The Kids Really Were Alright
Regular TAH readers know that I’m a music fan. And they also know that Jonn tolerates my occasional ]off-topic ramble on the subject.
Well, brace yourselves – here comes another such ramble. You’ve been warned. (smile)
. . .
It’s no secret that popular music went through a massive change in the 1960s. The impetus for much of that change came from Britain – the famed “British Invasion”.
Many bands and individuals were part of that change. Most lost popularity or broke up shortly thereafter. Few had real “staying power” into the 1970s and 1980s; I’ve written here previously about one band that continued to grow and change with the times.
Yet there was a second band from Britain from this era that did the same. And for a while, they rivaled the Stones and others as a draw.
The Who.
The Who’s early work can best be described (with one exception) as catchy, formula pop tunes – though some of them did explore serious subjects. I mean, really: give a listen to “I Can’t Explain”, “Happy Jack” and “Pictures of Lilly”. Pure pop pablum, though the latter did address a somewhat more controversial than most. The exception in their early work was “My Generation”; it captured the mood of British early-1960s youth perhaps better than most tunes of the era.
Like the Stones, the Who also grew up musically . But unlike the Stones – whose growing-up was over a period of about a year, and appears to have been due to personal difficulties and the possibility of jail – IMO you can pinpoint when the Who changed from being yet another group playing “cute pop” into a bona fide musical force. That happened in October, at the end of 1967’s “Summer of Love”:
From that point forward, the Who weren’t merely purveyors of catchy, formula pop. They were rockers – serious ones, and truly innovative. Their work contains much that is legendary: multiple excellent albums and two released “rock operas” (Tommy and Quadrophenia). A third such rock opera was planned – Lifehouse – but never made. In a way, that’s a pity; music written for Lifehouse led to two albums and some additional music released as singles. It’s possible it would have been the best of the three.
(If you doubt that assertion about Lifehouse, consider: one of the two albums made from music initially destined for Lifehouse was Who’s Next. I’d argue that it’s perhaps the finest rock album made in the 1970s – and one of the best ever.
The second album derived from the Lifehouse? Who Are You. Plus “Pure and Easy” and “Join Together”, which were initially released as non-album singles, were also intended for Lifehouse.)
The Who continued making exceptional music for a full 15 years after coming of age – from 1967’s The Who Sell Out through 1982’s It’s Hard. They are also considered one of the great live acts as well; their Live at Leeds albums is considered one of the best live albums ever recorded.
Oh, and they were one of the headliners at Woodstock, too – early morning hours of 17 August 1969. As you might guess from the timing, they performed Tommy. (smile)
Today, The Who is considered one of the most influential rock and roll bands of all time. Pink Floyd considered them a formative influence. Jimi Hendrix adopted Townsend’s “Marshall stack” amp setup in the mid 1960s, as well as adopting and expanding Townsend’s pioneering use of sound effects. Even the Beatles were reputed to have been influenced by the Who in at least two of their later tunes. Tommy is considered the first rock opera.
Here’s a sample of The Who’s music between 1967 and 1982. Enjoy.
- Summertime Blues
- Pinball Wizard
- We’re Not Gonna Take It
- Baba O’Riley
- Behind Blue Eyes
- Won’t Get Fooled Again
- Long Live Rock
- 5:15
- Love Reign O’er Me
- Join Together
- Pure and Easy
- Squeeze Box
- Sister Disco
- Guitar and Pen
- Who Are You (original album version; lyrically NSFW/prudes/clergy/small children)
- You Better You Bet
- Another Tricky Day
- Eminence Front
Yeah, I guess you could say the kids really were all right.
. . .
If you’re still reading this – thanks. Hope you didn’t find it boring.
Category: Pointless blather, Who knows
“Regular TAH readers know that I’m a music fan.”
Nooooooo… ya don’t say 😀
Fantastic read and write!
Great write-up!
Few – if any “super-groups” anymore and when you isolate the individual talent across The Who or Stones or PF – it’s staggering how talented each member is or in this case, was: Keith Moon isolated drum track –
I’ll see ya that, Angry 8404 – and raise ya with this from the late John Entwistle.
Yes, Hondo – raised it indeed.
Entwistle was IMO a truly under-appreciated talent.
Would be great to see/hear the isolated tracks for The Real Me. I swear Entwistle was playing 32nd notes at one point.
“The Real Me”- it takes talent to have a commercially viable song where both the bass player & drummer are both basically playing an extended solo.
No doubt about it. Keith Moon was one bad ass drummer. God Damn!!
Since you listed Summertime Blues. Do you know the Blue Cheer’s version, Hondo? A Californa group. Rumor was that they could not stay together because of one or in jail for drugs. Joe
Wasn’t that on their Vincebus Eruptum album? Huge hit in about 1968 or so. Both are covers… the song is as old as Blue Suede Shoes.
