Tag Archives: The Who

It’s Hard (The Who) – Album Review (Part 1)

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The Who's Final Studio Album With Kenny Jones

The Who's Final Studio Album With Kenny Jones

Three years after Keith Moon had passed away, Pete must have been regretting they ever carried on. His attitude had changed for sure, as he began pumping out solo releases which in hindsight were to be the place to turn to if you were looking for The Who’s zest. Because The “New” Who on record and The “New” Who on stage were completely different entities.

Live, Kenny had to replicate Keith’s arrangements, and he was quite capable of doing that (they never, ever did “Happy Jack” with Kenny, though). As a studio drummer, it was a different story. He could drum excitingly enough for any band (“You Better You Bet” and “Daily Records” are clear examples), but nobody could ever hold a torch to Keith’s inventive performances in the studio. That wasn’t Kenny’s fault, certainly. And to be fair, Keith could never have played military drums like the former Small Faces drummer did on “Cry If You Want”. But he was under so much pressure and attention that it must have been unbearable. And Roger was hostile to him from day one. Continue reading →

Face Dances (The Who) – Album Review (Part 2)

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(Check out the introduction to this review here)

Face Dances is a record which can be described very easily: it is an album of rock songs that have been produced and treated as if they were pop tunes. That certainly posed a problem for many fans that were expecting another Who’s Next, yet they were more or less appeased by the lead single, “You Better You Bet”. That song alone revived a lot of interest in the band, and it was to be their last stronghold in terms of chart performance. The other single was “Another Tricky Day”, and both the two singles and the poppy “Don’t Let Go The Coat” had some weird accompanying promos where the tempos were all sped up (!). I am not kidding:

Ah, “Don’t Let Go The Coat”. That was one of the very first Who tracks I listened to, actually, and I must say that it has an incredible catchy quality. The song deals with Pete’s faith on Meher Baba – the Avatar had once instructed his followers to “grab to the hem of my robe”. It is traditionally regarded as one of Pete’s most charming songs on the subject (and he wrote quite a few tunes about that), and while some have misgivings about Roger’s interpretation I couldn’t disagree more. He does the song splendidly, reaching the climax during the middle eight and ad libbing excellently during the fade. If you want to listen to Pete’s own take you have to go for the first album devoted to rarities he released, “Scoop”. Different interpretations, same great song and same great way to communicate faith on life in general, not just faith when it comes to a single person or leader. Continue reading →

Face Dances (The Who) – Album Review (Part 1)

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The Cover Of The Who's Face Dances Was Devised By Peter Blake (He Who Designed The Cover Of Sgt. Pepper's). He Approached 15 DIfferent Artists To Paint The Canvasses.

The Cover Of The Who's Face Dances Was Devised By Peter Blake (He Who Designed The Cover Of Sgt. Pepper's). He Approached 15 DIfferent Artists To Paint The Canvasses You Can See.

After the loss of Keith Moon, The Who decided to take the one gamble that was left and carry on the best way they could, in loving memory of Keith and in loving memory of all the ideals they had stood for. Was “the best way” recruiting former Faces compadre Kenny Jones? That is debatable ad infinitum, of course. On the one hand, Jones was a strict time keeper. He was the polar opposite of Keith, and that was one of the reasons he was chosen as his successor, actually. Pete declined Ginger Baker’s offer to be their new drummer if only because he was as troublesome a character as Moon. Also, John relished having the chance to have a less frantic drummer setting the beat for a change. They first had worked with Kenny during the Tommy soundtrack, and they had gotten along with him well professionally. And they had known him on a personal level for much longer, obviously.

