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Old 1st December 2020, 03:35 PM
Susan Foreman's Avatar
Susan Foreman Susan Foreman is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Childhood home of Billy Idol - Orpington
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Album #8:
Odds And Sods

'Odds And Sods' was The Who's attempt at clearing the decks. Over the years, they had recorded many songs that were never released, although some of them - notably 'Naked Eye' and 'Pure And Easy' [both already mentioned on the deluxe release of the 'Who's Next' album] - had been played live and were well known to fans. With time on his hands while Roger and Pete were working on the film version of 'Tommy', John started rooting around tape boxes at Track Records, and came up with quite a remarkable collection of songs that the band had deemed unworthy of release, either because they didn't fit into the mood of whatever it was that the band were working on at the time, or (in the case of material recorded for 'Lifehouse' / 'Who's Next') their was simply a surfeit of songs

In the case of certain songs, maybe the band thought that one day they would record a better version, but whatever the motives, it says much for the band that songs of this standard, which many other acts would have killed for, were simple shelved

Released in October 1974, 'Odds And Sods' reached no. 10 on the UK album charts

The front cover of the album featured a cut up picture of the band wearing American football helmets, spelling out the word 'ROCK'...


...while the back cover, in what was seen as an innovative move at the time, featured the titles of the songs written in Braille.


A poster and lyric sheet were included in the package, together with extensive track-by-track notes by Pete, explaining what the songs were about


'Postcard', which opened the original LP release, starts with a brass riff and the well used holiday lie "having a lovely time, wish you were here". Written by John, this is a tongue-in-cheek road song which details the sights and sounds of the various countries that The Who had visited on recent tours. It was originally intended for release on an E.P, but this ultimately never happened


"We're having a lovely time, wish you were here
We're having a lovely time, wish you were here

There's miles of frankfurters and people who hurt us in Germany
We haven't played since yesterday
There's just ten more shows and one week to go
We'd all like to go

We're having a lovely time, wish you were here
We're having a lovely time, wish you were here

Great piles of spaghetti, bad vibes like confetti in Italy
We go by train and not by plane
We'd come home by car if it wasn't too far
To drive home by car

Hope you're well at home
Next week I'll try to phone
Not very long to go
I'll tell you when I'm coming home as soon as I know

We're having a lovely time, wish you were here
We're having a lovely time, wish you were here

There's lots of French fries, disapproving eyes in the U.S.A
We've had no shows since I don't know
There's just one thing wrong, we've been here too long
The money's all gone

We're having a lovely time, wish you were here
We're having a lovely time, wish you were here

There's kangaroos and we're bad news in Australia
Thrown off the plane for drinking beer
So long on the plane it drove us insane
So long on the plane

Hope you're well at home
Next week I'll try to phone
Not very long to go
I'll tell you when I'm coming home as soon as I know

We're having a lovely time, wish you were here
We're having a lovely time, wish you were here

We've done very well, but we've been to hell
And heaven as well"


'Now I'm A Farmer' was recorded for the same E.P as 'Postcard'. This is Pete's wistful ode to the joys of an outdoor life digging in the fields. "The track is from a time when The Who went slightly mad", he wrote in the sleeve notes. In reality, only Roger, at home on his farm on the Kent / Sussex border, was likely to have identified with the country life, although Keith shows a natural bent towards the horticultural life during his spoken fade out


"I've got a spade and a pick-axe
And a hundred miles square of land to churn about
My old horse is weary but sincerely
I believe that he can pull a plough
Well I've moved into the jungle of the agriculture rumble,
To grow my own food
And I'll dig and plough and scrape the weeds
Till I succeed in seeing cabbage growing through

Now I'm a farmer, and I'm digging, digging, digging, digging, digging
Now I'm a farmer, and I'm digging, digging, digging, digging, digging
It's alarming how charming it is to be a-farming
How calming and balming the effect of the air

Well, I farmed for a year and grew a crop of corn
That stretched as far as the eye can see
That's a whole lot of cornflakes,
Near enough to feed New York till 1973
Cultivation is my station and the nation
Buys my corn from me immediately
And holding sixty thousand bucks, I watch as dumper trucks
Tip New York's corn flakes in the sea

Now I'm a farmer, and I'm digging, digging, digging, digging, digging
Now I'm a farmer, and I'm digging, digging, digging, digging, digging
It's alarming how charming it is to be a-farming
How calming and balming the effect of the air

Now look here son
The right thing to say
Isn't necessarily what you want to say
The right thing to do
Isn't necessarily what you want to do
The right things to grow
Ain't necessarily what you want to grow
Your own happiness
Doesn't necessarily teach you what you want to know

Well I'm suntanned and deep, so's the horse
And my hands are deeply grained
Old horse is a-grazing, it's amazing
Just how lazily he took the strain
Well my pick and spade are rusty,
Because I'm paid on trust to leave my square of cornfield bare

It's alarming how charming it is to be a-farming
How calming and balming the effect of the air

When you grow what I grow
Tomatoes, potatoes, stew, eggplants...
Potatoes, tomatoes...gourds"
__________________
People try to put us down
Just because we get around

Golly, Gee! it's wrong to be so guilty

Last edited by Susan Foreman; 1st December 2020 at 05:42 PM.
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