The Who
The Who - The Who Sell Out (1968)

Regarding the so-called British Invasion, a significant branch of it developed in the artistic boom of mid-1960s London, soon taking the name Swinging London (literally translated as "the swinging London") which prominently featured a young group of people generally from middle to lower social classes, but fiercely passionate about the Rock 'N' Roll and R’n’B sounds (the famous "Rhythm and Blues" which is clearly not the "musical broth" that circulates today) originating from that fantastic "melting pot" of musical ideas, the United States of America.

Thus, prominent personalities of this "musical habitat" like rocker Eddie Cochran (author of the rousing Summertime Blues, a famous song masterfully "covered" by the group I'm about to discuss in this post) and the eclectic Bo Diddley are fully revived in the songs of a leading band, which emerged from the experience of that very Swinging London mentioned earlier: The Who, the historic London rock band, born from the intuition of guitarist/composer/singer/multi-instrumentalist Pete Townshend (London, May 19, 1945), alongside the singer passionate about acting Roger Daltrey (London, March 1, 1944), the formidable bassist (also a former French horn player) John Entwistle (Chiswick, October 9, 1944 – Las Vegas, June 27, 2002) and the powerful drummer Keith Moon (London, August 23, 1946 – London, November 7, 1978).

Following the absolutely noteworthy debut of My Generation in 1965, a true anthem to the youth counterculture that was about to proliferate against the crowd of bigots and "old fogeys" animating British society at that time ("Hope I die / before I get old / talking about my generation"), and my example of "Rock Opera" like the album A Quick One, While He’s Away (1967), on the wave of the Psychedelic music trend from masters like Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane (which I will surely discuss in the future), and The Doors with the "Lizard King" Jim Morrison, an album was released which was unjustly underrated by critics of the time but, in my humble opinion, is a crucial link for fully understanding the group's explosion soon after in 1969 with their famous character Tommy, from which the eponymous "Rock Opera" originated (which also has a film representation by director Ken Russell, dated 1975), the group's first true global record success.

The album in question is The Who Sell Out, released between December 1967 and early 1968, which represents a sort of "mockery" of the consumer culture that was taking more and more hold in England as it was moving towards the Seventies, demonstrated by the presence of fake advertisements for a well-known brand of beans ("Heinz Baked Beans”), a brand of deodorants ("Odorono") and an anti-acne cream ("Medac"). However, as mentioned, due to the psychedelic influence I mentioned earlier, there are pieces of the highest quality and grandeur, starting with the imaginative Armenia City In The Sky (which, to be honest, seems to echo the well-known Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds by The Beatles), which takes off driven by Townshend's distorted guitar already in top form here and Moon's always solid drumming. Another remarkable song is the ballad Mary Anne With Shaky Hand, inspired by Townshend's "adolescent turmoils" (with this love of his, honestly never too clear between the guitarist and this mysterious Mary Ann), as well as I Can See For Miles, another example of how Rock 'N' Roll can be very well aligned with Psychedelia with its imaginative and always "further music" (a “further music”, using an expression taken from Jimi Hendrix when describing his wonderful Bold As Love).

However, it is especially on the second side that we find the crucial focal points of this work: indeed, Rael 1 and Rael 2, with a total duration of about 6 minutes, undoubtedly represent a much more mature example of "Rock Opera" in the most specific sense of the term: just by listening attentively to both pieces you can find in them even in an embryonic stage (or “in utero”, as in the eponymous Nirvana album) phrasings and sounds very close to some pieces that will form the backbone of Tommy, above all the dramatic instrumental piece Underture, placed roughly in the middle of the album. The same pattern is found in other pieces nonetheless important like Someone’s Coming and Early Morning Cold Taxi with prominently featuring Entwistle's previously unheard (but not too much!) English and French horn.

From that moment on, the group thus sheds the guise of pure and simple "singles’ band", specialized in the production of impactful “singles” (like many, too many "bands", if we can still call them that, today) to focus more and more on the more "narrative" line of Rock, thus paving the way, starting with this lovely The Who Sell Out, to a genre that would bring success to the group around the mid-Seventies (with their “final stage”, represented by the double Quadrophenia of 1974) only to know its inevitable decline: the so-called "Rock Opera".