On Becoming a Who Fan
It all began with the release of the album "Who"s Next" by The Who. I first was introduced to it in September of 1971. The first time I heard it I was in awe. I had never heard music like this before. I played it over and over. I couldn't get enough of it. I went to bed with the songs playing in my head and woke up the same way. I went to school and all I did was talk about The Who. Most of the people in my age group(I was 13) never even heard of The Who. Especially the girls. They all thought that David Cassidy and Donny Osmond was the only music(and I use that term lightly) to listen to. It was very frustrating. I was thankful that I did not fall into that blackhole. They all had their pictures pinned up in their lockers.
This is what I had:
Thank God for The Who!!
Thank God for Pete Townshend!!
How did you discover The Who?
posted by greekzoe at 4/26/2006 08:40:00 PM
13 Comments:
Great topic, I love talking about The Who. My Mum and Dad were really great about listening to good music. Mum especially loved The Who. She got Tommy and played Pinball Wizard over and over. I was 8. I loved the guitar, the rythm, the free wheeling ride of the song. Muym had an old spanish guitar with steel strings, just awefully hard to play, but I started playing by ear and taught myself a bunch of Who songs. The words were for adults mostly, I was too young then to grasp Tommy, but it didn't matter, the melodies, Roger's voice, Keith's outrageous drumming had me hooked. When Tommy first came out, Mum took me to the ABC cinema in Camberley to see it, but I was too small to get in. Thankfully they re-released it a few years later and I got to see it, and I understood it. I followed the second Mod revival in the late 80's, risking life and limb walking about Aldershot with my mod parka and tonic suit and Quadrophenia ringing through my head. I haven't seen them a lot, maybe 6 times, but each time has been very special. Fortunate enough to see Pete solo at House of Blues in 1996 and fortunate enough to travel back to London to see him again before Christmas. I can say I've been a loyal enthusiastic fan for most of my life. There will never be another band like The Who. Yes, The Beatles were remarkable, but The Who in my opinion moved rock forward as an art form.
I could go on and on and on.
Good topic. I am actually exhausted but will write the tiniest bit to get squeezed in. It was 1966 or so with me. During the British Invasion.
It all began very early 1965.
There were some stations broadcasting offshore on the AM-band from ships at the coast of Essex and they vere very loud and clear here in Finland in the late evenings. My favourite station was Radio London.
You now, finnish public-service radio was all but rocking back in those days... :)
One evening I heard something that made me jump up and shuffle across the floor and that was "Can´t Explain" The name of the band was: "The Who"
And the rest is history...
I lived in London from 1965-1975, and my Mom and Dad listened to alot of different music. We had went to Liverpool, saw the Cavern, they both loved music. We lived in the area of the beginnings, and who knows they may have seen them as they went out to see music, they are gone now. (more un-Who info) met Ringo at Heathrow Airport. Mom was yelling like a teenager.!! I remember having the teen magazines and of course David Cassidy ( who (useless info) I met 4 years ago. And Donny Osmond (my annoying older sister adored) but in them among the teen idols articles was The Who. I still have those magazines and it is kind of funny to see them mixed in with those teen idols!! My Dad was also a big saver of important news newspapers, and when he passed away we went through his stuff and found papers he saved from when we were in London - and in them were some old articles about The Who, ads for them playing at different places, antics that Keith had done. At the time it was a hard thing to do, but at the same time what a cool discovery!! Then in high school, Tommy was out, and I remember a friend of mine had this t-shirt of Roger from Tommy, the one with him with just his pants on by the ocean, and because he was shirtless - she was teased terribly. We had seen it in the theatre. So funny when you think of what goes on today!! I do not know really when it happened, they were always there and it just evolved into a huge admiration. They just had "it". The "it" thing!!! Amazing music. Amazing on stage. I think their big live performance that will always stand out was Shea Stadium G A, in New York, about 15th row packed in like sardines!! you could pick both your feet up and you were not moving. F****ing awesome. Crazy. I was hooked!!
I love the post, Zoe!
On BEING a Who Fan...
I was a late bloomer - it wasn't until 1969 that I discovered my heros.
It was when I was living in the Montreal area & I was 12 years old.
My best friend's 18 year old brother had just staggered home from Woodstock with wild tales of - well, we all know what!
He even made it into the film "Woodstock", being one of the naked mud sliders...
He was absolutely gushing about this great band & something about Tommy.
Yes, as a result, I was one of those who wondered if the band's name was indeed Tommy...
But not for long!
I actually remember where we were & what we were doing when he first told us wide-eyed little girls about the event - we were trying make-up on in her bathroom!
Of course, we went right out & bought the album & the rest is history!
It took me a few years to really get to the bottom of the band & I felt a bit intimidated by them at first. Such potty-mouthed scoundrels they were! Not to mention "older boys".
I've grown up with them &, in that time, felt I grew toward them. I lost the intimidation I felt & grew to love them on equal terms.
I loved the Beatles, too, & there was not much I didn't know about them, either, but The Who were an entirely different story. Maybe because they were such individuals, that made them more human to me. The Beatles were made to look & act so much alike for a time.
