.

In the early 1960s, pirate radio stations began broadcasting to the U.K. from offshore ships or abandoned sea forts from international waters to meet the growing need for pop and rock not offered by the BBC at that time. The ground-breaking original plan for Sell Out was to sell advertising space on the album but instead the band opted for writing their own jingles paying tribute to pirate radio stations and to parody an increasingly consumerist society.

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 ten 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.

To celebrate the release of The Who Sell Out Super Deluxe Edition, nugs.net, the leading music platform for live concert streams and recordings, have partnered with The Who, UMe, and Mercury Studios, for the livestream premiere of their Classic Albums documentary, The Who Sell Out. The Who is one of the most influential rock bands of the 20th century with over 100 million records sold worldwide, and the documentary explores their groundbreaking record in detail, including a deep dive into the original multi-track recordings, as well as new, exclusive interviews with Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and album producers. Fans can tune in to the free livestream on Thursday, April 22nd at 9 pm ET at nugs.net/thewho. The episode will be available to stream on demand via nugs.net, the nugs.net YouTube page and The Who YouTube page through Sunday, April 25th at midnight ET. Streaming is available worldwide with the exception of the UK and Ireland.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com