Released almost simultaneously alongside the official Who 50th anniversary book which I reviewed last month, veteran rock music writer Mat Snow brings us another book celebrating fifty years of one of the world's greatest rock groups. As you can see from my review, I was quite disappointed with the official book and so was interested in seeing whether or not an unauthorized overview of the Who's entire career would fare any better. I'm familiar with Snow's work over the years, including his book set on the Beatles' solo careers which I reviewed a couple of years ago. That set was fun if not lightweight and riddled with errors, so I was slightly wary when diving into his new Who book. While it's not perfect and suffers from many of the same maladies that his solo Beatles book did, I am will say upfront that it's much more enjoyable than the official book.
***special thanks to Steve at Race Point Publishing for sending a copy of the book to review!***
When I first heard that book was titled 50 Years of My Generation, I initially thought it was going to be a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Who's debut album, also called My Generation and released fifty years ago in December 1965. Moving past the somewhat confusing title and realizing that it's actually a book celebrating the band's entire career, it's laid out in much the same way as the official book: chronologically beginning with the band members' births at the tail end of WWII in London and their youth spent during the post-war austerity years of the 1950s before rock and roll arrived in 1956 and changed everything. From here, the book travels the well-known path of previous Who books, following their career as a struggling covers band before Keith Moon replaced their original drummer in early 1964 and Pete Townshend took creative control over the band's music and message. Snow navigates their career through the heady days of the 1960s, the Who's ascension to legendary status in the 1970s, their limp to the finish line in the early 1980s in the wake of Moon's 1978 death, and the endless run of reunion tours that continues to the present.
Along the way, the chapters include a linear narrative of their career through each era, accompanied by photos of the band, concert tickets, programs, and other related images. While there were several images that were new to me, most have been seen many times over the years although they were reproduced in excellent quality. What was jarring about the entire experience, however, was that many paragraphs and photographs that would have fit better in the previous chapters were inserted out of sequence. As one example, in the middle of the chapter about the recording of Tommy in 1969 there would be a paragraph and accompanying photograph about something that happened in 1968 that was unrelated and should have been in the previous chapter. There were also several typos: many were just honest editing mistakes such as missing letters or slight misspellings, while others were flat out errors (such as discussing the recording of John's bass solo in "My Generation" but calling the song "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere"). A few of the photographs are miscaptioned as well, most egregiously a shot of Pete onstage in 1980 labelled as being from 1990 (the vast difference in the amount of hair on his head should have tipped the editors off!). These mistakes are minor, but there are enough of them scattered throughout the book that they add up after a while.
Overall, though, this book is enjoyable. I certainly had more fun reading it than I did the official history, although I do want to emphasize that 50 Years of My Generation is still not perfect. In addition to the shortcomings mentioned above, the book generally doesn't contain any new revelations or information that would necessarily appeal to any hardcore fan who is deeply knowledgeable about the band. It really is just an broad overview of the band's entire career, not particularly in depth although far more enjoyable to read than the official book. Much of this is down to Snow's writing style which, while a bit simplistic and clumsy in its construction, definitely conveys the excitement and enthusiasm of a real Who fan as opposed to the more cut-and-paste feel of Ben Marshall's prose in the official book. One thing I certainly noticed was his disdain for the short period of time after Keith died when Kenney Jones was their new drummer. While anyone who knows me knows that I am outright dismissive of any of the post-Moon work the band has done and that I can't stand the music they made with Kenney Jones (apart from one or two songs), Snow came off quite harsh in both his narrative and photo captions. While I certainly agree with his sentiments, I also don't place all of the blame for the downward spiral in the Who's quality once Keith died at Kenney's feet...they were a spent force and Pete saved his best songs for his solo albums. Fairly or not, Kenney became the scapegoat and while I didn't mind Snow's tone, I can see how some fans who like the music from that era of the band's history might take umbrage with the author.
In closing, while this isn't a perfect book, I definitely rank it higher than the official one; some of this is down to the tone and content, and some is because of how truly and utterly disappointing the official book was. While that book had a cleaner, more mature look and feel to it, 50 Years of My Generation is bold, colorful, splashy, and loud...all adjectives that can be used to describe the Who themselves and which convey the excitement and fun of their music and career. If you need to choose between one of the new career retrospective books released for their 50th anniversary, I would recommend this over the official as it's far less frustrating and a lot more fun.
2015 marks the year that The Who are celebrating their 50th anniversary. I disagree with this classification for a couple of reasons, mainly because A) 1964 was the year in which they solidified their lineup of Daltrey, Townshend, Entwistle, and Moon and released their first single, "I Can't Explain," and B) they really haven't been The Who since Keith Moon died in September 1978. However, as it's their band, it's their choice as to when they want to celebrate their anniversary. In any event, as one of my favorite bands of all time and one of the most influential bands in history, it was with great excitement that I looked forward to the publication of this official history, especially as it promised to have input from the two surviving members of the band, Pete and Roger. Written by Ben Marshall, upon receiving this attractive book and seeing the eye-catching cover dripping with classic Who iconography, I proceeded to tear into it to see how the story of this fantastic band, this band that has meant so much to my life and the lives of countless others, would be told from an official perspective.
***special thanks to Leslie at Harper Collins for sending a copy of the book to review!***
The introduction of the book hints that, while written by Marshall, there will also be heavy input from Roger and Pete. Of course, upon reading this I was looking forward to the insight they could offer, but it became apparent rather quickly that in actuality there would only be photo captions written by Pete and for all intents and purposes, nothing from Roger, which was very disappointing and gave the book a whiff of being a bit of a half-hearted/cash-in. How could this be an official history with such minimal input from the last two remaining members of the Who? Pete's captions, as would be expected, are quirky, funny, honest, sarcastic, and unmistakably Townshend. The downside is that, the further I got into the book, the more they served as constant reminders of how more (much more) of his input would have enhanced the book. Ben Marshall starts the Who history (Whostory?) with the backdrop of WWII Britain and the birth of the four members at the tail end of the war (or in Pete and Keith's cases, after the war ended). Inserted in this section were sidebars on life in the post-war austerity period in the UK as well as the rise of Teddy Boy subculture and rock and roll. Sidebars such as these appeared throughout the book and become more and more intrusive and eventually threatened to overwhelm the Who's story, but I'll elaborate on that more later. From here, the author goes through their various pre-Who bands and how they came together until the line-up was completed in early 1964 with the arrival of Keith Moon. The remainder of the chapters are split into eras, focusing on their first album and singles during their Mod period, their Pop Art period of 1966-1968, Tommy in 1969-1970, their period as a top act in 1971-1974, and the remainder of their career with Keith until his death in 1978. This rightly takes up the bulk of the book, with the balance dedicated quite briskly to their attempt at carrying on post-Keith from 1979-1982 and the subsequent reunion tours of 1996-present.
