The Who - "Happy Jack"

This is a follow-up to my previous blog entry about a revised version of The Who's My Generation album. Soniclovenoize recreated Jigsaw Puzzle (see http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-who-jigsaw-puzzle.html) a few years ago, an album that had been planned but eventually scrapped in favor of A Quick One.

Continuing in the vein of assuming Introducing the Who, my revised version of My Generation, as well as Jigsaw Puzzle, were released, here I give you a brand new disc: Happy Jack -- but a very different version from the Happy Jack album that was released in the U.S.

SIDE A
1. Disguises
2. Doctor, Doctor
3. Bucket T
4. My Generation/Land of Hope and Glory
5. (Love is Like a) Heat Wave
6. Happy Jack

SIDE B
1. So Sad About Us
2. Batman
3. I've Been Away
4. A Quick One, While He's Away

The release of The Who's A Quick One album was confusing. It started out as an album to be called Jigsaw Puzzle. In the U.S., the tracklist was reshuffled and released as Happy Jack due to the title track becoming a hit on the American singles charts.

Only three tracks from the original Happy Jack are included here: "Heat Wave," "Happy Jack" and "A Quick One...." It should be noted that although "Heat Wave" appears on soniclovenoize's Introducing The Who, this is a different version. It kind of goes along with the different version of "My Generation" that appears here and segues into "Land of Hope and Glory." "Happy Jack" was the only track on this version that was released as a single so I kept the album name.

This is a fairly short album, but so many albums in the 1960s were short that I don't think that's a problem. And if you're going to have the other three revised versions of Who albums, all these tracks become strays.

"Disguises," "Bucket T" and "Batman" were originally released on the EP Ready Steady Who in 1966, and both "Disguises" and "Bucket T" as well as "Doctor, Doctor" were on the 1968 LP Magic Bus: The Who on Tour. "So Sad About Us" and "A Quick One, While He's Away" were released on A Quick One in 1966 and Happy Jack in 1967. 

"Heat Wave" was also released on A Quick One. "My Generation/Land of Hope and Glory" was originally intended for the Ready Steady Who EP, but was not released until the 1995 remastered version of A Quick One. "Happy Jack" appeared, of course, on Happy Jack. And although "I've Been Away" was released as the B-side to "Happy Jack," I don't think it appeared on an album until the 1995 remastered version of A Quick One.

For cover art, I used the terrific single cover artwork for "Happy Jack" created by Ralph Steadman (probably best known for his association with Hunter S. Thompson).