🎧 The Who, 1971-1982 (Playlist). It's fall of 1979, I have just turned 13 and had my Bar Mitzvah. I just started 9th grade. I have grown very tired of KISS, much to family's relief. My oldest bro says "let's go to the movies". He takes me to see "The Kids Are Alright", the Who documentary. By the time of Daltrey's lung-shredding scream and Townshend's slo-mo leap across the stage at the end of the film, I have started a fixation that will last well into college. 1/3
Growing up on a beach as a teen, I identified so much with Jimmy from "Quadrophenia". I wasn't handsome or tall or athletic, and I seemed to be kryptonite to the girls. I had friends but I always felt isolated. School was becoming a chore that I would soon mostly abandon. I spent a lot of time on the beach, brooding, smoking, and drinking the occasional ill-gotten beer. When i was home The Who were my best buds. They understood me. I would hang out with them every night.
2/3
In school, I was "the who" guy. They occupied every cell of my existence. There was other music, but there was no more important music than theirs. I learned those songs on guitar, studied Pete Townshend like he was a guru, and pretty much initiated permanent damage to my hearing blasting those albums in a pair of very heavy and brutally effective headphones. I may have outgrown my fanaticism, but those songs still mean everything to me.
3/3