"The Who For Starters" (Includes Video and Audio links at the End of The Manuscript)

First they were The Detours and then they were Mods and Rockers who took London and the rest of the free world by storm by the end of the 1960s. They are always mentioned in the same breath with The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Kinks when talking about “Greatest Bands Ever” articles or polls.

There is good reason for this hyperbole, The Who is and always been that great. They were a force to be reckoned with when Keith Moon was alive behind the kit smashing away “Always out of time…” as bassist John Entwistle would say, but they still clicked as a rhythm section.

Pete Townsend emerged as one of the greatest rock writers ever and also established himself in that exclusive “Guitar God” class of Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. Those guys don’t breathe the same air as most mortal guitar players. They are in their own class of species.

Townsend broke ground writing first his mini rock operatic piece “A Quick One While He’s Away” in 1966. That piece led to the full-fledged rock opera “Tommy” in 1968, which ran on the stage and screen for years. The NEXT concept was ‘Lifehouse,’ which was abandoned and re-worked with a new producer (Glynn Johns) to become what is widely-known as their best album ‘Who’s Next.’ The ‘Quadrophenia’ album & film and finally the ‘Who Are You’ album, round out the Keith Moon era.

We will discuss ‘The Who: For Starters’ and take you right up to Keith Moon’s untimely death in 1978.

There is Audio Notebooks for you to listen to and Video Notebooks for you to watch that go more in depth about certain facets of this Rock and Roll Hall of Fame powerhouse.