Word: townshend
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Unfortunately, their new movie, The Kids Are Alright and its soundtrack album don't nearly do justice to the band's legendary performing style. Peter Townshend plays his guitar by rotating his arm like a vertical helicopter blade; Moon grins and leers through drum solos; John Entwistle, like all bass players, stands expressionless. You can see all this in The Kids Are Alright; but you miss the music. For some reason, Jeff Stein--who put the movie together--chose a few very good film sequences and mixed them up, without any sense of order, with a lot of trashy ones...
...only alternative to despair Townshend gives us is the same offered by all rock musicians with pretensions--the power of their own music. "Guitar and Pen," a bouncy, playful tune, the most good-natured one on the album, predictably tells us just what an artist's only friends...
...depth and density of the music insures against mindlessness; we can be certain the Who will never produce mechanical monotonies like the Stones' "Hot Stuff" and "Miss You." Indeed, "Sister Disco," a Townshend song on the album, lets us know exactly where the who stand...
...Though Townshend remains the Who's musical standard-bearer, it's clear that the other members are now full partners. John Entwistle, the bass player, wrote a full third of the album's nine songs, and they're every bit as good as Townshend's. "905," a song about a depersonalized future, has a cold, catchy beat recognizably not Townshend's but definitely the Who's. Daltrey has once again taken control of his voice and uses it with as much energy as in the past, and more dramatic flair, controlling the frenzy and leaving the primal screams...
...Townshend takes a more honest look at his own music in "New Song," which opens...