6 Reasons The Who Is Better Than That Stupid Band You Like
#1 – The Who Accepted an Award From President Bush and Didn’t Embarrass Him or Themselves
Don’t laugh: how rare was that for eight years?
They didn’t grab the opportunity to make a “political statement” or send out Pocahontas to (refuse to) pick up their prize.
Instead, everybody had a nice time. Maybe even Barbra Streisand!
Roger Daltrey’s official statement upon hearing that The Who would be the first rock band to ever receive a Kennedy Center Honor was unfailingly classy and gracious:
As a teenager growing up in the austerity of post war England, it was the music I heard emanating from America that gave me a dream to hang my life on. That dream was to make music and make it there. I am deeply touched at receiving this honour. The warmth and affection I feel from our US audience is humbling indeed. To be added to the list of past recipients of this award makes that dream come true.
God, I’ll miss Daltrey and Townsend when they’re gone. The Who may not be the greatest band of my generation, whatever that is, but they are sure head and shoulders above any of the pretenders I can think of who may be in the mix.
That quote from Daltrey sounds a lot like me, BTW. Get of my lawn, indeed!
You just destroyed “The Who”‘s credibility with the left!!
I’m a long time Who fan, and I would be the first to admit Daltry and Townshend are classy, talented individuals. I loved their 2006 album, Endless Wire, as well. These guys can still bring it.
That said, I don’t think they are the best band of all time, least of all the Beatles, who changed rock music forever – even if many in later generations are too shallow and/or clueless to admit it.
Also, I note your reasons for why they are the greatest band of all time barely reference music at all! It’s about things they did, personal character traits, etc…which is all well and good. I myself prefer that my musical idols be worth looking up to as people as well as musicians…but those things don’t make a great” band, either.
One thing I will note (musically speaking) – By Numbers, from 1975, was the Who’s last great album. After that, they became exteremely spotty with a great song here and there (“Who Are You,” “Eminience Front,” etc.) and mediocre albums (Endless Wire excepted). There are reasons for that – Moon’s declining health, death, and eventual replacement, in addition to Townshend’s own addiction problems – but it means they lack the consistency I would expect of an all-time greatest band.
As I said, I’m a big Who fan…but proclaiming them the “greatest ever” (or even better than the Beatles) is a bit too fanboyish (or fangirlish) to me. It lacks perspective. Even if they are YOUR favorite band, that only means they are the greatest band in YOUR subjective opinion – which shouldn’t be confused for an objective statement of fact.
Besides, anyone with taste knows Rush is really the greatest band ever.
J/K
or am I?
Re Rush, except for their last craptastic album.
I liked Snakes & Arrows. I thought Vapor Trails was the craptastic album.
Looks like Clockwork Angels is going to rock.
As I said, I’m a big Who fan…but proclaiming them the “greatest ever” (or even better than the Beatles) is a bit too fanboyish (or fangirlish) to me. It lacks perspective. Even if they are YOUR favorite band, that only means they are the greatest band in YOUR subjective opinion – which shouldn’t be confused for an objective statement of fact.
Exactly!
The whole use of terms like “best” rock band, “best” guitarist or, really, “best” anything is unfortunate in the extreme. The fact is, when such terms are used, they imply that the person or thing designated as “best” has been chosen by some objective measure. The reality though is that people who use “best” in these contexts are really just saying “my favorite”.
When the author says The Who is the “best” rock band, she really just means that they are her favorite. When someone argues that the Beatles – or anyone else – were the “best” band, they are simply asserting that they prefer that band over The Who. It’s that simple.
Can we please PLEASE get past all this “best” nonsense and say what we really mean? In Kathy Shaidle’s case, I’d love to hear her say that The Who is her favorite band, not that they are the “best” band. I will try to do the same whenever I am tempted to describe something as “best”.
Now, putting the soapbox aside, I’d like to thank the author for sharing some very interesting clips of The Who, a band I’ve always appreciated a great deal. I’ve even discovered a new Who song today, thanks to her efforts. (I’m referring to “Good Looking Boy” if that is indeed the correct title.) Assuming that song is on Endless Wire, I’ll definitely have to check that album out. I’m afraid I haven’t heard The Who’s recent work – or Townshend’s solo work – in a few years so I’d missed that song.
That’s not true. If someone likes reading about the Battle of Leyte Gulf above all other battles that’s one thing. If they say it started WW II, that’s ignorant.
The Beatles started the whole shebang. That’s history, not a preference. They came before The Who. That’s a fact, not unconscious bias. They influenced. That’s a fact. The Who are great, but late. Before some, after others.
“That’s not true.”
I’m not sure which particular remark you’re responding to.
“If someone likes reading about the Battle of Leyte Gulf above all other battles that’s one thing. If they say it started WW II, that’s ignorant.”
