Word: townshends
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...Pete Townshend...
...Pete Townshend of the Who was exceptionally hard on guitars. Now, at 40, he proves to be tough on the autobiographical form as well. Horse's Neck is a sort of album, words without music, consisting of 13 impressionistic pieces drawn from the author's life and times. Each segment sounds a theme: youthful rebellion, sexual obsession, the burden of celebrity, self-realization (once known as growing...
...plaintive self-indulgence of "Horse's Neck" is reminiscent in tone of some of Townshend's solo musical efforts. When writing and performing with The Who, Pete comes across as a team-player, a rough-and-tumble rock star who would ringlead the type of debauchery described in "Long Live Rock," in which "someone takes his pants off and the rafters knock" and a "fifty-inch cymbal falls and cuts the lamps...
...volume's title and its prevailing horse theme pose more problems. Townshend never included his horse fetish in his music, so why does he choose to rhapsodize over the animals in his prose debut? The last chapter, "Lagune. Valentine's Day, 1982," is an imagistic digression extremely reminiscent of "Equus," only more graphic. Pete writes, "The horse is beautiful. Its mane is flowing and clean, its coat brushed and smooth. Its eyelashes are long and curved. The horse is now before me, it bares its teeth and its tongue flicks out. I hold the great, gorgeous head in my hands...
...Just as Townshend spent his adolescence writing songs about the angst of growing up, he has turned his attention lately to writing vignettes about the angst of middle age. Fortunately for all fans of The Who, he churned out his greatest music before trying to prove himself as a writer...