How the hell did this band never have a number 1 single in the British charts? One of the greatest groups of all time.

Two of their best early songs: "I Can't Explain" and "Substitute".

It’s time to dig into the early stuff. “The Seeker” “Magic Bus” “Can’t Explain” “Pictures of Lilly” “The Kids are Alright” a great mid 70s cut is “Squeeze Box”

This song was dubbed the heaviest rock song yet by a rock critic when it was released in 1967. Hearing that comment led Paul Mccartney to write the song "Helter Skelter" as an even heavier song. The rest is history.

Reminds me of the early days after Alex joined Andy and they reacted to about 5 or 6 Who songs over a few months, and by and large loved them all. Their enthusiasm for these classic rock staples was so infectious. Glad to finally be getting back to The Who!

The bass line is freakin' RELENTLESS. I've never been chased by a psychopath, but if it ever happens, I'll be hearing this bass line.

Just before “Sell Out” was released Townshend bragged to the press that they just recorded the loudest song in the history of music. Paul McCartney read it and went to EMI Studios and wrote Helter Skelter. True Story.

Keith Moon was a major influence on me as a drummer, and this particular song is one of the main reasons. He is just so aggressive and it works so well. Take it away and put a straight beat to it and it's no longer the same song.

Andy surprised me. He doesn’t usually like repeating lyrics, but it is The Who after all.

You can really hear the evolution from Mod to Psychedelic leading into acid rock. Pete is one of the best composers and rhythm players ever.

1967 was quite a year. Seemed like all the cultural and generational elements that had been cross-pollinating and simmering below the surface "suddenly" achieved critical mass and the whole world blew up. This tune was one of the anthems for the period. Easy to understand why our parents were so freaked out by everything that was happening, seemingly all at once. Kinda like now.

This song came out when I was 12 and it was the first time I realized that love can be dangerous. Quite the epiphany for a 12-year-old girl, lol. Lesson learned.

The Who had like 3 eras of sound in their evolution. 64-67 , 68-74 , and 75-82. I personally love them all.

I'm a Brit who dates from the early Who era, and there's loads of amazing stuff you haven't touched on which fell between 'Substitute' and this fantastic track. Check out 'Pictures of Lily', 'I'm a Boy' and 'Magic Bus'. Love your work!

Keith Moon wore my visor while playing this song. My head was larger than his, so it sat on the ridge of his nose. And he went absolutely insane. For the first time, my little girl crush on Daltrey was totally overshadowed.

The Who were trail blazers. I remember buying the 45 as young teen when it came out. Moon's drumming caught my attention at first. There was so much raw power in it, always on the edge, tightly controlled but wild and reckless at the same time. This was a great song for the time... and a classic now.

Took me a long time but I finally realized that Entwistle and Moon were perhaps one of the best rhythm sections in rock. The drumming on this song is impeccable.

“Sunrise” is one of the most beautiful love songs ever written. Peter and a guitar, and John comes in on the very… last… note!

"The Song is Over" is a great one. Don't think anyone has reacted to it which is a shame.

What more can you say about these fellas. All Stars in their own right. I had a huge crush on Roger Daltry and still love him today. I showed my kids the movie "Tommy" and they loved it. They literally invented the "Rock Opera". No one swings a mic better than Roger. 🎙️🎤

They had to interrupt the song. Some guy got word to them on the stage that Andy & Alex hadn't reacted to it yet and they had to stop. ;-)

Imagine having this blasting out of your AM radio in your car circa '67. 😁

Years ahead of its time. For 1967 it may be the greatest single of its time. The Who never disappoints. An S tier.

The Who Sell Out is an often overlooked masterpiece. It features more songs with Pete Townsend singing lead. The “commercial” breaks between song tracks are a unique feature. Maryanne With The Shaky Hands is one of May favorite songs. Sunrise is just all Pete singing and on acoustic and is a beautiful song. Give the whole album a listen.

