Classic Albums - The Who: Who's Next
Originally produced for cable and home video as a documentary project,  the Classic Albums series offers in-depth profiles of enduring rock and pop albums built around first-person interviews with the artists, producers, and musicians that created them.  Their strong sonic debt makes their DVD issues problematic, since the segments aren't intended to replace the original audio recordings, only to expand on them.  If you haven't heard these albums, nearly all of them landmarks in late-20th-century pop, then this isn't the place to start.  If you know the originals, however, these smartly written, well-produced documentaries can open up a richer understanding of the genesis for each album.Who's Nextproves a terrific candidate for this deep-focus approach: in songwriter and chief strategist Pete Townshend, we're presented with one of the most thoughtful, articulate rock gods extant.  His own capacity for self-analysis, as well as an underlying empathy for the band's original Mod fans, translated directly into the band's songs. Townshend's sense of daring had already yielded a more conspicuous rock landmark withTommy, the "rock opera" that preceded what eventually emerged asWho's Next, which seemed comparatively straightforward, an album of songs without an obvious narrative thread.  In fact, Townshend had sought to carry the theatrical underpinnings ofTommyto a higher, interactive level by creating a sprawling stage piece,Lifehouse, that would use the theater space and the involvement of fans to expand on the studio conception that yielded his saga of that deaf, dumb, and blind kid.Who's Nextthus emerges as something of a mirror for the  listener--for Townshend, the reductive but still potent remnant of a grand,  white elephant, for the rest of the band simply their best album.  Surviving members Townshend, bassist John Entwistle, and vocalist Roger Daltrey  provide generous comments on the history of the project, and interviews with managers, press agents, and writers, including biographer Dave Marsh, all reinforce the sense that, however chimericalLifehouseitself proved, it produced a rich set of songs honed by the live performances they received during the project's chaotic development as a de facto theatrical laboratory.--Sam Sutherland