The Who - Quick One (Happy Jack)

A Quick One (Happy Jack)

The Who-Quick One (Happy Jack) ***1/2

Released originally in 1966, the Who's second album A Quick One (Happy Jack) is their most uneven album of the Keith Moon period. That is not to say that it is a weak album because it is not.

The title came from the record companies overly zealous attitude forcing the band to rush and pump out an full album. Hence, A Quick One. This is what leads to the unevenness of the album. While many of the songs are great and some of which are classics, others are less than stellar.

Boasting such classics as Entwhistle penned 'Boris The Spider' which is among the groups best. Also 'Whiskey Man' another Entwhislte number, though highly overrated it became a classic none the less. The dual title tracks 'A Quick One While He's Away' and 'Happy Jack' are two of the groups most celebrated tunes. The former being a nine minute epic, and Townsends first epic. The latter being a percussion filled legend fueled by Moon.

But tracks like the overtly popish antics of Daltrys 'See My Way' and 'Cobwebs And Strange' are just a few of the tracks the album would have benefited from not having.

While not as bad as some claim, it is not as great as others claim either. As far as musicianship this is Pete's worst album guitar wise; That is my only real gripe with the record. Other than that it is worth having if only for the few classics. July 18, 2008

The Who's weakest album of the 60s

Well in some ways it's an apt title; it's a "Quick One" because if you listen to this more than once you'll only spend time on a few songs.

I'll say it right here, this is not a *bad* album by any means. There is nothing unlistenable here, the worst offence that A Quick One has is to have high ratio of filler to good songs. The story is well known, the record company decided to give the band members a lump sum of money if they all wrote their individual songs for the album. Of these however I can really only find 3 songs that I would bother to listen to more than once. Run Run Run by Pete Townshed is a rough R&B song that has a feel not unsimilar to My Generation, albeit not quite as good. Boris The Spider, by Entwhistle although somewhat toungue in cheek is actually quite a catchy song. The highlight though is of course the title tune A Quick One, (Townshed again) It's really 6 mini songs strung together to make a mini rock opera. The story about marital infedility isn't particulaly interesting, but the track is easily the strongest melodically. The other songs are.....okay, I suppose in a generic R&B way but just don't compare well to the iconic sound of My Generation.

Of the bonus tracks, unfortunately they follow the mould of the original songs in being passable but unspectacular. Yes there are versions of The Batman theme and a cover of The Beach Boys Barbara Ann, but they come across as novelty songs rather than worthy songs in themselves. Best of the bonus songs is a short renditon of My Generation (in stereo) followed by the band singing along To Land Of Hope And Glory.

The sound quality isn't bad for 1966, but there is little sonic experimentation beyond basic stereo. On par for the course, then.

So overall hardcore Who fans (the ones giving this review the thumbs down natch) may want to praise this as a vital step in The Who's evolution. More casual fans will probably be disappointed in the inconsistency. If there is a good point to this album, this is where they realised that Townshend was definitely the strongest songwriter and should be the dominant songwriter. Thankfully they seemed to have learned the lesson on their later, stronger albums like The Who Sell Out and Tommy. May 15, 2008

The Who - A Quick One

This was just the second album for the Who and they were experimenting with different sounds.Pete Townshend was always the Who's main song writer but on this album special arrangements were made to pay advances for song writing and each member of the band wrote a couple songs. Most notable was John Entwistle's bass heavy "Boris The Spider" which became a staple of their live performances. Keith Moon wrote a rather bizarre instrumental "Cobwebs And Strange" which uses various unusual instruments not normally associated with rock and roll. Pete Townshend did make an early attempt at a rock opera, an idea that was not yet fully developed "A Quick One While He's Away" has 6 parts and clocks in at just over 9 minutes. There are several curious cover songs also, including Martha Reeves and the Vandella's "Heatwave" and the Batman TV theme. I would recommend this album for Who fanatics, but if you are just a casual listener more fimiliar with the Who's later material this may not be for you. April 20, 2008

3.5 stars

After a Kinks-esque effort on My Generation, it didn't take long for The Who's true eccentricities to shine through, as is apparent with the presence of "Boris the Spider" on the front end of this album. From there, the album weaves an unexpected combination of sounds, sounding part Yardbirds and part Cream. February 7, 2008

For the creative types...

My mentor mentioned that playing "The Who" would help me when I am writing... especially those late night deadline crunching 2am stints to get the assignments in by 8am the next morning...
Doesn't matter what time of day (okay, yes it does... The WHo are not quite as effective before 12noon :) )... this has truly proved to inspire my creative energy and helped me flow much better.
I highly recommend for the creative types - if you get any kind of "block," throw on The Who in the background and get to work! January 1, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...