“The problem for me, still today, is that I write purely with one dramatic structure and that is the rite of passage. I’m not really skilled in any other. Rock and roll itself can be described as music to accompany the rite of passage.” — Pete Townshend

It’s his birthday today.

The Who’s songs were in my consciousness from a very early age. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know about them – somehow. This is what it meant to grow up without the technological ability to “curate” your own experience and tastes. I grew up when the adults – and that included my older teenage cousins, and older siblings of my friends – were dominant, their tastes and preferences so much in the air it was the background music of my childhood. Much of that music – The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel – I took on as my own. Music was timeless. I wasn’t obsessed with the New, although I was into new things as well. I reiterate: through the sheer power of osmosis I knew all of The Who’s hits. I saw Tommy when I was in high school. I was a musical theatre kid, and here was musical theatre!

In 1964, a hopeful young filmmaking duo – Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp (brother to Terrence) – were inspired by the film A Hard Day’s Night to make a film of their own. They wanted to document a band’s journey to superstardom. The problem, was … the film wouldn’t work, obviously, if the band fizzled out. It was a crap shoot. They chose to film a band called The High Numbers, who were rapidly becoming a huge influence in London’s “mod” scene, tearing it up at their regular residency at the Railway Hotel. The audience filled with the hippest of the hip. The shows were already legendary. It was a very small place. The ceilings were low. Lambert and Stamp’s film never was finished but there is existing footage on YouTube.

Not only is it fascinating to see the Who before they became the Who … it’s also incredible film-making, moody and evocative, the footage visceral, thrusting you into that room. It’s intimate. It’s rather amazing that the band Lambert and Stamp chose to “follow” would, indeed, become global superstars and it’s too bad they didn’t keep filming them over the next decade to document their rise.

Still: this footage is incredible. Watching them do their thing before they were stars. It’s only 1964. They are already on fire as a band.

They were influenced by rhythm ‘n blues, obviously, but again … this is just 1964 and to me they sound like an emanation from punk rock, 10, 12, years in the future. “My Generation” sounds the same way. Way ahead of its time.

I think my favorite of theirs might be “The Seeker”.

I also love “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. The opening still – to this day – after probably hundreds of times hearing it, on the radio, in soundtracks, in the air around me – gives me goosebumps.

My brother – a punk rock fan from before punk rock was cool – wrote about The Who, and included their album The Who By Numbers in his Best Albums list (posted on my site), a fact which is surprising if you know my brother. The Who? Really? But that list is about formative memorable experiences, and I love how my brother writes about those moments of musical revelation. And that time two of his friends forced him listen to The Who By Numbers, because they were sick of my brother’s dismissal of The Who. And how he finally realized what the fuss was about. I love the essay, so here it is:

50 Best Albums, by Brendan O’Malley, #10. The Who, The Who By Numbers

 
 
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