The one person that definitely opposed to Kenny’s addition as a full-time member of the band was Roger. He was keener on rotating drummers until arriving at the suitable one. Pete claimed that such a thing would turn everything into “a pilgrimage to find Keith”, and that is why Kenny was eventually instated as their new (and definitive) drummer. Continue reading →

The Decision Of The Who To Carry On Without Keith Moon

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Keith Moon Playing His Customized Premier Drum Kit

Keith Moon Playing The "Pictures Of Lily" Drum Kit

Was there ever a band in which each individual member was more irreplaceable than The Who? I frankly don’t think so. As such, their decision to carry on when Keith Moon died in 1978 must stand as one of the most debatable in the history of rock & roll. People often claim they did it for the money, and that was it. But there were a couple of aspects which should not be dismissed out of hand.

First thing first – by that point The Who were far more than 4 friends who gathered together to play on weekends. They employed more than 40 individuals on the whole. They had a recording studio, a fleet of trucks, their endless roadies… They were not exactly a corporation, but they were quite close. If they had disbanded then, that would have been a considerable number of people on the dole again.

A parallel is drawn with John Bonham’s death in 1980. When that happened, Zeppelin disbanded immediately. Pete Townshed said there was no comparison – Zeppelin was in a very active schedule when that happened, whereas The Who were semi-dormant. But it is clear that The Who might have come across as betrayers more markedly because of Zeppelin’s decision. Continue reading →

Who Are You (The Who) – Album Review

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The Cover Of Who Are You Has True Tragic Relevance - Keith Moon Was To Die Shortly Before The Album Was Released

The Cover Of Who Are You Has True Tragic Relevance - Keith Moon Was To Die Shortly Before The Album Was Released

The final Who album featuring Keith Moon is a mostly distinguished way for the original lineup to bow out, although there are many particularities that make the LP a disc like no other within their catalog. First thing first: Moon has lost a great deal of ability, to the point that he couldn’t play “Music Must Change” (Pete’s footsteps set the basic rhythm). He does manage to drum adequately enough on “Sister Disco” and the popular title track. He also puts up a sparky performance all through “Guitar And Pen”. But his magic skills and touch are missing.

In second place, Pete emphasizes notes over chords for the first time in their career. That doesn’t make the album any better or worse than other Who offerings. It just makes it a bit peculiar. And structurally speaking, he has Roger sing a recitative lyric on “Guitar And Pen”. The one song in which they had done this before was “Helpless Dancer“, only that the vocal is far, far campier this time around. “Helpless Dancer” was notably more measured and (if you wish) less theatrical.

Besides, out of 9 songs only six are penned by Pete. The remaining three come from an aborted opera John had tried to assemble (“905” and “Had Enough”), while he serves up the loud “Trick Of The Light” (about a man falling in love with a prostitute). But this time around, he lets Roger take the lead. He only sings “905”. He would sing “Trick Of The Light” live, though:

The main value of this album is the actual content of the songs, as the lyrics deal with artists and their never ending struggle to remain evergreen and motivating to those who follow them. This is evident on “Guitar And Pen” (“never spend your guitar and your pen”), “New Song” (“we sing the same old song with a few new lines/and everybody wants to cheer it”) and the ambitious “Music Must Change”.

Continue reading →

The Who By Numbers – Album Review

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John Entwistle Drew The Cartoon. Try Connecting The Dots - It Works!

John Entwistle Drew The Cartoon. Try Connecting The Dots - It Works!

In the ’70s, music was characterized by an inner conflict that tore at ideals and hurled them against the blackest confines of the human psyche. As a seeker of truth, Pete Townshend surely would have a lot to say. The Who was always – always – there in times of need. The album The Who were to release after Quadrophenia was to expose Pete’s vulnerabilities like nothing else. It was him who needed someone. And the horrible realization that he was not finding that person or people within his band was what listeners were to come across on “The Who By Numbers”.

The setting in which the album was conceived was as troublesome as the ones in which “Who’s Next” and “Quadrophenia” came to the world. This time, Roger and Pete were playing verbal ping pong on the press, and their views on The Who (as entertainers and as artists) were never painted in such black and white terms before or since.

