(...Story Continued from Previous Page)
"Amazing Journey" underscores how your songs reflected the specific
experiences of growing up in a "black and white" postwar England, and the impact
of economic austerity and Mod culture on the Who. In that regard, the Who seem
rivaled only by the Kinks for addressing that period so directly. Does that seem
a fair assessment, or are we missing other peers?
You're right, I think. It's not that we were alone entirely, but that we
needed to feel we were in a second wave. The Stones and the Beatles had taken the city, the Kinks and the Who had to work out why we'd wanted it in the
first place. The answers were confusing. It was a nice place, but populated by
people who seemed smashed by war and degradation, death and loss.
As a longtime fan, it's predictably thrilling to relive the triumphs
of the band's late-'60s conceptual experiments. But revisiting the early singles
does suggest a surprising parallel that might have been unimaginable a decade
ago: In those early songs, the identification with youthful alienation and
oblique but tangible allusions to privation, abuse and generational identity
prefigure some of the big issues for emo -- without the shoe-gazing, and better
musicianship, of course.
We watched our audience, and did what they wanted. If emo describes what we
did, and it's back today, then the audience is probably still asking for it. My
question is why young people need answers to questions like, "Should I blow my
brains out; I feel really bad?" I would have thought the answer was obvious.
"Amazing Journey" taps into genuine emotions in the reconciliation
and eventual bond you and Roger describe between each other, as well as in
acknowledging the poignant sense of loss after the deaths of Keith and John. Did
addressing this so directly on film come easily to you?
Nothing I say comes easily. I think these particular subjects are tricky
because we are speaking of the dead. John and Keith have living relatives, they
both have living mothers. Some home truths may have to wait. As for Roger and
me, WYSIWYG.
For so many fans you are the Who. By the late '70s and
early '80s, rock, like film, embraced an auteur theory in which the songwriter
would naturally be viewed as the engine driving the band. In "Amazing Journey,"
are you distancing yourself from that? I found it moving that you suggested your
solo work would "never surpass" the band.
I am not trying to be humble. I think I always knew my function, and still
do. I understand the way creative teams work. With Roger and me today, what is
so much clearer is the moment when one function is handed on -- when my role as
songwriter stops, and his role as interpreter and deliverer begins. Suddenly I
transform from the driver to the passenger. (Albeit a noisy one.)
You cite your conviction that "the album was going to be the new art
form" as driving the leap from three-minute singles to the conceptual ambitions
of "A Quick One," "The Who Sell Out" and "Tommy." How
do you view current prophecies about "the death of the album" in the face of
digital music distribution and slumping sales?
Yawn. If we really do have a 30-second attention span (cited by almost every
Net guru I speak to) then how do we watch movies or read the paper? I predict
the death of predictions.
When asked about plans for a 40th anniversary celebration focusing on
"Tommy," you instead told Alan Light you wanted to restore "Quadrophenia" to its
original true surround context. Have you made any headway on that project? It's
certainly the most explicitly autobiographical work the band ever tackled, and
it seems more potent in the wake of the '96 tour.
I've changed my mind. Too time-consuming and only a few people would notice
the improvement, if there was an improvement.
With record companies blaming the collapse of their traditional
business -- and the album itself -- on the rise of digital music, how do you
view the alternative career strategies suggested by artists such as Radiohead, Madonna, Paul McCartney and the Eagles? Each is breaking ranks from
conventional label relationships.
I thought of it first, needless to say. When I see a genuinely new idea I
will concede, but lately all I've seen is artists reinventing the wheel. I like
the story of Frank Sinatra asking that a recording session be conducted
with just one microphone when engineers were starting to put out dozens of them.
The old ways still work. Maybe what we need to be selling are records that are
12 inches round.
Your own recent solo work notably exploits the fluidity and intimacy
of the Internet through your In the Attic sessions. That seems in keeping with
the Who's determination to stay accessible to its audience. Do you see your
music bridging traditional and new media platforms? And do you envision that for
the Who as well?
I would like to see everyone's music bridging traditional and new media
platforms. The problems happen when we start to set one platform against the
other, and complain or simply drop dead whenever we are faced with difficult
changes. For Roger and me, time is running out. Do we go to Vegas, or do we
continue to pretend that the road is still long and empty and wide? Do you come
to us, or do we come to you? The Internet does provide a chance for us to skip
the questions. But what we do must be live in real time.
Sam Sutherland is the senior producer for MSN Music.
|
Hotmail
