Slashdot Mirror
Townshend to Complete "Lifehouse"
So I've been running Slashdot for 2 years just waiting for the story that
Bobby Geortgilakis sent me.
Finally an excuse to plug The Who.
The deal is that Pete Townshend (the brains and genius behind The Who,
the greatest rock band ever, not that I'm biased) is supposed to be
completing Lifehouse. But why is this appearing on
Slashdot? Read the article: Started in 1971 as a followup to Tommy,
Lifehouse talks about Virtual Reality and The Internet (although it
uses terms like "The Grid" since nobody really heard of TCP/IP and VRML back then) and the relevance of Rock Music (a pretty common Townshend theme anyway). So anyway, there it is. I got to mention
The Who on Slashdot. Its a good day.
Who/Towshend/Lighthouse FAQ
Lighthouse was started after Tommy but aborted. The best tracks where filtered into 'Who's Next'. These include Baba O'Reilly and Behind Blue Eyes (2 of the most amazing tracks ever laid, and the among the first ever)
Pete==God. He is my musical idol. At this point I have every CD he has out- release Chinese Eyes on CD already!
Mods always win.
Roger was more than willing to roll around in the baked beans.
Pete released a new album a few years ago called "Psychoderelict" which seemed to me to be picking up on a few themes from Lifehouse. He also reworks some interesting (but dated) electronic riffs from a little known solo release called "Who Came First."
I have "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes" on CD already. They must have discontinued it... It is his single best work. From "The Sea Refuses no River" to "Slit Skirts" it is one of the most mature collections of rock lyrics ever. Pete is (IMHO) sometimes overrated as a guitar player, but he is even more underrated as a writer. The SOB can write!
One track off "Psychoderelict" that shows his greatest guitar skill is "Early Morning Dreams." He is perhaps the greatest rhythm guitarist in rock music. He does percussive strumms on this track that are only matched in my experience by Richard Thompson. (This track screams "Lifehouse." It even begins with a digitized voice [Pete's] singing the reassuring phrase "You are safe from harm on the Grid. You are safe from harm...")
He even deals well with the fact that he is a rock relic when rock worships youth. Think he can't write? Check out "Outlive the Dinosaur."
Pete Townshend consistently knocks me on my backside with his stuff. He gets at truth. Also, since he is aging just a bit ahead of me I keep on finding his lyrics growing older and more sophisticated just as I grow old enough to appreciate them. His work also provides a path back to reckless youth -- two songs off "Who's Next" are veritable teen anthems (again, IMHO): "Baba O'Reilly" (more familiar as "Teenage Wasteland" -- loved it when it showed up in the trailer for "A Bug's Life," funny without being mocking) and "We Don't Get Fooled Again" which may be the most insightful of the protest/authority defiance songs of the "end of the 60's" (the album dates to the eraly 70's, but it is pre-disco, pre-shag). I still find "Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss" to be both shrill, youthful, and wise. Also simultaneously defiant and resigned. I can't think of too many from the 60's/70's generation who were both so passionate about changing the world and so aware that it is probably a lost cause. The song is positively Quixotic.
Well, I've eaten enough bandwidth with this "me too!," but I share the enthusiasm for a guy I've often felt was loved for the wrong reasons and ignored by those who should love him.
"After the fire/The fire still burns/The heart grows older/but never-ever learns/The memories smoulder/The soul always yearns/After the fire/The fire still burns"
Yeah, for me too, Pete.
It's sad how people fail to remember that before the Beatles did what they did, NO ONE ELSE had. Ask any serious musician conscious at the time and they all say the same thing: Sgt. Pepper blew their mind.
If you're "grandma could figure it out", why didn't she? I could just as easily say "I could figure out that seatbelts might help save lives". But I give credit where credit is due.
We're all entitled to our opinion, and our tastes obviously differ. However, I'd like to know which Beatles track sounds like a "cat caught in a vacuum cleaner." I'll defer on the subject of rock ballads, since I don't like any of them anyway.
And I did not, nor will I ever, give props to Marilyn Manson. I think angst, teen or otherwise, is overused and often phony. I've enjoyed a few of NIN's tracks, and don't listen to KISS enough to have an opinion, except that their SuperBowl show was a prime example of selling-out.
"More organs means more human." - Zim
Oh please, he gets attacked for having one too many Red Hat articles, or for posting an article about Microsoft, or for posting one too many Linux articles in a day, or for any number of other little nitpicks that anonymous cowards come up with just to try and divert the conversation to an attack on slashdot.
Heck, I know I'd get paranoid about it after I while if I was Rob.
But anyway, this is completely off topic. So let me mention something on-topic here.
There are lots of books out there that have glimpses of the future. Books liek 1984 or Brace New World, or even Fahrenheit 451. Amazing (and good!) that they make kids read this in high school. At least I had to.
Back to the topic, though, If he's just completing this, as in the story, how could it have been written way back when. Am I just losing it here?
Get the music-only version. The "play" stinks. Also, the song "Flame" stinks, but it was meant to stink. It was meant to be an example of marketable pablum.
I don't think Pete has done anything lately to measure up to his first three major solo releases: "Empty Glass," "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes," and "White City." (he's got other stuff in there like his demo releases and such, but these are the three major ones).
I think "The Iron Man" was sort of a noble try. Anybody else heard "The Iron Man?" I'm interested in opinions. Especially if you are also familiar with the work of Ted Hughes. IMHO the album is good, but the rock-n-roll song just isn't the format for that material... I'd love to hear what others think...
