The Who and Boys

[thirteen@the-spa.com]

With all the broo-ha-ha re. the Who as a "boy's band", I think we need to
put it in a better perspective. There is no 'a priori' reason for arguing
that the Who are a 'boy's band', but there are 'a posteriori' reasons for
demonstrating that the vast majority of their fans (record-buying public,
concert attendees, etc.) are male. 

For starters: In some interview, Pete has referred to the 'tough chicks' who
have comprised the historically small number of female concert attendees to
Who shows as something like teh "Who pitbulls". Also, Pete Meaden was
instrumental in allying Townshend and The Who with the Mods (an adolescent
male movement in the UK of the early '60s) when the moment presented itself.
Keith Altham, longtime publicist for The Who, writes, "All Mods really
lacked was an English band to express their lifestyle, frustration and
patriotism. With The Who -- or The High Numbers, as he rechristened them --
Meaden saw an opportunity to bring a band in search of an identity to a cult
in search of heroes; and Townshend swiftly picked up and assimilated the
hopes and aspirations of Mod. "[Keith Altham, in "Who, Me?" liner notes to
30 Yrs Max. R&B].

The Who established themselves as a  boy's band, a loud, aggressive band
fronted by rough-looking lads who swaggered with the self-mocking insolence
of the period's pop-art tradition and alternative sub-culture. By rock
standards of the day, they were a relatively ugly lot (not a serious threat
to, for example, the dashing good looks of factory-press UK hearthrobs, nor
to the affable and innocent characteristics of The Beatles). Longtime Who
fan and friend, Irish Jack Lyons, for example, who has followed The Who
since the earliest gigs of their career, is quoted in Marsh's "Before I Get
Old" as saying: "[The Detours] weren't a soppy light-hearted outfit churning
out pop songs for some silly bird with an engagement ring on her finger.
They were like us. That's why we respected them so much. They weren't above
us because they could play instruments and pull birds better than we could.
They drank in the bar with everyone and bought us drinks, as well. They were
like a sort of community band. They were our band."

The United States had no direct mods-rockers corollary -- from his 1968
Rolling Stone interview, Townshend tried to convey the mod sentiment in a
way U.S. audiences could relate to: comparing the prevalent 'hippie' scene
in the U.S. with the Mod scene in the U.K., Townshend argued that in the
U.S.: "The groups themselves can't become powerful, because they can be
weakened at so many points. They can be weakened by their education, by
their spirituality, by their intelligence, by the sheer fact that Americans
are more highly educated. The [mods] I'm talking about probably left school
when they were fourteen or fifteen. Some of them can't even read or
write...[Y]ou see something nearer, I suppose in what it's like to to be a
Hell's Angel..." [as quoted in Marsh, 286-7. Note: Townshend would later
commission a book on the Hell's Angels for Faber and Faber]. 

I do believe that the U.S. embrace of the Who stemmed from their being a
"boy's band" (in the same way that, until recent years, punk and alternative
music have been male-dominated industries). This is not to defend such a
notion, but simply to point out an empirical observation. 

FWIW: An informal poll conducted in July, 1996 of the 518 members of the
'Odds & Sods' internet listserve (from which 71 members responded) found
that: 82% of listserve members were male, 80% were from the US, the median
age was thirty-one, and the overwhelmingly favorite album was "Quadrophenia". 

Finding a female who's really into the Who is a rarity. I was introduced to
one about two years ago and saw stars in my eyes... she had prints of 'The
Who Sell Out' in her room. Aye carumba, we dated for a little while, but
broke up for all the reasons that people break up over. Why am I telling
everyone this? I don't know... probably the strong gin & tonics I've been
drinking for the last couple of hours...

D13