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Hear The Who’s new single, “I Don’t Wanna Get Wise”

Plus Who bonus tracks revealed, including lost '60s demos!

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The Who are poised to release their new album Who via Polydor on December 6.

Hear the latest single to be taken from it, “I Don’t Wanna Get Wise”, below:

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The band have also today revealed details of the deluxe editions of the album, which includes two previously thought ‘lost’ tracks from the 1960s: “Got Nothing To Prove” (on the deluxe CD) and “Sand” (on the triple red, white and blue coloured vinyl edition).

Of these tracks, Pete Townshend says: “Both these songs are from the summer of 1966. They would not have been rejected by the band members but rather by my then creative mentor, Who manager Kit Lambert. In 1967, when the song seemed destined for the bottom drawer, I did offer “Got Nothing To Prove” to Jimmy James And The Vagabonds who used to support us at The Marquee in 1965. Jimmy liked the song, and suggested making it more R&B, in a slower tempo, but nothing happened. I have a feeling Kit may have felt the song sounded as though it was sung by an older and more self-satisfied man than I was in real life. That would have applied to Roger too I suppose. Now, it works. Back then, perhaps it didn’t. [Who co-producer] Dave Sardy and I decided to ask George Fenton to do a ‘Swinging Sixties’ band arrangement to make the song more interesting, but also to place it firmly in an Austin Powers fantasy. I love it.”

Of the track “Sand” (that will be released as a red vinyl 10” as part of the triple vinyl package), Townshend says: “This is a simple idea, about a sunny beach vacation romance that doesn’t last once the lovers get back home to the rain. Again, Kit passed on this, even as an album track, and it simply got filed away. I have always loved it, but have been waiting for computers to get smart enough to fix some of the tape stretch problems that had affected the demo. I also revived this in my home studio by doing roughly what I felt the Who would have done had this ever been recorded by them. So there is added backing vocals, Rickenbacker, and acoustic 12 string, and a feedback section to properly evoke the era.”

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The deluxe CD of Who also features “This Gun Will Misfire” and “Danny And His Ponies” – two tracks recorded and sung by Townshend during the sessions for the album. You can pre-order the album here.

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