Saturday, October 27, 2012

Who I Am related music



 LONG MONTH! Anyone else feeling it?

I'm reading through Pete's book a second time and working on a review. So far much of what I've read reviews wise, apart from Salon and bits of the Robert Christagau Sunday NY Times piece have not really turned me on at all nor have they done justice to this very fun book. Where is the collective sense of humour these days with the press?  Lighten up bitches!

Our son loves the pewter cover as he can unfold it and the entire book falls to the floor with a thud. How cool that it was taken by Terry "God" O'Neil too.  The nice thing for me is that I'm really playing The Who and Pete's solo stuff again. I vowed that when my son was born he would not be one of those kids branded and cajoled via what their parents likes and his music, myths and cartoons would be chosen by him alone. Yes, my husband chose "Strummer" as his middle name but it's been "Who Lite" in our lives for quite some time. He's listening and sometimes protesting but the music had got his attention. Will Pete and The Who over take Al Stewart in the nursery? Stay tuned!

Here are few non Pete/Who songs that have come to mind while reading the book:

















Tuesday, October 16, 2012

A Kid for Two Book Signings

How often do West London rock stars deign to grace East End venues with their presence? Proper East End venues? My adorable husband wanted to surprise me and went down to Truman Brewery this evening to get an autographed copy of "Who I Am" signed by Pete.

We must have miscommunicated because he returned about an hour ago sweetly telling me that his honey had made "him look like a right **** " and that it wasn't on tonight. Well of course not honey, it's on tomorrow night... He missed the England game which is now postponed until tomorrow (thank God!).

He's very determined to go now even though I said "no worries". I'm not able to bring our son over there at that time as he's an early sleeper/early riser so I sadly can't go but he wants me to have a special second copy of the book because he loves me so much. He is the best and we are so lucky to have each other and of course our God like son too who's more of an Al Stewart fan currently.

I'm on page 155 of Who I Am now- right before Tommy. Best autobiography ever! Here's Al Stewart now for you all




(*In Cockney speak the freely used C word means "complete idiot" or "thoughtless person" possessing none of the shocking, damning anti-feminist fist fight inducing incarnation it has if it is used in the States)

Who I Am by Pete Townshend HERE IT IS!

"
                                                                        ICONIC 


(I'm going to be reading and and reviewing Pete's new memoir over the next few days. This is not going to be the syrupy and fawning review by a life long Who fan. This is going to be NSFW real! And Pete is coming to the East End tomorrow....WooWHO!)


So after consulting the index and reading both Ken and Matt Kent's entries I skimmed over the the later chapters and thought...what cack! "Chunderooney" I said to myself as I read a sentence of Pete rebuffing a "mildly Ethiopian looking"  hot chick here and way too much information style references to hooking up with his partner Rachel there. And are my eyes actualy reading that Pete went to a Mankdonna concert? I'm not trying to take the piss with my first world problems folks but f*ck that. This comparatively 'big print" book is really "it"?

As I pathetically customized my Facebook status update to exclude Lawrence Ball, Irish Jack, Michael Cuthbert, Dougal Butler and Simon Townshend I moaned about "not wanting the dream to die" and "free book if you want it" and the best  (and most inadvertently dating one) "I feel Horses Neck was the true definitive bio..." and took it down two minutes later.

Pete Townshend is like Leonardo DiCaprio or Russell Crowe; a star and a myth who can't be mass branded or homogenised to make you feel comfortable-even if you are a long time fan. You see DiCaprio on screen and no matter what he's in, "Titanic" is going to come to mind and instantly you can't really look at what he's doing without seeing this huge overlay of what you think he's supposed to be. But then about ten minutes into a film like "The Departed" you are thinking, "Christ, he's astonishing and this is one of the all time great and most magnetic presences".  Russell Crowe is caught off guard at "In and Out Burger" and he still looks scary and handsome as fuck. Pete is astonishing and resplendent in this exact same way. And I feel like this is Pete Townshend on the big screen; his life squashed down to a few hours and them blown up 40 feet high.

And now I've not really slept much because the book is so great,  starting from the start.  I was about when Pete uploaded an early germination of this memoir and it is wonderful to recognize the bits he kept in. Am I the only one who's noticed that oddly his dark time at his Grandmother's also coincided with the year Meher Baba was in a near fatal and life altering car crash? And that there is no formal dedication. He won't wear Macca's golden suit and hat-ever.

Ken Russell as a biographer of a musicians is smiling down and all around at this book. It's because of Ken that I can see the book as a film and because of Pete that I can hear it and I'm so thankful for that- miserable, crazy and pretentious as I am sometimes. Pete is deserving of his own Ominbus musicians bio and I'm sure Ken is working on it now.

There has been nothing like this book thus far for Who fans and curious Pop culture aficionado/non die hard fans alike.  Just has Tommy "eluded Broadway for thirty years" there has been no major biography (much less autobiography) of this great man so I  literally expected angels, larger than life people and London buses to leap from the pages and what do you know folks? They do!

 BUY THE BOOK PEOPLE!!


He could a tale unfold...."

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Two more days and England gets the book!!