{"id":585,"date":"2006-11-05T19:00:01","date_gmt":"2006-11-06T03:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2006\/11\/05\/the-who-at-hollywood-bowl\/"},"modified":"2006-11-05T19:00:01","modified_gmt":"2006-11-06T03:00:01","slug":"the-who-at-hollywood-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2006\/11\/05\/the-who-at-hollywood-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"The Who At Hollywood Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

1<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back before it was how you looked.\u00c2\u00a0 Back when what came out of a speaker could save your life.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a song on the radio that appeared infrequently, but riveted your attention every time it came on.<\/p>\n

There was an acoustic guitar.\u00c2\u00a0 Which started off slowly, and then the player started to STRUM!\u00c2\u00a0 And suddenly, there came a blast, from over the horizon, like a SHOFAR!\u00c2\u00a0 Calling you to worship at the altar of rock and roll.<\/p>\n

That song was "Pinball Wizard".<\/p>\n

I’d become addicted with "I Can See For Miles".\u00c2\u00a0 Emanating from the jukebox in the corner of the Bromley base lodge.\u00c2\u00a0 Amongst "Neon Rainbow" and "Judy In Disguise", "I Can See For Miles" stood out.\u00c2\u00a0 With an energy, a distance.\u00c2\u00a0 "I Can See For Miles" wasn’t from this world.\u00c2\u00a0 It had an intensity.\u00c2\u00a0 These guys MEANT IT!<\/p>\n

I bought a single, but not the album.\u00c2\u00a0 No, my first Who album was "Tommy".\u00c2\u00a0 I needed it because of "Pinball Wizard".<\/p>\n

It was months from the moment the single hit the chart and faded that the double album finally was released.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d like to tell you there was hoopla, but there wasn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 That really didn’t come until fully a year later, when the "Woodstock" movie finally came out, and the whole world saw Pete windmilling.<\/p>\n

I went up to E. J. Korvette to buy the package released by Decca, home of no other hit rock band, on the day the record came out.\u00c2\u00a0 And when I dropped the needle, I was taken on an amazing journey, one built just for me.\u00c2\u00a0 One that decreased my alienation.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, these guys were on my page.\u00c2\u00a0 Albeit much closer to the top!<\/p>\n

And that fall I went to the Fillmore East to see them perform the whole rock opera, from start to finish.\u00c2\u00a0 They left out "Underture" and one or two other numbers, and played a bunch of soon to be classic catalog numbers thereafter, but what was played was ultimately secondary to HOW it was played.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

There was Keith.\u00c2\u00a0 Appendages moving so fast he appeared to have as many arms as appeared on the cover of "Axis: Bold As Love".\u00c2\u00a0 And the way his pedals pounded the two bass drums eclipsed the fury and the power of the anointed Ginger Baker, whom I’d seen two times the year before.<\/p>\n

Then there was Entwistle.\u00c2\u00a0 Who moved not a whit, but played his bass like Clapton played his Strat.\u00c2\u00a0 He wasn’t just holding down the bottom, he was DANCING in the depths.\u00c2\u00a0 Employing melody in the lower register.<\/p>\n

And finally there was Pete.\u00c2\u00a0 Windmilling.\u00c2\u00a0 Lest we be fooled again.\u00c2\u00a0 This wasn’t a guy yearning to be felt, yearning to be touched, he was yearning to be ACCEPTED!\u00c2\u00a0 This gangly, big-nosed guy had something to PROVE!\u00c2\u00a0 That what emanated from his axe could change your life.<\/p>\n

Sure, Roger sang.\u00c2\u00a0 And he was very good.\u00c2\u00a0 Twirling the mic.\u00c2\u00a0 But even though he fronted the act, the players made it work.\u00c2\u00a0 We came for the instrumental ASSAULT!<\/p>\n

There’s never been another Moon.\u00c2\u00a0 You know this if you saw him.\u00c2\u00a0 His reputation as a loon undercuts the legend of his playing.\u00c2\u00a0 This guy was not the bombastic Bonham, he wasn’t about brute force, there was a subtlety within his sound, it had CHARACTER!\u00c2\u00a0 Akin to a Jackson Pollock drip painting, initially it was hard to comprehend, but it all made SENSE!<\/p>\n

Ditto on Entwistle.\u00c2\u00a0 Just listen to "Quadrophenia".\u00c2\u00a0 Especially the remixed soundtrack to the movie.\u00c2\u00a0 Positively LYRICAL!<\/p>\n

So on one hand the band’s not the same.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like a class reunion minus half your friends.\u00c2\u00a0 But we go.\u00c2\u00a0 Because of Pete.<\/p>\n

2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Take the curious case of Yngwie Malmsteen.\u00c2\u00a0 Or Frank Marino.\u00c2\u00a0 The landscape is littered with players with great technique, but no soul.\u00c2\u00a0 People with the skills, but without the inspiration.\u00c2\u00a0 People who know how to hit the notes, but what they play leaves you empty, unfulfilled.<\/p>\n

