Re: Gay Who Fans

[James Marshall Boswell <jboswel@emory.edu>]

Actually, that interpretation of Quad sounds perfectly legit to me.  
Whatever Townshend did or did not say in some famous radio interview 
about being bisexual and which Timothy White may or may not have 
misquoted out of context, I think a healthy dose of sexual anxiety sits 
at the heart of Townshend's work and particularly Quad (Is it me for a 
moment?).  If you doubt that Townshend has at least considered going 
the other way, just listen to the first stanza of "How Many 
Friends." I'm also glad you brought up "Ask Yourself," an interesting 
tape-loop experiement from Scoop II in which Pete repeats the line, "Do I 
really love this man?"  One of the things I would add, however--and this 
is particularly true in the case of Tommy--is that many of Townshend's 
most searching moments as re: sexual identity are also AT THE SAME TIME 
deeply religious explorations about *spiritual* identity.  Perhaps it has 
something to do with his participation in the Meher Baba cult, but 
whenever Townshend writes of religious experience it is vaguely 
or even overtly homoerotic.  "And I Moved" and "Don't Let Go The Coat" 
come to mind.  But this kind of thing has a long and distinguished 
history.  I refer you to John Donne's deeply moving, and deeply 
disturbing, religious sonnet, "Batter My Heart Three-Personed God, For 
You," in which Donne imagines himself as a bride and God as a groom 
who--are you ready for this--storms the bride's boudoir and rapes 
him/her.  "Take me to you," Donne writes to his God, "imprison me, for I 
/ Except you enthral me, never shall be free, / Nor ever chaste, except 
you ravish me."  Sounds like Pete, sort of.