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9/13/05

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Keith

Keith

Oklahoma City, OK
August 2002

SEP 10, 2005 08:32 PM

The Who, or what's left of them, had planned to release a new album this year, to be called Who2 (ho ho ho), but delayed it on account of Oasis, who stole sometime Who fill-in drummer and Ringo-spawn Zak Starkey for their summer tour.

Now Townshend says the delay is "indefinite", citing difficulties between himself and vocalist Roger Daltrey. You see, Pete Townshend writes all the songs and plays the lead-guitar:

Of every ten arty-farty 'egg' songs I write I select just one as being right for fertilization by Roger. Of every ten of those I demo at home, about half land. Of every ten that land and I play to Roger he tends to fertilize just six. Of every ten we record, four sadly die at birth.

What this means is that I need to produce about 50 plus 'eggs' to get one finished track for the Who. To get 15 songs ready to release I need to have written 750 songs or 'pieces' of some kind. Free eggs they may be, but the sex to fertilize them can be expensive. This is why the first filtering step is vital: me deciding what Roger might actually be able to sing.

Making demos of every egg I have to offer for fertilzation would cost me about £500and takes about four days. This is beyond my means.


In a moment, I will try to scrub that egg-fertilization analogy from my frontal lobe, but we must press on for now. As he hints at above, Daltrey gets a "yay" or "nay" on every song.

This filtering process is obviously untenable, but that is MAYBE why we have no new Who product. We find it hard to change our ways.

What stops me in reality has been far less about productivity, effort and filtering, and more about my artistic sensitivity: as an egg-bearing artist I cannot abide that any of my music is 'rejected' in this filtering process even though this has always been what happened, especially in the halcyon Who years.

John Entwistle told me shortly before he died that he would find it hard to offer songs for The Who to record because he could no longer allow Roger (or me) to comment on them in any way at all. Ask any of his close friends. This is how he felt. He may have overcome it, but he wasn't eager to try.

The problem starts as soon as Roger, quite innocently, begins his own filtering process as the Who's principle voice. If - by luck - he likes the first songs he hears, all goes well. The ones he 'rejects' are reviewed at the end of the process, and no one cares much about them. They will appear on future b-sides, as free give-aways and vanity releases of all kinds. But if, of the first few songs he hears, he rejects the majority, then the whole mathematical thesis collapses. The ratio I have set out cannot be applied because the 'artist' who wrote the songs says, just like John Enwtistle did, "F**k it! I refuse to have my best efforts (already heavily filtered in advance and subjected to the constraints of finance and time) rejected by any criteria whatsoever."


We'll see what this announcement means for Townshend's statement earlier this year that he couldn't tour with The Who anymore without a new album.

catdad

catdad

Portland, OR
August 2002

SEP 10, 2005 09:16 PM

"we have no new Who product."

Is that a line from Dr. Seuss?

furnacedoor

furnacedoor

I'm lost
September 2003

SEP 10, 2005 09:21 PM

wow, what a fucking puss! and definately far removed from the song writing process i know of!!(write song, see if band likes it, reapeat steps 1 and 2 if no, practice/record song if yes) i mean, does he really need to write a hundred songs just before he can muster up the courage to play a few to roger? and what's about him whining about money?? if there's a fault in the process fix it, don't blame your band mate because you've run out of ideas!!!!!eeek

pant, pant, pant woooo. need to catch my breath..........

this is of course a blessing in disguise as they haven't been an actual band for like two decades, and pete hasn't wrote a decent song for about as long.

of course this is just my own personal opinion.

fictionalsounds

fictionalsounds

Alva, OK
April 2004

SEP 10, 2005 09:35 PM

thanks pete. wouldn't "roger doesn't play well with others" have worked just as well to explain everything?

oh, my precious egg. oh the drama. whatever

jonasgrumby

jonasgrumby

Portland, OR
April 2004

SEP 10, 2005 11:31 PM

Lemonkid

Lemonkid

Canada
May 2003

SEP 10, 2005 11:35 PM

Whoa. God answered my prayers.

Neat.

Its_Matt

Its_Matt

United Kingdom
September 2003

SEP 11, 2005 12:27 AM

'as an egg-bearing artist'

theres the name of his autobiography right there.

Menelvagor

Menelvagor

Columbus, OH
March 2004

SEP 11, 2005 04:58 AM

Their next album should totally be named Who's Left.

tellyfone

tellyfone

Ithaca, NY
December 2004

SEP 11, 2005 05:39 AM

Or "Who Cares?"

gut666

gut666

Moreno Valley, CA
April 2005

SEP 11, 2005 07:25 AM

who's left . hahahahavclassic.

RockRBoy

RockRBoy

Brooklyn, NY
August 2004

SEP 11, 2005 10:51 AM

That's the most fucked up process I've ever heard of. And why is he complaining about £500? Can't the record company just pay for it?

hermetica

hermetica

Cook Islands
January 2004

SEP 11, 2005 03:18 PM

That article takes my twisted little mind to places it would rather not go. "Roger fertilizes my eggs.."

Oh fuck now I need a drink. surreal

rodan

rodan

Baltimore, MD
February 2005

SEP 11, 2005 06:34 PM

yaknow, as someone with atleast occasionally a bit of creativity you'd have thought he'd have a better metaphor than that??

bleah...

BurialRabbits

BurialRabbits

Portland, OR
January 2004

SEP 11, 2005 11:15 PM

Who Else Isn't Keith Moon?

BlueCadet

BlueCadet

Austin, TX
August 2003

SEP 11, 2005 11:32 PM

Pete Townshend needs to go into menopause.

imustbestopped

imustbestopped

I'm lost
January 2004

SEP 11, 2005 11:40 PM

RockRBoy said:
That's the most fucked up process I've ever heard of. And why is he complaining about £500? Can't the record company just pay for it?



Record companies will advance an artist money but they won't pay for anything.

LL_Bean_J

LL_Bean_J

Portland, ME
May 2003

SEP 12, 2005 05:11 PM

Just put out a fucking solo album and stop whining. One of rock's greatest acts is now looking like one of rock's biggest embarassments. A step or two above the modern-day "Beach Boys."

BlueCadet

BlueCadet

Austin, TX
August 2003

SEP 14, 2005 10:38 AM

LL_Bean_J said:
Just put out a fucking solo album and stop whining. One of rock's greatest acts is now looking like one of rock's biggest embarassments. A step or two above the modern-day "Beach Boys."



Don' remind me. Atleast Page and Plant had the decency to not call themselves Led Zeppelin.