Before I Get Old - The Story of the Who - Dave Marsh

 

Interestingly enough, Marsh starts this 500+ page tale of one of the original British Invasion bands with the introduction of Irish Jack. Jack, living in Britain, is a fledgling Mod who discovers the Detours and later their incarnation as the Who and follows their trajectory as the leading musical proponent of this latest Fab/Gear music/fashion trend. From their initial (almost literal) explosion on the British musical scene, the band garners a loyal following among these new modernists along with other like-minded youngsters and become one of the biggest combos in the world!

From there, Marsh introduces the band members through their early years and their eventual meeting. There are other ventures before the Who, of course, and there is a short time spent as the High Numbers (really trying to cash in on Mod slang and fashion) before they meet managers Lambert and Stamp who steer their way to eventual stardom. The Mods provide their early audience - hundreds pack into small clubs to catch their auto-destruction stage show and hard-edged R'n'B songs - and Townsend learns to capture his own insecurities and turn them into anthems for the new movement.

Marsh includes descriptions of the times, the media (national pop TV shows made many bands in the 60's), the fans and their reactions to the band's success, the managers and their techniques and dreams, and lots more. He's not afraid to interject his own opinion into the tale, and he refutes other people's opinions and reviews, although I can't say that I always agree with him, but then that's why it's an opinion, I suppose. I certainly don't agree with his assessments of Pop Art, but his theory that Pete was making things up as he went along when describing the Who as Pop Art Music (as they attempted to slightly  move away from Mod, although I think it could be argued that Mod was as much Pop Art as anything else, as well) was pretty much on the mark, I believe. 

Some of the behind-the-scenes relationships are some of the more interesting parts of the book - the band's brawls are common knowledge, of course (Roger was even booted from the band temporarily, just as they hit with "My Generation"), but producer Shel Talmy provides some insights - and the others' opinions of his techniques and mannerisms - and manager Lambert's preproduction work on Pete's songs seem to be as important as any other contribution.

Oddly, in talking about the My Generation album, Marsh downplays "The Kids Are Alright" which is arguably Townsend's most important Mod anthems and inarguably one of his most exciting and enduring songs, covered by innumerable artists and a huge smash with the 70's punk scene. He also doesn't think much of the great "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" or their Motown covers (which is more legit, although ones like "Leaving Here" are fab), so I gotta take his opinions with a barrel of salt.

There's a run-though of the band's hits'n'misses, the life-changing record (for the Who) that was Tommy (and all that entailed), Pete's nervous breakdowns (trying to come up with a follow up to Tommy, trying to put together Quadrophenia and the following disastrous backing-tape tours), solo albums, in-fighting and all the rest. Of course, other than a few shining spots, after Who's Next they were never consistently great again, sad to say, and were sometimes fairly atrocious, and after Moon's untimely death, they were never really the Who again.

But, their Kids Are Alright movie was astounding and brought them many new fans (just as Moon passed, unfortunately) and the Quadrophenia movie was actually quite a bit better than the album it was named after. The Small Faces' Kenney Jones was brought in temporarily on drums and the band started referring to their "final tour" in the early 80's, hilariously enough, as Pete'n'Roger are still out there playing and using the name (although some call them The Two now, instead).

The book ends in '82 with the future up in the air and unfortunately, the guys never did much from there - some records, some shows, but nothing that even hinted at their former glories. We've lost John since then, as well, and Pete and Roger are obviously slogging along still because they don't know what else to do - and who can blame them for that?

In any case, the book gives a pretty detailed - if opinionated - overall of one of the greatest rock'n'roll bands of the time, with lots of voices represented and lots of context given. Certainly well worth the (lengthly) read!