Scot and Jeff discuss the second part of The Who’s career (from 1970 to 1982 and afterwards, thereabouts) with Ben Domenech.
Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Ben Domenech. Ben is the publisher of The Federalist and also writes a daily newsletter, The Transom, which you can subscribe to at thetransom.com. Follow Ben on Twitter at @bdomenech.
Ben’s Music Pick: The Who
Today the gang resumes its discussion of the greatness of The Who with . . . well, all the stuff that you’ve probably heard on classic rock radio since you were wearing diapers! Yes, Who’s Next is a mainstay of radio (and television ads, and shows starring David Caruso . . .) and while nobody here is really going to say a bad thing about it, what would you think if someone told you it wasn’t even The Who’s best album from this era, or even in the top two? Yes, there will be a person who makes this hot take on the show, because this is the adulthood of The Who’s career, when Pete Townshend turns his writing and conceptual talents towards far more serious matters than deaf dumb & blind boys, Roger Daltrey graduates from a cub to a lion in the vocal department, John Entwistle doubles down on his incredible bass-playing with an awful lot of horn charts, and Keith Moon remains the best “Keith Moon-style drummer” for as long as he possibly can. The Who released what at least one member of this show (okay, it’s Jeff) considers to be the single greatest rock album of all time during this period, and unless you’ve been following him for years on Twitter it’s probably not the one you’re thinking of. And they didn’t really fall off that much afterwards. We give a brief mention to Pete Townshend’s solo career (but alas, there just wasn’t time to delve too deeply), but as for the rest, well . . . rest assured: This is not a group of people just taking The Who by numbers.