Well done, Hondo. But, I always favored groups like Chicago that had some musical instruments which didn’t require electrical power.
Well, OWB – here ya go. (smile)
Was thinking more of flugelhorns and saxophones. 😉
Well, OK – then try this. London Symphony Orchestra’s version of Tommy.
Parts of it are as good as the original IMO.
And then there’s this, from the original. I think that incorporates a French horn vice a flugelhorn, but I could be wrong.
Enjoy. (smile)
if you want a great example of how music transcends the instruments it is played on – there is a Cheiftain’s CD, Live in Belfast, on which they accompany Daltrey singing “Behind Blue Eyes” – using traditional Irish instruments. Shows a great song and singer can be backed by almost anything, and still sound great.
Although The Who wasn’t my favorite band – Pete sometimes got a tad too cerebral for my taste – I do think that “Who’s Next” and “Live at Leeds” are two of the best rock albums ever.
Hondo, what do you think: on ‘Sister Disco’, was the string arrangement influenced by ELO, or was The Who mocking ELO?
Or did ELO learn strings from The Who?
I don’t think it was either, Rock8. The Who used synthesizers and horns on previous work (Tommy, Who’s Next, Quadrophenia). The band was also involved in a joint performance with the London Symphony Orchestra of Tommy in 1972. So they’d have been very familiar with the adaptation and/or use of strings with their work.
Jeff Lynne’s early work with the Move (circa 1970) was a fusion of classical and popular music, so he’d have been exposed to the use of other instruments there – including, presumably, strings. Lynne also played multiple instruments, including the cello.
Personally, I think the two bands developed the idea of using strings with selected tunes independently. I could be wrong.
Weirdly enough, this came up today too.
https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/genetic-data-tools-reveal-how-pop-music-evolved-in-the-us-48ad60bf495b
BTB, love The Who!
Jorge…Thanks. An interesting article and study.
Hondo, thank you for the pleasurable, Sunday morning diversion. I also am still impressed with The Who. One of the groups or artists I listen too and hear new things I previously missed.
The WHO, the Stones, Chicago, and maybe a couple of others – still making music, still selling out venues, still relevant after FIFTY years. I don’t expect any of today’s junk to last half that long.
Happy Birthday to Roger Daltrey!!!! 71 today. The Who kicks ass.
The Guess Who/ BTO…..Cooper/Mr. Alice…Oh the hazy daze gone past and FogHat too!
Saw this whilst listening to some of the tunes Hondo posted above. Pretty cool, I thought.
Hesitated to comment. I always enjoy The Who, BUT:
While I admire yer grasp here that particular ‘wave’ of music included several other groups that may be more seminal. In no way does that diminish them. And, of course, it is likely subjective?
Won’t list them, unless someone asks.
I remember when Who Are You came out. On vinyl.
The original cover had Keith sitting backwards on a chair with, “Not To Be Taken Away” stenciled on it.
A week or so later, Keith was gone, and so were the albums, rereleased with the stencil airbrushed out.
Imagine what the original in the package would be worth today, and not just the music inside.
I bought that album at the BX right after it came out! Wish I still had it, lost in one of many moves over the years 🙁
It has been said that instrumentally, the Who was very different:
Pete was the rhythmic center of the band, keeping the time.
John was the lead player, who also provided a wall of sound that made a second guitarist unnecessary.
Keith… dear God, Keith. Keith played drums more like a keyboard section. His style is still to this day unique.
As far as musical ability I have to say that Yes has the level of mastery of musical instruments miles ahead of all others.
Keith Moon was a very good drummer but his fill in’s were pretty much basically the same pattern. That fact is noted by Pete Townshend in an interview I saw on VH-1 years ago.
Alan White on drums, Chris Squire on bass Steve Howe on stringed instruments to include steel guitar, all kinds of guitars, mandolin and a host of other stringed instruments and Rick Wakeman on keyboards take the level of musical talent and knowledge to an entirely different level.
The Who was great and I am sorry to say that I never saw them live.
John Bonham from Led Zeppelin was a better drummer than Moon was but the best thing about both of them is that they used Zildjian Cymbals, the only serious choice !!!
I would disagree, Thunderstixx.
Townsend’s skill with the guitar is IMO roughly equivalent to Wakeman’s with a keyboard. He’s generally regarded as perhaps the third-best rock and roll/rock guitarist – ever. I can only think of two in the genre who I’d rate as clearly better (Hendrix and Clapton, in that order). Howe was good, but not that good. I’d place Wakeman similarly among rock and roll keyboardists.
