Thanks A Lot Mr. Kibblewhite: My Story Roger Daltrey

I just finished the audio version of this book. I’m a huge Who fan and I was looking forward to it. It was nice to hear the book narrated by Roger himself. It’s a solid book but I have only one complaint that I will get into below.

The positive about the book is you find out more about the different personalities of the Who and the reason they fought. Pete the artist, John the dark one, Keith the lunatic, and Roger blue-collar man of the band. We all knew those descriptions before but Roger tries to explain how it worked and didn’t work as a band. If you want to know The Who’s impact on rock music and culture go to Pete Townshend. If you want to get straight to the point with just the highlights…Roger is your man.

Roger is grounded, avoided most of the pitfalls in his profession,  hard-working, and loves interpreting Pete’s music to the world. He goes into how he changed his singing style with Pete’s writing. How he became Tommy and the mod in Quadrophenia. He hits the highlights of The Who and his life without the Who in the 80s and part of the 90s.

The strongest part of this book is about his childhood and his collection of relatives. Roger seems very approachable, likable, and down to earth. Roger was the one constant in the band that you didn’t have worry about his on tour activities. He does talk about the high points of the Who and his acting career.

My biggest complaint is the book is too short. You get the impression that he didn’t think that anyone would want to hear any details whatsoever.  He does give you some good stories but touches a subject and quickly leaves. It’s almost a cliff notes version as he didn’t dwell in any period long.

It is a quick and enjoyable read but leaves you wanting more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

17 thoughts on “Thanks A Lot Mr. Kibblewhite: My Story Roger Daltrey”

  1. I would have expected a book the size of say Bill Wyman’s Stone Alone- I mean this is The Who- you’d think there could be 300 pages of Keith Moon stories alone. The Who were not a vanilla band. When I saw the book my first thoughts were this is a one sitting read it was so slim…. My question for you today- what rock performer who hasn’t written their memoirs would you want to read a book from?

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    1. Great question! I’m thinking and now the big big ones have done one…except Mick I believe… I don’t see him ever doing one and actually telling the story.

      On Roger… I get he didnt’ go out with the others drinking a lot but the situations like recording albums would have been nice…he had to be there at them then! There are no big details. just touched on things

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      2. No he won’t… the reason I didn’t say him is because of the Barry Miles book but that doesn’t count on memoirs.

        Mick and Paul would never do it…

        What memoirs have you liked the most? The most entertaining one I’ve read was Keith Richards.

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      4. You know I will have to say…Robbie Robertson’s is up there with Keith.
        I will try Elvis’s.

        It’s hard writing about these books because. It depends on how much you already know about the subject before you read them… There were no big revelations for me in the Roger book because I already read about them in other books.

        Thats what made Tune In so great of a book. I learned something new about a subject I’ve read the most about…than any other subject…except maybe Babe Ruth

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  4. I’m glad I waited to read this until I’d finished the book. I agree with your review 100%. Roger approached the production of his memoir as he did so many of projects he described in the book–with a work ethic. It read like a job to be started, finished, packaged up and delivered on a schedule. Some of that may have been his editor’s style, I suppose. If so, I wish he had worked with someone different, who would have understood the interest in a longer book. I liked that he acknowledged Pete’s book and said outright that he was answering or elaborating on some things that Pete had written about. I appreciated his insightful descriptions and memories of Keith and John. And goodness, The Who’s management issues. How did they ever survive all of that? It was also fun to read his memories of the 1994 ‘Daltrey Sings Townshend’ tour. I saw his show in KC on that tour. For years, I thought that would be the closest I’d ever come to seeing The Who. Lastly, the pranks he pulled on his nosey neighbor were hilarious reading.

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    1. Oh the pranks he pulled on his neighbor was great. The descriptions of John is the one I was most surprised at… I knew he had a dark sense of humor but I didn’t know his personaility was that dark… It was way too short to me…
      I think you will like Kenney’s better. It’s more personable.
      You know the hardest thing about writing a review is the knowledge that you already know may not match someone else. Daltrey’s didn’t give me many surprises but to someone who hasn’t read a lot about them…it will. Kenney’s book shows the love he had for his fellow Small Faces and how tight they were together.
      After you read or listen to it like I did…tell me what you think. I will probably go to Sticky Fingers next.

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      1. I too was surprised at the descriptions of John. I’d known generally about his lifestyle, mainly from watching the documentary on him. But Roger really laid out the magnitude of it. About Roger’s writing style, what came across to me is that he’s intensely private. I’ve seen that with some others, who can be eloquent and poetic even, when writing songs or talking about other people, but when it comes to their own lives, they give nothing but the necessary facts. Hard not to respect that.

        Good luck with Sticky Fingers. I took a break from it to read Roger’s. But I’ll go back to it now and try to finish it. I’m in the homestretch.

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      2. He was guarded and I think very guarded when he talked about Pete. He was open to a point and I understand since Pete is still here.

        You will get a better understanding of the Pete-Kenney deal in Kenney’s book…at least I did.

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      3. Yes, he was guarded on Pete. But yet his stories did shed some light on the dynamic of their mutual friendship and working relationship. He described a working relationship that at crucial times was completely lacking in direct conversation; which makes it interesting that they were in a way, talking to each other through their books.

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      4. The one big thing I took from the book is how different they were. Yes I’ve heard it before but he layed it out and made it believable instead of just stating the fact…yep that is the reason they fought. It clicked after I read the book.

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