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Who Books



Someone asked for it, so here it is...

THE LEDBETTER CONDENSED GUIDE TO THE MAJOR WHO BOOKS


1. "Maximum R&B", by Richard Barnes

This is a book with many excellent qualities; it has lots and lots of
pictures (many in color! some not available anywhere else!), it provides
a decent history of the Who without being too long, and is pretty funny
at that. "Maximum R&B" also contains a number of first-hand stories and
anecdotes (Barnes is a longtime Townshend cronie and longtime member of
the Who entourage). There aren't any particularly deep insights or
startling revelations in "Maximum R&B", but it's good light reading. The
only real problem I have with this book is the cheap binding. My
secondhand first-edition copy is held together with packaging tape and
string. I don't know if the binding on the recently released
second-edition (with an extra chapter covering the Who after 1982) is
any better, although I can hardly imagine it being any worse. Thanks to
the new edition, "Maximum R&B" is readily available at most large
bookstores. I believe the current retail price is somewhere around $25.


2. "Before I Get Old", by Dave Marsh

The first thing you're probably going to notice about this book is its
size. It runs 546 pages, which includes 22 pages of bibliography and
index. It takes Mr. Marsh nearly 200 pages just to get up to the release
of the "My Generation" album. Another 100 or so pages are gone before
Pete begins to get some ideas for what will eventually become "Tommy".
At around page 400 we get to "Quadrophenia", and the final nine years of
the Who prior to the official break-up in '82 are crammed into about 110
pages. Holy smashed guitar bits, Birdman, this book is way too long! And
it's not because Mr. Marsh put in so many fascinating stories about the
Who either. It's because he takes up page after page with dull
digressions, pretentious psycho-babble, and tedious theories. This isn't
to say that there's nothing worthwhile or interesting contained in
"Before I Get Old", it just takes a bit of doing to get to the good
parts. The only time I ever read this book in its entirety was a year
ago, over winter break, when I was so sick I couldn't get out of bed for
a week. When not bedridden, I prefer to just skip the boring sections,
and I reccomend that anyone else reading this book do the same. You can
get a copy of "Before I Get Old" at many large bookstores for about $11,
but I advise that anyone looking for this book do what I do and either
get it secondhand (about $6), or else just check it out from the
library.


Of course, these two Who books aren't the only ones available, they're
just the ones that are both detailed and easy to find. Either of the two
books I described above would be a good place for a new Who fan to look
for general information, amusing stories, and Who trivia (QUICK! Name
all of Roger's legitimate children!). Yes, the Who is fun fun fun for
the entire family, so why not learn a bit more about 'em? Go ahead, read
a Who book today!

                           -Yellow "American Literacy Counsel" Ledbetter
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