Audio-Pete Townshend on the unreleased track from The Who's first LP released 60 years ago

This year marks 60th anniversary of the release  of the Who’s 1965 debut album, My Generation.

It was recorded in short bursts in April, October and November 1965, and for many tracks The Who were joined by Nicky Hopkins on piano. Assisting Talmy for the most part was engineer Glyn Johns.

The Who's debut album was first released in the UK by Brunswick Records  in December 1965, and in the US, under the title The Who Sings My Generation, mono+tereo, in April 1966.

My Generation, The Who’s debut album was first released in the UK by Brunswick Records (LAT 8616) in December 1965, and in the US, under the title The Who Sings My Generation (DL 4664 [mono], DL 74664 [stereo]) in April 1966. Produced by Shel Talmy.

It was recorded in short bursts in April, October and November 1965, and for many tracks The Who were joined by Nicky Hopkins on piano. Assisting Talmy for the most part was engineer Glyn Johns.

"I have often said about my early songs that I tried hard to appeal to Roger’s sense of late teenage machismo.

Either that, or I attempted to sound like Jan & Dean so that Keith Moon – who was a surf music fan – would get behind the song.

Here, a rather machismo and bragging song slipped away because it was more about me than Roger Daltrey, and certainly not a surf number.

It’s about my lack of success with girls when I lived at Chesham Place, partly because I spent all my time in my studio. Roger did very well with girls; it would never have worked for him to sing this lyric.

The lyric is also fantastical. I make it sound as though I was turning down girls every day. In real life I was probably piqued that rarely happened. My tape machine was my mistress."

The UK release featured an iconic front sleeve, taken at Surrey Docks in south east London by Decca Records’ photographer David Wedgbury, featuring an aerial view of the four members of The Who gazing skywards, a pose that other bands, Blondie, The Jam and The Undertones amongst them, copied in almost perfect pastiches years later. In the US American Decca attempted to jump on the British Invasion bandwagon by using a different yet similarly iconic Wedgbury shot, featuring The Who with London’s most famous clock tower, Big Ben, in the background.

The big draw for Who fans is likely to be three songs previously unreleased in any form. The Girls I Could Have Had, As Children We Grew and My Own Love were recorded as demos in 1965 by Pete Townshend at his flat in Chesham Place in central London, where he also wrote My Generation.

Tracks on the original UK version were:

1. OUT IN THE STREET (Townshend)
Recorded at IBC Studios, London, April 1965

2. I DON’T MIND (James Brown)
Recorded at IBC Studios, April 1965

3. THE GOOD’S GONE (Townshend)
Recorded at IBC Studios, November 1965

4. LA LA LA LIES (Townshend)
Recorded at IBC Studios, November 1965

5. MUCH TOO MUCH (Townshend)
Recorded at IBC Studios, November 1965

6. MY GENERATION (Townshend)
Recorded at IBC Studios, October 1965. The Who’s third single reached #2 in the UK charts.

7. THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT (Townshend)
Recorded at IBC Studios, October 1965

8. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE (Brown/Terry)
Recorded at IBC Studios, April 1965.

9. IT’S NOT TRUE (Townshend)
Recorded at IBC Studios, November 1965.

10. I’M A MAN (McDaniel)
Recorded at IBC Studios, April 1965

11. A LEGAL MATTER (Townshend)
Recorded at IBC Studios, November 1965.

12. THE OX (Townshend/Entwistle/Moon/Hopkins)
Recorded at IBC Studios, November 1965