The Who- My Generation- Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey

“In the case of The Who, the thing that comes across for me is that The Who started as a Pop band. Good Pop possibly is the sublime and the ridiculous, the important and the absurd,” opines Pete Townshend looking back on My Generation, released six decades ago and hitting #5 sales in the UK (April 1966 in America, but stiffing just before The Beatles would pretty much single-handedly make the LP format dominant in 1967 with Sgt. Peppers…).

You know, reading that back after Pete Townshend  defined it to me here In the Studio, we really can just stop right here. I mean, there it is, right? That’s what I have always loved about Pete. “For God’s sake, man!” he exclaims to no one in particular,”It’s right there in front of our collective faces!” We have In the Studio  The Who’s Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, plus archive comments from the late John Entwistle, in my classic rock interview to mark the sixtieth (!) anniversary of My Generation.

As surprising as it may seem, not all famous rock’n’roll musicians are comfortable talking about their past, even involving their times of greatest creative accomplishment, fame, and fortune. The reasons can be myriad and not immediately obvious. Recalling your naive exploits, often at a time barely out your teens, can be awkward from the current perspective of a Rock Elder Statesman. Frequently the songs, albums, and tours are tied inextricably to behind-the-scenes issues of lawsuits, sour business deals, personnel defections and firings, and personal losses which are painful to re-examine. Some former stars whose careers are fading now are loathe to revisit past glories simply because it underscores for them just how far from grace they’ve fallen. And more than one famous rock star simply cannot remember key periods in their lives due to memory blackouts, a frightening and unfortunately permanent result of alcoholism or drug abuse.

Pete Townshend of The Who has no such reservations, discussing easily the merits of The Who’s music from 1964’s “I Can’t Explain” to Tommy, Who’s Next, Quadrophenia, and Townshend’s considerable solo albums, as well as their demerits for the band’s behavior along the way. “(Looking back) It wasn’t all painful, but it was poignant,” Townshend confessed to me.

As The Who’s recognized “Supreme Creator”, Townshend has assessed their  more than six decades of musical creation and found it to be good. Pete is a delightful, witty, thoughtful, and refreshingly honest conversationalist who can easily and effectively examine The Who’s body of work through a slightly detached objective eye, which only the passage of time plus maturity can provide. -Redbeard