When I first got into the Who (and got really into them as a huge fan) in the very late 80s I plunged myself into all the 60s and 70s masterpieces, and pretty much wrote off anything after Who Are You (although I always had a soft spot for Face Dances).

However, recently listening again, I have been very surprised to find how excellent the much maligned It´s Hard is.

Yes, I know, it doesn´t have Keith Moon´s ´drumkit falling down the stairs´ manic rhythm, but Pete provides some beautifully crafted songs - listen to the bridges, the codas and the lyrical dexterity, and the Ox just rips it up - heavy melodic bass everywhere.

Listen again if it´s been a while, or share you love for the forgotten gem:
video: [www.youtube.com]

The problem was never that Moon died, but that Townsend kept his best newly written songs for his solo albums, while he chose to "design" songs for The Who to perform in their usual style. "It's Hard" is a bit like "Emotional Rescue" by The Stones: Fine and dandy, but without any consistence and remarkable lack of good songs. However, since it's The Who, you can't go totally wrong, though.

A really awful record, as is Faces Dances. Between solo albums and the Who, It's Hard was Townshend's fourth album in less than 2 1/2 years. He was keeping his best stuff for his own records (Empty Glass and Chinese Eyes) and leaving the Who with scraps. He was overextended, and it showed. Eminence Front is aces, Cry If You Want ain't bad (though it borrows from Communication off of Chinese Eyes), but otherwise keep both albums.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-01-06 16:17 by ab.

Two albums I don't care a lot for. God knows I've tried, but...

ER is a bad example, Blueranger. There are lots of good stuff on that album. Try DW.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-01-06 16:34 by DandelionPowderman.

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ab
A really awful record, as is Faces Dances. Between solo albums and the Who, It's Hard was Townshend's fourth album in less than 2 1/2 years. He was keeping his best stuff for his own records (Empty Glass and Chinese Eyes) and leaving the Who with scraps. He was overextended, and it showed. Eminence Front is aces, Cry If You Want ain't bad (though it borrows from Communication off of Chinese Eyes), but otherwise keep both albums.

Agree 100%. Those 2 songs (and to a lesser extent "Athena") were easily the best things on there.

BTW, I saw The Who in 1982 (on their "farewell tour" LOL) in Orlando. I think it might be the single best show they ever played. Great setlist and the band was smoking.

Always had a soft spot for the two Who albums of the 80s; they're not as good obviously as prime 'Oo, but still a lot of good tracks on each. I love the pro-shots from the 1982 tour also, can't get enough of those!

The Stones' 'Rescue' I would place higher though, while Rescue isn't on par or as big a statement as the classic recordings either side of it (SG & TY), it has an incredible charm and is one of the hookiest albums they ever released. I'd argue it has it's share of great tracks also - the title tracks, Dance, All About You, and the amazing She's So Cold.

Talking about the 1982 Who tour there is an excellent official release DVD from the show at New York Shea stadium , a show which I attended .

Not to turn this into an Emotional Rescue thread, but for me that album represents everything that can be wrong with The Stones: sluggish playing and attitude gone wrong. Like it was only enough being the band. Every single track on that album is just a rehash of something already done miles better on Some Girls and therefore it fits perfect to compare it to It's Hard.
My opinion, though.
And by the way, Dirty Work is A LOT worse than both Face Dances and It's Hard.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-01-06 17:23 by Blueranger.

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ab
A really awful record, as is Faces Dances. Between solo albums and the Who, It's Hard was Townshend's fourth album in less than 2 1/2 years. He was keeping his best stuff for his own records (Empty Glass and Chinese Eyes) and leaving the Who with scraps. He was overextended, and it showed. Eminence Front is aces, Cry If You Want ain't bad (though it borrows from Communication off of Chinese Eyes), but otherwise keep both albums.

I hadn't really thought about that before.

But yes.

I thnk Chinese Eyes in particular is a fantastic album...both lyrically & musically.

I'm now thnking further about what's on those albums and whether it was a case of him cynically saving his best stuff for his own albums...

...or whether the best stuff he was writing jsut didn't lend itself so well to the style & sound of The Who.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-01-06 17:31 by Spud.

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Blueranger
Not to turn this into an Emotional Rescue thread, but for me that album represents everything that can be wrong with The Stones: sluggish playing and attitude gone wrong. Like it was only enough being the band. Every single track on that album is just a rehash of something already done miles better on Some Girls and therefore it fits perfect to compare it to It's Hard.
My opinion, though.
And by the way, Dirty Work is A LOT worse than both Face Dances and It's Hard.

Where is Down In The Hole, Send It To Me, She's So Cold, All About You or Dance on Some Girls?

That's right, you won't find that type of music on there. That's half of the album.

These two albums are imo among The Who's weakest, just like DW is for the Stones.

