I’m gonna keep it short and sweet today – I’m busy looking for a new job (I’m leaving full time teaching, too heartbreaking) and need to focus all of my energy to find one, but I can’t not RANT about something.
I’m not sure if I told you guys that I’m also a singer, but I am (which is another reason I’m done with full time teaching).
And on Monday night, I was a guest singer with some friends who are in a KICK-ASS band, New York’s Finest (www.finestpolicetribute.com) and, as always, after the gig we talked about music. Alan (the drummer), Oscar (the guitar player) and I talked about our favorite bands, and the best front men in Rock. Alan said Bon Scott, I said Roger Daltrey.
I added that The Who is the BEST Rock band ever, the end.
We agreed to disagree about Bon and Roger.
And I listened to some of my favorite Who songs on my way home.
It got me thinking about some news I heard on Sunday and forgot about.
And that news is, “The Who are planning a ‘Quadrophenia’ tour next year!”
REALLY?
I’m pretty sure that I’ve already ranted about geezers who still perform…and should stop. And upon hearing this news, I got angry again.
I’ve seen The Who many, many, MANY times.
I saw them A LOT before Moon died in September of 1978.
I wish they would have stopped after that.
Okay, so they “soldiered on” after he died, and did an okay job of it. I saw them perform Quadrophenia and Tommy at the Universal Amphitheater and here at MSG in the late 80’s and the ’96-’97 tour, and they were awesome! It was great seeing them with other people like ELTON JOHN, BILLY IDOL, GARY GLITTER, PATTI LABELLE, DAVID GILMOUR, and others.
And they kept on touring! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?
Then John Entwistle died in 2002.
I thought, well, that’s it. And I was enlightened by the fact that the reason they kept playing was that they were enabling John – he was drinking and spending all of his money, and they felt bad for him. “Okay, John is gone. They will stop playing,” I thought.
But they didn’t. It wasn’t very frequently, but they kept at it.
So now, Roger has been on tour performing Tommy all by his lonesome, because Pete didn’t want to do it. And I’m glad that Pete said no. “I don’t belong on this Tommy tour.” – he wrote that on his website.
I’ve never read about Roger or Pete having big time money problems.
And I guess that if you’re a Rock Star who has been doing the exact same thing for damn near 50 years, that you can’t or don’t want to do anything else.
Some musicians take up painting (Ronnie Wood).
Some love to golf (Alice Cooper).
Some open ostrich farms (I don’t know who, but I’m sure someone has).
Some don’t ever stop (MICK JAGGER).
I have fond memories of this!
And thought that this wasn’t so great when I saw the ‘VH1 Rock Honors’ show.
These days, Pete is almost totally deaf, and Roger can’t hit the notes.
As I said before, they had a “reunion” tour for ‘Quadrophenia’ in 1996 – when they performed in in full for the first time. last year, they played it for a charity in London. And I just read that a super-dooper-whoop-deee-doo-deeeeeeeeluxxx boxed set of Quadrophenia is coming out in the fall.
I wonder what Rod Stewart, David Gilmour, and Mick Jagger think?