Pete’s already-manifested impression that the band was caricaturing itself had entrenched by this point. His new set of songs dealt with that in a tortured way. The one jovial tune on offer was to be “Squeeze Box”. It was to become a Top 20 hit, in fact. That was certainly disheartening – something truly akin to another brick in the wall of vacuity.

A sense of futility populates the album: Pete questions the relationships with his fans and friends at every turn, and the facades he always studied were becoming far, far too brittle. Everybody could see through disguises by this point. Continue reading →

Quadrophenia (The Who) – Album Review (Part 2)

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Check the first part of this review here.

Quadrophenia is a concept album that spans two records and which has 17 songs. It tells the story of a young mod named Jimmy who faces an existential dilemma, aggravated by the fact that he has four different and conflicting personalities, and each one of these reflects the personality of a member of The Who: a fighter, a romantic, a lunatic and a spiritual seeker. That is why there are four songs which are labeled as a member of The Who’s individual theme.

The story is not cohesive enough as it stands here – the movie was to be cohesive and to make sense, but that was to come much later on. In any case, Pete has come up with an emotional setting that is enough to make for any narrative deficiency. The Who are one of the best exponents of music that is internalized and felt, and Quadrophenia does not fail to deliver in that sense.

We get to see Jimmy as he his maturing, and that stands as an excellent analogy of the transition of music from the idealistic ’60s to the somehow starker ’70s. The Who were one of the longest-standing bands at that point, and they had not only the insight but also the right to articulate such issues. Continue reading →

Quadrophenia (The Who) – Album Review (Part 1)

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The Cover Of The Album

The Cover Of The Album

I consider Quadrophenia the biggest cultural contribution The Who ever made. That is a bold statement if we take into account that they also sang “My Generation” and recorded the defining album “Who’s Next“, adding new melodic resources to the world of music as a whole.

When I say that Quadrophenia was (and is) a significant cultural contribution, I take into account the fact that nobody else had taken the time to look back at the mod days and present them in such a representative light. Mod was the one and only aspect of British life in the ’60s that was not absorbed by America. Everything else was. Without Quadrophenia, that knowledge would have been somehow lost. And what was all the more remarkable was that when the album was originally issued the Who’s cohorts were adopting a lyrical posture that was to end up in total disconnection, singing about the dark side of the moon and stairways to heaven. That is, music would begin to lose its immediate link with those that bought it, and that disconnection would end a couple of years down the line in the punk revolution that placed both sides on an equal level. Continue reading →

Who’s Next (The Who) – Album Review (Part 2)

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Remember to check out Part 1 in order to learn about the context in which Who’s Next was born.

Doing a quick recap, Pete’s “Lifehouse” project had failed to materialize and it had exhausted the band while driving him to a nervous breakdown. The Who decided to salvage what they could and had Glyn Johns assemble a single disc with the best of the new material.

Glyn Johns did something more than assembling the disc that we know as “Who’s Next”. He actually produced it, and his expertise was specially noticeable when we compare this record with any of the albums that Lambert had mastered. It comes as no surprise that Lambert never produced a Who album again. His lack of technical skill, his lax bookkeeping, his growing disconnection with the band… he (and partner Chris Stamp) would be out of the picture within a year. And a lengthy litigation would ensue. Continue reading →

Who’s Next (The Who) – Album Review (Part 1)

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A Symbol Of Alienation Meets Rock & Roll

A Symbol Of Alienation Meets Rock & Roll

Pete Townshend was always one to push boundaries. After conceiving the first rock opera in history, it was only natural that he would continue leading The Who into uncharted territories. But this time there would be trouble ahead, for the first time in his artistic career.

As everybody and his wife knows, the album we know as “Who’s Next” is nothing but the salvage job of a project of Pete named “Lifehouse”, a project that would finally be realized in the year 2000 with Pete’s solo release of the “Lifehouse Chronicles” boxed set, and that was to resurface in several guises all through the years before that. Continue reading →