When going through the book, I kept feeling like it wasn't meeting my expectations as to what an "official history" should be but that eventually something I'd hit upon something that would rectify this. However, I kept reading and after finishing the book I couldn't help but think that this book was a real disappointment and, worse than that, a huge missed opportunity. There are several reasons I feel this way. First and foremost, Ben Marshall's written history offers little to no new insight or information about the band or their history. Much of the narrative is quoted verbatim from the Who's remastered CD liner notes and various documentaries and previous books that will be well known and instantly recognizable to any of my fellow hardcore Who fanatics. There were also numerous typos/grammatical errors, as well as several flat-out inaccuracies. These ranged from what I'm assuming are honest errors such as calling the Who's album from 1978, Who Are You, Who's Next (which came out in 1971) by mistake, to the author constantly messing up the name of their recent documentary Amazing Journey, which got to be very irritating. The sidebars, which grew to be almost as long as the chapters themselves, were sometimes fun and informative (such as the ones on Mods and Teddy Boys), but eventually became too long and off-topic, detracting from the central story of the Who. One of them was a long treatise on the history of the hippie subculture; while I understand this happened during the Who's career in the 1960s, the Who were one of the few bands of the era who, apart from dabbling in some florid clothing and LSD, were never remotely close to being a hippie/psychedelic band either in terms of their sound or attitudes, and as such were set apart from the entire movement. There were also some long sidebars on the Mods vs. Rockers fights of 1964 (which made sense as Pete wrote about these on the Quadrophenia album) and a heartwarming but unnecessary (at least in my opinion) vignette about a former London punk drummer telling the story of his brother watching the Who rehearse a few times in the mid-1960s. In all honesty, the book ran out of steam, and quickly, after the chapter-long tribute to Keith Moon. Granted, from that point onward I don't consider the band to really have been the Who, but in my mind if this is to truly be a definitive official history, there should have been more detail on the post-Keith years. There was very little to nothing, for instance, on the Cincinnati incident of 1979, the 1996 Hyde Park Quadrophenia reunion, or their subsequent tours in the 2000s. Apart from a chapter-long tribute to John Entwistle, this final section of the book seemed unnecessary and hurried, and for a band who has desperately tried to convince their fans and themselves that the years after 1978 (and especially after 1982) have been just as vital and essential a part of their history as the 1964-1978 period, it seemed half-assed. Finally, there were far too few picture captions by Pete and far too little input from him throughout the entire book...combined with their being zero input or insight from Roger, it seems a little specious, at least to me, to call this an official history and imply on the cover that it's Roger and Pete telling their story when really, it isn't. This may be an officially sanctioned history of the Who, but it certainly isn't their version of, say, the Beatles' Anthology book which was truly 100% in their own words. A band as important, influential, and revered as the Who deserves better as the official word on their own career.
For all of their visceral, reckless, and aggressive energy, The Who were always one of the most cerebral, reflective, and introspective bands who also were the first (and in my mind, still the best) to reflect back at their audience who they really were. Given what Pete's autobiography was like and what the best of their music offers, it was only natural that I would assume that the official history of the band would embody all of these qualities. However, I have to conclude that this book is a major disappointment and a real missed opportunity to tell their history in their own words, especially as it could have been done really well in a way only Pete and Roger could do. This book is more accurately a band history written by an outside author with minimal input from the two surviving members. Yes, there are some great photographs throughout the book, several that were even new to me, but the actual story, i.e. the words, were almost inconsequential and will offer nothing to any dedicated Wholigan. Is this a book hardcore Who fans should have? Yes, it probably is, but at the same time it's not one they need to have. For a band who has given so much to their fans, and who in turn have demanded so much from their fans in return, the incongruity with respect to this book is jarring. The end result is disappointing, especially if this ends up being the final official word from Roger and Pete on The Who.
*THIS* is what the Who were all about. Crank up the volume and enjoy!
Apart from the years 1964-1978, this year is shaping up to be a good one for fans of The Who. The band is celebrating their 50th anniversary (which they date from the release of their first album in 1965...I consider last year to be their 50th as 1964 is when the band's line-up was solidified and their first single, "I Can't Explain," was released) with a pair of new hardbound books. These both have just been released and I got them in right before I left for China a couple of weeks ago. The book on the left is the officially sanctioned history of the band as told by the two surviving members, Pete and Roger. The book on the right is another one published by well-known author Mat Snow. Both are handsome volumes full of black-and-white and color photos on nice glossy paper. For any of my fellow Who fanatics, stay tuned as I will be reviewing these books for the site as soon as I can get to them. Coupled with the rumored released of a new career-spanning box set at the end of the year, this is shaping up to be a great year for fans of this legendary band.
He's one of the most iconic and legendary singers and front men in all of rock music and has been the face and voice of the Who for over fifty years. However, while his more wild and eccentric bandmates Keith Moon, John Entwistle, and Pete Townshend have been the subject of numerous books, articles, and awards over the years, both for their antics and their revolutionary approaches to their instruments (and in Pete's case, songwriting), Roger's life has gone largely unexplored. This has always seemed a shame to me since, as the most stable and down-to-earth member of the band and someone who has had an interesting career both in and out of music, I've always wanted to know more about him. Thus, it was with a healthy amount of excitement and anticipation that I finally got around to reading what, at least to my knowledge, is the only dedicated biography on Daltrey that has been published.
***special thanks to Clara at Piatkus Books for sending me a copy of the book to review!***
Originally published in 2004, the book was reprinted in 2010 and it's this edition which is the subject of the present review. The two authors, Tim Ewbank and Stafford Hildred, have both known and interviewed Roger over the years and mention in their introduction that the book draws from numerous interviews and discussions with Roger and his family and friends, the other three members of the Who, and other sources. Reading this, I was very excited to see what new information would be brought to light regarding his life and career and after reading the first few chapters detailing his birth, childhood, and school years I wasn't disappointed. There were several new bits of information for even a diehard Who fanatic like me, such as the fact that Roger's mother wasn't even supposed to be able to have children due to a kidney disorder she'd suffered from. Roger was a surprise baby born in the middle of World War II and at one point, when his father Harry was off fighting in Europe, his mother Irene evacuated with him to Scotland where they lived in an isolated rural cabin and subsisted mainly on potatoes. Roger developed rickets and the distinctive bow legged walk he's had ever since due to this unvaried diet. After the war ended they moved back to Shepherds Bush, London, where he grew up and was joined several years later by two sisters. Roger was a very good student until he went to East Acton Grammar School, which was run by more posh, upper class teachers than his prior institute. Acutely feeling aware of his working class Cockney roots and accent, he had several run-ins with the authority figures at the school and, combined with his burgeoning love of rock and roll music, became the school tough guy and rebel. He eventually left school, built his own guitar, and started a band called the Detours. Shortly thereafter he recruited two of his former classmates at East Acton, John Entwistle and Pete Townshend, and the nucleus of what would become the Who was born. A teenage marriage to a young girlfriend whom he got pregnant didn't last long and for one stretch of six months Roger was homeless and living in the Who's van. Deciding to give up his spot as a guitarist in the band due to his hands being bloodied and bruised from metal working, Roger took over lead vocal duties and left Townshend as the sole guitarist. Bringing Keith Moon into the fold to be their drummer in early 1964 the rest, as they say, is history.