Like the guitarist in the opening act.<\/p>\n

Everybody else does an "Evening With".\u00c2\u00a0 Attendees only want to see the headliner.\u00c2\u00a0 To be subjected to an opening act is an insult.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially at this late date, for this audience, paying up to FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS to see the band.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like going for dinner at a three star Michelin and being served Ripple.\u00c2\u00a0 It leaves a bad taste in your mouth.<\/p>\n

And the ad for the recording of the show.\u00c2\u00a0 Flashing on the big screen.\u00c2\u00a0 Complete with Who numbers.\u00c2\u00a0 That was positively cheesy.<\/p>\n

But when the break ended and the band hit the stage with a zillion dollars of production, flashing screens and lights, we forgot about what had come before.\u00c2\u00a0 They reached all the way back to the sixties for "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere", but the concert took hold shortly thereafter with "The Seeker".<\/p>\n

I asked Bobby Dylan
I asked the Beatles
I asked Timothy Leary
But he couldn’t help me either<\/em><\/p>\n

Nobody’s looking anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve found it.\u00c2\u00a0 You do what you must to get the money.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether legal or illegal.\u00c2\u00a0 You need a nice ride, a crib in a gated community.\u00c2\u00a0 Flowing champagne.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re not all in it together, everybody’s about pulling AHEAD!\u00c2\u00a0 Leaving the general public BEHIND!<\/p>\n

And once you make it it’s all about lifestyle.\u00c2\u00a0 Supposed heroes like Paris Hilton claim they’re dumb.\u00c2\u00a0 When did stupidity become revered?\u00c2\u00a0 Intelligence radiated from the Who records like brain waves from Einstein, and that was part of the band’s appeal.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, what really got to us was the power, of PETE’S GUITAR!<\/p>\n

This sixty one year old with the close-cropped silver gray hair, with a body that will never appear in "Fitness" magazine, was working out on his red Fender, he was MANIPULATING IT, he was extracting sounds from it nobody else can.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t about technique, but STYLE!\u00c2\u00a0 Anybody can learn how to play, but it’s HOW you play that matters.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not that his left hand is moving so quickly. Or he’s got the right hand dexterity of Jeff Beck.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like he’s at a playground, working out on the equipment, kicking up some dust, making the park HIS OWN!<\/p>\n

I’m not sure it translates.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re old and near death.\u00c2\u00a0 Or used to rappers and popsters.\u00c2\u00a0 But this is OUR sound.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t think most in attendance came aboard early, but no one came extremely late, because of "Who’s Next".<\/p>\n

Name a better album than "Who’s Next". You can’t.\u00c2\u00a0 When the synth strains of "Baba O’Riley" blasted over the assembled multitude early in the set we were brought right back to ’71.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, the ENTIRE seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 You see not only was this track a staple when the album was released, it survived on radio the ENTIRE DECADE!\u00c2\u00a0 It was the soundtrack to Friday night.\u00c2\u00a0 Getting the weekend started.<\/p>\n

And "Won’t Get Fooled Again" was Saturday night.\u00c2\u00a0 Pure celebration.\u00c2\u00a0 When those notes poured out of the speakers we were reminded of a time when we questioned.\u00c2\u00a0 When we didn’t believe what the politicians said.\u00c2\u00a0 When burned out on the bullshit we retreated, into ourselves.<\/p>\n

Meet the new boss.\u00c2\u00a0 He IS the same as the old boss.\u00c2\u00a0 Because despite what you might think, the newbies have got nothing on the dinosaurs, the dinosaurs RULE!<\/p>\n

3<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was not a calcified show.\u00c2\u00a0 It was pure seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 A full third was new material.\u00c2\u00a0 Fuck the johnny-come-latelies.\u00c2\u00a0 If you didn’t buy the album in advance of the show, playing it enough to know the new numbers, then FUCK YOU!<\/p>\n

That was what was stunning.\u00c2\u00a0 The show was not pure nostalgia.\u00c2\u00a0 They neither apologized for the new material nor rushed it.\u00c2\u00a0 They played all of "Endless Wire" and even closed with a new number.\u00c2\u00a0 They were not playing by the rules.<\/p>\n

But the show really came alive with "Eminence Front".<\/p>\n

One can argue strongly it was all over with "Quadrophenia".\u00c2\u00a0 If you want the good stuff thereafter, listen to Pete’s solo albums.\u00c2\u00a0 "Rough Mix".\u00c2\u00a0 "All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes".\u00c2\u00a0 Especially the record that came out just before the mods and rockers saga, "Who Came First".\u00c2\u00a0 Not having to replicate the Who’s sound, not needing any bombast, Pete became intimate, and truly touched us.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas the Who records weren’t exactly by numbers, but they had the sound without the heft, without the hooks.\u00c2\u00a0 But the final studio record, until now, 1982’s "It’s Hard", it contained the last hurrah, "Eminence Front".<\/p>\n