I think "Psychoderelict" stands on the strength of a couple of songs. Please don't hate me for this, but no 16 year-old can fully appreciate "Fake It." I'm not aying you don't get it -- I'm sure you do. You just have to be pushing middle age and have migrating hair to feel it fully.
The music-only version of Psychoderelict stands up much better than the "play." "Let's Get Pretentious" is pretty amusing too... That doesn't mean any of it remotely approaches "Exquisitely Bored," "Slit Skirts," or "Somebody Saved Me" (which I have always believed to be the best of his numerous tributes to Keith Moon).
As a last defense, I'd rather hear Pete try and come up short than hear anything from, say, Elton John, who hasn't taken a musical chance since 1977 and has released just shy of 734 albums since then...
I'll pass on the essay, but a short answer to "what the hell is a mod" would be interesting. I know what a rocker is, but I've never heard the term "mod" outside of slashdot, unless referring to an Amiga music file (those type of MODs are great, BTW).
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Actually, it's owned by Andover.net. Rob is one of their employees who runs the site.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Bad Religion would be my choice.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
What the hell is a Penquin? I've been seeing references to this mysterious being popping up on Slashdot quite a bit recently. Is a penquin related to a penguin, or are they separate entities? I always thought Tux was a penguin, but at least four people now have told me he's a penquin. Perhaps we'll never know...
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Hmm, that seems to make sense, except for the part about connecting mods to the punk scene of the 70s and 80s. How are these two groups connected? Apart from the fact that there was no unified "punk" scene (it covered everything from the leather-jacket wearing American Ramones to the British Sex Pistols and the fiercly political mohawk-wearing Dead Kennedys, not to mention the PhD-led Bad Religion), I don't see the connection to the mod scene you described.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I don't think it has anything to do with "selling out." I do agree that their recent stuff, while great, is not as good as their late 80s/early 90s stuff. The main reason is probably the fact that Mr. Brett left. Previously, Mr. Brett and Greg Graffin each wrote about half the songs on each album. They each have different songwriting styles, so it was a nice mix. The Gray Race, the first cd since Mr. Brett's departure (1996), is a great CD IMO, but since it's written entirely by Greg, it lacks the added quality that Mr. Brett's songs add. Basically, Greg's songs are still great, but they now have to carry the whole album, instead of just half of it. No Substance, their latest (1998) CD, on the other hand, is substandard, again IMO. It was an attempt to write everything in the studio by the entire band, instead of Greg writing the songs at home before going to the studio. I think he realizes it was a subpar album, because he said they're not going to try that again for the next album.
Ok, that was probably too long a comment for a REALLY off-topic subject, but anyway =)
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
> only saw pieces of tommy when i was young.. only remember that it looked very weird, a la kubrick.
That was Ken Russel's interpretation, so it had to come off kind of weird.
> maybe should i give it a try.. which albums are you suggesting?
I think most fans would label Who's Next as their classic among classics, and whenever critics or consumer votes ever named the best Rock albums, that one was sure to be near the top of the pack.
If you like LOUD MUSIC, try Live at Leeds.
For something more austere, and which may require some growing in to, try Tommy (the studio album -- not the soundtrack).
For maximal R&B, try My Generation, though the world weeps while waiting for some jerk to die and let the copyright fall into hands that will remaster it. (I've heard the old remastered LP, and yes, it does make a difference.)
For something a bit quirky but exquisitely tart, try Sell Out.
And then, of course, there's all their other albums...
In general, the remasters of the albums before Who's Next help the sound considerably (and to a good extent on Who's Next as well), and the bonus tracks are real treats for fans, but unfortunately the added material unbalances the albums as albums. (The Who were always more an album band than a singles band.) So if you do buy one, read the notes to figure out where the original stopped, and make yourself turn it off at that point for the first dozen or so listens, so you'll get a feel for the masterful organization of the originals. Then go back and treat yourself to the bonus tracks.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
There are many steps to professional writing (I say expertly as someone with little talent for that sort of thing...). He may well have written the whole thing as a draft back then, and recently polished it, He might have left the ending open and just now found it. etc etc.
i'm with you! i saw the Who in concert three summers ago or so. they performed the whole Quadrophenia album with the video on the screen in the background. it was crazy ... however one of my most vivid memories is John Entwistle (no 'h') going nuts on the bass guitar for about a 7 or 8 minute solo during '5.15'. it was INCREDIBLE!
(Originally posted on the poll, but this story seemed more appropriate... :) )
10. Tommy didn't need Linux. Why should I?
9. My g-g-generation won't get fooled again (by Bill Gates, that is).
8. Pete's been rocking us for 30 years. Linux for only 6.
7. Linux hasn't been ported to Momma's Squeezebox.
6. Tux the Penquin? Nah. Boris the Spider!
5. Quadophenia fits on 2 CDs. Red Hat uses 3.
4. When "The Who Sells Out", everyone laughs. When Red Hat sells out, we're gonna cry.
3. Teenage Wasteland? Try Playstation, not Linux.
2. Pete Townshend's arm swing kicks the ass of Bob Young's hat any day of the week.
And the number 1 reason Pete Townshend beats the hell out of Linux:
1. Best of The Who: $8.98. Best of Red Hat: $79.95.
-Chris
Personally, I like all three for different reasons and in different moods. To me, they are three entirely different contexts. Any coexistance in time is an illusion, plot them in a 5-space and there is no intersection.
The Who is reflections on society and interactions
The Beatles is self reflection and states of being.
Led Zeppelin is emotional introspection and states of emotion.