I am sad that Keith & John are no longer with us, but that is life. To live life along with the band is to experience life itself - good & bad.
I had a huge crush on Keith, because of his good looks & his crazy personality, but Pete was always my true love.
(Angus eventually took Keith's place...)
Never, in a million years of dreaming, did I ever think I would ever get as close to Pete as we have on this blog!
:)
Dale
Thanks for visiting my blog.
As you know, I had older siblings who are responsible for my affinity for rock and roll. However, I have a friend since I am 10, who didn't have older siblings or rock and roll parents, yet she managed to see jimi hendrix in concert at age 9 and her first album was "magic bus". How? well, her parents took her to see David Cassidy, and Jimi was the opening act. Her mother thought Magic Bus was a different "childrens" album. So, there you have it, she just was fated, then she met me, the kid with the cool brother, whose albums we "stole" and kept for ourselves. What is meant to be, is meant to be! :)
Amen!
"stole", not being a real word.
"pillaged" is what we did.
My introduction to The Who was also the Whos Next album. I was 14 and these were the days of Metallica and Ozzy. None of my friends had heard of The Who either. It didn't matter, I thought they were the best band I had ever heard. I still do :)
It was being a teenager in 1977 or 1978 and getting a back catalogue of great records, and I got into Who's Next and was hooked.I fell in love with BBE and started writing my novel. Then, the following year, it was being friends with guys who were into the new mod movement in 1979, when the film Quadrophenia came out. We are the mods, indeed. It was a glorious, fun time, and I never looked back.
Great topic, Sue!
Cheers,
AM
Wow, amazing topic indeed...
I first heard The Who when I was 8. A friend brought me a cassette tape of Tommy and my jaw dropped! I absolutely adored it and listened to it all the time. I had heard Baba O'Riley and of course I always knew My Generation, so I was a mini-fan at 8yrs old.
Then the 80s came and my upbringing was not very "Rock" when I was in Greece. My friends and my sister were listening to disco, brit-pop and Michael Jackson, and so was I.
In 1989 with the hip-hop invasion I thought that good music had died.
Then I came to England and once in a pub I heard again Pinball Wizard and that was it! I became monotonously obsessed with The Who, Pete and whatever surrounds them.
So I guess I'm a newbie, a rookie on being a Who Fan, but I feel that I have loved them all my life.
Pheww, I could go on!!!
xoxoxo
M
Oh what a lovely magazine cover there of Pete.
Actually my Who fanness goes back only a few years, to 2003. I used to have a cd-r copy of Tommy and something else, and I thought they were ok but nothing hugely interesting, and so I didn't listen to them that much. But one day I DID start listening to them again and suddenly I was hooked. Then I got all of the band's stuff (and all of Pete's solo stuff, thank god for Eelpie and a credit card) and dug up all the information I could find (thank god for the internet). However, I'd really call myself more a fan of Pete than a Who fan...
Zoe
PLEASE post your Rachel!
♥
Dale
I'm gonna warn you that this will get long since there are stories of other bands, but it leads up to The Who.
The first time I heard their name was when I saw a commercial on VH1 for some kind of show, I don't remember what it was for, but I do remember when they were announcing the line-up for it and The Who were mentioned. I remember thinking "What kind of a band name is that?" My mom had the Tommy soundtrack on vinyl and I remember the cover. Later on I remember when I was at one of my cousin's house, the movie Tommy was on TV. The weird thing is, even though I didn't know the music of The Who yet, I knew somewhat what the movie was about.
Over the years of growing up I remember hearing some of their songs, but I never knew who sang them. I listened to what my dad was listening to on the oldies radio stations and mixed tapes he made. He loved mostly the early Beatles and a couple of songs from the later years, so I grew up with The Beatles. I listened to them for a while until I got tired of them, but then in my senior year of high school, I returned to listening to The Beatles again. After a while, I got sick of them again so I moved on to another band I discovered, Led Zeppelin. I listened to them heavily for a while, but overtime I lost interest. I still like the songs, but I'm just not that into them.
I told you those stories to tell you this one.
I told you earlier that I heard The Who's songs a few times. I've heard them in various places, commercials, the radio, and a person in my photography class playing one of their CD's in class. Even though I wasn't into them yet, their songs always managed to stick, I would recall where I heard the songs.
Now this is where I tell you how I finally become a fan. Obviously it wasn't enough to hear them, so I had to see them. When "The Concert For New York City" aired, I watched it because of the great line-up they had, but then when The Who were performing, I was stunned at the way they played. I was blown away by Pete's windmill chords and Roger Daltrey swinging the microphone. I remember asking my mom "Who is that?" She told me "That's Roger Daltrey" Of course I noticed Roger first, but after that I was a fan after that. So after Christmas, I bought the Ultimate Collection and even though I listened to it over and over, I never got sick of it and to this day, after being a fan for almost five years, I am still listening to them. My taste of bands may change overtime, some are fads, and some manage to stick around, but so far The Who are here to stay.
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