Entwistle was similarly IMO one of the best 5 or 10 bass guitarists in rock and roll/rock history (I’d personally say top 5). He’s highly underrated.
Moon’s drumming has been characterized as being less technically “polished” than some. However, he was also known to “follow the singer’s lead” while drumming, improvising as he did so. There are some clips of the Who talking about Moon on YouTube – in one of them, Daltrey plays an isolated drum/partially suppressed vocal track from “Behind Blue Eyes” and comments on exactly those issues. The clip is breathtaking, actually. Moon was easily top 5 or top 10 among drummers as well.
Daltrey is regarded as one of the great vocalists of the genre. Was Jon Anderson better? Not sure – both were good. I think Daltrey’s voice fits rock and roll/rock music much better than Anderson’s, but that’s personal preference. Both could certainly sing.
In short: I’d say the two groups, though musically very different, were about equally talented as musicians. I might even give the Who a slight edge overall. When every member of a group is among the top 5 or 10 all time, well . . . .
Thanks Hondo. I am pretty much in agreement on a lot of the things you said but as a professional rock drummer for many years with strong influences from not only rock, but jazz and country too, (the old and real kind of country). I agree that Moon’s style of attacking the drums does fit better with The Who and their style of music. I’m just not that impressed with it. I have played it, lot’s, it’s really easy… I really have to say though that Howe is just such a God on all things with frets and I swear has fingers that seem to be 8 inches long, I just won’t let go of him as the best guitarist. But, I am a die hard Yes fan and have been since the late 60’s. I have seen them in concert about 20 times so you will play hell getting me to change those opinions. The Who is truly a great Rock and Roll band but I was never that impressed with Moon’s style of drumming. He seemed to muscle through all of the music whereas I was taught to finesse it. The jazz style I learned fits much easier with the machinations and technical aspects of Yes music much more than it does with the Who. I still LOVE the Who, I just really don’t like Moon, as a human being or as a musician. Both he and Bonham were drug addicts and alcoholics that wasted their lives and talent just so they could get shitfaced drunk. That played out poorly with me as they could have been much better had they just not been such bad examples… And I really have no right to denigrate them, I am just mad that they died long before their time… Just like the best bass player I ever played with, Johnny Rush, died on my birthday in 1986.. I’m still mad at that mother fucker, not to mention the damn sound man, Chris Tremblay that showed me with his death that I too was having problems with beverage alcohol… Fortunately God… Read more »
I remember reading an interview with a great jazz drummer who listened to many epic drum tracks from the time ho praised Moon’s work on “Tommy” as some of the best he had heard – his comment on Ginger Baker was priceless: after listening to Blind Faith’s ubercut of “Do What You Like” he said about Baker’s drumming “they oughta make that cat an astronaut and lose his ass in space”.
Re: great guitarists: a poll in England a few years ago picked Hendrix, Clapton – wih Brian May of Queen in 3rd place. Love the group, can’t figure out that poll yet.
First cassettes I ever bought were a two-tape set of “Tommy.” When CDs came out, the first CDs I bought was a two-disc set of “Tommy”.
Stating for the record that I agree with all of Hondo’s above – when ya gonna do a blurb on another great but overlooked group – the Kinks?
Cheap Trick is another great band overlooked in the annals of history.
Sorry guys, I am a die hard, true blue Yes fanatic !!!
Hondo,
Pete’s DEEP END LIVE is pretty good too. Are you by any chance going to Atlantic City (AC) to catch them in the old Convention Center on the boardwalk Memorial Day weekend? …I AM ! (again)..saw them last year in Feb in AC…awesome!! However….1989 in Giants Stadium ELEVENTH ROW was by far the wildest show….
Lthrnck1775
First show I ever saw was The Who with the Clash as opener. I could have never witnessed another and died happily. Quadrophenia may as well have been the story of my life rather than Petes…I met him (Introduced by a mutual friend, a concert pianist I grew up with. We had tea!) in Paris a few years ago and told him as much. I was not the first to share such news with him. IMHO, the greatest of the genre…
JohnE: you bring up Quadrophenia. Don’t know if you’ve ever seen the film, but if you haven’t – it’s probably worth a look.
I’ve read at least one article that interviewed a couple who grew up in Great Britain at the timeframe of the movie (early 1960s). They said that the movie captured the era (social dislocation, Mods/Rockers violence, craziness) like nothing else they’ve ever seen – and that the reality was, if anything, even harsher than depicted in the film.
The film was excellent, if a bit of a downer.
I have seen part of it, hard to find time to watch the whole thing, but will get it done some day. Wasn’t Sting the Ace Face?
I did get the Tommy box set for Christmas last year…good stuff!