«Sluggish playing», WTF?

Probably would have been a great album if the two were combined into one

First of all: the Who has always sounded better to me on stage than in the studio.
Apart from Who's next and Quadrophenia I hardly listen to their studio albums.

Second: I think Who by numbers (1975) is at least as weak as those 80s albums.

Third: Whatever one might think of Dirty Work, it is not a dull album and it kicks some
butt when it comes to guitar driven rock. It's Hard to say that about these albums by
The Who.

Just as long as the guitar plays, let it steal your heart away

A case of diminishing returns after Quadrophenia. About half of Who By Numbers was decent but could hardly sit alongside anything from Sell Out to Quadrophenia.

There's about 3 good songs on Who Are You, the same for Face Dances but then it was really down hill fast.

And yes, Townshend kept the last remaining great songs for his albums Rough Mix and Empty Glass.

It is definitely, without question, a poor Who album. I always loved Eminence Front, and it has a great kick-ass Entwistle song, One At A Time ... but other than that, it is very low standards in terms of Who songs. Cry If You Want might be the worst Who song ever!

I´ve always loved It´s Hard. I cannot detect one single bad song on the album. Most songs are even brilliant. This album is better than Face Dances and I admit to have much love for Face Dances, too.

Who Are You, Who By Numbers are not as good as It´s Hard, IMO. Endless Wire is awful bad. How can anyone listen to this and think of It´s Hard as bad?

Listening to Pete´s solo-albums I don´t feel he saved the better songs for his own albums. I´m not very much fond of his solo-work. Empty Glass & White City, never liked those albums... Face The Face is a good song, but I can´t imagine it as a Who-song. So Pete probably knew which songs to use for what project.

It´s Hard is their best studio album since Who´s Next.
For an album recorded in the 80s, It´s Hard is brilliant (just like DW).
It kicks off great with Athena and finishes brilliantly with Cry If You Want.
9.5 out of 10 for their last great album.

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HMS
I´ve always loved It´s Hard. I cannot detect one single bad song on the album. Most songs are even brilliant. This album is better than Face Dances and I admit to have much love for Face Dances, too.

Who Are You, Who By Numbers are not as good as It´s Hard, IMO. Endless Wire is awful bad. How can anyone listen to this and think of It´s Hard as bad?

Listening to Pete´s solo-albums I don´t feel he saved the better songs for his own albums. I´m not very much fond of his solo-work. Empty Glass & White City, never liked those albums... Face The Face is a good song, but I can´t imagine it as a Who-song. So Pete probably knew which songs to use for what project.

It´s Hard is their best studio album since Who´s Next.
For an album recorded in the 80s, It´s Hard is brilliant (just like DW).
It kicks off great with Athena and finishes brilliantly with Cry If You Want.
9.5 out of 10 for their last great album.

More contrarianism from the inscrutable HMS.

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HMS
I´ve always loved It´s Hard. I cannot detect one single bad song on the album. Most songs are even brilliant. This album is better than Face Dances and I admit to have much love for Face Dances, too.

Who Are You, Who By Numbers are not as good as It´s Hard, IMO. Endless Wire is awful bad. How can anyone listen to this and think of It´s Hard as bad?

Listening to Pete´s solo-albums I don´t feel he saved the better songs for his own albums. I´m not very much fond of his solo-work. Empty Glass & White City, never liked those albums... Face The Face is a good song, but I can´t imagine it as a Who-song. So Pete probably knew which songs to use for what project.

It´s Hard is their best studio album since Who´s Next.
For an album recorded in the 80s, It´s Hard is brilliant (just like DW).
It kicks off great with Athena and finishes brilliantly with Cry If You Want.
9.5 out of 10 for their last great album.

Er, Quadrophenia is light years better than It's Hard..

Quote
HMS

For an album recorded in the 80s, It´s Hard is brilliant (just like DW).

Wow! I think we agree. When it comes to brilliance, it's Hard is exactly like Dirty Work!

I've always considered Who Are You the last true Who album. I did like the songs Athena (from hearing it on radio), and to a lesser extent Eminence Front (although that kicks ass live), but most of the rest is bland and watered down.
I saw the Who for the first time in '79 (or '80) at the L.A. Sports Arena, and it was an intensely great show. Then saw them again at the L.A. Coliseum '82, and it was pale by comparison. Having the younger, angrier, and more energetic Clash open for them didn't help their cause, but it might have been me whose loyalty at the time had changed to younger/contemporary bands vs. the old dinosaurs. Saw them again about 10 years ago at the Long Beach Arena, and it was on the verge of boring. To end this on a positive note, saw them recently at the Desert Trip shows, and my faith was fully restored...THE WHO are ROCK GODS!!!

