Pete Townshend has a blog. And of all things, it's a blogspot blog. He actually has two, one being more of the random thought kind, and the other focusing on an autobiography he is in the process of writing. I find this hard to believe. But it's true. He doesn't appear to have a site meter, Technorati account, or anything, so I doubt he'll ever see I've linked to his blog in this post. It would be interesting to know what thoughts, if any, he might have about this blog's name. I'm a huge fan of Townshend and The Who. The walls of my room during high school were covered with pictures of "St. Pete" I'd cut out of Musician, Creem, Rolling Stone, Guitar Player, etc., etc. I guess the thought of a childhood idol, and one time "conscience of rock and roll," communicating via something as mundane and everyday as a blogspot.com blog to be sort of surreal. Although it is very cool he and I have this in common!As some proof of my fandom, I present this:
In the picture are some things that were called record albums and cassette tapes. Note that I have bought All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes on vinyl, cassette, and compact disc. It has meant that much to me. Also, I have a Who Came First album. Maybe that isn't a big deal to you, but when I bought that back in 1983 (in Galveston), it was not an easy album to find! For that matter, neither was Rough Mix. There wasn't an Amazon or eBay back in those days. But the point of this post (and the way I stumbled upon Townshend's blog), are his recent comments about Britney Spears I discovered via a link at Drudge. In a post titled "Britney and a Purple Dress," Mr. Townshend says:
"Dedicated Man In A Purple Dress to Britney in Long Beach. I said, 'Let's not be too quick to judge'. Roger said 'Britney? Britney who?' Like, Roger! Pullease...... read the paper.
Just heard she's gone back into rehab. Pray for the babe. This is a tough business when you have a down period - she sometimes has over one hundred cars following her, every one with a camera geek in it."
Townshend's sentiments are echoed by SamuraiFrog at Electronic Cerebrectomy. While I'm not sure I completely agree with SamuraiFrog's argument that "we've destroyed Britney Spears" (I would like to believe the whole head-shaving thing is just a big publicity stunt designed to keep her in the public eye), I do admire the fact he has taken a higher road, and not done that which is easy - kicking a person when they (apparently) are down.She has to get better (if she is in fact "sick") soon, so she can go back to making videos like my all time favorite (I love the song, too!):
5 comments:
Thank you for that.
Ditto.
my WHO dream:
I was in a convienient store, tryign to reach some plastic cups
for cofee, but they were too high.
All of a sudden a black man from my hometown Johnny Gains, stood before me and said "Slip Kid, slip kid, second generation, I'm a soldier at thirteen." Then he reached the cup for me.
-Jason Irwin
Pittsburgh, PA USA
I love the phrase, "Exquisitely Bored." I remember finding the "Who Came First" album, but never bought it. Interesting that you are so into Chinese Eyes... not one of my favorites. I love Empty Glass, and the Scoop albums.
I wrote a letter to Pete in the late 80's, after my dad died. It was a simple letter praising his work and I asked when his book was coming out. Also asked a question about a lyric or 2. I actually got a response, with a signature and a hand scrawled response to one of the questions I'd asked. Still have it and treasure it!
Don't think about or listen to much Who or Pete, but every once and a while I get reminded and pull out the albums and google search... as I am tonight. Brings back lots of memories.
I'm pretty sure people could tell you're a Pete Townshend fan from the title of your blog. ;-) I'm sad to see that Pete's Blogspot blog is already gone; he was really forward-thinking about putting a blog online in the late '90s/early '00s and interacting directly with his fans. I was really sad when the blog was rolled into the official Who site and made for-pay only.
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