Re: Why should you despair?

["Brian Cady" <cadyb@home.com>]

From: Mark R. Leaman <mleaman@sccoast.net>
> I have to comment on this. I feel I need to talk to Pete, really, and
while
> I could EMail I doubt if he'd get it before the tour ends and he needs to
> hear this NOW.

Unless you have his private e-mail address (and not pt@eelpie.com and no, I
don't have it) he's not going to read it.  Put it in a letter and mail it
to:
Pete Townshend
c/o Eel Pie Recording Production Limited
4 Friars Lane
Richmond Green
Richmond
TW9 1NL

He or his secretary do read what is sent there.

> Perhaps you shouldn't. I don't care what you play. I have my preferences,
of
> course, but will accept what you offer.

I will, too but apparently Mark, you and I are part of a small group.  Who
fans are notorious whiners and the set list issue is one of the many areas
where they complain, complain, complain.

> Who taught us to be critics, Pete? You called the Beatles music "crap" in
an
> interview (I'd agree in the case you were speaking of) pretty early on.
You
> have always been vocal when it comes to music.
> You set a fucking high standard for Rock music. Hell, you turned Rock N
Roll
> into Rock yourself! It's understandable that we find most other
> bands/artists wanting.

And that's probably why Who fans are such notorious whiners.  As Roger says,
Who fans hold the band to a much higher standard than fans of other bands.
The Who don't get the chance to just go out on the road and be a band doing
a job of work.  That's what Pete is saying over and over in these messages.
Please let us be just a good rock & roll band!

At the same time Pete has talked a lot about people thinking "writing" is
the same thing as "doing."  Typically vague for Townshend but what I think
he's saying is the old saw about criticism is pointless because it made by
people who don't produce.  As one critic said in rejoinder, "I don't have to
know how to make a table to tell it's wobbly."

>  I have no control over it. I am powerless to affect its course.
>
> This is not true. You have total control. If you wanted to tour MY
> Generation and the material previous to it, the shows would go on.
> Smokestack Lightning, anyone?

> Art is like life, it rolls by unhindered.
>
> Art is controlled by the artist.

What I think Pete means is that he feels he is a conduit for his art and not
its source.  The art comes from something higher.  This is not an uncommon
thing for artists, even secular artists, to feel.  "I just sat down to the
page and the words poured out.  I don't know where they came from!"  What I
think he's hinting here is, I'll try to create something good for a new
album but if good stuff doesn't flow out of me there's nothing I can do
about it.  He's also scared because it's been so long since he's written for
a Who album and when he did for their last two albums he got slammed badly.

> How can anyone in their right mind describe previous Who tours as
'bloated',
> or 'self-indulgent' when they were in fact natural acts of artistic
> attrition and compromise?
>
> One "Pete Townshend" fact remains when others could be argued: you are
your
> own worst critic/enemy (same thing, really). You were the one who spoke of
> Tommy live being a cabaret in 1970. The Who on ice is another term.

Yes, exactly what I thought when I read it.  Pete gave these critics a lot
of the ammunition they are presently using against him.  Recently Rolling
Stone slammed him simply by listing the number of times he's said he'd never
tour with The Who again. Line up Pete's statements about The Who he's made
over the last twenty years and you'll find the source of a lot of the
cynicism presently swirling around the band.

>It's not like you took Pearl Jam and went on a Who cover
> band tour, like your friend Jimmy Page. THAT is self indulgent.

Or like Ray Davies performing Kinks songs with Yo La Tengo in New York
recently?  Careful Mark, this is a remark that turn and bite you very
easily.  And by the way, if you want to read a rave about that show in the
NY Times, go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/arts/davies-music-review.html

> It's seen so because The Who is the greatest stripped down band in the
> world. To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi: it is your destiny.

"Tell me 'bout the destiny I can't prevent.  And however much I squirm,
there ain't no way out!"
And two years before Obi-Wan.

> Small tours, single appearances...whatever makes YOU
> comfortable. We will accept it.

Except for constant bitching about it on all the Who mailing lists.

> I hope you get this ASAP, because I fear when you're in this frame of mind
> you will beat yourself up more.

As I thought, it was only a passing emotion as Monday's diary entry shows. I
can fully understand how he feels.  Maybe feeling a bit old for this, stuck
alone out on the road (anybody out there love having to travel a lot for
work?), far away from a much-younger girlfriend who, who knows?, might
realize in his absence that perhaps she should be dating someone more her
own age, a newspaper review in his hand calling the past work he sweated and
slaved over "bloated" and "indulgent" and then he arrives at his hotel room
to find a set list taped to his door saying, in effect, "play this or we
won't like you".  If I were him my message would have consisted only of
"Fuck you all."

        -Brian in Atlanta
         The Who This Month!
        http://members.home.net/cadyb/who.htm