In fact, from this point on, the book is more a history of the Who than a biography on the life and times of Roger Daltrey. While it's a quite good little history of the Who, there wasn't too much new for a veteran Who fan such as myself, although there were two interesting bits I wasn't previously aware of: Roger going to a seance in late 1978 so that he could ask Keith if the band should continue after his death, and the fact that he and Pete had been concerned enough about John's health to ask him to see a doctor (which he refused to do) several years before Entwistle's sudden death in 2001. However, there were a handful of inexcusable errors, such as claiming Eddie Cochran's "C'mon Everybody" was on Live at Leeds (it was his "Summertime Blues") and that their original farewell tour was in 1983 (it was in 1982). It did a good job of capturing the entirety of the Who's career although there were repeated instances of labeling Roger as a "wild man" when elsewhere in the book there were multiple instances where Roger, the other Who members, and various associates all mentioned how Roger was the least wild and most stable member of the band! Indeed, apart from early dalliances with pot, Roger eschewed drugs and alcohol and stuck to a strict fitness regime to preserve both his body and voice. There were also a couple of instances where the authors unbelievably claimed that Townshend was the rare rock star who wasn't very comfortable expounding on his work and the state of music around him, which as any Who or serious rock fan knows is the complete polar opposite of what Pete is like. The best parts of the book, which happen to be the only ones focusing solely on Roger (the main reason I was interested in reading this book in the first place) dealt with his early life (as previously described), the circumstances around how he met his longtime wife Heather and their home life, his side career as an actor, and his exemplary work raising money for the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT). Indeed, the circumstances of each of these was very interesting. He met Heather in the late 1960s while touring America, where she was raised; however, she was born in London only a few streets away from where Roger grew up and their marriage has proven to be the rare showbiz union that has lasted (forty-four years and counting). In concert with their wedding, Roger gave up city life for a rural existence on his farmland estate and is most happy working around the property with his bare hands. Regarding his acting career, what started out as an obvious role in the movie adaptation of Tommy in 1975 launched Roger into an interesting side career as an actor and television presenter. He's appeared in almost one hundred roles ranging from film to television, plays to musicals. Lastly, the personal experience of his sister dying from breast cancer at the age of thirty-two inspired Roger to get involved with the TCT and he's raised a huge amount of money for the charity and remains actively involved in it to this day.
While I did enjoy this book, I have to say that overall I was a bit disappointed with it. There was very little, if any, of what felt like direct input from Roger himself. For the level of access both authors claim to have had to the Who over the years, the book could have been so much better. They acknowledge all members of the Who at the beginning of the book and even mention times when one or both of them were present with the band at certain events (such as one of the authors being at the same party as Keith on the night he died). Yet so many of the quotes were quite recognizable, sourced directly from magazines, newspapers, documentaries, and in the case of the discussion about the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, CD liner notes. The book just had a faint feeling of a cut-and-paste job, taking numerous quotes from other sources and fleshing out the story around them. The only people who seemed to come across as if they were interviewed specifically for the book were Keith Altham (former publicist and music writer) and Kit Lambert (former Who manager) and in the case of Lambert this clearly wasn't the case as he died in 1981. It's a shame because the parts that focused solely on Roger and his life were quite interesting and I wanted more of them, which I don't think is an unreasonable expectation for a book that is supposed to be his biography. The history of the Who interwoven with the book was fine but I would have liked to have seen it told from Roger's perspective, spending more time on how Roger fit into it all. In any event, Who fans will enjoy this book and should come away learning a few new things about Daltrey, as I did, which makes it worth the read. His sense of humor, his essential character, and how he generally fit into the puzzle that was the Who definitely shine through and for those reasons alone, the book achieves its goal of helping readers get to know the him a bit better.
In July of 1997 I was 17 years old, had graduated high school the month before, and was a few weeks away from starting college. I was also in the midst of my era of playing guitar during every waking moment (something I'd gladly do now if I had the time!), writing songs, practicing with the band I was in, and immersing myself in as much music as I could. I also finally had my own car and the freedom to drive wherever I wanted (within reason). As a bit of background, I'm the oldest of three kids and I was on the young side compared to my classmates at school by virtue of skipping the fifth grade. Because I was the oldest my parents were a bit stricter with me than with my brother and sister (in the interest of full disclosure, I was an absolute pain in the arse for most of my teenage years), and due to being a year or two younger than all of my friends I wasn't able to do many of the things that they could (like drive) until a year after. By the summer of 1997 I was heading off to college and was old enough to mostly go where I wanted so after missing out on several concerts I'd wanted to see in previous years, I was ready to finally start going to some shows. Indeed, one of the reasons this Who concert that I'm going to write about holds so much significance for me isn't simply because I saw the remnants of one of my favorite, most meaningful bands but because it was the first real concert I ever went to.
It all started in 1996, actually. I'd been a Who fan since I was a little kid in the 1980s thanks to my dad's record collection. I heard several of their songs when he would listen to them and when I got a little older, I played the hell out of his copies of Tommy, Who's Next, Quadrophenia, and Who Are You. There were a couple of formative events that cemented my obsession with this band that I can still remember vividly even though they were so many years ago. The first was in 1994 when I purchased my own copy of Tommy on CD. There was a record store in Portsmouth that my dad and I used to frequent called Strawberries and in the summer of 1994 they were making a big deal of it being the 25th anniversary of Woodstock. They were selling albums by all of the bands that played the original festival at a discount and had even set up a special display where they were all gathered together. Knowing Tommy from my dad's records, I bought that CD and proceeded to listen to it almost non-stop all of that summer. I had also gotten one of the first Sony DiscMan portable CD players earlier in the year, so every day involved listening to it at full blast through headphones, and every night involved falling asleep to it. For me at the age of fourteen, hearing it in that improved sound quality and absorbing every nuance of the album over the course of those weeks and months deepened my appreciation of the Who. The other event, which pushed me completely over the top, was a year later in 1995. My brother and I had been hanging out in our dad's office listening to records when he arrived home from work with some new CDs in his briefcase. The Who had recently begun their remaster campaign, releasing their albums with improved sound (albeit with some bastardized mixes when compared to the original vinyl) and bonus tracks. That evening, Dad brought home the new versions of Tommy, Who's Next, and Live at Leeds. Now, these were all albums I was familiar with, especially Tommy; however, apart from my CD of that album I'd only ever listened to these on either vinyl or the cassette dubs I'd made of the records. In the case of Live at Leeds, the original album only had six tracks whereas this remaster had fifteen! You mean there was more stuff they played at the concert? I couldn't believe it (not realizing, in my youth, that most live albums were cherry picked from full concerts). Dad wanted to hear how some of the tracks he dug from the original Live at Leeds album sounded on the new CD. "How about 'Young Man Blues?'" he said. After putting the CD in the player, cranking up the volume, and pressing "play," my teenage ears and mind were about to blown and my life changed forever. The absolute heavy-metal assault of that song was absolutely staggering.
Even songs from the album I'd heard a bunch of times before, like "Substitute" and "Summertime Blues" sounded new and fresh, and the newly included live cuts...well, they were just the icing on the cake. A few years later when I was in college I would get a bootleg of the ENTIRE Leeds concert and that's the way I choose to enjoy the album nowadays, but I can't stress enough how life-changing that listen to Live at Leeds in 1995 was. It not only heightened my obsession with the Who, it completely changed how I played guitar. I learned how to play the entire Live at Leeds album note-for-note, every riff and solo, and the band my brother and I had with our friend Theo played every song from that album every time we jammed for the next year or two. It was an absolute revelation, as were the other remastered albums and the bonus tracks...there were so many songs we'd never heard of, let alone heard before. I ended up buying my own copies of those CDs and snatched up every subsequent remastered Who album that came out on CD in the next few years. But now that I've gone off far enough on this tangent (hey, I'm building toward something so bear with me!)...
