The Super Bowl Setlist

Twelve minutes is all the halftime act at the Super Bowl gets. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is over eight minutes, so I wonder what direction the band will go. If Keith Moon and John Entwistle were still alive, I would suggest the same route they took with “My Generation” when they played Live at Leeds in 1970, which is above. Incidentally, the N.F.L. did a nice job on their promotion video for The Who performing at the SuperBowl, which you can watch by clicking this.

Townshend Wants His MTV

Speaking of MTV, the above video features Pete Townshend demanding his MTV and asking Americans to do the same. The promo, which aired in 1982 on MTV, also features Pat Benatar, Adam Ant, John Mellencamp, The Clash, Men At Work, Stray Cats, Joe Jackson, Hall & Oates and Billy Joel.

You Better You Bet

Just posting this because....

"You Better You Bet" was the fourth video to be played on the first ever all-music video channel, MTV, which was launched in the summer of 1981. The keyboardist is John "Rabbit" Bundrick and the drummer is Kenney Jones. The song is off of Face Dances, which is the ninth studio album by the band.

Roger Daltrey and His Fans

Someone made this video - and did a heck of a job by the way - of Roger Daltrey meeting his fans throughout his recent solo tour. The video is accompanied by “Without Your Love” off of Roger’s solo album and the soundtrack to the film, McVicar. Daltrey finished every concert with this song and dedicated it to the people that have followed him for so many years.

Daltrey Solo Tour Concludes

Roger Daltrey’s solo tour concluded Monday night in Florida. I saw Roger November 7 in Foxwoods and November 20 in New York. The latter was the better of the two shows because of the arena. Foxwoods is better suited to see a comedian than a rock star; New York City is New York City. Roger played around 30 shows between early October and late November.

The reviews have been good and it’s nice to see the positive press for Simon Townshend, Pete’s younger brother. Simon did a great job on "Going Mobile" (video above); which is off of the Who’s Next album. I always found that song to be an incredible testament to the band, because it only includes three members of The Who - minus Roger - and still produced an incredibly rich and full sound.

At the New York show, I actually met Roger Daltrey when he was leaving the building following the concert. Before the show while waiting to get into the Nokia Theater I ran into his guitarist for the tour, Frank Simes. Both seemingly were nice guys. The setlists from the two concerts are below.

Roger did quite a bit of storytelling at both shows and from the reviews I have read, he did the same at all of the venues he played. I liked that, some people in the crowd didn’t. There were some interesting stories he relayed before some of his songs such as that he recorded “Behind Blue Eyes” (also off of the Who's Next album) on the day that his beloved pinscher died. Daltrey also talked about working with Irish band, the Chieftains, in 1992 at the Grand Opera House in Belfast, which produced a Grammy-award winning album. Sadly, though, Daltrey said the Opera House - which already had been refurbished after sever damage from a bombing in 1991 - again was badly damaged by a bombing a week later. Undeterred, though, the Opera House has been rebuilt.

Here is a link to Roger performing the Johnny Cash medley (I Got Stripes/Folsom Prison Blues/There Ya Go/Train of Love/Ring of Fire) at the Nokia Theatre in NYC, while here is Daltrey singing "Blue Red and Grey."

So what’s next? Well, Pete Townshend has said he is at work on new music and Roger has said that upon concluding the tour he would be heading back to the U.K. to start recording with The Who. Then there is the Super Bowl in February; right now, the only reason I care about the “big game.”

MGM Grand Theatre, November 7, at Foxwoods, Mashantucket Conn.
Setlist:
Who Are You
Pictures of Lily
Tattoo
Behind Blue Eyes
Days of Light
Freedom Ride
Gimme a Stone
Going Mobile
I'm a Man/My Generation (blues version)
Walk on Water
Squeezebox
I Can See For Miles
Young Man Blues
Baba O'Riley
Johnny Cash Medley
Naked Eye
Blue, Red and Grey
Without Your Love

November 20, Nokia Theatre, New York City
Setlist:
Who Are You
Pictures of Lily
Behind Blue Eyes
Tattoo
Days of Light
Freedom Ride
Gimme a Stone
Going Mobile
Naked Eye
I'm A Man/My Generation
I Can See For Miles
Squeezebox
Born on the Bayou
Young Man Blues
The Real Me
Walk on Water
Baba O'Riley
Johnny Cash Medley
Blue, Red and Grey
Without Your Love

Sunrise

A YouTube gem I came across recently.

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