A Quick One

The Who's second studio album departs from the R&B emphasis of the first. Part of the marketing push for the album was a requirement that each band member should write at least two of the songs on it, though Roger Daltrey only wrote one ("See My Way"), so this is the Who album least dominated by Pete Townshend's songwriting. It was recorded at IBC Studios, Pye Studios, and Regent Sound in London England in 1966 by record producer Kit Lambert. Townshend said that this push for equal contribution led to the exclusion of the band's singles that he had written.[2]

"Boris the Spider" was written after John Entwistle had been out drinking with the Rolling Stones' bass guitarist Bill Wyman. They were making up funny names for animals when Entwistle came up with the song. "Boris the Spider" quickly became Entwistle's most popular song, still performed decades later: in later years he often wore a spider necklace, and would have a spider web design inlaid on the body of his custom-made Alembic bass guitar (the latter is pictured on the cover of Entwistle's 1981 album Too Late the Hero).

"Heat Wave", the only cover-version and the only reversion to the group's soul influences, a song by Tamla's Holland–Dozier–Holland team, was replaced by "Happy Jack" on the original US release but included on the 1974 double album repackaging of A Quick One and The Who Sell Out.

"A Quick One, While He's Away", the title track of the album, is a nine-minute suite of song snippets telling a story of infidelity and reconciliation, the first foray into an extended form that led to the rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia.

Keith Moon's "I Need You", was originally titled "I Need You (Like I Need a Hole in the Head)". Moon thought the Beatles spoke in a secret language behind his back, and this song was his way of getting back at them. Although Moon denied that a vocal part in the song was a John Lennon imitation, Entwistle said that, in fact, it was.[3]

"Cobwebs and Strange" was originally called "Showbiz Sonata". Entwistle claimed that the melody came from the UK television series The Man from Interpol.[3]

The mod/pop number "So Sad About Us", according to AllMusic, is "one of the Who's most covered songs".[4] The Merseys, Shaun Cassidy, Primal Scream, the Breeders and the Jam have recorded studio versions.

Each band member played a wind instrument on "Cobwebs and Strange": Townshend played the penny-whistle, Entwistle on the trumpet, Daltrey on the trombone, and Moon on the tuba.[5]

The album was intended to be pop music, a sonic participant in the pop art movement. The cover was designed by the pop art exponent Alan Aldridge,[6] with the front cover depicting the band playing their instruments, as the titles of some songs from the album come out of the instruments in the form of onomatopoeiae: "Cobwebs and Strange" for Moon (top left), "Whiskey Man" for Entwistle (bottom left), "See My Way" for Daltrey (top right), and "A Quick One, While He's Away" for Townshend (bottom right). The back cover of the UK release is black, with the title and track listing across the top, and a colour head-shot photograph of each band member with the letters of "The W H O" superimposed individually over their faces. The back cover of the US release is a black-and-white photo montage of the band members accompanied by a short personality sketch of each (infamous among Who fans for Keith Moon's humorous assertion that he was keen on "breeding chickens"). A track listing, a couple of paragraphs touting the band, an ad for their first album, and a technical blurb are also crowded onto the back cover of the US release.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[7]
MusicHound Rock	3.5/5[8]
Q	[9]
Rolling Stone	[10]
BBC	(favourable)[11]
Tom Hull	B+ ()[12]

Rolling Stone's Steve Appleford said in 1995 that the album's cheerful pop style has an authentic quality with trifles like "Cobwebs and Strange" that are reconciled by "absolutely perfect, poignant pop tune[s]" such as "So Sad About Us".[10] The album was later described as "fascinatingly quirky" by the magazine.[13] In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau included the album's American version in his "basic record library".[14] Rolling Stone ranked the album #383 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, published in 2003,[15] and #384 in 2012.[16]

The Who

• Roger Daltrey – lead vocals, trombone on "Cobwebs and Strange"
• Pete Townshend – guitar, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "A Quick One, While He's Away", tin whistle on "Cobwebs and Strange"
• John Entwistle – bass, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Boris the Spider", "Whiskey Man" and co-lead vocals on "A Quick One, While He’s Away", French horn, trumpet on "Cobwebs and Strange"
• Keith Moon – drums, backing vocals, lead vocals on "I Need You", tuba on "Cobwebs and Strange"

A Quick One personnel

• Chris Stamp – executive producer

1995 credits

• Design [original vinyl sleeve]: Alan Aldridge
• Design, Art Direction: Richard Evans
• Executive-Producer: Bill Curbishley, Chris Charlesworth, Robert Rosenberg
• Liner notes: Chris Stamp
• Producer: Jon Astley
• Producer [original recording]: Kit Lambert
• Remix, remastered by: Andy Macpherson, Jon Astley

• British invasion
• British rock
• Pop art
• Swinging London

• Kemp, Mark (2004). "The Who". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
• A Quick One: 1995 reissue insert (MCAD-11267).

• A Quick One liner notes – Song-by-song liner notes for the album
• Guitar tablature