Re: Cincinnati - Dave, "Don't get fooled again!"

[JB2TheWho@aol.com]

Dave,

With all due respect, I fear that you totally missed the point in your quite
bitter reflections over what you discerned to have been the reaction of PETE
TOWNSHEND to the tragedy in Cincy, as reflected in your comment, a small
portion of which I have cited below..(MORE)

In a message dated 97-06-19 18:08:55 EDT, daelliott@lucent.com (Dave Elliott)
writes:

<< 
 From:	daelliott@lucent.com (Dave Elliott)
 Sender:	owner-thewho@igtc.COM
 To:	TheWho@igtc.COM
 
 > I wrote:
 > >I was quite miffed at Pete's interview on the subject in 80, and 
 > >profoundly
 > >disappointed that the tragedy never made it into any of his music.  He
 > >certainly finds the time to write about his personal struggles, and
 > >apparently the Cincinnati tragedy is not among them.
 > >
 > >My lesson from all of this was that Pete Townshend, The Who and their 
 > >music
 > >are not worth dying for.  I also learned that Pete can't really care 
 > >about
 > >us on a personal level, and even if he could he probably wouldn't.
 
Dave, I can see the perspective from which you are reacting, and IF that was
applicable in this case, which it isn't, I would be the first to agree with
you. Your interpretation would have been intelligent and reasonable if that
had been the quoted reaction from almost any other ROCK STAR, say a MICK
JAGGER or DAVID BOWIE, and I think that the problem here is that you do not,
as of yet, understand TOWNSHEND, (and it takes a while to really understand
him - like most of those rare, once or twice in a lifetime GENIUS-ARTISTS).
Thjs is because if any other ROCK STAR had found themselves in that position,
let's say Mick or David to keep the analogy going, on Lord, there would have
been huge, "CROCADILE TEARS", the tearing of hair, the beating of breasts. If
you want proof of that have a look at the superb bullshit act MICK JAGGER
performs for the camera in the flim "GIMMIE SHELTER", showing how all
so..so..so profoundly DEPRESSED and DISDRAUGHT and, to pick up on your
concern, how DEEPLY CARING Mick was while watching the "rushes" of the
disasterous Altamont Concert (where, for anyone who didn't walk the Earth
when the dinasaurs were here as did I, Mick's crack security squard, THE
HELL'S ANGELS beat a black man and stabbed him to DEATH right in front of the
stage - His apparent offense? He was there with a white chick. Take a good
look at that film, and long before the man gets killed Mick is fully aware
that the proverbial SHIT had hit the fan..and it was in his power to act, IN
HIS POWER to stop the show, but they would detract from his precious "bad
boy" image and that, in turn, could have cost him millions of dollars, so
Mick let the show go on and let the poor bastard get murdered..what...50 feet
from the front of the stage...)

If you've read up on Cincy, you are surely aware that the band, I mean THE
WHO, had NO IDEA WHATSOEVER that anything untowards had happened until they
had left the stage for the night. And this was not lack of concern, there was
nothing that, from the stage, could have been seen..it was all over. MICK
knew all about it BEFORE it happened and didn't give a F*#k, PETE TOWNSHEND
had no such opportunity....

But you main point seems to be your evaluation of his reaction afterward. And
if you relatively NEW to the legions of WHO fans, you're having interpereted
PETE's reaction as you did is perfectly understandable, and given that
interpretation, I too would have felt much the same way you did.

That's because we are both, as is everyone around us, surrounded by a culture
of artifice and bullshit. 

Mick Jagger let's a man get killed to spare his "bad Boy" image, so he
dutifully hires an extra expensive PR man or two and they tell him just how
to look all serious and depressed when the movie comes out..How to play "the
Brave, heroic ROCK STAR, confronting head on this tragedy which clearly (much
have had an acting coach as well) affected him so deeply at at one point, as
he was watching himself making a joke eariler, choaks back a tear and mutters
"RUBBISH!"..Ah, the rock star as caring human being, acting out for us the
deep and troubled feelings we all indignantly expect and demand after such a
tragedy and..oh...that will be $7.00 for your ticket before you see the
movie..thank you!

"Extra, Extra, Read all about it..Mega-Rock Star in a miracle moral cure.."

But Dave, if you think that Mick Jagger (and this could have been anyone
OTHER than PETE TOWNSHEND) gave a flying fuck about that murdered black man
for which he, unlike TOWNSHEND at CINCY was very much responsible ("I'm
Cool..I'm the leadinder of the Rolling Stones..the best rock and rock band in
the world (yeah, sure)..I say..no cops, man...I'm Mick, I know better, I'll
hire the Hell's Angels instead for $500 in Beer..and hell, the PR guy who
gave me the idea cost me more than that!"