...by the time 1996 rolled around, all I wanted to do was listen to and make music. When I wasn't at school, at band or sports practice, or with hanging out with my friends, I was playing guitar. I wanted to be in The Who. When they announced a big Hyde Park show in London in 1996 to play the entire Quadrophenia album (my favorite of theirs), I was thrilled although it was from 3,000 miles away. A few months later, though, I found out that they were going to play shows in the US during the summer of 1997 and well, what else could I do? I absolutely had to go see them. One problem, though...I had only just turned seventeen at the beginning of 1997 and no way were my parents going to let me drive to Mansfield alone (it's about 40 minutes south of Boston but I grew up in central New Hampshire so it was a two-hour drive to get there). Even worse, neither of them wanted to go with me and my brother. The date of the concert, July 31, was a Thursday so my dad had to work and my mum couldn't leave my sister home alone (twelve years old at the time) in order to take us. There was no way my brother Alex and I were going to miss this show, but how were we going to get there?
Enter salvation in the form of our friend Pete's dad (also named Alex, a very nice man who sadly passed away in 2011). Pete was my one of brother's best friends and lived down the street from us in our neighborhood. Alex used to hang out at Pete's house a lot and during one visit he mentioned that we were trying to get someone to take us to the concert. Alex (the dad) overheard and told us he'd take us. He had been a Who fan back in his college days and was used to driving down that way since he was a Patriots season ticket holder (the Patriots play in Foxborough, the next town over from Mansfield). So now we had someone who would take us to the show...success! I promptly ordered five tickets over the phone (remember, kids, these were the old days when the internet didn't really exist...I didn't send my first email or browse my first webpage until a month later when I started college). Alex (the dad) was going to take me, Alex (my brother), Pete, and Pete's younger brother Eric. I could finally breathe a sigh of relief as we had tickets, someone to take us, and several months to go until the concert in July.
Finally, July 31st arrived...Who day! I remember that it was a typical New England summer day: hot and muggy, although not unbearably so...just enough to make you uncomfortable. We all piled into Alex-the-dad's minivan and set out for Great Woods (again, I refuse to call it the "Whatever-Corporate-Sponsored-Name-It-Is-Now Center...it was Great Woods my whole life growing up and that's what I'll always call it) in Mansfield. Along the way we discussed the upcoming Patriots season and listened to the radio (we may have had the Red Sox game on the radio...I can't remember). When we got a bit closer to Boston where we could pick up the radio stations, we tuned in to hear that all of them were playing nothing but the Who which got us even more psyched up for the concert. Eventually we arrived at the venue, parked, and walked through the gates. Thinking ahead, we'd brought along some blankets to spread out on the ground; for those of you who have never been to Great Woods, it's a large outdoor amphitheatre that is divided into three sections. The first is where the bulk of the seats are and is covered by a roof. There are then several rows of seats that are behind the first section and aren't under the roof; finally, the rear section is the general admission lawn area. I've sat in all three sections at various concerts and any time you're not under the roof you're praying for good weather. Luckily there wasn't a cloud in the sky that day so there were no worries. After getting a spot on the lawn right up against the final row of seats and spreading out our blankets, I set off to buy some Who t-shirts from the merchandise stall. I ended up buying two: one was white with banding around the collar and sleeves and the target and band logos on the front, and the other was black with their early 1970s logo on the front and the tour dates on the back. I still have both shirts, they both still fit, and I'll add photos of them once I find them. Now it was time to hang out on the lawn until the show started.
For this tour, the Who were presenting Quadrophenia as a true rock opera onstage, with special guests playing the parts of the Ace Face and the Godfather to augment to the band. All these years since the show I've distinctly remembered Billy Idol as the Ace Face and Gary Glitter as the Godfather, but while doing some research on the show for this post I've found some information stating that PJ Proby was the Godfather and Ben Waters was the Ace Face. Maybe I'm being stubborn but I'm still pretty sure it was Glitter and Idol at the show I saw, but it was so long ago that I guess I've been wrong! Anyway, in addition to these two characters, the band was fleshed out by Pete's brother Simon on second guitar, John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboards, a small horn section, and for me the most impressive addition: Zak Starkey on drums. For anyone who knows anything about me, I consider the true end of the Who to have been September 7, 1978 when Keith Moon died...since then they've been a different band to me. However, Zak Starkey excited me for a number of reasons: he was Ringo's son, he was Keith Moon's godson, and "Uncle" Keith had bought him his first drum kit and inspired him to play the drums. I'd read good things about his work with the Who from the previous year and I wanted to see if he would pass muster in my eyes. After waiting for what seemed an eternity, the house lights went down, the crowd began to roar, and there they were: Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle. Three legends from one of my favorite bands onstage right in front of me! They began the show with the backing tape of "I Am the Sea" playing over the PA and the tension built up and the waves crashed around us until Roger's familiar voice sang out "can you see the real me? Can you? CAN YOU?" and they exploded into "The Real Me." The entire set list is below:
Set List:
I Am the Sea
The Real Me
Quadrophenia
Cut My Hair
The Punk and the Godfather
I'm One
The Dirty Jobs
Helpless Dancer
Is It in My Head?
I've Had Enough
5:15
Sea and Sand
Drowned
Bell Boy
Doctor Jimmy
The Rock
Love, Reign O'er Me
Encore:
Magic Bus
Won't Get Fooled Again
Behind Blue Eyes
Substitute
I Can't Explain
Who Are You
As you can see, they played the entire Quadrophenia album and then encored with some of their classic hits. It was very exciting to hear the entire album played live since, as any Who fan can tell you, they only played the full album live a few times in 1973 before dropping many of the songs. After 1974, they completely abandoned it apart from a handful of tracks ("Drowned," "5:15," "Doctor Jimmy," "The Real Me"). There are some great bootlegs from 1973 (in particular, the Philadelphia and Landover shows) where they played nearly the entire album, but because they were limited by the technology of the times they gave up on it far too quickly, in my opinion. So here we were in 1997 and they played through the whole thing. The band sounded great, but what of Zak Starkey? Answer: he absolutely blew me away! If you closed your eyes you would have sworn it was Keith playing drums, but Zak is incredibly talented in his own right and didn't simply ape Moon's parts...he brought a lot of himself to the music and fit in seamlessly. The additions of the Ace Face and Godfather were okay...I would have liked it to have been just the Who onstage, but they didn't detract from the quality of the performance. What I do remember is that it was just an excellent, excellent concert. By the time they finished playing Quadrophenia it was starting to get dark but we were all still hungry for more music. To start the encores, Pete, Roger, and John came onstage all by themselves, Pete with an acoustic guitar and John with his bass. They started playing "Magic Bus" and at one point after Pete sang the line "can I buy your Magic Bus?" and Roger sang back "you caaaaaaan't have it!" Pete stopped, looked at the crowd, and said "thirty years and he still won't sell it to me!" That got a hearty laugh from everyone before they picked up where they left off and finished the song. They followed it with an acoustic "Won't Get Fooled Again" that was really great, albeit not the full version (if I recall correctly, they only played a few minutes of it). They then did "Behind Blue Eyes" with those gorgeous three-part harmonies, playing acoustically as on the album before the rest of the band exploded to life behind them when they came to the hard rocking middle section of the song. The concert finished with full band versions of "Substitute," "I Can't Explain," and a great version of "Who Are You." After that, it was all over and my mind (and eardrums) had been blown. We made our way back to the car, sat in traffic for over an hour before we were able to leave, and hit a Wendy's drive-thru for some food to eat on the long drive back home.
