Pete Townshend On Purcell

Fascinating radio interview here with The Who's Pete Townshend in which he discusses the influence that 17th century composer Henry Purcell had on his musical career. Townshend discusses the evolution of his music beginning with the band's first album all the way to his present day work and how Purcell's compositions impacted Townshend's work. The interview took place on a show called "Baroque and Roll," a radio program on BBC Radio 4.

Here's what RadioTimes.com wrote about the interview:

Why should it seem surprising that Pete Townshend of rock group The Who should name the 17th-century British composer Henry Purcell as one of his greatest musical inspirations? Snobbery, perhaps. But just listen to the organ intro to "Won't Get Fooled Again" or "I Can See for Miles" and you can hear Purcell's harmonies transmuted into the pop sounds of the 20th century. And it's not simply the music that Townshend is responding to, but also the "tragedy of mortality" that Purcell evokes in such sublime works as "When I Am Laid in Earth" or "The Gordian Knot Unty'd." In this miniature autobiography, Townshend tells us not only the who, but also the how and the when of his musical development, and why he identifies strongly with a long-dead composer whose feelings about the things that really matter so clearly echo his own.

Radio Times reviewer - Laurence Joyce

Keith Moon Movie On Hold For Now

Roger Daltrey was interviewed last week by Westword - a Denver music blog - and the subject arose about a potential Keith Moon biopic. Essentially, Daltrey reiterated what has been said before: that there is difficulty in coming up with the right script. The full interview can be read by clicking this. Mike Myers of Austin Powers' fame has been cast to play The Who's late drummer.

Uncertain Girl

While checking out Pete Townshend's version of "Bargain" that I posted below, I came across this song "Uncertain Girl" which I was unfamiliar with. After googling, I found that it is an unreleased song and was part of Pete Townshend's 2006 rock opera, The Boy Who Heard Music which became the album, Endless Wire.

Pete's "Bargain"

I liked Roger Daltrey and Eddie Vedder's version of "Bargain" (posted here) and was curious to see Pete Townshend's spin on the song which he signs In The Attic.

Blue, Red and Grey

Before he started his current tour Roger Daltrey promised new takes on some songs that The Who hasn't done in a long time or that the band never did in concert. In the first two shows of his solo tour, Daltrey breaks out the ukulele for his version of "Blue, Red and Grey." I'm curious to watch a video of this, although there isn't one on the Internet as of yet, but I saw a couple of reviews in which the critics applauded his rendition of the song.

The above video is Pete Townshend's version of "Blue, Red and Grey." In my opinion, Townshend can make any instrument sound great. The only other ukulele player I know of was the late Tiny Tim, who strangely is somewhat of an Internet hero these days.

"Blue, Red and Grey" is off the By Numbers album, which has always been one of my two or three favorite Who records (a dated word, I know).

Remembering John Entwistle

The late bassist for The Who, John Entwistle, was born today in 1944. "The Ox" passed on June 27 2002. Above is a video of the band performing one of Entwistle's tunes, "Heaven and Hell," in front of over 600,000 people at the Isle of Wight Music Festival in 1970. By the way, I use this song as the theme to my show on BlogTalk Radio.

About That Keith Moon Movie

I have no idea what the status of the Keith Moon movie starring Mike Myers is. Last I read it was in production and slated to be released at some point next year.

By the way, Roger Daltrey who is hitting the road for some solo dates wrote and performed this song in 1978 in honor of Keith, "Under a Raging Moon."

The song features drummers: Martin Chambers (The Pretenders), Roger Taylor (Duran Duran), Cozy Powell (The Jeff Beck Group, Black Sabbath), Stewart Copeland (The Police), Zak Starkey (The Who, Oasis), Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) and Mark Brzezicki (Big Country, The Cult).