Read what I had to say about the original LP here.

The remastered “Odds & Sods” was issued in 1998, effectively becoming the final Who album to be expanded and reissued (leaving aside “My Generation”, which as I am sure you know remained in Shel Talmy’s grip). There was a lot of curiosity to see what was going to be added, and how it would be presented. Well, as it turned out the album length was more than doubled (it went from 11 to 23 tracks), and the new “Odds & Sods” was presented in chronological order. Now the album started with “I’m The Face” and finished with “Water”.

Led by Jon Astley, the archivists unearthed three true gems. The first two were from the sessions for Who’s Next: “Time Is Passing” and “Love Is For Keeping”. Of course, every self-respecting Who fan knew “Time Is Passing” from Pete’s version on “Who Came First”, but The ‘Oo’s version did not lag behind in any sense, and it evinced a gentle vocal by Roger at the time he was truly at the top of the Totem. And the song was fantastic even when it was only half the song – the channels that were meant to be on the left side were missing. As I explained when reviewing “Who Came First”, some bootlegger found them and put the full version together. Good luck if you can find it…

The “new” version of “Love Is For Keeping” was the electric take mentioned on the booklet of the reissued “Who’s Next”. Lesley West (from Mountain) played electric with Pete, and the result was equally as satisfying as “Baby Don’t You Do It” from the bonus-fortified “Who’s Next”.

The final true discovery was to be an outtake from “Quadrophenia“, “We Close Tonight”. But there was something strange about it – the song was credited to Pete but vocals were handled by John and Keith. That was something rare indeed, and the uber developed bass line just makes the question mark on who really composed it stand all the more noticeable. Personally, I think that “We Close Tonight” was the one song John wrote for “Quadrophenia”, and that he eventually chose to discard since he feared it summarized the whole opera in one song. Continue reading →