Review of "Minstrel's Dilemma"

[Brian Cady <cadyb@home.com>]

It did take me a while to get through Mr. Smith’s book.  I wanted to give it a
thorough chance and I’m glad I did.

First, I’m also one of those "let’s get pretentious" Who fans that feel that
Pete’s work can be considered "high art" and is as much deserving of analysis as
say, Hitchcock, about whose work there has been eight million books of analysis
written.

Smith’s approach is an odd choice for the first attempt at this kind of analysis
(if you don’t count Marsh’s or Charlesworth’s books.  I don’t).  He tries, at
least in the first section of the book, to cram Pete’s work into a "grid" by
comparing it to recent scholarly researches into the lives of medieval
minstrels.  Ultimately this proves too limiting and Pete’s art and its twisting
directions burst the seams of Smith’s theory.

After that point, the book improves as Smith tries to find the common threads in
the work of Mr. Windmill.  I think he correctly sees "The Seeker" as the key
that unlocks most of the meaning in Pete’s work although I’d go even farther
with it (I find "The Seeker" theme going back all the way to "I Can’t
Explain.").  I’d also have to say I disagree on his reading of certain songs. 
"The Kids Are Alright" doesn’t seem to me to be a tribute to Mod solidarity, but
rather Pete’s first break from the Mods.

Lyrics can often be a problem for Smith.  If the lyric sheet doesn’t come with
the CD, he often mishears lines and the Who fan with ears will find more than a
few misreadings in his reprinted lyrics.  Also Smith uses the U.S.
pre-remastered CD’s as if they were the standard.  Hence The Who’s first album
is "The Who Sings My Generation" and was released in 1966.  Imagine a Beatle
expert saying their first album was "Meet The Beatles" released in 1964 and you
can see how unprofessional that is.

But before you give up, skip ahead.  Once Smith gets to The Who’s last works and
Pete’s solo pieces, his analysis improves.  For once, someone talks about "Face
Dances" and "It’s Hard" without being "deaf, dumb and blind" to what Pete was
trying to do just because Keith doesn’t drum on them.  And his readings of
"Chinese Eyes," "Horse’s Neck," "White City" and "Psychoderelict" open up a lot
of meaning for those works.  Whether you want to pay $39.95 U.S. for two-thirds
of a good book is up to you.

One additional feature is that Pete’s 1997 communications with the author give a
preview of his forthcoming autobiography.  If some of his remembrances here are
a key (I was never hung up on my nose; this, that and the other were just "media
posturing," etc.) you may want to buy several copies so you can throw some out
the window as you read.

Pete Townshend: The Minstrel’s Dilemma
by Larry David Smith
Praeger Publishers
88 Post Road West
Westport, CT 06881
ISBN: 0-275-96472-8

			-Brian in Atlanta