Word: townshends
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...work of Reporter-Researcher Janice Castro and Contributor Jay Cocks. Castro, who had completed lengthy interviews with the four group members in November, rejoined them in Buffalo last week, shortly after eleven fans were trampled to death at a Who concert in Cincinnati. Cocks interviewed Lyricist and Guitarist Peter Townshend and wrote the story, which assesses the group's 15 turbulent years of tragedy, transformation and continuing success. "I've been a Who fan forever," he says. "Unlike many rock musicians, they are capable of discussing their music, its evolution and its objects with extraordinary candor and intelligence...
...acts in concert with the audience; "They bring you alive," as John Entwistle, the bass player, puts it. The excess they want, group and fans together, is a release, an explosive culmination of energy, a detonation of good will and great music. "Rock's always been demanding," says Pete Townshend, who writes most Who songs. "It is demanding of its performers, and its audience. And of society. Demanding of change...
...most of their time in a house on the edge of London. They also own an establishment in Gloucestershire consisting of eight houses spread over 52 acres. Entwistle's songs, which are like nightshade valentines, show up on Who albums often as a kind of bleakly bemused counterpoint to Townshend's. He is also a skilled caricaturist and is now drawing A Cartoon History of The Who. In this work, Entwistle made up imaginary ancestors for each of the band members based on some of their salient characteristics. There is, for example, a certain Wild Bill Daltrey, a tightwad gunslinger...
...Townshend, who wrote an ironic song about tour life called Romance on the Road, not yet released, is in typical fashion drawn in both directions about it. He can see through the romance like a pool, even as he dives into it. "He's perfectly capable of getting off the plane in New York and staying drunk for the entire tour," says one of his friends. A talk with Townshend at the best of times is a hopscotch game in a minefield. This is part of what he means when he says, with some melodrama and a strong measure...
...rock fan can recite the litany of tragic burnouts; whether Pete succumbs remains a matter of strength and a certain kind of sure footed brinkmanship that until now has kept Townshend writing and The Who performing true lifeline rock 'n' roll. The members of The Who know what this music means, know its power and its necessary mutability. They also know what it means to the kids, not just a quick charge and an antic rush in a minute of concert footage but a change as potentially profound as any art can work, and even more immediate. All of this...