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Won’t Get Fooled Again: The Who from Lighthouse to Quadrophenia
By Richie Unterberger
Jawbone Books (London), 2011
302 pages; USD $19.95
ISBN: 9-781906-002350
jawbonepress.com
A reader should never skim through a Richie Unterberger book; rather, as with a fine wine, one must savor it, much like the music he is discussing / describing / dissecting. Published relatively on the heels of his last book, White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day-By-Day (reviewed on this blog), there is consistently a high level of research, detail, and the joy of the topic comes through in all his work.
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Do I sound like I’m being critical, because that is not the way I feel. After all, this book concerns the writing of the material for Lifehouse, which is sort of Townshend’s equivalent of Brian Wilson’s Smile, another (until recently) great mystery in the great rock’n’roll pantheon that went down in flames because it was just too esoteric – read as “ahead of its time” – to come to fruition. While we have traces and bits of Lifehouse that have emerged over the years on albums like The Who’s Odds and Sods (especially the expanded CD version), bootlegs, and some other random collections. However, as Richie painstakingly points out, some of it was collected in a non-narrative form and then expanded with non-related songs that became one of rock’s great classics, Who’s Next.
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Townshend may have been very much the auteur of Quadrophenia - in fact it was the only Who album which he wrote all the material – but the tracks did leave a lot of room for the rhythm section to shine as instrumentalists. Entwistle in particular played not only some of the best bass of his career, but some of the best electric bass by anyone, his nimble and pungent runs combining grace and throbbing power. The songs, and perhaps the production, lent themselves far more to Moon’s unpredictable torrent than had Who’s Next, especially on the more up-tempo numbers, such as “Bell Boy” and “I’ve Had Enough.”
I’d like to interject a bit of my own opinion here about The Who: though technically Entwistle (d. 2002) and Moon (d. 1978) were the rhythm section of the band, calling them that is actually an injustice. There was no back-up in The Who, which is why they were one of the great rock bands. Daltry was lead vocals, Townshend played lead guitar, Entwistle played lead bass, and Moon played lead drums, all at the same time.
Okay, now back to the book…
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Between the famous (and infamous) musical output (and attempts) on record, Unterberger also discusses and analyzes their tours (such as the night Moon famously passed out in mid-song), television appearances, studio work, management issues, films, and the like. It is more of all that had occurred during the span of those four years than just those two or three projects. There are many quotes from interviews that Richie has included, both historical and those that he’s conducted himself recently, with many of the band’s associates, but sadly none by the two remaining Who members.
It always takes me a long time to get through one of Unterberger’s books because there is just so much juicy material to absorb, lots of information, and journalistic investigation, that I need to stop occasionally just to take it all in. This is a high compliment. Calling this merely a Who “history” is certainly a disservice, and I look forward, as always, to his next exploration and investigation.
Bonus videos:
Extra bonus video:
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