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

I thought Face Dances was pretty lame, both song and production-wise. That was unfortunate for Kenney Jones, who never was and never will be Keith Moon--but neither was Keith Moon in the end. He was struggling during the recording of Who Are You (and even The Who By Numbers if I remember correct) and it could be said that Keith Moon in '78 was like Brian Jones in '69. Just hanging on and becoming a drag to the band.

Who Are You was the last epic Who track. I remember getting the import 45 (b/w Trick of the Light) and being floored. I wish that had been it, because when the album followed it was a huge disappointment. Those songs about writing songs...and "Sister Disco" for God's sake. Painful. The Creem reviewer likened it to seeing Willie Mays miss catching an easy fly ball near the end of his career.

Kenney Jones had his own style and for awhile it seemed like The Who would forge ahead in a new direction with a new sound. But, as was pointed out, Townshend was saving his best songs for his solo records. Working with Bill (Syx--the guy who worked with The James Gang and the Eagles whose name has no vowels) when they signed with Warner Brothers was a move to that new direction, but again, there were only an EP's worth of decent songs on that album, and the production was crap.

Burned in my mind is watching the clip for You Better You Bet on the TV show America's Top Ten with Casey Kasem. (This was before MTV, so you had only about four shows that you could see performance clips) Apparently they thought the song ran a little long, so they sped it up a bit--a bit too much, because it was so obvious and sadly comical.

So I view It's Hard as a musical comeback. Glyn Johns production captures the classic Who sound. I pretty much like the entire album--EXCEPT (oddly enough) the two most played songs: Eminence Front (which at the time felt like Pete was chasing Talking Heads, and just didn't do it for me) and Athena (didn't care for the horns) but other than that I really like the other songs: It's Your Turn, Cook's County, I've Known No War, One Life's Enough, One At A Time, A Man Is A Man, Cry If You Want...to my ears GREAT stuff.

I like the title track, although the lyrics seem to be a pointless chase of rhymes. The keyboard fill after the lines "It's hard!" felt like The Who reaching back to their twee past...songs like Happy Jack, etc.

So I agree with the notion that It's Hard is underrated.


My favorite Kenney Jones studio performance with The Who was recorded BEFORE he became a member. Check out the version of "I'm Free" from the Tommy movie soundtrack, where he sat in with the rest of the band, filling in for Moon.

[www.youtube.com]

[nickmanho.blogspot.rs]

I also really like "cry if you want"

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Hairball
I've always considered Who Are You the last true Who album.

Couldn't agree more

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Hairball
...saw them recently at the Desert Trip shows, and my faith was fully restored...THE WHO are ROCK GODS!!!

Yes! That first weekend made me a Who fan all over again.

the shoot 'em dead, brainbell jangler!

I think it's good but it reminds me of STEEL WHEELS, about which even Mick said, "The songs were a bit unfinished." I love the sound of Terrifying like I love the sound of Eminence Front, but they each need a couple more chords/changes in them. They're too repetitive, which keeps them good but keeps them from being great. Others songs on both albums are similar.

I listened to IT'S HARD for the first time in ages, because I recently bought the 1997 reissue, that has bonus live tracks, and Townshend impressively plays the solo on the live Cry If You Want with great celerity.

Eminence Front is the proof that even the crappiest Who album has 1 good song...

I think It's Hard is a very good album. Sure, it's not Who's Next or Quadrophenia but those albums set the bar so very high that there's still plenty of room for material below that bar to be quite enjoyable. Sort of like how Emotional Rescue is not Exile On Main Street but it's still an enjoyable listen. However, a valid point has been made that Townshend did save his best songs of the time for his solo albums.

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."

Alright, I'm sorry, normally I don't bring negative to someone's
digging something I don't, but, I'm saying it, because without saying
it's fvcked up, and I do not want the story or details, please,
but 'Athena'
just a girl just a girl
from Pete Townsend
ruined it. Sorry. Sorry.

And you know what? Freakin' UGH I googled
that issue,
you're dead to me.
Do not pass go, do not collect $200.,
dead.
Wrong choice of song man.

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snorton
I also really like "cry if you want"

Not possible ... it has the worst chorus in the history of choruses, which makes it un-listenable.

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DandelionPowderman
Er, Quadrophenia is light years better than It's Hard..

I sort of agree and at the same time I do not...
If you put Quads best songs on a single LP, you´d get an album better than It´s Hard. But as a double album containing the usual (unavoidable????) amount of fillers Quad has to step back. It´s Hard is all killers, no fillers, which not happens very often with Who-albums.

Face Dances is also a great but sadly underrated album. It may be a bit "smoother" than what people might expect from The Who, but the album has plenty of good songs - and Roger still sang "a razor line". I love both albums, but prefer It´s Hard because of it´s more rocking approach.