Looking back on it (and listening to the recording of the concert which I've included as YouTube videos throughout this post), it was a fantastic way to lose my concert virginity. Seeing one of my all-time favorite bands, even without Keith Moon, was probably the best way I could have chosen to break into the world of attending concerts and the show was really great. I'm also very thankful that I got to see them with John as he died in 2001...I know my brother must feel the same way as The Ox is one of the greatest bass guitarists who ever played and has always been one of the biggest influences on Alex's own playing. When I think back on the show I don't remember too many specific details as it was almost twenty years ago. That's where the recording comes in handy as it helps to jump start my memories every time I listen to it. The summer of 1997 was just a special summer for me for all of the reasons I mentioned earlier, made even more so by the Who. To see my first proper concert in the month between high school and college and to have it be The Who...even if it was a lousy show it would hold a special place in my heart. The fact that it was great only makes it that much sweeter a concert memory for me.
When it comes to 1960s music festivals, there are three that are iconic and forever ingrained in the collective memory: Monterey Pop in June 1967, which was the coming-out party for the 60s counterculture during the Summer of Love; Woodstock in August 1969, "three days of peace, love, and music" that featured some of the biggest names in rock music and the largest gathering of hippies, music fans, and countercultural figures on American soil (at the time); and Altamont in December 1969, a poorly organized, chaotic, and violent festival headlined by the Rolling Stones which culminated in the stabbing death of a drug-crazed fan, all captured on film and signifying for many the death of the 1960s dream. There were, of course, many other rock festivals toward the latter part of the 1960s and beyond, but two of the most significant of them all have flown under the radar for the past forty-five years: the 2nd and 3rd Isle of Wight Festivals in August 1969 and 1970, respectively. There has been a lot of mythology and misinformation surrounding the festivals over the intervening years...luckily, for the first time one of the men who was at the forefront of organizing these legendary gatherings is finally telling the real story behind them. When the World Came to the Isle of Wight is a two-volume set, and Volume 1: Stealing Bob Dylan From Woodstock will be out in June 2015 and is the subject of this review.
***special thanks to Guy at Medina Publishing for sending me a copy of the book to review!***
The Isle of Wight is a diamond-shaped island immediately off the south coast of England in the English Channel, a short ferry ride across the Solent from Portsmouth. As a county within England, it's home to ~130,000 people and has historically been a vacation and retirement destination for the affluent and well-connected. However, thanks to the big dreams and hard work of a family transplanted from Derbyshire, for a brief moment in the late 1960s the island became a mecca for rock music fans from around the world. Hailing from a multi-generational family of coal miners in the Midlands, the Foulk family made their way to the Isle of Wight and settled there. While the four brothers and their sister were of the right age to be part of the 1960s generation, as author Ray Foulk puts it, on the island they were fairly insulated from the wider youth counterculture and would do some major catching up, especially as they eventually planned their festivals. The three brothers central to the story, Ray, Ronnie, and Bill were all young middle-class businessmen in when the idea of promoting a music festival on the island was first thought up in the late 1960s. Using their business sense, some fortuitous connections, and their own hard work and industriousness they staged the first Isle of Wight Festival in August 1968 with Jefferson Airplane headlining. It was a one-day affair and drew a respectable ~25,000 concertgoers while going off fairly smoothly. The brothers (as well as their other brother, sister, and mother...truly a family affair!) were successful in raising local funding and advertising, befriending a local farmer who offered use of his land and saving money by using Ray's connections and career as a printer to make their own tickets and posters. While they lost money on the endeavor, they gained valuable insight into what to do (and what not to do), and the idea was planted to stage another festival the following year. However, this second one needed to be bigger and better in order to draw a larger crowd and gain more exposure. They intended to achieve this by making the whole experience grander: spreading the festival over the three-day August Bank Holiday weekend and booking bigger groups as a draw to get fans to come across the water to the island. The first major headliner they booked was The Who; other big acts like the Moody Blues, Free, and Joe Cocker were added to the bill, as were many smaller bands who filled out the bill across the weekend. However, with the Who headlining the Saturday an even bigger name was needed to headline Sunday night and close the festival. While the Beatles or Rolling Stones would have been obvious choices, the Foulks didn't think they had a shot at either one of them and neither would have made sense in any event: the Beatles hadn't performed live since 1966 (apart from the rooftop concert in January of '69) and the Stones were just getting back onto the road in the wake of Brian Jones' death in July 1969 (their legendary American tour of 1969 would start two months later in October of '69). On a lark, one of the Foulk brothers (who were operating their promotion company under the name of Fiery Creations) suggested Bob Dylan. This was an interesting and ambitious idea for a number of reasons, not least of which was the fact that Dylan had been a recluse since his motorcycle accident in July 1966 and had only made a couple of cameo live appearances at benefit concerts since. Figuring that they had nothing to lose, the Foulks made tentative overtures to Dylan's camp. When they weren't rejected outright, they kept the dialogue open and eventually warmed Dylan to the idea of playing there. Much of it had to do with the Isle being the former home of Tennyson, whom Dylan greatly admired and whose Farringford House remained a shrine to the poet's devotees. The negotiations went back and forth for several weeks and involved a lot of work on the part of Fiery Creations until Dylan finally accepted. Then came to daunting task of raising the required funding, as requested by Dylan's managers Bert Block and Albert Grossman, in time for the festival. Though it wasn't all smooth sailing, a combination of incredibly hard work and several lucky breaks led to the money being raised. A suitably larger festival site was secured and set up, a house and support staff were rented for Bob and his wife Sara, and the festival was able to stay on schedule and open on time.
Some 150,000 people swarmed the Isle of Wight from the UK, America, Australia, and Europe for the three day festival that followed hot on the heels of the more famous Woodstock Festival of two weeks prior. In fact, the histories of these two festivals are more entwined than is known...certainly more than I knew, at least. Even though the Woodstock festival took place some seventy miles away in Bethel, New York, promoter Michael Lang made a deliberate effort to name the event Woodstock for two reasons: he wanted to use the town's name and notoriety as Dylan's hideaway to attract attention to his festival, and he hoped to entice Dylan out of seclusion to return to the stage at the event. However, it served to have the opposite effect, irritating Dylan to the point that there was no way he would consider appearing. Much of this was down to the fans who made the pilgrimage to Woodstock and harassed Dylan and his family at their home by stalking them and hiding out on their property. Thus, the escape to England to play the Isle of Wight held additional appeal to Bob and Sara. On the whole, the festival went off without a hitch and the atmosphere was enhanced by several giants of the rock scene who were in attendance, from Keith Richards and Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones to Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton of Cream, and most notably three of the Beatles: John, George, and Ringo (Linda McCartney had given birth to Paul's daughter Mary days before and so they didn't attend). All three Beatles and their wives were Dylan's constant companions during the weekend with George acting as unofficial host. George and Dylan had gotten to know each other the previous November in the aftermath of the White Album sessions and would continue their friendship until George's death in 2001. Ringo was a friend as well, whereas Bob's relationship with Lennon was always a bit more complex. Both admired each others talents and had known each other for years, but John was alternately in awe of and paranoid of Bob. However, even though the Beatles didn't perform at the festival, their presence at the event loomed large and gave a stamp of credibility to the entire affair.