I agree with you but that has nothing to do with “best” or preferences, which was the point I was making. In fact, you seem to be conflating facts with preferences in the same way that I suggest people conflate “best” with “favorite”.
The word “best” suggests that there is some objective standard that is widely agreed for rock bands or hamburgers or pretty much anything else you care to name. I think that if you try to find those objective standards and analyze them, you will find either statistical measures, like “most albums sold”, or verbal descriptions that are completely subjective like “most exciting stage show”.
I hope we can agree that statistical measures are useless as a measure of quality. There are plenty of dreadful albums that have sold zillions of copies and plenty of excellent albums that have sold poorly. (And yes, I know “dreadful” and “excellent” are entirely subjective. But I very much doubt anyone will take the position that the best-selling albums are always the ones that are musically the best.)
“The Beatles started the whole shebang. That’s history, not a preference. They came before The Who. That’s a fact, not unconscious bias. They influenced. That’s a fact. The Who are great, but late. Before some, after others.”
I agree that The Beatles preceded The Who. I don’t think anyone can dispute that. I’ve never heard Townshend acknowledge The Beatles as an influence but I wouldn’t be remotely surprised if The Beatles were an influence, even if only subconsciously. In fact, I’d find it very unlikely if Townshend was not influenced by The Beatles in some way.
So what? Unless you mean to equate “best” with “first”, I don’t see how you’ve refuted my main point that most people really mean “favorite” when they refer to something as “best”.
The Who makes the Beatles look like the Jonas Brothers.
And re: Rush–anything after “Moving Pictures” is craptastic.
As a 70′s kid, we liked the Beatles, but learning to love great musicianship the Who was the band that I bought a lot of albums of. The Beatles, while good were still perceived as being a pop band.
I like how Roger Daltrey outspokenly admires Queen Elizabeth II. That’s not something that the Cool Kids are supposed to do.
That’s not someone anyone is supposed to do. Who should admire an old bag who thinks God made her better than everyone else by divine right? My only answer is a straight jacket.
Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl some day I’m gonna make her mine oh yeah, some day I’m gonna make her mine.
A side note, brought on by the 1965 video of “I Can’t Explain”: Note the look on Entwhistle’s face. Then note how wildly variable Moon’s tempo is, and how much work the bassist regularly had to do to keep the band in time. Entwhistle is hugely unsung because he had to do this ALL THE TIME, or at least until Kenny Jones took over as drummer, and all the unpredictable Moon magic evaporated. They’re the rhythm section constantly in conflict, the clown and the straight man, but utterly necessary to each other. Once that was gone…
Sorry, that was a bit muso, I know.
I’ll be honest with you — my wife and I have pretty much concluded that The Who are NOT The Who without Keith Moon and John Entwistle.
Daltrey and Townshend are both brilliant, and it’s encouraging to see them continuing to collaborate and produce fascinating sounds… but without their old rhythm section backing them up, half of their magic is just plain GONE. It’s as Kathy herself said, this band was more than the sum of its parts, and they just don’t add up in the same way anymore.
DRAY you have to watch the videos for Amazing Journey — they say everything about musicianship, better than I could.
I was at the Who concert in Cincinnati on December 3, 1979 when 11 people were killed in a crowd crush. I am a big Who fan and what happened had nothing to do with the band. The tragedy happened because of crowd management and the Festival Seating ticketing. The band was not told until afterword.
I still love the music but it will always bring back memories of that night.
Appreciate the article. Live at Leeds blows the doors off. What more can you want? None of the Beatles albums did- I’d give a nod to Exile and Never Mind the Bullocks and Nirvana for the youngsters [30s now?]. My Generation sums it up- for all those who speak for a generation, Pete stuttered and then brought down the hammer with sound.
Come to Richmond and see Pete’s lavender car near the Petersham and I’ll treat you to a capi at L’Ammandine.
The clips from “Who’s Next” are the best thing about CSI and all its spin-offs.
“Smile and grin at the change all around.
Pick up my guitar and play,
Just like yesterday.
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray,
We don’t get fooled again.”
From your lips to God’s ears!
I wouldn’t say Pete Townshend was one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time, but he was a damn good one and servicable on keyboards as well, and arguably the best solo writer ever. But I would say without question that Moon was THE GREATEST drummer of all time. His style was revolutionary, he played drums like they were a lead instrument. And IMHO Entwistle was best bassist ever (same as Moon, he turned it into a lead instrument), and Daltry the best singer ever, with a range, flexibility, control, tone, and depth of feeling that others with the possible exception of Paul McCartney could not match. Listen to him do both male and female voices on “Tommy”. Amazing.