The lighter hearted psychedelic flipside of this one for me would be "Magic Bus". The many flavors of The Who.

One of the best songs The Who ever did, very heavy and influential when it was first released.

I would credit this track as being the intro to 70's style rock before the 70's arrived. It was new musical territory for the time.

When "I Can See For Miles" came out in 1967 I was 9 years old & it was the first record ( 45 ) I ever bought. The "B" side was "Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand".

It's a great song to listen to when you've discovered you're being cheated on, and the cheater doesn't yet know you know. Then you see how they look, trying to keep up the facade. And you can see it for miles.

Super song, performance and production. Another reason we're still lovin' it 55 years later.

Love this who song. A classic song from their earlier days. A+ for this song.

Back in the 90s used to drive through the hills of Wales on the A44 listening to a Rock mix-tape which was great. Then I'd crest a hill, this song would come on (full blast of course) , and I'd be in that magic zone staring at the view and being controlled by the music. Amazed I never crashed.

You guys giving I Can See For Miles it's proper due, only serves to cement Andy & Alex as the top in reaction videos.

Your main unexplored area of The Who is early Who, so that's where I would go next. I'd say your next Who song should be either "Substitute" or "The Kids Are Alright". The Who had some great singles in the '60s.

This song is all about the drums. Keith just takes you on HIS ride from start to finish. Question: is it really the Who with half the band missing? Life long fan here and it hurt seeing them without Kieth. When The Ox passed on, it became too sad to see them live any more. How can you still be The Who when every single original member was a genius and top 5 on any list of exceptional musicians in their own genres? I still remember John playing an extended solo at the Hollywood Bowl. Never heard anything like it before or since. Amazing.

This was on the radio when I saw them in 1967! Yes I saw them smash their instruments!!

I knew you guys would love this song! The drums combined with that razorlike guitar, amazing.

Live at Leeds, one of the first & best live albums ever made. Check “Magic Bus” from that LP, it’s an epic jam!✌️❤️🎶

Reminisce from an old guy: The whole album, starting with the title "The Who Sell Out" and the cover photos (Moon and Entwistle are shown on the back cover, using other products), is parody/irony on several levels. In the original-release vinyl, there was no silence between tracks, instead there were little radio ads for products and other goofy stuff. Apparently, some of those were actual jingles that were used without permission, so there were some lawsuits. And then at the end of Side 2, after the last music track, a voice in the trailing grooves kept saying "Shut it off... shut it off... shut it off..." and if you let it play all the way down into the locked groove it would endlessly repeat "shut the d* thing off." Since almost all record players would automatically lift and swing out the needle arm before the needle reached the locked groove, you only got to hear that if you were playing the disc on a cheap kiddie unit. After the success of See For Miles and of this album, The Who released another album along with their single Magic Bus. That must've been an impulsive/last-minute marketing decision, since two of the album cuts from Sell Out were also put on the Magic Bus album to bring it up to standard content size. (I bought and owned the original U.S. pressings of both albums.)

Two words: Windmill Mania. If he did windmill every chord, his arm would almost never stop moving the whole song. The ultimate brand statement. What a glorious band.

"Sell Out" is a great album. "Tattoo" is my favorite & among Townshend's best, funny but genuinely touching too.

My wife, (girlfriend at the time) saw The Who in the Cleveland Music Hall in the early 70s. Keith was still alive. They were supporting Who's Next. Great concert.

The sound of my childhood. I turned nine-years-old that year.

BAD ASS SONG. . LOVE THIS JAM THE WHO. ROCKS. 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

The preferred context for this song is to listen to the album.

A&A, their “Long Live Rock” and “You Better, You Bet” are next for you!! "I Can See For Miles" is from 1967, reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1967 was a unbelievable year for rock music .. especially the summer ..

1967 was a great year for banger songs!

This album has some gems. I remember buying this album as a cutout. The old folks here will remember those.😅

The whole album that it's from (Who Sell Out) is a brilliant pop at the music industry and a perfect representation of the way music was heard by the listener they made the album to sound like an actual radio station programme complete with made up ads 1967 came out. I like it.

