Odds & Sods

The Who | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B000002NZT
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #328,969 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I'm the Face

2. Leaving Here [#][Demo Version]

3. Baby Don't You Do It [#][Demo Version]

4. Summertime Blues [#]

5. Under My Thumb

6. Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand [#]

7. My Way [#]

8. Faith in Something Bigger

9. Glow Girl

10. Little Billy

11. Young Man Blues

12. Cousin Kevin Model Child [#]

13. Love Ain't for Keeping [#]

14. Time Is Passing [#]

15. Pure and Easy

16. Too Much of Anything

17. Long Live Rock

18. Put the Money Down

19. We Close Tonight [#]

20. Postcard

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

By the mid-'70s, even The Who's leftovers had more interest than most rock best-of albums--"Glow Girl" is a concise blueprint of 1969's "Tommy"; "Naked Eye" and "Pure and Easy" were victims of the doomed Lifehouse project; "I'm the Face" was the band's mod-obsessed first single; and even "Little Billy," an antismoking advertisement, still rocks hard. John Entwistle's faux country "Now I'm a Farmer" was contemptible, but the closing anthem "Long Live Rock" redeemed such missteps. The 1998 CD reissue added studio versions of "Young Man Blues" and "Summertime Blues," among many others, and resequenced the tracks. --Steve Knopper

Product Description

Digitally remastered reissue of 1985 album featuring Paul Weller. 15 tracks including 'Walls Come Tumbling Down', 'Cometo Milton Keynes' and 'Boy Who Cried Wolf'. When first released in the States this album was known as 'Internationalists'. 2000 release. Standard jewel case. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Lazy" Compiling Keeps This From Being A Classic, February 15, 2002

By 

Stephen J. Holroyd (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Odds & Sods (Audio CD)

I loved the original Odds & Sods, and eagerly awaited the reissue. After all, I had known for years that there were dozens of Who outtakes that had yet to be collected (and I owned on bottlegs), so hearing official releases would be a treat.

Of course, I hadn't counted on Jon Astley, Pete Townshend's brother-in-law and the "producer" of the re-issue. I knew from earlier reissues that Astley couldn't leave well enough alone, and had remixed Quadrophenia and Who Are You and other albums to the point where they were *too* different from the original release. But his work here is unbelievably sloppy.

The original album was great; alas, here Astley agains feels the need to fade out "I'm The Face," and play around with "Naked Eye." Still, it is the new tracks which suffer most.

For instance, he includes "Under My Thumb"--and forgot to mix in the electric guitar (easily heard on Who's Missing)! He put on the WRONG studio version of "Young Man Blues"; instead of the dynamic version included on a Track sampler, we get what is obviously an outtake that is too slow and lethargic. And it sounds as if he remastered "My Way" off a bootleg.

On the other hand, we get "Cousin Kevin/Model Child," "Time Is Passing," "We Close Tonight" and a number of great tunes. Still a good album. But it should have been much better.

And where is "Do You Want Kids, Kids?", "Dogs Part II," "Waspman," "When I Was A Boy" and dozens of other Who classics? Who knows. I keep waiting for Odds and Sods II, but it doesn't appear to be coming. On the other hand, I've read that the Shel Talmy tapes are finally going to remastered, and the Who are recording a new record.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Expansion to an Already Generous Album, July 5, 2004

By 

Bud (Seminole, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Odds & Sods (Audio CD)

Rarely can a band make a consistent, solid album purely out of unreleased material, rarities, outtakes, and all the other names for such precious finds, and this vastly expanded edition of "Odds and Sods" solidifies that ability. This album was originally recorded to curve the bootlegging process going on at the time, not only because The Who didn't make money off bootlegs (that may have been the record company's motivation though), but also because the group wanted fans to have more listenable versions; the late bassist John Entwistle said, "They release really bad bootlegs of these songs all the time...they're really bad quality...We thought it was about time we released a bootleg of our own."
It's a true blessing that "Odds and Sods" is so highly recognized and appreciated as a solid effort, because many of these songs rank among some of Pete Townshend's most articulate songwriting and The Who's best performances in the studio. And we all know the fate of unreleased songs that are released here and there over time, popping up on random "best of" compilations; they become lost in time and labeled as empty-hearted gestures to get people to buy those greatest hits albums. Indeed, some of these songs, some in different versions, later appeared as bonus tracks on the remastered editions of The Who's classic albums (the best studio version of 'Pure and Easy' appeared on the reissue of "Who's Next" for example). But gathered together and focused on as "Odds and Sods," listeners can hear some glorious Who moments, packaged as one sturdy album.
The collection also does much to further prove the already well-established fact that The Who were major contributors in bridging 60s rock-pop to the more progressive harder rock of the 70s. For example there are tracks like the enjoyable naive quality of `I'm the Face' (a song recorded when The Who were known as The High Numbers), the poppy humor of `Little Billy,' the odd story of `Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand' (a different version than the one that originally appeared on "The Who Sell Out") and covers of the likes of `Summertime Blues,' `Leaving Here' and the cheeky `My Way.' But there are also more intricate, personal songs like `We Close Tonight' (based on one of Townshend's schooldays relationships), and `Too Much of Anything' as well as compositions that are self-mocking autobiographies of The Who such as the ego-deflating `Faith in Something Bigger,' and the look at exhaustive touring `Postcard.' And to further round out the progression of this great band's music, there are several tracks that came from The Who's innovation in "rock operas"; `Glow Girl' and `Cousin Kevin Model Child' were early ideas for "Tommy," one of the very first rock operas, and important elements from the infamous, aborted "Lifehouse" album/film such as `Time is Passing,' `Put the Money Down' and most notably `Pure and Easy,' the "Odds and Sods" track that everyone remembers, demonstrating The Who's desire to shed as much light on this unreleased material as that of their most memorable and well-known work.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great collection of rejects, July 26, 2004

By 

Anyechka (Rensselaer, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Odds & Sods (Audio CD)

I have this album both on the original vinyl (with only eleven songs) and the 1998 CD remaster with 23 songs. I had the CD before the vinyl, and can only say that the remastering and bonus tracks made a great compilation of rarities and unused songs even better. (Though on the vinyl, "Little Billy" sounds deeper and richer, there's a final keyboard and drumroll on "I'm the Face," and a few other nuances that aren't on the remaster, sadly.) The CD puts the 23 songs in chronological order, something the vinyl didn't do, which gives the listener a good picture of how the band's sound was developing, though it also has its downfalls. The eleven original songs were arranged in a specific order for a reason; on here having the songs arranged chronologically sometimes means no sense of cohesion or connectedness. Because this is a collection of rarities and unused songs that sat in the vaults for years, it's not really a proper album, with most of the songs related thematically. Since this was only my fourth Who album, it was kind of jarring to listen to at first, this movement from one type of song to a completely different one. It almost turned me off; I wouldn't recommend it to a new fan.

The songs I like best on here are "Postcard" (the original opening track), "Now I'm a Farmer," "We Close Tonight" (Keith sings a lot better than he usually does!), "Glow Girl," the long alternate version of "Love Ain't for Keeping," "Cousin Kevin Model Child," "Faith in Something Bigger," "Pure and Easy," "Too Much of Anything," and the beautiful closing track "Naked Eye." The original LP closes with "Long Live Rock," with "Naked Eye" being the penultimate track. The arrangement on the original LP was great, but "LLR" just doesn't seem like a closing track like the beautiful majestic "Naked Eye" does.