Glam Bam! Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen Picks His Baker's Dozen | Page 4 of 14 | The Quietus

Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

3. The WhoThe Who Sings My Generation

If you go back and listen to the early stuff they did, when they were The High Numbers, they weren’t exactly a power band. [Pulls out phone again, shows photo of The Who playing a club in Chicago, presumably The Kinetic Playground, in August 1968] I had their singles, too. When I was still in high school I used to subscribe to Melody Maker and I got it by airmail – it was $105 in 1965. That was a lot of money. That’s where I read about all this stuff. I’d see all the bands when they were playing clubs, which was the way to do it: you could really see how the bands worked. The sharp, 60s era of The Who is version I like best. A band I was in, The Grim Reapers, opened for The Who just before that photo was taken. They were just wild, the best live band I’ve ever seen. Hendrix was different: he was cool. Townshend was just exciting, even besides the smashing the guitars.

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