Disc Two consisted of the original 13 tracks in mono plus ten bonus tracks and out-takes. A Deluxe Edition was released in 2009 (Polydor 5315336) on two CDs with the first CD including the original 13 tracks in stereo plus 17 bonus tracks. From this conflict emerges a pop art masterpiece. In the US The Who Sell Out was released on 6 January 1968 (Decca DL 4950 mono, DL 74950 stereo) followed by the CD (MCA MCAD-31332) in the 1980s and remastered CD (MCAD-11268) in 1995. In this sense Sell Out is a reflective work, one that struggles with rock and roll as a cultural expression that aspires to aesthetic permanence while marketed as ephemera. Not the cliched mantra of sex, drugs, and rock and roll but in the ways that commercial advertising fabricates a youth-oriented cultural reality by hawking pimple cream, deodorant, food, musical equipment, etc., and linking it with rock and roll. Fortunately, the Who don’t just give an homage to Radio London. The concept of the album, from its commercial jingles to its cover art, pays tribute to pirate radio stations of the 1960s, an experience much less relevant to American audiences. Sell Out, powerfully and ecstatically, articulates the nexus of pop music and pop culture.Īs much as it is an expression of the band's expanding sonic palette, Sell Out also functions as a critique of the rock and roll lifestyle. Sell Out owes some of its staying power and some of its neglect to its Britishness. In the 36 years since its release, Sell Out, though still not the best selling release in The Who's catalog, has been embraced by a growing number of fans who regard it as the band's best work, one of the few recordings of the late 1960s that best represents the ambitious aesthetic possibilities of the concept album without becoming mired in a bog of smug, self-aggrandizing, high art aspirations. The Who Sell Out successfully acknowledged the Who's past while pointing to the future not only for The Who, but for how rock and roll would be packaged an. in January 1968, The Who Sell Out was, according to critic Dave Marsh, a complete backfire-the album sold well, but not spectacularly ultimately a nostalgic in-joke: Who but a pop intellectual could appreciate such a thing? Further rarifying its in-joke status was its unapologetic Englishness 13 tracks stitched together in a mock pirate radio broadcast, without a DJ, with cool, anglocentric commercials to boot.
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