The Who: Moving On- 2019 North American Tour / New Album

The critic (not the bassist) Bill Wyman wrote a pretty funny piece about that phenomenon back in '94:
Doodoo Lounge

 

thanks. that's what got me

 

I'm listening a lot to Springsteen's new release 'Western Stars' and if Pete can get any near the return to form the Boss has then this would truly make me a happy Who fan. I really hope they hit out it of the park with this one. But... this is The Who (or what is left of it) and this is Pete who can waver between not giving a toss to striving to outreach his grasp - we don't often get a middle ground which incidently is why The Who are my favourite band and Pete is in my top 5 song writers. And, for me, that was what was wrong with Endless Wire. It was OK, don't get me wrong. But it was right in the middle ground, kind of half what I expected to hear and never really gets out of second gear.
Western Stars on the other hand is not at all what I expected to hear from a latter day Springsteen release and all the better for it. I really hope Pete has given Roger something exciting to work with and some of that old fire still burns.

Maybe I'm been naive, maybe Pete really doesn't have anything to give anymore. I hope he does. Hope and naivety is probably not the best combination but probably fits with being a fan of the mighty Who...

 

Just to clarify my point on 'striving to outreach his grasp'. Only The Who could consider Who's Next a bit of a failure. For me this is the single greatest rock album of all time, an almost perfect collection that reflects a band at the peak of it's powers - IMHO the greatest rock band in the world at that point.

But to Pete this wasn't what he was striving for, he didn't think just another 'rock album' was good enough for The Who. He was trying to go to the next level with 'Lifehouse', and he was thinking way ahead of his time. His incredible use of synthesizers, he was thinking about the internet (or what would become the internet), experience suits plugged into a network - controlled by the government, well before the Matrix was even thought about. The universal note, whilst not a new concept, was certainly not something a rock musician had thought about too much let alone actually tried to replicate. In essence he was not only going out of his and The Who's comfort zone, he was going completely out his audience's.

Let's think about all that just for a moment. Here is a band that have cracked the big time with Tommy. They are finally making money and if not already will soon be millionaires. They could pretty much have released anything in the wake of that success but Pete recognised that to stay in his comfort zone would mean not progressing and the danger of becoming stale and even worse irrelevant in the long term.
So he reached too far and pretty much had a nervous breakdown as a result. Glyn Johns was brought in to salvage something from 'the mess' and the rest is history. The result is the greatest 'failure' in rock music with some of the most innovative music of its age, that still stands up today.

Now, I don't expect anything near the level of this in the new release. That would be pretty much impossible, for anyone to achieve nevermind an aging rock star now well within his comfort zone. However, I wouldn't mind it if he was at least trying to 'outreach his grasp' on occasion and not quite hitting the mark... a glorious failure rather than playing it safe.

 

I think he absolutely does, but is it just possible that Roger is / was right in saying that Pete has a cracking solo album there as opposed to it being a platform for (whatever Roger believes) "The Who" to use?

 

Maybe, and hopefully the result is a good or even a great record that stands on its own. For me it doesn't have to sound like The Who in their glory days, that just isn't really possible anymore or something I would want. Having said that if there are some moments on here that invoke the old days and bring a bit of healthy nostalgia to the table I won't complain either.
Just trying to write down my own feelings about this is complex enough so god knows what it must be like to approach this from Pete's perspective...

 

Absolutely spot on.

If it has great (not "acted" or "West End") vocals from Roger.......
It it has some thought-provoking, relevant, dangerous lyrics........
If it has some blistering electric guitar from Pete.......
If it lasts around an hour......

The boxes will be ticked for me.

 

You've got me all excited now...

 

Really a critic called Bill Wyman should find another band to write about.

 

40 mins would be enough.

 

The fact Bill Wyman reviewed the Stones' first post-Bill Wyman album is pretty awesome, really!

 

But confusing

 

I wonder if Robert Palmer ever reviewed Robert Palmer?

 

And surprise -- he hated it. Je Suis Un Bad Sport!

 

Wow, poor review. Voodoo Lounge was the best Stones album since 1980!

 

Easily the best since Some Girls... I mean, Exile... I mean, Beggars Banquet

 

It is a decent album

 

Agreed. I thought Voodoo lounge was a strong record. Maybe could've used a little editing but that was how records got made back then. Fill up the CD!

 

Love is Strong was such a forceful and compelling first single. What an excellent song - should have been a hit, strange that You Got Me Rocking is always played on tour but Love is Strong basically disappeared. Shame because it is slinky and sexy, has attitude and a great riff.

 

One of the reasons he’s within his comfort zone is that his audience didn’t follow him as he pushed his limits. There’s a very small window in most artist’s career where they can innovate and not lose their commercial standing.

 

Have they said what the 2 new songs are called, the ones set to debut at Wembley ?

 

Agreed, Love Is Strong is great. You Got Me Rocking is meh.

 

I'm guessing DETOUR will be one of the new songs previewed.

 

I'm really looking forward to hearing some new Who music! Thanks!

 

I'm only guessing, based on the vlog clips from Townshend, with the 5 or 6 song snippets we heard. Zero inside info...its catchy, commercial & would be fairly easy live, compared to other stuff we heard, like Hero Ground Zero & Beads On A String.

I suppose at most, we heard snippets of 1/2 the songs on the album, before Roger even sang them. Or maybe only 1/3 of the songs...Imo Detour is classic WHO with a driving R&B riff & groove, just seems right down the middle of the plate & easy to do live, of course it's not an orchestra song, & it's a Who tour with Orchestra... it did seem to have a breakdown within the song, which is not typically what you have in a R&B groove song, used as a single... but Zak was overdubbing more drums in the vlog, maybe to keep the beat going in that section idk.