Good Pete Townshend video interview...pretty funny and interesting

JF-30

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Read his book a few years back. The Who haven't made a decent album since Who Are You. Pete has written great songs and The Who used to rock like no one else, but they are dinosaurs and need to stop putting out garbage and touring for a cash grab. Saw them in '82 it was loud and just okay.
 

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Read his book a few years back. The Who haven't made a decent album since Who Are You. Pete has written great songs and The Who used to rock like no one else, but they are dinosaurs and need to stop putting out garbage and touring for a cash grab. Saw them in '82 it was loud and just okay.

i saw them in 91 or 90, forget, tommy tour. it was ok. and i would not include who are you in a good album category :) who by numbers was their last good album. still, tommy and quadro, and in between who's next, wow, such classics. tommy a tad weird for me but quadro and who's next were my faves. live at leeds too and kids are alright.
 

JF-30

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Tommy came out in '69.

Who Are You,(which is my fav Who song) the album came out over 40 years ago. When will the dinosaurs stop the madness. The Stones, Yes, Eagles, The Who ect. Still touring. Granted these are all bands I love, but none have made albums I've bought since the early 80's.

Take a tip from the Fab 4 they said F-U touring and never toured as The Beatles again, even when cash was thrown in their face. They didn't need it. They went out making one of the best albums of their career.
 
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Brucebubs

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Big fan, thanks for posting that.

I thought Pete's 'Iron Man' album released in 1989 was under rated. It had some wonderful tracks.
 

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I think the only song I can remember form that was Dig. Love Empty Glass. Never got into Who Came First.
 

adorshki

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Tommy came out in '69.

Who Are You,(which is my fav Who song) the album came out over 40 years ago. When will the dinosaurs stop the madness. The Stones, Yes, Eagles, The Who ect. Still touring. Granted these are all bands I love, but none have made albums I've bought since the early 80's.
Grace Sick on aging rock stars:
"I left rock and roll professionally at about 49. That’s too long as far as I’m concerned. Some people can do it; it depends on what you were. If you were pretty and young and wore short skirts and were busy trying to be sexy and all that (bleep) at 25, it worked. If you’re 50, it doesn’t work quite as well"
and:
"Anyone who's 71 years old would look ridiculous singing rock"

In the spirit of trying to see both sides, (and not that I don't think your point also has validity); it just occurred to me that all those bands have only ever done 2 things in their lives, record and perform.
Should they take a mandatory retirement at some specified age, especially if there's still demand for their performances?
After all, a money grab won't work if nobody wants to buy tickets.
Why should they be different than any of their predecessors like the big bands from the '30's and '40's that were still selling tickets to shows in the '70's?
I say more power to 'em even if I agree that the bulk of new material from most of those "dinosaur" bands doesn't grab me like the stuff they did when I (and they) were just getting started.
I think "Who Are You" is a great tune and performance but it's more of a cerebral appreciation, it don't grab me by the gut and force me to move like every single minute of Live at Leeds does.
Which I've replaced twice, but I never held "Who Are You" the song in high enough esteem to actually have to own it and buy the album because of it.
It's only on the "If money was no object..." list.



Take a tip from the Fab 4 they said F-U touring and never toured and The Beatles again, even when cash was thrown in their face.

To be fair a large part of that was due to the fact that they knew their new material with sophisticated arrangements and even electronic effects as on Rubber Soul and Revolver could never be performed live.
Take a look at the set list for their next-to-last tour show ever, Budokan on July 2nd '66:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-beatles/1966/nippon-budokan-tokyo-japan-53d67f59.html
There is nothing on there from Revolver which was about to be released (August '66), and Pepper's material was already glinting Paul and John's minds, so to speak.
A secondary but equally important consideration was their frustration with the capacity of the state of the art amplification of the day, most of the time they could barely hear themselves over the audience especially in the stadium venues and could tell the performances were suffering because of it too.
They did of course miss the feeling of camaraderie they had when performing live and gave the "Rooftop concert" in January '69, and then in fact some of the neighboring businesses actually registered noise complaints(!).
A far cry from the unadulterated adulation of original Beatlemania.
Then of course the subsequent internal animosities delayed a reunion until it was too late, especially since none of 'em really "needed" the money..but Paul, for example, never abandoned the role of the working musician:
Always had a formal band either recording or performing.
"It's what they do".
 
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Westerly Wood

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Tommy came out in '69.