For my money, the best example of their superb musicianship is in the bridge of “The Real Me”, when Townshend even isn’t playing. It’s just drums, bass, and voice,singing Townshend’s brilliant lyrics: “The cracks between the paving stones, look like rivers of flowing veins. Strange people who know me, peep from behind every window pane. The girl I used to love, lives in this yellow house. Yesterday she passed me by, she doesn’t wanna know me now”. The interplay between the three is stunning, the way they fit together.
I’m a fan of Keith Moon’s drumming too.
At the same time, I have to disagree with those who denigrate Ringo Starr. I think he was a very good drummer. “A Day in the Life” is a nice example, and while “Tomorrow Never Knows” might not have the flashiest drumming, I like Ringo’s percussion on it.
Go back to “She Said She Said” and listen to those little fiddly bits Ringo plays in the verses. He was a DAMNED good drummer, he was just smart enough to keep mostly out of the way. He didn’t have to take big flashy chunks of a song for himself — he just filled out the sound in a way that made him irreplaceable. Very much like Keith Moon, in fact, taking into consideration Keith’s more controlled moments. I love the way Keith just finds the groove on songs like “The Seeker” and hangs on in there; propelling the groove was Ringo’s specialty.
Great examples, Jake Was Here. There’s a lot to be said for drummers keeping out of the way–and for anyone to know when to keep out of the way for that matter. I like the quiet bits in “The Seeker,” and I guess what would be called the syncopation here and there in it.
Reasons That Led Zeppelin Is Better Than the Who:
1. Led Zeppelin broke up immediately when THEIR irreplaceable drummer died.
2. Led Zeppelin’s guitarist likes underage GIRLS.
3. Led Zeppelin’s godawful movie (“The Song Remains the Same”) is shorter than the Who’s godawful movie (“Tommy”) and doesn’t include any scenes of Ann Margret rolling around in baked beans.
Excellent points, Astorian. I’d watch Ann Margret roll around in just about anything, but even that isn’t enough to redeem “Tommy.”
I was scarred for life by having Robert Plant’s crotch shoved in my face in “The Song Remains the Same.” I don’t think anyone could find a better word than “godawful” for either movie.
I blame Ken Russell’s direction for the awfulness of the Tommy movie. Awful, awful, awful self-important b@$+ard. Never found a piece of symbolism he couldn’t beat the audience over the head with.
The Who. The Greatest ever in so many ways (it is kind of foolish to say any ONE band is the greatest over all). Here’s what I think sums up their unique offering:
1)The channeling of naked aggression into some of the most powerful and beautiful music ever. Each member basically attacks their instrument and wrestles from it all that can be had.
2)Superb musicianship, but coming far more from instinct than training. Moon breaks all the rules, for instance, with his style of drumming and he carved out a unique style that is unmistakably his and almost impossible to copy, and at 16 years of age! Entwhistle plays lead on the bass with nobody prior to emulate. He’s an original, and savage.
3)The Who was a band comprised of neighborhood kids who started very young and who grew up together, not assembled to fill a known niche. They had a common local-boy chemistry that worked in spite of their in-fighting. Maybe it was their art-school background but they had great ideas right from the start, like their focus on pop-art in their pre-Tommy days. They were THE pop-art band where virtually every song had a special gimmick – reverberating vocals, exposed bass lines, rhythm sticks featured prominently, the light twang of guitars with the angelic voices over them. Then they went on, paralleling the avenue of pop-art that self destructed, to be the band that self-destructed. They went far beyond three-chord rock and designed their songs to be more than melody + lyrics.
4)They consistently created new kinds of music. Yeah, we call it rock but look how different their albums are from each other. Every album, at least through the first ten or so was a complete departure from what came before it. Who could have predicted the Tommy sound after I Can See For Miles? Or Who’s Next after Tommy? Or Quadrophenia after Who’s Next? They hatched a new sound for themselves fairly consistently. Re-inventing yourself is a key to longevity and a sign of real talent. Townshend seemed to have a gazillion sounds at his disposal and knew what to do with them. I could go on but life is calling…
One of the best PJ Posts ever, Kathy you are right on the money. Gotta wonder how more people don’t see the Beatles as a tired, overrated cliche. Listen to Pinball Wizard the listen to any of muck the Beatles put on. No comparison.
There have been some great drummers over the years but show me anyone who could PLAY the drums like Kieth Moon.
Best thing about the The Who, baby boomers don’t prattle on and on and on about them like they do the Beatles and the “60′s”
Yeah, and Townsend’s guru Meher Baba was the best 60′s guru too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meher_Baba
Water from Isle of Wight is the best rock song ever recorded, captures the essence of rock
Nope. “Rock and Roll” on Led Zep’s How the West Was Won.
John Entwistle was a freak.Go back and listen to what he did.
