In defense of The Who

[Brian Cady]

>From The Oregonian
http://tinyurl.com/krjja

Who's back! 
Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey return to the road with a new album, a revered repertoire and an unbreakable bond with fans 
Friday, October 06, 2006
MARTY HUGHLEY

Apparently Pete Townshend overestimated the politeness of most people. For years now, rock critics and other curmudgeonly commentators have tossed that famous lyric back in Townshend's face every time the Who has gathered whatever is left of itself for a tour.

Now the surviving original members, Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey, are 61 and 62, respectively. And they're on the road again, heading toward a Tuesday night Rose Garden arena show. As on the last jaunt through the Northwest -- in 2002, when the band played at the Gorge Amphitheatre, only a week or so after the death of bassist John Entwistle -- Townshend and Daltrey will be joined by bassist Pino Palladino (lately of John Mayer's blues-rock trio), drummer Zak Starkey (son of Ringo Starr), backing singer/guitarist Simon Townshend (Pete's younger brother), and keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick. 
In all likelihood, it'll be a fine show, full of both professionalism and passion. Most assuredly, it will wrestle with the weight of time and the band's place in rock history.

So let's get something clear.

There's no shame in being an old rock 'n' roller, especially not if you're Pete Townshend.

My generation gap 

For one thing, that oft-repeated couplet doesn't necessarily signify the youth fixation it's nonetheless been made to represent. According to John Perry's book-length exegesis on the Who album "Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy," the band's manager Kit Lambert had told the still-teenage Townshend to write an anthem. And the words, "Things they do look awful cold/ Hope I die before I get old," should be interpreted in the context of the generational battle line the song draws. It's saying, in effect, "I hope I die before I get old and start acting like they do." It's about values, behaviors and attitudes -- so generationally at odds in 1965 -- not about age.

That lyric aside, though, there's another age-related problem for classic rock bands: the nostalgia trap. It cuts two ways. An act such as the Who can focus on its glorious old repertoire and be criticized for living in the past. Or it can play new music and be criticized for not being like it was in the past. Either way, the band gets branded as no longer relevant.

But the case against nostalgia is, in some key ways, unfair and wrongheaded. As Brian Doherty wrote in an essay at Salon.com in 2002, "rejecting the still-living possibilities of classic rock bands relies on an attitude toward rock that deifies it and demeans it simultaneously. . . . Those who insist that rock 'n' roll must be about youth and rebellion and represent some sort of Dionysian explosion are being critical fascists. . . . Nostalgia might be a nasty name for cultural depth and resonance."

Nostalgia does have its dangers, though, and a particular one for Townshend. His songs in the '60s and well into the '70s were so effective at evoking and examining what it felt like to be young and simultaneously frustrated and hopeful, that fans formed extreme attachments to them. So much so that it's often hard to appreciate how gamely Townshend has continued to grapple with the much more complex conundrums of ideals and identity for adults.

A hip reinvention 

Townshend always has struggled to keep the Who as a vital artistic concern, not just a hits-in-aspic stage show. As he told the Philadelphia Inquirer recently, "I didn't want to tour unless I had new music. I couldn't really see the point of taking the old circus around the world. I just felt there was a kind of pointlessness to it."

But then his mother broke her hip.

"We all thought she would . . . wither away, and maybe go nuts and die," Townshend told that paper. "But she didn't. She rallied. She got herself together, healed up, and continued to cause lots of trouble. 
"I kind of dusted myself down and thought: 'Well, if she can . . . do it, I can do it.' "

And so came a batch of new songs that form the basis for the forthcoming Who album, "Endless Wire," due out at the end of this month. (See accompanying review.)

While it might not be a new Who classic, the album is a successful renewal of the brand. As Townshend told the British paper the Observer, "I sensed that what Roger and I should do was honor the brand, honor the history, honor the classicism. We should respect the fact of what we did, and accept our knighthood. And just live with it."

And may they live with it till they're very old.

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