The WHO: to release first album since 1982

[Daddy Dee]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/19/D8KRRUJG0.html

Wow, that was 24 years ago. I didn't expect to see another.

[3dzapper]

Who's on the album?

[dwt]

If "Who's on the album?" then What is on the CD?[:$]

[Clarence]

i love the who. I have the who "ultimate collection" and it is excellent. i plan on bulding a vinyl collection as well.

[colterphoto1]

I can't possibly be the Who anymore. Losing Moonie a long time back was one thing. Losing Thee Ox is quite another. Saw them on tour after John passed, wasn't nearly the same.

But I wish the duo well in their efforts.

The Zeppelin had the right idea. Once an original long-time member leaves, it can NEVER be the same.

[Daddy Dee]

Yep. Only two original members left.

Who else?

[colterphoto1]

I would imagine Simon Phillips on Drums. He took over most of the duties after Keith passed, although Kenny Jones filled the throne for the last two new studio LP's Face Dances in 1981 and It's Hard in 82.

Or Zak Starkey, Ringo's son, who was out with them on the last couple of tours.

It HAS been a long long time.

[colterphoto1]

20.10.06 The Who Return With 1st Album Since 1982

By DAVID BAUDER

The Associated Press

Thursday, October 19, 2006; 2:09 PM

Washington Post

NEW YORK -- Most of the 24 years since the last time the Who

released a new album passed with the group's creative force, guitarist

and songwriter Pete Townshend, believing there would never be another

one. That doesn't mean no one tried _ with almost comically

dysfunctional results.

Although the Who is down to only two original members in Townshend

and singer Roger Daltrey, the first disc to carry the group's name

since 1982 is set for release at the end of October. "Endless Wire" is

familiar in its crunchy rock 'n' roll and literary aspirations; half is

a rock opera based on a mini-novel Townshend wrote and distributed

online.

From "My Generation," to "Baba O'Riley" to "Behind Blue Eyes" and "Who Are You," it's a daunting legacy to live up to.

Townshend has always considered live performances as important a

part of the Who's legacy as recordings, and the band has sporadically

performed both before and after bassist John Entwistle's death in 2002.

He said he never wanted to release an album that he wasn't sure was

good, and he couldn't say that for the previous two, including 1982's

aptly titled "It's Hard."

"I've just been waiting," he told The Associated Press, "waiting, I

suppose, for science to take over and give me the right to have another

baby as a 60-year-old woman and suddenly it's arrived and there's a

baby and it feels good. It think it's a good record. It feels like a

record I may have made way back, back in 1968 or 1970."

The wait may have been longest for Daltrey, who's always been impatient for new Townshend songs to sing.

"Roger would say, `all we have to do is get in the studio and play

and the music will happen' and I'd have to say to him, `No, Roger, it

won't," Townshend said. "So we would try it, the music wouldn't come

and he'd have another press conference where he'd claim to have written

four songs and I said, `can I hear them?'

"He'd say, `it's about this and that' and I'd say, `No, Roger, I

want to hear them.'" Came the reply: "Well... they're not quite

finished."

Entwistle would claim to have hundreds of songs written.

"I'd say, `great, maybe we can do the first Who album of songs by

John Entwistle, can you play them for me?'" Townshend recalled. "And

he'd say, `I'm not playing them to Roger.'

"And I said, `we have a slight problem there. Why not?' And he

said, `because he's always picking my songs apart and saying they're

not as good as yours."

A number of factors came together to push Townshend toward finally making another Who record, including Entwistle's death.

With the band on hold, Townshend had quite happily started another

career as a book editor. But it didn't pay the bills. He tried working

in musical theater, but found he could only be successful with things

that had already been successes before. It didn't make sense to ignore

a powerful band that he enjoyed and found easy to work with.

"I just thought, `why am I trying to reinvent the wheel here?" he said.

Entwistle died on the eve of a brief Who tour of the United States

that was organized, in large part, to make money so the bassist could

maintain the rock 'n' roll lifestyle to which he was accustomed,

Townshend said.

The guitarist agonized during a sleepless night over whether the

tour should be canceled in Entwistle's honor, or whether he and Daltrey

should press forward.

He thought back to his parents' generation, for whom duty meant

putting their lives aside to fight World War II. He concluded his own

duty was to everyone else involved in the undertaking _ the crew, the

promoters, the fans who had bought tickets and were looking forward to

a night out.

The first performance was at the Hollywood Bowl and "it was a riot," Townshend said.

"We missed John, of course, but we were able to go on without him,"

he said. "I thought, hell, people die, things change and it's OK. I

suppose I thought then that maybe I could make a Who record under these

changing circumstances and maybe I can say to people that it's not the

old sound or the old machine ... At that moment, I knew we would make a

Who record."

Another incentive? While Townshend said he enjoys the old hits, he

couldn't stand the idea of another Who tour with nothing new to say

musically. The band has just begun a 15-month concert tour all around

the world, its largest ever.

Besides the familiar sight of Daltrey twirling his microphone and

Townshend's windmill motion with the guitar, the onstage Who also

includes Zak Starkey, the longtime replacement for the late drummer

Keith Moon, and Townshend's brother Simon on guitar.

Much like another long-lasting rock partnership between Mick Jagger

and Keith Richards, the relationship between Daltrey and Townshend is

famously complex. They have a deep personal bond and will forever be

joined in rock history, but there are moments when they drive each

other nuts.

"We're very different," Townshend said. "I think I've changed over

the last 12 years. I'm much happier and content and much less pressured

about everything in my life. Roger sees himself at the center of a

great mystical circus. He exalts it. He doesn't understand that you

have to write every day and suddenly you'll come up with something

good. He tends to describe things as magic. If he only knew.

"I think we've arrived at a good place and it's very good to be

working with him at the moment," Townshend said. "He's doing a

fantastic job."

Daltrey, who wasn't made available for an interview, said in a

statement: "When John died, it changed the balance of the band. Pete

and I are at two opposite ends of the globe and John was the equator.

Something happened. And it has given us a whole new edge."

Daltrey was reportedly unenthusiastic when Townshend gave him a

copy of his story, "The Boy Who Heard Music," but later came around to

embracing it when it was used as the framework for half of the new

album.

It is about an aging `60s rocker, Ray High, watching from a

sanatorium as neighborhood kids form a band and follow the trajectory

of success that he once had. It's poignant hearing the Who perform it,

singing about how music "makes me strong" and "long for a place where I

belong."

"In some ways it's the same old story," Townshend said. "I really haven't changed my tune in many, many years."

___

[jacksonbart]

Daultry and Townshend are still better than a lot of crap that is out there today.

[colterphoto1]

Oh, and if you are a real fan, get Townsend's LIFEHOUSE. Brilliant work.

[PhilMays]

Daultry and Townshend are still better than a lot of crap that is out there today.

Amen brother!