From the opening ceremony on Friday night to the final note of Dylan's set late Sunday evening, the entire festival went off, for the most part, without issue. There were issues with inadequate restroom facilities, food vendors prices gouging festival goers, and the noise levels bothering a farmer and his wife whose house immediately butted against the backstage area, but overall it ran smoothly. There were only two big crises, both of which happened behind the scenes: the Who's helicopter made a harrowing landing in the backstage area when the updraft from the rotors blew the plywood boards that acted as a platform all about (luckily no one was hurt although one struck the tail rotor and almost incapacitated the chopper), and the biggest crisis of the night: the two-hour delay preceding the Band's set. One of Dylan's stipulations when he agreed to appear at the festival was that his backing group, The Band, would have a set of their own immediately preceding his own. His record company also insisted on recording Dylan and the Band's show for a possible live album. The two-hour delay was due to technical issues in setting up the additional recording equipment, but it agitated Dylan enough that the Foulks were nervous it might all fall apart at the last moment. However, as soon as the Band finally began their set, Dylan calmed down and he went on to deliver one of the most unique sets of his career. Now singing in the affected country croon he'd adopted on his most recent album, 1969's Nashville Skyline, as opposed to his famous nasal whine, he eschewed almost all of his most popular songs and instead focused on the pastoral songs culled from Skyline and his 1967 album John Wesley Harding. By this point in his life, Dylan was married with five children and enjoyed the quiet domesticity of his home life; this is reflected in his albums during his reclusive period as well as in his set list at the Isle of Wight. Playing for around an hour, his set was rapturously received by those in the crowd although the press reaction was mixed, with history generally agreeing with those who savaged his performance. Indeed, Dylan was so dispirited by the reviews of his performance when he got back home to New York a few days later that he didn't play another concert, save for an appearance at George Harrison's 1971 Concert for Bangladesh, until 1974.
In the meantime, the Foulks were left in the afterglow of the successful festival while facing the daunting tasks of cleaning up the festival site and starting their planning to do it all again next year. While they didn't make much money from the festival, they made enough to pay off the bills they accrued in its planning and execution and learned a lot about what they could do better in 1970. The great thing about this book is how Ray Foulk, who was at the center of the whole enterprise, describes all of the behind the scenes planning, negotiating, and maneuvering that was required to pull the whole thing off. As he makes plainly clear, he and his brothers were not hippies or tuned-in rock impresarios; they were simply young businessmen who happened to also be music fans who thought it would be cool to stage a festival on their little island. The Foulks wore suits and ties to work each day, didn't do drugs, and tried to run their business and turn a profit, the last of which damaged their credibility in the eyes of more left-leaning music fans and critics. Indeed, Ray mentions how they were criticized for not putting on a "free festival" (a criticism that would be even louder the following year) while making a great point that not only did somebody need to pay for the concessions, restrooms, and festival site infrastructure, but the artists themselves weren't playing for free! Indeed, as the highest-paid performer on the bill, Dylan took a lot of flak in the press for how much he was paid (his total, including travel and lodging expenses, amounted to some £80,000), with one tabloid referencing his "million-dollar" payday. Foulk is also refreshingly candid about many of the people he worked with in those days. Two of them in particular come instantly to mind: compere Rikki Farr, whose fast-talking and hip manner (not to mention his being the son of famous boxer Tommy Farr) was both an asset and a liability, and Judy Lewis, hired as housekeeper and cook for the Dylans at their rented house. While Lewis was good at her job, she also tried to get a bit too close to her famous guests and began inserting herself into situations that she was not intended to be involved in when she was hired...this eventually led to her dismissal. Foulk is by no means vicious in his recounting...in fact, he's exceedingly fair and in some spots, probably too kind given some of the situations that resulted from these actions (I'm thinking in particular of the poor press coverage they got after Farr insulted several reporters from the stage prior to Dylan's set). The goal with these two books is to set the record straight and tell the real story of how three brothers, with help from their family and friends, were able to stage two of the biggest music festivals in history. Stealing Dylan from Woodstock was a stunning achievement but it also meant that they had to do something even bigger and better the following year. As for how they topped that, the final chapter is a lead-in to the forthcoming second volume discussing the biggest live act of 1969-70 (and noted Dylan devotee) Jimi Hendrix. Indeed, the 1970 festival would be Hendrix' final UK appearance as he would tragically die in London a few weeks later.
While the book may seem like it's too specific and too England-centric for a non-Brit (such as myself) to enjoy, I don't feel this is the case. True, I'm a student and fan of the era and its music and also a lifelong Anglophile, but I feel that anyone who is a fan of those times will enjoy the book. In particular, Dylan fans should read this because of the interesting way Ray Foulk places the event in the context of Dylan's career. The Isle of Wight Festival in 1969 was his only headlining concert appearance in the span between July 1966 and 1974 and found Dylan at a point in his life where he was eschewing social commentary in his songs, shunning fame, and embracing being a husband and father. As such, his set at the festival remains unique in his history and the book manages to capture the spirit of the times and of Dylan's life and career at that very moment. Beyond merely being a book about a festival, Foulk does a masterful job in telling the true story of what it took to get Dylan on the bill and what it all meant for all involved. The text is accompanied by photographs of the various artists on stage and in attendance as well as many fascinating behind the scenes pictures. There are candid shots of Dylan, the Beatles, and other various famous faces in attendance. Scans of the original tickets, posters, and promotional materials prepared for Dylan in order to entice him to accept their invitation are included and do a nice job showing the amount of care and detail that went into the promotion of the festival...truly artifacts from a time long gone. The biggest (and really, only) complaint I have with the book are the numerous typos sprinkled throughout the text, as well as a couple of miscaptioned photos. These are minor, however, and don't detract from the impact or enjoyment of the book. It's clear that the authors did a lot of research to fill in the gaps of Ray Foulk's own story as evidenced by the numerous footnotes throughout the book as well as lengthy list of cited source material at the end of the book.
(Links to the rest of the Who's set at the festival can be found on YouTube in the above videos)
Beyond placing the event in the proper context of its time in the history of popular music and Bob Dylan's career and telling the true story of the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival, the biggest impact Stealing Dylan From Woodstock had on me was that it did the impossible: it made me finally become a Dylan fan. I've long respected and acknowledged his influence but I've always maintained the position that the best versions of his songs were covers by other artists. I had heard many of his songs and even enjoyed several of them but I just couldn't get into his music, or rather I should say that I never put in any real effort to do so. However, over the course of reading this book I decided to make a concerted effort to listen to his music and to my shock and surprise, I found that I really loved it! So even if the book was no good, I would forever be indebted to Stealing Dylan for at least opening me up to a whole new world of music from one of the great artists of our times. Thankfully, as I've written above that isn't the case: this is a great book and I commend and thank Ray Foulk for telling his story and doing it as well as he did. The only difficult thing now is waiting for Volume 2 to be published...