Keith's slash and burn drumming was so unique back then....I remember it well

I`m 59 years old and the 60's is my favorite musical decade. The various styles and sounds, and the 60's was the first time in where kids 18 and older had their own F you money because of the music they created.

Can’t Explain why in mere words I love The Who

Now that you're back to the Who, I want to go back to recommending "Slip Kid" from their underrated "Why By Numbers" album from 1975. Rocks hard with different phases to it, something you liked in their other songs.

After being stalked and spied on my phone, this song has a new meaning to me.

The who are on of my all times favs..........THIS SONG ROCKS

This song is from the album 'The Who Sell Out,' a concept album which came out just before 'Tommy.' It's a fun album, perhaps a bit underrated compared to their later, more well-known albums (Tommy to Quadrophenia). Highly recommended for a 'first time reaction' as an album. Other suggestions are The Seeker, Join Together, Relay and Let's See Action (all of which were released as singles and are not on any major Who album).

I love Moon's powerhouse drumming on this. Your next Who song should be "Can't Explain." Killer guitar work and staccato drums. One of my favorite early Who songs.

🎵Your Gonna LOVE THIS.....🎶🎶🎶

It's a really good song for driving down the highway. You're looking way down the road and singing I can see for Miles.

"I Can't Explain" is super iconic! Please do it next :)

Great choice - I've been lobbying for this track for years, since my opinion is that it opened the door to "heavy" music. I still have the vinyl. This was my theme song in Vietnam in 1967 (flew a Huey gunship)....fit perfectly with what we did every day.

In 65 The Who released the single Anyway Anyhow Anywhere. Nobody was quite sure what to do with a banger that foreshadowed the future of hard rock. It still cooks brain. It’s one of the very first uses of guitar feedback. Revolutionary!

When I was 6-7 we’d steal my brothers 45s & play this over & over & over. My sis was only 4. Tommy came out after this. Pete said he felt this was the best song he could write in the singles format. So he went looking for something else. Whallah. A masterpiece was born.

"Ode To Billy Joe" is a hot summer southern gothic American classic. it was released July 3rd, 1967, by Bobbie Gentry. Gonna keep pushing it.

In the era of singles, Pete put everything he had into this song, convinced it would go to #1. When it charted disappointingly, he gave up on singles and started work on Tommy. So as much as I like this song, I’m glad it fizzled, or we might never have gotten some of the greatest concept albums ever recorded.

The Who was the group for Misfits! Everybody liked Beatles, Stones, etc. The Who had a sense of humor and they were the Zepplin before Zepplin. Everyone was discovering pot and freedom of whatever. You are correct, this was the ultimate cool song! Other great later songs: songs "You better, you Bet" . and "Mama's got a squeezebox"!! LOL,

Meaty beaty big and bouncy album's got a lot of their 60s singles - some great songs

This album really exhibits Pete Townshend's brilliance as a recording engineer. Really pushed the envelope in amazing directions.

For the 60s I’d recommend Pictures of Lily or Dogs. For the 70s, I recommend My Wife - it was actually written by the bassist, John Entwistle. He also did the vocals for that track. For the 80s, I’d recommend Athena 😄

Amazing how a song exactly 55 years old still resonates! One of the best songs The Who ever did imho, which is saying a lot. Perfect combination of angry/powerful instrumentation and lyrics.

The 60's were SO good!!!

I appreciate your love for The Who, but you've been missing out on one of the Greatest live albums Ever - LIVE at LEEDS. Recorded in 1971 on a night when the band was in top form, they deliver one raw banger after another. Like a runaway freight train, they keep on coming. Young Man Blues, Magic Bus, Amazing Journey/Sparks, and my favorite, a 15 minute version of My Generation which is a medley of 7 different songs.

It's happened with a few songs before but you were so into that your reactions made me like this soon about 30% more

Those chorus harmonies do it for me!

