Another Week Another Vinyl: The Who: Tales from The Who

This post has been long overdue. I purchased this album around a month ago when browsing through my local record store. The cover immediately drew me in, and upon closer look I noticed the artwork was by the infamous William Stout, who’s artwork can be seen on an array of bootlegs from the most important bootlegging manufacturer in history, Trademark of Quality. I’ve seen a lot of his work before in books and on the Internet, but this was the first time seeing it in person, and I was thoroughly impressed. Without much hesitation I knew this was going to be my purchase for the week.

For a little history on this bootleg in particular, Trademark of Quality (TMQ) was the definitive maker of bootlegs in late 60s and early 70s. They were ahead of their time and did their business intelligently. They remained out of the spotlight to avoid heat from law enforcement, and had successfully averted any issues for quite some time. However, federal authorities were beginning to take action against TMQ. The FBI would eventually track down the head of the manufacturer, a man known simply as Dub. With the bootleg industry becoming a far less profitable scene than what it had originally started out to be, Dub decided it would be best to avoid any legal altercations and get out of the business entirely. The last bootleg TMQ produced was the album shown here, Tales From the Who. According to cover artist, William Stout, TMQ had destroyed all of their albums, and only 120 copies of Tales from The Who made it to store shelves.

Aside from the interesting history of this album in particular, it captures a great performance from The Who. The sound is less than stellar, but is still pretty strong given the date. The recording was taken from a radio broadcast on the Quadrophenia tour. Fitting with the “Quad” theme, TMQ coded the broadcast to a quadrophonic format making it the most technologically impressive bootlegs on the market. As TMQ had been doing during this time period, Tales from The Who was pressed on some real eye catching multi-colored vinyls. Even if the albums were unplayable, I would still be thrilled with this purchase. Definitely one of the best gems I’ve found during my short period of record collecting.