The Who: The PopWatch Interview

In case you were worried, Roger Daltrey can still do the scream, and Pete Townshend can still do the windmill. The sixtysomething rockers made a small point of proving they still have chops as they kicked off a press conference Thursday to announce the Who’s forthcoming world tour, their first since 1982 in support of an album of new material. Performing from Berlin via satellite for an audience of reporters in New York, Daltrey and Townshend nailed an acoustic version of ”Won’t Get Fooled Again,” as well as a new song, ”Mike Post Theme,” which pointedly begins, ”We’re not strong enough/ We’re not young enough.”

Mike Post, of course, is the composer of such TV crime show theme songs as The Rockford Files and Hill Street Blues. The new song is a tribute to the Proustian effect hearing such themes has on a listener’s memories and emotions, an effect the band knows well, thanks to the CSI shows. ”I met this guy from the Ukraine who said, ‘I very much like your three songs,”’ Townshend said.

You can expect to hear the CSI themes, as well as hits andobscurities from the Who’s vast catalog, on the tour, which launchesSept. 12 in Philadelphia. (Tickets go on sale Monday for most shows,though presales are available to registered fan club members. Fullschedule and sales info is at thewhotour.com.) There will also be new material, including tracks from the forthcoming album Who 2 (to be released in October) and Townshend’s latest mini-rock opera, Wire & Glass.

The obvious question is, why now? Why a new Who album and world tournow, after 24 years and especially after the 2002 death of bassist JohnEntwistle? ”It really is down to Pete,” Daltrey said. ”We madeseveral attempts in the early part of this century and recorded acouple of new ones. And then John died, and that changed the balance ofthe band. Pete and I are two opposite poles, and John was the equator.But it all really depends on if Pete had the material to record in thefirst place. It appeared, and it’s fantastic that it appeared when itdid because we’re still able to do it really well. I’m very pleasedwith what he’s written. I think it’s valid for today. There’s a depthin his writing that has something to say. It doesn’t matter that it’staken 25 years, however long it takes, as long as it’s good.”

”Thanks for that, Rog. Of course, it hasn’t taken 25 years,” addedTownshend, who displayed some of the friction that’s animated hisrelationship with Daltrey for more than 40 years. ”I could have putmaterial together for what I would have called a Who record at anytime. I’ve made a couple records of my own in that period, and I’vewritten 450 songs, and I’ve produced about 1400 pieces of music sincethe Who stopped recording. So it isn’t about a lack of material. It’sabout why we would want to put a record out by the Who. When the Whostopped making records in 1982, I felt I just couldn’t do it anymore.What the Who had done was triumphant, huge, innovative, groundbreaking,massive, unsurpassable. There was no way I could ever come closeagain.” So what made Townshend change his mind? ”I had a son in 1989.He’s 16 now. That’s why I’m here. He wants to come see the Who at rockfestivals.”

Another reason is the rise of the Web, which excites Townshend as a newway to interact with fans. ”We can perform live on the Internet formillions of people,” he said. ”We can reach a massive audience, andthat audience can talk to itself. So the whole business is getting veryexciting. It’s the rock industry that has the most to gain from theInternet.”

Fan feedback is important to Townshend’s songwriting, he said. ”Whenwe started to play our own music, what we suddenly realized was that weweren’t speaking for our audience; our audience were telling us what tosay. So when people say to me, ‘Pete, your songs are very personal. Howdoes Roger feel about singing them?’ Roger can sing them becausethey’re not personal at all. My songs are your songs. They’re not mysongs. What we discovered is that we’re not so much a mirror as adoorway.”
So it will go with the new album and tour. ”It’s what you guys want usto do that’s important. If you don’t want us up here, don’t buy thetickets,” Townshend said. ”When we were kids, we were voted onto thestage by our peers. You’re the reason we’re on the stage. Meet the newboss. It’s the same as the old boss. And that boss is you, not us.”