The Only Soul

"A beach is a place where a man can feel
He's the only soul in the world that is real."

- Pete Townshend, from "Bell Boy" off Quadrophenia

The Who Play Quadrophenia

I promised a while back that i'd write up my thoughts on the excellent show The Who (read: Pete and Roger and friends) played in Boston a few months ago. Never really found the words to express how I felt about it. Luckily, there are professional writers out there that do this for a living, and so I point you to Ricardo Baca's review of the Quadrophenia Denver show. While I may not have been as harsh, I think he expresses the feeling what it was like to attend, absent the fan-boy glasses I obviously wear. Money quote:

[it] was a night of mixed emotions. Townshend is a monster, still. He's cool and collected, and he never overdoes it — he never reaches beyond his own capacity. Daltrey is no longer cool, and he often stretches his own vigor. But with the help of eight bandmates, they put together a potent evening of music.

Book Review: Pete Townshend's "Who I Am"

Pete Townshend is a dauntingly intelligent man – so much so that he rightfully gained a reputation as the “go-to” interview in rock music from the time The Who exploded on the scene in 1965 to the early 90s when he released his last solo album.  His blog, before mystifyingly disappearing behind a paywall at thewho.com, was an extension of his interviewing voice, a piercing intellect that’s pretentiously well aware of its place in history but tempered with an almost crippling sense of humility. In addition, starting in the mid-80s, he  spent a long period of time as an editor at Faber & Faber. All of this made me anticipate his memoir, Who I Am, released late last year, all the more. I mean, Townshend’s such an articulate thinker, his take on his own life was bound to be good.

So it came as quite a shock that he didn't devote the insight he demonstrates in other arenas to his own life.
On the whole, Who I Am follows the typical rock-star narrative of formative years, early fame, excess, and a leveling off. Dates, albums, and names (so very many names) speed by in numbing proliferation. Occasionally, the book comes alive when he takes the time to detail more specifics, like his childhood, some of gestation periods of his more famous albums, and when relating the confusion that led to his arrest on suspicion of child pornography (he was quickly exonerated). While I suspect that his publisher really cut the narrative to the bone in order to get his whole story within two hardcovers, this is a book that could have been so much more - where's the open ended musings that mark the best of his past writing?. Ah well... As Hall n’ Oates sang, “All I see are missed opportunities.”

First Lines of Pete Townshend's "Who I Am"

"It's extraordinary, magical, surreal, watching them all dance to my feedback guitar solos; in the audience my art-school chums stand straight-backed among the slouching West and Northern London Mods, that army of teenagers who have arrived astride their fabulous scooters in short hair and good shoes, hopped up on pills. I can't speak for what's in the heads of my fellow bandmates, Roger Daltrey, Leith Moon, or John Entwistle. Usually I'd be feeling like a loner, even in the middle of the band, but tonight, in June 1964, at The Who's first show at the Railway Hotel in Harrow, West London, I am invincible."

- Pete Townshend, from Who I Am

A brutally honest wild mess of contradictions, this guy is endlessly fascinating to me.

Why Should I Care... If He Has No Hair?

It's a Who week here at Thought Ambience. I picked up Pete Townshend's Autobiography Who I Am, and am headed into Boston tonight to catch the Who at the Garden, where they'll be playing Quadrophenia in its entirety. Given that this is one of my all-time favorite albums, i'm pretty excited about it!

In celebration, I thought i'd share a pix I drew of the man a few years ago. Really excited to see the old guy tonight and see what he's got left in the tank. I'll let you know how it goes!

The Who's "Amazing Journey"

As many of you know, i'm a Who obsessive. As such, when Dangerous Minds posted links to the Amazing Journey video, I dove right in. I haven't watched the entire thing yet, but what I have seen is another reminder that this group of talented individuals created glorious noise - something larger than the sum of their parts.

Really looking forward to seeing Pete n' Roger play Quadrophenia at the Garden this November.

Rock Opera!

I've never really understood the obsession with calling rock musicals "Rock Operas." Like many musical arguments, the whole premise seems like a silly exercise in nomenclature to me. However, I do agree with the premise of this article that the Who's greatest musical is not the more highly rated Tommy, it's instead the magical, grandiose Quadrophenia. The two instrumentals alone are the best composed and played rock music i've ever heard, while side three - "5:15", "Sea and Sand", "Drowned", and "Bell Boy" - contains all members of the Who firing on all cylinders for the last time on album. I couldn't recommend listening to the album in it's entirety more.

Making Monotony Interesting

I've been listening to Phil Manley's "Life Coach" recently and the phrase that comes to mind is "making monotony interesting." I mean that in the best way! The song starts off with a simple drum loop that is quickly joined by a relatively static electronic bass riff that rides out the whole song. Eventually, a guitar plays an ethereal riff for about a minute before moving to the same riff as the bass except that the notes go up and down the scale note by note. It sounds very much like Rainbow Dome Musick-era Steve Hillage (before he discovered drum kits and formed System 7).

The song itself is nothing special, but the combination of the sounds really does something to me. Perhaps it's the echo of the guitar that bounces off of the back of the soundstage of the song. Or perhaps it has something to do with Terry Riley.

