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The second Who single (May 21, 1965) and the one that faithfully defined their artistically- daring seminal approach.
The visually-obsessed, media-image conscious Kit Lambert realised that in order to upstage the competition, thereby starting a stampede for singles, The Who had to be seen by as many people as possible in the shortest period of time. Yet, for all his perceptive enthusiasm, Lambert was also aware that except for sporadic TV shots and endless one-nighters, this accepted method of going about things could take more time than could be spared.
"Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" was conceived as a make or break short-cut.
From its inception, the premise behind this record's existence was to encapsulate The Who's entire stage show on just one short side of vinyl - to vividly illustrate the self-assertive aggressive arrogance of the Mod movement and then, through the application of disquieting abstract feedback and ear-shattering auto-destructive music concrete the trashing of the group's expensive instruments.
This artistic polarisation of sight and sound was seen to represent the ultimate, and freely available, Pop-Art experience. And, it worked.
In keeping with the spontaniety it was meant to project, this forerunner to "My Generation" was recorded in the IBC studios in next to no time.
After the basic backing track was O.K.'d, Townshend set up his
monolithic speaker stack and proceeded to reproduce the various sound
effects that had quickly become an integral part of the group's stage
show.
