Pete Townshend – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Who – Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere

These sixties singles by the Who are so exciting. They sounded different from their peers and were cutting their own path. This was The Who’s second single. It was the follow-up to I Can’t Explain. When this was sent to their American record label to distribute, they sent it back, assuming the feedback meant there was something wrong with it.

Townshend turned what most engineers considered a mistake into an instrument. Those piercing squeals and roars mid-song weren’t accidents; they were the sound of pop music evolving in real time. The Who didn’t want to sound clean or polite; they wanted to sound like the inside of a jet engine, and they nailed it.

The Who’s early singles like Can’t Explain, The Kids Are Alright, Substitute, I’m A Boy, and A Legal Matter don’t get the airplay that their later music does. They were innovative at the time with feedback, distortion, and Moon’s aggressive drumming.

Townshend later said the song was about personal freedom, and that’s exactly what it feels like. The right to be loud, to be different, to not apologize for who you are. You can trace the line from this track straight through to everything that came after: The Jam, The Clash, The Raspberries, Big Star… all carrying that same spark of defiance.

This song was written by Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey. It was one of the few times they wrote together. Super session man Nicky Hopkins was on the piano.

The song peaked at #10 in the UK in 1965.

Roger Daltrey: ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere’ was the first song when we attempted to get that noise onto a record and that was a good deal of time before Hendrix had even come to England, the American pressing plant sent it back thinking it was a mistake. We said, ‘No, this is the f—ing noise we want. CUT IT LOUD!'”

“We were doing this feedback stuff, even before that. We’d be doing blues songs and they’d turn into this freeform, feedback, jazzy noise. Pete was getting all these funny noises, banging his guitar against the speakers. Basically, the act that Hendrix is famous for came from Townshend, pre-‘I Can’t Explain.'”

Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere

I can go anyway, way I choose
I can live anyhow, win or lose
I can go anywhere, for something new
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose

I can do anything, right or wrong
I can talk anyhow, and get along
Don’t care anyway, I never lose
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose

Nothing gets in my way
Not even locked doors
Don’t follow the lines
That been laid before
I get along anyway I dare
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere

I can go anyway, way I choose
I can live anyhow, win or lose
I can do anything, for something new
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose

(Oooh) anyway
(Oooh) Anyway I choose, yeah
(Oooh) Anyway I want to go
(Oooh) I want to go ‘n do it myself
Do it myself
Do it myself, yeah
Anyway, way I choose
Anyway I choose
Yeah, yeah
Ain’t never gonna lose the way I choose
The way I choose
The way I choose

English Beat – Save It For Later

I always heard of this band but didn’t know much about them in real time. When I heard this recently, I was caught unaware of how good it was. It’s a pop gem out of the 1980s, which you don’t hear me say a lot.

Dave Wakeling, the band’s lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, wrote this song when he was still a teenager, and that teen confusion seeps through every line. It’s a song about growing up, about wanting to hold on to innocence while the world says no, you are going to grow up.

By 1982, The English Beat (also known as The Beat at home) had established a presence in the British ska and new wave scenes. But this song, from their third and final album Special Beat Service, was something else entirely, a melodic farewell that bridged ska and pop. This one was more reflective, a coming-of-age song packaged in jangly guitars and on-target harmonies.

Behind the scenes, the song nearly didn’t make it. Wakeling and guitarist Andy Cox had trouble convincing their bandmates that this softer, more melodic song fit the band’s style. But they pushed it through, and it became one of the band’s most remembered tracks. After Special Beat Service, The Beat split up, with Wakeling and Ranking Roger forming General Public and Cox and bassist David Steele launching Fine Young Cannibals.

Pete Townshend loved it so much that he recorded his own version, and it’s shown up in films like Clueless and Kingpin, giving it a second life with new generations. The song peaked at #47 in the UK and #6 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under 100 Singles Charts in 1982. It was written by Wakeling but credited to the entire band…Roger Charlery, Andy Cox, Everett Morton, David Steele, and Dave Wakeling.

Here is Dave Wakeling talking about Pete Townsend calling him up asking about the special tuning to the song. Love his humor in this.

Save It For Later

Two dozen other dirty loversMust be a sucker for itCry, cry, but I don’t need my motherJust hold my hand while I come to a decision on it

Sooner or laterYour legs give way, you hit the groundSave it for laterDon’t run away and let me downSooner or laterYou hit the deck, you’ll get found outSave it for laterDon’t run away and let me down, you let me down

Black air and seven seas and rotten throughBut what can you do?I don’t know how I’m meant to act with all you lotSometimes I don’t tryI just na, na, na, na, na, naNa, na, na, na, nowNa, na, na, na, na, naNa, na, na, na, now (now, now, now, now)

Two dozen other stupid reasonsWhy we should suffer for this?Don’t bother trying to explain themJust hold my hand while I come to a decision on it

Da, da, da, da, daDa, da, da, da, da, da, daDa, da, da, da, da, da, daDa, da, da, da, da, da, daDa, da, da, da, da, da, daDa, da, da, run away, run

Run away, run awayRun away, run awayRun away, run awayRun away and let me down

…

Who – Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy … album review

I bought this album right after I had bought Wholigans and Who’s Next. I wanted to know what their sixties output was like besides My Generation and I Can See For Miles. This compilation album was released in 1971; it wasn’t just a sampler of radio singles; it was a brash declaration of how The Who reached the top and what they broke along the way. Most of these songs did not reach the ears of Americans and Canadians in the 1960s. If Who’s Next was their grand gesture, Meaty Beaty was their rowdy scrapbook. The album is exciting!

