Could it be? Pete Townshend anticipates his 40s
Pete Townshend, leader of The Who, is a rocker who grew up. In his early years, as an 18-year-old Mod guitar player, he composed the immortal lines "Hope I die before I get old."
Now, as he nears the upper end of his 30s, aging is still a consideration for him. And he is far from dead.
He has a new album out, a solo, called "Empty Glass," on Atco Records. Any discussion of the record must take place against his assessment of people who write about music.
"Typewriter hangers-on," he writes in "Jools and Jim." "You're all just hangers-on."
Here he has put his inky finger on one of the central truths concerning the rock press. Our ranks are loaded with frustrated and would-be musicians.
For my part, Pete Townshend has been one of rock's greatest treasures since The Who came to fame more than 15 years ago. Watching him leap around the stage, windmilling power chords out of his guitars, like Ichabod Crane on wicked hallucinogens, lifted my spirits and those of countless other rock idolizers.
It was an unexpected bonus to find that, as I grew up, so did Pete. He turned out to have a penetrating intelligence, and he became one of the few people in the business of rock who bothered to talk and write about what it was like to age in a young person's game.
Gradually, he became a kind of father figure to a generation of younger power chorders. And like any father, he was faced with rebellion by some of his kids.
So one of his concerns on his new album is his reception by the new wave of teenage bands.
He starts his solo record with a song dedicated to "my children Emma and Minta and the Sex Pistols."
It's called "Rough Boys," and it is an arresting little number, powered by Mr. Townshend's distinctive guitar chops fleshed out with horns and drums from fellow Who mate Kenney Jones.
The lyric is a little weird, full of sexual overtones, but it does convey a message of conciliation from Mr. Townshend to the punk rockers who have dumped on him.
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Then, in typical Townshend style, he takes a shot at the punks in "Jools and Jim." This song adapts the furious guitar style favored by some new bands to support a message intended to deflate the superior tone of many of the new music's true believers.
It says that these bands are not so special, suggests they listen to Krishna and Christ, then winds up with a snatch from the lyric to "Oklahoma."
The spiritual stuff is another Pete Townshend trademark. He is big enough to handle the apparent contradictions of these two songs, since he comes into the world from a position he outlines in the surprisingly gentle "I Am an Animal."
He is a man linked with universal intelligence. "I am an animal/I am a vegetable/I am a human being," he sings. Finally, "I am an angel/I booked in here/I came straight from hell."
He either does not know who he is, or knows he is everywhere. In print, these two points of view look the same.
The rest of the record is devoted largely to songs in which he concludes that life is pretty miserable, but it does have its moments. For Mr. Townshend, these moments come, as he says in "Keep on Working," when you "hear the sea sing, see a smiling face."
His prescription for living is found on the title cut. "Don't worry, smile and dance/You just can't work life out./Don't let down moods entrance you/Take the wine and shout."
There is plenty of cause for that sort of celebration in the music on "Empty Glass." Mr. Townshend covers a wide range of styles. In addition to the near-ballad of "Animal" and the quasi-punk of "Jools and Jim," there is some vintage pop in "Let My Love Open the Door," and some almost Who in "Empty Glass."
Mr. Townshend handles vocals, a chore Roger Daltry performs on most Who songs. His voice can get a bit reedy at times, but it has more power than you might expect.
For Townshend fans, this record is a must. Who lovers will find in it some satisfying rock and roll, and the rest of you can tap your feet to "Let My Love Open the Door," which has the sound of a hit.
Pete Townshend, after almost two decades in rock, is getting more popular all the time. This mature outing, which he dedicates to his wife, should do nothing but enhance his stature.