So if you don't yet fully understand PETE TOWNSHEND, that this guy is VERYU,
VERY different from most of the "rock ledgends" out there - that PETE is
utterly FOR REAL and, at least when it comes to matters so tragic, he is
incapable of hiring a PR guy to tell him just the right amount of remorse to
display..exactly what to say...When you see someone like that, like PETE, WHO
refuses to play the game (which would be the worst possible slap in the face
of the parents and friends of the kids who died), WHO had no control over
what happened (It was a promoter's screw up which happened long before the
WHO even started playing), when you see someone like PETE care enough that he
didn't put on the expected act, didn't say the mandated words from the PR
types...Then you are seeing a profoundly caring and utterly bona fide artist
who finds emotions such as caring and grief far too signifigant to play act
away, a la Mick Jagger, for a movie camera...

I think Brian sort of got the rest of it really RIGHT and I will cite just a
bit of his reply below, then if you'll kindly bear with me, I close with a
real-life experience of my own..First, HERE'S BRIAN...

 Brian S Cady replies:
 > Instead of trying to refute this, I thought I'd just send in Pete's own
 > words and let everyone decide for themselves:
 > 
 > 	" 
> 	"I think what's not apparent to the outside world, in The
> 	 Who, is our bloody-minded brutality.  Our determination.
> 	 Our stamina, and our strength.  It's not apparent, because
> 	 we seem to brood so incessantly on our weaknesses, we seem
> 	 to have so many phobias; like everybody who really cares 
> 	 about rock.......We had to reduce it, because if we'd actually
> 	 admitted to ourselves the true significance of the event,
> 	 the true tragedy of the event, not just in terms of rock,
> 	 but the fact that it happened at one of our concerts, the
> 	 tragedy to us, in particular, if we'd admitted to that,
> 	 we could not have gone on and worked.  And we had a tour
> 	 to do....... When you go on the road you throw up an
> 	 armour around yourself, you almost go into a trance."
> 
>   I think it changed the way we feel about people. 
> 	 It's changed the way we feel about our audience.
> 
> 	Q: In terms of affection?
> 
> 	"In terms of affection, and also remembering constantly that
> 	 they are human beings and not just people in rows.
> 
> 	[small snip]
> 
> 	"I mean, I watched Roger Daltrey cry his eyes out after that
> 	 show.  I didn't but he did.  But now, whenever a f***ing
> 	 journalist asks you about Cincinnati, they expect you to
> 	 come up with a f***ing theatrical tear in your eye!  You
> 	 know: 'Have you got anything to say about Cincinnati?'  
> 	 'Oh, we were deeply moved, terrible tragedy, the horror,
> 	 the loss of life, arrrghh'  What do you do?  We did all
> 	 the things we thought were right to do at the time: sent
> 	 flowers to the f***ing funerals.  All wasted.  I think
> 	 when people are dead they're dead.
> 
> 	 (Rolling Stone June 26th, 1980 p. 38)
> 
> Well, there's the worst of it.  All I can say is how stupid of Pete to
> try to be honest with people.  Wouldn't we just have so much more respect
> for him if he had given us all the big theatrical tear instead of letting
> us into his head and heart to see how a real human being in a crisis
> reacts!...............

Dave, I think BRIAN really got it right it the citation from TOWNSHEND above,
but especially in HIS (BRIAN'S) own words..the last few cited above....I
mean, think about the "theatrical tear" BRIAN refers to and then have another
look at Mick Jagger in "GIMMIE SHELTER".

Again, I respect your reaction, Dave, but I just feel that as you get to know
TOWNSHEND better, you're quite likely to see it very different...We are ALL
initially conditioned to expect phonyness (that was for the spelling nut) and
when we encounter some rare, a PETE TOWNSHEND, would wouldn't "use" no, make
that "exploit" the deaths of those kids to show what a swell guy he is, it
takes getting used to...This guy TOWNSHEND is for real...

Finally, forgive me, but I can best close this with a personal example. My
father was a moderately well known novelist/writer. When he died 7-8 years
ago, I had to call a lot of his writing friends (many of them names you'd
recognize but which I shall avoid using with on exception), and to a
man..er..person...I was astonished at how similar the reaction was..And these
guys were bullshit artists like JAGGER, either...But we like in a phony
culture, and phoniness is demanded of us, until a genius like TOWNSHEND comes
along and holds up a mirror for us to "smash".

So in my case, the off-beat genius was a writer named TOM CLANCY, a rather
gruff guy, brilliant writer, but I didn't realize hoe brillaint until I
called him and instead of the usual crap...he mumbled a few akward words,
unwilling, as was TOWNSHEND, to put on the act. Then a week or two later we
got a note from TOM which read.."Look, I don't believe in flowers and cards
and bullshit like that..but I'm gonna dedicate my next book to your father!"

(Dedicating a book is a BIG DEAL for a writer, since you usually only
dedicate an entire book to just ONE person).

And for months we heard nothing more, but when the "next book" came out (this
was several titles ago), sure enough, CLANCY kept his word, and not only did
the dedication, but wrote the dedication using some of the most moving words
I had EVER read about my father from anyone. And to this day, when I have
occasion to reflect back on my own loss, it's TOM CLANCY's
"PETE-TOWNSHENDISH" reaction that I remember..and it's the only one that
means anything to me..

That's the great thing about GENIUS, it ALWAYS hits you upside the head and
after you get over the shock, you're bloody glad that it did!

Regards,

JB-------2TheWHO!