The Who – Who Are You

Used for the kick drum on "Who Are You", as mentioned by producer Jon Astley in this Sound on Sound "Classic Tracks" interview.

"On the bass drum I used an AKG D30; I had a Neumann KM84 on top and underneath the snare; I used a Shure SM58 with a pad in it for the hi-hat; overheads were Neumann U87s; and for toms I used anything I could find that matched, such as Sennheiser 421s. Then, the day after I'd set all this up, Keith came in and went around the kit for me. I just wanted to make sure the stereo imaging was OK, so he played and then asked 'Is that all right?' I said 'Yeah, that's fantastic,' at which point he stood up and walked straight through the bloody kit. He obviously was aware that I'd put a lot of work into it, balancing the whole thing, but I just thought 'Oh, well, welcome to the Who. Here we go..."

Used for the snare drum on "Who Are You?", as mentioned by producer Jon Astley in this Sound on Sound "Classic Tracks" interview.

"On the bass drum I used an AKG D30; I had a Neumann KM84 on top and underneath the snare; I used a Shure SM58 with a pad in it for the hi-hat; overheads were Neumann U87s; and for toms I used anything I could find that matched, such as Sennheiser 421s. Then, the day after I'd set all this up, Keith came in and went around the kit for me. I just wanted to make sure the stereo imaging was OK, so he played and then asked 'Is that all right?' I said 'Yeah, that's fantastic,' at which point he stood up and walked straight through the bloody kit. He obviously was aware that I'd put a lot of work into it, balancing the whole thing, but I just thought 'Oh, well, welcome to the Who. Here we go..."

Used for the toms on "Who Are You?", as mentioned by producer Jon Astley in this Sound on Sound "Classic Tracks" interview.

"On the bass drum I used an AKG D30; I had a Neumann KM84 on top and underneath the snare; I used a Shure SM58 with a pad in it for the hi-hat; overheads were Neumann U87s; and for toms I used anything I could find that matched, such as Sennheiser 421s. Then, the day after I'd set all this up, Keith came in and went around the kit for me. I just wanted to make sure the stereo imaging was OK, so he played and then asked 'Is that all right?' I said 'Yeah, that's fantastic,' at which point he stood up and walked straight through the bloody kit. He obviously was aware that I'd put a lot of work into it, balancing the whole thing, but I just thought 'Oh, well, welcome to the Who. Here we go..."

"Pete Townshend used a D’Angelico New Yorker archtop guitar on Rough Mix in 1976/77 and Who Are You tracks Music Must Change and Who Are You (middle break only) in 1978. The guitar also appears in the 1982 Chinese Eyes photo sessions. In 1989, he sold this guitar (along with the 1958 Gibson Flying V, among others) to buy a boat."

Used during the composition of Who Are You, as mentioned by producer Jon Astley in this Sound on Sound "Classic Tracks" interview about the song "Who Are You".

"Pete would come in with a new song, which would serve as the backing track for The Who to perform on, and John [Entwistle] would do the same," says Astley. "Pete had a Polymoog that was programmed to play his backing tracks, and then the other guys would overdub their parts."

Used for the vocals on "Who Are You", as mentioned by producer Jon Astley in this Sound on Sound "Classic Tracks" article.

"His voice was very good," Jon Astley confirms. "It held up when we put him under great strain, although he only did a lead vocal about once a week — it wasn't like he was doing two or three a night — and the two of us had great fun experimenting with different mics. I had cardioids and figure-of-eights, one above the other, to put his vocal into stereo by bringing it up on four channels... of course, you can buy a microphone now that does all that, but back then we had quite a hoot trying different things. The only thing was, it kind of made you sick when you listened to it, because if Roger moved slightly left or right the stereo image would move around in the speakers. I remember thinking 'I'm not sure whether or not this is a good thing,' so I ended up mostly using one Neumann U87 with a Urei 1176 on it.

Used for the vocals on "Who Are You", as mentioned by producer Jon Astley in this Sound on Sound "Classic Tracks" article.

"His voice was very good," Jon Astley confirms. "It held up when we put him under great strain, although he only did a lead vocal about once a week — it wasn't like he was doing two or three a night — and the two of us had great fun experimenting with different mics. I had cardioids and figure-of-eights, one above the other, to put his vocal into stereo by bringing it up on four channels... of course, you can buy a microphone now that does all that, but back then we had quite a hoot trying different things. The only thing was, it kind of made you sick when you listened to it, because if Roger moved slightly left or right the stereo image would move around in the speakers. I remember thinking 'I'm not sure whether or not this is a good thing,' so I ended up mostly using one Neumann U87 with a Urei 1176 on it.

John Entwistle played a custom Fender Explorer Bird from 1975-1978 for recording only. In this video (Who Are You? by The Who) you can see him playing it.