The idea of a concept album might be considered psychedelic in its own way: take one genre (advertising jingles) and apply a bit of rock sensibility in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. For their third studio album, The Who chose to create a concept record that paid tribute to not only advertising jingles – a recent side hustle – and their fondness for pirate radio stations.

Sell Out is, in many respects, a gag album sandwiching two or three standout tracks that stand very tall on their own. The pirate radio reference is seen throughout as radio tags for “Radio London” and “Wonderful Radio London.” Advertising jingles, many performed by Keith Moon and John Entwistle (occasionally using his “Boris the Spider” voice), pepper the album as intros/lead-ins to songs or added to the ends of finished songs.

Gag jingles aside, the meat of the album should be considered in the form of “I Can See For Miles”, ” Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand” and “Sunrise.” Special mention should also be afforded to “Armenia City in the Sky” which opens the album (following a series of wonderfully trippy promos for the days of the week from “Radio London”). Written by Thunderclap Newman singer John “Speedy” Keen and sung by Keen and Roger Daltrey, the song features a cornucopia of psychedelic effects and sounds that include backward instruments and found sounds.