In Canada and America, most people know the Who’s Next material and after as well. This album is the roots of the band. They stretched the limits of recording, trying new things in the studio, much like The Beatles did, but with a rawer result.

Rock in the mid to late sixties was changing, and what a diverse set of songs that you hear from that period. This is when Pete Townshend was turning teenage anxiety into rock mini-operas and Keith Moon was trying to demolish every drum kit in London. The title, reportedly referring to the four members themselves, Meaty (Roger), Beaty (Keith), Big (John), and Bouncy (Pete), is cheeky and self-mythologizing. And the tracklist? Nearly perfect. These singles are where Moon started to get his wild drumming reputation. He is everywhere in these songs, especially I Can’t Explain, making them different from other bands.

I have said that my favorite kind of band to watch live is the ones that you think will fall apart with any song they play, but they pull it between the lines without going over the cliff. They did that with these songs in the studio.

You’ve got I Can’t Explain, The Kids Are Alright, and Substitute up front, each one a case study in amphetamine, fueled mod rock. These aren’t songs that build; they explode right from the opening riff. Substitute, in particular, grabs your attention with the loud backing, but also the lyrics. Substitute could be The Who’s best single ever. And then I’m a Boy, Happy Jack, Pictures of Lily, you realize Pete was already leaning into story-song territory years before Tommy became a rock opera.

Magic Bus is a Bo Diddley-beat freakout that somehow makes a song about public transportation sound like a spiritual quest, or My Generation, the track that blew the doors off rock ’n’ roll. If that bass solo doesn’t rattle you, check your pulse. There’s a through-line here: Townshend’s fascination with identity, repression, rebellion, and guilt. These songs are electric in the best sense of the word.

Later Who albums might be deeper (Quadrophenia) or grander (Who’s Next), but this one is the sound of the band becoming The Who. Loud, brash, and already mythic. If you want to learn about The Who…this is a great starting point.

…

Who – Who Are You

This song is for Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week, the theme is to find a song that is based on reality. A prompt inspired by Badfinger (Max) of PowerPop. Whoever that crazy guy is.

Great song by The Who and one of the first Who songs I knew. Keith Moon was not in the best shape by this time, but his drumming on this is still fantastic. The song helped define classic radio along with its siblings Baba O’Riley and Won’t Get Fooled Again. Unlike some 80s synth sounds, these synths of those three songs still sound fresh today.

Pete Townshend wrote it in the aftermath of a meeting with some industry suits, wandered into a Soho pub, ran into some of the Sex Pistols, and came out very drunk with a bruised ego and the chorus to one of The Who’s most iconic late-period tracks. Rock bottom, meet the charts. This song, released in August 1978, was the title track to what would turn out to be Keith Moon’s final album. He died three weeks after its release, and that ghost haunts the band to this day.

This isn’t the mod, youthful energy of My Generation anymore, it’s the sound of grown men staring into the abyss of their own legend. The Who had spent a decade writing operas, smashing instruments, and becoming arena rock icons. And suddenly they were competing with punk bands they helped inspire.

Townshend once said, Who Are You was a cry of frustration, about the music industry, about the punk movement, about himself. Many of Townsend’s songs are about real-life events. The song peaked at #14 in the Billboard 100 and #18 in the UK in 1978. The album Who Are You peaked at #2 on the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, and #6 in the UK.

Pete Townshend: “I’d like to think that where the song came from wasn’t the feet that I was drunk when I did the demo, but the fact that I was f–king angry with Allen Klein, and that the song was an outlet for that anger.”

Roger Daltrey: “We were getting incredible accolades from some of the new Punk bands. They were saying how much they loved The Who, that we were the only band they’d leave alive after they’d taken out the rest of the establishment! But I felt very threatened by the Punk thing at first. To me it was like, ‘Well, they think they’re f—ing tough, but we’re f—ing tougher.’ It unsettled me in my vocals. When I listen back to ‘Who Are You?’ I can hear that it made me incredibly aggressive. But that’s what that song was about. Being pissed and aggressive and a c—!”

Who Are You

Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?

I woke up in a Soho doorway
A policeman knew my name
He said “You can go sleep at home tonight
If you can get up and walk away”

I staggered back to the underground
And the breeze blew back my hair
I remember throwin’ punches around
And preachin’ from my chair

Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I really want to know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
Tell me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
‘Cause I really want to know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

I took the tube back out of town
Back to the Rollin’ Pin
I felt a little like a dying clown
With a streak of Rin Tin Tin

I stretched back and I hiccupped
And looked back on my busy day
Eleven hours in the Tin Pan
God, there’s got to be another way

Who are you?
Ooh wa ooh wa ooh wa ooh wa

Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?

I know there’s a place you walked
Where love falls from the trees
My heart is like a broken cup
I only feel right on my knees

I spit out like a sewer hole
Yet still receive your kiss
How can I measure up to anyone now
After such a love as this?

