Ready Steady Who EP – The Who

In the mid-1960s, several top British Invasion bands released EPs comprised entirely of material that had yet to be issued in the U.K. in any other format. The Beatles did this in 1964 with "Long Tall Sally," the Rolling Stones did it the same year with "5 X 5," and in 1966, the Who did it with "Ready, Steady, Who," the oddest of the bunch. The latter appeared on a five-track release which seemed indecisive as to whether to be a joke cover record, or a home for leftovers, ending up being a little bit of both. (And, despite a title that led some listeners to believe it was recorded live on the legendary British TV show Ready, Steady, Go, it wasn't; all of the selections were studio recordings). Three of the five songs did serve as outlets for the Who's more perverse sense of humor, presenting not-entirely-serious, not-too-tightly-performed covers of Jan and Dean's "Bucket T," and the Beach Boys' arrangement of "Barbara Ann," and "Batman." These encapsulated the influence that surf/hot rod music, and cartoonish pop art had on the band (and on Keith Moon in particular), and while they're fun, they're not on par with most of their other early work. Also on hand was a version of the Pete Townshend song "Circles," that is not the same as the one that appeared earlier on the U.S. My Generation LP -- this rather unnecessary remake having a more subdued arrangement. Rounding things off was a quite good Townshend original, "Disguises," that played around his early themes of identity confusion well. It was too good to be a cast-off on an EP, something recognized 15 years later by the Jam, who covered it in the early '80s. For the relatively few American fans even aware of the Who at the time, this EP -- which reached Number One on the British EP charts -- was a real collectible Stateside, particularly since none of the tracks saw immediate release in the U.S. "Bucket T" and "Disguises" did appear relatively soon on the American Magic Bus compilation, but the others were hard to obtain on U.S. shores for a long time. Four of the five tracks were added to the expanded CD of A Quick One in 1995, but for the EP version of "Circles," you'll have to get the Two's Missing compilation. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide