The Who's Then & Now: 1964-2004

By Jonathan Berohn

Let’s see, it's 2004, it must be time for another greatest hits album from The Who. Sure enough, along comes Then & Now: 1964-2004 to fill the aching need for a Who compilation. What’s that? You have a Who compilation? You have three or four Who compilations? Thinking of just that, Geffen has included previously unreleased versions of several of the old standards and—hold on to your hat—two new Who songs!

Refusing to Quit

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m a huge Who fan. I had all their records on vinyl at one time and most of them on CD now. When they toured in 1989 I was one of the first in line for tickets—but their age showed then. More than any other band of their era, The Who was about energy. Keith Moon’s death just sapped a lot of vital energy from the band that they never replaced. Now that John Entwistle has also passed away, what little life old age didn’t drain from the band has taken another beating.

Again, I don’t want to discount Pete Townsend’s genius as a songwriter, but the two new songs strike me much more as “Roger Daltry sings Pete Townsend” than as The Who. And really, once you get past these songs, there isn’t much on this disc that a real Who fan hasn’t heard or needs to hear. Shelling out $12.99 or so for 2 songs just isn’t the kind of investment I want to make in a disc that might see the CD-player once or twice. If you really want to hear the songs, check out iTunes—Apple’s online music store. For $.99 each you can download the two new songs without having to pay for yet another copy of the same old songs you already have.

Better Choices

If you’re really dying for a Who compilation, or a good glimpse of what the band was really all about, a much better bet is the recent reissue of Live at Leeds. This disc, in addition to being one of the best live albums I’ve ever heard period, captures the true essence of The Who’s greatness when it was at its peak. Not only do you get a complete live version of their rock opera “Tommy,” but you also get super-charged versions of classics like “My Generation” and “Magic Bus” back when they were still the Who—not just two old guys trying to carry on.