The ANC is a mess now but in the 80′s, Townsend made the best anti-apartheid song. White City. If you haven’t heard it , you should
perhaps Queen is better..
just saying..
Mercury didn’t make his songs about pushing the gay agenda.. that should definitely count
Great piece Kathy, but I gotta go with Floyd, whose movies didn’t suck.
Here ya go, Live at Pompeii, the director’s cut:
http://clayandwater.ca/27/11/2011/pink-floyd-live-at-pompeii/
I love the Who.. and I agree with a lot of what you are saying. I like how they aren’t overtly political because most bands that get political are hypocrites anyway. I definitely think they were the greatest live band of all time. I don’t think anyone comes close as a live act. They had a streak of 5 incredible albums(Quick One, Sell Out, Tommy, Who’s Next, Quadrophenia) They have the best live album of all time in Live at Leads. Having said all that I still feel the Beatles are the best overall band of all time. Their creativity and progression on every album from Please Please Me to Abbey Road is on a level that I think puts them at the top.Not a clunker in the bunch after a span of barely 8 years. After the Beatles comes the big 3 in The Who, Stones and Zeppelin. Its a fun discussion to be had but I do wish we had music like this today. Rock really is dying.
I definitely think they were the greatest live band of all time. I don’t think anyone comes close as a live act.
Queen were as good, maybe better. Check out Queen at Live Aid on youtube.
But I agree that of the Big Three Brit Bands of the Sixties (Stones, Who, and Beatles) I prefer The Who by a considerable distance.
@SteveM Queen definitely is up there as a live act, no doubt about that! And yes Queen at Live Aid (which I saw when it happened in 85) were the best band at that concert. Radio GaGa was brilliant. They took an ok song and tore it apart live and made it a classic. I just think that the Who live from about 68-75 were astounding and were nearly untouchable as a raw live act. But as other people have mentioned… things are subjective as to say “who is the greatest of all time” I think most of can agree that rock music has fallen badly during the last decade.
I still feel the Beatles are the best overall band of all time.
People keep telling me that, and I’ve tried (really, I’ve tried) to get into the Beatles and to appreciate what everybody else finds so wonderful about them.
But the Beatles continue to do nothing for me.
no comments on Townsend and little boys?
I alluded to that, subtly, when I noted that Led Zeppelin’s guitarist likes underage GIRLS (whereas the Who’s guitarist…).
Let’s nip this one in the bud. Townshend was abused as a child, and the British police were convinced enough by his statements about researching child porn for an autobiographical book about the abuse he suffered that they did not press charges. Plus, he lives with (or might be married to) an extremely attractive artist, who happens to be a woman. Saying he’s into little boys is a contemptible smear, unsupported by any facts whatsoever.
Incidentally, he subsequently dropped the book he was writing precisely because of people who jump to conclusions and make unwarranted accusations.
If I played guitar, I’d be Jimmy Page- the girlies I like are under age.
The Who were my favourite band as a teen.
My favourite things: Entwistle changed the way bass sounded and was played. He developed a new bass string, and recorded the first bass solo in rock – and perhaps the only good one.
The show ‘Classic Albums’ analyzed ‘Who’s Next’. My favourite part of that was Daltrey isolating his vocals and Moon’s drums on ‘Behind Blue Eyes’. Under the vocal, the drums were wild, punctuating Daltrey’s lyrics. But during the break between vocal lines, Moon plays a simple straight beat! This seems the opposite of what he should be doing – but man does it work!
Daltrey himself has one of the great rock voices – ok on the quiet stuff, but with a great grit on the harder stuff, is there any voice that rocked harder? Listen to his ‘Yeah’ on ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ (you can always hear it right after Caruso pulls off his sunglasses on CSI) – can any other of the great rock singers, even Plant, Axel, Geddy, or any other top hard rock singer match that?. Also, in the 70′s with his long curly blond hair, he had a great look.
Someone mentioned Rush. I have nothing against them, but during their breaks (especially before they discovered synths), it sounds like they were each told that it was their solo. The Who could play the snot out things, but they always stayed linked to each other, the result was both wilder and more musical (and don’t forget that Peart calls Moon his biggest influence).
Townsend’s guitar playing requires more respect. He invented the power chord! And when another group’s guitar player stops playing rhythm for a lead, it feels like something just dropped out – but not Townsend! (Although it should be mentioned that the other guys were essential to this). One thing about being in a small group – everyone can play the snot out of their instruments.
Speaking of Townsend, some of his songs are great. Liberals hear “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and look at conservatives. Conservatives hear “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and look at everyone.
They invented punk rock – they were the one 60′s-70′s band that punkers actually respected (them and, at least in Canada, Stomping Tom Connors). And this is despite inventing the concept album!