Pete Townshend – Let My Love Open The Door

A thank you to Dave for publishing this for Turntable Talk. The theme was looking for artists who left popular bands to go solo. I could have done a Beatle easily, but Pete was perfect for this.

Pete recorded Empty Glass a little before the Who recorded their first album without Keith Moon, Face Dances. This was Pete Townshend’s only solo American Top 10 hit, but it charted as high as any Who song released in America… I Can See For Miles also peaked at #9.

This wasn’t The Who smashing guitars or railing against society. This was Pete, solo and sincere, pulling back the curtain and offering something deceptively simple: vulnerability, all wrapped in a three-minute pop song.

Pete always put his solo career on the back burner for The Who. On the surface, Let My Love Open the Door sounds like a pure pop song, but don’t be fooled. There’s gospel in its meaning. Townshend was deep in his Meher Baba-influenced spiritual quest at the time, and this song doubles as a kind of secular hymn. God, lover, self, take your pick. The message lands the same: let something bigger than your pain inside.

The song peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100, #5 in Canada, and #46 in the UK in 1980. The song was on the album Empty Glass, which peaked at #5 in the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, #21 in New Zealand, and #11 in the UK. Two of the musicians on this track, the bass player Tony Butler and drummer Mark Brzezicki, formed the Scottish rock quartet Big Country in 1981. Chris Thomas who produced this album, also worked with The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Sex Pistols, Badfinger, and U2, among others.

Pete’s manager at the time didn’t think the song belonged on the album and fought against it. He said it didn’t sound like a Townshend song. He called to apologize after the song hit.

Let My Love Open The Door

When people keep repeating
That you’ll never fall in love
When everybody keeps retreating
But you can’t seem to get enough

Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart

When everything feels all over
Everybody seems unkind
I’ll give you a four-leaf clover
Take all worry out of your mind

Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart, to your heart

I have the only key to your heart
I can stop you falling apart
Try today you’ll find this way
Come on and give me a chance to say

Let my love open the door
It’s all I’m living for
Release yourself from misery
There’s only one thing gonna set you free
That’s my love
That’s my love

Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door

When tragedy befalls you
Don’t let it drag you down
Love can cure your problems
You’re so luck I’m around

Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart

Who – The Seeker

People tend to hate me
Coz I never smile
As I ransack their homes
They wanna’ shake my hand

Good Who song that was not as well known as some of their others. In 1999 it was featured in the movie “The Limey”. This was The Who’s first single released after Tommy. I first heard it in the early 80s and it helped me become a huge Who fan.

Like most of Townshend’s songs around this time it was influenced by spiritual teachings and figures such as Meher Baba. It was recorded at IBC Studios in London during the sessions for Who’s Next but wasn’t included on that album. It’s been covered by Rush, The Smithereens, Joe Lynn Turner, Leslie West, and Nick Piunti.

The song was released as a single only at the time. After that, it was on the great album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy released in 1971. It’s one of my favorite compilation albums. That album introduced me to pre-Who’s Next music. This one has a raw power to it and it’s pushed by Pete’s riff and Keith Moon driving the song along.

In 1970 The Seeker peaked at #44 in the Billboard 100, #19 in the UK and #21 in Canada.

Pete Townshend: “It sounded great in the mosquito-ridden swamp I made it up in – Florida at three in the morning, drunk out of my mind. But that’s where the trouble always starts, in the swamp.”

The Seeker

I’ve looked under chairs
I’ve looked under tables
I’ve tried to find the key
To fifty million fables

They call me The Seeker
I’ve been searchin’ low and high
I won’t get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die

I asked Bobby Dylan
I asked the Beatles
I asked Timothy Leary
But he couldn’t help me either

They call me The Seeker
I’ve been searchin’ low and high
I won’t get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die

People tend to hate me
Coz I never smile
As I ransack their homes
They wanna’ shake my hand

Focusing on nowhere
Investigating miles
I’m a seeker
I’m a really desperate man

I wont get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die

I learned how to raise my voice in anger
Yeah but look at my face ain’t this a smile

I’m happy when life’s good and when its bad I cry
I got values but I don’t know how or why

I’m lookin’ for me
You’re lookin’ for you
Were lookin’ at each other and we don’t know what to do

They call me The Seeker
I been searchin’ low and high
I wont get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die

Pete Townshend – Sheraton Gibson

While commenting back and forth on the Danko album last weekend CB mentioned Who Came First, the first album by Pete Townshend. Everyone knows how big a Who fan I am but I had never listened to this album much at all. I knew his 2nd solo album Empty Glass but not this one. I thought it was just demos he released which he made for The Who. It’s not…it’s some great powerful songs driven by an aggressive acoustic. On the expanded version he did include some Who demos like Let’s See Action, Baba O’Riley, and a few more.

Who Came First was released in 1972. This album deals with Townshend’s involvement with Meher Baba. It includes tracks originally intended for private distribution to Baba devotees. Before you think this is Who’s Next part II, you would be mistaken. Some of these songs were made for the Lifehouse concept that he wanted to make Who’s Next about, but they changed courses by just picking songs for a regular album. I have a guitar player friend named Chris…he said he was heavily influenced by Townshend but not just electric. He said his real influence was on acoustic. Pete is one of the most aggressive acoustic guitar players I’ve heard. Chris opened my eyes to that and this album shows it.

This song, Sheraton Gibson, is about life on the road with Pete at the time. He was staying in another hotel in another city with his Who bandmates. He deals with his feelings of loneliness and disconnection amid fame and constant travel, plus, of course, playing his Gibson guitar. The song is a great one and I consider it a lost gem…as well as the album.

Another song on the album called Evolution was written by and played with Ronnie Lane of the Faces. Lane was also a devotee of Meher Baba and it’s about personal growth and change and a really good deep song.

I’ll sum it up by saying…I was totally surprised by the quality of this album! As big of a Who fan as I am I was totally shocked…in a great way. The songs stick with you and they are quality. The album didn’t set the charts on fire but it wasn’t pushed by the record company a bunch. It peaked at #69 on the Billboard Album Charts and #30 in Australia.

Sheraton Gibson

I’m sittin’ in the Sheraton Gibson playin’ my GibsonAnd boy do I want to go home.I’m sittin’ in the Sheraton Gibson playin’ my GibsonAnd boy do I feel all alone.Cleveland, you blow my mind.Cleveland, I wish I were home this time.Don’t want to be unkind .

But I’m sittin’ in the Sheraton Gibson playin’ my GibsonThinkin’ ’bout a sunny barbequeI’m sitting in the Sheraton Gibson playin’ my GibsonAnd my mind is a Cleveland afternoon.Cleveland, you blow my mind.Cleveland, I wish I were home this timeDon’t want to be unkind.Cleveland, you blow my mind.Cleveland, I wish I were home this time.Don’t want to be unkind.

Oh Cleveland, you blow my mind.Oh Cleveland, I wish I were home this timeDon’t want to be unkind.

But I’m sitting in the Sheraton Gibson playin’ my GibsonAnd boy do I want to go home

…

Who – Christmas

The Who isn’t exactly known for traditional Christmas tunes, but they do have a song that fits the season.

This song is on the album Tommy about the deaf, dumb, and blind kid. This is not a Christmas song you will hear on the radio at this time of year…it’s just part of the story of Tommy. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album along with Sally Simpson.

Tommy’s father has concerns about his son on Christmas morning. Tommy is deaf, dumb, and blind, and doesn’t appear to have much of a future, but that Christmas, he gets a game of pinball and his life changes when he becomes the Pinball Wizard. This was written by Pete Townshend and it fits perfectly on that album.

It’s the backup vocals that always catch my attention. Also the drums by Mr. Moon plus Townshend’s slashing guitar. They also go into the refrain of “Tommy Can You Hear Me” and “See Me Feel Me.” The song is powerful and also very catchy. I always listen to it around Christmas.

I don’t think any band in rock could have touched them during this time live. On the tour of Tommy is where Live At Leeds came from and it is the tightest I’ve heard a rock band.

Tommy peaked at #2 in the UK, #4 on the Billboard 100, and #6 in Canada in 1969.

Christmas

Did you ever see the faces of children
They get so excited.
Waking up on Christmas morning
Hours before the winter sun’s ignited.
They believe in dreams and all they mean
Including heavens generosity.
Peeping round the door
to see what parcels are for free
In curiosity.

And Tommy doesn’t know what day it is.
Doesn’t know who Jesus was or what praying is.
How can he be saved?
From the eternal grave.

Surrounded by his friends he sits so silently,
And unaware of everything.
Playing poxy pin ball
picks his nose and smiles and
Pokes his tongue at everything.
I believe in love
but how can men who’ve never seen
Light be enlightened.
Only if he’s cured
will his spirits future level ever heighten.

And Tommy doesn’t know what day it is.
Doesn’t know who Jesus was or what praying is.
How can he be saved?
>From the eternal grave.
Tommy can you hear me?
Tommy can you hear me?
Tommy can you hear me?
How can he be saved?

[Tommy:]

See me, feel me
Touch me, heal me.
See me, feel me
Touch me, heal me!

Tommy can you hear me?
Tommy can you hear me?
Tommy can you hear me?
How can he be saved?

Ronnie Lane and Pete Townshend – Til The Rivers Run Dry

When I hear this song I think to myself…it’s pretty cool that I met the writer several times. It’s a song written by Don Williams and Wayland Holyfield. I’ll get in a mood where I have to hear something rootsy or down to earth. I usually pick either The Band or Ronnie Lane. So today’s posts with Rick Danko and Ronnie Lane fall into that. Combine that with that mid to late 1970s country sound and I love it. This music is something you could play on your back porch.

In 1976, following an extensive tour, The Who took a hiatus to focus on individual projects. Ronnie Lane initially approached Pete Townshend to produce his album but later invited him to collaborate on songwriting. Townshend, hesitant as he had never co-written songs before, ultimately declined. However, they did succeed in co-writing the album’s title track, Rough Mix. The album featured a mix of songs written individually by Lane and Townshend, with the two performing on most tracks together. This song is the one cover they did. The producer was the legendary Glyn Johns.

