The Who

Roger Daltrey is a veteran rock star with a glorious past and revitalized present. But ask the perpetually active singer of The Who to speculate about the future of his fabled band, now embarked on a mostly sold-out reunion tour that has earned rave reviews, and he laughs uproariously.

"I wouldn`t be so foolish!" he said, during a recent phone interview from England. "Are you kidding?"

Daltrey knows full well the dangers of predicting anything this most volatile of bands might do or even if the pioneering English rock group will exist a year from now. And that`s a wise move, given The Who`s history of frequent (and lengthy) hiatuses and the many heated disputes between its members - primarily Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend, the band`s principal songwriter and guiding light.

Only a few years ago, Daltrey was so embittered by Townshend`s refusal to reunite the band - which they`d co-founded as the Detours in 1962 with bassist John Entwistle - that he called the lanky guitarist a habitual liar. It`s a charge the singer still stands by.

"He admits to that himself," Daltrey said of Townshend, before adding: "We used to play around like the (constantly feuding) Gallagher brothers in Oasis, just to give you guys something to write about."

But Daltrey stressed that the rapport between The Who`s members has vastly improved.

"The feeling in the band is better than it`s been since Keith (Keith Moon, The Who`s manic drummer) died (in 1978)," Daltrey said. "We just laid a lot of old ghosts to rest. We`re enjoying the things we have in common. And we respect the chemistry of the band, which we took for granted in the past, through the stupidity of youth and, later on, the arrogance of early middle age."

To hear Daltrey tell it, a key factor that prompted Townshend to reunite was a desire to salute and, Daltrey hopes, extend The Who`s legacy.

"It was obviously Pete`s decision," he said. "I had a talk with him last year ... and I said to him: `I think we owe it to ourselves to play (live) as often as we can.` I would like to think we could produce one worthy (new) album of relevant music for our age and musicianship and that we could wind up our recording career in a better way than we actually did (with the half-hearted 1982 album `It`s Hard`).

"And, hopefully, that we can grow old - like good musicians should - to keep the music alive."

Townshend has long had an intense love/hate relationship with The Who, a band that couldn`t (and doesn`t) exist without him. His mixed feelings have been fueled by artistic pride and personal dread (for the toll the band exacted on him, including alcohol and drug abuse, and a 1971 suicide attempt).

"You have to understand the point at which Pete fell out of love with being in the band," Daltrey said. "First, we lost Keith, which was an incredible blow. We were all emotionally and psychologically damaged to a greater degree than we realized. But it was this rock `n` roll thing of, `Oh, we`re a band, we have to go on.` Denying the psychological damage was a mistake. ...

"And to find that Who muse is an incredibly dangerous place for Pete to go; if you listen to the songs, it`s self-explanatory. So he needed to get off the bus, and I don`t blame him at all. And he got off. But he`s realized he could play this music, without having to do all these (harmful) indulgences that could go along with it. And he`s playing like a demon now."

The Who`s lucrative 1989 reunion tour with an expanded lineup was its first concert trek in seven years. The band remained dormant until 1996, when Daltrey, Townshend and Entwistle regrouped (although not under The Who moniker), again with an expanded lineup, to perform "Quadrophenia," the band`s acclaimed 1973 rock opera.

A second, longer "Quadrophenia" tour was launched in 1997, also not billed as an official Who reunion. The band returned for a handful of shows last year (most of them benefits), this time as a streamlined quintet, playing songs that spanned the group`s career.

Asked what distinguished the ongoing reunion tour from The Who`s spate of live shows in recent years, Daltrey offered a candid response.

"They`re all reunions!" he said. "We said we were going to stop touring, and we did, for seven years. Prior to that, we were touring all the time. Then we had a reunion, and then we didn`t tour again for, gosh, seven more years. But we enjoy the right to change our minds. And we`re not on the rock treadmill of album/tour, album/tour, like we used to be."YOUNG MAN`S BLUES?

Fueled by Townshend`s timeless anthems about teen-age angst, love, lust and the quest for meaning and individuality, The Who boasts one of the most vital repertoires of any band in rock.

Those songs, which inspired Pearl Jam`s Eddie Vedder, the Ramones and at least two generations of rock fans and musicians, still have the power to inspire. But Daltrey, 56, now finds himself singing lyrics that may be more relevant to teen-agers than to himself, Townshend, 55, and Entwistle, 54.

"Although Pete`s songs were written when we were young and teens, you don`t have to be a teen to perform them," Daltrey insisted. "It`s an observation on the youth of adolescence, and you could sing them when you`re 19 or 90."

But what about "My Generation`s" explosive declaration - Hope I die before I get old - The Who`s single most quoted lyrical couplet?

"No one seems to understand the real sentiment of it," Daltrey replied. "Oldness is a state of mind; it has nothing to do with years. It`s like, what is old, if you`re not talking about a space in time? It`s about an attitude."

Did Daltrey view "My Generation" the same way when it became a hit for The Who in England in 1965?

"I think I did," he said. "In those days, our managers - Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp - were old to us, and we found them refreshing and they were our guiding lights. You didn`t used to think about things like that. What Pete thought as he wrote it, I don`t know. I never talk to him about things like that."

"My Generation" is not the only classic currently being performed by The Who, which also features longtime touring keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick and drum dynamo Zak Starkey, the son of Ringo Starr. The band is also featuring such favorites as "Pinball Wizard," "Substitute" and "I Can`t Explain," as well as such obscure gems as "My Wife" and "Pure & Easy."

All of these songs are included on the band`s recent two-CD release, "TheWhoLive - The Blues to the Bush / 1999." But without an album of new material, The Who runs the risk of being perceived as an oldies band, no matter how galvanizing those oldies are.

"That`s irrelevant to me," Daltrey said. "They release albums of Mozart, Schubert and other great composers all the time. At least we`re still around to play it. Mozart isn`t. And if he was, would it still be nostalgia?"

And what of the steep ticket prices for The Who`s current tour? (For the recent San Diego show, the top-priced seats - which had all been sold - were $150 each, plus service charges.)

"Obviously, we`re getting paid for what we do, but we`re having great fun. And this has always been my job, apart from acting. I don`t deny it at all," Daltrey said.

"Would I do it for nothing? I couldn`t afford to do it totally for nothing. Last year, we did some gigs for nothing - four or five benefits - and one gig where we did get paid. So, sure it`s about money and music. But we try and put as much back as we can."

(c) Copley News Service

Article continues below

---

advertisement

---

Author: George Varga