Led Zeppelin are fine – but everything they did the Who did first and better (did you know that when Page was a studio hack, he played on a couple of Who songs? – I’m sure that everything he learned about arranging for drm/gtr/bass/vcl came from the Who. Watch live Zep footage – they’re trying to be like the Who, Plant even copied Daltrey’s hairstyle!
There are some bad things about them: inventing the concept album (a creative triumph, but one that inspired a ton of unlistenable music by other guys), Townsend’s guru, some really bad songs to go with the good ones, Townsend being caught with child porn (unforgivable), and replacing their brilliant drummer with the dullest drummer around (although when I saw them on TV recently, they were now using Ringo’s son, who plays more like Moon than he plays like his dad!)
All in all, the best band ever.
YAWN!!!
Another useless polemic by the formerly mean little drunk who is now the mean little reformed drunk.
Unlike Kathy, I never had the slightest use for Abbie Hoffman, but here’s a trivial tidbit most people don’t know: Abbie was a jock! Seriously, he went to Brandeis University on a tennis scholarship. His tennis coach at Brandeis was Bud Collins, who’s now famous for being the most annoying TV tennis commentator in the world.
Unfortunately, the writer’s credentials as a music critic must be weighed in light of the fact that she also wrote that the Monkees were a better band than the Beatles. As to the relative merits of the Who and the Monkees, she has, to date, remained uncommitted.
I’m not going to get into the “who is the greatest band ever” bit because it’s never going to be settled. I will say that I love The Who – flat out LOVE them. Keith Moon is still the only drummer who played like his kit was the lead instrument (ditto for Entwhistle and the bass).
Kathy mentioned in passing that at the concert after 9/11 some of the singers had to write songs just for the occasion, and I will dare say that no one will remember them in 50 years. But We Won’t Get Fooled Again and I Won’t Back Down (Tom Petty) expressed the mood perfectly and those songs will be sung for years to come.
I often found The Who slightly disturbing as a teen in the 60s for some reason.
Perhaps it was the slightly “bent” Townsend songwriting about cross-dressing,
child abuse, masturbation etc. Even The Kinks seemed like “regular blokes” in
comparison. Hard to fault that Who rhythm section, though. ‘Substitute’ rocks.
1975, Thiel College, NW Pennsylvania, October…large Klipsh speakers hanging out of a guy from Buffalo windows playing into the large green quad at 190 db (it seemed that loud)…Live at Leeds….a memory that shall remain pristine forever…that rhythm section was the best….and I instantly understood why the Who are important…the best..???….top 5….mix and match as needed.
Thanks for the perspective. It was very interesting and I learned some things about the Who I didn’t know. They seem like a classy, talented bunch of guys.
But I still don’t like the songs they played and I just hate noisy bands with screaming guitar solos involving feedback and loud oppressive rhythm sections.
If not the greatest band they are certainly in the mix. I was so gratified when my two daughters who were very little at the time were exposed to the Who for the 1st time and became lifelong fans. Made me feel just a little cooler.
He did say “I know what it’s like to be a woman because I am a woman”, back in the early ’90s, so he was perhaps a bit confused for a while. He was real artsy-fartsy back in those days (The Iron Man and Psychoderelict are unlistenable dreck).
Live at Leeds is still amazing after 42 years, though.
Cue Daltry’s Primal Scream……….YAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
The Beatles were good, so were The Who, The Stones and The Kinks. What sets The Beatles apart was they were in the right place at the right time.
I was probably one of the last people to hear them perform live, at a theatre in Manchester UK when they were supporting Roy Orbison, About two weeks later Please Please Me went to No. 1. Plenty saw them after that but nobody really heard them …
That is not what set the Beatles apart. Being the best did that. Comparing them to The Kinks is ludicrous.
Kathy,
I’ll just second (or third) all the good things said about The Who. I grew up with them in the ’60s and ’70s and I still listen to them all the time.
Well written, and thanks!
Tom
Hey wonder if the Romney handlers could call up The Who and see if they would be willing to hit the National Mall Park come January. Instead of Romney speechifying just send out the Who to belt out We don’t get fooled again.
I don’t care what you think of Romney, anythings better than the DOG EATING, PREPPY THIRD WORLD WANNABEE lying Trotskyite.
Can we get a hold of the faux greek columns and have them blow up for the primal scream.
For Obama, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies chose the inaugural theme, “A New Birth of Freedom”.
Romney’s “We Don’t Get Fooled Again”/ Real American’s don’t eat dog.
Reasons, schmeasons. This article reminds me of Mark Twain’s famous zinger, “Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.” When you’re talking about music, the only reasons that count are those which pertain to the question: how does it sound?
When it sounds good, you can move onto the next question: how much music was written, and did most of it retain a high quality?
