Who's Next

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Movie Reviews of Who's Next

Movie Review: Excellent!
Summary: 5 Stars

Summary of Who's Next

The story of how The Who came to record the album is told by group members Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle, together with contributions by those who were close to the group during the making of this classic album.

The songs recorded for the Who?'s Next album and featured here, include such classics as Won?'t Get Fooled Again, Baba O?'Riley and Behind Blue Eyes. We are also given an insight as to the importance of the late great Keith Moon to the success of The Who, and hear how his larger-than-life personality often overshadowed his musical contribution to the group.

Included in this documentary program are previously unseen performances of songs from the album that prove the longevity and lasting appeal of Who?'s Next, a true Classic Album.

Who's Next proves a terrific candidate for this deep-focus approach: in songwriter and chief strategist Pete Townshend, we're presented with one of the most thoughtful, articulate rock gods extant. His own capacity for self-analysis, as well as an underlying empathy for the band's original Mod fans, translated directly into the band's songs. Townshend's sense of daring had already yielded a more conspicuous rock landmark with Tommy, the "rock opera" that preceded what eventually emerged as Who's Next, which seemed comparatively straightforward, an album of songs without an obvious narrative thread. In fact, Townshend had sought to carry the theatrical underpinnings of Tommy to a higher, interactive level by creating a sprawling stage piece, Lifehouse, that would use the theater space and the involvement of fans to expand on the studio conception that yielded his saga of that deaf, dumb, and blind kid.

Who's Next thus emerges as something of a mirror for the listener--for Townshend, the reductive but still potent remnant of a grand, white elephant, for the rest of the band simply their best album. Surviving members Townshend, bassist John Entwistle, and vocalist Roger Daltrey provide generous comments on the history of the project, and interviews with managers, press agents, and writers, including biographer Dave Marsh, all reinforce the sense that, however chimerical Lifehouse itself proved, it produced a rich set of songs honed by the live performances they received during the project's chaotic development as a de facto theatrical laboratory. --Sam Sutherland

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