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).

Remember 9/11

Remember

2,998 deaths

6,291 injured

No other song encapsulates my feelings about September 11 as this Who classic. A few weeks after the attacks, The Who performed “Won’t Get Fooled Again” along with three other songs at the Concert for New York City, which was a star-studded event at Madison Square Garden honoring the first responders of September 11, 2001.

Alice in Chains "Squeezebox"

Bands covering other bands' songs is something that can be a tricky thing, because quite honestly, it doesn't always work so well. But this one is pretty cool. Alice in Chains covers The Who's "Squeezebox," which is the correct title of the song and not what it says on the video screen.

Pete Townshend Working On New Musical

Pete Townshend wrote on his official blog that he is working on a new project. He writes:

FLOSS is an ambitious new project for me, in the style of TOMMY and QUADROPHENIA. In this case the songs are interspersed with surround-sound 'soundscapes' featuring complex sound-effects and musical montages. Several of the more conventional songs from FLOSS will be featured on a forthcoming Who recording for release in 2010. FLOSS will be heard in concert for the first time in 2011, at a venue and date yet to be established. I am already having talks with producers in New York.

The collected music and sound for FLOSS convey the story of a married couple whose relationship gets into difficulty. Walter, a straight-cut pub rock musician, is able to retire when one of his songs becomes the TV anthem of a big car company. He becomes a house-husband while his wife Floss devotes herself to a riding stables and stud. When he tries to return to music after a fifteen year hiatus, he finds that what he hears and what he composes evoke the ecologically rooted, apocalyptic mindset of his generation. Shaken by this and torn by personal difficulties, he and Floss become estranged. A series of dramatic events in a hospital emergency ward bring them both to their senses.

While Roger Daltrey exercises his ageing vocal chords by embarking on a two month USE OR LOSE IT solo tour, my focus is on FLOSS, which touches on the current issues faced by the Boomer generation. It also addresses their uneasy relationship with their parents, children and grandchildren. As a 19 year old - with My Generation - I wrote the most explicitly ageist song in rock. At 64, I now want to take on ageing and mortality, using the powerfully angry context of rock 'n' roll."

Courtesy of http://www.thewho.com.

Pete Townshend & Dire Straits

Once in a while I find a gem on YouTube, this is one of them. Pete Townshend getting together with Dire Straits in the early 1980's to rehearse for a benefit performance.

There's some cool shots in the video of Townshend meeting Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana.