In the late 1970s, when I was a teenager, I listened to the Doors a lot. That's right, when I could have been discovering the Ramones, the Clash, Elvis Costello and Talking Heads, I was listening to the Lizard King and his sidemen. (Sample lyric: Ride the snake . . . to the lake . . . the snake is old . . . and his skin is cold.) I am not proud of this.
On the other hand, I also loved the Who. Loved them. They were pretty well past their prime, but I didn't care. I had a photo of Pete Townshend in my locker and and for I'd go for weeks listening to nothing but his band's music. A few weeks ago, I listened to Quadrophenia for the first time in years and was surprised to realize that I knew the all the lyrics to every song. Man, those guys were good.
I'm thinking of the Who now because I'm watching a documentary called Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who. It has all the usual VH-1 rock-doc elements: tension among the band members; drug abuse; cheating managers; the whole bit. But it also has rare footage, insightful commentary and incredibly powerful music. I'm kind of rocking back and forth right now as I listen to "A Quick One While He's Away," and I remember doing the same thing years ago, in a movie theatre at a midnight showing of The Kids are Alright, except then I managed to break the chair I was sitting in.
Of course, there's the sad stuff: 45 minutes into the show and we've already seen Keith Moon's now-ancient mother saying, "He was always a good boy, always did what I asked him. That's what I don't understand." It won't be long, I'm sure, until we get to the band's infamous 1979 concert in Cincinnati, when 11 people died.
Right now, though, it's "Happy Jack" and "I Can See for Miles." I look forward to "Baba O'Riley," when, undoubtedly I'll reminisce about the time I was visiting a friend in college and he leapt up in a picture-perfect Townshend imitation and hit his head on a door frame, resulting in a hurried trip to the emergency room for stitches in his gashed head. That's called sacrificing for your art.
I'm trying to do real work right now, but the music is drawing me in, and I can't think of anything else. I suppose I should have grown out of this by now, but in a way, I'm glad I haven't.
Monday, November 5, 2007
I Can't Explain.
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5 comments:
Have I mentioned that I met Pete Townsend?
(Thanks for the ride to the emergency room)
Have you ever watched, "Stop Making Sense"? from the Talking Heads?
Dyna Girl, I've seen "Stop Making Sense" a couple of times, and liked it a lot, but it's been a while. Maybe I'll Netflix it. Have you ever seen "End of the Century," about the Ramones? Well worth it, even if you don't like them.
Misplaced, you've brought back a flood of ugly memories. As you know, I can only get over my personal pain via experimental theatre (or interpretive dance). So my latest post is a primal scream of jealous rage.
maybe a video of the interpretive dance would be nice...
Did I mention that I had a tete-a-tete with P.T. in which I counseled him to return to Cincinnati and "face the music" as it were with regard to the "Who tragedy".
Does anyone else remember the tacky shirts that were almost, and maybe were, printed?- "I stomped on you to see the Who?"
Did anyone else wonder if their brothers were going to come back from the concert that night?
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