From the Tiger Beat Archives, November 1967
The sound of the Who has been hitting charts in England for quite some time, but not until this year have the wild for some broken the beat barrier where they wanted to make it most-America.
Smashing Show
Seeing the Who perform is something else! They don’t just use a beat to get their message across. Along with their completely original, out of sight songs there are plenty of splintered guitars, punched out drums and aching heads after performance! Once you’ve seen through the smoke and their demolition act, you realize that behind the rigged-up amplifiers life for sharp young talents who have the originality and the brains to carry off their crazy actions and leave the fans begging for more.
Power Pop
Masterminding the writing of the Who is the “pictures of Lily,” “My Generation” and “I Can’t Explain” his 22-year-old Pete Townshend, who explains their music this way: “what we play is ‘power pop’,” declares Pete. “That is what the Beach Boys used to play when they did ‘fun Fun Fun.’ I don’t believe in this scene where every word is a song has to mean something! Too many musicians are floating around in a world of their own where they think the public has to be educated to their own ideas. Pop music should be like a TV-something you can turn on or off in your mind.”
Windmill Pete
Peter is one more in that long line of intelligent, sensitive and quick-tempered pop people like John Lennon and Mike Nessmith. He is to the Who what Brian Wilson is to the Beach Boys, and his lyrics are the kind listeners turn to. Over 6 feet tall, Pete is wild on stage with the runaway impression of a berserk windmill. “My favorite food is reporters,” he claims seriously. “I like nothing better than a bowl of ‘What’s your favorite hobby?’ To chew over and spit out.” “Also, he adds, “I like colors that shout and people that do not!”
You’d Love to Hate Him
Keith Moon is the Who’s human threshing machine on drums. “My ambition,” he says with a wicked gleam in his eye, “is to destroy 100 drum sets any year!” He to sell them on time or on the right day for an interview, and generally comes up with an excuse like, “I was throwing pebbles at ice cream cartons in the sea,” which is nice, if you do not happen to be a reporter!
Keith is someone you would love to hate if he was not so likable and while the overall impression is that of a bug-eyed lunatic you realize after meeting him that behind his crazy manner is… A crazy manner! He drives around in a large maroon Bentley better suited to the old gangster days, and insists he wants to be a professional cartoon like Donald Duck!
Keith also keeps busy with part-time modeling and looking around for new home in London. “I bought some little-known statues,” he explains. “Actually, I bought a whole family of them so now I’ve got to get a garden to put them in!”
Healthy Rivalry
There is a lot of healthy rivalry between Keith and vocalist Roger Daltrey. In the early days it was a blood feud in which they took alternate trips to the hospital and complained about each other to anyone who would listen. This hostility has now diminished to the extent of becoming unarmed combat and is now described as “lively antagonism”-that is if you consider hurling a bass drum and symbols at one another on stage lively antagonism.
Roger spends most of his day looking for somewhere in London to park his sports car. He sometimes paints, and shows a real talent for it. He claims he was formerly employed as a con man.
John’s Temper
John Entwistle is the bass player and French horn expert in the group. He names Lennon and McCartney as his favorite composers. “And most thrilling experience,” he recalls, “was falling off Blackpool Tower is a child!” Also, John says he never loses his temper except when his equipment goes wrong. And that’s pretty often!
On Stage Violence
In a pop world of electronic gimmicks and much copied ideas, the Who are different and interesting. They were first to introduce violence on stage. When Pete Townshend starts mashing his guitar and the amps, it’s symbolic!
The Whose recent tour of the US with the hermits gave their American fans a taste of their symbolic music, and everyone who has seen or heard this out of sight group knows the Who is happening… NOW!
Editor’s note: Photos by Ann Moses at the Monterey Pop Festival.
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