The Who - Who Are You

Does anyone know if the long 6:11 promo 45 version was censored or not for The Who's "Who Are You?" I've certainly heard the uncensored version on classic rock stations in the past. Perhaps the FCC doesn't realize that the "f" bomb is in there.

Andy, I do have that (6:11) promo 45 version, and I was gonna check it later on today. But your above notations are EXACTLY the same as what I recall being on that long promo 45, when we reviewed it at the station back in 1978. So I'll just go ahead and consider Aaron's original question "already answered!"

Yes it is, Aaron.

I was just able to hear the (6:11) promo edit, and the actual run time is (6:06). For the second chorus, they dubbed in part of the first chorus to get rid of the "f" bomb. For its appearance later in the song, they just cut out about 12 seconds rather than replacing it with an earlier chorus.

Another funny thing I had never noticed before is that there are two different mixes of the long, uncensored version. When I first tried to re-create the edit, I was using the remastered edition of Who Are You, but the mix isn't quite the same. I then tried using the version on The Ultimate Collection, and it worked perfectly.

If you compare those two versions, you'll hear that the loud guitar note at (2:28) is off to the right on one mix but centered on the other one. Another way I could tell was that the last "you" that Roger sings is faded out from the mix slightly earlier on the Who Are You CD. The last note is also faded earlier on that CD, which is why it only runs (6:16). There were a couple other very subtle mix differences, too. The bottom line is that you'll need the (6:20) version to have the correct LP version.

While I'm on the subject, do the versions of "Behind Blue Eyes" from the remastered Who's Next and Ultimate Collection CDs differ, or is it just that the latter is a bit more hissy? (I'm not referring to the alternate take on Who's Next.)

Would that (5:03) version possibly be the "edit of the LP version" noted in the database for these CDs:

(S) (5:02) MCA 1496 Greatest Hits
(S) (5:02) MCA 8031 Who's Better, Who's Best
(S) (4:58) MCA 11020 Thirty Years Of Maximum R&B
(S) (4:58) MCA 11462 My Generation - Very Best Of
(S) (5:03) Geffen B0001836 Then And Now