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The Who by Numbers [Extra tracks][Original recording reissued][Original recording remastered]

The Who
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews) | More about this product
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Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Samples
Song Title Time Price
listen  1. Slip Kid 4:30$0.99 Buy Track
listen  2. However Much I Booze 5:03$0.99 Buy Track
listen  3. Squeeze Box 2:41$0.99 Buy Track
listen  4. Dreaming From The Waist 4:09$0.99 Buy Track
listen  5. Imagine A Man 4:01$0.99 Buy Track
listen  6. Success Story 3:20$0.99 Buy Track
listen  7. They Are All In Love 3:00$0.99 Buy Track
listen  8. Blue Red And Grey 2:47$0.99 Buy Track
listen  9. How Many Friends 4:06$0.99 Buy Track
listen10. In A Hand Or A Face 3:25$0.99 Buy Track
listen11. Squeeze Box (Live) 4:14$0.99 Buy Track
listen12. Behind Blue Eyes 3:42$0.99 Buy Track
listen13. Dreaming From The Waist (Live) 4:52$0.99 Buy Track

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Biography

The Who are a four-piece mod/rock band whose first album, My Generation, bristled with attitude; the lyric "I hope I die before I get old" tapped into the disaffection felt by post-war baby boomers, helping to secure a loyal fanbase and establish the band at the forefront of the mod movement.

In the studio the band's innovative approach to recording helped to realise Townshend's vision and album… Read more in Amazon's The Who Store

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Frequently Bought Together

The Who by Numbers + Who Are You + Quadrophenia
Price For All Three: $37.97

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  • This item: The Who by Numbers ~ The Who

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  • Who Are You ~ The Who

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Product Details

  • Audio CD (November 19, 1996)
  • Original Release Date: 1975
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
  • Label: Mca
  • ASIN: B000002P2W
  • In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #938 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #27 in  Music > Classic Rock > Supergroups
    #91 in  Music > Folk
    #95 in  Music > Hard Rock & Metal

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This 1975 collection excels in large part due to its modest goal. It's the Who's singer-songwriter record. Without the ostensible shield his "rock operas" provided, Pete Townshend's personal demons strut about nakedly. Not a pretty sight, but an involving spectacle nevertheless. "They Are All in Love" and "How Many Friends" are forgotten Who songs, but they've aged beautifully. John Entwistle's "Success Story" sequences nicely with the rest of the album. And "However Much I Booze," "Dreaming from the Waist," and "In a Hand or a Face" are great decade-early exercises in mid-life self-pity. There are only three bonus tracks here--live versions of "Squeeze Box," "Dreaming from the Waist," and the earlier "Behind Blue Eyes"--but By Numbers is such a cohesive collection that they're less welcome extras than annoying distractions. Still, By Numbers now stands as one of the linchpins in a great band's catalog. --Steven Stolder

Product Description

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: WHO
Title: WHO BY NUMBERS
Street Release Date: 11/19/1996
Domestic
Genre: ROCK/POP
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Customer Reviews

94 Reviews
5 star:
 (52)
4 star:
 (33)
3 star:
 (7)
2 star:    (0)
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 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (94 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Every Moment Has It's Special Charm, May 31, 2001
I don't suppose I can realistically argue that WHO BY NUMBERS is the best Who LP. It's really not on the same level as QUADROPHENIA, WHO'S NEXT or LIVE AT LEEDS.

But WHO BY NUMBERS may be my favorite Who LP. It's Townshends most personal, most initmate group effort. While it has never made me want to hold a lighter over my head or play air guitar, it does touch me in a way no other Who record can do.

Critics love to say the album was Townshend's first 'mid-life crisis' LP. That's more than a tad absurd, considering Townshend was still a good 15 years shy of mid-life. WHO BY NUMBERS has more to do with Townshend's increasing concern that he was losing himself in drink and celebrity. The album is a cry for intimacy in a world Townshend increasingly saw as hollow and transparent; he finds himself, as he wrote years earlier, Alone In A Crowd. The audience and the generation that Townshend always tried so hard to connect with seemed to be further removed from him all the time. On "However Much I Booze" he sings:

"You at home can easily decide what's right by glancing very breifly at the songs I write, but it don't help me that you know, there still ain't no way out."

For all the talk of Townshend's bow to Punk on WHO ARE YOU and his great solo LP EMPTY GLASS, he seems to have had a premonition of the movement on this 1975 album, writing in "They Are All In Love":

"Goodbye all you punks, stay young and stay high. Hand me checkbook and I'll crawl off to die. Like a woman in childbirth, grown ugly in a flash, I've seen magic and pain, now I'm recycling trash."