The Who and the Beatles both wrote and performed music that sounds great.
However, to the extent that it is not just a matter of tastes, the Beatles displayed a much wider range of styles, and did more to actually invent the style that the Who flourished in. I.e., it would have been harder for the Who to be who they were in a world without the Beatles, than it would have been for the Beatles to be who they were in a world without the Who.
The Beatles were a transitional band, analogous to Beethoven, whereas the Who was more analogous to a Schumann or Brahms, who took an existing and settled style and ran with it. Nothing is wrong with either approach, but in general Beethoven is considered the more important, i.e., the “greater” composer.
And it’s not just about the Beatles, either. Cream, Zeppelin, the Kinks, King Crimson, the Moody Blues, and other other bands can give the Who quite a run for their money on any (musical) terms you care to suggest.
> Ringo isn’t called “The Luckiest Man Alive” for nothing.
I have a hard time understanding why nobody thinks Ringo could play drums. See the discussion of Ringo in Wikipedia, for example, which quotes other drummers, notably Phil Collins, on the influence he had on them. Ringo was and is today very underrated. The only fault I can find with his playing is he’s not John Bonham, but then, who is?
Finally! Someone mentioned the Moody Blues! In my book, they have always been the best. Chucked the Beatles aside the very, very first time I heard “Tuesday Afternoon” on the day it was released in the US. Still can remember the day, where I was and what I was doing.
Never was a big fan of The Who, but if Daltry & Co. are ‘normal’, then they’re OK w/me.
I want to add a point about the disrespected Ringo Starr. Kathy, I challenge you to do the following:
1. Find yourself a good stereo system. I don’t mean the crappy mass-market systems you find in a mass retailer outlet — I mean, a system with great speakers and a great amplifier. (I don’t mean Bose, either — Bose is for women who think the job of a sound system is to look good.) It’s the age of eBay, so that isn’t too hard or too expensive to do these days. I own a set of AR 18 (Acoustic Research) speakers, made sometime around 1990, and a Rotel amplifier. Paid a total of about $1000. I consider it to be entry-level audiophile. But the beauty of the AR speakers is that they are amazingly accurate. You will listen to albums you have literally been hearing your entire life, and the speakers will still show you things you’ve never heard before.
2. Get yourself the Beatles’ Abbey Road album.
3. Listen to “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window” and pay attention to the drum fills. Listen hard. Those fills often get lost on cheap stereos, but good speakers will reveal them to you.
4. After doing so, come back, look me in the eye, and without blinking tell me you believe Ringo was an incompetent drummer.
Forgive the off-topic, but I liked what you had to say to you-know-who. Kind of foul, the way she turned on you, and you sure as hell didn’t deserve it, having previously tried to help her. The best she could hack up in response was a lame “I don’t know why people think I could have a paid column”…we’ll take you at your word, toots–no paid column for you!
She uses the aggravating moral pose (and a cheap pose it is) to beat people over the head, and it was good to see her get some of her own back.
Link?
I agree with your sentiments re the Who, however…we all have to agree that “Tommy” was one of the worst movies with the greatest soundtracks ever. Maybe its age, but what was profound 35 years ago is appallingly insipid today. But Ann Margaret still looks great.
Tommy was a Ken Russell film, not a Who film. The movie should be left out of this discussion.
OMG–this is like an argument about what’s better, butter or cheese. Is the Atlantic a better ocean than the Pacific? Lennon and McCartney were incredible songwriters. Townsend is in a class by himself. They were all great. Aren’t we lucky to have them to listen to? Has anyone here ever listened to Pete Townsend and Ronnie Lane’s album titled Rough Mix? I highly recommend it. It’s nothing like the Who. And great songs within.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv6aKElzEH8
Rough Mix is superb!
The 60s English music phenomenon will never be equaled. So many great, new bands/artists emerged, and so many styles sculpted out of essentially the same clay. The supremacy of rock music was never better exemplified. Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, Syd Barrett, Jagger/Richards, Jimi Hendrix (oh! an American!), and a host of others gave us treasure. What was it about that time and place?
Phil Lesh, who is still going strong at age 72 with liver #2, is most definitely a lead bass player.
As was Chris Squire in Yes, at least in the early days.
But Squire – and I believe Lesh – didn’t start recording until after Entwistle had blazed the trail with The Who.
But history didn’t start with Entwistle either. I expect that he was imitating someone else that he had heard.
This is a funny website. It alternates articles deriding boomers as the spawn of Satan who will soon joyfully be ushered off the stage with nostalgic paeans to the music of the sixties. Whatever. In my humble opinion, the Kinks were far superior to either the Beatles or the Who. One poster above praised the raw energy of the Who. While they were a short lived phenomena, check out the MC5 for energetic primal rock n’ roll. No one can touch them.