An album with Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane you would figure to be huge at the time. It wasn’t huge but it was a great album and has been highly regarded since. Personally, it’s high on my list of albums made in the 1970s along with Lane’s solo material. Like with the Danko album of 1977, Punk and Disco ruled the airwaves and probably had an effect on the commercial success of this album.

Don Williams’s music was really hot during this period. Eric Clapton was covering it and suddenly country music was popular. The album peaked at #44 in the Billboard Album Charts, #70 in Canada, and #45 in the UK in 1977.

Til The Rivers Run Dry

Till the rivers all run dry
Till the sun falls from the sky
Till life on earth is through
I’ll be needing you

I know sometimes you may wonder
From little things I say and do
But there’s no need for you to wonder
If I need you ’cause I’ll need you

Till the rivers all run dry
Till the sun falls from the sky
Till life on earth is through
I’ll be needing you

Too many times I don’t tell you
Too many things get in the way
And even though sometimes I hurt you
Still you show me in every way

Till the rivers all run dry
Till the sun falls from the sky
Till life on earth is through
I’ll be needing you

…

Who – Shout and Shimmy

If this song doesn’t get you up nothing will! I’ve probably covered The Who more than any other band but I’ve missed this excellent cover they did back in 1965. In this post, we will look at the song and the original drummer of The Who.

This is a cover of a lively James Brown original from 1962. The Who recorded in 1965, it was on their My Generation album. It was also part of their appearance on the music show Ready, Steady, Go! alongside the song Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere. Shout and Shimmy did not achieve widespread fame, it reflects the band’s devotion to R&B and soul, influences that heavily shaped their early sound. They also covered the Marvelettes song Heat Wave which was a part of the Mod culture. James Brown wrote and released Shout and Shimmy in 1962.

The Who’s rendition captures the raw energy of their early sound. Keith Moon in the live cut of this is a blur on drums. He was 19 years old and joined The Who the year before replacing The Who’s original drummer Doug Sandom.

Sandom was a good guy and a solid drummer but he was 34 in 1964 and considered far too old for The Who by the record company. Pete Townshend wrote a moving forward to Sandom’s book in 2014: Had we continued together back in 1964 with Doug on drums we may never have become as successful as we are today. Keith Moon was a born publicist as well as a highly eccentric performer. But I have no doubt that personally, I would have been happier as a young man. Partly because I think we would have continued to put music and friendship first in our band because that was Doug’s way. With Doug as my friend, I believe I could have been a better man.

Doug drummed for them as The Detours and The Who. He had this to say about The Detours changing to The Who: “We were setting up our gear when the Ox arrived and told us there was another band called The Detours and they’d already been on TV so we had to change our name. That night we all went back to a friend of Pete’s – a wonderful chap called Richard Barnes (an author and has worked with the Who for decades), or Barnsy, to try to find a new name.

Barnsy initially suggested The Group and Pete favoured The Hair. Someone else suggested No One until we imagined a compere on stage saying: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome No One.’ We’d have been a laughing stock. It was Barnsy who came up with The Who. Pete tried to compromise by suggesting The Hair And The Who until it was pointed out that it made us sound like a pub. Anyway, Roger came round to mine the next day and said it was to be The Who.”

On one of their recording dates, Townshend and Sandom were not in good moods and Sandom retold it: “He had a terrible go at me, snarling, ‘What’s wrong with you? If you can’t get it right then you’re out.’ I just got up from my stool and said, ‘That’s it, I quit.’ It was the biggest mistake of my life.

Sandom stayed in touch with the band until he passed in 2019 at the age of 89 years old.

I always try to give a studio and live version…but in this case…live is the way to go. Around 1:29 is where Moon kicks in.

Shout and Shimmy

Do you feel alright? Well do you feel alright children? Do you feel alright?You know you make me want to shout shimmy, oh yeah you gonna shout shimmy,Oh yeah you gonna shout shimmy, oh yeah you gonna shout shimmy,Oh yeah you know I walk up to the front, I try to do the flop,I walk up to the back, and I move on side to side,Then I stop, oh yeah and then I drop,Oh yeah and then I drop, oh yeah and then I do a little thing ?????,Do you feel alright? Do you feel so good? Do you feel so good?Do you feel alright? Do you feel alright? Tell me now, tell me now,Do you feel alright? Do you feel alright? Everybody do you feel so good?You know I feel alright, you know you make me want to shout shimmy,Oh yeah you gonna shout shimmy, oh yeah you gonna shout shimmy,Oh yeah you gonna shout a little bit soft, shout a little bit quieter,Shout a little bit soft, come on soft, shout a little bit soft,A little bit soft, cool down, cool down, come on, cool it down,I feel so good, I feel alright, drum on, drum on, drum on drummer,Everybody everybody everybody clap your hands, come on clap your hands,Clap your hands, a little bit harder, a little bit louder,A little bit harder, a little bit louder, a little bit louder,Come on and shout, everybody, come on and shout, come on and shout baby,Come on and shout baby, do you feel alright? Do I feel so good?Do you feel alright? Do I feel so good? Call a doctor, call a doctor,Do you feel alright? Do you feel alright? Do you feel alright?Do you feel alright? Do you feel alright?You know I feel so good I’m gonna shout and shimmy all night,I feel all, you know I feel alright.

