Saturday, April 19th, 1969

Melody Maker has the article: "Why The Who aren't pop anymore" with quotes from Pete and Keith. Pete declares, "I feel anti-pop now. I don't call our music 'pop' any more. It would be nice to be in a pop industry where music with meaning sells, but that happens so rarely."

 

Transcript:

Why the Who aren’t ‘pop’ anymore

By Chris Welch

“When the Revolution comes in England, the first to get his head cut off would be Mick Jagger, the second would be John Lennon and the third would be Yoko Ono. Tom Jones would be made Prime Minister.”

This gloomy prophecy of a reactionary revolution, as opposed to the usual dream of instant socialism, comes from Pete Townshend, a pop star. And says Pete: “In two years’ time the police in England will be armed.”

This may all sound like alarmist pessimism. After all, it’s not England, order and freedom and tolerance, a byword throughout the uncivilised world.

But it must be remembered that Pete Townshend is a pop star, the lowest caste of society. He could be refused service in a pub, refused a hotel room, barred from a country, hounded by police or newspapers.

Or, as in Pete Townshend’s case, he could have a bullet fired at his head by a policeman at point-blank range.

Thus he sees the worldwide swing to violence, intolerance, etc., in uncomfortable proximity. He is fairly convinced that freedom lovers, individuals and other democracy freaks would be the first to go.

The Who, highly pleased with the success of “Pinball Wizard” after a couple of failures with songs like “Magic Bus,” were excited in the individuality of BBC TV’s “Top of the Pops” studio last week with a merry afternoon and evening of taping to boot.

Not all Top of the Poppers were willing to join in with the spirit of the occasion, however, and when Keith Moon caused a diversion during the show with a certain amount of leaping and hollering, one or two long faces were noted among the men of the Pops.

“Fun—that’s what it’s all about, fun,” complained Keith to me later in the bar. “Everybody thinks I’m laughing at them, but I want them to laugh with me.”

Whereupon he broke into hearty laughter and flicked drinks in the direction of Ian McLagan, of the Small Faces, who had dropped in to see his old mates in action.

The Who have been working extremely hard in recent weeks, completing their new double album, and are now taking a well-earned holiday.

But before they fled from “Top of the Pops,” Pete chatted about “Pinball Wizard” and other pressings.

“It’s sold much more than ‘Magic Bus’ already,” he reveals. “I knew that would be a bomb, despite all the promotion we did with the bus touring Fleet Street.

“This has been a hit without any promotion, and I’m glad that in the end it really depends on the record.

“We did ‘Dogs’ and ‘Magic Bus’ because our American contract forces us to release a certain number of records. We just had to have some records out for contractual reasons.

“I didn’t think ‘Pinball Wizard’ would be a hit, especially as it’s an uptempo, swinging rockabilly number. But people seem to like it.”

Although some deejays have called the hit “sick,” it is, in fact, a serious song from the Who’s next album and, says Pete: “We have done everything to stop giving offence or causing trouble. It’s not sick.”

Why have the Who decided on a double album? Doesn’t this generally mean padding and poor production?

“We hate double albums. After so many half-hearted ones have been released. You usually get two or three good tracks and the rest are terrible. But we had a lot of good stuff that we needed space for.”

“I feel anti-pop now. I don’t call our music ‘pop’ anymore. It would be nice to be in a pop industry where music with meaning sells, but that happens so rarely. The best scene in England are the colleges, where they listen to music.”

The Who are going to America soon for another tour and the conversation fell to comparing England and America, violence and pacifism.

“England is on the downward path and will be like America soon,” Pete maintained. “Still, it should help the music. There’s nothing like a good depression to make the jazz swing.

“The mods are coming back to Britain. To think I was like that once. The only reason they wear short hair is because you get kicked out of the pubs quicker if you’ve got long hair. It’s frightening.

“The good thing about joining armies is the thing about discipline. Everybody needs discipline—this group couldn’t work without it.

“That’s the only good thing about the army, because you have to suffer all the brainwashing that goes with it. The Army is the straight man’s acid. Be a drop-out and join the Army!”

“We’ve never had much trouble with police, but I think the police in Germany and America must be the most violent. They all want to cut your heads off.

“There is always a reason when the people become violent. In America and Ireland, the police are mindless and despise the people.

“The English police are different, of course, but they are learning. They’ll have guns like the rest in a couple of years. Once you’ve got a gun, you’ve got power.

“In New York a superintendent of police saw me smash my guitar on stage. He came into our dressing room, took out a gun, aimed it at my head, fired it from my skull and said if I smashed my guitar in the second half he would blow my head off.

“He could have killed me, but he probably went home to his wife and kids and thought nothing about it.”