I have a very weird feeling about this: The Who, meaning Townshend, Daltrey and friends, are attempting to record again for the first time in 20 years (and that one doesn't really count anyway). I have been very vocal about excoriating the Who (and others) for continuing to tour under their famous name in a greatly diminished capacity, especially with Entwistle gone.
But for some strange reason, I am oddly hopeful that this news may yield something of worth - Townshend is certainly due. Perhaps forcing himself to write "in the spirit of The Who," to think Who-like again, will stir his creative juices:
- Writing on his Website (www.petetownshend.co.uk) this week, in a diary entry titled "Resolution," Townshend says he and Daltrey had "a very warm meeting" earlier this month and plan to reconvene their band for some upcoming charity events and then take to the studio.
"Expect some new music to arrive in about a year, maybe later," Townshend says.
Daltrey and Townshend are the lone surviving members of the seminal British band. Bassist John Entwistle died of a cocaine-fueled heart stoppage earlier this year, on the eve of the Who's most recent tour, and drummer Keith Moon died of an accidental overdose in 1978.
If the proposed Who album does manage to get made, it will be the group's first collection of new recordings since the ill-received It's Hard in 1982.
Townshend, Daltrey and Entwistle did collaborate under the Who moniker for a cover of Arthur Brown's "Fire" on Townshend's 1989 solo album, The Iron Man, but the group has only been a touring entity for the last two decades.
....Aside from finishing his own songs, Townshend says he expects Daltrey to kick in some tunes too. "I am very keen too to see Roger find some creative outlet on this future Who recording," Townshend writes. "He is full of ideas, passion and energy--he bears quite a disturbed and serious view of the world at the moment."
While Townshend made no mention of what side musicians would back him and Daltrey on the new Who tracks, it seems likely that the rockers would bring in their touring band--bassist Pino Palladino, keyboard player John "Rabbit" Bundrick, drummer Zak Starkey and Townshend's youngest brother, Simon, on backing vocals and acoustic guitar.
Article comments
1 - Mike Finley
Townshend is such a cipher -- almost extremely great, but sometimes just hard to like.
Has he had a listenable solo album since Empty Glass? And that was about 1982.
He is one of those wounded figures of rock who strike defiant poses as youths, then crumble like sand castles for the next 30 years.
I saw them at their peak. August, 1971, Chicago's Auditorium Theater, just after releasing "Who's Next."
Keith Moon was transcendant with his "ocean rolls." Townshend jumped four feet in the sir to do his windmills. Daltrey was already doing his mike-spinning thing. And there stood Entwhistle like a stone wall.
Doobadee dum dum dum dum dum dum -- talking bout my generation.
Last I heard Townshend is very deaf and working out the details of being a 60-ish transvestite. Daltrey is having trouble finding work. And Keith and John are mouldering in the grave.
2 - Eric Olsen
Mike, I certainly don't disagree with your overall assessment, I just think it's possible Townshend has something left in him, and since it's been so long since he came up with anything decent (Empty Glass, as you mentioned), he may be able to dig deep and come up with something. I am not counting on it, however.
3 - Dave
I thought All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes was better than Empty Glass. White City and the music-only Psychoderelict were OK.
4 - Ed Driscoll
I was a rabid Who and Pete Townshend fan in high school, so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt, but I really enjoyed Chinese Eyes--in fact I was listening to it recently and was surprised at how well its best tunes held up.
White City wasn't bad, the subsequent Brixton "Deep End" concert that was released on CD and videotape to support it was excellent, but it seems like it's been (more or less) downhill from there. Or maybe it's that Townshend has gotten so pretentious that he's managed to lose even me.
Ed