 From what I understand, Terry Riley's In C was one of the first "minimalist" compositions in that it consisted of musical stasis that gradually transforms itself into something different, often so subtly that you don't even notice it until things have changed. I think of "In C" a lot, even if I find the actual recording I have to be unlistenable. The theory is sound, I just feel that it works better with electronic instruments than in a classical orchestral setting. For example, Pete Townshend was thinking of Terry Riley when he wrote the famous - and kick-ass! - keyboard riffs of Who's Next (going so far as to name "Baba o'Riley" after the composer). I also hear Terry Riley in the Orb, in particular the amazing "oxbow lakes" off of Orbus Terrarum where the static piano riff slowly changes into something else as the electronic madness takes over...

The last example that comes immediately to mind is múm's "Slow Bicycle" that rides essentially the same riff for a good nine minutes but is mesmerizing all the same. Oh, and The Days Of Mars by Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom!

I could go on and on but my main point of this rambling post is that montonous music can be interesting if the musician gives you the space to ride the groove - and you accept it. And that following musical influences into the past is really a hell of a lot of fun.

Hunter's Songs

For the last month, Hunter has been singing phrases from three songs nonstop. These are:

1. "Who are you? Who who, who who?" - from The Who's Who Are You.
2. "Let my love open the door" - from Pete Townshend's Empty Glass.
3. "Got a Devil's Haircut... in my mind" - from Beck's Odelay.

I'm psyched that he's turning out to have really good taste, regardless of his affinity for the Fresh Beat Band.

Quote of the Day

When you pick up a pencil and sharpen it up
When you're kicking the fence and still nothing will budge
When the words are immobile until you sit down
Never feel they're worth keeping, they're not easily found
Then you know in some strange, unexplainable way
You must really have something -
Jumping, thumping, fighting, hiding away
Important to say

When you sing through the verse and you end in a scream
And you swear and you curse 'cause the rhyming ain't clean
But it suddenly comes after years of delay
You pick up your guitar, you can suddenly play
When your fingers are bleeding and the knuckles are white
Then you can be sure, you can open the door
Get off of the floor tonight:
You have something to write!
...
You can walk, you can talk, you can fight
But inside you've got something to write
In your hand you hold your only friend
Never spend your guitar or your pen
Your guitar or your pen
- Pete Townshend, "Guitar and Pen" off of Who Are You

Once a Thief...

Because there’s a lot of misinformation out there, I’d like to take a moment to set the record straight about Pete Townshend.

A few years back he was arrested under suspicion of being a child pornographer. However, what had happened was this: in the process of writing his autobiography, he began to uncover repressed memories of abuse he suffered as a child. So he went to his computer and started looking around to learn what he could about these new memories and sensations he was feeling, and of course some of the links he found were to child porno sites. Amazed that one so easily find filth like this, he entered in a credit card so that he could see what other kinds of depravity was in the site. Here’s where he made his stupid mistake: Being a celebrity, he’s not used to thinking about consequences. My impression is that he thought that he was going to educate himself and then do some form of exposé. However, what he did – however inadvertently – was purchase child pornography. So he was arrested and charged.
However, After an investigation, the British government exonerated him from any blame. You can see all of the details at petetownshendisinnocent.com , but the damage was done: you still hear ignorant comments about how “sick” Townshend is from people (like the execrable Dennis & Callahan on WEEI) who are unaware of the situation.

The long and short of it is that if you’re familiar with his work – and particularly his efforts with the Children’s Health Fund – would know that he’s appalled by child abuse in any form. The incident was a result of poor judgment, and not of any depravity on Townshend’s part.
Thanks.

... adding, if you don't get the title reference, check this out.

Quote of the Day

My karma tells me
You've been screwed again.
If you let them do it to you
You've got yourself to blame.
It's you who feels the pain
It's you that feels ashamed.
- Pete Townshend, "The Dirty Jobs" off of Quadrophenia.

(It's much more moving when sung by Roger.)

Information Wants to be Free

Can someone tell me why Pete Townshend puts his very interesting blog behind the who.com firewall? Does anyone really pay them $50 a year for the right to buy recent live gigs and read his blog?
I'd be more inclined to keep up - and potentially buy stuff - i I could do it for free.

Nice Try

As much as I love Pete Townshend, I don't think he's trying to be subversive in the new Pepsi commercials featuring "My Generation" as Hendrik Hertzberg suggests:

My second reaction was a suspicion that maybe Townshend hasn't completely lost his subversive touch after all. Maybe he’s just redirected it inward. “Hope I die before I get old” (a line included in the sixty-second version) has a certain ironic, shamefaced piquancy now that the spokesmusicians for the sixties are in their sixties. That hope for a quick, Hendrix-like demise has been dashed, along with The Who’s retirement portfolio, if theirs is like everybody else's. But renting out an antique anthem of rebellion isn’t just a way to ensure that the money will be there to pay for an assisted living facility, it’s also a subtly devastating comment on where and how our g-g-generation ended up. Good one, Pete!

Um. While a good try, I don't think this is it. Pete's on record as saying that he has no problem selling his songs to fund his charitable organizations as well as giving him the freedom to create music.