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Who – Sister Disco

The Who Are You album was not the best album The Who released but it has its bright spots. Pete Townshend wrote this song and he said The Who would never use any disco elements in their songs. To his credit, they never used any. At this time Pete was hanging around with some of the punk bands like The Clash…so that makes sense.

The Who Are You album peaked at #2 on the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, and #6 in the UK in 1978.

Kenney Jones had the hardest job in the music world at the time. Replacing Keith Moon was an impossible task. He didn’t play in the same style, although not many did, but he did a good job. He was eventually forced out of the band 3 years later when Roger wanted something different. Roger said that Jones was a great drummer but didn’t fit The Who.

The Who after Moon’s passing was this… whether to get a Moon-styled drummer or get someone more traditional. If they’d gone with the former, Blondie’s Clem Burke or Mitch Mitchell would have fit the bill, as Zak Starr does now. But I doubt Clem was known enough to warrant consideration. That leaves a candidate who would not duplicate Moon’s frenetic approach…in Kenney Jones. Pete Townshend wanted stability and more of a straight beat. That is fine…but when they did that they didn’t sound like themselves as much…and Pete was probably happy about that fact.

I liked the Face Dances album a lot when it was released and I still do. Kenney did a great job on that album but with older Who fans…the drums were just as big of a part of the music as the singing and guitar. In other words, Kenney Jones could not win. He was more of a traditional drummer in a band that was not known for that. Entwistle also toned down his bass playing because he would play off of Moon and be all over the place.

Sometimes I wish they would have packed it up like Zeppelin did after Bonham died but I enjoyed a lot of the music that The Who released after Moon died. Jones was in a no-win situation.

Pete Townshend: With ‘Sister Disco’, I felt the need to say that the group would never, ever, in any way do anything like the Bee Gees. We stand over here and what we stand with is all right. They might say we’re boring old farts but we still feel more at home with the boring old farts than any of that crowd.

Pete Townshend: For this track I spent a lot of hours programming my analogue sequencers in my ARP 2500 studio synthesizer. It isn’t quite Kraftwerk, but in 1976 I don’t think they were doing much better. This is a perfect example of the progression I was making towards theatrical music writing. I was trying to evoke absurd Baron Munchausen musical textures. Roger sounds so seriously intent about everything that the pomposity becomes real and threatening rather than pictorial.

Pete Townshend: It’s got nothing to do with disco at all! It’s only a series of lines put together. The chorus ‘Goodbye Sister Disco, now I go where the music fits my soul’…that is not an indictment of disco music. I like a lot of disco music; I even like discos. It’s to do with saying goodbye to, I think, a sort of self-conscious poseur kind of thing The Who had been for such a long time.

Roger Daltrey: I really like ‘Sister Disco’ but I don’t necessarily understand what he’s saying. I do understand what he’s trying to say but I don’t know whether it comes off. It was a song about getting too old for discos and that whole line that Pete sings, ‘Goodbye Sister Disco, I go where the music fits my soul,’ is kind of operatic; it’s a bit pompous. That’s why I personally didn’t sing that line because I can’t…when Pete sings it he’s got enough kind of tongue-in-cheek quality to get away with it and it works, but if I sang it, it would be a total disaster.

This is a rehearsal version with Kenney Jones on drums getting ready for the 1979 tour. The first without Keith Moon.

Sister Disco

As I walked through that hospital door
I was sewn up like a coat
I got a smile from the bite of the wind
Watched the fresh fall of snow

I knew then that my life took a turn
I felt strong and secure
And with adhesive tape over my nose
I felt almost demure

Goodbye Sister Disco
With your flashing trash lamps
Goodbye Sister Disco
And to your clubs and your tramps

Goodbye Sister Disco
My dancing’s left you behind
Goodbye, now you’re solo
Black plastic; deaf, dumb and blind

Bye, goodbye Sister Disco, now I go
I go where the music the music fits my soul
And I, I will never let go, I’ll never let go
‘Til the echo of the street fight has dissolved

I will choose nightmares and cold stormy seas
I will take over your grief and disease
I’ll stay beside you and comfort your soul
When you are lonely and broken and old

Now I walk with a man in my face
Ooh, a woman in my hair
I’ve got you all lookin’ out though my eyes
My feet are a prayer

Goodbye Sister Disco
With your flashing trash lamps
Goodbye Sister Disco
And to your clubs and your tramps

Goodbye Sister Disco
My dancing’s left you behind
Goodbye, now you’re solo
Black plastic; deaf, dumb and blind

WHO – The Real Me

Jim Adams invited me to participate in Song Lyric Sunday for his blog. This week’s prompt is…”a song that features a great bass line.” I knew it was going to be a Who song…and I changed it at the last minute from My Generation to this. This song has some incredible bass.

I have played music since I was around 14-15 and bass since I was around 15. I started out with an acoustic guitar with 2 strings. I could play Smoke on the Water, Down on the Corner, and other songs with those two strings. Soon I graduated to 6 strings and learned chords. A buddy of mine played guitar and he was more advanced than I was at the time.

