Top 25 Classic Rock albums

IGN.com picks their Top 25 Classic Rock albums of all time:

IGN.com

Usually I ignore such things, but who am I to argue with their #1 choice?

1. The Who - Quadrophenia (MCA, 1973)
Where Tommy laid out the definitive blueprint for the rock opera, Quadrophenia improved upon it by leaps and bounds. This is, without a question, doubt, or any argument whatsoever, The Who's crowning achievement as a band. Every single song bristles with emotion, both raw and introspective. Pete Townshend's songwriting is at its peak, as is his guitar playing and singing. Roger Daltry steps up to the plate and slams out some searing vocal emotion. Meanwhile both John Entwistle and Keith Moon prove that they were one of the best rhythm duos of their (or anybody's) day. There's no need to list all the songs here, since each and every one is a classic. If you don't own this album it causes one to query "What's wrong with you?" Seriously.

A History of The Who

I'll be premiering this on the first of April but for you, my loyal readers, a chance to read it in advance.

Scott Smith asked me to add to my old History of the Who at thewho.net but, after looking it over, I decided to completely re-write it from scratch. The idea was to tell the story in as concise a form as possible; basically being what you needed to know: who did what that led to what, why they were different and important and touch on the major controversies.

I hope you enjoy it. As always, my door is open if you feel I've cocked the whole thing up. Stop on by.

Go to:
A History of The Who

Pete Townshend - (who he?) - 13 through 17

So we get to the part where it becomes clear how much of the early chapters of The Boy Who Heard Music were based on Pete's personal life. Rather a lot, as it turns out. No wonder he is obsessed with combating child abuse. And I think of the monster moralists out there with whom I and others have to do battle over his 2003 hardships and it makes me sick.

The Sea Scouts business does obscure a very important part of Pete's musical development, the discovery of the "drone." Pete's love for repeated musical notes comes up in so much of his work from "Circles" to the instrumental at the core of "Rael" and "Sparks" and the swirling synthesized notes of "Baba O'Riley" and so many others of the Lifehouse song cycle. You can actually hear the specific drone at the beginning of "The Rock."

And whatever became of all those childhood drawings? I hope once Pete gets back home, he can scan and post a few of them.

The End of The Who in America?

This question arises after Pete's blog about cancelling a planned Who leg for North America in August. You can read it here:

Pete's Blog

Does this mean that The Who show for March 26 will be The Who's last in the U.S.? If Pete's concerned enough about Roger's health to cancel shows five months from now, who knows if he'll ever feel secure enough for The Two to take to the road again? We shall see.

Odd that it might end at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Oddest of all, however, that it will be FORTY YEARS AND ONE DAY PRECISELY since they first performed in the U.S., at the R.K.O. Theatre in New York as part of Murray The K's Easter bash.

Roger around the corner

Wouldn't it be great to have Roger around the corner ready to go "Yeeeeeaaahhey!" whenever you said anything momentous? Dennis Volkert at Sturgis Journal talks about how great that would be:

Sturgis Journal

and what would a blog be with a YouTube to illustrate what that would be like?

Ron Nevison interview

Ziggy over at THE WHO FORUM has posted a Q&A with Ron Nevison who worked with Pete engineering the Quadrophenia album, which Pete just called his best work at SxSW. Do read it if you're interested in the album (and who isn't?).

Apparently Pete recorded his synths and acoustic guitar at his home studio while John recorded the horns at his home studio, both using a click track. It was then Nevison's job to sync the lot up. It's a wonder it took only eight months to do it. It's a wonder it could have been done at all. One flaw you can hear even in the remastered version is a tape deck starting up during the beginning of "5:15".

Pete Townshend - (who he?) - 6 through 12

These chapters take us from September 1951 through the summer of the following year and detail, as much as Pete could discover, of his time with his mad Grandmother Denny.

Denny seems like a character from Dickens or Charlotte Bronte. Who would have played her in the 1940's movie version? Margaret Hamilton? Judith Anderson? Agnes Moorehead?

As I noted in a reply on Pete's site, there also is an echo of Chaplin's My Autobiography here. Chaplin's mother went insane (tertiary syphilis as it turns out). Of course Pete didn't end up in a Victorian orphanage as Charlie did. Otherwise we would have "that tramp sure plays a mean pinball."

After the Denny incident Pete goes into his mother's affair at that time. He doesn't talk about how it affected his own view of marriage. Pete, by his own account, fought hard for his marriage and it was probably the primary reason for retiring from The Who in 1983. The ending of the Tommy musical has Tommy rejected because he quits the rock star game to spend more time with his family; a re-write of the ending that was meant to reflect Pete's last attempt to maintain his marriage with Karen. Did he see himself in his father, inviting infidelity by remaining on the road? Did he feel that his children would be threatened by his absence as he had been by his father's?

Pete Townshend - (who he?) - 2 through 5

Pete got this a bit rearranged before I could get to the post last night, breaking what was a segment of Chapter One into four additional chapters.

Two through Five deals with Pete's parents Cliff and Betty Townshend.

A history and photos of The Squadronaires:
http://www.maybole.org/Notables/mcquater/squadronaires.htm

Click here to watch The Squadronaires performing in 1951 (good close-up of Cliff!). Click on the Download Video link. There is an option to download a free preview.
http://tinyurl.com/yrzbla

An ex-Squadronaire recalling Cliff complaining about Pete and his friends: http://www.jazzprofessional.com/ronspages/squads.htm

There's a guy with a website where he collects Cliff, but I can't find it right now. If I do, I'll post it here.

Funny that Cliff was in Owsley's British fascist movement and the reason was the "Uniforms." Link to Modism? Wonder if there was any problem about that when Cliff joined the RAF? Is that why he didn't fly? Probably for the best, of course. Wouldn't want him to go missing, only to return years later and shoot Betty's lover right in front of Pete! A "deaf, dumb and blind" Pete is hard to imagine. Hell, a non-talking Pete is hard to imagine!

Turns out Billy Nicholls' dad, also named Billy Nicholls, was in Cliff's band. Here's an interview where Billy Nicholls fils mentions his dad:
http://www.geocities.com/mikegriffiths6/Billy_Nicholls_Email_Interview_1.html

Chapter 1 - 1 Excerpt

I got to visit the area in the first two paragraphs during the 1998 Who convention. Here's a picture of the White Hart Hotel I took then:

Look closely and you can see some of the detail Pete talks about seeing from the bus.

We then meet his grandfather Horace. A slightly odd fellow for a slightly odd family. Do not forget that England was a terrifically class-conscious society at that time. Very pregnant brides were simply not done and one didn't touch musical instruments unless it was a little piano playing for a good sing-a-long on occassion. A bit of the non-conformist in this family.

And why wasn't Pete confirmed? Look at this passage I snagged from an Anglican website:

...you have to be confirmed before you are able to take Communion. Being confirmed means that you accept the promises made for you when you were baptized - to love God and obey his commandments. Normally you are confirmed as a teenager, but there isn't a set age - you can decide when you are ready...

Did Pete just never decide to go through with it? Did he not believe? Interesting question considering the giant role religion will play in his later life.

Also don't miss the business with the busking on Brighton Pier (the one Ken Russell would burn down filming Tommy?). His grandmother's response that they were performing to raise money 'for ourselves' is more than slightly ironic considering the hot water her grandson will get into by daring to link his music and money later in life. The Townshends Sell Out!