I was always more nerdy; hated anything “cool.” No one’s yet surpassed Yes in my book.
What I really love about The Who is they were just as willing to poke the eyes of their hippie brethren as they were the square establishment. Of course there’s the famous “meet the new boss–same as the old boss.” But an overlooked example is the song “Going Mobile,” about traveling in an RV:
I don’t care about pollution
I’m an air-conditioned gypsy
That’s not a solution
Watch the police and the taxman miss me
I’m mobile!
Another reason The Who leaves the Beatles in the dust: They invented the rock opera. Beatles invented nothing.
Thank you so very much for sharing these clips! I am enjoying them immensely.
Not a Who-song, but Roger Daltrey did the best version of ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’. And every time I hear it it moves me. He *owned* that song!
Slayer is the greatest band ever.
Regarding your first point (#6), that the Who are greater than the sum of their parts: All great bands are like that. Lennon or McCartney never equaled individually what they accomplished in the Beatles. Waters and Gilmour never equaled what they did together in Pink Floyd.
Almost any great band you can name, I bet you can’t come up with one where the individual members are as great individually as collectively.
Not a bad article. I’m not a Who fan but I do agree with your points. I might add they also helped many a great band get started, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd and The James Gang.
I’m a fan of both The Who and the Beatles, & therefore have to agree with you, partly. When you say one is better than the other, though, you’re actually doing that trite apples/oranges comparison thing. The Who are, one might say, the George and Ira Gershwin of our generation, as opposed to the Beatles’ Cole Porter. On the one side, strong, exciting, new musical ideas and powerful musicianship, and on the other, the ability to write singable, timeless ditties while being charming in their performances — and make it look easy. Both deserve hall of fame status, for changing the face of popular culture.
Come to think of it, there was a hell of a lot of great stuff coming from that generation. I guess nature delivered it to balance out the useful idiots/talentless hacks in other fields & other media, who came along at the same time (and the generation to follow).
I agree that the Who’s musicianship (as in technical ability to perform) was probably superior to the Beatles, but I wouldn’t say the Beatles were only writing “charming ditties.” They were far more musically innovative than the Who, Sergeant Pepper being the most glaringly obvious example. The Who weren’t that musically different than their contemporaries. Tommy is very much a product of its time, as was Who’s Next and Quadrophenia. The Who’s main musical innovation was the creation of the rock opera – which would have happened anyway with prog rock acts coming out of the woodwork.
I say that as a Who fan. Great music, but nowhere near as musically creative and innovative as the Beatles.
By “musicianship”, I gather most folks using this term mean mastery of the basic musical skills — rhythm, pitch, technical mastery of one’s voice or instrument, knowledge and application of music theory. I think musicianship is great stuff. But it is not everything. It may not be even the most important thing.
The Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich once played host to the German-born Paul Hindemith while the latter was visiting the Soviet Union. Shostakovich recognized, as a master craftsman himself, that Hindemith was probably the greatest master of them all. He could play piano, violin, viola, and many other instruments. He knew music theory, had in fact written treatises on the subject. Yet, It puzzled Shostakovich that Hindemith’s music left him cold, whereas the folk song of an old Gypsy woman could move him to tears.
We don’t really understand the secrets behind the power of music. But we get to experience that power for ourselves. Musicianship can make us more fluent, or bog us down into the intricacies of an academic wasteland. Either way, fluency is not the same as message.
The Beatles were pop nonsense. Nothing more. The Who is and continues to be a ‘Rock’ band.
’06′s, ‘Endless Wire’. 24 years after, ‘It’s Hard’ only proves their rock longevity.
A wonderful article Kathy wow brought back memories,saw the WHO at woodstock,saw them in madison square garden around 71 or 72 i could,nt hear for about 6 months lol,but through the yrs. i always kept things in preception,thank goodness thanks for the trip back love tom
I realize that Kathy Shaidle is using a bit of tongue-in-cheek with her article title, and I heartily agree with many of her points about The Who. For those, though, who think they have discovered the greatest rock group, I recommend the following, by Andrew Ferguson, taken from an article about the blind worship of Bob Dylan at http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/017/144saagx.asp?page=1….
“…Whenever I hear extravagant praise for Dylan–I wish I had a Free Baconator coupon for every time he’s been called the greatest American songwriter–I can’t help but think, yow, what would these guys do with a truly great American songwriter? Someone who uses more than five chords and writes tunes that range beyond six steps on the chromatic scale? I like to think that if they ever listened to Ned Rorem or Virgil Thomson, or Cole Porter or Hoagy Carmichael, they would be overwhelmed and delighted by hearing the real thing at last.