The lyrics?\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve aged well.\u00c2\u00a0 But it was never about the lyrics.\u00c2\u00a0 It was about the sound.\u00c2\u00a0 The HYPNOTIC groove.<\/p>\n

It was at this point that the audience levitated.\u00c2\u00a0 Higher than a bunch of twentysomethings fucked up on Ecstasy at a dance club.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you want to throw off the trappings?\u00c2\u00a0 Be who you used to be?\u00c2\u00a0 Before you decided to play the game, to sell out?\u00c2\u00a0 The music brought you there.\u00c2\u00a0 Released you from not only the bullshit, but your self-consciousness.<\/p>\n

And then, when it appeared it was all over, Pete slung an ELECTRIC over his head and started strumming those chords.\u00c2\u00a0 The sound flew out of FENDER amps, not HiWatts.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, it was clear.\u00c2\u00a0 This was what we were all about.<\/p>\n

Pete’s manhandling the guitar, playing faster and faster.\u00c2\u00a0 Then Pino Palladino throws in the flourish that came out of the left hand speaker of our newly-purchased stereos.\u00c2\u00a0 And Roger started to sing.<\/p>\n

Ever since I was a young boy
I played the silver ball<\/em><\/p>\n

I’d like to tell you it brought me all the way back to 1969, but the number positively lived in the present.\u00c2\u00a0 With all the energy we once had finally returned.\u00c2\u00a0 And when the band slid into "Amazing Journey" it was transcendent.<\/p>\n

Deaf dumb and blind boy
He’s in a quiet vibration land<\/em><\/p>\n

Pete’s going ON!\u00c2\u00a0 And suddenly Zak starts to shine.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s throwing in those fills.\u00c2\u00a0 The thunder that addicted Wayne and Garth and every teenage boy from back yonder.<\/p>\n

And when we hit "Sparks", Pete’s starting to WAIL!\u00c2\u00a0 He’s soloing, but not noodling.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like the guitar’s his dick, and he’s playing with it.\u00c2\u00a0 Slapping it.\u00c2\u00a0 Stroking it.\u00c2\u00a0 Rubbing it up against the mic stand.\u00c2\u00a0 Getting it hot, and big.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re excited, we’re in the throes, we’ve begun the march towards ecstasy, fulfillment.<\/p>\n

And this is no wham bam thank you mam.\u00c2\u00a0 Pete’s playing longer than the record.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re on top, then you’re on the bottom.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re behind.\u00c2\u00a0 Then on top again.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a full sexual experience, but it’s coming from the music.\u00c2\u00a0 Remember when you wouldn’t think of fucking unless an album was on?\u00c2\u00a0 This music was truly the soundtrack to our lives.<\/p>\n

And then comes the release.<\/p>\n

See me
Feel me
Touch me
Heal me<\/em><\/p>\n

Welcome to the camp, I guess you all know why we’re here.<\/p>\n

Because we remember.\u00c2\u00a0 When music was THE most important thing.\u00c2\u00a0 When it wasn’t the just the grease, but the engine.<\/p>\n

Most of the dinosaurs touring, they’ve given up.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just about satiating the audience, grabbing the bucks.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about music, it’s about BUSINESS!<\/p>\n

And I thought it would be the same with the Who.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially at these prices.<\/p>\n

But two-thirds of the way through the show, Pete said he wasn’t doing it for the money.\u00c2\u00a0 That TV had been very very good to him.<\/p>\n

And he played like it.<\/p>\n

I don’t know if he’ll ever come up with anything as classic as he once wrote.\u00c2\u00a0 But he’s not giving up, he’s still trying.<\/p>\n

I think most of the audience had given up.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the nature of aging.\u00c2\u00a0 You struggle to establish a position, and then coast.\u00c2\u00a0 Risk is out of the question.\u00c2\u00a0 Why test the limits when you’ve got so much to lose.<\/p>\n

We used to look to musicians for direction.<\/p>\n

We can again.\u00c2\u00a0 By playing his heart out, by not just replicating what was on the albums, by doing a ton of new material, Pete Townshend was serving notice that he was not done yet.\u00c2\u00a0 We should embrace this message.<\/p>\n

And if tickets were fifteen or twenty bucks, if only the younger generation could see a show like this, they might believe too.\u00c2\u00a0 Pricing has made this the Bentley of rock tours.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s exclusive when the music of yore was INCLUSIVE!<\/p>\n

You can debate ad infinitum whether music can change the world.<\/p>\n

But I’ll tell you one thing for sure, music can change the individual.\u00c2\u00a0 Can inspire him.\u00c2\u00a0 Can instruct him.\u00c2\u00a0 Can change the direction of his life.<\/p>\n

That’s what it used to do.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why it’s so powerful.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why they call it classic rock.<\/p>\n

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1 Back before it was how you looked.\u00c2\u00a0 Back when what came out of a speaker could save your life.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a song on the radio that appeared infrequently, but riveted your attention every time it came on. There was an acoustic guitar.\u00c2\u00a0 Which started off slowly, and then the player started to STRUM!\u00c2\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-9r","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}