Friday, August 15th, 1969

Voque magazine's "People Are Talking About...." features The Who.

 

"John Entwistle, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, and Peter Townshend; they are The Who, whose rock cantata, a double record album, Tommy, has raised pop praise to a decibel count rivalling that of their ear-blasting music. Melodic, cohesive, relentlessly religious, with absorbing instrumental passages (overture, underture) and a burst of hit songs, Tommy celebrates "the quiet explosion of divinity," seriously extends rock's musical range. Onstage, The Who achieve total theatre: Townshend. lead guitarist and philosophic force behind Tommy (which he calls an opera), snarls, suffers, plays his guitar with baseball windups and ballet leaps. Daltrey, bare-chested, buckskinned, sings aggressively and tightens up suspense by Yo-Yo-ing his microphone. Moon, the drummer and ham actor, kicks over his drums or himself for comic relief. Finally, Entwistle, bass guitarist and counterweight, stands stolid, static, amused. He wrote the cruelties for Tommy when Townshend's high courage suddenly failed.