But of course they wouldn’t be. They have heard “Night and Day.” Dylan worship is impervious to evidence. It begins and ends in experience and memory, personal and generational. A few years ago I heard a man in his early eighties who should know better pronounce Duke Ellington the greatest composer of the 20th century. In further conversation it turned out that Ellington’s stuff was the soundtrack of his youth, the music that played as he fell in love, learned to dance, left home, went to war, became a man. And he wasn’t about to let any of this jibber-jabber about Prokofiev or Stravinsky shake him from his judgment.
Boomers are particularly vulnerable to the same conceit, with an overlay of pompous allusions half-remembered from our American Studies class. We spy, in every cultural event we’ve witnessed and in every figure we’ve admired, the greatest, the biggest, the most . . . whatever. It looks like sophistication but it’s really insouciance. Even as Dylan continues to sneer at them, his boomer admirers will refuse to believe it. They forget that the Poet warned us himself, so many years ago, with such prescience: “Something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is, do you Mr. Poet Laureate?”
You’ve. Got. A. Lot of. Nerve.
“But nothing really matters much, its doom alone that counts.”
All I know is that they are the ONLY rock band I ever liked.
What that means, I cannot say.
One of my favorite stories about The Who was in an article from the early 80′s in (I think) Playboy, about the dietary customs of musicians and bands while on tour. Most of the items in the article described what you would expect of the narcissistic prima-donnas of late 70′s/early 80′s rock and roll (performers demanding things like Dom Perignon, Beluga caviar, Perrier chilled to exactly 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and so on). The entry for The Who contained only one sentence, and it was a classic. When asked about what the members of The Who demanded from the caterers while on tour, their road manager replied, “Just about anything you can throw at them.”
#7- Were an alien species to scoop you up and demand the meaning of rock and roll in a single song, well, under probing, you might say, “A Day in the Life,” but in truth, the one song that perfectly encapsulates rock: the feeling of power and exhilaration, of joy and youth and possibility,of freedom and breaking free, of drama and fun–that song is “Won’t Get Fooled Again”
That is rock and roll in 9 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp6-wG5LLqE
Wow. Beatles pop nonsense… nothing more… DUMBEST COMMENT EVER.
The Zombies, Odessey and Oracle.
“Won’t Get Fooled Again” Greatest conservative song ever.
At first, when I saw this article I was prepared to say “What the hell do you know? You weren’t even alive back then. And besides, you’re a gurrl!” (burp) pardon me while I digest my words.
Actually, I did grow up with the Who. And no, they weren’t “my favorites”. Neither were the Beatles except for a very short period. There was just so damned much great music coming out then you couldn’t afford to have favorites. If you got all hung up on one band you missed the Kinks or Hendrix or the Animals or Led Zeppelin or the Zombies or the Moody Blues, or, or… But they were pretty damned good. And the album Tommy. That was special.
Is music today as creative and driving and as powerful as it was from 1963 forward? I can’t see it. I mean, it might be but I just don’t hear it.
That really was a pretty damned good article. And the videos… thank you.
I can’t stop. What about the R&B greats? Marvin Gaye, Bobby Bland, The Temptations, Dinah Washington… C’mon Kathy, let’s really talk about music. There was so much stuff coming out over AM back then it drove everybody’s parents crazy. PJMedia ought to expand just a hair and have a music column. And you ought to lead it. What about Michel LeGrand, Thunderclap Newton (one hit wonder) Jeff Beck (Rough & Ready) Rod Stewart…
Man, you really let the cat out of the bag! Good for you!
The Who was a great band, no question.
But i won’t be spending a pennyt on any music of theirs any more due to Roger Waters’ support of Boycotting Israel due to Palestinian propaganda.
Nuffsaid.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPs, mea culpa, mixed up my Rogers – apologies to all concerned..
Respect to all as deserved.
Won’t Get Fooled Again is to rock songs what Animal Farm is to fiction.
glad to hear that someone is finally going public with this. The Who is rock music’s Beethoven. Staggering power, great lyrics, great talents, visionary. THe Beatles were Mozart, gifted and prolific.
Tommy was the Eroica symphony, which changed everything and made it OK to do something besides 3 minute singles, and Quadrophenia is the 9th. An awesome (in the original context of the word) accomplishment. Forget the antics, forget the trashed guitars, listen to the music and the talent, the words, the complex melody and unparalleled chords, rhythms, etc. Sure, other groups did magnificent stuff but not for as long or as well. YOu can draw a line from My Generation to Athena or Another Tricky Day and you are listening to remarkable music.
The Who were a great band. As were all the rest of that generation. I agree, Keith Moon was an incredible drummer. The Beatles were in a class by them selves, with the exception of the Stones. Everyone has their own preferences, of course. However, when you consider the body of work of the Beatles and the Stones, no other bands come close.