[no subject]

With some artists, you're able to completely separate
the music from the person. Led Zeppelin was known for
its debauchery and young groupies in the '70s, but the
music (with a few exceptions) doesn't reflect the bad
things they did as individuals. 

Townshend's art, on the other hand, has been very
personal and autobiographical, including Rough Boys,
Behind Blue Eyes, Slit Skirts and Now and Then. He's
intertwined his life with his art - and that's been a
prime reason that fans feel such devotion to him. It's
also a prime reason that many feel more than a little
queasy at the moment. 

Even if he's telling the truth - he says he viewed it
one time as research - his logic is all messed up.
Besides forever tarnishing his own life, art and
career, he put actual cash in the pockets of child
pornographers - the profits and working capital they
need to keep doing evil. According to the BBC,
Operation Ore turned up 6,000 people paying $30 each
per month for access to the kiddie porn. That's nearly
$2.2 million a year going to a single Web site for
child exploitation. 

And some of that money was Townshend's. That's close
to unforgivable right there, and something that
Townshend should well have realized as he was entering
his credit-card number on the Web site. 

His fans - myself among them - hope that it was just
an idiotic, momentary lapse of judgment. But in the
end, Townshend's story is either going to pan out or
it's not. His computer hard drive will reveal whether
he (very stupidly) researched a taboo subject just one
time or whether he needs to go away from the rest of
society for a very long time.


=====
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com
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