We decided I would play bass and he would play guitar. I got a job cleaning up a vacant lot that had a massive mess for two days and earned around 50 bucks…and in the early 1980s…that could get you a decent bass guitar in a pawn shop. I learned by ear. We would listen to a record…slow it down to the slowest speed on the turntable and start figuring it out. I’m glad I learned that way because I can pick things out by listening.

Hearing this song around 8 years after it was released for the first time was exciting for me. It was a huge influence on how I played. I always made sure in any band I was in…the bass was heard. You could feel it in your chest… I made sure of that. I would hear some say…”Max is on 11 again.”

Where do I start with this song?

One of the most exciting songs of The Who. It was on the Mod concept album Quadrophenia. Roger and Pete are excellent in this song but John and Keith really stand out. The bass and drums do the heavy lifting in this song. It peaked at #92 in 1974.

I have sat for hours with a bass in my hand trying to get the runs right to this song. One of John’s best bass parts. I usually tie my fingers into knots trying to get this right. It wasn’t one of their huge hits but it was absolutely perfect for me.

I’ve never heard a hard rock band this tight yet carry a great melody underneath it all. John’s bass playing in this song is so good and he makes it sound almost normal. That is why I’ll always be in awe of The Who. Give me their rhythm section of Entwistle and Moon and I could rule the world. The word “revolutionized” is overused at times…but yes Entwistle did revolutionize the bass guitar as Moon did the drums.

The album told the story of a young mod named Jimmy. This song is about Jimmy’s inner turmoil and his quest to understand who he really is. He seeks answers and validation from his mother, a psychiatrist, and God, but finds no clear resolution. The album explores themes of identity, rebellion, and disillusionment. Pete Townshend wrote this and put a little of each band member’s personality in the character.

John Entwistle: “The Real Me” was the first take. I was joking when I did that bass part. The band said, “Wow, that’s great, that’s great!” And I was just messing around. They just loved the song. I was sitting on top of my speaker cabinet playing a silly bass part and that’s the one they liked.

John Entwistle: I think if you listen to my bass parts on their own, they sound unbelievably disjointed, but when you play them with the other instruments on the track, they fit. That’s what comes from playing with Keith.

Speaking of my favorite rhythm section…here is an isolated recording of JUST the bass and drums.

The Real Me

I went back to the doctor
To get another shrink
I sit and tell him ’bout my weekend
But he never betrays what he thinks

Woo
Can you see the real me, doctor?
Doctor?
Can you see the real me, doctor?
Woah, doctor

I went back to my mother
I said I’m crazy ma, help me
She said I know how it feels son
‘Cause it runs in the family

Can you see the real me, mama?
Mama?
Can you see the real me, mama?
Woah, mama

Can you see
Can you see the real me?
Can you see
Can you see the real me
The real me
The real me

The cracks between the paving stones
Look like rivers of flowing veins
Strange people who know me
Peeping from behind every window pane
The girl I used to love
Lives in this yellow house
Yesterday she passed me by
She doesn’t want to know me now

Can you see the real me?
Can ya?
Can ya?
Can you see the real me?
Can ya?
Woah, yeah

I ended up with a preacher
Full of lies and hate
I seemed to scare him a little
So he showed me to the golden gate

Can you see the real me, preacher?
Preacher?
Can you see the real me, preacher?

Can you see
Can you see
Can you see
Woah

Can you see the real me, doctor?

Can you see the real me, ma?

Can you see the real me (me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me)?

…

Who – Pictures of Lily

Starting with The Who’s Tommy album…everything after that gets noticed. Their brilliant early singles sometimes get criminally overlooked. Personally, and I know I am in the minority, I think many of their early singles trump both the Beatles’ and Stones’s early singles. The Who and Kinks didn’t have the quality of the sound of those bigger bands…but that was the point. Those singles were exciting and raw…a few experimental. Paul McCartney was influenced heavily by The Who when he wrote Paperback Writer and Helter Skelter.

On July 8, 1989, I traveled to Atlanta Georgia to see The Who for the first time. Nashville at that time had no place really big enough for them to play. Vanderbilt wasn’t allowing rock concerts at their stadium at that time. I’ll never forget when The Who played this song that night. Roger forgot the words to it and said “I don’t know the bloody words to this song.” I found the clip and I’ll have it below.

The only part of that concert that bothered me was the volume or the lack of really. Entwistle had to turn down his volume and they carried a brass section with them because of Pete’s tinnitus. It sounded great of course but not as in your face as when I saw them in Nashville in 2016. My only guess is now the PA equipment is better because The Who were much louder in 2016 than when I heard them in 1989.

Describing The Who’s next new single (Pictures of Lily)…Pete Townshend coined the term “Power Pop” to describe this song before it was released. It made it to #4 in the UK Charts, #60 on the Billboard 100, and #36 in Canada in 1967. The song tells the story of a father giving his son risque pictures of a woman taken in the 1920s…and after a while, the son finds out that she had died many years ago.

It is a song about the lust of a teenage boy…we will keep it at that. John Entwistle played the French Horn on this that he later didn’t like.

