Marsh, whose previous writings on rock music have been severely
marred by pretentious verbiage and adolescent self-indulgence, is
far more impressive here - in a massively detailed, thoughtful,
critical history of the Who, with only occasional lapses into
Rolling Stone-style gush or jive. Drawing on extensive interviews
(especially with personal friend Pete Townshend), Marsh chronicles
the group's early-1960s London beginnings, as the scruffy
"Detours"; he charts their re-named appearance as a more ambitious,
theatrical band, influenced by the Beatles and Rolling Stones; he
analyzes their roots in "Mod" culture, their development into "the
first genuinely avant-garde rock band" - violently energized by
their insecurities, by the real-life tension between cerebral,
experimental, big-nosed art-student Townshend and short, practical,
show-bizzy Roger Daltrey. (The other band members were musicianly
John Entwhistle and maniacal drummer Keith Moon.) He follows them
closely through the Sixties - first recordings, celebrity via
"pirate radio," drug-obsession, tours, bad business deals,
Townshend's eventual dominance, his growth as a Dylan-inspired
songwriter - until the 1969 triumph of the rock-oratorio Tommy, "a
myth that summarizes the most transcendent aspirations of the
generation Townshend had been portraying since he began writing."
(Marsh also gives credit to manager/producer Kit Lambert, who "was
able to take Townshend's thinking and drag it away from
pretension.") And the focus remains intense in the Seventies:
Townshend's near-breakdown and recovery; Moon's fatal decline into
alcoholic self-destruction; artistic ups and downs; and the band's
post-Moon survival as "a purely commercial proposition," lacking in
"lyrical and musical unity". . .with the 1979 Riverfront Coliseum
tragedy as a symbol of the Who's loss of idealism. (They "had
finally become so divorced from their listeners that they had
allowed themselves to participate in the greedy scheme - festival
seating, one essential precondition for such a disaster to occur.")
Marsh's enthusiasm for some of the Who's material may be excessive,
as is his rhetoric about the generational "dream" the band
represents. But, with song-by-song, album-by-album commentary and
fairly solid use of biographical material (the pro-Townshend slant
is clear yet inoffensive), this is valuable rock-music history -
even if too minutely detailed for anyone but dedicated fans.
(Kirkus Reviews)
Before I Get Old is one of the best books ever written about
rock'n'roll, discarding much of the mythology that often surrounds
a lesser informed appraisal of the Who. It tells the story of six
personalities - songwriter and guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist
John Entwistle, drummer Keith Moon and singer Roger Daltrey, plus
their original managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp.
Here are the band's origins within the steamy nightlife of London,
their meteoric rise to fame, the laughter and the pathos, the
craziness of the world they inhabited, the drugs, the destruction,
the vandalism, the debts - and, of course, the music. In short,
every element that makes up the fascinating, shocking and hilarious
story of the Who.
Before I Get Old is essential reading, an exhaustive study of an
exhausting band who always lived up to their legend.
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