Paul Weller? Been a fan for more than 30 years. Pete Townshend? Even longer. Phil Lynott? Um... well, I guess I like hearing The Boys Are Back In Town as much as anyone when the sounder goes off at an IceCaps game at Mile One.
But I really like the designs of these three Brit Rock icons that Jamie Hewlett, the animating genius of Gorillaz, came up with a fundraiser for a cancer charity in the U.K.
"Rock won't eliminate your problems, but it will sort of let you dance all over them."
- Pete Townshend
OK, now I'm a kid again. TeeFury today mashes up a quartet of Doctor Who incarnations with my favourite band as an adolescent (well, most of the time). Tom Baker as Pete Townshend? Yes, please.
The shirt is only available today.
One of the best memories I have of a visit to San Francisco 15 years ago was seeing a touring production of Tommy at the city's historic opera house. I came across this video today that brought back that memory: a flashmob that formed in August in Union Square to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Who playing Tommy at the Woodstock festival. The event was sponsored by Wolfgang's Vault, which is full to the rim with great concerts and such.
In the late Seventies, there was a flood of new music going on ... and I was into it. A lot. And while Elvis Costello and Talking Heads and the Police and all that was exciting, I'll cop to being more than a passing fan of bands that had supposedly passed their prime years earlier.
Indeed, my 14-year-old self thought all of these guys were ancient. Ancient. I realize, of course, that I'm a fair bit older now than all of them were then. At that point, Ray Davies was 35; Pete Townshend 34; Robert Plant 31. In any event, Doors nostalgia kicked in a little while later, the "classic rock" radio formula was pretty much invented (and, to its shame, scarcely changed since), and the geezer bands knocked one compilation out after another.
At the time, though, I bought these records, and played them continually.
Led Zeppelin: Hot Dog. In Through the Out Door seems, in retrospect, like the soundtrack of the fall of '79. Didn't think this would be the end of the road. Looking back, with just seven tracks, it doesn't seem like much, but I love running through it, and Hot Dog is still a hoot.
The Kinks: (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman. The disco groove sounds more obvious with distance, but Superman is not too dated. (The opening riff also sounds like it got nicked a few years later by Survivor for Eye of the Tiger.) More tuneful than anything punk was dishing out, but just as immersed in Seventies malaise.
The Who: Won't Get Fooled Again (Live). From The Kids Are Alright, which I played enough for my parents (at least once) to ask for something else on the stereo I had put together in my room. Punk may have been bitting at bloated rockers, but the Who - and at this point they were arguably at their most bloated - could cut through it in style. Besides, that stuff about "Meet the news boss, same as the old boss" turned out to apply to that trend, too, didn't it?
The Rolling Stones: Shattered. I didn't realize until a few years later (when, to borrow a phrase, the Stones were sucking in the Eighties) that Some Girls is quite a good record, with nods to the discos and to the edgy punks telling them to piss off. Shattered is my favourite Stones tune from the period.
Paul McCartney & Wings: Arrow Through Me. To be truthful, I didn't and still don't much like Back to the Egg, although I can hum along to Arrow Through Me. I read a piece a month or so ago about Wings, and how Back to the Egg was to have been a relaunch of the band, with the musicians filling up on new wave and reggae as recording began, expecting that would be Macca's direction. None of that, of course, wound up on record; pity. Makes you wonder.
A five-song playlist is filed to this blog each Saturday. Click below to see others.
On May 18, 1964, kids known as mods and rockers squared off at Brighton, England, and had a riot. The melee was immortalized in The Who's Quadrophenia, particularly in the 1979 film version.
On March 1, 1944, Roger Daltrey was born. I suspect that not too many people in their 60s are still living like a rock star; indeed, Daltrey himself has toned it down. That said, the Who are still taking it on the road ... nearly 24 years after their first farewell tour.
Pete Townshend has been serializing a new bit of literature called The Boy Who Heard Music online, and has been evidently getting a little annoyed with the loyal fanbase. For instance, a companion blog has been overrun with comments from fans ... a few of whom seem to want the Who of days of yore.
So, the guy who wrote Listening to You has been having taking the fans' criticism with a pinch of salt, thank you very much:
Stop telling me what to do. Stop preaching to me about the music I actually helped to create. Stop worrying too - as long as I am healthy I'll do stage work and probably do it with my best buddy Roger. We are tied together now. What we want, if we ever release a new CD, is that it is great. Anything less will just disappear down the cracks.
I am a journalist with CBC News in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. I'm taller than I look. This blog has been running quietly since 2004.
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