The songs on WHO BY NUMBERS are witty, caustic, confessional, and, in several cases--"They Are All In Love," "Blue Red And Grey"--downright pretty. There are two quirky little hits here, "Slip Kid" and "Squeeze Box," but the non-hits, including Entwistle's great "Success Story," are far better.

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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "Rich Old Men", February 9, 2000
By A Customer
The Who's first mid-life crisis album contains more good cuts than their later ones. "Slip Kid" is one their best (I always loved the count-off at the beginning); we hear a slightly older and more cynical Pete/Roger trying to tap into the spirit of youthful rebellion in the face of creeping middle age. John Entwistle's "Success Story" is a bouyant autobiographical song of the band. "Squeeze Box" has some nice banjo work on it and sounds like the obvious choice for a single (which it was). Pete breaks out the ukulele on the very pretty "Blue, Red, and Grey" and "Dreaming From The Waist" is a tough rocker with some okay lyrics about sexual frustration. In truth, the rest of the album is pretty depressing. "However Much I Booze" sounds more upbeat than it should, while "They Are All In Love" and "Imagine A Man" are as bleak as they come. Although it's clear that the excesses of rock stardom were starting to wear them down, the playing is still inspired. By the time "Who Are You" came out, Keith Moon seemed to have lost a step and The Who would soon lose the chaotic drumming frenzy that was the band's driving engine. WHO BY NUMBERS, while over all too darkly self-confessional in tone to make for a consistently enjoyable listen, has some some fine moments and is way better than anything The Stones were putting out at the time (if you want to put it in some sort of context).
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Misunderstood is fine, July 9, 2000
By michael d. bado (Bloomingdale, IL) - See all my reviews
Again, some of the greatest works of art are misunderstood. I think Pete Townshend even told us that when he said: "You at home can easily decide what's right/ by glancing at the songs I write/ but it don't help me that you know ...."

I don't think this album was made to be gobbled up by the masses. It is a lot like Alice Cooper's 1978 masterpiece "From the Inside." You are ALLOWED to enter into a world that one wouldn't normally understand.

As far as the record goes, it contains some of Tonshend's finest melodies. I don't think it is easy to argue with jams like "However Much I Booze" or melodies such as "Imagine a Man" or "Blue Red and Grey". It even affords Entwistle an erstwhile place to soap-box in "Success Story." Such a record!

Sometimes it is good that people don't "understand" a record. Those who need it or want it seek it out, and it strikes a chord as resonant as the last chord of "A Day in the Life". Only for those that know .... And isn't art made for those that take it in?

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Underrated "WHO" record on CD.
Slip Kid and Squeeze Box stand out as the best tracks on this record. A record which can be easily overlooked, as far as The Who's records are concerned, but nonetheless a record... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Dr. Feelgood

4.0 out of 5 stars An Overlooked Masterpiece from Townshend & Co.
By Numbers may not possess some of the grander aspects of previous Who outings but it is a solid album which Townshend showed that the guy who once wrote "I hope I die before I... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Russell D. Melling

4.0 out of 5 stars Who by Numbers cd
I love this cd and you can't find it at the store. I got it at Amazon for a super price and fast service!
Published 3 months ago by Mary E. Mcbride

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceleent seller
I have bought several items off of both ebay and amazon but have never bought such a quality product from any seller until now. You can buy with confidence here.
Published 11 months ago by Victor Anthony Ocampo

3.0 out of 5 stars Follow Up To Quadrophenia
Although this is the followup to "Quadrophenia" it lacks a lot of the power of the earlier disk. The songs are poppy, and lack the angst that Townsend exhibited earlier. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Pat Lamorgese

4.0 out of 5 stars Who's Underrated
This is the last Who album. Who Are You was a coda (albeit an alright one) and the albums with Kenney Jones were by a different band. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Paul Phipps

4.0 out of 5 stars An early mid-life crisis?
I recently rediscovered this album, along side with Quadrophenia, after an absence of over 20 years. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Scott Hercher

4.0 out of 5 stars The Who - A Step Down From The Last Three
After the brilliance that was "Tommy", "Who's Next" and "Quadrophenia" there had to come a let down. That let down would be The Who's mid decade album "By Numbers". Read more
Published 19 months ago by Steven Sly

4.0 out of 5 stars Great!!
I have this album in vinyl, so I bought it to keep my vinyl and to listen the Cd. The remastered Cd sounds great and in my opinion, "Squeeze Box" is a masterpiece. Read more
Published 19 months ago by B. Ferrer

4.0 out of 5 stars Another great Who album!
Far from the most renowned album by The Who, The Who by Numbers is perhaps the last great Who album. Read more
Published on February 9, 2008 by freedom78

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