The Rock and Roll Chemist is pleased to present the following interview with Mark Blake, author of the excellent new book Pretend You're In a War: The Who and the Sixties, which was reviewed previously on this site. Mark is a renowned author who has written several seminal rock music biographies; in addition to the Who book, he has written about Pink Floyd (Pigs Might Fly: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd) and Queen (Is This Real Life: The Untold Story of Queen) to name a few. Other books include works on Bob Dylan and Keith Richards, to name but two. He is a writer whose work has been published in magazines and newspapers since 1989, and he's previously been assistant editor of Q Magazine and is a long-time contributor to Mojo Magazine. Mark was kind enough to take the time to talk with me and answer my questions about the Who and his new book.
RNRChemist: What was the impetus for writing this book? Why this particular period of the band's career?
MB: The Who were one of the first, for want of a better word, ‘serious’ rock groups I ever heard, and I felt that there was a great story still to be told. Richard Barnes’ Maximum R&B biography was and still is brilliant, because he was there with them ‘back in the day.’ But his book stops at 1982. So, to start with, I looked at the idea of writing a book that brought the story up to date. But then I had a change of heart, because the Who’s story is such a mess. They split up, they get back together and tour, then they split up again.. There are loads of sometimes dodgy solo albums… The more I read around the story the more fascinated I became with where they came from. I’ve only known The Who as a big arena band. I wanted to know what they were like before that.
RNRChemist:How do you think the Who's career in the 60s stands up to their peers at the top of the heap like the Beatles, Kinks, and Stones?
MB: I think the Who’s music stands up alongside the music made by the other three. In terms of recognition and, probably, sales, they were third on the bill to the Stones and the Beatles, but probably ahead of the Kinks. In terms of oddness, though, I’d put them ahead of all three. There’s something incredibly odd about The Who in the 60s.
RNRChemist:Obviously, as you've pointed out in the book, growing up during and immediately after WWII had a huge effect on the British musicians of that generation. How do you think this is most directly manifested? (ie the music, fashion, etc)
MB: It manifested itself in the freedom they had. I think it was Ringo Starr who said that he was only able to become a pop star because of the abolition of National Service (or conscription). Prior to that, in the early and mid 1950s, all 18-year-old boys had to take a few months out of their lives and join the armed forces. Once the government scrapped that, you had a generation of teenagers with more freedom than their parents had ever had. That led to the freedom to make music, dress the way they wanted to…I’m over-simplifying, but I think, in broad terms, the freedom young people acquired was a great enabler.
RNRChemist:In what ways do you think growing up during and after the war for the London bands (most notably the Who, Stones, and Kinks) differed from how the Beatles up in Liverpool experienced it? (if you think it differed at all)
MB: I think most cities have their own musical identities. Liverpool being a port town would have impacted on The Beatles and all Liverpool groups – and in a good way by giving them direct access to new American records, straight off the boat. I think London being the capital city put The Who in a fortunate position. The music business was in London. A lot of hip clothes shops were in London. Chris Huston, who engineered some of The Who Sell Out, had previously been in a Liverpool band called The Undertakers, who’d shared a bill with The Who or The High Numbers. I remember him telling me that he couldn’t get over how The Who/High Numbers were dressed in 1963/4: “We were all still rockers, and they had the mod thing going on.”
RNRChemist:Your book contains a lot of great (and new!) information on the Who's childhoods, most notably for Roger and John. What was the most surprising thing your research uncovered about any of them?
MB: It was interesting for me to get some first-hand accounts of Roger, John and Pete’s schooldays from other ex-pupils, and ones that weren’t necessarily big Who fans who just wanted to dine out on their connection. Any band that have been around as long as The Who have a tendency to mythologise their past. They all do it – and then writers come along and mythologise a little bit more. What I discovered was that some stories about Roger being what we call in England “a bit of a handful” at school were possibly exaggerated, but others weren’t. One ex-Acton County pupil I approached for an interview told me that he remembered Daltrey very well, but refused to ever mention his name again. I also rather like the story that after winning a local battle-of-the-bands competition with his school skiffle group, the 14-year-old Roger packed up the guitar for a time because he had a girlfriend. Always a lover and a fighter.
RNRChemist:The Who were a very violent band both onstage and off, as were their peers (ie the Stones and Kinks). Yet all three bands hailed from different parts of London. Why do you think they had so much aggression and anger? Was it just the combination of youthful rebellion, speed, and excitement or something more, in your opinion?
MB: Youthful rebellion and excitement, I guess, yes. Roger came from quite a tough area, and was rubbing shoulders with some tough characters. Maybe that fed into the music. But in a funny way, I associate a lot of the anger and aggression in the music with Pete Townshend. I think his conflicted mindset was a contributing factor.
RNRChemist:Could you imagine Lambert and Stamp existing today? It almost beggars belief how they got away with what they did, and for how long. Yet they seem to often be given short shrift when credit is doled out, unlike their managerial contemporaries like Brian Epstein and Andrew Loog-Oldham. Why do you think this is?
MB: I don’t think Lambert or Stamp would have survived in the modern age. Keith Altham, the music journalist and later The Who’s PR, talked to me about this in the book. Keith pointed out that, in some way, men like Lambert and Stamp, and also Epstein and Loog Oldham, paved the way for the managers and accountants that followed in the 70s and 80s when rock music became really big business. In a sense, though, their bands all outgrew them. I think the lack of credit compared to Epstein and Oldham is down to the fact that the Beatles and Stones were bigger bands; Epstein died young in slightly mysterious circumstances; Andrew Oldham didn’t and has written three great books about his experiences.
RNRChemist:Kit and Chris came from vastly different backgrounds yet they seemed to work together perfectly as a management team. What's your take on how they made it work? What did they each bring to the table?
MB: I think they met at the right time. Social barriers were coming down in the early 60s, and the entertainment industry was a great leveller. Kit’s friend Robert Fearnley-Whittingstall pointed out that “nothing binds people together like making money.” In simplistic terms, Kit seems to have had the grand ideas, the flair and the chutzpah, and Chris was good at putting some of those grand ideas into practice. That said, Townshend has talked a lot about how good Stamp was at brainstorming ideas with him. I think their roles were quite fluid rather than clearly defined.
RNRChemist:How do you rate the Who's pre-1969/Tommy live performances? As someone who has collected bootlegs for years, I find them to be incredibly exciting from the earliest recordings (1964) but they definitely seemed to evolve as the decade went on. Agree/disagree?
MB: They definitely evolved, as they became better musicians and songwriters, their musical tastes changed, the equipment improved, etc. I like the rawness and the improvisations of that bootleg from The Railway Hotel in 1964. But just listen to them at Monterey and on the Rock’N’Roll Circus and then, of course, on the Tommy tour. It’s astonishing. I think there’s something to be said for all those live performances.
RNRChemist:Conventional wisdom holds that in the 60s he was just up to harmless youthful hijinks and that he didn't really start self-destructing until the Who slowed down their touring schedule in '72, yet as you and Tony Fletcher have pointed out in your books, Moon seemed to go off the rails rather quickly once the band started to get famous and successful. It's clear he had some sort of mental issues even beyond the obvious ADHD and borderline personality disorder he had. He was certainly a one of the kind personality in 1960s/70s rock. What's your impression of the man beyond his fabulous drumming skills?