Who Are You,(which is my fav Who song) the album came out over 40 years ago. When will the dinosaurs stop the madness. The Stones, Yes, Eagles, The Who ect. Still touring. Granted these are all bands I love, but none have made albums I've bought since the early 80's.

Take a tip from the Fab 4 they said F-U touring and never toured as The Beatles again, even when cash was thrown in their face. They didn't need it. They went out making one of the best albums of their career.

I like how Led Zepp called it quits in Bonham died. that is the way to do it
 

Brucebubs

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I think the only song I can remember form that was Dig. Love Empty Glass. Never got into Who Came First.

What about 'Rough Mix' with Ronnie Lane?

I have the 'dual disc' cd/dvd and some of the tracks on the dvd side are alternative versions.
 

adorshki

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And the time he was desperate to make sure Townshend didn't get wind of his session with Page, Beck, John Paul Jones and Nicky Hopkins for "Beck's Bolero"
:glee:

He even almost took the vows under Frank Zappa's watch in 200 Motels:
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866c62b6a66f70706507bb9522ee9bb6.jpg

8fa8fc9ff624b0bef90eb6aa4751ec7d.jpg
 

Westerly Wood

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Moon arrived at the studio disguised in sunglasses and a Russian cossack hat.[9] When Entwistle did not show, studio musicians John Paul Jones and Nicky Hopkins were brought in at the last minute to provide bass and piano
 

Westerly Wood

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even better:

For all their attempts at secrecy, Townshend learned of Moon's move. Beck recalled, "I remember [Pete] Townshend looking daggers at me when he heard it ... because it was a bit near the mark. He didn't want anybody meddling with that territory [his band, the Who] at all". Townshend also took to referring to Beck and Page as "flashy little guitarists of very little brain" for their perceived subterfuge (Page responded with "Townshend got into feedback because he couldn't play single notes"). In a later interview, Townshend explained

The thing is when Keith did Beck's 'Bolero', that wasn't just a session, that was a political move. It was at a point when the group was very close to breaking up. Keith was very paranoid and going through a heavy pills thing. He wanted to make the group plead for him because he'd joined Beck.
 

walrus

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McCartney still tours, but not for the money I'm sure. He's rich - royalties. Ringo also, but he's not as rich (by a lot!).

I can't speak for a Ringo show, but McCartney still performs at a high level, with the same 5 piece band. And whether you buy the albums or not, he has written new music pretty prolifically over decades. It's not all great stuff, but how can he ever match his work in The Beatles?

But one thing I will say that may or not apply to these other "dinosaur" bands. The emotion with which the people at McCartney's shows relate to him is unprecedented. The Beatles in particular and his solo work is the soundtrack to people's lives. I've never been to a show with any other artist where adults are tearing up with emotion at particular songs. The music he plays define their lives.

He has said many times he performs live because he enjoys it. I think he must know the impact he has on people, too.

Check out the James Corden "Carpool Karaoke" with Paul. Very emotional in parts, and very cool. It really interesting to see how people react to him. Everything just stops.

Here's the extended version if you have a few minutes. At 4:40 is when they start to talk about the impact of "Let It Be" on Corden's life.



walrus
 

JF-30

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I like how Led Zepp called it quits in Bonham died. that is the way to do it

They have only toured and played a ton shows as Zep since Bonzo died. So not really or at all. Its just recently Percy said he wont do the Zep stuff any more.
 

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What about 'Rough Mix' with Ronnie Lane?

I have the 'dual disc' cd/dvd and some of the tracks on the dvd side are alternative versions.

I liked My Baby Gives It Away. That is about it of that one.
 

walrus

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They did of course miss the feeling of camaraderie they had when performing live and gave the "Rooftop concert" in January '69, and then in fact some of the neighboring businesses actually registered noise complaints(!).
A far cry from the unadulterated adulation of original Beatlemania.

The new Abbey Road anniversary remaster has some banter before they do a run through of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". George Martin asks if they can turn it down, and John says why? One of the neighbors is complaining! And they are inside the studio by the way! It's actually pretty funny, it's within the first minute:



walrus
 

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Saw Macca in '15. He was really good and played about 3 hours, but his voice is not what it was. The rockers he can still pull off, but one of my all time fav Beatles songs Blackbird doing it solo his voice just is not there.

Yeah Starr and Macca are loaded and are not touring for cash. I'm glad I got to see a Beatle live, but I don't need to go see him again.
 
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