WHO’S GRATEFUL? Kyle Smith reviews Roger Daltrey’s Thanks a Lot Mr. Kibblewhite: “Who Singer’s Delightful New Autobiography:”

[Keith Moon’s antics] weren’t so hilarious “when you think about it soberly,” Daltrey says. “The pranks, the explosions, the general devastation, there was usually someone at the other end of it having a pretty miserable time.” After an early TV appearance, Daltrey recalls, Moon set off a smoke bomb so large that it knocked him several feet forward and ensured that Townshend’s hearing was “never 100 percent again.” That same U.S. tour, Daltrey carefully rationed his spending, limiting himself to one hamburger a day, only to be told upon return to the U.K. that there were no profits to be shared. “I’d hardly spent anything,” Daltrey says. “Yes, but do you know what Keith spent?” his agent replied. Daltrey had to borrow money for his flight home.

It’s not hard to see how rock can create a conservative. These days the singer of the No. 1 conservative rock song of all time detests Jeremy Corbyn (whom he, not without cause, calls a “communist”), supports Brexit, and says of the Labour party, “It pains me to say it, but in my life a Labour government comes in with incredible optimism and leaves the country in the sh*t.” His abiding conservative feature, however, is the gratitude that resounds through this book. He gives thanks for his wife, Heather, who has stood by him since 1971, and for his other life partner, too: “I made the conscious decision that if my job was going to be the singer of Pete’s songs, and if Pete’s songs were genius, which they were, then I would be happy with my lot, thank you very much.”

Read the whole thing – and check it my own review, if you missed it last week: Roger Daltrey’s New Autobiography Explains How The Punk Became the Godfather.