MB: I found it quite tricky writing about Keith for two reasons: Tony Fletcher did such a good job already in his book, Dear Boy, and, secondly, because it’s difficult not to get swayed by the mythology. Several people told me Keith stories that had me almost crying with laughter. I didn’t want to shy away from that. But at the same time he was also what Daltrey calls “a tragic little man”. I think Moon was a far more complex character than he’s often portrayed.
RNRChemist:As much as a Hendrix fan as I am, it's always bothered me that he ripped off and appropriated a lot of Pete's innovations as his own, like the bigger amps, feedback, stage antics, and instrument destruction. Am I being too harsh in my assessment?
MB: I think you’re being maybe a little bit harsh. But, then again, Daltrey has spoken several times about how Hendrix copied what Townshend was doing at The Railway Hotel three years earlier. I suspect everyone was ‘appropriating’ off everyone else.
RNRChemist:I've always held Pete in as high regard as a songwriter as I do Lennon & McCartney and Ray Davies. Do you think his innate talent would have flourished to the extent that it did had he not had Lambert's nurturing and encouragement?
MB: You’d like to think that Townshend’s songwriting talent would have shone through regardless. But I always think there’s an element of luck involved in any band making it big. Lambert was certainly a great enabler.
RNRChemist:How close to leaving the Who do you really think John and Keith were in '66/'67?
MB: Probably not that close. I just think they were frustrated by the band’s financial problems and the bad mood within the camp. Both of them flounced out for a few days or so, whereas Daltrey actually left/was sacked, properly, twice. But Chris Stamp has talked about a “gravitational pull” that stopped all of them leaving for good.
RNRChemist:I've always felt the Who's work in the 60s inspired the power pop, new wave, punk, mod revival, and britpop movements that came in the following decades. What do you think is the most enduring influence(s) their 60s incarnation has had?
MB: I think it’s the attitude that had endured. The early Who’s anger and energy has never really gone out of style. That, and their Englishness. I became very aware of that influence on Blur in the 1990s. The Who’s 1968 single Dogs sounds like a prototype for Blur’s Parklife.
RNRChemist:The Beatles, Stones, and Kinks all hit big in America in '64 but it took the Who until '67. Why do you think it took the Who so much longer than the other three giants of 60s British rock to break through in America?
MB: I think it was a combination of financial and managerial bad luck – The Who had all sorts of problems with their US record label and their first producer Shel Talmy – and the fact that they were a bit too peculiar. The Beatles and Stones, especially, were easier sells.
RNRChemist:Do you think Shel Talmy's production helped the Who on their early singles and debut album? I've always found it a bit tinny myself (similar to his production on the early Kinks records). Certainly the atrocious contract he signed them to didn't help them!
MB: I think Talmy was in the right place at the right time. But he got The Who up and running as a recording act. You can criticise the production on those records, but it was what it was. The Who had been trying to make it for a while before Talmy came along, and they’d already had a flop with that High Numbers single. What was it Daltrey said? “If they told me I had to stick my head up a donkey’s arse and I would have been a successful pop star, I would have done it.”
RNRChemist:Pete Meaden and Helmut Gorden are forgotten figures in Who history. Both would not have ultimately made the Who successful yet both performed vital tasks that helped the band along on their road to success. Do you think the Who would still have made it had they not worked with these two?
MB: Yes I do. I don’t think Helmut Gorden contributed a great deal. But I do think that Pete Meaden’s ideas helped point the band in the right direction. In some ways, Gorden was still working to the old Tin Pan Alley, pre-Beatles business model, and Meaden was thinking to the future, with shrewd marketing and image ideas.
RNRChemist:Doug Sandom is a classic case, ala Pete Best, of the one who was left behind on the cusp of stardom, yet I don't think the band would've made it without Moon, who was the perfect fit both musically and personality-wise. In your talks with Doug, did you sense any regrets or bitterness? (I've read his book and he seems to harbor no ill will toward Pete, Roger, and John).
MB: I think there is some element of regret with Doug, but not bitterness. Or certainly not when I spoke with him. I don’t think The Who would have had the same success had he stayed in the band. Like the other ex-members, Gaby Connolly and even Dave Golding, who was drumming at The Oldfield when Keith ‘auditioned,’ it was interesting to hear Doug’s stories about The Who before they were The Who, so to speak.
RNRChemist:The 1960s were an incredible decade for music and pop culture, especially in London, although it seems the Who were either a step behind some of the movements (transitioning from focusing on singles to albums) or sat some of them out almost altogether (psychedelia). Any insight as to why this was?
MB: I think The Who floundered a bit in the mid-60s. They weren’t sure where to go. They certainly tried to stay a singles band for a few months longer than perhaps they should have done. I think their attitude towards psychedelia was fascinating, though. They were more honest than a lot of bands, who stuck on the kaftans and beads and preached peace and love without actually believing a word of it. I think The Who were too cynical for all that.
RNRChemist:How do you think the Who in the 1960s would have been remembered had they faltered with Tommy and faded into obscurity? Even though they were a top chart and live act, do you believe they would still be held in as high regard as their peers if Tommy had been a disaster? (this of course doesn't take into account the stellar work they did in the 1970s).
MB: I think they’d be well regarded, but certainly not to the extent that they are now. They’d be a cult band, a bit like The Pretty Things, but bigger! A critic’s favourite, worth a nice feature in Mojo but never on the cover. I can imagine it now, in fact.
RNRChemist:How would you summarize the Who's body of work in the 1960s in terms of quantity and quality? No need to be objective if you don't want to be!
MB: It’s a beautiful mess. It’s stylistically all over the shop, and some things like A Quick One and even to an extent The Who Sell Out don’t work quite as well as they could have. But it doesn’t matter. Just listen to that first run of singles. And the messiness is all part of The Who’s charm.
RNRChemist:Favorite 60s Who single? Album?
MB: I Can See For Miles and Tommy.
RNRChemist:How about favorite Who single and album from any era (not just the 1960s)?
MB: Who Are You, the single, and for a great underrated Who album, The Who By Numbers. It’s not as good as Who’s Next or Quadrophenia, I know. But there’s something I love about it.
RNRChemist:I'm one of those Who fans who thinks the band died when Keith did in September 1978...what's your opinion on the band after he passed away and they continued on?
MB: I think there are some good songs on Face Dances (You Better You Bet, Cache Cache) and even one or two on It’s Hard (Eminence Front and, maybe that’s it!) and I genuinely liked Endless Wire, but none of them felt like Who albums exactly. The 1980s and the early 1990s were difficult transitional periods for a lot of acts who began in the 60s – Stones, Dylan, Neil Young etc. They weren’t used to being older rock stars yet, and we weren’t used to them being older rock stars. But that’s passed. Now we are. The bands and their audiences have adapted. Expectations have changed. At the end of the day if they can still do those songs justice on stage, I can live with it. I can now ignore the fact that it’s Zak Starkey on drums and Pino Palladino on bass. I went to see the Quadrophenia show in London in 2013. I didn’t expect to like it, but I loved it. And I didn’t even know the drummer’s name. He was no Zak Starkey, mind.
RNRChemist:Have you thought about a similar book on the who in the 70s? I know I'm not alone in hoping you'll write one!
MB: I have thought about it, yes. Thanks for your kind words and support. But I probably need a lie down now. I’m a bit Who-ed out!
