Describing his teenage infatuation with the literary giant in Vanity of Deluoz, Jack Kerouac wrote “only adolescents appreciate Thomas Wolfe… because he’s the kind of writer you can just about only read once, and deeply and slowly, discovering, and having discovered, move away”
I’ve felt much the same way about the Who for the past forty years. As a teen, Who’s Next, Quadrophenia and Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy acted as primary sources of inspiration and solace. I’ve had no use for those albums as an adult.
Who’s Next / Life Hous Super Deluxe Edition, a new ten-hour reissue of the 1971 touchstone, compelled me to revisit my youth. Aside from the comical outlier “My Wife”, I can only appreciate the songs from a distance. Sadly, the hours of additional material are only of marginal interest to me. I can’t go home again.