I loved this song since I first heard it back around ‘69 as an 8-year old. Definitely an S level for me! & I’ll listen to this anytime it comes up on the radio!

My favorite Who song! Their first big hit in the U.S. before Tommy. Listen to the whole album! It's a concept album, supposed to sound like British pirate radio stations, which broadcast illegally from ships offshore in the late 60's. Check out the movie "Pirate Radio" for the full story.

Even though you likely heard it when you saw them live, “The Seeker” is still my pick for your next Who reaction. Especially because hearing it being played with Keith Moon on drums and John Entwistle on bass is just otherworldly.

OH MY GOSH; Andy listened to the lyrics... the boy has become a man in storytelling! Great reaction Boyz!

I remember listening to this song on my Walkman flying to Mexico, looking out the window.

I agree with you guys on this one, great song. "Substitute" is another early gem you have not reacted to yet. Have a great weekend to all. Cheers!

Great reaction and great song. You used the perfect adjective for the feel: "menacing". It's raw and psychedelic but never meandering. It's sharp and focused. One of their best. A unique one that you might want to try: "A Quick One, While He's Away."

Context? My immediate mental gestalt of this song is walking across a park with a winter sky on way to a grade 8 school dance (one of my firsts and my crush was going to be there too in a crinkly minidress that felt so good to be embraced with and slow dance to - another story) - full of excitement and looking up at the constellations, thinking I can see miles and miles into the universe and humming this song - probably Oct/Nov 1967. One of my favourite delicious memories of my life. That's my context...

MAGIC BUS, GOING MOBILE, THE SONG IS OVER, SUBSTITUTE, THE SEEKER, LONG LIVE ROCK (there are a lot of great songs from The Who you have yet to react to).

The Who were a major harmony band through "Tommy." Blending voices was a huge aspect of their 60s canon.

I love this band and I listen to this song when I need to get motivated or I need to bring up my mood. It is not about the lyrics for me though I know every one by heart, it is the charge of the music, this song keeps hammering like a freight train moving down a track it has a rhythm that is relentless and it really powers me up. Thank you for your great reactions.

....our highschool homeroom "morning announcements" were precluded by this song over the intercom system....EVERY morning.... so it's good & bad . But it's vital to rock history in its "heaviness" .

Something to understand about this song. Drumming wise, this was before Rush, before Bonham, even before Iron Butterfly. Being a 16 year old drummer at the time it was life changing.

I saw John McLaughlin (Mahvishnu Orchestra) in concert and he broke his string on stage for the first time in over 30 years. He went backstage to restring while his band played and they kicked ass more during that than the rest of the show.

As always, love your reaction, but boys...this a solid "S+" every day of the week! I do not understand your hesitation about needing a certain context for listening to it. This is not only an iconic song, but one of their biggest radio hits, constantly played from the moment it first came out right up to five minutes ago. The only other song from this era that is close to its equal is "The Seeker", which is another banger you must give a spin to ASAP (the lyrics are amazing!).

....the most menacing intro to a rock song ever..chilling power chords......

There are an insane amount of fantastic songs from 1967. So many more to explore.

Guys, I'm still dying to see a reaction to Ode to Billy Joe.

This has always been one of my favorite Who songs.

I was 15 when this came out and it was #10 on Orlando's WHOO 990 am radio station. It was WAY ahead of its time in every way!!!

MEATY, BEATY, BIG, AND BOUNCY! It has to be a full album episode. Keep it up, guys!

This has always been one of my favorite Who songs. Thanks for the enthusiastic reaction!

The Who have so many great songs. I had to liked it even if it's not up yet. This one is a very good kind of psychedelic rock song. I have hallucinated a lot while listening to this one... 😉

This is one of my favorite songs by The Who as well. It is psychedelic in the best way.

You really need to do The Kids Are Alright as one of your monthly movies. One of the best 'Rockumentaries' ever, and the Who in their orime.