Most noble box set..
What can you do when you feel like crap?! When you can't stand anything anymore?! When everything or almost everything seems useless (or ridiculous or pathetic, which is even worse)?!
When even people or situations that used to at least make you smile and spend some happy and fun moments now make you indifferent or even annoy you?!
You need to give yourself a jolt with something magical, new but old in my case, something that brings the mind and heart to magical sensations that make me feel alive as I used to be... I used to kick everyone's ass, maybe too much, in fact it was all or almost all fake, I put on the mask... bad story, masks... they hurt, they excite you immediately but destroy you later, they trick you but it's all a scene, you're a cheater at that moment, you're not yourself... my beloved demons, how much they hurt...
Anyway, whatever, I tried by giving myself this gift.
Is it possible to love rock and not these wonderful four big noses?!
(Yes, it's possible algol, but it's weird hahaha)
Is it possible to listen to “My Generation” without screaming and shaking?!
For me, it's not only impossible but also unthinkable.
Because I saw that already in a junior high school diary I had written “The Who” with the arrow on the o at the bottom; so, even though I didn't understand a damn thing, they were already inside me somehow even before the triad and the Sabbath.
For the Countess, they are those of the double V with the short name, for me they are rock’n’roll, period.
Their four completely different personalities have always found fertile ground in me as if each of them represented a part: Roger, a charismatic and bold bully, Pete, a damned, depressed, sad, dissatisfied, insecure guy who finds in music the only satisfaction of his life, giving himself to it with soul and body, John who hides behind his visual and apparent composure so much anger and he, my beloved Keith, generous, sensitive, playful, romantic, like his friend John Henry “Bonzo” Bonham, who vented his innate emotional fragility in all kinds of excesses.
I usually hate compilations. They assemble the most famous songs but do not make you understand anything about what is essential: the genesis, the evolution, and the experience of the band, the stories the group and its single members were living, the atmosphere that was breathed while recording. So what is missing is the essence, what makes you love or not a musician, because beyond the music, behind it, there is his life and, in the case of a band, multiple experiences and personalities and the interactions between them; lots of stuff that a compilation certainly cannot describe.
However, this box is truly deserved. A publication of five CDs with all the singles of the group. A very well-made box set that retraces the history of the band. These guys have kept the banner of R&R high and nobly raised through those two magical decades that I love so much.
You embark on a journey through eighty-six pieces for five CDs. Through tracks that have made history and notable gems I didn't even remember and maybe never listened to. Often on the B-sides, authentic little-known gems are hidden.
I hadn't listened to their discography for a long time and it was like discovering them once again. Even though the “The Who”, of course, will always be remembered, first of all, for their concerts. Their performances shocked the rock world. Live, they were special and spectacular; they could express that anger and competitive charge that was impossible to replicate in the studio.
Even today, seeing Daltrey spin the microphone like a lasso, Townshend jump and windmill his arm like a man possessed, Moon assault and destroy his drums physically mounting right above them, and him Entwistle, there on Roger's right, impeccable, still and silent, acting as a perfect counterpoint to his three restless companions, is an incredible experience... what do you say?! Would they have aged well?! Splendidly, I would say.
From the first single under the name High Numbers “Zoot Suit/I’m The Face” to pieces that made the history of their early years “My Generation”, “I Can’t Explain”, “The Kids Are Alright”, “Substitute”, “Happy Jack”, “I Can’t See For Miles”, “Doctor Doctor”, “Magic Bus” the first two CDs are filled and offer incredible emotions and memories.
How can we forget in this period their smashed instruments at the end of each concert - the story seems to begin by “mistake” at a concert where Townshend got pissed off at the little space, smashed the instrument followed immediately by Moon - the scene became a real ritual at each concert to the delight of the audience and the two deranged ones, definitely much less for the finances of the group always on the brink of bankruptcy despite the growing success.
Or the brilliant idea of the first manager Pete Meaden to make them the image band of the mod movement - I never understood what the Who had to do with the movement, and the first not to know were precisely them, but so it was for some years (none of the four knew anything about the mods and if there was a rocker made person, that was Daltrey). I also never understood well the differences between mods and rockers, except in the clothing and the engine used, but as always, I don't count.
Then Monterey, the great festival which definitively established them in the States, a legendary performance (between them and Jimi, what a match!).
In the third and fourth CDs, the psychedelic decade ends, and you enter the seventies. The singles extracted from the two works, especially “Tommy”, less from “Quadrophenia”, the pieces of what I consider their best album overall “Who’s Next” and tracks from the last two albums of the band take the lead.
And down with rock history with pieces like “Pinball Wizard”, “Summertime Blues”, “See Me, Feel Me”, “Who Are You”, “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, to mention a few from memory.
In the fifth, it ends with all the singles released after the tragic death of Moon and some “missing” live pieces later recorded in “single” version (Could Behind Blues Eyes be missing?!).
For me, all things listened to for the first time or almost. I always refused to listen to the two albums published just after his death (like the two albums of the Doors without Morrison, to be understood). No one could replace Keith as a drummer or as a person. He was and will remain unique.
The big mistake they made and that, with the passing of years, I forgive them (only because they made it clear later that if they could go back, they wouldn't have done it).
But I'm a damn romantic and here, too, I don't count. They could have written even memorable albums or pieces but I wouldn’t have bothered, too important to me the values, respect, and friendship.
“Real Good-Looking Boy” remains adorable...
In this regard, it is also true that the four were never united outside the group context. Too different, each with their own desires (obsessions maybe is more appropriate). Only Moon and Entwistle cultivated a strong bond offstage (contributed by mutual passion also for drugs, alcohol, and parties). Townshend will always suffer from a poorly concealed inferiority complex and existential paranoia that will lead to having periodic fights with his companions. A fragile and insecure person, the great Pete, the true soul of the group, vented - fortunately for all of us - even more than in vices, in music all his weaknesses and also his pure talent as an author, reaching a real exhaustion during the writing of his two Works (“Tommy” period in particular).
Even in group life, they were certainly not a granite block; the recordings often difficult, sometimes almost impossible, and the quarrels between Daltrey and Townshend also physical, frequent. Then, however, when you spend many years together, the feelings are there indeed and Keith's death was lacerating for all three (perhaps more afterwards than immediately).
And precisely because I am a damn romantic, my great happiness is to see Pete and Roger together.
Always different but friends, companions, who respect each other and who now, as wise old men (at least in this, time serves), endure each other's defects, joke about them. A couple of friends saw them in concert in Milan not long ago and told me about a wonderful evening, a magic given by two old lions with soul and class to spare. I had no doubt about it.
Dear nobles, a truly thrilling box set for those who love these old guys.
You definitely won't regret it.
Because besides those few mentioned songs, there really are lots of tracks I didn't know which truly deserve attention and which I won't spoil for you, superb covers (“Shout And Shimmy”, “Twist And Shout”, “The Last Time”, “Under My Thumb”, “Barbara Ann”) and sublime live singles.
And having so much beautiful stuff all together makes this box set a noble story.
And while for the millionth time I watch and listen to “My Generation” with those two tearing it up, the other one magnificently stuttering, and the master making the bass more regal than ever, jumping and screaming like a twenty-year-old, I say to myself that....
“But why don't you all go get screwed”
“I hope I die before I get old”
I could have written them, they just anticipated me... these wonderful noses ahahahah
Keep having fun, Roger and Pete
Rest in peace (but then again, not too much, you'll get bored!) John and Keith
Happy listening!
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