The Who wanted to sell out, but their hearts weren’t really into psychedelic music, despite it being all the rage. Group leader Pete Townshend sneered at “the post-psychedelic wetness” ruling the airwaves in the time of incense and Nehru jackets.
Still, the group’s startling third album does reflect what was what in 1967 — the heady year of its making. More importantly “The Who Sell Out” drops two remarkable psychedelic rock songs: the thunderous single “I Can See for Miles” and the album-opening sci-fi adventure “Armenia City in the Sky.”
“Armenia” sounds like classic Townshend, but it wasn’t. The number was written for the band by Townshend’s pal and roommate “Speedy” Keene, later of Thundercap Newman. It’s a Who rarity — a song composed for the group by a non-member. (Keene would go on to create “Something in the Air,” an enduring and hopeful anthem of 1969.)
“Armenia, City in the Sky” sets sets an mystical yet ephemeral tone for “The Who Sell Out,” which often plays like a comedy album. We’re transported to a sci-fi world in which “the sky is glass, the sea is brown, and everyone is upside-down.”
Roger Daltrey’s high-pitched, ethereal vocals are rooted by the great plodding bass work of John Entwistle. Keene also sings, his voice distorted for effect. Guitarist Townshend dive-bombs this fantasy city, his ax awash in feedback, phase-shifts and backward loops — all the studio-effects obsessions of the day.
“Armenia” (not pronounced like the country), almost certainly works as an advertisement for tripping on LSD: The brown sea possibly the powerful acid they warned you about at Woodstock.
“If you ever want to disappear,” the singers urge the masses, “Just take off and think of this …”
“Freak out! Freak out!” listeners are encouraged in a semi-subliminal message as the track sputters to an end.
Were the Who serious? Not likely. By fall 1967, when the song was recorded, the Summer of Love’s “turn on, tune in,” thing had pretty much worn out its welcome amongst the counterculture elite. Townshend was no fan of “the hippie shit.”
Were the Who selling out to the legions of record-buying Hendrix fans? Possibly, but that theory sells short a classic Who performance — one that opens “Sell Out” with a startling explosion of paisley and power pop.
Great track great album
Love the song and the album! But I didn’t know that about the authorship of this song – – interesting!
When I see Roger Daltrey & baked beans, my mind jumps straight to Ann Margaret in Tommy.
I always thought it was a great song, trippy!
The whole album but yes .. this track is killer.
The original lyric/title was “I’m an ear sitting in the sky” (hence the strange pronunciation Armenia). Where and when it changed remains a mystery.