Pete Townshend: On Karen’s (his future wife) bedroom wall were three Victorian black-and-white postcard photographs of scantily dressed actresses. One was the infamous Lily Langtry, mistress of Prince Edward, later King Edward VII, and one sunny afternoon while Karen was at work I scribbled out a lyric inspired by the images and made a demo of ‘Pictures of Lily’. My song was intended to be an ironic comment on the sexual shallows of show business, especially pop, a world of postcard images for boys and girls to fantasise over. ‘Pictures of Lily’ ended up, famously, being about a boy saved from burgeoning adolescent sexual frustration when his father presented him with dirty postcards over which he could masturbate.

John Entwistle: “The thing I hate about ‘Pictures Of Lily’ is that bloody elephant call on the French horn. I also hated the backing vocals, the mermaid voices, where we’d sing all the ‘oooooohs.’ I hated ‘oooooohs.'”

Below is the concert I was at when Roger forgot the words. It’s around the 1:36 mark.

Pictures Of Lily

I used to wake up in the morningI always feel so gladI got so sick of having sleepless nightsI went and told my dad

He said, “Son, now here’s some little somethings”And stuck them on my wallAnd now my nights ain’t quite so lonelyIn fact I don’t feel bad at all (I don’t feel bad at all)

Pictures of Lily that make my life so wonderfulPictures of Lily that let me sleep at nightPictures of Lily that solved my childhood problemPictures of Lily, they make me feel alright

Pictures of Lily (pictures of Lily)Pictures of Lily (Lily, oh Lily)Pictures of Lily (Lily, oh Lily)Pictures of Lily (pictures of Lily)Pictures of Lily, pictures of LilyPictures of Lily, pictures of Lily

And then one day things weren’t so fineI fell in love with LilyI asked my dad where Lily I could findHe said, “Don’t be silly”

“She’s been dead since 1929”Oh, how I cried that nightIf only I’d been born in Lily’s timeIt would have been alrightThere were always pictures of Lily to help me sleep at nightPictures of Lily to help me feel alright

‘Cause me and Lily are together in my dreams (my mind)And I was wonderin’, mister, have you ever seen?

Pictures of Lily to help you sleep at nightPictures of Lily to help you feel alright

‘Cause me and Lily are together in my dreamsAnd I was wonderin’, mister, have you ever seenPictures of Lily?

Who – Christmas

I don’t think any band in rock could have touched them during this time live. On the tour of Tommy is where Live At Leeds came from and it is the tightest I’ve heard a rock band.

Tommy peaked at #2 in the UK, #4 on the Billboard 100, and #6 in Canada in 1969.

Christmas

And Tommy doesn’t know what day it is.
Doesn’t know who Jesus was or what praying is.
How can he be saved?
From the eternal grave.

[Tommy:]

See me, feel me
Touch me, heal me.
See me, feel me
Touch me, heal me!

Tommy can you hear me?
Tommy can you hear me?
Tommy can you hear me?
How can he be saved?

Ronnie Lane – April Fool

She said there’s dust and cobwebs on your north star
There’s no more frost and campfire in your hair

When I hear a Ronnie Lane song it makes me relaxed… It sounds like he is playing to you on a back porch somewhere…very intimate. He was a very underrated songwriter and singer. He just happened to be in two bands (Small Faces and Faces) that had two of the best singers of their generation so he didn’t sing lead a lot in those bands but when he did he was great.

I’ll get in a mood where I have to hear something rootsy or down to earth. I usually pick either The Band or Ronnie Lane. We all know Lane’s sad story but the man loved to play music over making money as his career will tell you. The love was for the music…not the dollar. He would record anywhere like in the middle of a meadow, on a back porch, or anywhere the notion struck. Most weren’t commercial catchy but they meant something. Songs like this…are the reason I have a blog.

An album with Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane you would figure to be huge at the time. It wasn’t huge but it was a great album and has been highly regarded since.

In October of 1976, the Who closed a North American tour in Toronto, a show that would be the last with Keith Moon before a paying audience. The band took a break to pursue individual projects. Ronnie Lane had wanted Townshend to produce his album but he then wanted Townshend to collaborate writing on the songs. Townshend declined because he had never written with anyone before but they did manage to write the title track, Rough Mix, together.

The album ended up with Townsend songs and Lane songs. They did do a cover of a Don Williams song called Till All The Rivers Run Dry. Rough Mix didn’t draw a lot of attention at the time but is now considered a lost gem. Townshend has said in his book that there was a big argument where he shoved Ronnie Lane. Pete said it felt like he didn’t know his own strength because Lane felt like he was made out of paper. Later Pete found out about Lane’s multiple sclerosis.

The album peaked at #44 in the Billboard Album Charts, #70 in Canada, and #45 in the UK in 1977.

I usually don’t post covers of the song I’m covering but this one is tastefully done by Magpie Salute. It features Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes on guitar. Something tells me Lane would like this as well.

April Fool

She said I’ll see you in the morning, darling
I’ll see you when the kids have gone to school
But well I know tomorrow is your birthday
I know you know that you’re an April Fool
We used to roam so freely. It’s been so long
I’ll take my dreams to bed now, where they belong

She said there’s dust and cobwebs on your north star
There’s no more frost and campfire in your hair
I see your wheels they’re rustin’ in the backyard
I know that we’re not going anywhere
We used to roam so freely. It’s been so long
I’ll take my dreams to bed now, where they belong