The Who

Tommy Artwork autographed
 by Daltrey

It all happened between 1969 and 1971 for me. Tommy, Woodstock, Live at Leeds, Meaty, Beaty Big And Bouncy and Who’s Next. What a 3 three year run for any band. Starting with Tommy-the first rock opera. Big, bold, pretentious, full of incredible music. As an eleven-year-old I wasn’t sure what it all meant, but it sure seemed like Pete Townshend was the most ambitious, thoughtful guy in rock. Seeing Woodstock in the theatre was a formative experience in a number of ways, but The Who proved to be the most electrifying part of the movie for me. Townshend’s true-believer energy was just off the hook, John Entwhistle’s stoic reserve and lightning bass runs were the definition of cool, Keith Moon’s manic energy was thrilling and Roger Daltrey’s washboard stomach, golden locks and crystal blue eyes were all things I would never have, but badly wanted. Their music was thrilling and energetic, their lyrics were thought-provoking and searching and physically they were unbeatable. They were the distilled, idealized perfection of the pre-teen “me.” The scared me that I was, and the brash me that I wanted to be.

They followed up Woodstock with Live at Leeds a live set just as incendiary as Woodstock but all housed in an incredible gatefold sleeve filled with pictures, posters and paperwork-a pirate’s ransom of clues to who these guys were. I obsessed over that album like few others. The poster and pictures adorned my walls, I memorized every detail of the contracts and memos, and the songs lived on my turntable non-stop. Their version of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” was a pounding masterpiece. Shit, the whole album rocked like nothing I’d ever heard. The long, jammed-out “My Generation” that anchored side two covered so much ground. I wanted to see this band live (it wouldn’t happen until Keith Moon’s final tour in 1975-but well worth the wait).

When The Who By Numbers was released in 1975, Budget Tapes and Records on Colorado Boulevard ran a promotion whereby you could color in a copy of the cover and enter it into a contest. For some reason, I never turned it in, and kept it all these years. Years later, when I got a promotional poster that advertised the very same promotion, I framed it along with my colored-in entry.

For my 12^th birthday, my brother gave me Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy, a collection of their early singles, and again the wonderful music within was more than matched by the incredible cover. Showing a group of English youth hanging out on a grimy stoop with the adult Who wistfully looking at them out a window, you turned it over and they had morphed into the adult band on the stoop, looking cooler than you can imagine, with the kids now looking out the window. It spoke to both the youth and the young man in me. It remains one of my favorite album covers.

Pete Townshend at Denver’s Mammoth Gardens (now the Fillmore) 1969.
Photo by the great Denver rock photographer Dan Fong

The final piece of my obsession came into view as four English millionaires pissed on a stone monolith on the cover of their masterpiece Who’s Next. It still remains one of the most mature and far-reaching albums of the era. When they sang “Black ash from the foundry/hangs like a hood, But the air is perfumed by the burning fire wood” on Love Ain’t For Keeping I understood that rock lyrics could reach for more than a teenage crush-this was poetry.

Pete Townshend in Chicago 1969-Giant reproduction hanging in Twist and Shout-also taken by Dan Fong

Pete Townshend remains the gold-standard of thoughtful rock stars. He has publicly struggled with the meaning of rock and roll to a functioning adult. He continued to search, but never quite matched that magic period at the dawn of a new decade when he and his band flew the flag for rock music that spoke to the brain as much as the hips.

Paul Epstein

The Who At Kilburn 1977

Because there has been so much substandard Who material put on the market, it might be easy to overlook a new DVD release from the band. Do not miss this release though, it is the best thing they have put out since the Isle of Wight video. The first disc is the show recorded by Jeff Stein for his film The Kids Are Alright in 1977. The rap on it has always been that they were unsatisfied with the performances, and shot one more show at Shepperton Studios for the film. Thus, this film sat on a shelf for over thirty years. It has been worth the wait because the passage of time has done nothing but make the footage look more exciting than ever. Beautifully shot and recorded, the concert finds the band at an emotional crossroads of their career. Keith Moon is clearly starting to fall apart, although you will be amazed at how much BETTER he looks than a few months later at the Shepperton gig. The band had just finished recording Who Are You and Townshend was struggling with issues around aging, substance abuse, and his place in rock history. He is visibly agitated during the performance, which actually adds to the overall intensity of the concert. He is an absolute ball of energy, windmilling and jumping on every song. Moon’s playing is sporadic. He comes out of the gate very strong and rallies throughout, but you can see him flag at points. All the years of looning have caught up, and he struggles at moments to keep the beat. Entwistle and Daltrey are exactly as they always were - perfect in their roles. No more original bassist exists in rock and no singer more perfectly fits the bill of beautiful front man than these two. For the most part they seem happy to be playing, and trying to stay out of the way of Townshend’s tantrums. The highlights are the opening “Can’t Explain” and “Substitute” and the closing medley of “My Generation,” a very early and raw “Who Are You” and the final “Won’t Get Fooled Again” which is similar in tone to the one in The Kids Are Alright - in other words a powerhouse. Even though they are suffering the ravages of age and excess they remain - in 1977 - one of the most energetic and powerful bands imaginable.

But wait, there’s more. Disc two contains an entire show from London in 1969. They had just started playing Tommy in its entirety, and this show contains the entire rock opera as well as a full show of hits and rockers. This show was recorded just a few months after Woodstock and a few months before Live At Leeds and it contains all the fire and balls of those great shows. The Tommy portion is absolutely stunning, as a band in full control of their abilities and at the height of their iconic physical appearance just tear through about an hour of material that is almost completely new to the audience. Today, it just wouldn’t happen that way. One can’t help but be awed by the creativity and love for the music conveyed by the band. This concert was filmed by the band’s original managers and, when they were summarily dismissed in the early 70’s, they apparently pitched a king’s ransom of Who-a-bilia into an empty lot. Somehow retrieved, this film has also languished on the shelf for almost forty years and now makes its debut. The quality is so-so, but when the camera is close-up, the images of the band are priceless. It is a magical concert of vintage Who that no fan of the band should miss. Skip the modern recordings of the band in recent years reliving past glory and instead go straight to this superb DVD for a hit of REAL ‘OO. (Note: Also available on Blu-Ray)